333. Trap

While Buggy & Palu are excited about the wood, someone else is excited about another thing. Enel finds a broken treasure chest covered by grass that grows tall around it. Magnus who comes across him tells him that he should be careful of the treasure chest.

"What do you mean dangerous? It's just a broken chest with some pieces of treasures in it," says Enel.

"There might be something dangerous hidden among the treasures. I once found a stack of fruits in a forest on an uninhabited island. But when I tried to take some, a snake came out and bite me. The snake has an apple on its head which it used to lure its prey. Luckily the snake was very small and its venom was weak, so I was fine," says Magnus while recalling his unlucky experience.

Enel's expression turns blank and he ignores Magnus. The other team members also seem unimpressed by his story. They all focus on Enel who is approaching the treasures now.

"Yahaha, we have just getting started, but we've found treasures," says Enel gleefully.

"Maybe there are more treasures around this island," says a man in Enel's group.

"Yeah, the ancient civilization might have left many treasures like these," says a woman in Enel's group.

"It's quite strange that the treasures are in the forest instead of the ruins though," says a woman in Magnus's group.

"No, it makes sense actually, they must've hid it in the forest for safety," says Enel while crouching in front of the treasures.

The others now think the same and some people follow Enel to look at the treasures.

Enel picks some before he calls Magnus, "Big boy, why don't yo-."

Before Enel can finish the sentence, the ground below him suddenly collapses. Then a gigantic round mouth with a lot of giant fangs appears. Enel & the ones who were looking at the treasures fall into the mouth and get eaten.

The others get surprised and Magnus says, "I told you to be careful. Sigh~."

There's no look of worry on Magnus's face and the others'. They are surprised, but none of them are worried for their crewmates' safety. There's no reason to be worried with Enel there, after all.

They all just take some steps back after Magnus gives the order. Right when they step back, a massive lightning pillar appears from the big hole. It disappears after half a minute, and only then do Magnus & the others peek at the hole.

Enel flies out of the hole while cursing at the thing that ate him angrily. Then the others also come out by climbing the wall. They seem quite terrified and their hair also seems to get burnt. The thing that terrified them wasn't getting eaten, it was Enel's lightning that almost killed them.

"Team leader Enel, you almost killed us. You should just hit that thing, not your crewmates too," protests a man.

Enel answers pissedly, "Shut up! Just be glad that you are still alive. Don't whine just because of a small hit. AND STOP LAUGHING MAGNUS, YOU BASTARD!"

Magnus who tries to hold his laugh finally burst out and laughs out loud. "GAHAHAHA, I've told you to be careful, but you didn't listen."

Enel then shouts pissedly, "ARGH! AS IF ANYONE WOULD EXPECT THAT A GIANT MONSTER LIKE THAT WOULD APPEAR."

"Well, that's true, but the concept of carefulness is the same. Anyway, what was that thing? It was under you, but you didn't feel its presence," says Magnus.

"No, I felt presences before. But I thought that there were many underground creatures in the forest. I didn't expect it to be a gigantic thing like that," says Enel.

"You mistook the presence, huh? Hmm, it must be very big. Let's check it out," says Magnus before asking his crewmates to back off.

Enel then strikes the ground using his lightning a few times. The ground gets destroyed and then big stairs to enter the giant hole appear. Magnus uses the stairs and sometime later, he comes out with something.

When he comes out, Magnus is dragging the gigantic monster behind him. The monster is as big as Magnus, but it's very long. When all its body comes out of the hole, everyone is speechless.

"What the hell is this? A worm?" asks Enel with a puzzled expression.

"It looks like a worm, but a very massive one," says Magnus.

"What does this thing eat to grow this big?" asks Enel.

"Maybe the creatures here are gigantic too," says Magnus.

"Probably, they must be in the deeper part of the forest. Hey, can someone cut this guy? I want to check if the treasures are real," says Enel.

"You still want to take them?" asks Magnus.

"Of course, I don't know why it used gold as bait, but I won't let this opportunity goes to waste. It is the compensation for eating me," says Enel.

"You just like gold too much," says Magnus.

A samurai then moves forward and cuts the giant worm into a few parts. The samurai is not as strong as the Red Scabbards, so he needs to cut it a few times. Any of the Red Scabbards would be able to cut it in half in one slash, but it's not the case for other samurais.

They all then check the worm's inside and they find a lot of treasures along with bones of the creatures that the worm has eaten. Just as they thought, the bones are big, so the creatures that become its prey are big as well.

But Enel's focus is not on that, "Yahahaha, gold, treasures! It's been a long time since we found so many of them."

"The Lord will like it because treasure hunting is one of his hobbies. Although it's really strange that a giant worm has this many treasures in its body and even uses them as bait," says Magnus.

"Of course, that's what being pirates mean. And don't mind the small stuff, anything can happen in Grandline. So let's go find more worms, I mean treasures," says Enel excitedly.

"Sigh, alright, but me & my group will return first with this chopped worm. Someone in Ruff's team will like to do research on this thing," says Magnus.

"Do as you please," says Enel before taking his group to go deeper into the forest.

Magnus orders his group to tie the worm parts so he can pull them. Then they go back to the ship while Magnus drags the giant worm parts. The group also keeps their vigilance in case another giant worm suddenly appears.

Luckily, no giant worm targets them until they reach the ship. The same luck doesn't apply to Brook's group though. They don't meet a giant worm, but they meet a giant snake that fights a giant weasel.

Just like what Enel thought, most of the creatures here are gigantic. Even the snake that Brook's team finds is tens of meters long while the weasel is a few meters high and almost 15 meters long.

Brook's group hides behind a tree while looking at the fight. They look at it in amazement because both giants are very strong. Although they need to be very careful with the snake's poison that splashes around.

The snake tries to attack the weasel using its potent poison that can even melt the grass. But the weasel is very fast and agile despite its gigantic size, so it can evade the poison spray. Brook's group even has a hard time following the weasel's movements.

After some minutes, the weasel catches the snake from behind and bites its neck. The snake wraps its body around the weasel and tries to squeeze it. Now it's a battle of who can endure longer, and without any surprise, the weasel wins, just like how it usually goes.

But then the weasel drops the dead snake and stares at where Brook's team hides. They all hold their breath and suppress their presence. The giant weasel still looks in their direction, making cold sweats run down their back.

Luckily, the weasel decides to go after hearing a very loud squeak. Brook's team knows that it must be another gigantic creature, probably a bird. So they look up and see a shadow of a giant bird with a massive wing span among the leaves.

"My goodness, how could we miss something like these gigantic creatures on our first exploration? And a gigantic bird like that should be seen even from the ship," says Brook.

"Sir Brook, I think it's because the weather doesn't change drastically like the 1st day. The temperature has changed a few times, but not to the extreme level. Even the rain this morning is warm. Maybe those creatures come out because the weather is stable today," says a woman who is a part of Jude's navigation team.

"They've gotten used to these weather changes, aren't they? Hmm, let's return first. The deeper part of this forest must be more dangerous," says Brook.

The others agree and they return to their ship. This island seems to be more dangerous than they thought.

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