The Martial Unity

Rui narrowed his eyes. "That's not the only issue. Another issue that presents itself is the fact that the quality and scale of civilization that we see here vastly exceeds that of early human history on the Panama Continent. A thousand years ago or so, humans were still hunter-gatherers at best or nomadic tribes at worst. Thus, the anthropological discontinuity in the sophistication of civilization suggests that the hypothesis is deeply flawed or very incomplete."

"Makes sense…" Kane murmured. "I felt it was off, but that does highlight why it's off."

Rui had to agree that intuitively, he felt like it was incomplete or outright wrong as well.

"What about other hypotheses?" Kane asked, turning to Rui.

"Well, they're just possibilities that try to connect this part of human civilization to known history," Rui remarked. "There are all kinds of possibilities that anyone can conjure up. A forced migration. Independent civilizations inside and outside the Beast Domain. Maybe nigh-extinction events that led to a reset etc. The possibilities are endless as long as you are creative enough. They are not what's significant."

"Well, then, what is significant?" Kane asked, curious.

"The information that we have about the traces of ancient civilization in the Beast Domain that we have much greater confidence in than unsubstantiated hypotheses," Rui replied calmly. He continued, "For example, anthropologists, through data collected by Martial Artists commissioned through the Adventurer's Guild, have made very odd empirical observations of these so-called lost cities."

"Like what?"

"It's not one definitive observation," Rui replied. "It's actually many little observations. In some of the better-preserved lost cities, they managed to gain a better understanding of the technological paradigms of these civilizations. And while somewhat unclear due to how much has been lost, it's almost as if…"

Rui narrowed his eyes. "…Almost as if these civilizations did not know what esoteric substances were."

Kane's eyes widened with shock. "What?! What do you mean?!"

"Let me explain," Rui answered. "For example, you know how esoteric lighting technology works in our human civilization, right?"

"…Yeah, we use moonshine and glowflower plants, right?"

One was an extremely common esoteric substance in the crust of the Panama Continent that absorbed ambient light during the day and shined when ambient light around it reduced, serving as natural automated lighting for when the Sun started setting. It was considered esoteric because, mysteriously, the light it shined exceeded the light that it absorbed.

The other was a plant that could shine endlessly as long as it was healthy.

Both of these were extremely economical and cheap ways of generating light that there was practically no incentive to use anything else as a source of light, including fire which required fuel that cost money.

"Well, this advanced civilization, advanced as it was, did not use moonshine rock that can be found literally everywhere in the Panamic Continent," Rui replied. "They used firewood across the entire metropolis despite its massive inconvenience. There is some anthropological evidence that they even had processes for drying wood during monsoons to ensure that they could light fires. Why didn't this clearly sophisticated civilization employ moonshine instead?"

Kane's eyes swam around, deep in thought. "Yeah, that's kinda crazy, not gonna lie."

"It would be one thing if some environmental reasons, such as particular topographies like deserts, prevented them from having access to moonshine. But, as far as anthropologists can tell, this seems to be universal across lost cities," Rui remarked. "That isn't the only instance. Putting aside rare esoteric phenomena, lost cities did not have any records indicating that they were aware of more common esoteric phenomena that are nigh-universal in our civilization today. It's extremely bizarre."

"It definitely feels really weird," Kane murmured, immersed in his thoughts.

"It's especially absurd when you consider that these lost cities are in the Beast Domain, which contains even more esoteric wonders than the Human Domain. So, a stark lack of esotericism in their civilization has completely flummoxed anthropologists and historians. It's just reality-defying. This is why no one has understood lost cities. Not even the best of minds that humanity has to offer in regard to these fields, like the Scrier, the Esoterist, and the Ecologer, have been able to whip up an explanation as to what all of this means."

None of this was common knowledge.

In fact, much of what Rui had told Kane was classified. The existence of lost cities had not been discovered until after the Age of Martial Art was founded. It had shattered the known understanding of human history and was dealt with in an extremely careful and furtive manner.

While the existence of lost cities could not be kept secret, many of its ramifications were deemed to be worth censoring until they gained a better understanding of what had happened.

It was a stupid decision as far as Rui was concerned. They should have never hidden the full extent of the truth and divulged everything from the very get-go in the spirit of the pursuit of truth. But alas, that wasn't nearly as much of a thing here in the Panama Continent as it was back on Earth.

Naturally, as prince and successor to the throne, he had learned everything there was to know, to a basic degree.

It changed his view of human history on the Panama Continent.

The current conventional understanding of human history was based on Panamic civilization in the human domain, which has only comprised a thousand years of history. It was remarkably simple when looked at as a whole. It was marked by the believed and theorized transition from nomadic to settlement. From there on, civilization grew increasingly sophisticated as humans made greater use of the magical resources that the Panama Continent had to offer, expanding, developing, and engaging in war with each other until five hundred years later, the Age of Martial Art was born.

However, evolutionists agreed that the human species had been around for far longer than a thousand years.

This meant that the history constructed from available evidence only told a minute fraction of the totality of human history since the inception of the species.