The Martial Unity

1881 Adenturer's Guild

"Excuse me," Rui called out to a staff member working at the counter.

"Ah, how may I help you?" She smiled perfunctorily.

"We'd like to register as adventurers." Rui calmly informed her.

"Of course," She smiled, pulling out two forms and placing them in front of him.

They asked for basic details, and none of them demanded proof of identity, as Rui had expected.

"You will need to answer some questions and verify some basic details. What is your experience with the Beast Domain?"

"None at all."

"What is your experience with sustained long-term hunter-

class missions?"

"None at all."

"What is your expected period of operation within the Beast Domain?"

"…Years, I suppose."

Suddenly, the place grew silent as the people around turned towards Rui with incredulity on their faces.

"…"

The air grew tumultuous.

"Kid."

A burly man got up from his seat, putting his drink away as he walked towards Rui.

"What the fuck did you just say?" He bent down, peering into Rui's eyes with a condescending expression.

"It has nothing to do with you," Rui replied nonchalantly as he continued filling up the form.

"Years?" He stared at Rui with incredulity. "The fuck do you think this is? Vacation?"

Kane glared at him. "What is your problem, man?"

"Tsk tsk," The man tutted patronizingly. "Newbies. They think they can reach quick fame by trying to accomplish impossible nonsensical goals like spending years in the Beast Domain. Making a mockery of us veterans of the Beast Domain."

He snorted, glaring at Rui. "Take this advice, don't be arrogant. I can barely sense any aura from you, but given how young you look, your Squires at be-!"

The man froze as Kane removed the seal in his aura, unleashing a muted Senior-level aura that seemed to choke the man alive. The entire room froze, watching as they realized the scrawny kid in his early twenties was actually a Martial Senior.

"Done."

Rui's voice cut through the tension in the air as he handed his application in. "Please hasten the process as much as possible."

"Ah! Of course! Just a minute, sir!" The staff member hurried with an anxious expression.

CLACK

A door to the side opened as another person stepped out. Rui and Kane instantly identified her as a Martial Senior.

She was low-grade. Rui could dispatch her without any

"Do we have a problem here?" She growled at Kane.

She didn't bother even acknowledging the Martial Squire that had provoked the fight. He was irrelevant.

"Not at all," Rui calmly replied. "The man approached us and made a false assumption about our Realm. My friend here simply corrected his misconception about our Realms."

"Y-Yes, that's right!" The Martial Squire bowed down to the three Martial Seniors. "I am sorry for disturbing you, sirs, madam."

"Hm," She snorted. "Make sure you don't cause any problems."

"We shall be sure to adhere to that," Rui remarked.

She stared at the two of them for a moment before returning on standby.

The entire guild stared at the two of them with peculiar wary gazes while Rui and Kane quickly collected registered identity cards.

"We recognize the two of you as gold adventurers. This pamphlet contains all the information that you could possibly need to know regarding being gold adventurers."

Rui stared at the simple card issued to the both of them.

The adventurer system, for some reason, did not use the conventional Martial Art ranking system that was spread by the Panamic Martial Federation. It instead used metals as rankings for Martial Artists.

What Rui found especially strange was the fact that although the rankings covered Martial Apprentices to even Martial Sages, the rankings did not match the number of Realms.

The metal rankings of the Adventurer's Guild were as followed; copper, iron, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, mythril, and adamantine.

The five Realms were somehow squeezed between these eight ranks. Rui wasn't sure why or how this ranking came to be, especially when danger zones were still marked relative to Martial Art Realms.

Regardless, it was very weird. Even Rui did not actually intend to make use of the ranking in any way aside from accessing the Adventurer's Guild's resources better if there ever was a need.

The two of them quickly left the guild office once they got what they needed.

"…Probably messed up back there in hindsight," Kane remarked.

Rui smiled wryly. "As long as you're aware of it. That man was annoying, but keeping our identities secret is more important. I thought you were an assassin."

"I hide, I don't disguise, I'm not good at that, ok?" Kane huffed. "I've never had to play a part ever since I mastered the Void Step technique."

Rui shook his head with amusement. But it made sense, considering how powerful his stealth was. There was no point in trying to disguise his way in which he could just walk in without anybody ever noticing.

Master Reina would naturally disapprove, of course, if she were here to see this.

"Alright, so we registered with the Adventurer's Guild. So now what? We just jump right in?" Kane asked eagerly.

"We're on the wrong side of the Beast Domain, for one," Rui replied. "The Valley of Prisms is on the other side. So, we'll need to circle around the Beast Domain until we reach the western side."

Rui quickly plotted the shortest path to their destination on foot as he pulled up a detailed, high-quality map of the Kandrian Empire in his mind. "We can probably take the Pave of Graves to minimize distance."

The Pave of Graves was a travel route that the British Empire had created that passed through the Beast Domain to connect with the Great Southern Trade Road, which connected the east and west half of the continent with each other. Essentially, it was an inward shortcut through the outskirts of the Beast Domain rather than around it, saving time, and had gained its name for passing through a former danger zone in the Beast Domain.