The search for a solution was actually harder than Rui expected. The Floating Sect's library wasn't bad, not at all. Because they were so isolated from human civilization, they had grown to become developed in all fields beyond what a normal sect would.
This included having a decently flourished library with information on various topics. If they ever happened to be in need of information and needed to scour through the literature of any field, they could do so with better ease.
This specifically applied to the various professionals of the Floating Sect that had important occupations that weren't centered around Martial Art. Thus there was just enough literature for him to not be dissatisfied.
However, the library had a greater breadth as opposed to depth.
It contained literature from many fields but did not go too deep in each field.
In fact, Rui had already gone through all the literature on esoteric material science, but he had recently realized that the depth of the literature of the Floating Sect was not enough for him to find a solution to all of his problems.
That did not mean that there was no solution to the problem anywhere in the field of esoteric material science. It was an incredibly broad field with many seemingly fantastical solutions.
It took about a month of digging to realize that the literature on esoteric material science in the Floating Sect library was not going to lead him wherever he wanted to be.
"Does whatever you're looking for have to be in esoteric material science?" Kane asked after Rui told him about his recent problems.
It was an interesting question.
"Of course not," Rui replied. "In fact, I've been going through considering symbiotic Martial Art techniques as well."
"You haven't had that much success there either, right?" Kane asked.
"No, unfortunately."
"Then maybe you should just look elsewhere," Kane replied. "Like, just go through the entire library. It would be impossible for anybody else, but for you, it would actually be quite feasible. Who knows, you might find something."
That was actually not a completely bad suggestion.
While it was true that he did expect to find his offensive Martial Body in the esoteric material science fields, he ought not to hold on to those expectations very strongly. Especially now that he had already confirmed that the extent of the literature on those two fields had not yielded the results that he wanted.
It was better than nothing, even if the probability of dinging a solution was lower.
Still, he wasn't even sure how far he ought to take that. He definitely did not think reading the entire library was an idea worth spending time on, but stepping out of the two primary fields that he had focused on was worth considering.
At the moment, it was the only thing he could do, he could not leave the Floating for the time being, so he didn't have access to any other avenue of information. He could only work with what he had.
However, he was not going to read an entire library, that was simply not worth the time that would go with
"I'll do just that, I suppose," He sighed. "Appreciate the advice."
He began with esoteric medicine, just because it was closest when it came to the human body. He went into it with very little to no expectations about whether it could possibly help him or not.
His expectations were overturned.
A month into the research, he came across something truly fascinating.
[Herenal Disease]
This was a strange and rare disease where the patient was afflicted with a herenal bacterial infection. This virus triggers rapid muscle hypertrophy, causing them to grow larger and more dense, disproportionately increasing the energy consumption of the body, causing weakness due to lack of nutrition, and causing the afflicted organism to eventually die.
Rui grew more interested based on his initial impression.
Just based on the first paragraph describing the disease, it was weird, but there was potential there strangely enough.
The bacteria was speculated to consume some of the products produced by muscles. Thus organisms with larger and more powerful muscles were ideal for the virus, that was why it had evolved to cause temporary muscle hypertrophy in patients afflicted by the bacteria in the first place.
It was simply a way to generate more sustenance for the bacteria in the first place.
Rui read on as he grew increasingly fascinated by the matter. Yet in his head, the idea of employing a bacterial infection to allow him to partially achieve the offensive Martial Body was something that was not possible.
However, it was only then that he began putting aside his bias and considering the prospect of a virus being the solution to his problem.
That was the wildest part of all of this. As insane as the idea sounded, he was not able to see a particularly strong logical argument for why this would necessarily be a bad idea.
There was the possibility that this disease could affect him severely, but according to the data that he came across, it primarily affected normal humans, and Martial Squires was an extremely upgraded version of normal humans.
In fact, there was a realistic possibility that his immune system would just annihilate the virus. That was not something that he desired, and he needed to make sure that this truly was a viable option rather than just a pipe dream.
That meant that he had a lot of studying and researching to do. It was no different from jumping into a brand-new field since that was what was happening.
('I can also consult experts in the field.') He knew that the Floating Sect had a robust and rigorous medical department with professionals that could be of aid to him in his endeavor to potentially weaponize this disease and make it a part of his Martial Art. He was going to need all the qualified help that he could get, that was for sure.
