Last chapter, Seric and Karia managed to escape Magthera whole being chased by the Hopian Army. However, when they went to return to their boat it turns out that it could not handle the heat of the water, and so Seric was forced to summon the pure white ship he used in the trail. Now, Seric and Karia sail out with their new boat on the open Hopian Waters.

Seric's P.O.V.

"Ahhhh. Let's chill out for a while. After that we both need it." Karia says with a sigh as she lays on the floor of the boat.

"Hey, pal! Sorry but, it looks like I got laid before you! Hahahahahahahahaha!" My Best Friend says to me telepathically.

"Laying down and getting laid are two different things! Now be quiet will you, I would rather not look insane again." I respond back to him.

"Yeah, no kidding. You especially need it." I say honestly.

"I wonder what's been going on lately." Karia says as she lazily picks up the electronic tablet map, holding it over her face as she lies down.

"Hm? Isn't that just a map?" I ask confused.

"Not even close, it can do anything from searching the internet to playing games." She replies.

"Huh?! Cool! So, what are you doing now?" I say as I walk over to her, the boat now floating on it's own.

"So they still haven't found out what that thing was..." Karia says as she sadly looks at what seems to be a news article.

"Hm? Found out about what?" I ask.

"Oh right, you wouldn't know. Well, there used to be an island called Aprase. The island was a nice place, and was liked by a lot of people because of how little technology there was. I even snuck off some of my shifts to go there, heh." She says.

"Why am I not surprised... And anyways, what happened to it?" I ask.

"Just a few weeks ago, a Commander who has the same rank as the girl you saw at Vegahold, was visiting the island. His name... was Erucid. Just like the island, his kindness and ways to cheer people up was loved by almost everyone in Hopian, even me. But... On the same day he was there, something appeared on the island, something unnatural. A monster appeared, and it instantly started to kill everything in sight, so of course Erucid tried to stop it..." Karia stops for a moment, and she doesn't have to finish for me to understand.

"And he lost... right?" I say carefully as this seems like a serious topic for Karia.

"A few hours later, when the Hopian Army was finally notified and came to the island... Everyone who was there, had been slaughtered. Each one having limbs torn off, and a look of fear on their faces even though they were already dead. Erucid, even being one of the strongest people in Hopian, suffered the same fate. It wasn't for nothing though, because the monster never left the island of Aprase, and so it was able to be captured." She says sadly.

"That's a true way to die. He lived his life helping people, and he died doing the same." I reply honestly to cheer Karia up.

"You're right, if more Hopian Soldiers were like him this territory would be a better place. Now most of them are just as shitty as the Hopian Continent itself." She says with a laugh.

"And from what I'm guessing you said before, they never found out what the monster really was right?" I ask.

"Yeah... Well, that's what the news says at least, since there were no witness's other than the soldiers who came after the fight. Anyways, I'm gonna go for a swim." Karia says as she puts the tablet down and stands up, stretching out her arms.

"Eh? Swim? There's no pool he- wait, don't tell me!" I say in shock.

"No pool? There's one right here!" Karia says as she shamelessly takes off her shirt and pants right in front of me.

"Hey!! What are... What are you doing?!" I say with a blush on my face, looking away from her.

"Hmmmm? What? You've never seen a girl in a bikini before?" Karia laughs, and a second later I hear a splash in the water.

"Are you crazy?! There could be anything out there!" I say as I look at her floating, trying to reason with her.

"Oh please, there's never anything in these parts. I would say for you to come in as well, but why would I want to swim with an 116 year old man?" She says with a smirk.

"Hmph. Yeah that's right, I'm too mature for little kids games like that." I say as I look away and pout.

Karia continues to float around in the water, and to my surprise she actually seems like a confident swimmer, as she can handle the slight waves in the open ocean rather easily.

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A few minutes later, Karia finally climbs back onto the boat.

"Hey, can you pass me a towel? I think I put one somewhere in that room." She says as she starts to drain the water out of her long purple hair.

I nod and go to the empty room filled with all of our stuff, and after a bit of looking I find one and come back out.

Karia's sitting down on one of the pure white seats connected to the side of the boat, with her left hand going through her hair while she drinks out of a water bottle with the other.

"Ah... Oh, Seric. Throw it over." She says as she holds out her hand to catch the towel.

"Oh, uh... Ha..." I try to talk but I can't, as I can't handle Karia in nothing but her pink polka dotted bikini, still drenched in water making it more see through.

"Thank you... God of pervs, thank you!" I think to myself as I zone out, or more realisticaly zone in.

"Heh, I guess you do still have the maturity of a kid." She says with a laugh as she walks up to me, taking the towel out of my hand.

"Whatever..." I say with a blush as I look away.

"Oh, I guess we should get the cooking stuff ready." Karia says as she quickly dries herself off and puts on a new pair of clean clothes, being once again a simple plain purple T-shirt, as well as another new pair of blue jeans.

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Think about this - If Aeko was smart enough, he could have made himself a suit of armor and used his blessing on it, making him and his weapons completely invisible and able to defeat enemies from long range or close range with ease.
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After a little while, me and Karia finally finish setting up the cooking apparatus, with it being a wireless oven and stove, as well as a portable cupboard stuck to the floor with all of the utensils inside. Other than that, we also set up the wireless dishwasher, which uses filtered water from the ocean, and with that we also set up a drinking water system with the filtered water.

"Alright! That's about everything. Wait... Never mind, we don't have a washroom." Karia says with a slightly concerned face.

"Well, I'm fine but yeah you'll probably need one though." It still feels weird for me to say that.

"...Eh, I'll make do." Karia says with a shrug.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I think to myself nervously.

"So, now what?" I ask her as she fiddles around with the new appliances. The fact that they don't even need to be plugged in whatsoever still amazes me.

"Like we agreed on before let's chill out for a bit."

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And so, we did. Both of us needed break, as up until a little while ago we were moving nonstop.

So for the days of our break, we spent it on the same small pure white boat, getting to know each other more, and playing some board and card games Karia had laying around from the old boat, as well as Karia using her tablet.

Considering Hopian was meant to be futuristic, I'm surprised at how little technology Karia had on the boat other than her tablet. I guess not everyone likes stuff like that?

Anyways, finally, today she was being generous and reluctantly let me do something I've been wanting to do for while.

"...Fine. You can play some games on my tablet if you're bored. I'm gonna take a nap in the sun, you know the drill if anything happens just wake me up."

Karia says as she heads into the junk room, pulling out a foldable lawn chair and laying it on the pure white deck of the ship.

Even after all these days, the junk room is still a mess. The motto for us is "Eh, we'll clean it later."

"Actually?! Thanks a lot, this thing looks really cool!" I say with enthusiasm as Karia lays herself on the chair, putting on a pair of shades to protect her eyes from the sun that's shining through the light blue sky.

"Just be quiet though, and don't delete any of my stuff or get any viruses please. So when it says to "meet hot girls in your area", do not, I repeat do NOT press it. "
Karia says, and I reply with a simple "Mm", even though I'm a bit confused on that last part.

I sit on one of the built in pure white chairs, and turn the tablet back on.

"Hm... Now that I think about it, getting to know more about this world in general is probably more important that playing games. For now. Heh." I think to myself semi-maturely.

To start off, of course I type "Hopian" into the basic internet browser.

"I'm oddly familiar with how this works, I guess I am a Hopian after all..." I think to myself as I zone out a bit.

After a few seconds the first thing that pops up is a link called "Protect your loved ones, make a change.", as the top search.

"Hm? This looks legit, I wonder what it is..."
And so I click on the link, which brings me to a video.

"ALL HOPIANS, ATTTTENTION!!!" Blares out of the tablet which makes me almost drop it, and I quickly turn down the volume and head into the storage room.

"Holy shit, did that wake Karia up?!" I think to myself as I'm laughing a bit.

I then turn my focus back to the video.

"Do you, yes YOU feel tired of how your living? Always in fear of not having enough money, and feeling like your life has no meaning?" The masculine voice says more calmly now.

"Well then, become one of us! Protect your loved ones, the territory you love! Being a soldier will make you more than enough money to support your families, and plus you get to move into one of our major stations, like Vegahold, free of charge!" The voice says with enthusiasm, which I can now understand why this man would do an advertisement about this.

"You think that's all?! Not even close! That's only what a basic Soldier gets! As you continue to serve us, your rank will increase, from Soldier, to SEARGEEENT, to Officer, and finally, ...To Commander!! And of course... Maybe you could even become the leader of the Hopian Army! Each rank you go up, you'll get better rewards! So what the hell are you doing sitting around?! JOIN US!"

"I wonder what rank that guy has..." I think to myself sarcastically.

After showing a montage of smiling soldiers in battle with classic military music in the background, the video ends with a final "Join us".

"Karia said she was an officer before, right? I guess she really is strong. I don't exactly get why she would ruin her chances at becoming a Commander though. Didn't her position help out her family too?" I think to myself with many questions.

"Also, I guess that woman we met at Vegahold and that guy named Erucid are the real deal. The fact that we escaped from one of them is probably a miracle on its own." I continue to think.

"Anyways, what else should I know? Oh! I could look up what the other islands are like- no, the Hopian Continent" I then go back and type that in exactly, and a bunch of images pop up of a highly technologically advanced city.

I don't get what Dahai and Suzie were talking about, as from what I'm seeing the city looks beautiful, with a slick looking bullet train, as well as many fancy apartment complexes. It looks kind of cramped with all the buildings but with that much indoor fun I don't think it would be that bad.

What really catches my eye though is one of the casinos, which is a ginormous hotel with a fancy entrance, entirely lit up by red and golden neon lights. It's much taller than the monotone buildings next to it, which makes it all the more stylish.

"Whoa! That is definitely something I would wanna check out!" I think to myself as I click on the image which brings me to a website.

" "Fixed Reality"... What kind of name is that?" I whisper to myself as I continue to scroll through the website.

"Kekehehehehe, tired of your silly ol' life? Tired of... the streets? Well come on down, and we'll fix your reality!" A jolly voice says through a video, with no images to be seen.

I'm about to continue listening to the video, until I hear an approaching sound in the water outside.

Going outside, out of nowhere, a giant silver ship is now right next to our puny boat, with torn up white sails, along with a metal figurehead of a phoenix.

"HOLY SHIT!!!" I yell out which immediately wakes Karia up.

"What?!" She replies grumpily, until she looks over at what I see.

"Oh, I guess they want some of our booty." Karia somehow laughs carelessly.

A/N: Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the down time and learning more about Hopian!

I guess I'll ask, what was the most interesting thing about this chapter?

If you enjoyed, I hope you consider voting or commenting, and see you next week!