The Martial Unity

Dwight had been studying prothanite before Rui teleported into his forge. The old dwarf had been on the verge of an epiphany about how humans could potentially create small amounts of the substance without relying on things like Verses. Though with how advanced the substance was and how much it made use of the higher dimensions of reality, even he was having a hard time creating it with his Creationverse.

The less he understood about how the substance was created, the more he had to rely on the power of Transcendence to make up for the shortcoming. It was a tiring process and one that had forced him to switch bodies several times. Not to mention, the amounts that he had managed to replicate were nowhere near enough to make a practical difference in battle.

He heaved a sigh, putting the material away for the moment. It would take much more elaborate research to crack prothanite. In fact, he was certain that human civilization would have to explore String Theory and its implications to have a stronger grasp on the underlying physics if they wanted to engineer hyperdimensional reality.

In fact, Dwight had a strong suspicion that the additional eighteen dimensions of reality were the source of a lot of astronomical anomalies, including esoteric matter. Esoteric matter fell outside of the primitive framework of the standard model that had been developed a long time ago.

Nobody, not even the Esoterist himself, had been able to create a grand unified theory that included all forms of matter, including esoteric matter, dark matter, and dark energy. This was such an extraordinary endeavor that Dwight suspected that not even the arakai or the laminar integuments had managed to create a model that described reality in all of its vast, myriad diversity.

Most likely, every civilization within the Milky Way was chipping away at reality bit by bit, converting that sacred knowledge into power in the form of technology. He even suspected that there were checkpoints.

The gap between a civilization that could tap into higher dimensional phenomena and a civilization that could not was undoubtedly vast. It was likely the gap between a civilization like human civilization and the Arakai Web Civilization.

Though in human civilization, even the peak of their technology, dwarven technology, was fundamentally a product of paths rather than pure theory and technology. The dwarves did indeed have the highest comprehension of reality out of all the other races, with the tekvores coming in second, but the reason they could tap into the highest forms of energy, like dark energy, was because of their ability to create extraordinary products with their powers of creation.

They were scientists only insofar as it served their ability to create greater artifacts, rather than their power to create something else.

That was why he put the matter of prothanite aside for a moment and returned to a list of commissions that he had received from many pathwalkers, but most of all Martial Artists.

[Sage Vermillion - One double-edged, double-handed greatsword]

[Corporeal Kane - a pair of curved daggers]

[Sage Asmodeous - An armor that prioritizes safety]

[Sentinel Prime - A new pair of cybernetic eyes]

[Lord Maruthi - A new gada]

Most of these were bigshots who were at least in the top two hundred pathwalkers in the entire world, usually serviced by the strongest dwarves. The Unfolding that had occurred more than eighteen years ago had led to the development of a symbiotic relationship between dwarves and Martial Artists.

In the modern era, very rarely did dwarves like him get to forge simple artifacts to be wielded by one person for the other races. Very few pathwalkers relied on handheld weapons as their main weapon; thus, dwarves could only forge giant weapons for their mech forces.

But with the advent of Martial Artists came a large number of Martial Artists who would not have minded weapons if those weapons could keep up with their power, which was the biggest constraint.

It was also the thing that dwarves excelled at.

After the True World War ended and the world simmered into a new status quo, commissions for weapons between Panama and Sirinwel began flowing like a river. Of course, with the sheer number of Martial Artists that began rising from their ranks because of artificial breakthroughs, only a minority of Martial Artists could afford dwarven-grade artifacts, but it had led to a renaissance in traditional blacksmithing.

Dwight had partaken in it himself, having forged several artifacts, including the stealth armor of a certain Transcendent Candidate who was conducting an espionage operation in arakai space at the moment.

Then, there was, of course, the armor that he had created for the Emperor of Water. The Armor of Flowing Wisdom was undoubtedly the greatest artifact that he had ever created in his entire life. Especially after he had upgraded upon becoming a Martial Transcendent.

It was at that moment, almost as if summoned by thought, that the Emperor of Water suddenly teleported into his forge.

WHOOSH

”Gah!” the old dwarf almost had a heart attack.

The absence of a danger instinct prevented him from sensing the instantaneous opening of a wormhole right behind him.

”Hey, Dwight,” Rui began as if nothing had happened. ”I need the—”

”Stop teleporting in and out of my forge as if it belongs to you!” the old dwarf glared at the Martial Transcendent. ”This place is sacred to me. Our forges are the equivalent of what Martial Art is to Martial Artists! Don’t you know that?!”

Rui scoffed at the old dwarf. ”If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to be able to stop me, old man. You’re no longer a lesser being. You’re a Transcendent. You know what that means?”

Rui smirked. ”It means I no longer have to hold back. If you can’t handle yourself, you will be bullied. It’s as simple as that.”

Stopping himself from dominating all the lesser beings in his civilization was one of the measures he had undertaken in order to foster a strong civilization. But with more and more Transcendents showing up, Rui had less and less of an inclination to hold back.