Chapter 21

Today they give the results of the exam. In this three days I've been practicing with Quiron and now I'm able to remember 7 objects nearly every time and some times even 8.

I'm a bit frustrated because I think my progress is to slow. I could remember 6 at the start but even though I've been practicing 3 days I can only remember one more. Quiron told me that the progress is only going to become slower. He says that each person has something called perception.

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There are two kinds of perceptions; the conscious and the unconscious.

The conscious is the perception that our senses get and the brain prioritizes. It's also the only one are aware of and can control.

The unconscious perception is the information that your senses get and transmit but your brain doesn't attach importance to, so even though you sense it, you are not aware of it. This is were most of the information your senses perceive is. Normal people don't pay attention to it and consider its a good thing that our brain discards this information.

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While is true that this information can be actually useless it depends in what kind of environment or circumstance. For fighters having a good perception is extremely important. It can make them see small movements of their opponents and help them predict their actions. It can also help in other situations, for example to detect a person emotions.

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Maximum perception is precisely a skill that focuses in improving perception and the objective is to make the conscious perception be able to sense everything, making the brain process every piece of information it receives. It also works the other way to make the unconscious perception the dominant. It's objective is making the user be able to control his perception in every way possible.

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The perception is something every martial arts practitioner uses and strengthens, but they usually don't train it specifically since the stronger they get the better perception they'll usually have.

Quiron told me that he too didn't give perception half the attention it deserved at the start, and only late in his career did he proactively train and research it.

He says is a underrated ability that most practitioners take for granted, but as they reach more proficiency in martial arts, it's value starts to get higher and higher.

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I understand the logic behind it and agree with it. I'm happy to have such a wise teacher. He is able to transmit his wisdom to me, but at the same time let me experience failures. This way I'll be able to accumulate my own experiences and wisdom. Some times is better to let persons commit mistakes so they can learn for themselves the consequences.

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The results are going to appear in a big screen at the middle of the academy. I prepare to go there since it's nearly the time when they are going to appear.

When I get there I see all of the students already gathered and I can't help but feel nervous as we all wait for the results. Even though I'm confident I don't know if I did better than every single one of this persons.

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Finally the screen turns on and the results of the martial arts class appears. I don't care about this results though and I'm still impatient to see the results of the other two classes.

The results are divided in the first and second year student.

The first three of the second year students are people that I don't know, but two of the first places are girls.

The results of the first year students are nearly the same. Three girls are in the first three places.

They of corse are Artemis, Mustang and Arwen.