Alka had already arrived at 28 Mast Street. The shop's door was already closed, making it stand out prominently on a busy street.
After a brief glance, Alka headed towards a nearby corner alley.
As he entered the alley, the entire world grew slightly quieter, and no one seemed willing to enter.
Arka reached the spiral staircase and ascended it.
"Ding Dong!"
A soft bell rang as Alka pushed the door open.
As he entered, he saw Balazs, still sitting in the same corner as they had last time, waving at Alka.
The owner of the nearby counter looked at Alka with his single eye and nodded slightly.
Alka politely returned the greeting and went to sit in the corner in front of Balazs.
"Sorry for the long wait."
"No, I should be the one apologizing for keeping you waiting on the island for a week," Balazs said with a smile.
He poured Alka a glass of wine.
After a gentle clink, the conversation began.
In Balazs's hand appeared a yellowed piece of parchment. The border was circled with golden lines, and on the back was the seal of the Virgin Mary.
It was a contract, a contract of the Virgin Mary Church. Those who violated it would be cursed by the Virgin Mary.
Balazs handed the parchment over.
"Take a look. These are the terms I drafted with the church's pastor."
Arka's attention shifted from the parchment to curiously ask, "Is there a church on this island? A church of Our Lady?"
"Huh? You didn't know? I thought you..."
Baraz was even more surprised than Arka. He felt he must have seen right. Arka was a follower of Our Lady, so how could he not know there was a church of Our Lady on this island?
"We've been hanging around in the small town since we arrived on the island and haven't seen any church."
Although Arka knew the Church of the Four Gods existed in the Infinite Sea, she hadn't expected a church of Our Lady on Southern Cross Island.
What a coincidence.
Baraz nodded. "The church is in Ratus. If you have time, you can go visit. It's a nice city, too."
Ratus is the island's central city. Pronounced in the language of the Vastva city-state, it means "shining star."
"Are there any churches dedicated to other gods?"
At Alka's question, Balazs shook his head.
"Of course not. This is the territory where the Virgin Mary spreads her faith. Other churches won't come here to spread their faith," Balazs said, taking a sip.
I see.
No wonder the common language here is the common language of the Home Sea.
The islanders basically all communicate in the common language of the Home Sea, meaning the Virgin Mary has been spreading her faith here for a long time.
However, the religious atmosphere here is very weak. In daily conversations, Alka didn't even see the hand-crossed prayer gesture.
It seems these people don't really have much faith in the Virgin Mary.
Recovering from his thoughts, Alka turned his attention to the contract. He looked at the terms drafted by Balazs. They were exactly the same as they had discussed last time, with no additional clauses added.
The treasure will be distributed fairly based on the contributions made by both parties during the treasure hunt.
Neither party shall conceal the treasure's value, steal or take anything private, or conceal any knowledge of the treasure.
During the treasure hunt, while ensuring their own safety, neither party shall intentionally harm the other party by any means.
These are very reasonable terms, guaranteeing the interests of both parties during the treasure hunt.
Alka felt that he had prepared a few more contracts like this; as a treasure hunting team, they would definitely come in handy.
"No problem."
"Okay, then let's press the blood seal."
As Balazs spoke, a wound appeared on his thumb, and a faint stream of blood flowed out. He pressed it onto the contract.
The blood immediately evaporated, leaving only a black line on the contract.
Alka then performed the same action. When the contract was established, the paper immediately turned to ash, transforming into two golden beams that bound the wrists of the two men.
As the beams vanished, a pattern of wheat ears encircling the wrists appeared.
The wheat ears are the most famous and representative symbol of the Virgin Mary.
This signified the signing of the contract between the two parties.
The two men then smiled and shook hands.
"Then I wish you a happy cooperation."
Next, they began to exchange information about the treasure.
Balazs said, "Let's go to your ship to exchange information. This place is clearly not a good place for communication."
Hearing this, Alka nodded without objection.
The two men descended and headed towards the harbor.
As they passed No. 28, Balazs glanced at him.
"I hope this operation goes smoothly."
Hearing this, Alka couldn't help but glance at him.
That sounded ominous, especially at this time.
After a brief chat, the two arrived at the harbor and made their way through the throng to the side of the Voice of the Dawn.
"Please come in."
Baraz stepped aboard, taking a closer look at the Voice of the Dawn's exterior.
He had never been on this ship before.
"What a beautiful ship!" He couldn't help but pat the side.
On the deck, several puppet girls could be seen sparring with each other.
Baraz saw them the moment he stepped aboard. Fortunately, he had seen them several times on the island, so he wasn't overly surprised.
It was the sheer number of puppet girls on the ship that surprised him.
"So you have so many girls on board? What race are they? Are they unique to the Four Gods Sea? Honestly, I haven't seen any here before."
Baraz asked curiously.
After all, he was a traveling merchant, having traveled extensively for over a decade. He wouldn't claim to have seen every species in the Infinite Sea, but he had either seen or heard of most of them.
He had never known there existed a species of girls, only 30 centimeters tall, here.
This intrigued him.
"They're puppet girls," Alka said simply, without elaborating.
Balaz nodded, not asking further questions.
Several winged puppet girls flew out of the restaurant, carrying a shelf.
"Something that can fly?"
Balaz couldn't help but wonder; he hadn't expected such variations.
Then, behind the puppet girls, Juanlu emerged, seemingly carrying some food.
He greeted Alka, then looked at Balaz beside him.
They'd met a few times on the island, so he nodded politely.
Alka brought Balazs to the captain's cabin and sat at the large round table.
They each took out their own human skin maps and pieced them together.
"We'll each take a copy of the map on paper, and each of us will keep our own half of the original," Alka said.
Balazs nodded.
He copied quickly, since the map was just lines after all.
"So, tell me what you know about this pirate, and which island this map points to."
Hearing Alka's words, Balazs didn't hesitate and directly shared what he knew.
"This pirate, executed twenty years ago, was known as 'Piranha'—Clarian. He was a fourth-level treasure master and led a pirate group called 'Bloody Bite.'"
"His common tactic was disguised sneak attacks. Because he often used looted ships, he was always successful; he never favored any particular vessel.
From pirates who once followed him, he said that when he captured a superior ship, he would destroy the previous one to avoid recognition. He would then forcefully recruit some of the ship's crew and crew, disguising them as the former vessel, and use them to attack groups familiar with it."
Listening to Baras's information, Alka had already formed a picture of a cruel, cautious, yet exceptionally despicable man.
"What was the reason for his capture?"
He was curious. How did such a cautious man end up being captured and executed? "The young king was out training at the time, and he attacked a ship belonging to the king, which had the king's sister aboard."
I see. It meant he'd messed with the wrong people.
"So, not long after, he was captured alive during a siege and taken to Lattes to be beheaded."
Arka nodded, leaning back in his chair.
After briefly digesting the information, he asked, "So, is there any information regarding his treasure? And where he most likely hid it?"
"According to the pirates who invaded with him, as well as his enemies.
In battle, two orbs would appear on his body, inflicting fear upon his enemies. His companions were always brave and fearless, unafraid of death."
"That's all I have. It happened twenty years ago, after all. It's all the memories I've since found from those who experienced that period."
After speaking, Balazs pulled out a sea chart.
Looking at the chart, Arka sat up straight. He hadn't thought the Boundless Sea had a chart.
However, he looked closer and saw that it wasn't a chart at all, but rather a few strange dots on a picture.
Connected by lines.
What did this picture mean?
"What is this?"
"This is a map of the Boundless Sea. Although the ocean and islands here are constantly changing, the islands surrounding the target island are at least connected."
He pointed to the chart and explained to Arka why it was called a chart.
The chart also had words on it: "Broken Sea."
After the explanation, Arka had a rough understanding.
In other words, the large dot in the center represented the Southern Cross Island, and all the smaller dots extending outward represented islands connected to it.
Although the distance of the distant points from the islands varied, the relative order of their distance from the Southern Cross Island remained constant.
The distance range wouldn't change much, though it would still fluctuate.
Next to each island were some data notations, roughly indicating when they would leave and reconnect.
Through this data, Alka learned that:
The closer an island is to the Southern Cross Island, the shorter its time to break away from the chain.
In particular, the two islands not far from the Southern Ten Star Island would only leave for no more than 10 days and nights out of 100.
The rest of the time, they would be firmly tethered to it.
For those further away, it might be possible to return for only 10 days and nights out of 100.
Broken Island was surprisingly still ranked relatively high in the chain.
"As for which island he might have hidden the treasure, I don't know.
But it's said to be among the islands in the Southern Cross chain, because since he became a pirate, he's never left the Broken Sea and has always operated here."
He marked a location on the nautical chart.
"He was trapped on this island. It's a small, abandoned island, though connected to the island chain."
"That's all I know. I hope it's helpful."
After Balazs finished speaking, he smiled awkwardly. Honestly, he had no idea how this information would help him find the treasure.
Because he didn't even have the most basic map of possible island locations.
After hearing Balazs's words, Alka nodded.
Looking at the copied map in his hand.
Although the information he provided was truly rudimentary, any other treasure-hunting group would likely have given up on collaborating with him. After all, if they couldn't glean any useful information from it, it was effectively useless.
But for Alka, this information was enough to give him a certain understanding of the treasure.
As if pondering, his fingers gently tapped the map, tapping as if in thought.
Information appeared in the golden light on the map.
As expected, the treasure's information had expanded.
[Treasure Information: Treasure hidden by a pirate named Kylian. This was his life's work, but it was also ill-gotten gains, stained with the blood and souls of innocents.
The [Holy Grail]-level treasure, [Terror Twins], was hidden here.
The treasure was hidden in an unexpected place, a place safe enough that only he knew.]
The treasure's information expanded, allowing Alka to learn the name of the treasure.
But the most important and crucial problem was that they didn't even know which island the treasure was hidden on.
According to past experience, treasure information rarely reveals the island where Alka is located.
Since this wasn't included in the treasure information, he had no choice but to find it on his own.
There were two options.
One was to find an island where the treasure might be hidden. Then, just blink and the mystery would be revealed.
The other was to obtain maps of all islands connected to the Southern Cross and check them one by one, using the most tiring but most effective method.
Just then, a knock on the door interrupted Alka's thoughts.
Xadaiti walked in.
Alka looked over and said, "Are you all back?"
"Everyone."
"Then call them all over. We'll have a small meeting."
Soon, Sofia and the others came in one by one, sat down at the round table, and nodded politely to Balazs.
Facing the professional treasure-hunting team, Balazs sat there in silence, his mouth shut. He decided to observe and learn from the team's methods.
He was still very curious about treasure-hunting groups. He had only seen some teams, but never how they worked.
"I've already told you about the human skin map.
Today, I've signed a contract with Balazs to jointly search for this treasure."
"Now, I'll tell you what I know."
Alka succinctly shared the information he had just received from Balazs.
"The most important thing now is to know which island this treasure is hidden on."
Xadaiti looked at the map in his hand.
The copied map said.
She had already seen that the map in her hand was of an island; the detailed map of the previous area was completely useless.
Alka nodded and shared the two solutions she had just come up with.
Jason thought for a moment, then looked at Balazs beside him and asked, "Are those who remember the events still on the island?"
"Some, because I've forgotten some of the information and only asked them again a few days ago," Balazs answered truthfully.
Jason nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "If you don't mind, could you take me to visit them later? I'd like to ask them again."
"No problem, of course."
Everyone already knew Jason's intention; he wanted to ask to see if he could get more information.
"Mr. Baraz, could you help me find relevant maps of other islands? I need to compare them.
Maybe we can find the treasure buried there."
Baraz nodded at Sofia's suggestion. It wasn't difficult for him.
After all, there were maps of other islands, too, though they weren't sold publicly.
But he was a businessman after all. Although he'd been suppressed recently, at least his connections were still there.
Besides, this was Southern Cross Island, a landmark island connecting the surrounding islands.
Obtaining some maps here was relatively easy.
Afterwards, everyone continued to discuss and determined the next course of action.
They assigned their respective tasks.
The brief meeting concluded.