The Martial Unity

The journey from there on took even longer than Rui had speculated. The two of them ran into all manner of environments, topographies, and ecosystems that defied what they thought was possible.

While they managed to overcome them, there were more close shaves than Rui had expected.

The Beast Domain was truly unpredictable.

It had an absurd degree of diversity and variance, and the very concept of consistency was foreign to the entire region.

Regions changed drastically every hundred kilometers; there was absolutely no continuity like there was in the Human Domain, where weather and climate did not change more than several percentage points across a hundred kilometers.

Rui had a hard time understanding how a piping hot desert could co-exist with a blizzard next door. It violated the laws of thermodynamics, as far as he was aware.

He also belatedly realized that such phenomena required him to make adjustments to the Angel of Laplace for every given region. He needed to adjust its functions to cater to the given mechanics of a given region, or else the technique would yield errors.

It was annoying but, thankfully, not insurmountable or too time-consuming.

They always ensured that they slept in an Apprentice-level region. As Martial Seniors, the passive mental pressure and danger that they would radiate to Apprentice and Squire-level creatures would be enough to ensure that they would not bother or harass them in any way.

Squire-level regions, on the other hand, were regions that they chose to pass as quickly as possible. These regions were deemed Squire-level because one needed to be Squire-level to be guaranteed not to die at the hands of another creature or the environment. This usually meant that there were a handful of Senior-level creatures which meant that it was impossible for Rui and Kane to lower their guards.

Yet, despite all their precautions, it was impossible not to get hurt, whether it be in the times that they were unable to avoid combat or were subject to harsh environments that managed to harm them despite their power. Rui proved the degree of his preparation for the Beast Domain, whipping up solutions for just about everything including the one time Kane foolishly ate poisonous fruit.

"Bleugh…" Kane vomited his guts out in the distance after Rui gave him an antidote and medicine to make him puke out the poison.

"Damn…" Kane groaned after he was finally done. "That is the worst thing that I have ever experienced in my life."

Rui palmed his face. "Why on Earth would you put anything in the Beast Domain in your mouth?"

"That fruit looked hella tasty, bro. And I saw some monkeys eat it, too, so I figured it couldn't be that bad, right?"

"That's because they've evolved to be able to be immune to it!"

"Damn…"

Rui heaved an exasperated sigh. "Next time, run things by me. I have a toxinmeter artifact for precisely this purpose. I also have a de-esotericer artifact to make organic material with esoteric substances in it edible."

"Aren't our Martial Bodies able to digest and remove such substances from our body naturally?"

"Yes, but it will leave you incapacitated with illness as long as they're in your body. It's better to have the food properly handled before consuming it. It's also why I brought a huge supply of dense food pills for precisely this reason," Rui explained.

"I'm sick and tired of eating food pills!" Kane complained. "I want to eat some good meat, man."

"Don't be a baby."

"Also, we need to preserve our food pills, right? After all, if we run out of them in a region with nothing edible, then we're screwed! It's best we try and eat from nature, you know what I mean?"

He stared at Rui pleadingly.

Rui heaved a sigh before glancing around the region they were in.

Currently, they were in a Squire-level Region. It was an enormous region that spanned hundreds of kilometers in diameter. It was a strange region where a single species reigned supreme.

The king rabbit species. A carnivorous rabbit species that was characterized by large numbers from constant breeding and high fertility and a powerful adherence to hierarchy ingrained in their blood. The strongest rabbit took control of the entire colony of rabbits, leading hunting sprees that allowed them to gather enough food for the entire colony.

"If you want, we can hunt one of them," Rui gestured to a sea of black rabbits in the distance. "They're edible, and their meat is considered an exotic delicacy in gourmet cuisines of certain south Panamic cultures."

"Say no more!" Kane exclaimed.

"Wait," Rui stopped before he could rush to kill one of them. "The species is characterized by an extreme capacity for vengeance and a low survival instinct. Their senses of smell and ability to detect blood are also high. Pissing them off is only going to make them charge after us.

"So what? They're only Squire-level beasts."

"Who are led by a Senior-level monster," Rui added. "On top of that, what is the only way to win a battle in the Beast Domain?"

"…To avoid it," Kane heaved a sigh. "Alright, so what do you propose?"

"You have the right idea," Rui replied. "Hunt one of them with your stealth techniques and bring it back. Make sure that they are isolated from the colony."

"Gotcha. Bye!"

"Be careful," Rui warned him even as the man activated his Void Step technique and his Martial Heart, shooting away.

Rui heaved a sigh, taking a seat as he enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the region before him. He had to admit that traveling the Beast Domain was nothing short of a life-

changing experience. Previously, he had thought of the Human Domain as exotic by Earth's standards, at least.

However, it was paltry compared to the Beast Domain. Not even fiction could rival the miracles that he had beheld in the Beast Domain.

STEP

Kane appeared before him carrying the corpse of a black rabbit in his hands, deactivating his Martial Heart with a grin. "I got us lunch."

Rui's eyes widened with horror as he spotted blood dripping from the corpse at the spot where Kane had cut at the corpse.

"I told you that king rabbits can detect blood extremely well!"

Kane's expression grew grave. "Shit."

RUMBLE

The lands beneath them quivered as many, many thousands of rabbits moved, converging towards their position.