The Martial Unity

“This is the place that we have prepared for you,” Veruschia replied. “We hope that you enjoy your stay and rest from your travels. Tomorrow, we shall show you around West Genora and eventually, we shall take you to meet with the council.”

Rui and Amare were more than happy to agree to those conditions.

“We can save all that for later!” Amare dashed towards the little wooden home in the distance. “You even made it in human style!”

“That’s considerate of them,” Rui admitted as he kept up with them. “I’m glad that they didn’t expect us to live like them inside of a tree.”

They were delegates and the very first guests of human civilization in Genora, after all. Perhaps after there was enough cultural diffusion, one could be expected to adhere to the way of life of the land, but for now, the elves had tried their best to provide living quarters that were more similar to what they had seen on the Panama Continent.

STEP

They arrived before the little, cozy home.

CLACK

The very moment they took a foot in, they found themselves before two elven male servants who promptly bowed before them.

“Welcome, esteemed guests of the Lost Continent, we are here to aid you in any way that you may need. Please do not hesitate to make use of the services.”

“Wow, thank you!”

Amare immediately got to exploring the elven attempt at creating a human-style home.

“We appreciate all of this,” Rui turned towards Veruschia with an amicable nod. “Your hospitality has been most pleasant.”

“We are happy that you enjoy it,” Veruschia smiled. “We have spared no measure to afford you the most luxury that we are able to provide. Please relax and rest for as long as you need to.”

Soon enough, Veruschia departed from the region, leaving Rui to enter and explore the little home that they had provided him. It was comfortable and cozy, but lacked the kind of extravagant luxury that Rui would have received from any human polity on the Panama Continent.

It spoke to the psychology of the elves, as far as Rui was concerned.

All the elves that he had picked up with his senses resided in trees, and perhaps that was why they didn’t have the concept of material luxury that many humans had, living in absurdly massive mansions with countless rooms and servants at their disposal.

It told him that they were less materialistic than humans, which one would perhaps expect from a group of people who were all about nature. Correct content is on

Regardless, they had done a decent job of recreating a human household with a cozy living room and bedroom. He found that the kitchen, or whatever it was supposed to be, was a little awkward and misplaced, indicating that their culinary culture and sense would likely be more than just a little different.

“Ah…” Amare’s tone was one of relief and comfort. “This bed feels so good.”

Rui smiled as he watched her simply spread her arms and legs across the bed with her face down.

“Doesn’t this place feel almost too good to be true?” Amare glanced at him with a delightful expression. “They truly gave us a wonderful place to reside during our time here, but now I want to live here forever.”

“It certainly is an appealing idea on the surface,” Rui mused as he set his backpack aside. “I am eager to explore the rest of West Genora. Surely it can’t just be all forests. They would need to have infrastructure to maintain such an advanced civilization and such advanced botanical biotechnology. I am also eager to see their warriors in action, above anything else.”

To harness the Nature Path to enhance his Adaptive Evolution.

That was the main reason that he had come to the home of the elves.

“I want to meet and speak to many elves,” her amber eyes lit up with enthusiasm. “I want to live their way of life. I want to embody their way of life and understand their culture. I want to understand their society and civilization.”

Rui’s eyebrows rose.

“Everything is Martial Art, then so must be the way of life of the elves. You’re hoping that if you can harness the strength their way of life brings about and use it to turn it into your own power.”

She nodded.

“I’m sure that there’s something that they have to offer that can help me harness nature. If everything is Martial Art, then surely nature is too.”

Rui pondered the thought with some interest.

He was curious about how Amare could harness nature in her Martial Path without actually being able to traverse the Nature Path.

“I thought your main focus was to harness high principles with my help, no?” Rui raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yes, but I have all the time for that,” she smiled at him. “But we’re not going to stay at the dark elves forever, so it’s better to try and take what I can from them while we’re here.”

“Tsk tsk,” Rui shook his head exaggeratedly. “You’re taking me too lightly, I see.”

“You’re the one who asked me to come along,” she smiled with a hint of mischief in her tone. “Don’t blame me for making the best of this trip.”

“Well, I’m eager to learn from the dark elves, too,” Rui replied. “Specifically, I wonder if my Authority of Alpha, as they called it, can actually be used in combat. That would be interesting, I think. It’s more straightforward with beasts and monsters, but with flora, I’m not entirely sure how that works.”

She pondered aloud. “Maybe you order trees to fight on your behalf, just like that?”

“I don’t think that’s the same as what the dark elves are doing,” Rui shook his head. “It doesn’t feel like a command. It feels more like… resonance. It’s definitely different from anything that I have ever done.”

“I’m not entirely sure you would want to harness nature in your Martial Art,” she informed with a knowing tone. “Nature is not omnipresent even in this world. And there are places with very little vegetation where elves would be largely defenseless.”