The Martial Unity

Then they had it rough.

“These monsters are not as prey to their own instincts as other monsters,” Rui’s dark eyes sharpened. “In other words, tricks, and schemes that would work with other dim-witted animals are most likely going to be super ineffective against these creatures.”

POW POW POW!

He erased the heads of several more harpies.

“Damn man!” Kane cursed at his words. “We can’t just have it easy, huh? Why does this gotta be this hard.”

“Relax.” Rui’s frosty voice possessed a spark of confidence. “This can work in our favor as well. I’ll need to gather more data for that, though.”

POW POW POW!

The two of them could have just breezed past these incredibly weak creatures, but Rui insisted on taking it slow.

“Given the environmental constraints, the fauna of this place is most likely not too diverse,” Rui remarked. “In other words, the species at the outermost and weakest part of the dungeon are probably the same species that are in the core of the dungeon, protecting the source of the manifold. I can infer immense amount of data about the stronger creatures from these weakest members of the same species.”

“Makes sense,” Kane admitted, effortlessly slicing and dicing them into fine specks of flesh and blood.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

“That’s not even the best part.”

“Hm?” Kane turned towards Rui, before widening his eyes with surprise.

A fleeting smile emerged on Rui’s face as a hint of excitement flashed in the depths of his dark eyes. “The best part is that collecting SOUL data on these species is a lot easier. Because these creatures are already in a trance, I don’t need to run around using Soul Void over and over again for different sets of creatures.”

Kae’s eyes lit up as he understood how well this worked in their favor. “That means you can harness your true strength much better!”

“…Correct.” Rui nodded stoically. “That’s not all.”

Rui recalled how the obsidian wyverns had SOUL models that were more the same than different. The same was true for most creatures of the same species that he had created SOUL models on.

Rui had inferred that the lowered intelligence and primacy of intelligence resulted in low variance in SOUL models across the entirety of the species. In other words, humans had a far, far higher capacity for individuality than any other species that he had ever come across.

The insights that he gained from the enlightenment of the Tree of Life also concurred with this.

The environments most antithetical to the human species had vastly greater variance than those for any other species in existence. No single environmental configuration could possibly be antithetical to all Martial Artists. In contrast, no species required more than one environmental configuration to be antithetical to each and every single member of the species.

This was greatly beneficial to Rui.

“…I might be able to form SOUL models on the stronger creatures by looking at the lower and weaker creatures.” Rui realized as his enthusiasm grew.

One of his frustrations was that he hadn’t been able to use his SOUL System against the Master-level creatures that assaulted them shortly before they had been saved by the Elder Tree.

He was far stronger with the SOUL System than without, after all.

He suspected that, while he still had a low chance of actually defeating them, he might have been able to survive far longer than he would have. The issue was that the SOUL System had the same shortcomings that the pattern recognition system of the VOID algorithm did.

It needed time.

Unfortunately, the Angel of Laplace was unable to overcome this shortcoming because it only supplied physical data. It did not supply SOUL data from the past. Someday, he might have to create another solution to get rid of this shortcoming as well, but in his current circumstances, he could rest pleased knowing that he could gather SOUL data without needing to put his targets in a trance.

In addition to gathering SOUL data on the species, he was able to get a good understanding of the environments most antithetical to them. The enlightenment of the Tree of Life showed him that the harpies had comparatively weak joints and wide wings that were meant for low-pressure regions.

The most optimal domain to be antithetical to them was a technique he already had, the Heavenly Convergence technique. This technique converged the vectors of the weight of the heaven and earth onto the target.

It was most optimal for killing it on the spot.

POW POW POW!

He annihilated more harpies before turning to Kane with stoic eyes. “…I’m done with the harpies. Let’s circle around this layer of the dungeon and find other species.”

“Nice.”

The two of them immediately moved away from the region as they began their journey to gather the intelligence needed to formulate the perfect plan to escape the Mellow Manifold. Rui intended to employ this strategy to the best of his ability as far as they could easily go to gather data.

The more valuable data would be deeper into the open dungeon. The more data that Rui could gather on stronger creatures, the more he would be able to get a better understanding of the most powerful creatures that guarded the center of the open dungeon. The Senior-level and quasi-

Senior-level creatures would most likely tell Rui the most about the Master-level creatures. However, the risk and danger would only grow higher and higher the more accurate and relevant data that he sought.

“We’ll proceed slower and slower the deeper we get into the Mellow Dungeon,” Rui remarked with a stoic voice devoid of emotion. “With time on our side, it is best we use it to offset the power imbalance, which is certainly not on our side.”

“Yeah, makes sense, I’ll leave all the planning to you as always.”

Rui’s stern eyes slowly turned towards Kane. “…You should try and participate. Thought is the key to the Master Realm, and unless you develop a habit and an affinity for it, you won’t be able to discover your Martial Mind.”

“Alright alright, cut me some slack.”

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