The Martial Unity

The most surprising thing was that, upon donning the cloth made of living vegetation, he became partially invisible!

"What?!" Rui exclaimed as he went through the memories of the catoblepas.

It turned out that the Divine Doctor had been working on employing the optical density manipulation of the living vegetation and integrating it into his cloth. He then used it to manipulate light to warp around him.

Rui didn't even know that that was possible at all.

In fact, he was relatively confident that that was certainly impossible for any ordinary botanist on Gaia.

It was especially impossible given that the Divine Doctor did this inside the Beast Domain!

Not just anywhere in the Beast Domain, but in the Valley of Prisms, an area where normal human beings would be absolutely unable to navigate and would lose their minds due to the broken vision of the region.

Yet not only did the Divine Doctor not let it stop him, but he also integrated the vegetation into his attire while keeping it alive such that it would continue its function and make him invisible.

It was a ridiculous feat of bio-engineering.

It was clear that he was dissatisfied with the result of the living cloth—since it did not fully turn him invisible—for he immediately began working on another one.

Rui was beginning to understand what his overall purpose for visiting the Valley of Prisms was.

His goal was to create or refine solutions that would help him deeper into the Beast Domain.

That was why he rigorously tested his fear-hallucinogen and his trance-inducing drugs and was trying to create an invisibility suit from materials that could warp light.

It was understandable why he did these things.

How else was an ordinary human supposed to survive in the Beast Domain?

Rui wondered why he didn't hire a powerful Martial Artist, but, alas, for whatever reason, it was clear that the man was journeying alone.

"Maybe he came to the Valley of Prisms specifically for the strange light-warping effect of the flora of this region," Rui realized. "It would make sense if he believed that he could harness it."

Rui returned to scouring through memories.

As time passed, Rui could see, despite the broken memories, that the man was constantly improving and refining his makeshift bio-engineering project as he grew increasingly invisible and harder to perceive.

It was rather surprising that a doctor who was supposed to specialize in medicine could be so incredibly resourceful in bio-engineering as to harness the biological capabilities of plants in such an extraordinary manner. His background was not supposed to facilitate such a feat.

"Remarkable," Rui could not help but admit.

It spoke to the sheer knowledge and expertise that the Divine Doctor had. Just from this alone—even without knowing his identity—Rui could naturally conclude that he was probably leagues ahead of any medical practitioner on the Panama Continent.

Amidst the many noises that came from broken speech in broken memories, he managed to catch several coherent remarks.

"…Manageable sustenance requirements…"

"…Satisfactory optical outcome…"

"Need more fear," he murmured to himself.

Soon enough, the memories of the Divine Doctor simultaneously stopped. He was no longer seen in any of their memories. As a result of no longer being subjected to a fear- hallucinogen and trance-induction drugs, the animals of the Valley of Prisms finally regained autonomy.

The first thing every single creature did when they regained their autonomy was to run away. Almost immediately, an enormous mass exodus from the Valley of Prisms began. Predators ran alongside prey as each creature had but one single desire: get the hell away from the Valley of Prisms!

Months of being subjected to hellish terror and horror born from the fear-hallucinogen and being turned into slaves of the Divine Doctor had been a gut-wrenchingly horrifying experience that would remain with them forever, but what they feared more was that it would return once more, prompting them to leave.

On top of that, the air of the Valley of Prisms was tainted with the enormous amounts of drug gases that the Divine Doctor had released.

Rui found it almost absurd. How much gas in stock did this man have? How could reserves of hallucinogenic gases last for months on end? How could he alter the air of an entire region with just two canisters worth of gas?

None of it made sense. It appeared that the Divine Doctor defied logic in every sense of the word.

"Huff…" Rui heaved a sigh, dropping the herd of catoblepas on the ground, breaking their trance, and then letting them go.

"Well?" Kane yawned, asking with mild interest.

"The Divine Doctor is definitely a madman," Rui muttered as his eyes swam around in thought. "Who would use others as test subjects for their own crazy experiments?!"

Kane stared at him wordlessly.

"However, I think I might have gotten a clue to his next location," Rui told Kane, turning to him.

"Oh? What is it?"

"…He came here to refine his Beast Domain solutions," Rui continued. "Among the things I heard him say was 'not enough fear.'"

Kane frowned. "Not enough fear?"

"It's in reference to the fear-hallucinogen that he was testing out on all the creatures of the Beast Domain," Rui informed him. "I'm guessing that he was not satisfied with his 'omni-

derivative' fear-hallucinogen's impact."

From what Rui could tell, it had been extremely effective, yet it was clear the Divine Doctor had higher standards. Perhaps it was because he felt less secure since he could much more easily die than Rui ever would.

Especially after his most recent boost in power.

"Omni-derivative…?" Kane tilted his head with confusion, staring at Rui.

"It means deriving everything or derived from everything depending on the context," Rui clarified. "Though, in this case, the latter might make more sense."

It would explain how the Divine Doctor seemed to have an endless supply of such gases and how he could pollute an enormous region like the Valley of Prisms with it.

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