And just like that, a month had passed.

Rui had taken up several missions, aiming for missions of the higher remuneration in the shortest amount of time within his difficulty grade. He had taken up a total of six missions in the past month. Five bodyguard missions, two hunting-class missions and one offense-class mission.

He had racked up a total of six hundred and forty martial credits, that in addition to the martial credits he had earned from the earthen basilisk mission as well as the royal mission immediately after yielded to a total of one thousand two hundred and twenty martial credits!

Rui was happy that he had managed to hit four digits by the end of the month. This means he had access to a lot of the good stuff!

You couldn't buy multiple high-grade techniques with just a measly hundred or two hundred martial credits. He was satisfied with his reserve, especially since he couldn't acquire anymore. He had run out of time.

The next five months would fully be dedicated to getting stronger. After that, the long-awaited Kandrian Martial Festival will have finally arrived.

But, he was experiencing a problem he hadn't ever experienced before.

He had absolutely no idea what techniques to purchase!

Of course, even normally when he was about to purchase technique, he usually didn't have a precise idea of exactly what techniques in the Apprentice library he wanted to purchase. But, he knew what kind of techniques he wanted to purchase, and what conditions they had to satisfy for him to purchase them.

For his very first training round, he needed to procure foundational Apprentice-level techniques in all basic fields. At that point, he had no Apprentice-level techniques at all. It was embarrassing to even call himself a proper Martial Apprentice. He had been desperately trying to take the first step in forming the basic foundation.

The second training round had been centered around filling the large gaping holes in his variety and diversity. By purchasing some grappling and wrestling techniques, as well as a finishing strike and some defensive and counter-offensive moves. He had expanded the limits of his options from merely Vital Pressure striking to many ways through which he could take his opponent down.

The third round had bolstered the potency of his Martial Art. Outer Convergence had given it a foundational and fundamental boost in power and speed, while Inner Divergence had given him the ability to endure. Blink gave him the option of exploiting opening that he previously could not exploit while Seismic Sensing closed off many opening that his opponents would normally be able to exploit, but now couldn't. This round had generally increased his overall formidability quite well, and in a well distributed fashion, too.

He had entered each round of training with a clear specific defined goal.

So what was the problem here?

('The problem is...') Rui thought to himself. ('I don't have any specific criterion for the individual techniques I want to purchase.')

He knew he wanted to master the techniques that would allow him to win the Martial Academic Contest in the Kandrian Martial Festival, but he didn't know what those techniques were.

Should he purchase some more power-boosting techniques like Outer Convergence? Hoping that the immense power he would generate would win him the contest?

Or perhaps, he should purchase some more maneuvering-oriented techniques like Parallel Walk and instead hope that his evasiveness will ensure his defeat doesn't occur?

Maybe he should go down the Dalen path and boost his already solid defense even further?

Or perhaps the Milliana path and ensure he could fight for long period of time? The VOID algorithm did like time, after all.

He wasn't sure. They were all alluring options, in all honesty. He simply didn't know which of the many paths he ought to go down. Hell, he could even partially travel down multiple paths.

Part of the reason he was so indecisive about which path to go down was because he didn't know which path was most suited for the Martial Academy Contest that would be hosted together by all sixteen Martial Academies across the entirety of the Kandrian Empire.

It was a national-level tournament!

The winner of the contest would be crowned the strongest Martial Apprentice of their generation!

Yet as much as Rui had been looking forward to this, he realized he didn't know too much about the details. Part of it was because it felt so distant, just a while back it was a year away, and now suddenly Rui had only five months of training and refinement left.

Another part of it was that he had simply been too busy. Every hour mattered to Rui. He grinded, rested appropriately and then grinded some more missions. It had always been at the back of his mind, but now that the time to begin his fourth training stage had come, it had immediately and abruptly come to the front of his mind now.

"I suppose I can come back to this decision once I learn more about the tournament." Rui shrugged. "No point in breaking my head over and over."

He wasn't able to come to a decision right away, and he would hate to waste his precious martial credits on a technique he would end up regretting buying. Martial credits were precious and had to be earned through clood, sweat and tears.

"The Academy doesn't offer refunds either.": text © owner.

He made up his mind, he would immerse himself in the happenings of the Martial Academic Contest before making his mind up, perhaps he would ask his instructors or friends too.

He already knew the format and general rules and facts, but surely people with much more experience with the Contest would have more insight and information to offer. Maybe not game changing, but insightful enough.

Even the tiniest bit of a hint would be enough to make up his mind and choices that he would go through with confidence.

He wished to have left no stone unturned.