The Martial Unity

"The conditions for us are avoiding the eyes of the ones whose interests we are clashing with, and two, to placate the interests of those whose eyes we cannot avoid," Rui explained. "As long as we can fulfill these two conditions, we can go all out without holding back in the Shionel Dungeon."

"And let me guess," Kane smiled wryly. "You have a way of doing both, correct?"

"Just right," Rui smirked.

"First, regarding the Martial Union. We cannot avoid their eyes forever, but we can delay them," Rui explained.

"And how would you go about that?" Kane asked.

"We can create a red herring," Rui explained. "It's not that difficult to plant false information and throw them off-guard for a while. Once you understand how information flows, manipulating it becomes far more feasible. Traveling to separate destinations, paying off information brokers, and commissioning copycats to take our place from the local Martial Art group will hinder them to a certain extent."

"That makes sense," Kane nodded. "Though what do we do when they get us eventually? Isn't that back to square one?"

"True, but we will have obtained at least some time without them breathing down our backs," Rui tutted.

"What do we do then?" Kane wondered with a raised eyebrow.

"We'll have to buy their support," Rui smiled.

"With the esoteric supplies?" Kane asked.

"No, with information," Rui replied, calmly. "Specifically, an extremely detailed map of the entire layout of the Shionel Dungeon."

"Hm?" Kane frowned. "Why would such a thing-"

He paused abruptly as a thought entered his mind.

"Seems you figured it out," Rui smiled. "Remember how shit the maps for the Shionel Dungeon are?"

Rui plucked out and spread a folded piece of paper that turned into a map.

"Look, they're all extremely abstract since all the floors are represented with identical circles," Rui tapped on them.

It was an obviously inaccurate representation of each floor since he already knew that they were not circular, and certainly not of the same size.

"Look at the paths and tunnels leading to each floor," Rui tapped across the map. "They're represented by straight lines, again exaggerated inaccuracy, and only one set of routes between floors are depicted despite the fact that there were countless tunnels mazing in and out. Furthermore, the distances between each of the floors is identical on map. None of this is meant to be treated seriously, on purpose."

Kane nodded. "Despite being official maps that we purchased from the Martial Union, the actual information that this map offers is very little, which probably means they don't actually have any accurate and precise information on the locations of anything in the topography and geography within the dungeon."

"Exactly, and the reason for that is the severe hindrance that all senses face. I've heard that even the vastly superhuman eyesight of Martial Squires is reduced to less than that of human-level. Light is scarce too. How on Earth are they going to accurately map the entirety of the Shionel Dungeon dome that's sixty kilometers wide? The sheer volume of the dungeon is enough to comfortably fit the population of a large country. They cannot use sophisticated technology because Martial Artists are utterly incompetent at any technical matter, and technology would face the same problem as the Martial Squires. Nor can they rely on actual cartographers who create maps for a living since no ordinary human can enter the Shionel Dungeon," Rui smirked. "That means they're desperate for accurate and precise information on the Shionel Dungeon."

"That makes sense…" Kane nodded. "But will that be enough? After all, even with the information that they have, the exploration process is still ongoing, it doesn't seem particularly necessary."

"You're not wrong," Rui replied. "However, it could be accelerated if they possessed accurate and precise information of the entire dungeon. But that isn't the true benefit of possessing such information."

"What else could one gain from it beyond the exploration?" Kane asked with knitted eyebrows.

"The Shionel Dungeon's value exceeds just the booming business that it brings to Shionel Merchant Guild and the Shionel Confederation, and the esoteric organic and mineral resource supplies. It's long-term value lies in its potential for real estate," Rui smirked.

Kane's eyes widened. "You mean once the entirety of the process of exploration and plundering is over?"

"That's right," Rui nodded. "It isn't too very common for a single nation to colonize a dungeon once cleared since they rarely spawn in the territory of a single nation and usually form in pieces and chunks of the Beast Domain that penetrate into the Human Domain. However, what happened to the Serevian Dungeon once the war ended?"

"It was colonized by all the participating nations of the Serevian Pact," Kane replied as realization dawned.

"That's right," Rui nodded. "Dungeons are still useful as real estate, especially the Shionel Dungeon which has created a three-dimensional complex filled with many large city-sized spaced interconnected with tunnels. Spanning sixty kilometers"

"That's… a country inside a country. That's priceless!" Kane gasped. "It's huge amounts of free territory that increase the 'size' of the nation the moment they ensure safety and habitability."

"Right on. And the value of an accurate and precise map of the Shionel Dungeon is instantly extremely precious," Rui smiled.

"That gives a huge bargaining chip," Kane laughed out loud. "Since you are probably the only one who can sense extensively inside the Shionel Dungeon thanks to your Riemannian Echo!"

"Correct," Rui nodded. "That's the bargaining chip that can be used to negotiate with the Shionel Merchant Guild. Once I dangle that over their heads, I can get them to be a lot more pliable around me being a market monopolizer to a certain extent with a minor concession at most."

"You'll have to make concessions at all with something this important?" Kane frowned.

"Well, our positions and capital are too different for me to act too tough. It would be risky to push it too far. I have no interest in playing silly games with them."