The Martial Unity

"Wait," Julian raised a hand. "You're telling me that their version of the Squire evolution breakthrough process takes years to complete?"

Rui nodded. "Their evolution breakthrough process, or their sacred Transcendence Ritual as they called it was speculated to work with crude applications of some highly potent esoteric substances that can be found on the island."

The intelligence team assigned to the Vilun settlement had managed to collect information on the Squire evolution breakthrough process across the entirety of the duration of the mission.

They had come to the conclusion that the procedure was absurdly long and required the Martial Squire to undergo a truly extensive process.

"That might actually make sense," Julian nodded deep in thought. "Their technology is non-existent and they do not possess healing potions that rapidly heal grave injuries, which is one of the reasons that the Squire evolution breakthrough process of the Kandrian Empire is able to occur within a short amount of time."

And still, it yielded inferior results despite taking exponentially more time. This was the difference that the sophistication in technology was able to cause.

Regardless, the Martial Union did not have anything beyond curiosity surrounding the Squire evolution breakthrough process of the Martial tribes on Vilun island, they had no desire to obtain a crude and primitive process when they had their own state-of-the-art and cutting-edge technology when it came to Squire evolution breakthroughs.

The two conversed for some more time about a variety of matters, including Max and Mana breaking through. Rui was intrigued to know that Julian had already had a handful of discussions about the Apprentice Realm with them. He was happy to know that he had exercised discretion and controlled the amount of information that he gave them unlike with Rui, who he had far more trust in.

Rui spent the next few days relaxing with the family and taking care of the children. He had truly missed them and wanted to squeeze in as much time with them in a brief period of time.

After all, he was going to get really busy real soon.

STEP

He stopped before the Hajin branch of the Martial Union.

"Identity and purpose of visit?" The Martial Squire security guard asked him.

"Squire Rui Quarrier," Rui replied calmly as he handed them his Martial license. "Purchase of information."

"Alright," The guard nodded, returning his license and passing him through.

Rui navigated the Martial Union reaching the Martial exchange department and counter. "Excuse me."

"Yes," An employee addressed him with a smile. "How may I help you today, sir?"

"I would like to purchase all the information surrounding the Shionel Dungeon, please," Rui calmly requested.

"Give me one moment, sir," She replied as she accessed her terminal.

"That will cost around fifty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety Martial credits, sir," She replied straightforwardly.

Rui winced inwardly at the enormous price but nodded. In reality, while the price is high, he was probably being given the information at a lower price. He did not think for a second that an outsider to the Martial Union would be able to purchase all the intelligence on the Shionel Dungeon at this price.

"Please deduct the price of the information from my account,"

"Of course, sir. Kindly provide me with your Martial license please,"

"Squire Quarrier, the transaction is complete. Is there anything else that you would like to purchase?"

"Not for now, thank you,"

"In that case, the information will shortly be available on your accounter," She informed him. "Thank you for your purchase."

Rui left the Martial Union heading back home. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to directly share the information purchased from the Martial Union with other parties. After all, that became far too ripe for exploitation where they sell the information at a slightly lower price and end up attracting all of the customers of Martial Union while selling something that the intelligence department of the Martial Union had spent a lot of resources in obtaining.

The funds that the Martial Union obtained from this little side business were one of the sustainable sources of funds for the intelligence department of the Martial Union. They could not allow themselves to be ripped badly.

Thankfully, that rule did not extend to indirect and transformative distribution of the information. Meaning, Rui could read everything, understand and assimilate it before conveying it to Kane and making their plans based on that information. Even the Martial Union understand it was stupid and impractical to try and restrict such application of information.

He quickly reached home and secluded himself in his room with his accounter as he began scrolling through the information that he had purchased.

"This is…" Rui's eyebrow rose. "I can see why they charged that much for all this information."

The information was more extensive than he had expected, though, in hindsight, he shouldn't have been too surprised. The Martial Union must have bolstered its intelligence network in the Shionel Confederation once the discovery of the new dungeon had come to light. Thus it was no wonder that they were able to gather so much information regarding the matter.

The information was divided into multiple categories, starting with the foundational information regarding the Shionel Confederation itself as a state.

"Oh…?" Rui raised an eyebrow.

The Shionel Confederation was a state that was ruled by the Shionel Merchant Guild, it's governmental structure could more or less be characterized as a corporatocracy. The state had been founded in a time and region of war between surrounding small kingdoms and tribes that were perenially in conflict with each other. A large number of wealthy merchants and businessmen had come together and formed a guild that manufactured or purchased arms and ammunition, logistical resources, essential goods, and supplies and supplied it to external parties that were engaging in war with another party. They had bolstered just enough of a military to disincentivize an attack and had formed pacts with the forces that would go on to win the wars and become the established kingdoms of today.

Today, the once humble opportunistic merchant guild had absorbed many merchants and businessmen, businesses, and corporations and had matured into a commercial and economic state.

A massive dungeon had been unearthed in such a place.

"Oh boy…" Rui couldn't help but feel an ominous chill.