The Martial Unity

Once a staff member heeded Rui's requests and sat him down, he asked.

"This is your first time undertaking a mission, correct?"

"Yes."

"Are you aware of all the due process and procedures needed to undertake a mission?" She asked.

"I'm afraid not, mam." Rui was aware of some of the processes associated with undertaking commissions

"Alright, let me begin by explaining some procedures you must complete. First, every Martial Artist who aims to undertake a mission must be licensed." She explained. "However, for Martial Apprentices who are still students within the Academy, you will be provided with a learner's license."

This was something Rui happened to be aware of.

"A license is proof of competence, as well as a declaration of the recognized right to undertake missions. All Martial Artists who join the Martial Union obtain one. Along with it come certain exclusive rights and obligations."

Rui nodded. He had read this when he went through the mandatory theory lessons during the Exploration Stage. The Martial Union obtained several Royally authorized exclusive rights and privileges, such as partial impunity from the law and partial tax cuts and access to restricted areas among other benefits here and there, all listed in the Kandrian Martial Convenant as well as the employment contract of the Martial Union. The obligations that came with few mandates from the Martial Union such as mandated missions issued by the Martial Union.

"A learner's license possesses neither of the many privileges and obligations that come with a full-fledged license, they're meant to help students like yourself acclimate to the occupation of Martial Artists of the Martial Union." She continued, receiving a nod from Rui.

"You will have to fill and sign this application form as well as submit a statement from the academics department of the Academy that lists out your Martial Art Type categories, the Martial Art techniques you have learnt, as well as your performances and competence as a Martial Apprentice." She explained. "Once you do those, the application will be briefly processed and accepted as long as you pass the criterias."

Rui nodded. "Is the statement needed to assign missions that fit my profile? I thought the Academy didn't mandate specific missions to students." He wondered.

"No." She shook her head. "The Academy does not mandate specific missions to specific students based on their profile. You may choose missions of your choice, however, as an inexperienced Martial Apprentice we cannot allow you to fulfill missions that are outside your skillset." She explained. "If you do choose certain missions outside your skillset, you will be assigned a mentor who will assist you in completing the mission. This is a limited option and service and is merely meant to help you gauge different types of missions to help you understand them and make more informed choices on what kinds of missions you would like to apply for in the future."

This was quite the student-friendly policy, something Rui appreciated.

"There are some missions which have bare minimum skillset requirements, and you will not be allowed to partake in them at all, with or without a mentor." She added. "Please be mindful of that."

"Understood."

"Once your applications is accepted and your learner's license is issued, you will initially not be allowed access to the entire pool of commissions. Your grade as a Martial Apprentice will be objectively evaluated by our department based on the academic statement and records provided by the academics department of the Academy." She explained. "In short, a learner's license does not permit a Martial Apprentice student to take on missions above his competence, as evaluated by us."

Rui nodded. This made sense and was to be expected. Martial Apprentice students like himself had only just built the foundation of their Martial Art, and had spent most of their time cooped up in training. They lacked the experience, knowledge and perspective to understand the difficulties of missions based on the provided information, and could not be trusted to make informed choices.

Many of the missions were actual private commissions made by customers of the Martial Union. The Martial Academy could not afford to allow clueless Apprentice students to foolishly undertake missions above their paygrade and fail the mission!

"Another matter to discuss, is the renumeration. Each mission has a fixed reward of a certain number of Academy credits instead of Kandrian currency, which can be used to purchase techniques." She explained.

Rui nodded. He was fine with this arrangement. He didn't particularly need money whilst he was in the Academy, and money would not allow him to purchase techniques. The ultimate goal for undertaking missions was so that he could purchase more techniques with money and expand develop his Martial Art.

"Finally, we need to go over the process of completing missions, there are a variety of missions, to I will speak generally. Missions are commissions submitted by customers of the Martial Union in exchange for completing a specified criteria or fulfilling a certain objective as well as other parameters such as specified timeframe and any pre-requisites etc." She established. "Each mission as provided to Martial Apprentices will be encoded in a booklet, known as a mission bill. Within it will be specified all relevant information needed by the Martial Artist to complete said mission. Including the objective as well as all relevant intel that you have clearance too." She paused before taking out a sample mission bill to show him.

"All mission bills are kept within the Mission library and are all organized by different parameters and categories. The first classification is class. All techniques are initially divided into the five different classes of missions: Assault missions, defense missions, covert operations, hunting missions and miscellaneous missions. Then they're further divided by difficulty grade, then further divided into categories by pre-requisites and locations." She explained.

Rui nodded. It was a convenient setup that allowed Martial Artists to find what they're looking for with relative ease. A Martial Artist or a party of Martial Artists of a certain class could simply walk over to his class of missions, further navigate to the difficulty grade of his capability or comfort, then choose focus on missions in a location of convenience and a preferred timeframe, and finally pick a mission whose pre-requisites he satisfied. A relatively simple process. If the Martial Academy and Union did not possess this level of user-friendly organization, then it would simply be one hell of a mess for Martial Artists to choose missions conforming to their needs and wants!