"Four?"
A smile appeared on Rojen's face; he was quite pleased.
Shandora had a long, ancient history, and because it had been destroyed so suddenly, who knew how many ancient treasures were still buried beneath this land? Honestly, Rojen would have been delighted if they had found even one treasure site. Raki's news was far better than he had expected.
"The closest one is located in one of Shandora's warehouses."
Raki led the group forward with a clear destination in mind.
Rojen and the others exchanged glances. They couldn't tell what any of Shandora's buildings had originally been used for. Lordling and Robin could make rough guesses, but even they couldn't be certain.
Raki, however, seemed to have no trouble identifying them.
About half an hour later, she led everyone to a ruined structure.
"I can't see how this was ever a warehouse," Trens said, looking puzzled.
To be precise, the place looked more like a mountain of rubble.
"Are there really treasures here?" The crew was skeptical. No matter how they looked at it, all they could see was an abandoned pile of broken stones.
Rojen said nothing, simply looking at Raki.
She compared the surroundings with the map several more times before confidently declaring, "It's here. I'm sure of it!"
"Then start digging," Rojen ordered.
Since she had confirmed this was the warehouse, there was no reason not to try.
This was exactly the kind of job Crocodile excelled at.
The moment he activated the power of the Suna Suna no Mi, huge amounts of rubble began collapsing and turning into sand. To everyone's astonishment, the enormous pile of ruins covering several hundred square meters rapidly disintegrated into swirling clouds of dust.
"Condense." Crocodile took a drag from his cigar and calmly uttered the single word.
The vast cloud of dust began spinning and compressing inward. After a few seconds, an enormous sphere of stone appeared in midair, rotating slowly.
The sight left the Nether Soul Pirates amazed.
So many years had passed, and while everyone had grown stronger, none of them really knew how far the others had progressed. Crocodile's display alone was enough to show just how formidable he had become.
Turning rubble into sand and then gathering that sand back into solid stone was no simple feat. It was clear his control over his Devil Fruit had reached an extremely refined level.
But the person most shocked by the scene was Raki. Her mouth hung open, and for a long time, she couldn't close it.
These people had already given her one shock after another, and now the heavily built man who had barely spoken a word since their arrival had displayed such incredible power. He had turned stone to sand and then controlled that sand as easily as breathing.
To Raki, it was as if he could command the earth itself. Her entire understanding of the world was being overturned. She simply couldn't imagine that people capable of wielding such power actually existed.
"There's a hole here!" Dragon-Elephant Three suddenly shouted, running over.
"Shandora's warehouse should be underground. That's it! This must be the warehouse!" Raki snapped out of her daze and immediately confirmed.
Everyone hurried over.
The opening was small, with no rubble covering it anymore. Only a thin layer of dust had concealed it, making it extremely easy to overlook.
"Crocodile," Rojen called out.
Crocodile nodded and waved his hand. The rubble blocking the entrance shifted aside, revealing a set of stairs hidden underneath.
"This is it!"
The crew's faces lit up with excitement.
The stone steps had developed numerous cracks after centuries of decay, but they were still more or less intact.
Rojen and the others didn't hesitate. They waited a few minutes to let fresh air circulate through the underground warehouse, then descended.
The underground chamber was pitch-black, but it gradually brightened as everyone entered.
Chaporos held up a torch and hurried down the stairs while the others examined their surroundings. The walls and ceiling were riddled with cracks, and the unstable structure made them somewhat uneasy.
Then Chaporos's scream suddenly echoed through the chamber.
"Oh my God!"
"Everyone, get down here!"
"We've struck it rich!"
His voice trembled with excitement; he was practically beside himself.
Rojen and the others exchanged glances before quickly heading down.
The moment they entered the main chamber, everyone stood frozen, mouths wide open in speechless awe.
The torch crackled as it burned, casting a warm golden glow throughout the room. And under that light, they could clearly see what covered the floor, piled into countless small mountains.
"Gold!"
"More gold than we can count!"
Everyone cried out in astonishment.
It wasn't that they lacked composure, there was simply too much gold here. The sheer scale of the treasure was enough to shake anyone.
Under the torchlight, golden ornaments, utensils, and countless other objects were piled up everywhere. They were scattered across the chamber like weeds, dazzling the eyes.
They swore they had never seen so much gold in their entire lives.
Even Rojen drew a sharp breath, his heart beating faster. Faced with such immense wealth, remaining calm was nearly impossible.
This was a fortune unlike anything any of them had ever seen, the treasures of Shandora, lost to history for centuries.
At that moment, Rojen even wondered whether Enel had discovered this very gold in the original story and used it to build his golden ship. Otherwise, it was hard to explain where Enel had gotten so much gold.
"There's so much… What are we supposed to do with all of it?" Trens took a deep breath, his voice trembling.
"There's far too much. We can't possibly carry all of it away. And honestly, taking even a fraction would be enough for us to live comfortably for the rest of our lives," Jason sighed.
As pirates, they certainly liked treasure. But when there was this much, it became nothing more than a number. What they needed more was strength.
"That's right. There's simply too much gold here. We can't take it all with us," Lordling agreed.
Everyone understood the moment they saw it that there was no way they could carry away the entire fortune.
But Rojen's eyes suddenly flickered.
"My friends, I might actually have to take all this gold with me."
"Huh?" Everyone turned to look at him, confusion in their eyes.
"I have a way to carry it all. But…" Rojen paused, looking seriously at everyone present. "I have a use for this gold."
The others were confused, but Jason and his two companions immediately realized what he meant. They remembered Rojen's mysterious power, whenever Rojen suddenly became stronger, it seemed to require an enormous amount of wealth.
"We understand," Jason nodded. "Take as much as you need, Captain. Even if we took all this gold ourselves, we wouldn't be able to use most of it anyway."
"Exactly. What I'm looking forward to is you leading us into the New World so we can carve out a place for ourselves there."
"The New World… and Whitebeard's territory. We're nowhere near strong enough yet."
Jason and the other two spoke in turn, their voices solemn.
The rest of the crew merely glanced at the mountains of gold once more and raised no objections. They certainly liked treasure, especially a fortune this enormous, but none of them were greedy. Nor did the sight of such wealth awaken any dark thoughts in them.
To every single one of them, their companions and the bonds they shared were worth far more than gold.
(End Of This Chapter)
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