On the beach of Magnolia, the sun was brilliant, the sea breeze carried a salty-damp scent, and white seagulls circled overhead.
Levy stood on the sand with the treasure map in her hand. She adjusted her glasses and looked around: "It should be around here. Start digging!"
With the order given, everyone sprang into action.
One by one, they rolled up their sleeves, preparing to put in some hard work.
Gray habitually rolled up nothing. He looked down and realized, oh, he was down to just his boxers again, though it actually seemed normal on a beach.
He froze for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief. Finally, he wouldn't be criticized for stripping.
Riyao and Mirajane sat on lounge chairs by the beach, leisurely watching them dig.
Both had used Requip Magic to change into swimwear: Riyao wore pink beach shorts, while Mirajane wore a white swimsuit, her long silver hair shimmering in the sunlight.
Riyao was applying sunscreen to Mirajane's shoulders, his movements meticulous and earnest as his fingers slowly spread the white lotion along her elegant shoulder line.
Mirajane half-squinted her eyes, a lazy smile playing on her lips as she enjoyed Riyao's service:
"Mmm Apply it a bit more evenly"
"Don't worry, this is a craft passed down for thirty years."
On the beach, everyone showed off their unique skills.
Lucy was digging away with a shovel, sand flying everywhere as she muttered under her breath.
"Rent! Rent! Treasure! Rent! Treasure!"
She chanted with every shovel full of sand, as if cheering herself on.
Happy flapped his wings and flew over, hovering above Lucy's head with a sharp tongue.
"Stupid Lucy, why don't you use Virgo?"
Lucy roared back without even looking up, absolutely refusing to admit she had forgotten.
"Shut up! You smelly cat! I want to dig it up with my own hands!"
Natsu stood beside a sand pit, took a deep breath, and raised his right fist high.
"Fire Dragons Iron Fist!"
He smashed his fist into the beach. With a boom, sand shot into the sky like a fountain, raining down on the surroundings. He did dig a pit, but his aim was off; all the sand sprayed onto Gray's head nearby.
Gray wiped the sand from his face, gritting his teeth.
"Natsu! You want to fight?"
Natsu gave a cheeky grin: "Sorry, sorry!"
Gray didn't bother with him. He pressed his hands together, and ice-blue magic power condensed in his palms.
He formed a massive ice drill. The drill spun at high speed, emitting a piercing buzz. Gray raced across the beach holding the drill, leaving a deep trench wherever he went as sand was thrown over two meters high.
Cana drew a card from her waist, a smug smile on her face.
The back of that card had a swirling pattern. If a card player saw this card, they would certainly find it familiar.
This was an exclusive card co-created by Gildarts and Riyao. Riyao had used Enchantment Magic to record Gildarts's Crush Magic onto it.
She held the card as a magic circle appeared: "Crush!"
A shockwave shot out from the card and slammed into the beach, instantly crushing out a perfectly square pit with edges as neat as if they had been measured with a ruler.
Erza had changed into a miner's outfit—yes, she even had a miner's outfit. Wearing a hard hat, overalls, and tall boots, she swung a pickaxe with simple, unadorned movements to begin digging.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
With every swing of the pickaxe, a pit half a meter deep was turned up in the sand. She dug quickly and steadily, and in no time, she had excavated a massive hole over ten meters deep, the rhythm of her pickaxe like a steady beat.
Lisanna also took over the Soul of a Mole. Two round mole ears sprouted from her short pink hair, and her hands turned into sharp claws.
She tunneled through the sand like a nimble fish, leaving behind a series of winding tunnels.
As everyone displayed their skills, the beach became a mess, riddled with pits and trenches as if it had been bombarded by a meteor shower.
After finishing applying sunscreen to Mirajane, Riyao leaned back in his lounge chair. With one arm around Mirajane's waist and a glass of coconut juice in the other hand, he watched the others work leisurely: "Keep it up~"
From time to time, someone would dig trash out of a sand pit.
Natsu dragged a piece of red fabric out of the sand, waving it excitedly.
"Ohoho! Is this the treasure's flag?!"
Gray was controlling his ice drill nearby when he heard Natsu's shout and turned his head.
The moment he saw the red fabric clearly, his pupils shrank. His hand twitched, and the drill veered off course.
Boom!
The ice drill crashed directly into Natsu, and the two rolled into a heap as sand flew everywhere.
The red fabric was tossed into the air and landed squarely on Gray's face.
Gray yanked the fabric off. After seeing what it was, his entire face instantly turned the color of pig liver. He frantically threw the cloth as far as he could: "You idiot Fire Dragon! These are underpants!!! And they're size XXXXL!"
Natsu poked his head out from the pile of sand, looking innocent: "Ah? Really?"
Lisanna had a long face. Clutching her knees, she limped over to Riyao and Mirajane and crouched on the sand.
Mirajane reached out and gently patted her sister's head, her fingertips touching a large, bulging bump.
"What happened?"
Lisanna took the opportunity to hug Mirajane's thigh, rubbing against her while whimpering.
"I hit a rock, it hurts so much..."
Her mole ears drooped, and she looked quite pitiful.
Riyao, who was laughing nearby, reached out and gently pressed his fingertip against the bump on Lisanna's head. A pale golden light flowed from his finger: "Don't move, I'll heal you."
The warm light enveloped the bump. Lisanna felt the pain fading bit by bit, and the swelling slowly flattened.
On the other side, Cana continued to release her Crush Magic: "Crush!"
A shockwave slammed into the beach, crushing out a square trench. Seawater poured in along the edges of the trench, rushing into the massive ten-meter-deep hole Erza had dug.
"Waaaaah!"
Erza was drenched by the sudden influx of seawater, her red hair sticking to her face and her miner's hard hat knocked askew.
She jumped out of the pit, dripping wet, and roared at Cana in a huff.
"Cana! Stop using Crush Magic recklessly!"
Cana stuck out her tongue and put away her card with an innocent look:
"Oops, my hand slipped~"
After everyone's hard work, the entire beach had been plowed over and over again. Pits and trenches were everywhere, and trash was piled into a small mountain: broken bottles, old shoes, rusty tin cans, dentures someone had lost... it had everything, with flip-flops being the most common.
Just as everyone was about to give up.
A pink head popped up from the sand.
Virgo emerged from underground, an elegant smile still on her face. She held a large chest in her arms, which was carved with complex patterns and looked ancient and mysterious.
"Princess, Virgo has found the treasure~"