Over the next few days. An unheard-of phenomenon occurred. The familiar sight of Rui Quarrier spending almost every ounce of his time training was nowhere to be seen.
The instructors and the other Explorer students had all grown used to seeing Rui training somewhere or the other. Thus, when he didn't show up for almost forty-eight hours, they grew curious. What could possibly cause this training junkie of an Explorer to ditch training? It's not that he had never taken breaks, but never two days straight.
"He's just been sitting around with an intense expression, super absorbed into his thoughts, but he seems fine." Cara, his roommate, told them.
The instructors sighed in relief; they had grown worried that his insane training schedule in the past five months since he joined the Academy had finally taken its toll. Of course, this possibility still existed, but at the very least there was no serious affliction.
Explorers possessed wide latitude in their schedule, so he could not be officially mandated or reprimanded, but two-day breaks were not good signs. Usually, this was a classic tell-tale sign that students were losing motivation.
Just as the Academy instructors were wondering how to intervene, the problem solved itself. Rui walked out one day.
He walked straight to the Explorer sparring arena with his sparring attire on. The Academy didn't mandate training for Explorers, but it did mandate certainly sparring session against fellow Explorers. Today was one of those days.
The sparring supervisor immediately noticed something off about him when Rui arrived.
Previously, Rui was extremely curious by nature. Part of it came from the explorative mindset and the uncertainty about his Martial Path.
Suddenly, almost all of that was gone.
The head supervisor sharpened his gaze at the sight. As a Martial Apprentice himself, he knew a phenomenon that could explain the change in Rui's aura.
('Is he...?') He wasn't sure, but he suspected Rui had crossed the barrier. Still, the fact that Rui hadn't said anything meant he was either wrong or...
('Or he wants understand how much he's grown by sparring against the people he's sparred against for months.')
Either way, the head supervisor was content not calling Rui out.
"Alright, divide yourselves equally into two lines. We'll begin now." He instructed. The sparring sessions had one half of students serve as defenders and the other half as challengers. The challengers would continuously the defenders until they won and replaced them.
The head supervisor purposely assigned the group that Rui was part of as defenders so that Rui would get to fight continuously.
He watched Rui taking the ring before facing his first challenger.
"Begin!" The referee announced.
the two of them shuffled around a bit, feeling each other out, before his opponent aggressively dashed at Rui.
Rui waited for him stoically.
Bam
Bam
Bam
His opponent threw short jabs that Rui casually blocked. The boy threw a powerful roundhouse kick which Rui avoided by stepping out of range.
FOOM
The boy quickly dashed towards Rui with the Balance Direction. The rush of speed allowed him to land a straight punch with his full weight and momentum behind it.
BAM.
Rui flew back exaggeratedly. Yet he landed on his feet, looking relatively unfazed.
('Damage Mitigation.') The head supervisor noted.
"What's up? You're passive as fuck today." His opponent poked.
Rui smiled wryly. "Just getting used to this."
The boy tilted his head in confusion.
"But you're right, I should stop playing around."
Those words exerted a faint threat on the boy. It almost reminded him of the Apprentice instructors when they got mad.
DASH
Rui leapt at him with great speed using Balance Direction.
The boy hurriedly tried to intercept Rui with a punch, only to cleanly miss as Rui shifted out of the way.
The boy stepped back, wanting to open up the distance when suddenly, the world turned upside-down.
BAM
Rui had cleanly caught his wrist and converted his momentum into torque to smoothly execute a hip toss, before throwing a punch just one inch away from the boy's face.
"You're too careless when it comes to counterattacks, you should focus on that." Rui calmly advised.
The boy nodded, shocked. He'd fought Rui before, never had he been overwhelmed so easily.
The head supervisor was now certain of his suspicion. No one ever became strong enough to casually bully their peers and equals, merely due to a two-day break. If anything, at their level, such a break would make you a bit rusty and thus weaker.
But Rui had grown far superior to his peers, such that even little effort was enough to dominate the other students. This could only be caused by breakthrough to the Realm of Martial Apprentice. Discovering your Martial Path allowed you to use techniqies in a manner that are part of your Martial Art, these are suited to you and thus you apply these techniques better than you would have without a Path. Your net efficiency spiked thanks to the Discovery of your Martial Path.
One after another, students challenged him.
And one after another Rui casually defeated them.
What surprised the head supervisor was that Rui didn't seem to have a set style. His style of combat was fluid, he changed it smoothly. It flowed from form to form taking on the shape that was better suited to handling particular opponents.
"This doesn't make sense." The head supervisor murmured. This was usually the opposite of what happened when one discovered their Martial Path. Usually, students who discovered their Martial Paths stuck rigidly to a style of fighting. Whether this style of fighting was centered around a particular field or a set of techniques or both, this was always happened. Martial Apprentices were those who discovered their Martial Path, and they stuck to it.
Yet Rui here defied that pattern.
Another thing that surprised him was how quickly Rui discovered his Martial Path. It wasn't about his age, in particular. Although fourteen was undoubtedly impressively young, it was not unheard of. Geniuses like Kane had discovered their Martial Path at the age of eleven!
What was rather shocking was that he discovered his Martial Path in two months after beginning the Exploration Stage.
Discovering your Martial path was an elaborate, time-consuming journey in and of itself. It usually took students at least a year of exploration and introspection for them to understand their heart's desire. Yet somehow Rui managed to finish it one-sixth the time.
"How long has this boy been chasing after his Martial Path?" He wondered.
This was the product of two lifetimes of dedicating his life to martial arts and Martial Art, unbeknownst to him.
When the sparring session a few hours later, Rui went straight to the head supervisor to inform him of his breakthrough only to realize that the supervisor was already aware of it.
"How long do you think I've been doing this job, kid?" He chuckled. "I've seen countless kids discovering their Martial Path in my career as a sparring supervisor for the Explorer students. Although your case is quite peculiar in many ways, admittedly."
"So, what now?" Rui asked curiously.
"The breakthrough to Martial Apprentice is verified by head instructors and supervisors, and we fill in the paperwork with some signatures from your end. Once the due process is over, you'll receive instructions and a new guidebook, the same ones that the Apprentices got during the Investiture Ceremony, and you'll be moved to the Apprentice dormitory." He explained. "After that the Martial Squire instructors and supervisors of the Apprentice students will take over."
"I see..." Rui grew absorbed in his thoughts.
"Ah, one last thing."
"Hm?" Rui perked up.
"Congratulations on becoming a Martial Artist. If there's anyone who deserves it, it's you." He smiled.
"Thank you!" Rui smiled back.
