Chapter 164 One Step At A Time

Rui had taken his time. It was their one demand, after all, to take his time and ensure the report was immaculate. He mentioned every detail in his report and statement, every single detail he could think of. He assumed the Ministry of Ecology and Environment would have experts pour over every word in his report and extract every ounce of potentially useful information from his words and supply it to the sub-terranean Martial Artists they were hiring from the Martial Union.

Once he was done, he submitted his final report and his duties ended.

Helga nodded as she scanned his report. "It was a pleasure working with you, Apprentice Rui Quarrier." She said, glancing at him. "We are quite impressed by your deductive insight and your resourceful tactical approach; we would be interested in having you retain us as one of your primary clienteles, via the Martial Union."

Rui smiled wryly. "You flatter me, I'm just an inexperienced Martial Artist exploring my Martial Path in this wide world."

Helga raised an eyebrow, at those words. "I am not flattering you, Apprentice. Had this mission been undertaken by almost any other Martial Artist of your Realm and grade, it most certainly would have stalled and persisted for at the very least the entirety of the one month allocated to the mission, and perhaps even longer, this is the norm. The consequences of that would have undoubtedly been disastrous."

p Rui had to admit she had a point. He didn't like tooting his own horn too much, but it was an objective fact that completing the mission in eight days was not just an impressive feat but an extremely fortunate feat for the Ministry. Had the mission taken a month or more, like she said, the odds that the offspring of earthen basilisk would have either wreaked havoc in the Shaia Plains, or migrated outside to other habitats in the Mantian Region, or both in succession, were quite high.

"Thank you." Rui nodded, accepting her praise. "But for now, I don't want to commit to any one field. I'm still exploring the world. Furthermore, I'm an all-rounder, thus I do not want to get too entrenched down a single path." He said, rejecting her subtle offer.

She nodded, uninterested in pushing further. Rui was definitely a good Martial Artist, but he was just one asset out of many assets that existed in the Empire.

"Well then, that brings about an end to our meeting." She said, getting up. "Thank you for your services."

"Thank you for your commission." Rui replied.

After having bade her farewell, Rui heaved a sigh of relief. His job was over, he had completely washed his hands of the incident. All he could do now was place his trust in the capable hands of the sub-terranean-oriented Martial Artists of the Martial Union that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment would no doubt commission to take care of this matter.

He thought back to all the information she had divulged to him during their conversation. She had definitely revealed many important things during their conversation to contextualize how important any and all information he could provide to the Ministry through his report was. Although all of them were interesting, one particular topic had intrigued him more than most.

The Beast Domain.

It was vaguely common knowledge that the Beast Domain referred to the natural environments of the Panama Continent that were uncolonized by humans. What Rui did not know was the exact danger level associated with them.

This was why Helga's words had shocked him as much as they did. He obviously knew that Beast Domain was dangerous, but for even scary apex predators like the earthen basilisk to be no more than insects, that was a shocking statement to make. The way she made it sound seemed like the Beast Domain, by and large, was a domain exclusive to the Realm of Martial Squires and higher.

He did not expect that the Beast Domain, which constituted a solid chunk of the entire continent, would be more dangerous than he could handle!

As a Martial Apprentices, his recent string of successes and growth had given him a stronger and stronger sense of confidence, but when someone bluntly told him that he was too weak to survive outside human civilization, that just humbled him and made him realize that no matter how strong he had grown as a Martial Apprentice, he was still a Martial Apprentice, the lowest Realm of Martial Art.

He had a long, long path ahead of him.

However, this did not discourage him. If anything, it encouraged him. Knowing that there was an almost endless path he could walk down was exciting. His love for Martial Art, and his Martial Art; Project Water stemmed not from the power or utility it gave him. He truly loved the very concept at its very core for what it was.

This was why where others might have grown sullen and disappointed with their lacking power, but where other saw a shortcoming, Rui merely saw potential. His desire for power was not low, but his desire to indulge in the growth and development of his Martial Art was far, far stronger.

In fact, he would be far sadder and more devastated than happy if he ever reached the pinnacle of power where he was unable to grow any stronger than he already was, this would mean the day had come where he would no longer be able to develop his Martial Art. What would he do if he ran into this hurdle?

He shook his head, clearing out such silly thoughts. Reaching the pinnacle of power? That was such an arrogant thing to assume that even he felt silly.

He was incredibly far away from this stage. He was far away from even understanding how far away he was.

"All I can do is traverse my Martial Path." he murmured to himself with a hint of determination and clarity. "One step a time."