"You have it all wrong," Rui heaved a sigh. "That data is entirely accurate."
"That's impossible," She snorted, her aura growing more forceful by the second."
"The reason that it is possible… is that I'm not as strong as you think I am," Rui sighed, revealing to her.
He would not have gone for this choice had he been dealing with another nation on the Panama Continent. After all, revealing that he wasn't a grade-ten Martial Squire would be giving them more strategically important intelligence.
This was especially the case when one considered the fact that Rui wasn't an unknown Martial Artist. When he was a Martial Apprentice, he earned himself a name in other countries during the Serevian Dungeon War. After all, he had destroyed many Apprentice-level assets in the war, and the Martial Union had been forced to prove that he was a Martial Apprentice to prove that they didn't violate the clauses of the Serevian pact that the many nations had agreed to.
Thus even his identity had been exposed to a certain degree.
Revealing that he was actually much weaker than he had initially presented himself was risky. It wouldn't be impossible for other nations to potentially exploit this fact to their advantage.
However, he was dealing with the G'ak'arkan Tribe. He could rest assured that there was very little chance that they would engage in deceptive subterfuge when there was no record of them having ever done so in the history of the Vilun island.
"What?" She frowned. "What nonsense is that?"
"I am presenting myself to be stronger than myself using a special mental technique," Rui calmly explained. "See? I'm not as strong as you think I am."
His passive aura of pressure diminished significantly as he got rid of his mind mask.
Her eyes widened as she stared at him with an incredulous expression. "Eh…?"
"I can even use it to suppress my aura entirely," He explained as used a mind mask to present himself as an ordinary human.
She simply stared at him with an open mouth, wide eyes pushing back against her furrowed eyebrows.
"So, yes… The information is accurate. I just have been altering my power to ensure that people don't belittle me or doubt whether I am fit for my job or not," He revealed with complete honesty.
"…"
"…"
Rui smiled wryly as she continued staring at him wordlessly. One of the reasons that he had been able to speak with Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe instead of Martial Squires was that he presented himself as stronger than all of the Martial Squires of the G'ak'arkan Tribe with the help of his Mind Mask technique.
It was the very reason that he was speaking with Senior K'Mala instead of some Martial Squire of the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"…But you killed that rank two Martial Artist with a single attack… You defeated the daughter of the leaders of the K'ulnen Tribe swiftly even when she had help… How was that possible?"
"The Pathfinder technique… and some preparation…" He replied, after giving it some thought.
Now he was being just a tad little deceptive.
It wasn't just 'some' preparation.
He had spent the months that the settlement was being built absorbing any and all data that he could get his hands on the Martial Artists of the K'ulnen Tribe, to build more accurate and extensive predictive models on his opponents. He had even spectated other battlefields where the Martial Squire of the K'ulnen Tribe were fighting against other Martial Tribes, building predictive models on every single one of them.
What that meant was he entered the battle against the K'ulnen Tribe effectively far stronger than he normally would be and only grew stronger as he refined the existing predictive models on them. Thanks to this, he entered the battlefield much stronger than he would have been had he not done so.
But, the more he diminished that, the more valuable the Pathfinder technique would be.
('…And it seems to be working.') He watched her open the document he had given her to the Pathfinder technique as she stared at it in amazement, reading through all the information listed on it, before turning back to Rui in amazement.
"I assure you, if you saw me fight against a powerful Martial Squire, I would struggle to win and would lose in most cases," Rui added.
He was a little concerned by her reaction to the deception, but thankfully he had already created a favorable impression of himself to her, having conversed with her extensively off the record.
"I see…" She murmured. "I suppose in that case the information you have provided to us is accurate."
"Indeed," Rui nodded. "Is there any other issue that you had regarding the information that we provided you with?"
"No," She shook her head. "I appreciate the honesty. You are one of the most shocking rank-two Martial Artist I have ever seen"
"Thank you for the kind words, you flatter me," Rui smiled. "In that case, I presume that there are no further issues that may delay the main matter at hand then?"
"Yes… We may begin…" She regained her composure. As even more amazing Rui had become in her eyes, she needed to ensure that the G'ak'arkan Tribe got a favorable agreement regarding the exchange of techniques.
"Alright, why don't you open the negotiations with an offer?" Rui offered. "You can begin with any of the techniques that you've listed as ones that you desire and are interested in obtaining."
"In that case, we'll begin with the technique that we are most interested in," Her demeanor grew more serious. "The Pathfinder technique…"
Rui's smile did not faze as he stared at her wordlessly before finally responding. "Well, that is an objective, not an offer. We evaluate the Pathfinder technique to be quite valuable, especially when considering the G'ak'akran Tribe's more limited long-range capabilities. So the question is… what are you offering in return?"
Rui felt a little embarrassed as he spoke highly of the Pathfinder technique as the representative of the Martial Union.
