The Martial Unity

The time he spent with his family was healing and soothing. Helping them out with manual labor, and stockpiling enough firewood for the coming winter. Due to the distance between the Orphanage and even the closest district of the town of Hajin, it wasn't very practical to try and rely on it for resources once winter came in full force. The Orphanage stored up as much as they could on all essential supplies so that they would become self-sustaining for at least the harshest parts of winter.

Aside from that, he spent his time training Max and Mana too. Of all the children in the Orphanage, they were among the most inspired and motivated to follow in his footsteps and become Martial Apprentices. Their resolve had managed to withstand the test of time, and the difficulty of the training regimes that Rui had made them undergo.

They were both twelve. This meant that, soon, they would become eligible for the Martial Exam.

Rui had mixed feelings about letting thirteen-year-olds undergo the Martial Exam. Of course, he himself underwent it at the age of thirteen, but he was mentally an adult and he knew what he was getting into. Mana and Max were still kids, both physically and mentally.

Of course, in this world, people weren't coddled nearly as much as first-world kids back on Earth. The world was harsher and more dangerous. This forced them to mature faster.

Still, the Martial Exam guaranteed injury, and the possibility of death existed as well. The Martial Exam was made just tough enough that at least one applicant would die every year in each of the sixteen Martial Academies.

Part of this was no doubt to deter a large chunk of highly unfit Martial Artist aspirants that would have undoubtedly applied for the exam had the exam not been at least this dangerous.

Another reason he had some compunctions against letting them participate was that they would be younger and weaker than an overwhelming majority of the applicants partaking in the Martial Exam. Of course, failure was not bad. It would give them some experience with the difficulty and ruthlessness of the Martial Exam.

Still, that meant that they had a higher chance of suffering grave injury or, in the worst possible scenario; death.

Of course, it would be double standards considering that Rui had attempted and successfully cleared the Martial Exam at the age of thirteen.

Still, he had gotten a pass from everybody else because he demonstrated a genius-level intellect, having learned language and academics at an extraordinarily young age. He also had a generally calm and composed temperament from a very young age. So much so that after thirteen years of observation of him, Julian had hit the truth, even if jokingly, about Rui, about his reincarnation.

All of that atop his severe determination had led the adults of the Orphanage to allow him to undertake the exam.

The same could not necessarily be said for Mana or Max. They were driven, however, they had an immature temperament; lacking in patience and composure.

"What are we training today?" Max asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Rui turned to face the two of them. He found their determination and eagerness adorable and worrisome at the same time.

"Mental fortitude," Rui replied.

"Why are we so far from home?" Mana wondered aloud.

"This training can trouble others, unfortunately," Rui explained. "That's why I wanted to do it away from the others."

"Trouble?" Max frowned. "What even is mental fortitude anyway?"

"Endurance. Not of the body, but of the mind." Rui tapped his head.

"How do you even train such a thing?" Mana asked.

"The same way you train anything else," Rui replied. "Perseverance. Now, stand before me."

They obediently obeyed, curious at what was going on.

"Alright then, let's begin. From this point forth, you need to do your best to remain standing where you are to the best of your abilities, ok?" Rui asked.

They nodded, firmly planting their feet on the ground.

Rui breathed deeply, as he very mildly opened up a bit of the Mind Mask technique that had been covering up his Squire-level aura.

Mental techniques were easier to adapt to the Squire Realm because the evolution the brain underwent did not have a gigantic variation as far as mental parameters went. They were purely normal human brains scaled up through evolution. Thus, Apprentice-level mental techniques could more straightforwardly be used in the Squire Realm.

This was especially true for Rui, who had an affinity for mental techniques. In the past three months of his Squire habilitation phase, he had managed to retain most of the effectivity of the Mind Mask technique. Enough to seal off his Squire-level aura when interacting with his family. A Squire-level threat evoked too much passive fear in ordinary humans. He would be tormenting his family if he let his ablaze strongly.

The Mind Mask technique allowed him to appear no different from an ordinary person.

He had peeled off just the tiniest bit of the mask. He wanted to make sure he started at almost rock bottom before escalating the pressure bit by bit. If he started too high, he might trigger shock.

Max and Mana stiffened as they felt significant pressure mounting upon them. What was almost entirely insignificant to Rui at this point, was more pressure than the two of them had ever endured.

Yet, they gritted their teeth and stood strong against the pressure they were being put under. They did their best to fight away the fear with determination. Yet Rui merely increased the pressure he exerted on them, slowly and exceedingly carefully of course, but he increased it nonetheless.

Soon his pressure had reached the Apprentice Realm and they had reached their limits. They bother took a step back, unable to bear it any longer.

"Not bad." Rui nodded as he extinguished the pressure. "Considering that you haven't had any training for it yet. However, this alone won't allow you to pass the first round of the Martial entrance exam."