Dungeons.
These were esoteric flora phenomena where flora species, having come into contact with some truly special esoteric substances and absorbing them, mutated in a way that altered the entire landscape, leading to an extremely perilous region.
The mutated flora was extremely sensitive to threat levels, attacking anything sufficiently threatening enough before it could even get close enough. Thus, only Martial Artists below a specific degree of power could enter and clear the dungeon.
These esoteric flora phenomena were extremely attractive to humankind, for they were ripe with valuable and rare bounties.
Each dungeon was unique.
They usually had characteristics and traits that matched with that of the esoteric substances that they had absorbed from deep underground mines.
The Shionel Dungeon was extraordinarily sensory resistant, far more so than the Beast Domain or most other dungeons, due to the fact that it was comprised of special potent esoteric substances that halted the flow of energy of any kind.
"This dungeon must have risen from extraordinarily potent space-time esoterics." Rui's cold voice softened.
Considering that the Topaz of Time was considered a Transcendent esoteric, Rui had no doubt that this dungeon was probably also based on similarly powerful esoteric substances. This meant that it was an extraordinary dungeon, the likes of which probably did not exist anywhere else in the entire world!
"Truly extraordinary…" Rui whispered.
His eyes fixed on the extreme curvature at the horizon of the dungeon region. It truly resembled its own minute planetoid. Any creature that had been born within the Mellow Dungeon would definitely believe that this tiny little planetoid-like dungeon was the entirety of the whole world.
His eyes turned to the beach of the dungeon island as he spotted the Divine Doctor nonchalantly sauntering away from them in the distance.
"Kane."
Kane flinched at his sharp voice. "…Yeah?"
"You've been here a few days, right?"
"…Yeah."
Rui slowly turned towards him, his dark eyes peering into his.
"Tell me everything. Everything from the moment you entered to the moment I entered. Don't leave out a single detail."
Kane nodded. "Sure. So, after I entered the Mellow Dungeon…"
Kane began to narrate how he had begun panicking for a few hours after he inadvertently entered the dungeon. His first instinct had been to get back to the Mellow and Rui but he had been unable to find the exit.
He circled across the beach and across the sea, yet he only ran in circles, often returning to his original starting point.
"Did you try going up?" Rui turned to the sky. "That must have been the very next thing you tried, correct? It is the most logical next option."
Kane stared at him. "Oh…"
Rui heaved a resigned sigh as he shot up at full speed, reaching for the depths of the sky.
WHOOSH
His eyes narrowed as he began slowing down the further up he got. Even though he sky-walked harder and harder, he only got slower and slower.
As though an increasingly stronger resistance force refused to pass smoothly.
"I see…" Rui's tone was detached. "So simply reaching for the skies does not permit escaping the Mellow Dungeon. Interesting. It makes sense, considering that the Divine Doctor would have effortlessly overcome such an obstacle. Yet, the fact that he's still trapped here means I can safely rule out all low-hanging fruit."
Rui didn't have a high opinion of his sanity, but the same could not be said about the man's intelligence. The fact that he managed to cook up an elaborate and sophisticated plan to get his hands on fear to get into the Garden of Salvation to meet with the Elder Tree and conduct a trade where he received clues to diagnose his patient showed that the man was extremely strategically intelligent.
The fact that he had been unable to leave showed that the no-
brainer solutions were unlikely to work.
The darkness within Rui's eyes stirred as they slowly turned towards Kane.
"Go on."
"Ah, right," Kane remarked. "So after I tried everything possible, or at least everything I thought of, I ran into the man himself, the Divine Doctor. Thankfully, I recognized him from the memories of the Elder Tree. I've been trying to get him to cooperate with me for quite some time, but I don't think he thinks much of me."
"How much did you tell him about me and our objective?"
"Nothing," Kane replied. "I knew it wasn't my place since this is your imperative, and I didn't think I'd be able to handle it properly."
"Good…" Rui softened up as his eyes remained fixed on the Divine Doctor. "What exactly did you converse with him about then in regards to the attempt at cooperation?"
"I was tryna get him to tell me more about this place since he had clearly been here a while, but squeezing information out of him is like trying to squeeze water out of rocks. It's almost impossible!"
"Mmm…" Rui's devoid eyes fixed on the Divine Doctor in the distance.
"And then, you finally entered the Mellow Dungeon. I didn't know about the acceleration of time in this dungeon. That's why…"
Kane's expression fell. "…I kinda thought you abandoned me."
A maelstrom of thoughts had been raging within the depths of his powerful mind. Yet Kane's words cleaved through it with incredible force as his attention immediately turned to his friend.
"Kane." His hardened voice grew soft as his clear eyes firmly met Kane's gaze. "I'd never abandon you, got it?"
Kane grinned. "Yeah. I'd never abandon you, either." This is from .
A fleeting smile cracked at the very edge of Rui's mouth, going away as quickly as it came as his attention returned to the open dungeon in the distance.
"So what now?" Kane asked. "How are we going to convince the Divine Doctor to help us?"
"He's not the main issue right now." Rui narrowed his eyes. "This place is. We're trapped here and until we can leave, the Divine Doctor is not our main problem.
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