The port town of Caracol was a simple town, barely a sovereign state if it could even be considered that. The town's energy refreshed Rui, although it was a bustling and densely populated town, the air and the atmosphere felt rejuvenating. Rui could tell that the town's entire economy was centered around the fact that it was a coastal town.
A few steps into the town and he could already see a market selling sea products and related services. The many harbors along the coast welcomed many boats and ships while bidding just as many away. It seemed like a popular checkpoint for sea travel.
Rui and Kane indulged themselves with a hearty meal. Rui couldn't even remember the last time he consumed food, he had been busy dealing with the greatest crisis of his second life that he had forgotten to engage in basic living things. Hell, he had even forgotten to breathe sometimes.
"Oh mannn," Kane groaned as he heartily consumed some local seafood dishes. "I can't get enough of this. This stuff is delicious! You have to try it out, man."
Rui didn't even bother replying. He was stuffing himself with so much food so fast that even his evolved digestion system was struggling to keep up!
Kane was right.
Food was godly when a person was starved of it.
It wasn't an hour later until Rui was finally satisfied, he was so stuffed that he felt as though he wouldn't be able to sky-walk even if he wanted to. The two of them booked two rooms in an inn, before resting the entire day.
It was until the next day that Rui regained an alert state of mind.
('Maybe falling dead asleep was not the best choice,') Rui massaged his head, but he felt a lot more at ease after finally getting some rest now that the escape from Chairman Deacon had been a success.
He quickly bathed, freshening up as he left his room alone. He didn't want to disturb Kane who was sleeping.
Walking around town aimlessly in a serene manner was therapeutic and relaxing. The Shionel Confederation had been quite stressful, in hindsight. Although it definitely made him stronger, the constant worrying about political enemies who had the power to crush him was tiring in ways that he didn't even realize until he had finally removed himself from that situation.
('In hindsight, it felt like the battle against Chairman Deacon was harder than the battle against the Root,') Rui sighed, shaking his head.
He would rather avoid subjecting himself to something like that ever again, as much as he could again. He was not naive enough to believe that he could avoid it forever. However, next time, he should probably gain a better understanding of how bad things could go.
Especially when his opponents were powerful enough to squash him like an insect.
Pursuing his Martial Art and pursuing power without all this nonsense seemed much better. Ideally, he ought to focus on cultivating his Martial Art and pursuing his Martial Path in solitude, but in reality, he had needs that necessarily intersected with human civilization.
For instance, while he could rely on himself to create brand-new techniques out of scratch, it was a lot more convenient to get the basic building blocks for his Martial Art by breaking apart existing techniques using certain components from them. He had no interest in wasting time reinventing wheels.
However, it wasn't as though these techniques were engraved into mountains for anyone to be able to learn at any given point. He needed to seek out the people who did possess these techniques.
That was never a problem before since he had the Martial Union, which seemingly possessed every single technique under the Sun. Even in the Shionel Confederation, he could rely on the Martial Union to provide him with everything he needed for mastering the Godspeed technique partially.
However, now that he had distanced himself from them and intended to go far away, he could no longer rely on them when he needed to get his hands on certain techniques and other training resources.
That necessarily meant that he needed to interact with other organizations and states that would be willing to perform exchanges with him. He would probably need to offer his services to complete a few missions for them.
He heaved a sigh at the thought, but unless he built his own sovereign state that had garnered enough bargaining power or something like that, he could forget about simply gaining access to them whenever he wished.
('Well, we can put that aside for now,') Rui shook his head. ('Time to do some research on the Umiana Trench and what is necessary to get in on that action.')
He was sure that he would be able to find information from the locals on the Umiana Trench, though he wasn't sure how many of them spoke the international dialect. However, given that this port town was on the ocean that the Umiana Trench was a part of, he could definitely find some information surrounding it.
('Ah, Kane worked up,') His sense pricked as he noticed Kane waking up back at the inn.
He quickly went to fetch his friend.
"Eh, you want to leave?" Kane rubbed his eyes, yawning. "I dunno Rui… This town is great. In fact, I dunno if I ever wanna leave. Maybe I could just get a house here, find a woman and make a family and live peacefully for the rest of my life."
"Weren't you complaining about how you wouldn't be able to see Fae anymore the other day?"
"Nobody's missing her stuck-up ass," Kane snorted.
"Riiight," Rui peered at him with narrow eyes, amused inwardly.
"On second thoughts, let's get going," Kane waved him away. "I wanna see what the hype surrounding the Umiana Trench is all about. You're taking full responsibility if it doesn't live up to the hype."
"I didn't make the trench," Rui shrugged. "Find the Martial Sage and make her take responsibility."
"I'm good, thanks,"
The two of them bickered as they made their way through town.
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