THUD


    The two of them copsed to the ground, exhausted.


    "Good job you two," Rui remarked with a smile. "The two of you have grown stronger."


    "But we still couldn''t evennd a proper blow on you even though you were moving at a normal speed!" Maxined, earning a nod from Mana.


    Rui had held back his movement and reaction speed to human level by deliberating dying his movements to match those of normal humans, yet despite his raw movements being that of a normal human being, and often slower than them, they were unable tond even a single clean strike on him!


    Max and Mana were dumbfounded at how Rui was able to aplish such a feat. Their understanding ofbat had not yet matured to a level where they could actually grasp the means by which Rui was able to pull off such a feat.


    "I''ve told you many a time, have I not?" Rui chuckled, amused. "uracy of timing and cement matter more than raw speed."


    "But what does that actually even mean?" Mana raised an eyebrow.


    "I can predict your movements rather easily, I just need to evade or deflect at the right time and ce that I know will be enough to deal with predicted strikes," Rui shrugged.


    "Can you teach us how to do that?" Mana asked, intrigued.


    Rui shook his head. "Most Martial Artists obtain the ability to predict simpler and primitivebat styles like yours after lots and lots of experience. Although there are exceptions, I am afraid they cannot apply to you."


    The two of the children sighed, looking crestfallen.


    "Cheer up, the two of you are making respectable progress," Rui tried to coax them, much to no avail.


    He decided to try and give them some good news.


    "I''ve decided to switch your Apprentice mentor," Rui exined.


    The two of them looked at Rui with knitted eyebrows. "But why?"


    "I want to expose you to all kinds of Martial Art," Rui exined. "It helps to broaden your perspective regarding what the two of you aspire to pursue. I''m going to bemissioning all kinds of Martial Artists with all kinds of Martial Art for you to experience. And let me tell you, there aren''t just a few. Aren''t you excited to see just the kinds of things that Martial Artists are capable of?"


    The two of them lit up with eager interest at Rui''s words. As avid admirers of Martial Artists, the two of them were quite excited at the prospect of meeting all kinds of Martial Artists.


    Of course, the reason Rui did this was that he wanted to hasten the discovery of their Martial Path. This required both external and internal exploration. Rui had been doing a great job of significantly hastening their internal exploration by exposing them to the VOID algorithm turned down to match their prowess.


    N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.


    However, he hadn''t given them too much of thetter. They needed to be exposed to different kinds of Martial Art, otherwise, they would likely nevere to the realization of what their affinity out of all these possibilities was.


    In fact, that might have been the reason why Crea broke through earlier than Mana and Max despite receiving less tutge from Rui than those two. While Rui greatly elerated her self-awareness regarding her patterns andbat style, her strong foundation as the daughter of a Martial Senior who was also loaded, gave her vastly more exposure to Martial Art than Max and Mana, who, up until now, had only met two Martial Artists in their life.


    (''Tsk, had Ie to this realization earlier, they might have already broken through by now.'') Rui sighed.


    Of course, this was not necessarily true. Rui didn''t really possess the funds tomission Apprentice mentors full-time back when he was a Martial Apprentice. He hadmissioned a mentor for them pretty much as early as he could financially afford to.


    If it weren''t for his debt, he would have been able to pay for tutge much earlier.


    (''Oh wait, Ipletely forgot about my debt.'') Rui immediately realized.


    It couldn''t be helped, because it didn''t have a time limit and didn''t snowball interest, it didn''t put too much pressure outside biting a chunk of all of his paychecks, however, once he got used to that it simply became normal.


    (''Currently, I actually have the funds to get rid of my debt in full... Should I?'') Rui wondered.


    On one hand, it would eventually get cleared even if he didn''t do so himself, as he grew stronger, he would bepleting higher grade missions that would yield even greater ie than he currently had and he was already able to manage with what he currently had. There was no need to spend a solid chunk of revenue on paying back his debt.


    pàпdá-ň?νêι.сóМ On the other hand, there was a saying that a man in debt was never truly free. The psychological freedom of getting rid of his debt alone was worth it at the end of the day. It was not nice having to constantly remember that he had arge sum of money to pay back to the Martial Academy for his time in it.


    (''That alone with the perma-augmentation potion, as well as the tutors for the kids will be my initial spending.'') Rui nodded inwardly, having made up his mind regarding this issue.


    He didn''t intend to spend the rest of his Martial credits immediately, however, he was not opposed to spending them on pricey things here and there that he needed that he otherwise might not have deigned to purchase due to ack of funds.


    For now, however, he intended to get back intopleting missions, rather than jumping into training back again. He was eager to put his new techniques to the test.


    (''Perhaps I should undertake a mission that allows me to use the Flux Earther technique in the field for once.


    It was a less shy and shocking move and also a mundane part of normalbat, thus it wasn''t as impactful as the Pathfinder technique, but it was something Rui looked forward to using.


    This chapter upload first at