1961 Departure
The two quickly packed up all their essential needs, restocking their supply of high-quality food pills from the Elder Tree, taking everything they needed for a long journey to the Mellow.
His stoic eyes slowly returned to the Elder Tree. "Once again, thank you for saving our lives."
What should have been a pleasant, warm expression of gratitude turned into what was almost an intense face-off.
"Thank you for telling us where the Divine Doctor went," Rui continued, devoid of warmth. "Thank you for bequeathing a millennium's worth of knowledge and experience with the biosphere of the Beast Domain." Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
…Thank you for knowledge from another world. The Elder Tree returned his gratitude. I look forward to you keeping your word in regard to aid from the Kandrian Empire.
"I will." Rui nodded slowly. "You know that."
I do. Be sure to plant a grove of connector tree species in the Kandrian Empire.
Rui nodded. "Well then. It's been…enlightening."
"Bye-bye!" Kane waved at the enormous tree. Good luck finding the Divine Doctor, and goodbye.
Kane's eyes widened as the Elder Tree transmitted a private message to him just before they were teleported out of the Garden of Salvation.
Look after him, Kane. He needs you. He needs you more than you realize.
WHOOSH!
The world around them magically shifted in a single instant.
They found themselves in the Beast Domain outside of the Garden of Salvation. Rui narrowed his eyes sharply as his expression grew cold. "No more safety from this point on. Let's go."
Kane nodded, staring at him uncertainly, keeping the Elder Tree's message close to heart. He didn't fully understand what had happened to Rui.
He certainly didn't understand what he could do to fix his friend. Or whether something could even be done.
However, he knew that he could be there for his friend.
"We have nine months left," Rui remarked with a flat tone. "We need to get from the North of the Beast Domain to the South."
Kane's eyes narrowed. "I mean, just getting from the West to the North took three months. Wouldn't that mean this journey would take twice as long?"
Rui softly shook his head, sharpening his eyes dark eyes. "We took three months because I sucked as a navigator. With our tremendous speed, we could have made it in two months."
"Did your navigation skills improve recently?"
"Yes."
He didn't bother elaborating. However, it was self-explanatory.
The inheritance from the Elder Tree had given him a fundamentally deep understanding of how to navigate the Beast Domain. The Elder Tree had given him a map of the Beast Domain that was exponentially more precise and accurate than the one that he got from the Adventurer's Guild.
In fact, in comparison, the Adventurer Guild's map was not only useless, it was downright dangerous. Rui was hardly surprised that adventurers had the highest mortality rates among all Martial Art professions in existence.
It took Rui a combination of the Elder Tree's knowledge and his grandmother's prophecies, two extraordinary trump cards to not feel like he would die in the Beast Domain at any given moment, and even then, they would have, if not for the Elder Tree saving them.
This time, however, the journey was a lot safer than Kane had expected. They didn't run into countless ambushes or attacks and were rarely caught off-guard. For the first time since entering the Beast Domain, the two of them truly lived the philosophy 'the only way to win a fight is to avoid it.'
Kane had to admit that Rui had been precisely on point when he said he could get them there much sooner. They zipped through the Beast Domain, navigating through niche routes and paths that efficiently avoided danger in the Beast Domain. They traveled at a far greater pace than Kane had ever imagined possible. Rui didn't talk much during the journey. He had grown more silent and aloof, limiting his words to the bare minimum whenever he did talk. It was as though the experience of inheritance broke his ability to be moved.
Thus far, he had yet to crack even a smile at anything not related to his Martial Art or his Martial Path. Not for lack of trying, Kane had tried his damndest to make him laugh with all kinds of jokes, yet none of them could so much as even stir him.
Yet, that wasn't the only change that he had undergone. Unsurprisingly, Rui became significantly more effective against beasts and monsters.
BAM BAM BAM!
SPLAT!
Three hippogriffs exploded upon contact with Rui's attacks, entirely annihilated.
"How'd you do that?!" Kane marveled at him.
Rui's eyes turned towards Kane slowly.
"…They have extreme tension piled up in a blood sack within their navels. Striking it causes the pressure to imbalance, leading to an explosion."
His voice was detached.
"I see…" Kane smiled wryly. "Useful to know, I guess."
Rui wordlessly strove forward, continuing their journey south. With his newfound expertise, a journey that would have taken six months only took three months, allowing them to reach the Mellow in the southern part of the Beast Domain.
In addition, despite being tucked in the Master-level belt of the Beast Domain, they managed to traverse through the Master-level belt without too much difficulty. While ninety percent of the master-level belt was in Master-level zones, Rui managed to employ the knowledge inherited from the Elder Tree to plot out exactly the right path so that they could avoid being killed.
Danger zone after danger zone, region after region, monster after monster. STEP
The two arrived over a cliff that overlooked a normal, peaceful region that stretched out as far as the eye could see under a normal blue sky. The vegetation and flora were entirely normal, which was strange for the Beast Domain.
Rui spotted herds of deer and other herbivorous creatures, yet he was also able to see normal tigers, leopards, and other entirely mundane predators.
"Is this the place?" Kane huffed, tired.
Rui simply stared at it wordlessly.
"If it is…" Kane remarked. "The Elder Tree was right. This place doesn't belong in the Beast Domain."
-