Chapter 169 32.1 Open World?

Letting out a sigh, I found myself standing in front of one of the bridge's massive windows as I stared out into the red waters, millions of tiny errors floating about and crashing against the bow of the ship as we rocked ever so gently in the mercy of the Deep. Nothing had happened yet, but I'd take that as a good thing rather than taking it as life being boring enough to be monotonous.

"Wonder what time it is right now..."

I chuckled at my own solitude as I sighed. I didn't know why Guidance left me earlier, but I could only assume that she just wanted some sleep and promptly ignored me trying to ask for more. She could always have her privacy, as did any person had the right to the thing.

Still, that left me alone with nothing but walking around the bridge to pass the time. I guess I could go outside on the deck to talk to Maruki, but I highly doubt that the man would even welcome the distraction, seeing as the tank was practically standing at the ready even though there wasn't even an enemy [Rig] or speck of light outside.

I sighed. Walking back towards the main console, I brought up the charts again as I absently thought about what else I should do.

I've already fiddled with my stats earlier, and it barely even took me an hour as I selected my new batch of [Quirks] to hopefully add more survivability to my arsenal. Granted, what I got wasn't really the best, I could only hope that they'd at least kick in at the times where I most needed them.

And that wasn't to mention the [Moves] I just unlocked. Jumping through two prerequisite levels, I got two new tools to play with if we ever got into trouble again. Granted, I still didn't know how they really worked, their descriptions sounded straightforward enough that I shouldn't have any problems trying to incorporate them into any sort of fight that I might get into.

"Maybe I should ask of a spar later..." I absently thought aloud. "Assuming that we can even do so without us sinking the damn thing..."

Yeah... There was no way that we'd be able to do more than casual sparring on board the [Rig]. Anything more destructive would just have us damaging the vessel needlessly, and we wouldn't want to be caught dead in the middle of the Deep with a sinking ship and nothing but Shen's [Manifest] to keep us from sinking.

Which, now that I thought about it, was kind of busted in terms of resource management.

I mean, with Shen's power, we wouldn't even need to use metal sheets or wooden planks to patch up holes or gashes. She just had to whack the problem with her wrench and it'd be fixed. It was almost too good to be true.

"Heh... The things you could do to that wrench..."

I guess that was just me being lucky with finding her. It didn't matter that she looked like a kid. So long as she was good at her job, then she was useful...

Aand I'm getting sidetracked again.

"Guess I can just look at the map," I sighed, absently toying with the disengaged trackball as I rolled it with my fingertips. "Map out a course or something...."

Looking at the map, we were a ways away from the Kattleynan coastline now. I managed to sail us out just beyond Imperial jurisdiction, landing us in what I could only describe as international waters as we drifted near a few neutral islands.

Still, where else would we go from here? I guess we could land on the nearest island that was just a few hours from where we currently were... Or we could go straight to Vestyge like what that final quest I got told us to do. Not sure I could chart that far ahead, but I could see it happening...

"What else was there to do..."

We could also go directly to our right and sail our way to Marquee. Shizu had expressed interest in trying to go there, partly because of this so-called superweapon that the small country might be developing. Heh, looking at the three countries in the chart right now, it was obvious that Marquee was the smallest of them all.

I guess it really was a City-State. Like Singapore back in the old world, I supposed.

Letting out a sigh, I focused more of my attention on what was mapped out as international waters. There were islands scattered through the Deep, it seemed, and there were also a few notable landmarks that were specifically pointed out by the chart.

Specifically, Port Sendoff and the Pelagarchi Archipelago.

"Places of note then..."

Looking at their relative location, the port seemed to be positioned near the mouth of the Shallow Deep itself. The charts stop there though, so it was probably a frontier port of some kind. The Archipelago meanwhile, was located in between Vestyge and Marquee, the entire region being closer to the former as it dotted the seas like a cluster of pox. Well, that was putting it in a bad light, but the fact that it had a dashed outline of its own meant that it was probably a minor country of some kind.

The source of this content is n0v//elbin[./]net'

"The Three Great Nations, huh..."

Clearly, the chart was biased for the three of them, with their land areas and respective territorial waters being outlined in their respective spheres of influence. But if that Archipelago and Port was anything to go by, there were probably a few small isolated states out there allied or at war with either of the three factions. Maybe they were supposed to be tied with the Faction system somehow? Some kind of reputation mechanic that would allow me to visit or befriend them?

Letting off a sigh, I shrugged as I leaned on the console. I could always just ask Guidance once she was up again. Either way, there was nothing for me to do except wait for the rest to come back up to the bridge. At least by then, I'd have something to do except twiddling my thumbs and hoping for the best.

That, and so that I could distract myself from the possibility that I might just become a father far beyond my time.

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