Chapter 31: Vice Admiral Gion!

Blacksmith Crozzo Store.

"What about the task assigned to you, Sonia? Have you solved it?" Hancock asked calmly while sitting on the sofa in the store.

At this time besides there were Hancock and Solome there. Marigold and also Sandersonia are back together with Hancock. Marigold had already given a report related to the reporting of mission performed by her while Sandersonia had only arrived at this time. In addition to them, there is also Anita who is there but Anita is currently cleaning up the equipment that Hancock had just sold before to be arranged into a product to be sold by their store.

"I've done it, Big Sister" Sandersonia immediately replied, "There are 10 members that I invited to be adventurers and are currently with Rayleigh. Likely, they are currently on their way to the mining site. As far as the rest of our members are, I ask them to stay waiting for us on board."

"Good job" Hancock nodded.

"Senior Sister, where are we going to rest tonight?" Marigold asked curiously, "Are we going to stay in the dungeon or are we going to go back and stay on the ship?"

"Big Sister, we'd better just stay on the ship for the night and save the money we have" Sandersonia immediately said, "We want to get information regarding the items we previously got from the mission to Ars. However, to buy information from Ars is very expensive."

"So expensive?" Hancock raised her forehead.

Sandersonia nodded, "Just now when I was together with Rayleigh went together to the guild. There was some conversation between Rayleigh and Ars and one of their topics of conversation was related to Rayleigh wanting to buy information from Ars"

"What information does he want to buy?" Hancock asked directly.

"Lake of life"

"Lake of life?" Marigold frowned.

"It is said by Rayleigh that the Lake of Life is a legendary place that exists in this dungeon and has a kind of ability that can help a person to rejuvenate the appearance possessed by him."

Hancock and Marigold were quite surprised by this information they heard.

"However, this place itself is still unknown whether there is or not," Sandersonia said, "The information obtained by Rayleigh only came from an Alchemist who was in this dungeon and it was just a legend story. Rayleigh had previously wanted to buy this information from Ars, but the price for this information was expensive."

"How expensive is it? It's impossible to exceed 1 white gold coin, right?" Hancock asked calmly.

"More," Sandersonia said calmly.

"More?" Marigold raised her forehead.

Sandersonia nodded, "To confirm this information it takes 10 temporary white gold coins to obtain information about an item or something related to rejuvenate the appearance, the information has a price of 100 white gold coins"

Hancock and Marigold instantly fell silent when they heard this. They both find it hard to believe that just to confirm something requires such a huge price.

"This is the reason that made me ask us to save money, Big Sister," Sandersonia said tiredly, "The bigger and more confidential the information we want to get from Ars, the greater the price Ars will ask us for. The price offered by Ars is expensive because we get it instantly. While there are also other ways of getting information by asking the dungeon residents or through other means."

Sandersonia paused and continued, "I'm not sure what price Ars will ask for if we want to get information regarding the pieces of items we currently have. However, Ars may take a very expensive price, especially since the piece item we have today is the legendary quality item piece"

Hancock thought for a while then looked at Anita who was currently smiling while cleaning up the equipment sold by Hancock before. Hancock then got up straight from his seat and walked towards Anita with Sandersonia and Marigold's puzzled gazes.

Anita, who sensed Hancock's arrival, immediately stopped her activities and smiled at him, "Do you need anything, Miss?"

"I want to know, am I okay to ask for some information in this place?"

"Information? Please" Anita nodded, "As long as I know the information, I will tell you about it"

Hancock then immediately directly took out a piece of the Infinity Castle Compass [Fragment] item and placed it in front of Anita, "Do you know about this item?"

Sandersonia and Marigold were quite surprised by the actions made by Hancock. However, after the two of them thought for a while, they realized that Hancock wanted to use the dungeon residents to obtain information. The two immediately walked towards Hancock and stood directly behind her.

Anita raised her forehead and took the Fragment given by Hancock and looked at it and instantly her face turned full of surprise when she learned about the quality of the fragments of the item. However, quickly the expression was instantly restored then shook his head, "I'm sorry, Miss. I don't know about the information about this item myself"

"Don't know?" Hancock asked with a little disappointment.

"Yes. I heard and saw this item for the first time" Anita paused and continued, "However, because it is an item of legendary level. There must be something big related to this item"

"Something big?" Hancock asked with interest.

"The information recorded in this fragment says that this item is a fragment of a legendary item called the Inifinity Castle Compass. The function of this item when the item is arranged may help someone to direct them to a place called Infinity Castle as well as the function of the compass" Anita paused and continued, "However, I am also not sure that the function of this item is just that"

"What do you mean?" Hancock asked back.

"Every item that has reached the epic level and above has other functions as well as the main function of the item. Like this compass, a compass usually functions as a direction indicator or pointer to the place that a person wants to reach. However, since this item has reached the legendary level, there are other additional functions of this item and to find out, you have to collect all the fragments of this item to make it whole again"

Anita paused and continued, "As for the other way for you to know about the function of this item is to find someone who knows it"

"Do you have someone acquaintance who can help us?" Hancock asked again.

"I don't have such an acquaintance" Anita shook her head and continued, "However, I may be able to tell you about a place that can help you to know the function of this item"

Anita paused and continued, "On the 5th floor of this place, there is a city called Paradise. You go to the Sina wall area and look for a shop called the Krutzer Antique Shop. There is an old man named Krutzer who might be able to help you find out information about this item and its other uses. You also have to remember to bring a large amount of money because the item you want to ask for identification is an item of legendary quality. Of course, the price that will be asked by him will also be quite high"

"High enough? At least not higher than the price asked by Ars" Sandersonia muttered which was quite goosebumps at the thought of Ars asking them for a price similar to Rayleigh.

"Here I return your item"

Hancock nodded and immediately put his item into the storage room then looked at Anita, "Thank you very much"

"You're welcome. Later I will also try to ask some of my acquaintances or maybe my friends. Who knows if anyone knows about your item and as long as I get the information, I will tell you"

"That's very helpful," Hancock said with a small smile, "I'm Hancock. What's your name"

"Anita, greetings"

"Greetings too" Hancock nodded and continued back, "These two people behind me are my two sisters. The one on the left is Sandersonia while the one on my right is Marigolds"

Since Anita had good intentions to help her as well as before Anita had helped try to give her a little knowledge about the items she had, Hancock didn't mind building a friendship with her. Hancock also felt that it was a good thing to build a relationship with the residents in this dungeon for himself to get the information he wanted.

Guild.

*Ring!*

The guild door opened followed by a doorbell. The opening of this guild door means that someone has entered the guild. The person who entered this guild was a woman in Navy clothes. A woman who came was Vice Admiral Gion.

Gion, who came to the guild for the first time, was immediately shocked by the two portals on the back of the guild, "What is that? What is this devil fruit ability... Besides, what's behind that portal? City?"  Gion thought in confusion as she looked around, "Where are they? Why aren't they here?"  Once again Gion was confused by her current situation because she could not find the whereabouts of Rayleigh and others.

Regarding the matter of the portal behind this building, Gion was not too surprised and only identified it as a devil fruit power. The thing that made her confused at this time was the absence of Rayleigh and others in this guild.

Gion's gaze then shifted back towards the portal and looked at the scene behind it, "Is it possible that they are not here because they exist—"

"Hmm? New guest? Welcome to the Guild"

Suddenly Gion's mind was immediately cut off when he heard the sound of someone welcoming his arrival. Gion immediately turned around and stared at a man who was currently behind the administrative desk while staring at him quietly.

Gion immediately stepped forward towards the man and said, "I saw that there were a large number of people coming here just now. Where did they go?"

"A large number of people? What do you mean by a member of the Kuja pirates?" Ars asked calmly.

"Do you know them?" Gion asked, frowning.

"I know them well enough" Ars nodded and said, pointing towards the portal, "If you want to look for them, they are currently in a dungeon and are going on an adventure there"

"Currently in the dungeon? Going on an adventure there?" Gion was quite confused by these words of Ars as she glanced at the portal.

"The blue vortex you see right now is a portal where the portal is an entrance to enter the dungeon or exit from the dungeon. The dungeon itself is a place similar to this world but different from this world, dungeon is a place devoted to doing adventures, missions, and various other activities. As I said, dungeons are similar to this world, meaning that in the dungeon there are cities, monsters, villages, and various other things" Ars paused and continued, "The people you saw before came here, they are currently in the dungeon and are on an adventure... Hmm, well, saying adventure isn't quite right. They were more like they were going to do mining inside that dungeon. But, well, maybe it can also be said to be an adventure"

Gion quickly processed the information obtained by him from this Ars and looked back at him, "It means that the city I saw from behind the blue vortex that you said was a portal is a city?"

"yes" Ars nodded, "That city is the City of Atlantis and it is the main city on the 1st floor of the dungeon"

"1st floor?" Gion asked in confusion.

"The dungeon has many levels ranging from the 1st floor to the 200th floor. The higher the floor occupied, the more powerful the monsters living there."

"How strong are the monsters living there?" Gion asked, raising her forehead, "It can't be stronger than Sea King?"

"You look down on the dungeon too much, Vice Admiral Gion"

Gion wasn't too surprised by herself being known by someone. She has quite a lot of popularity in the Grand Line and New World regions. It's normal for people to know about it. It's just that, hearing Ars say so, Gion felt that he seemed to be underestimated.

"Sea King is a middle-level monster in the dungeon," Ars said calmly, "Those middle-level monsters mean that the strength they possess is only at the level of the 50th to 100th floors. While if you want to know how powerful the high-level monsters in the dungeon are..."

Ars paused for a moment, closed his eyes, and instantly his eyes opened. The aura possessed by Ars instantly changed suddenly what was previously calm and harmless became extremely dangerous. Gion, who was close to Ars, felt the aura released by Ars and immediately jumped back and held his sword while his whole body was full of cold sweat.

However, the aura quickly dissipated.

"I think you can already judge how terrifying the strength of the previous one is, right? The strength shown by me before is the strength of the monsters on the 100th to 105th floors" Ars said calmly, "Meanwhile, the higher the floor you reach, the stronger the monsters in the dungeon."

"The aura just now... That's a very terrifying aura... Even... Even the Aura possessed by the Ocean Emperor Whitebeard is not that terrifying..."  Gion thought with her whole body sweating with fear and continued to look at Ars and did not lower her vigilance.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Vice Admiral Gion? Don't worry, I'm not a bad person. Introduce, I am the owner of this place, Ars. I gladly accept you coming to this place"

Although Ars had introduced himself politely, Gion still did not lower his guard and kept his distance from Ars. This is due to his fear of the power that Ars had previously emitted.

"Well, you want to know more about the dungeon and this place, right? Then also, want to know about the reason behind the Kuja pirate group coming here or even want to know about Rayleigh who is here, right? If you want to know this place, please use the book on this table. This is a guidebook regarding this place and there is also basic information regarding the dungeon. You can learn it. Use the couch that's there for you to use reading" Ars paused and continued, "Oh, yes. Don't think about entering the dungeon. You are not currently a registered adventurer, as long as you try to get in there, you will suffer the consequences"

Ars immediately returned to his seat and began to read the book casually without noticing Gion's presence there.

Looking at Ars who didn't care about him anymore, Gion slowly began to calm herself down then sheathed her sword again. Gion's interest in dungeons is increasing, especially when she feels the aura emitted by Ars before. Gion slowly stepped her feet towards the guidebook while not paying attention to Ars who was currently focusing on reading the book.

Arriving in front of the guidebook, Gion, who felt that Ars would not attack her, her gaze was immediately directed towards the guidebook where the cover read "The Complete Guide to the Guild and also Basic Information About the Dungeon".

Gion immediately picked up the one book that was there while her gaze glanced at Ars where Ars seemed to have no concern for his whereabouts. Gion then immediately turned towards the middle couch inside the guild then began to open the book and read it quietly. Gion's calm will not be broken for long because Ars has added some information such as the existence of the resurrection crystal and also the level of power possessed by an Ocean Emperor in the guidebook.