The Martial Unity

"The twelfth floor is the current frontier of floors," Rui told him. "We're going to clear it."

"If it's the current frontier of floors, then that probably means that it's going to take quite some time to harvest all those organic and mineral ores, right?" Kane asked.

"Right," Rui nodded. "Your stealth is going to be quite necessary to keep our identities hidden."

The two of them navigated through the many tunnels in the dungeon. Kane mostly followed Rui who confidently plodded through them without any hesitation.

Suddenly, he drew his sword, swinging to his side.

SPLAT

Kane's eyes widened as a decapitated serpent collapsed to the ground, still slithering while its head rolled away.

"Careful, stay away from the head, it's still alive and will bite anything that goes near it," Rui warned him, while carefully avoiding the snake. "The head can survive for days after its decapitation, and its venom is still extremely potent. Neither of us will survive a single bite."

"Woah…" Kane murmured as he kept a healthy distance away from the head. "Is that a snake native to one of the floors of the dungeon?"

Rui nodded in response. "It's known as the Inland Shionel Taipan. A highly venomous species of serpent."

"What floor is this from?" Kane asked.

"The twelfth floor, of course," Rui replied before he sheathed his Bellhorn Steel blade.

"Which is our destination, correct?" Kane glanced at him with a wry smile.

"Correct," Rui nodded. "Let's get going, we're not that far."

Because Rui had the ability to focus his Riemannian Sense in one particular direction, he could fully explore tunnels while also committing the tunnels to memory in his Mind Palace, for later use in creating the map.

Thus he did not need to go down a tunnel in order to see what was at the end of the tunnel. That was something that no other Martial Squire could do, it would save him time when he would begin exploring and discovering new floors all by himself.

STEP

He paused, gesturing for Kane to stop and signaling for him to use Void Step.

PAT

"We're here?" Kane asked as his eyes narrowed as they started walking to ensure the Void Step technique stayed active.

"That's right, look," Rui gestured as they entered the floor. "We're in a really special place."

Kane's eyes widened as he beheld the environment they had just stepped into.

"I… I thought we were underground?" Kane looked up high.

"We are underground," Rui replied as he too looked up with raised eyebrows.

"Then… You wanna explain why we're looking at the sky?"

Where the dark ceiling of the dungeon was supposed to be was a clear blue sky, for some reason. It was an extremely bizarre sight that made them question their sanity for a second. Perhaps they were dreaming this all up.

Rui had gathered intelligence on this before, thus he wasn't too caught off-guard. "The reason is unclear, however, it is not the sky. The ceiling of the floor still exists, it's just giving off a light that matches the sky, for some reason. Nobody has been able to study since only Martial Squire can enter here.

"That's really novel," Kane murmured.

"It is, but it isn't what we should be focusing on," Rui gestured around. "There are countless Inland Shionel Taipans infesting this area outside of eyesight.

That drew Kane's attention and he immediately began paying attention to his surroundings. The snake they killed earlier freaked him out a lot, thus he couldn't help but be very much on guard even if he did trust Rui's senses and alertness.

Their environment was tall grasslands with grass that exceeded their height. It obstructed his vision and made it harder for him to sense things that could be a threat to him.

Rui glanced in a certain direction, before quickly pacing over to a certain location, dragging Kane with him.

"This floor is the frontier as well, so, monsters aren't the only thing we'll run into," Rui said as he slowed down, gesturing ahead of them.

There was a Martial Squire a few meters ahead of them lying on the ground unconscious. Her skin had completely turned purple, and in the immediate vicinity was the corpse of another big taipan.

"Is she…?" Kane asked grimly.

"She's alive," Rui replied calmly. "But she won't survive even if we did everything in our power to bring her back out of the dungeon, she's going to die soon."

Rui glanced around at the shattered landscape in the vicinity, indicating a fierce battle.

"From the looks of it, she's actually a high-tier Martial Squire," He noted. "The battle seems pretty onesided. She must have crushed the serpent swiftly, before making the mistake of turning her back on it thinking it was dead because of the severed body, and the still-alive serpent must have caught her off-guard with a single strike from behind, sinking its fangs into her chest, instantly injecting her entire chest cavity with its potent venom into all of her vital organs. Hence, it explains why the serpent's body is so battered and wounded all over from being overwhelmed by her lethal attacks, and why she only has a single wound. I'm surprised she's even alive, even if barely. She must have undergone poison resistance training, but that has merely prolonged her suffering all this time, even if she probably only has a few minutes left."

He pointed at the two deep black necrotic fang wounds visible above her chest.

"So there's nothing we can do, huh?" Kane sighed.

"That's not quite right," Rui replied, as he drew his sword.

SPLAT

Faster than the eye could see, the blade effortlessly decapitated her. Rui swung his sword, ridding it of blood before sheathing it. Kane didn't begrudge his decision. If there was no saving her, then ending her suffering was the least that could be done for her.

"She overestimated herself and underestimated the dungeon," Rui replied with a solemn expression. "We should learn from her example. Always stay alert. Don't let your guard down just because we have a powerful strategy."