The Martial Unity

The tunnels in the Shionel Dungeon were effectively no different from 'cracks that formed between each of the larger spaces that had been dubbed as floors. What that meant was that there were tunnels that connected every floor with every other floor.

However, there were also a huge number of tunnels that simply ended in dead-ends, sometimes extending for dozens of kilometers before still ending in dead-ends. What that meant was that anybody aspiring to enter the dungeon would need to risk an immense amount of failure, as well as losing track of where they were and how to get out.

The Shionel Dungeon's dangers were not limited to just the monsters. Even Martial Squired could get endlessly lost inside the dungeon if they were not careful.

Thus most Martial Squires ventured down known routes to known floors.

The First Floor of the Shionel Dungeon had been quickly discovered once the dungeon was discovered, probably due to close it was to the surface of the elevated land, and from there, numerous runnels leading to the first floor had also been reverse-tracked. From there, tunnels to other floors had been quickly discovered by Martial Squires who chose to venture further out.

"As much as I instantly want to pick a new route, I think we should get ourselves accustomed to the Shionel Dungeon's environment first," Rui told Kane. "It's one thing to make preparations, it's an entirely different to have experience and familiarity."

Kane nodded. "I'm one hundred percent on that."

He looked particularly relieved that they were not jumping some unknown cave tunnel right off the bat.

The two of them quickly strode forward before taking their very first step into the Shionel Dungeon.

"Woah," Rui's eyes widened.

"This…" Kane grew speechless as the two of them walked in deeper.

Just stepping into the dungeon was a novel experience.

Their senses all diminished drastically and continued doing so the deeper they stepped in, more so than they did on the outside due to being surrounded by the walls of the tunnels of the Shionel Dungeon.

Rui couldn't believe that his eyesight felt worse off than it was when he was a human!

It grew deathly silent inside the dungeon as even sound was extremely dampened inside the dungeon.

"Rui… Are you still able to sense properly with that technique?" Kane asked, his voice growing a tad bit edgy.

"Yeah," Rui nodded calmly. Even now he could feel the layout and the internal structure quite carefully. "It's working just fine, as expected."

"You're absolutely sure, right?" Kane asked once more.

"Absolutely," Rui nodded. "Trust me, I got you back."

Rui turned back as he admired the tunnels. "They're prettier than in the pictures."

The esoteric mineral resources that were processed into the vegetation of the dungeon, as well as the earth, glowed with light. It glowed with its own light despite absorbing light from other sources that reached it or passed by it. Thus not only was vision hindered, but the little field of view that the Martial Squires had left was also infringed upon with the light that was given off by the esoteric vegetation and the earth.

"Pretty, but goddamn annoying when you can't see what you want to," Kane grumbled.

"This is how humans feel all the time. Honestly, how do they even manage?" Rui sighed before his eyes widened.

('Wait, have I subconsciously disassociated with the human species?') Rui wondered with incredulity as he heard himself utter something he never thought he would have.

"We were human ourselves at one point you know," Kane murmured. "But that feels like a long time ago. Even though I've been human longer than I've been a Martial Artist."

('I've spent a whole lifetime as a human,') Rui thought to himself. ('A crippled one at that. And yet, I identify less with those experiences than the five years that I've been a Martial Artist.')

The experiences of discovering the Martial Path, and discovering the Martial Body were both truly life-changing, which made for the less time Rui had been a Martial Artist.

Rui shook his head. "Let's focus on the matter at hand. For now, we'll make our way down to the latest floors that are being explored and raided."

"Alrightey," Kane nodded.

The two of them cautiously headed down the tunnel as Rui paid deeper attention to his Riemannian Echo sense. The first floor was already within the range of his senses.

('Wow, there are a lot of people,') Rui noted.

That probably meant that there was nothing worth checking out there.

He did something that he hadn't yet applied practically, which was extending his Riemannian Echo in one direction.

The way he did this was by diverting all his focus and mental energy on interpreting the parts of the distribution of the Cryllin Stone and Grainer Pollen in his body that are needed to sense in a particular direction, increasing the distance and range he can sense in that particular dimension due to processing more information.

He could treat it as a less precise RADAR that swept across the entire dungeon. The range of the extended and focused sensory field was so wide that his sense enveloped not just the entire first floor, but also the second floor!

Just as he was marveling at the first floors, his eyes widened as something rapidly entered his Riemannian Echo.

SHING

He drew his sword as a sole monstrous catoblepas jumped out of a tunnel beside Kane.

SLASH

A single light swing of Rui's blade cut at the monster's skin, yet the ensuing wound was anything but proportional to the attack.

SPLAT

Blood gushed from a gigantic wound. That single swing had almost cleaved the monster, which resembled a fusion between a bull and several other beasts, in half.

"Shit!" Kane swore as he glanced at the corpse of the catoblepas with fear. "I hadn't sensed that coming."

"You haven't grown acclimatized to your new conditions," Rui explained. "You need to be more alert to sense things that you previously would have seen coming from a mile away."

"Damn, you're right… Thanks, Rui, I might be dead right now without you," Kane thanked him earnestly. "Still, I can't believe you almost cleanly split it with just a heavy nick!"

"Hehe…" Rui grinned. "It was even more effective than expected. Let's go kill some monsters, my friend."