The G'ak'arkan Tribe mastered sophisticated and powerful techniques in reasonable periods of time. Not only that, they also created a large number of unique Martial Art techniques at a remarkable pace and frequency.
They did all of this without the training and growth resources that the Martial Union had. That was extremely worthy of respect, Rui had to admit.
('They do this by placing a tremendous amount of mental pressure with the genuine possibility of death
Still, he highly doubted that this was all fun and games.
"How many Martial Artists have died in the training that I just underwent?" Rui asked with narrow eyes.
"About two or three in ten," He replied nonchalantly, without batting so much as an eye.
Rui on the other hand widened his eyes at that mortality rate.
It was no wonder. They were able to match the training speed of the Martial Union because they were willing to tolerate insane mortality rates to obtain that result.
The cost of the lives of twenty to thirty percent of Martial Artists of the Martial Union was something no one in the martial union would ever tolerate. Hell, Rui suspected just suggesting this to someone like Martial commissioner Derun would earn him strict reprimands.
Even if they wanted to have such training methodologies, no sane Martial Artist of lower Realms, like Martial Apprentices would voluntarily subject themselves to that. They would leave the Martial Union in droves.
It would instantly turn into a stream of migration of Martial Apprentices and even Martial Squires to the Royal Army and the Kandrian government, as well as to other nations.
Still… In the G'ak'arkan Tribe, it didn't even seem that out of place. The G'ak'arkan Tribe's culture was so extreme that it felt normal when he considered that this was their way of doing things.
Still, he had to admit that he had come to gain a certain degree of respect for the Martial Artists of the G'ak'arkan Tribe, they put their lives at risk to a much greater degree than the Martial Artists of the Martial Union. Even training was probably a significant threat to their life and bore a significant risk of death.
Of course, that did not necessarily mean that their way of doing things was better or superior. He just had to admit that people who successfully reached higher Realms of Martial Art in the G'ak'arkan Tribe had overcome obstacles and barriers that most Martial Artists in modern nations of the Panama Continent did not.
As far as net output went, the Martial Union would still take the win. Even ignoring the fact that the Martial Squires of the Martial Union had stronger Martial bodies, just the fact that the Martial Union had twenty to thirty percent more Martial Artists than any group of the same size that tried the same kind of risky training as the G'ak'arkan Tribe was enough.
A twenty to thirty percent advantage in quantity would be damning in an all-out war. Thus the Martial Union's means of training could be evaluated to be superior as far as the context of resulting net Martial war potential.
Still, he wondered if he, as an individual, ought to care about this parameter. After all, a net increment across large sample sizes did not necessarily mean that the Martial Union's way of doing things was better for him.
('Maybe I should consider borrowing from the G'ak'arkan Tribe's ways to a certain degree…') Rui's eyes narrowed.
His training speed had reduced, to a lesser degree as a Martial Squire, when he implanted the Mindmirror Symbiote.
('Maybe I could regain a part of that speed if I made my training life-threatening,') Rui's eyes lit up in cautious interest.
Of course, Rui was aware that was incredibly risky and substantially increased the probability of death across his lifetime.
('But… there are benefits, clearly,') Rui noted. ('These martial Artists surpass their technological limitations by putting their bodies in a state of fear of death. That cannot be ignored…') Rui's eyes lit up in even greater interest.
Of course, he wasn't some hot-headed fool who didn't care for his life. He absolutely cared for his life, and he definitely wanted to avoid death, even if he wasn't actively scared of it.
However…
('I can't say I care for my life more than my Martial Path, honestly.') Rui sighed. He would rather die than not have his Martial Path, Art, and the VOID algorithm, for example. Project Water had become a multi-incarnation project and had only grown dearer to him than it was back on Earth, and it only seemed to continue to do so as he grew stronger.
When he first joined the Martial Academy, he was not as driven as he was today, and when he was a Martial Apprentice, for the most part, he didn't even know if his dream was possible in any capacity for a long time!
Once he mastered the Mind Palace technique and used it to finally execute the VOID algorithm in its entirety from the start, he had to admit that he definitely had grown only more zealous and determined to fulfill Project Water, after having gotten the taste of success for the very first time in two lifetimes.
And now he had reached a level of commitment that he simply had not reached prior to at this point in time. He was not unwilling to risk his life to become stronger quicker and in the long term. He just needed to make sure that it was definitely worth it as far as the probability of the risky possibility unfolding.
He was willing to risk his life, as long as he gained something concrete that was worth it.
('This means that this training regime will be a good test for whether the benefits are worth undertaking the risks,') Rui concluded.
Over the next few months, he would be testing whether the training regime was going to be worth it. It was possible that this training phase would determine how the rest of the training phases for the rest of his life go.
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