The Kandrian's offensive initiative was incredibly effective. The goal of the offensive initiative was to hinder the expansion efforts of the State of Hreefal, Republic of Jerefin, and the Kingdon of Nochus.
Thus far, the efforts had been more than just successful. The Kingdom of Nochus had been more than just merely impeded, they had been pushed back. The constant assaults from the Kandrian Empire had forced the Kingdom of Nochus to seriously consider and eventually go through with the plan of reducing their expanded territory to tighten their defense and be able to withstand the destruction the Kandrian Empire left behind each time.
All three of the small nations gritted their teeth as they did their best to withstand the onslaught from the Kandrian Empire. The performance of the Kandrian Empire had exceeded the expectations of the spectating nation. The fact that the Kandrian Empire was displaying such dominance despite fighting against three nations while also spending a lot of resources towards the expansion of its own territory indicated that the Martial Apprentices were incredibly remarkable.
Even the other three super-nations had taken notice. It was not something that could be ignored. Even if Martial Apprentices were of the lowest Martial Artist Realm, the Martial Apprentices of today were the higher-Realm Martial Artists of tomorrow. It was evidently clear that the Kandrian Empire, and the Kandrian Martial Union, in particular, were not going away any time soon.
The nations had also noticed the performances of one particular Martial Artist that seemed nearly invincible in the Apprentice Realm.
He wasn't extraordinarily strong, fast, or resilient, yet somehow his motions were such that he could defeat people who were much superior to him.
Furthermore, there was strange vague news that went around regarding the curse of the masked Martial Artist. It was said that those that fought against him one-on-one for any meaningful period of time experienced things that left them traumatized. The super nations' formidable intelligence-gathering capabilities had gathered a lot of information regarding the details.
From confusion to depression, to hysteria and delusion. Many of the Martial Apprentices who fought him experienced and displayed lasting psychological effects. However, not all Martial Apprentices collapsed against him. It was discovered that Squire candidates were mentally strong enough to not experience any psychological distress.
Many nations took the threat seriously and had begun treating it as an advanced grade-ten Martial Apprentice technique.
This was a response Rui could only laugh at. As long as the very basic premise of their research into the matter was just hilariously wrong, he didn't expect them to make any progress.
A month flew by as the three states of the Kingdom of Hreefal, the Republic of Jerefin, and the Kingdom of Nochus got utterly dominated by the Martial Apprentices of the Kandrian Empire. The three nations had gotten so bullied that they even made their own alliance!
The Serevian Fringe Alliance was an alliance between the Kingdom of Nochus, the State of Hreefal, and the Republic of Jerefin. It's an official charter was a statement where the governments of the alliance pledge to never attack each other so long as the contract is valid. Its stated goal was merely a front, everyone knew that the alliance was to help the three nations cope with the Kandrian Empire's aggression.
It was an imperfect solution and helped mitigate the damage that the Kandrian Empire left in its onslaught. The Kandrian Empire would need to apply more pressure and force if it wanted to silence these weak and small sovereign nations.
Yet, for now, there were bigger fish.
A month went by in a similar monotony as the nations engaged in long-established patterns of war between each other. However, soon, the Serevian Dungeon wars were beginning to reach the meat of the entire saga.
The four super-nations had enjoyed a dominant display against the many smaller and weaker nations that suffered at the hands of the larger nations. They had been aggressively expanding each, and eventually, they were bound to run into each other.
Each of them was aware of this.
No longer would the Kandrian Empire experience casual dominance with greater quantity and quality of Martial Apprentices against its victims.
The final phase of the Kandrian Empire involved direct head-on conflict over the remaining territory of the Serevian Dungeon. The Kandrian Empire had long since prepared for this since the very discovery of the Serevian Dungeon. A huge number of defensive and offensive Martial Artists had come a long way to partake in the conflict to monopolize as many resources as possible.
The sheer scale of these conflicts would far exceed what Rui had partaken in thus far. Thus far, he had mostly participated in assaults on the smaller nations. These missions that Rui had been much smaller. Most of them were relatively simple and straightforward for assaulting bases that merely fought to protect and defend.
Furthermore, Rui had the ability to retreat easily and be relatively safe despite being the aggressor as well as being a trespasser on enemy territory.
However, in active reciprocated war, there were no such guarantees of safety. Rui would be fighting against the genuinely powerful grade-ten Martial Apprentices that were powerful enough to ensure that even someone as strong as himself couldn't just effortlessly walk over them.
Yet this didn't discourage him, it only made him feel more eager to participate in a battle of the pinnacle of the Martial Apprentice Realm. The best of the best, it was an opportunity he would never be able to get in nearly any other setting. He was quite grateful to the Serevian Dungeon in many ways.
The very concept of dungeons increased the importance of each Realm much more so than would normally be the case. Because only Martial Apprentices could participate in the Serevian Dungeon, that made each high-ranking Martial Apprentice was an extremely important asset. Furthermore, it created settings that catered remarkably well to what Rui was looking for at this stage in his Martial Path.
