The Martial Unity

The Ministry of Environment and Ecology strongly suspects that the cause for all the environmental and ecological changes lies at the core of the Serevian Plateau based on the triangulation of seismic radiation, and extrapolating from the measurements of the intensity of changes across the entire region.

That was where Rui came in. The core of the Serevian Plateau was too dangerous to even grade-nine Martial Apprentices. Only grade-ten Martial Apprentices were capable of completing the missions. Furthermore, the number of grade-ten Martial Apprentices who had mastered something like Seismic Mapping was extremely low. However, that wasn't the only reason Rui was ideal for the mission.

"Fauna Flow must have been a deciding factor as well," Rui murmured.

Fauna Flow allowed him to communicate with fauna species. The effectivity of which depended on the intelligence of the creature, in particular, he was trying to converse with using the technique. This technique likely played a role in his suitability for the mission. Being able to gather information from the fauna creatures in the Serevian Plateau likely increased his compatibility with the mission.

The actual objective of the mission was primarily to gather information about the phenomenon responsible for the change. To detect, observe, and rigorously document said phenomenon and potentially eliminate the target if needed.

The Martial Union and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology provided him with the devices he would need in order to document the phenomenon with the required rigor that the Ministry of Environment and Ecology needed. He would need to operate the surveillance technology after he reached the core of the Serevian Plateau.

The mission bill specified that he was required to memorize the protocols as well as the means by which the surveillance and recording device provided to him was operated. He quickly inputted the data into his mind palace before quickly absorbing all the data on the functioning of the device.

"Interesting," Rui remarked.

This wasn't the first time a hunter-class mission required him to make use of surveillance technology to document his findings so that they could be referenced once the mission concluded. In fact, his very first hunter-class mission two years ago with the earthen basilisk required him to make use of similar surveillance technology.

Of course, the surveillance device that he would be required to use in this mission was much more capable than the surveillance device he had used back then. The surveillance device back then was no more than a head cam that took basic photographic evidence of what needed to be documented. Back then, the Ministry of Environment and Ecology only wanted to figure out the identity of the earthen basilisk that had been wreaking havoc across the Shaia Plains.

This time, it wanted to know the cause of a set of high abrupt and complex ecological and environmental changes to the Serevian Plateau.

This meant that Rui's job would also be considerably more complex. He had already confirmed that the operation of the surveillance device was not simple and it would require much more than just straightforwardly pushing a button.

Still, he had memorized the protocols perfectly and it wouldn't be a problem for him.

The secondary objective of getting rid of the cause of the environmental and ecological changes wasn't absolute. The Ministry of Environment and Ecology would inform him of whether it even had to be fulfilled or not.

This was different from the attitude they took during the earthen basilisk mission where the elimination of the cause was non-negotiable and the only thing in question was whether Rui was qualified to undertake that mission.

However, here, there wasn't necessarily as much of an imperative. For one, the Serevian Plateau was far outside the Kandrian Empire. The large geographical distinction between the locations of the two meant that it was extremely unlikely that the events occurring within the Serevian Plateau could ever affect the Kandrian Empire.

This was quite different from the situation of the Shaia Plains which was inside the Kandrian Empire. The Ministry of Environment and Ecology kept a tight leash over the environment and ecological state of the uninhabited natural habitats within the Kandrian Empire.

In comparison, the situation with the Serevian Plateau was more due to the professional interest that the Ministry of Environment and Ecology held.

('No, not entirely.') Rui shook his head. ('Although the probability of the Kandrian Empire being affected by the events of the Serevian Plateau, it's still not impossible. The earthen basilisk was originally from the Beast Domain. Yet, it migrated a gigantic distance and became a big problem, almost catastrophic.')

He hadn't ever heard back from the Ministry on whether the earthen basilisk hatchlings had been successfully contained by the subterranean Martial Artists that had been gathered to hunt and exterminate all of them. However, considering there wasn't an epidemic of earthen basilisks in the Kandrian Empire, he could be relatively assured they had soundly succeeded.

He wasn't surprised of course; the operation was allegedly led by Martial Squires. He knew first-hand how strong Martial Squires were. Those earthen basilisk brats never stood a chance.

However, the earthen basilisks had allegedly migrated due to being too weak to survive in the Beast Domain. Whatever was affecting the Serevian Plateau was clearly not weak. If whatever was causing it, being it living or non-living, were to affect the Kandrian Empire, the results would not be pretty. It was quite likely that Martial Artists from Realms even above the Squire Realm may need to be involved.

Rui shook his head, dispelling his pointless speculations. "The mission was to be commenced immediately. So I guess they won't have a problem if I travel there immediately."

The journey would take a while, even for him. "I'm going to need several potions."

He paused at his own words. "Speaking of which, I'll need to start paying for all of them starting with this mission."

He sighed. Potions weren't cheap and he was going to need more than a few when entering the Beast Domain. He just hoped his accumulated credit was good enough.