257. Secret Place

The Straw Hats are exploring the underground room for a few days. It's much bigger than they thought and there are so many things there. Just exploring alone already takes 3 days, so it will take longer for Robin to learn about the things here.

They are exploring the underground room at day and go out at night. The komodo monster always waits for them with some prey it caught during the day. It hunts so they can cook for it which also saves the crew from hunting themselves.

Eventually, everyone other than Robin is bored of exploring the underground room. So they start exploring the island again with their new friend, the komodo monster. But they are taking turns to accompany Robin in the underground room.

With the komodo monster there, they can explore the island with ease. They don't need to cut the tall grass and most of the creatures here are afraid of the komodo monster. It's like the ruler of this island and only a few beasts dare to fight it.

"Hey big guy, how do you hunt if all the animals run away from you?"

Jon's question also picks the crew's curiosity. The komodo monster knows what they want even though it doesn't speak human language. So it shows how it hunts its prey to them which is very shocking.

Turns out this gigantic komodo monster can change its body color. It has mimicry ability, just like a chameleon, and it's very advanced because it can disappear without a trace as if it's invisible. After 'disappearing', the komodo monster approaches its prey silently without any noises and catches them.

"Woah, a creature that big can actually move very silently. It even knows how to erase its presence really well and it becomes a deadly weapon when combined with its great mimicry ability. We wouldn't even sense it if not for our good Observation Haki."

"Aside from that, it is also very powerful. No wonder it acts like a King and controls the central area of this island."

"Hmm? Hey guys, look at that!"

Usopp suddenly calls them and points at a big bird nest on the tree. They see a round white thing popping out of the nest.

"Egg? Is that what you want us to see?"

"Hey, it's a very big egg. Aren't you curious about its taste? And we haven't eaten eggs for days, no, weeks."

"You're right, let me take a look then."

Jon quickly runs up the tree to check the big bird nest. He finds 6 eggs in the nest and each one is as big as him. Using his sharingan, Jon can see that the embryos have started to grow in 3 of them, so he can only take 3.

Using Wood Element jutsu, Jon creates vines to deliver the 3 eggs down. But just as the eggs reach halfway, the mother bird returns. The bird looks like a Parrot, but it's really big. It would be able to swallow Jon in a gulp.

"H-hey, I only take half, let's settle with this."

Jon tries to negotiate, but obviously the angry mama bird doesn't listen. Well, it's even questionable whether the mama bird understands what Jon says even if it listens. So it attacks Jon using its sharp claws.

Jon dodges easily and sighs because now he needs to fight and takes down this bird. At first, he didn't want to hunt this bird. But on second glance, he can see the bird is quite plump for its size, so it must have juicy meat.

"Well, might as well eat the whole bird family instead of just the eggs."

Jon just stares at the incoming big bird and uses his genjutsu. He rarely uses his genjutsu, but he still trained it diligently, so it's still strong. The only ones who can resist his genjutsu are those with Conqueror Haki and this bird obviously doesn't have it, so it loses instantly.

It falls to the ground and Jon asks his crewmates to kill it. He decides to take all the eggs now that the mama bird has died. The other 3 already have embryos growing, but those embryos are still as small as chickens, and Sanji should be able to do something with them.

Even if they can't eat these eggs, the komodo monster can just eat them anyway. They can tell this komodo is very interested in these eggs. It must be a rare delicacy for this lizard. After all, it needs to climb these high trees if it wants to eat eggs and it's too difficult for this big guy.

They keep going and return to the ruins when it gets dark. Of course, they have a feast that night because they've gotten quite a lot of ingredients. They didn't just get meat, but also fruits and even veggies during their walk today.

"Franky, I found something that should interest you today."

Robin says that while handing over a rolled paper to Franky. He opens it and sees a weapon design drawn there. But he can't read the words written there.

"You can copy the drawing, I will translate the instructions after you finish. But don't do anything to the original paper."

"Sounds good. I can't read these words, but I can tell that this weapon is impressive just by looking at the design. Maybe I can recreate it and use it to improve our weapons."

Robin has collected all documents she found these days. There are some writings on the walls or stone tablets too, so she copies them on paper because she can't take the walls. She is enjoying this so much because she can learn so many things that happened in the past.

The Eternal Pose finally set after 11 days, but they can't leave yet because Robin hasn't finished exploring the underground room. So the crew decides to do other things while waiting for Robin to finish.

Franky decides to upgrade their ship by replacing some wood planks with the woods of this island which are sturdier. Zoro becomes Franky's wood cutter. Chopper is researching some plants here to test the ones that might have medicinal properties with Usopp's help.

Nami is drawing the island by sailing around it on Mini Merry with Jinbe. Sanji is accompanying Robin as her 'knight'. Luffy is challenging the beasts on the island. Jane is going around the island again with the komodo monster.

The only ones who take it easy are Jon & Brook who stay in the ruins to play chess. They just want to relax for now, so they decide to play chess here. But Jon is actually monitoring everyone using White Zetsus that follow them.

It actually takes 21 days for Robin to finish her business in the underground room. There are just too many things to learn there and it's really satisfying for Robin. It's also a good thing for the crew to let Robin learn everything in the underground room because there is information about Laugh Tale too.

Lodestar Island seems to be a very important location of the gigantic Empire that perished 800 years ago. That's why it has a lot of important information about that Empire. Laugh Tale is similar to this place, a very important location, and much more important than Lodestar Island actually.

"From what I learnt there, Laugh Tale seems to be even more important than even the Empire's Capital. It's like a place where all the Empire's treasures are kept."

"TREASURE?!"

"So that's why the Pirate King said he left all the treasures there. It could be the Empire's treasure instead of his treasure."

"Well, he's actually not wrong calling those his treasure even if that was the case. Whoever found the treasures first is the owner. The Empire has perished and Roger Pirates found the ownerless treasures. So those treasures belong to Roger Pirates since then."

"But now with Roger Pirates disbanded, the treasures become ownerless again. That means we can claim them once we find them."

"However, I need to remind you that the treasures mentioned in the records weren't just gold or gems, but also knowledge. What Roger Pirates left behind might not be the gold & gems, but just the knowledge they couldn't take."

"Doesn't matter. Whatever is left there will be ours. Gold? Books? I don't care what kind of thing it is, but I will get it, One Piece."

The crew smiles as they leave the Lodestar Island after bidding farewell to the komodo monster. Their next destination is the true last island of Grandline, the island where One Piece is located, the goal of many pirates, Laugh Tale.