The Martial Unity

He surprisingly lived up to his word. The odor of cooked meat was tantalizing, Rui had to agree.

"Mmmmm!" Kane nodded, evidently pleased, as he took a big bite. "That's that good stuff!"

Rui had to admit, it was worth it.

Food pills were not pleasant to consume. They usually had a disgusting or neutral taste at best. Having grown accustomed to that for over a month, the two of them had reset their food standards thoroughly. Even an unseasoned and bare-roasted rabbit was delicious.

"Huff..." Rui heaved a satisfied sigh when he was finally done. "The food was good since all it took was a relatively straightforward fight. But that's only because we're in a Squire-level danger zone."

His eyes narrowed. "But if this were a Senior-level danger zone, we'd be the ones getting fed on."

Kane winced. "Yeah, I'll remember that. It's crazy that the Beast Domain is considered a force that humanity can deal with when there are way more beasts and monsters of a certain realm of power."

Rui nodded. "It's the good old 'quality vs quantity'. A Martial Artist of a certain Realm is far stronger than a beast of that same Realm because of several reasons: we're more efficient and effective both mechanically and tactically or strategically."

It was similar to how humans used to successfully hunt mammoths back on Earth in the late Pleistocene age. They could bridge titanic gaps in power by simple, clever applications of power that made huge differences in the outcome.

"If beasts and monsters possessed the kind of strategic and tactical application of power that Martial Artists do, then humanity would be dead," Rui asserted.

"Aren't there beasts that are as intelligent as humans?" Kane raised an eyebrow.

"They comprise a minority of the beasts of the Beast Domain," Rui replied. "While they are more of a threat than the other beasts of the Beast Domain, their intelligence is limited to them. In addition, it's not just a matter of intelligence, but also rationality."

Kane nodded understandingly. "We're not nearly as subject to our impulses and instincts as beasts are."

"Exactly," Rui concurred. "It has to do with the ratio of size of the prefrontal cortex relative to the rest of the brain."

"…The what?"

"Oh, right, I'd forgotten that that wasn't discovered yet," Rui muttered. "Basically, the prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain that houses what we refer to as the consciousness. It is the core of the conscious mind and is the 'you' that is consciously making decisions. This region is largest in humans relative to the rest of the brain, meaning that conscious thought is a much more powerful force in humans than it is in any other species."

He turned to Kane. "For example, we humans are able to resist our impulses, resist our instincts, and resist urges. We engage in, relatively speaking, intelligent and logical thought and arrive at a decision based on that."

Kane raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I don't know if I would consider the vast majority of people intelligent and rational in their thoughts."

Rui smiled wryly. "It is fun to make fun of the irrationality and stupidity of the average human. However, even the average person is able to demonstrate greater rationality than most intelligent beasts and monsters. The average human possesses the ability to suppress impulses like hunger and thirst and avoid stealing food based on moral and consequential analyses. They are able to suppress sexual urges to avoid raping and are able to suppress violent urges to avoid killing based on similar analyses. That alone may be unprecedented in the history of this world."

Rui paused, chewing a chunk of rabbit meat. "Of course, we still have theft, murder, and rape, but even intelligent beasts and monsters are generally entirely unable to suppress those urges. When they want food, they eat. When they feel violent, they fight. When they're in heat, they mindlessly satisfy that urge."

He turned to Kane. "The reason that humanity has been able to build a sophisticated and powerful civilization that can single-handedly equal and even surpass the Beast Domain is not just because we are intelligent. Intelligence is not enough. It's because the disproportionately large prefrontal cortex allows our intelligence to override our urges, emotions, and instincts to a large degree. It allows us to be rational enough to engage in social contracts that aim to maximize well-being, the potential of resources, and the distribution of capital to supply to demand. It also allows us to create a framework that lets people pursue their paths to much greater degrees than if such a framework did not exist."

He returned to his rabbit meat. "That's why a weak and pitiful species like the human species came to be the most dominant species on the entire continent, able to single-handedly push back the rest of the biosphere of the Panamic Continent. It also applies to individual dynamics that despite possessing weak and lesser bodies, the Martial Path allows us to crush beasts and monsters by making the very best of the various Realms of potential in the human being on top of tactical and strategic superiority."

"It's crazy when you put it like that," Kane admitted.

"Still, that doesn't mean we can lower our guards. Tactics, strategies, and efficiency of application of resources are the only reasons that the average Martial Artist is vastly stronger than the average beast or monster," Rui replied, throwing a pointed stare at Kane. "Becoming so engrossed in your desire that you forgo those advantages would mean we lose those advantages, becoming no different from beasts and monsters."

Kane sheepishly raised his hands. "Alright, alright, you got me. I don't know if it's because we're in Apprentice-level or Squire-level zones, but it's hard to feel any sense of danger. Even those rabbits were aberrant. How can such a mindlessly aggressive species exist?!"

"I told you," Rui replied. "They're irrational due to a diminutive prefrontal cortex. You remember what the rabbit king did when I flexed a Master-level aura?"