42. Opening The Crate

The Clown Pirates are currently sailing with Salaki after leaving Ruji Village. They haven't decided their destination, they just sail on the sea.

"Hey, let's check the treasure crate."-Cricket

"Oh, you're right. I'm curious with it, Salaki have guard it for years after all."-Mantis

"Hey Salaki, let's check the crate!"-Buggy

Salaki raises her head to look. The crate has some big locks on it to keep it safe. They don't have the keys, so they try to bust it, but the locks & the crate itself are really sturdy.

"Damn, this thing is really tough, it seems we need more power to open it. Let's go to an uninhabited island, we'll break the ship if we use full power to break it."-Buggy

The Clowns go to a nearby uninhabited island. They go to a small island on Leo Star Archipelago. The archipelago has islands that are shaped like Leo Star Constellation, that's why it's named like that.

They arrive after 6 hours and drop the anchor on a beach. They take the crate to the island and get ready to open it. The first one to try is Cricket. He hit the crate using a hammer with all his might, but it didn't even crack.

"Damn, what kind of wood is this? It didn't even crack after such hard attacks."-Cricket

"Let me try."-Buggy

Buggy comes forward and places the crate in front of a rocky cliff. Buggy then gets into a horse stance, ready to punch the crate. He cock his right hand, and cover it with haki. Buggy takes a deep breath and punches it with all his power.

"HAAP!"-Buggy

*BOOM*

The punch creates a big impact, and it even crack the rocky cliff, but the crate only cracked a little. Of course, this surprised everyone there.

"Is this crate made out of Adam Wood?"-Buggy

"Adam Wood? What's that?"-Jude

Adam wood, produced by the Holy Tree Adam. A very strong tree that survived the destruction of a war on an island. The legendary ship of Pirate King, Oro Jackson's base structures was made from this wood.

"Honestly, I really want to make a ship from this wood too. It will survive many extreme situations, I've seen it myself with Oro Jackson. But the price is really high, that's why we need a lot of money to buy it. Even our 300 million beri will just be enough to make a small ship."-Buggy

"It's that expensive?"-Mantis

"It's the best wood after all."-Buggy

The Clowns understand why Buggy wants to use adam wood. They've seen the toughness of Adam wood themselves after all. A ship is a sailor's life & home, so they need to make a strong ship if they want to raise their survival chance on the sea.

"Salaki, I guess this is also your problem right?"-Buggy grin and look at Salaki

Salaki looks away and avoids Buggy's gaze with a guilty expression.

"What do you mean, Captain?"-Jude

"She said she guard it for so many years. I thought it's because this crate is from her friend or owner, but it's not. She just wants the crate, but she can't open it."-Buggy smirk

"..... So she just wants to have the crate for herself?"-Jude

"Yeah, she guards it until she's strong enough to break it open by herself."-Buggy

The others look at Salaki with a disappointed look, make the snake have cold sweats. They can't blame her though, because they know she must've been very curious about it, like them.

"So what should we do now?"-Cricket

"We'll use wood's weakness, fire."-Buggy

"We'll burn it?"-Mantis

"Only the top part. We will burn it until it turns into charcoal, so it will break easier."-Buggy

The Clown pirates start their plan and burn the crate's top side. They can burn it, but the wood only turns into charcoal completely after 5 hours. The day has turned into the night already now. The wood is really tough and can survive fire for this long.

After the top part turns into charcoal, they splash water on it to put the fire off. Then they use a hammer to break the charcoal. Even after turning into charcoal, they still need a lot of power to break it.

"Such resilient wood. I agree with your plan to use this wood for our ship, Captain."-Cricket

"Yeah, we all agree."-Mantis

"That's good to hear then."-Buggy

The Clowns & Salaki now can see some items inside the crate. They take the items out to have a better look. They see many gold coins, some pieces of jewelry, and gems like usual treasure boxes. However, some things intrigue them too.

"A pair of interesting-looking shortswords that seem to have high quality, 2 books, a map, and a devil fruit. What a wealth, the one who amassed it must be a great treasure hunter."-Buggy

The pirates look excited about the treasure they find. However, Salaki is disappointed by it. None of the content is to her liking. A wild snake like her doesn't need gold, weapons, a map, or even devil fruit.

Salaki now knows she can't swim again if she eats devil fruit, so she's not interested in it. If she opens the crate before meeting with Buggy, then she will eat the devil fruit without knowing the consequence.

"Well, you must be disappointed, right? You've waited for this moment for a long time, so of course, you'll be disappointed if you can't get anything from it."-Buggy

"Hisss."-Salaki plop to the ground in disappointment

"Hey, cheer up a little! At least you made some friends right?"-Cricket

"That's right, we can use the golds to buy something that you want, so it's not that bad."-Jude

"I'll cook you something that you'll like, so cheer up a little!"-Mantis

Salaki cheer up a little now and start to forget about her disappointment. It has happened, at least she finds out what's inside the crate now. She might keep guarding it until she died without knowing the content, so it's better like this.

The Clowns & Salaki throw a party for the treasures that they find now. It's a happy occasion, so they need to celebrate it. While partying, Buggy takes the 2 short swords that seem very interesting.

It's a pair of Kopis swords, with the almost exact same design. The blade's length is about 47 cm, and the hilt is 13 cm. The difference between both words is the color of the scabbard & hilt, one is white, while one is black.

(a.n: You can search for Kopis sword on Google, it's an ancient Greek sword.)

Buggy unsheaths the black sword and he feels something strange. He feels like there is something alive inside the sword. Buggy tries the other sword, and it feels the same.

'Is this like Enma? But these swords didn't absorb my haki, so it's different. Just what is it that I feel from them?'-Buggy

Buggy concentrate and try to figure it out. He flows his haki on the swords and feels a connection to them. When he gets connected with the swords, Buggy realizes what he feel previously, and he is really surprised by it.

"These swords, they've eaten devil fruit."-Buggy widen his eyes

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