The Martial Unity

Chapter 3364: Passing Days

In particular, Rui needed to begin understanding the nuances of the political dynamic of Kiriket in greater depth. The problems that both Mother Vyia and his father posed about the Kiriket Crisis required a more in-depth understanding and a more concrete solution.

And that was exactly what he set out to do in the following days.

His days were spent researching both human and elven material on Kiriket, gathering all the information he could get on the therianthropes of Kiriket, while his nights were spent having fun with Amare in their own little cocoons.

And there was a lot of information to digest, even with the knowledge seeds of the dark elves.

Kiriket was more diverse than Rui had expected.

The Animal Kingdom was diverse.

Of course, the same could be said for the plant kingdom, but the elves did not feel as diverse as the therianthropes.

Of course, part of it was definitely biased talking.

The elves were comprised of billions of little tribes.

Each tribe was different from every other tribe and was usually centered around a particular kind of flora or even species, and shared different customs. Rui, of course, had only spent time with a single elven tribe when he had first arrived, but Amare had told him all the other kinds of tribes there were.

However, the difference was that dark elves all looked the same, largely speaking. There was some differentiation in phenotypical features, as there was with humans, but dark elves all look similar in their skin tone and their ears.

The same could not be said for therianthropes.

They were so different from each other due to the fact that they integrated the flesh of different beasts into their bodies, which made them feel much more diverse than the dark elves.

Secondly, elves were collectivists by nature.

So much so that even their Transcendence was collectivist in nature and could not be achieved alone.

The therianthropes were definitely not collectivist by nature.

Kiriket, as a civilization, permitted civil war.

Different clans were allowed to declare war against each other and fight it out.

They were even allowed to genocide each other.

There was a reason that the Naturalist Faction of the therianthropes was one of the four dominant factions of Kiriket. They believed that not only was civil conflict permissible, but that it ought to even be encouraged to promote the survival of the fittest.

They were hyper-individualistic, though not to the same extent as Martial Artists.

Another interesting fact about Kiriket was that it was an extreme patriarchy thanks to a Path that favored masculinity over femininity. Unlike with the Nature Path where his gender was unfavorable, the Beast Path was something that suited him as a man. It was a path that captivated the bestial nature of man, making it easier to integrate it into one’s body and pursue the Beast Path.

One of the most important matters that he had to keep in mind while formulating an approach to the therianthropes was remembering the amount of influence the animal they bonded with had over them.

It affected their temperament, among other things, making them extremely irrational, to varying extents.

He wasn’t eager to see what becoming a dragon, literally, did to a person’s mind.

Each day, from morning to night, he aggressively researched therianthropic anthropology, history, and politics, trying to get a deeper understanding of what he was dealing with so that he could maximize his probability of his success.

He even used the Eye of Prophecy regularly, trying scry the future and understand what he was dealing with.

He didn’t sense the same sense of impending doom that reeked of an ambush like he had with the light elves.

He did, however, sense a struggle.

He saw visions of a conversation with a man with an elephant head and a soothing presence.

He saw visions of dragons.

Of beast people.

Of a whole different continent than Genora.

At least he could be certain that he would be making it there without dying en route. The knowledge that he gained from his prophecy into the future was helpful in refining his approach to Kiriket and testing what the outcomes were.

The only bad part was that it required the Martial Soul, which required him to rest.

Which Amare didn’t allow him to.

That made the nights the best and the worst.

Their first night together three months ago, followed by three months of separation from her, had flipped a switch in her, causing her to rabidly lunge at him every time he returned to their little homely guest-house.

It was definitely the best part of the changes that she had undergone while discovering her Martial Soul, diverging from orthodox Genism, as far as Rui was concerned.

He enjoyed his nights with her as he experienced a level of physical intimacy that he had never experienced before.

He felt connected to her in mind and body.

The boundless love that she harbored for him in her heart.

If not for Project Water, she would have been the center of his life.

He found her body to be titillating, her warmth to be soothing, and her power to be exciting.

He would often spar with her, testing some of his newfound power with her as he tried getting a better handle on Nature Breathing and Worm Step. Each time he activated Gigabrain, he found himself creating power and techniques that he probably could not have created without it.

Her nature manipulation exceeded his in the three months that he had been away, allowing her to achieve even greater power than she had, exceeding that of a Transcendent Candidate, allowing her to keep up with him remarkably well despite his own advances in nature manipulation.

Ten days passed as he spent time with Amare and preparing for his next mission, gathering everything that he needed for the mission. He could have waited longer for a more refined and thorough approach, but time was ticking.

And thus, soon enough, it was time for them to depart from Genora.