The Martial Unity

1880 Different

Rui got a closer look at Adventurer Town when he physically moved around by himself. This was much different from watching it from afar in his carriage. He had to admit the spirit and energy of the town was contagious.

Perhaps it was because everybody around him walked with a purpose, direction, and drive. This was a town where not a single normal resident remained. It existed solely for the purpose of serving as an avenue for consumers and suppliers of Beast Domain-related Martial Art services.

Every single person was searching for something.

Ambition and determination flickered in the eyes of the Martial Artists round Rui, be they Apprentice, Squire, or even Senior. No matter their Realm, Martial Artists threw who themselves in the Beast Domain day in and day out were built different from those who only completed regular and normal civilian commissions.

It was the difference between soldiers who were regularly deployed on the frontlines and those whose services in an army involved being extremely far from any danger.

Rui could instinctively tell that these Martial Artists were different. There was an edge in their eyes that conveyed implicit peril. These were Martial Artists who were forged in adversity that was born from throwing themselves in the Beast Domain.

Rui respected that, regardless of their Realm. He appreciated it because it was equally infectious. It subconsciously primed him for the magnitude that he was undertaking.

He couldn't help but notice that the number of Martial Seniors was proportionally low. And thus far, he had yet to see a single Martial Master.

It made sense.

While Martial Apprentices and Martial Squires needed to go out and do groundwork if they wanted to gain personal customers and clients outside of the guild or go procure missions in the mission library of the Adventurer's Guild, Martial Seniors, and Martial Masters were much more valuable and much more scarce as service providers.

They could get heads of governments and states to personally negotiate with them for an agreement on their services. They did not need to hanker for customers in the Adventurer Town.

It reminded him that he had amassed a lot of power by virtue of reaching something close to the peak of the Senior Realm.

Sometimes, Rui forgot the civilizational significance of Martial Seniors. It was easy to forget this simple fact in the Kandrian Empire, but Martial Seniors were powerful when one looked at human civilization through and through.

There were nations like the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana that did not even have Martial Squires, let along Martial Seniors. Rui may as well be an overlord to such small and weak nations.

Even amongst Senior-level groups such as the Kaddar Region and Vilun Island, Rui would today be considered to be unparalleled. Considering that Master Ceeran, when he was still a Martial Senior, was able to beat two Martial Seniors of the G'ak'arkan Tribe simultaneously. Rui, in his current state of power, would be able to completely mop them up.

It was only when he entered Sage-level powerhouses like the Kandrian Empire that Martial Seniors were quite diminished in their significance. The moment Rui stepped out, he could almost instantly feel the esteem that came with being a Martial Senior just looking around.

Of course, Rui and Kane had hidden their presence. Maintaining their furtive approach was more important than flexing auras to boost their egos.

STEP

They shuffled through the many bustling crowds, arriving before a large and towering office of the Adventurer's Guild.

"Let's go," Rui remarked as the two of them weaved through the gathering of people at the entrance.

Inside was a large space filled divided into multiple sections.

What he saw was beyond his expectations.

"Hahaha! We live to see another day!"

"Drink up, drink up!"

"One more mug of starshine mead!"

On one section was what appeared to be a pub section with tables filled with drunk adventurers drinking away to glory. On the other side was an enormous board with what looked like application forms pinned to it.

Rui raised an eyebrow, quickly identifying them as commissions. They were on public display for everyone to see.

He found it rather strange and interesting that the system was not as robust as that of the Martial Union. The Martial Union had a far more organized and sophisticated system of processing, evaluating, categorizing, and organizing commissions to maximize compatibility between Martial Artists and missions to ensure that the experience gained is relevant to the Martial Artists' specialty.

Here, from what Rui could see, there wasn't nearly as much sophistication.

Of course, Rui knew that he was being unfair.

It was probably impossible to have such a system for the Adventurer's Guild because it was too difficult to have transparency when it came to matters relating to the Beast Domain. The difficulty of gaining information regarding the difficulty of the commissions itself was very high.

If the Adventurer's Guild set up an extensive information department that focused on evaluating the difficulty of commissions, then the cost of those services would be included in the total bill from clients.

This would cause massive inflation in the prices of Beast Domain services across the continent, further inflating the prices of goods and services that relied on these missions. It would severely impact the Panamic economy.

That was why the Adventurer Guild forewent sophistication in favor of cheaper goods and services. In turn, adventurers suffered. Naturally, the Martial Union did not develop such a scrupulously rigorous evaluation system for fun. It was to ensure that the difficulty of missions was transparent to Martial Artists.

Here, adventurers could not be certain that they would come away alive. Every mission could very well be their final mission realistically. Being an adventurer meant being ready to look death in the eye. It was why they had a different feel to them than the average Martial Artist.

Rui narrowed his eyes as he headed inside.

The energetic atmosphere from those celebrating living another day by getting drunk took on a darker and more somber light.