Treasure Hunting Through Conflict

"Why'd you send them to that temple? There isn't much there," the Old Man asked.

"No reason, if they don't find anything. It'll prove to be an eye opening journey for them," I replied.

My assumption was that the Rumble-Rumble fruit was going to be within that temple. However, if it really wasn't there, then I'd have to search for it personally then. However, that wasn't my priority at the moment.

"Anyway, let's get going. That city won't find itself," I commented before getting up. However, before I could fully stand up, the Old Man wasted no time grabbing my hand and pulling it down.

"What is it?" I frowned while asking.

"Remember how I told you to avoid certain areas?" the Old Man asked.

"Yes, and we've taken that into consideration."

"Well, I haven't been completely clear with what has happened," the Old Man replied,"You see; the city your looking for is also being looked for by others as well. Those others are the Skypieans, but others seek to keep it hidden as a secret."

Roger laughed at the brief narration that the old man gave.

"Just what the hell happened here?" Roger asked curiously.

"The Shandians, the initial occupants of the Lost City Of Gold, were initially from the blue. They never were true people of the sky," the Old Man explained, "the original occupants of Skypiea didn't like them. So they started a conflict with them, and the Skypieans ended up winning."

"Wait a minute," I interrupted, "If the Skypieans don't like people from the blue, how'd you get here then, Roger?"

"Oh, we were attacked upon arriving through the front. We had to dock the ship somewhere else, matter of fact, they're still looking for us," Roger laughed before drinking.

"Anyway, the Skypieans want to claim the city of Gold for their own. However, they are going to need to go through the Shandarians if they want to do that," the Old Man concluded.

"What about the Shandarians? Are they friendly?" I asked curiously.

"Far from it," the Old Man denied, "the Shandarians hate everyone, and they are determined to protect that city till their last breath."

This was getting more complicated than I initially thought it would be. However, that didn't mean that it would stop us. I got up, and immediately left the hut; following me were Stussy and Pato, who had been quiet as the Old Man narrated. 

"What are we going to do? We're going to be fighting everyone we see," Stussy asked curiously with a hint of mild dejection.

"We're pirates, we'll just fight and take what we want," I replied bluntly.

We didn't necessarily have to make any big changes towards the plot of the story because all Roger wanted was to find the Poneglyph, and I just wanted to find the Devil's Wood along with the Rumble-Rumble fruit. There wasn't much more that I really wanted out of this island. So I had no intention of going out of my own way to make piece with either of the two sides.

Roger and his crew soon followed us out of the village as we started making our way through the thickets of the forest. We hadn't encountered any of the islanders while we continued our journey through the forest. However, it didn't make us any more complacent, we continued walking with our guards up.

The closer we got to the mountain, the more I could sense that something was off with the forest. 

"It's strange, isn't it?" Rayleigh asked.

I didn't say anything and continued looking around, and that's when it happened.

A huge explosion blew up near our location. The shockwaves immediately had sent some pirates under Roger's banner flying away. I immediately unstrapped my axe and turned towards the causer of the explosion. 

He was a tanned individual who had tatoos all over his body. However, what had caught my attention was the bazooka that he had rested on his shoulder.

Slowly, more and more people began to emerge from the forest.

"I swear," Rayleigh commented with frustration, "I feel like my Observation haki is absolutely useless over here."

Partially of what he said was true. I hadn't sensed them when they were creeping closer to us, but the reason why I had said it was only partially true was because of the items that they had equipped on their person.

It was small, but I could see a small dial equipped on their left shoulder. 

'They....they had dials that could block Observation haki?!'

The very thought of it was shocking enough to leave me baffled for a while. However, now wasn't the time to have such thoughts, because they immediately attacked us without hesitation.

Roger and Rayleigh immediately drew their weapons, and attacked them in retaliation. I joined them as well, I wanted to verify whether my assumption was true or not. Moreover, if they were true, I wanted to get them off their person. They were going to be extremely useful in the future, and I was planning on making sure that they were going to.

I immediately appeared in front of one of them and knocked the Shandarian out unconciousness before nabbing it from where it was attached. I looked at it for a bit while I tried to analyze it, and sure enough, I could sense faint traces of Spiritual energy from the dial. However, it wasn't noticable for the normal human being. 

My senses were amplified a hundredfold thanks to my draconic abilities. So noting these kinds of abnormalities were kind of easy for me. I pocketted it before going around and beating some more Shandarians senseless, and took their dials from them after.

We fought them all until we defeating them, and it was then that Roger grabbed the supposed leader of the group.

"Tell me, where is the Lost City Of Gold?" Roger looked deep into the eyes of the leader.

"Fuck off! I'd rather die than tell you!" The leader snarled.

Roger then threw the man away, but instead of showing an expression of frustration, he had a smiling face with eyes that burned with determination. 

"It doesn't matter whether or not you tell us. Because we will find that city, whether you like it or not," Roger declared, earning multiple cheers from his pirate crew as he kept walking towards the mountain. 

I calmly waited for all of them to go a little bit ahead of me before turning back to the leader of the defeated Shandarians. Stussy and Pato were the only ones who seemed to have noted my eerie actions. Stussy looked like she had wanted to ask me something, but I looked at her for a while before signalling her to go ahead. 

Stussy nodded anxiously before carrying Pato and leaving the venue. Pato didn't say anything either, but his eyes told me that he had a thousand questions as to what was happening at that moment. As soon as they were a reasonable distance away from me, I turned to look at the defeated Shandarian army and quietly walked towards the fallen leader.

I grabbed him by his neck before looking deep into his eyes and asking.

"Where did you get this?"