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

the operation into the Mellow Dungeon were

learn more about the challenges that barricaded the way to 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

could instantly gain a deep understanding of exactly what

to flesh out a specific plan, but he was absolutely certain that knowing the environments that were most antithetical to each of them would help him clear the dungeon and undo the

to hurry," Rui sharply remarked, turning

thought it was

my father succumbs," Rui darkly replied. "We need to get there before he

spend

sought to defeat him. In order to grow, he needed to be exposed to different kinds of

grow stronger by adaptively evolving to them as a

a lot of the progress

had been a result of trying to overcome certain challenges with his Martial Art. This had

be said for all the techniques that he had created during his exodus away from Kandria, hiding from Chairman Deacon. He created Greater

greatest creations were a result of adaptively evolving to the challenges and forces aligned

much of that in a prison as

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

"Done."

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

men got up,

"Any time," Kane remarked.

"Let's go."