The many sights that Rui saw were quite fascinating. He saw all kinds of people, cultures, nations, and environments.
The esoteric and exotic nature of the physical landmass was already known to him. It was the reason why crazy phenomena like dungeons, and floating islands were possible. In their travels to the Thundering Valley, they came across strange phenomena that they had never seen before.
"Is that village inside a tree?" Kane's eyes widened when they stumbled across a huge tree with holes in and out through it while traveling through the Great Forest of Xar. An evergreen forest was said to be rich with esoteric flora and fauna.
They had come across a strange tribe of people that lived inside a big tree with a vertically extending village.
Unfortunately for Rui and Kane, these tribe's folk did not appear to appreciate outsiders.
"Oh fuck me, they're attacking us!" Kane groaned as he avoided a Squire-level bow and arrow attack.
Rui on the other hand simply stood in place as he gazed at the arrow with curiosity and interest. He could instantly tell that it was made out of extremely durable Squire-level material. The sheer force with which the archers were launching them meant that they certainly were Martial Squires.
"Hey! LOOK!" Kane shook him out of his stupor as a wave of arrows came flying right at them.
WHOOSH
The two of them just barely evaded, before disappearing into thin air as Kane activated Void Step with Rui.
The two of them quickly scampered away from their original place.
"Stop dazing out when we're being attacked!" Kane glared at him.
"My bad… Still, bow and arrow Martial Art…?" Rui murmured. "That should be impossible…"
He recalled a conversation that he had with Headmaster Aronian. The elder Martial Artist had told Rui that the fields that could serve as Martial paths were limited by how much of the intrinsic capability of human beings that employed. That was why operating esoteric technology that mechanically flung projectiles like muskets could never serve as a Martial Art, the power and the capabilities of such weapons did not emerge fundamentally from the human wielding them.
('That doesn't strictly apply to these tribal Martial Artist archers, I suppose,') Rui mused as he watched them cautiously investigating the place where Rui and Kane had disappeared out of their senses. ('That is why they are able to pursue their bow and arrow oriented Martial Paths.')
It made sense. The power that fundamentally drove a bow forward came from the human being, after all. One needed to draw a bow with force, and that force would get converted into mechanical potential energy in the bow, which would then get converted into kinetic energy.
Thus, even if instruments were being used to aid the Martial Artist, as long as the power came from the human being, it would most likely be a viable Martial Path that the Martial Artist could pursue.
The same was true for other weapons as well. The source of power behind sword attacks came from the human being fundamentally.
That made sense to Rui, but he still had questions.
('How in the world did these people become Martial Squires?') He frowned.
The breakthrough evolution process to the Squire Realm was not something that one could simply dream up on their own. It was an advanced scientific procedure that employed principles of Darwinian evolution in the human body.
Rui remembered the chamber and the esoteric surgical machines that they had used in the process of him becoming a Martial Squire. They were highly sophisticated machines and technology. Even if the tribe's Squire evolution breakthrough method was more primitive and limited, how on Earth were they able to evolve human beings?
"The same was true for the Martial tribes of Vilun Island…" Rui recalled. "How do such primitive small groups have access to such procedures."
Even though he didn't feel as though he had a large sample size, he couldn't help but wonder if the reason they come about it was not natural, but something orchestrated by someone, or a group intentionally.
If the reason that these tribes came to possess such a procedure was due to the intervention of a third party, it would be more believable than these tribes creating the procedure themselves.
But that would imply that there was a group that was trying to spread the secret of the Squire Realm, secretly. That was also a bit far-fetched.
Why even spread the breakthrough to the Squire Realm in the first place? Groups that could produce Martial Squires were always above groups that couldn't. That was why every nation had a strong vested interest in monopolizing the breakthrough to the Squire Realm. No nation was willing to spread or trade it under any circumstances.
He hadn't forgotten his mission in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana where he had to destroy a research and experimentation facility where the breakthrough to the Squire Realm was being conducted. That was a good example of a nation doing everything in its power to stop a nation doing everything in its power to obtain the secret of the Squire Realm.
Rui shook his head, putting such thoughts away as he turned to Kane. "Let's get going, no point in entangling ourselves with them.
The two of them came across many more strange sights of different kinds of people and places on their journey to the Thundering Valley. As well as a variety of strange phenomena
They into clouds that were on the ground and rained upwards, for some reason. They ran into a lake filled with blood, They ran into a place of seemingly no gravity. Rui ran into a myriad of strange fauna and flora lifeforms that were straight out of a fantasy novel.
Traveling through a great number of places showed Rui that even after being around in this world for twenty years, he still didn't understand what was, and wasn't possible. If Martial Art weren't a thing, he most certainly would have explored the fantasies of this world his entire life.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om