Red was everywhere.
The Martial Record did its job and enlightened Yousti on his path.
This new sense to see red and blue paths was in fact the ability to see the intent of his opponents.
Red for someone else’s intent to attack and blue for his own intent to attack.
Red and Blue each with a very clear meaning.
But martial arts was not on Yousti’s mind.
‘It’s everywhere…
I need to run!’
Yousti began a desperate search for a safe place from the red.
He tried to see if he could burrow underground to escape it but everything was permeated in red.
He ran far away from the silk road and tried to see if the red ended anywhere.
A full month and a lap around the continents and still just red.
He even ran on the ocean as far as he could to see if anywhere was safe, no point.
He huddled against himself and curled up.
He was beginning to panic.
‘It’s suffocating.
The red is everywhere.
It’s in my mouth when I eat.
It’s inside my body like some kind of worm wriggling inside my skin, through my brain, and inside my muscles.
I can’t blow it away push it off me like some kind of blanket or toxic gas.’
He looked at sky, the sun, the moon, the stars.
It felt like even the starlight was imbued with the red.
Yousti felt claustrophobic like he was covered in cockroaches and maggots.
‘The martial record says that my perception of intent will only broaden and sharpen as I advance.’
He didn’t feel safe at all.
The intent to attack permeated everything.
‘Do I want to see more of this?
Should I quit martial arts and never use this sense again?’
No matter where or what he did it was like being naked in the rain.
But the rain soaked and passed through everything.
No shelter from the rain, no dryness, no warmth.
If right now his ability to sense intent let him feel the wetness of this imaginary world.
Then what if he came to hear the thunder?
Feel the wind and the cold?
How would those things permeate everything like the rain?
‘Is this the intent of some cosmic being.
Is the entire world under some kind of slow attack that had already doomed us all.
Or…
could the world itself be hostile?’
An old memory came to Yousti’s mind.
It was from when he was much younger.
The memory felt very nostalgic and it just had that vibe of a place that he could call home.
“Do not let your emotions dictate yourself, one must be stoic to make it through life.”
It was when he was travelling with Phaedo.
Always spitting out bits of Greek philosophical wisdom.
‘Oh yeah, he said that.’
He started to breath.
He didn’t stop sensing the hostility that was everywhere.
He still couldn’t accept the fact that everywhere was red.
He just wanted to confirm one thing.
‘Martial Record.
I have advanced once again.
Is there a way to fix this.’
Yousti desperately prayed in his mind to the Martial Record that there would be some kind of way to overcome this omnipresent hostility.
‘Really.’ Yousti frowned.
It wasn’t that he didn’t accept the answer.
But it was so typical he could barely feel grateful.
‘Just reach a higher stage and there will be solutions.’
He sighed.
‘At least it says there are solutions.’
~
Yousti had become much more somber in his travels, sometimes even melancholic.
He didn’t know why hostility was everywhere.
But whatever it was, he knew it wasn’t good.
The red had become like background noise to his senses.
He could tune it out and tolerate his discomfort a bit more.
Yousti closed his eyes and focused on the sensation of his feet on the dirt path he was currently on.
He took a deep breath and listened to the sound of birds and other forest animals as he stood completely still.
For a moment it felt like nothing had changed and that everything was fine.
But eventually he opened his eyes, looked at the cloudy sky, and activated his sixth sense.
Now that he could watch the hostility of the world.
He could even observe it like the weather.
He noticed that it really was like the weather in some sense.
It flowed and even seemed to concentrate in some places like the wind, high up in the sky or right here on the ground.
‘Maybe this is like berserk with guts following his sacrifice mark.
Instead I’ll have to follow the red and confront whatever lay where it goes.’
Yousti had found multiple streams of hostility gathering in one place.
He had mentally triangulated the location after encountering over 30 of these streams.
As he went to the location he noticed that the shade of red began to become deeper and darker.
At this point it was all but confirmed something sinister was happening, so he began running full pace towards where the streams went.
“Ho” Yousti let out a breath of astonishment.
He had stealthily hid himself from sight as he watched a group of robed figures traveling together.
Seemingly towards where he was heading.
‘Those are the same robes as that one guy who did Enuncia.
Are they some kind of cult performing a secret ritual with their magic.
Did I transmigrate into some kind of eldritch horror world?’
He shook of these thoughts and focused on stealthily spying on this Enuncia cult.
He pulled out plenty of martial arts that would help hide his presence from the Martial Record.
Soon Yousti had become nigh undetectable.
He made no sound and had no smell, with his ability to sense intent he could even determine how close he was to being detected.
It was the definitive stealth game experience.
But Yousti quickly discovered that it would not be a thrilling experience as he had to wait for a very long time without losing attention, while getting very bored.
But eventually from the everyday conversations he eavesdropped on he began to get a picture of what they were doing.
“What are you writing down?” One cultist asked curiously.
Another cultist that was pretty clearly female responded.
“I’m recording everything that’s happening right now. It should be recorded in history.”
“When the ritual succeeds, it won’t be recorded in history.”
The female cultist seemed upset by this and defensively asked back.
“What do you mean ‘won’t be recorded in history'”
“Instead it will remembered as a legend.”
“Oh… Well I’m still going to write everything down.”
“Keep on doing that.”
The two cultists separated.
Yousti who had overheard the conversation rubbed his hands together as his next course of action became clear.
‘I gotta read what she’s writing.’