The Martial Unity

"Kane, go dump the esoteric ore deposit in the hole that we dug up earlier," Rui informed him. "We're running out of time."

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that," Kane nodded.

It didn't take Kane too long to finish this task. Rui had wisely chosen the closest adequately deserted location to the Shionel Dungeon, as long as Kane traveled at top speed, he would be able to reach there in two minutes.

It wasn't long before Kane returned, Rui sought him ought since he was the only one who could navigate and detect him. Yet, the first thing Rui told him when they reunited puzzled him,

"We need to head back to the floor, I need to know what's going on," Rui told him.

"You want to head back?" Kane tilted his head frowning. "We just barely got back from there. I thought you stayed back because I was faster without you. What if we get hit with another attack from that psycho again?"

"Think about it Kane," Rui calmly explained. "That Martial Squire probably killed two or three Martial Squires and severely hurt the rest. Even if he is highly impulsive, he is not going to repeat a decision that he probably regrets from the bottom of his heart, most likely. Furthermore, Void Step broke because you were caught off-guard since you did not expect an attack to hit you. However, if you knew that you were going to get hit ahead of time, would your technique have still been disrupted?"

combat, I adopt a mindset that prioritizes fortitude, and I can get hit without letting the technique break because I'm expecting it and can also see it happening usually. But that's different from the mindset I have when we're mining esoteric ore deposits, or pulling off

that there was a mismatch between what you had primed yourself for, and what ended up happening. We just need to be specifically prepared for

to go back in the first place?"

want to eavesdrop on their conversations," Rui replied simply. "The more we know, the better we'll be equipped to

need to get very close to hear what they're saying since your hearing is jammed, and your Rieman-whatever

get too close to them, even a hundred meters is more than enough for me to comfortably spy on all conversations happening around

before nodding. "Alright sure, though they've probably finished whatever conversation you

not take priority over the fact that a few Martial Squires are probably dead while a hundred are injured from light wounds to critical injuries.

considered that rationale, it certainly

quickly activated Void Step as they headed back the way they came. This time,

fourteenth floor, entering it very cautiously

a tight perimeter around the raiding team of

three corpses laid side by side. These were the Martial Squires who were closest to the grade-ten Martial Squire who recklessly launched a powerful omnidirectional wind attack, resulting in their skulls

was surrounded by several figures. Rui