The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was a direct bordering nation of the Kandrian Empire thankfully, so the journey back and forth from the town of Hajin to the location of the research facility wasn't all that long.
"Have you guys memorized it?" Rui asked, closing the mission bill, after quickly storing all the data in his mind palace.
"No." Kane yawned. "But we have you. So, it's all good."
Rui rolled his eyes.
"I've memorized everything but the finer details." Fae replied.
"As have I." Hever calmly replied.
Rui glanced over at snoring Nel, sighing.
"Hey, wake up!"
"Hm?" His eyes flashed open. "Is it time to go?"
"Yes."
He stood up abruptly. "What are you wasting time sitting here for? Let's get going!"
Rui simply gave up, as they all proceeded to the dispatch facility, completing the required protocols before they could finally be dispatched.
The journey took longer than if Rui alone had set out. Partially because the group was as slow as the slowest person; Hever.
The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was almost in the opposite direction of the Kingdom of Grahal. They had to travel north past the Mantian region and even cross a tiny mountain range reach the border.
Unlike the Kingdom of Grahal, the weather and climate were cold and dry too. They ran in the cold until they finally reached the border.
Much to Rui's amazement, the border security of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was much worse than even that of the Kingdom of Grahal. Atleast the Kingdom of Grahal had something resembling a wall protecting the border.
Vinfrana had no more than a paltry fence marking its border. Even ordinary humans could casually cross it.
"How much further from here?" Nel complained.
"Three hours at our current pace to reach the Frujmel forest." Rui replied.
The general location of the research facility was in the north of the Frujmel forest, though its exact location was unknown. The intelligence was not gathered through direct surveillance, clearly.
Rui could see why the research facility was built in the forest. It was large and far away from population according to the mission bill. The only thing that surprised Rui was how they were able to build and underground research facility.
The more sophisticated civil engineering of Gaia, like all forms of technology in this world, was based on esoteric technology which was far more expensive than the civil engineering technology of Earth due to the scarcity of the esoteric resources used and also because of their value.
Building underground facilities even on Earth was not easy, he could not imagine how difficult and expensive it was in this world.
Furthermore, the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana was a poor sovereign nation. Meaning projects like this were highly extravagant and ostentatious for it.
Yet, it invested this much into the facility.
('My suspicions likely aren't wrong.') Rui thought as analyzed the data available. ('The research facility is researching something important, something related to Martial Art. Something it doesn't have and something the Martial Union does. Something significant enough that the Martial Union is willing to raid and annihilate all research on the matter so that the state doesn't gain the results it is looking for.')
('The fact that they've gone this overboard with the secrecy likely means they're aware that the research taking place is not something the Martial Union is willing to allow. If this was merely ordinary research, they would not go this out of their way to hide it.') Rui conjectured.
He grew more and more curious about what exactly was being researched in the facility.
Time passed.
They eventually ran into a sea of trees in the forest.
"We've arrived." Rui declared. "The forest does have Apprentice-level creatures. So, keep an eye out everybody."
"How do we find the location of the research facility again?" Kane asked.
"Leave that to me." Rui told them. "My Seismic Mapping is perfect for locating it. I'll scan... well, the entire forest I guess."
Rui sighed.
"Will you be able to locate the facility."
"Given enough time, yes." Rui replied. "I don't even need to directly locate the facility even."
"What do you mean?" Fae asked.
"A research facility of this size absolutely gets shipments of supplies no matter how self-dependent it is. Basic human sustenance supplies because they are this far away from the populace, energy supplies, esoteric supplies and human test subject supplies as well." Rui replied. "In fact, this is probably how the Martial Union discovered of the research facility's existence in the first place. Even if the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana did a good job concealing the physical location, it's not good enough. One needs to conceal all exchanges with the research facility to truly hide it."
Rui suspected the Martial Union learnt of the existence of the research facility via the expenditure of funds and resources of all kinds needed to build the facility. Such expenditure was hard to hide, and the Martial Union's intelligence department likely picked up signs of it early on.
Of course, the Martial Union would not bulldoze any and all research facilities of all small nations around it. That was a worthless endeavor that yielded no meaningful benefits. It was quite likely the Martial Union then narrowed down the general location to the northern portion of the Frujmel Forest looking at the flow of funds and resources.
Resources needed to be shipped physically, it was easier to catch a shipment travelling through the forest than it was for Rui to scan the entire forest with Seismic mapping looking for a facility that was God-knew how deep. The deeper it was, the closer he needed to be to be able to detect it.
Furthermore, the topography of the Frujmel Forest was uneven, which make it more annoying to use Seismic Mapping to accurately map out the environment.
"Hopefully we hit some luck" Rui muttered, sighing. "The sooner we locate the exact entrance, the sooner we can end this mission.
