CHAPTER 2062  HYPER INTEGRATION

When Rui woke up, he found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

For a moment, he didn't know what he was doing here.

Then he remembered.

"Ah…" he murmured. "…I won."

A sigh of relief escaped him.

The door to his room opened as two Martial Masters emerged.

"Rui…" Master Ceeran smiled. "How do you feel?"

Rui glanced at his hands, closing his eyes.

"…Quite good."

The wound he suffered hadn't been too bad by Martial Artist standards.

"Then, congratulations on your victory." He smiled. "You have earned your acquittal."

"…I suppose," He remarked. "I got off easy."

Rui would be lying if he didn't feel that way. Aside from the third match, victory was never out of his hands. "Perhaps you did," Master Ceeran admitted. "But I believe that it's justified, especially after you have proven yourself and overcome the trials and tribulations of the Master Council."

Rui shrugged wordlessly. "I'm just glad it's over."

He looked back at the battle with Master Grais with satisfaction. It was truly a grueling battle. There had been very few times that his pattern recognition system had failed during his time as Martial Artist. Of the few times that it did, it had been against truly deviant opponents such as Meera and Ieyasu.

This time, however, it didn't happen against a truly exceptional Martial Artist. No, it happened against a powerful but hardly abnormal Martial Master.

It showed that the Master Realm could not be underestimated. If a Martial Master who wasn't even high grade could partially negate the pattern recognition system, then he shouldn't assume that stronger Martial Artists.

"…This was my first time seeing other Martial Minds," Rui remarked aloud absentmindedly. "Truly fascinating how other Martial Artists came up with Martial Minds of their own."

Master Ceeran nodded understandingly. "I recall feeling the same way. They were very different from my own, and learning to fight against them was something that required practice. While Martial Seniors did use their developing systems of thought, it was never the center of their battle. Only someone with as much affinity for the mind could make the system of thought highly central to your Martial Art."

"Hmmm…" Rui stirred at his words. "He had three systems of thought. They weren't particularly complex, but they were decently effective."

He spoke relatively, of course. In terms of both complexity and power, Master Grais' Martial Mind was perhaps a tenth of that of Rui, but it was still impressive when considering that he could only make do with what he had.

"I had the edge when it came to the utility and impact of our Martial Minds," Rui mused to himself. "Greater average efficiency and far greater decision-making. But the issue is that his Martial Body, Art, and the latter's synergy with his Mind was truly far superior to that of mind."

He was perhaps an entire order of magnitude faster than Rui at all times, barring the five minutes when Rui used Neo Godspeed. "He was right…" Rui murmured. "…I am inexperienced. I didn't even consider the fact that my saturation limit is far higher than it was when I was a Martial Senior. I can use many, many more Martial Art techniques simultaneously than ever before."

Certainly far more so than Master Grais, who used a whopping two dozen Martial Art techniques at one point.

"It's not low-hanging fruit, however," Master Ceeran pointed out insightfully. "Creating all those techniques takes time. Lots of time. Master Grais created those techniques and then refined them with experience in real combat over centuries. Of course, you will take less time because you are younger and thus can grow much faster, but still."

Rui nodded appreciatively. "That's true. I can mark it as a long-term growth strategy."

Developing even more powerful active techniques that synergized well with his Martial Mind like Flux Earther and Phantom Step was a great way to make progress while accumulating even greater strength.

He could maximize the potential of his Martial Mind and Martial Art to greatly increase his strength in the long run. "I especially need to bolster my offense as soon as possible," Rui narrowed his eyes with dissatisfaction. "I would have won my final fight without needing to take such a big risk if I had greater finishing power."

When he decided to take Master Grais' lethal attack head-on, he didn't know for a fact that he would emerge victorious.

It was a gambit.

If he had been able to severely damage Master Grais before that point when he was bludgeoning him before that point as a Martial Artist, he would have won. (C) content.

"Even a speed-oriented and maneuvering-oriented Martial Master has greater lethality!" Rui chastised himself. It was a little embarrassing that Master Grais had more lethality than he did.

"It will need to actually be even more synergetic with my Martial Mind than Flux Earther and Phantom Step, those techniques aren't nearly as synergetic as I had previously thought."

He used to think they synergized well with his Martial Mind, but after looking at the synergy between Master Grais's Art and Mind, he didn't think so.

"Master Grais' techniques are so integrated with his Martial Mind that many of them cannot even be used without the Martial Mind," Rui recalled the Lightning Spear Jab technique that the Martial Master had struck him with.

That certainly was not something that could be used without a system of thought telling him exactly where to strike and how to cause damage to his opponent.

In comparison, the same could not be said about Flux Earther and Phantom Step.

"Don't be too swept up by hyper-integrated Art-Mind techniques," Master Ceeran cautioned him. "The Martial Mind is a limited resource and can and often does run out in the middle of battles. The moment it runs out, all techniques that depend on it to function cannot function anymore. Thus, getting too absorbed into making everything depend on it is a bad idea."

Rui nodded. "That's a really good point."

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