The Martial Unity

"Twenty-two gold coins for the recommended number of potions for this mission?" Rui winced. He was truly starting to feel the absence of the boons that the Martial Academy granted its students. Back when he was a student, he didn't need to care about the price of potions of missions. Although the cost of potions was usually covered in the post-successful completion commission fee, if he didn't have the money to purchase it ahead of time then he would not be able to commence the mission.

Furthermore, he used to receive the complete amount Martial Artists were normally entitled to without actually having to purchase them in the Martial Academy.

Rui reluctantly coughed up the funds as he placed the potion vials in his pouch as prepared all the other things necessary. The final necessary piece of equipment for this mission would be supplied in the dispatch facility.

"Apprentice Quarrier." A staff member bowed before gesturing him to a device on the table. "This is the bio-recon ES-263 device that you will be operating in your mission. The mission bill should cover all the information regarding this device but I shall still provide you with an explanation and demonstration. The device was designed by the Martial Union and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology in partnership to make the device user-friendly enough for Martial Artists who do not possess a background in Environmental technology."

Rui nodded politely, letting her do her thing. He had found that staff members tended to waste their time less when he simply let them do as they pleased. Even when he had shown in the past that he mastered the Mind Palace technique, the staff members would pester him like he was a child who could be trusted.

('They must have been scarred by plenty of incompetent yet overconfident Martial Artists, surely.') He mused.

Thankfully, it didn't take long.

"Any questions?" She asked.

"Just one, can you show me the..." He proceeded to ask a random question to convince her he was paying attention.

Soon, it was time to depart.

The Serevian Plateau lay straightforwardly far west of the Kandrian Empire. It was a long journey on foot, even by Martial Artist standards. Rui would need around five hours to reach the location even if he sprinted the entire time.

It would take him quite a while and he would require himself to exert himself to a high degree. He immediately employed his maneuvering techniques as well as Wind Breathing as he zoomed across the Mantian Region, and eventually the Kandrian Empire. At his current level, it only took three hours to exist the Kandrian Empire and head in the direction he wanted.

He had momentarily paused as his departure was recorded by the gate security. Although he could violate the immigration policies of other nations, he could not do so for the Kandrian Empire.

However, once he stepped outside the Kandrian Empire, he picked up speed. It was always fascinating to leave the Kandrian Empire and witness the world outside the Empire to Rui. Back on Earth, the world was thoroughly connected with an extremely dense and strong bond of information exchange thanks to the internet.

However, the same couldn't be said for the Panama Continent. When he stepped outside the Kandrian Empire, he would come across truly isolated and disassociated people. People are disassociated with his knowledge and experience. There truly was a sense of novelty in his travels, a true sense of exploration, curiosity, and uncertainty. It was truly a euphoric experience.

The temperature did not deviate as much as one would expect, however it was clear that the other environmental parameters varied greatly. As Rui traveled, he experienced a wide variety of weather, atmospheres, and environments.

As time passed. Human civilization grew sparser and scarcer. The touches of human colonialization and inhabitation began reducing, bit by bit. It was only some time before he was running through what was effectively a forest before he even realized.

Five hours passed until he finally reached it.

"Huff... huff..." Rui crouched using his knees as a crutch as he quickly consumed a physical rejuvenation potion.

He glanced forward, walking slowly toward the edge of a sharp cliff ahead of him. The cliff sharply descended for hundreds of feet before hitting an even greater expanse of trees and other vegetation and topography constituting the jungle down below.

"So this is the Serevian Plateau," Rui mumbled. It was an extended piece of the Beast Domain that had infiltrated human civilization and had disconnected a bit from the mainland of the Beast Domain. It was the most dilute of what the Beast Domain had to offer, yet it was not something that Rui could dismiss very easily.

"This place..." Rui's eyes narrowed. His augmented Primordial Instinct told him it wasn't anywhere nearly as simple as it was.

"It gives off a faint sense of peril." He murmured.

He did feel a subtle danger from the Serevian Plateau. He was extremely trustful of his instincts, especially since he got the Mindmirror Symbiote technique which had evolved the technique to another level of insight.

Furthermore, it wasn't only that, there was indeed strange seismic radiation that simply did not occur naturally in normal environments. What was strange, however, was that Rui was actually having a hard time processing what the seismic radiation meant. Usually, he could interpret it the way he interpreted light. But in this particular case, he felt he had never quite perceived anything quite like it prior.

It was as if it was just meaningless noise and gibberish.

"Coming from deep within the Serevian Plateau." He murmured. He would need to reach the core in order to learn what the source of the strange seismic radiation was. Ultimately, that didn't deviate much from his plan in the first place at all. His goal was always to make it to the core of the Serevian Plateau, gather as much information as possible, and report back to the Kandrian Empire and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology.