The Martial Unity

"Huff…" Rui's cold eyes narrowed, staring at the Mellow Dungeon in the distance. "It's a shame I wasn't able to come here before I inherited the Elder Tree's knowledge."

Rui wasn't lacking self-awareness. He knew that he was different from before. He felt as though someone had dialed down his emotions. He recalled the fascination, awe, and wonder he had experienced when he beheld the magic of the Garden of Salvation.

He was unable to experience a fraction of that emotion when looking at an equally exotic phenomenon.

The revelation that very few things could trigger the same kind of experience was not pleasant.

While, before, a series of things could have triggered positive emotions, it was as though someone had drastically increased the threshold for those same experiences to bring him the same amount of happiness. Only the ecstasy born from his Flowing Void Style and Adaptive Evolution had been able to cross that threshold consistently.

"I mean, we could have."

Kane's voice interjected, cutting through his own thoughts.

"No," Rui replied stoically. "We couldn't have."

"Was it worth it?" Kane's voice was sharp. "Was breaking your own mind worth it?"

Rui turned to Kane with a detached gaze.

A single remark escaped him.

"Yes."

Kane shook his head, heaving a sigh. "I figured. It's your best and worst trait, man. It might get you killed. Thankfully, you have me. Now, are we ready?"

"Soon."

all the low-hanging fruit were gone. Now, it was time to subject himself to danger if

into the

center of the dungeon and get rid of as many as possible. Ideally, Rui hoped to learn the identity of the creatures at the Master-level zone of the Mellow

deep understanding of exactly what kind of environment was most antithetical to them through the enlightenment of the Tree of

that knowing the environments that were most

need to hurry," Rui sharply remarked, turning to Kane. "We

thought it

get there before he does, and the travel

spend

to be able to adaptively evolve to overcome any force that sought to defeat him. In order

required him to train and grow stronger

for a lot of the progress that

of trying to overcome certain challenges with his Martial Art. This had been the case when he adaptively evolved to the challenges of the Shionel Dungeon by

said for all the techniques that he had created during his exodus away from Kandria, hiding from Chairman Deacon. He created Greater Phantomind Void, Death's Sympathy, and similarly powerful techniques for the sake of killing Chairman

of adaptively evolving to the

much of that in

that it was a worthy place to train his foundations. It was a shame that he valued the diversity

"Done."

stoic as he buried their little backpacks in the sand. He didn't intend to carry all the instruments, artifacts, and tools that he

got up, facing

"Any time," Kane remarked.

"Let's go."