The Martial Unity

Rui read on with great amazement. It was formed when a tree underwent dungeonification after absorbing soil deep below the surface that was rich with highly powerful esoteric mineral resources. In a process that was not very well understood yet, the flora enlargened and mutated, expanding as it absorbed more.

What the scholars of this world had not quite understood yet was how flora was able to naturally integrate esoteric mineral ores into it and develop into all kinds of strange manners that utterly defied how said species of the plan evolved.

Some thought that the esoteric mineral ores were somehow slowly refined and naturally integrated into the biology of the plant, giving it strange and seemingly reality-defying properties and characteristics that created strange environments inside the dungeon.

This was something even Rui wasn't able to find an explanation for. It was part of the fantastical phenomena in this world that entirely defied what was possible in his previous life. He was unable to extrapolate a satisfactory based on his scientific background.

He shrugged. "No point in breaking my head over it."

What he was more interested was in the further details surrounding the dungeon.

The dungeon was equally divided into a tower above the ground and an underground dome that was both equally vast. There were a number of small and large pockets of space connected by tunnels that were suspected to contain reservoirs of processed or raw esoteric mineral ores referred to as floors. Each of the floors was numbered to make it convenient for reference. The floor that was level with the ground level of the Shionel Great first that the dungeon was in was numbered as Floor Zero. Floors that went up in the tower were numbered with positive numbers, while floors that went down were numbered with negative numbers.

"Fascinating…" Rui scratched his head as his mind flashed back to some of the more modern anime that were around. "Isn't this concept quite similar to some of the dungeons that occur in some anime?"

He wasn't entirely sure, he was an old-school anime fan, and he generally couldn't really stand the newer anime and their more childish appeal.

Regardless, it was quite fascinating to see such an otherworldly natural phenomenon and have the opportunity to visit it and even explore it.

He went through the data collected on the floors of the dungeon, yet when he reached the mapped areas, his eyes widened.

"Only a minority of the floors of the dungeon is mapped," Rui frowned. "And an even smaller portion has been cleared."

This was surprising to Rui. The dungeon had been open for more than three months now, how was it that such a small portion of the dungeon had been cleared?

Even if the dungeon was large and dangerous, a huge number of Martial Artists were undoubtedly exploring it at the moment. They should have been clearing it at a rapid pace, with the sheer amount of powerful Martial Squires that would no doubt be joining from all across this chunk of the continent would no doubt be taking part in this grand opportunity.

After all, it was a fleeting opportunity that would no doubt allow

"Ah…" Rui read on as he comprehended the reason. "There are mutated beasts… so-called monsters occupying all of the floors…?"

The animals in the ecosystem that existed before the Shionel Dungeon were all integrated into the dungeon after having fed on the mutated vegetation, which in turn made the entirety of the food chain increasingly mutated.

('Mutation… Does this have something to do with electromagnetic radiation?') Rui frowned in confusion. ('Is this a process similar to the evolution breakthrough?')

He wasn't sure. He knew for a fact that the highly potent esoteric mineral ores would have been entirely lethal to fauna life forms if consumed directly, but somehow when consumed when the esoteric mineral was integrated into flora directly or indirectly, it was for some reason not unstable.

Of course, this did not mean it was entirely safe. There were still a huge number of animals that died regardless, while the remaining populated the dungeon. In that case, it was probably not safe for him, or for anyone else to consume any of the processed esoteric minerals integrated into the vegetation.

He would need to make sure that he kept that in mind. Even if it was related to the Squire evolution breakthrough in principle, it meant that it was particularly dangerous to Martial Squires, since they had hit their absolute limit when it came to radiation-induced evolution. Otherwise, the procedure could be extended for much longer if not for the limits of the brain.

Regardless, he could understand why the exploration and clearance of the dungeon had taken so long. The explorer Martial Artists had run into a lot of hindrances, to the point that the exploration could not proceed. They had not even mapped out most of the dungeon yet!

('Not just that…') Rui read through the remaining details listed in the intelligence procured by the Martial Union.

('It appears that sensory techniques are highly restricted due to the high concentration of esoteric substances that insulate or disrupt the flow of energy that was often used in sensory techniques,') Rui frowned.

That was inconvenient.

His long-range sensory techniques were dependent on air currents and seismic radiation. With those crippled, Rui would not be able to use those to sense past one floor to another, which would explain why much of the dungeon was simply shrouded in mystery.

('I need to find a way to bypass the sensory restrictions that prevent Martial Artists from being able to easily map out the dungeon…') Rui's eyes narrowed as thought of a few possibilities.

Furthermore, with Kane's abilities…

('It may not be impossible for us to clear the dungeon before any other force in the Shionel Dungeon…') Rui's eyes twinkled with interest.

He continued to browse through all of the information that the Martial Union had collected for him. There was much to be studied.