Chapter 282: Above the Sea of Clouds
"Wait a second... why do I feel like... I can't catch my breath...?"
As their altitude rapidly increased, Yamato suddenly felt something was terribly wrong. It was entirely different from the atmosphere down on the surface. Despite taking deep breaths, her lungs felt constantly starved for air.
"Oh, my bad! I was flying too fast. I forgot you need time to acclimate to the altitude change!" Chloe apologized, immediately decelerating.
They hadn't even reached the true Sky Island yet. They were currently traversing the White Sea, an ocean composed entirely of dense Sea Clouds roughly 7,000 meters above sea level.
As altitude increases, the air naturally becomes significantly thinner. Paradoxically, individuals with monstrously strong physical constitutions often suffer worse from altitude sickness initially, simply because their massive muscles demand a far greater oxygen intake than ordinary people.
Conversely, weaker individuals often experience milder initial symptoms. However, top-tier powerhouses of this sea possessed an absurd degree of biological adaptability.
While the sudden shock of the thin air was disorienting at first, they only needed a short period to forcefully adapt to the harsh environment. After Chloe slowed down to a more manageable ascent speed, Yamato's breathing rapidly stabilized.
As for Chloe herself? The Lunarian race had evolved a flawless, absolute biological adaptability. Neither she nor Amphelite were affected by the altitude in the slightest.
"Alright, our first task is to scavenge for Sky Dials," Amphelite instructed as they landed on a fluffy cloud bank. "Focus primarily on gathering empty shells, though you can collect live ones too. Just ignore the tiny ones; they aren't worth the effort.
"They're mostly found clustered in the cloud reefs near the shallows. They shouldn't be hard to spot.
"And remember—you are strictly confined to the shallow cloud banks. Absolutely do not venture near the deep Sea Clouds!"
The final warning was aimed directly at Yamato. Everything on a Sky Island was fundamentally composed of clouds. While this sprawling Sea of Clouds was teeming with unique, bizarrely shaped Sky Fish, the cloud ocean itself was functionally bottomless.
Near the shore, the Island Clouds were dense enough to support a person's weight. But if someone waded out into the deep Sea Clouds and sank, they would fall straight through and plummet 10,000 meters back down to the Blue Sea below.
Since Yamato was a Devil Fruit user, falling into the Sea Clouds would instantly paralyze her and drain her strength exactly like ordinary seawater. If she slipped and fell through the cloud floor, diving down to fish her out would be incredibly annoying.
Chloe was the only one who could carelessly plunge into the Sea Clouds without fear, purely because her wings granted her absolute mobility.
Although the unique, fluffy density of the clouds made it extremely difficult even for Fish-Men to swim properly through them, that didn't matter when Chloe could simply fly out.
Yamato couldn't distinguish between the different varieties of Dials. She simply grabbed any shell that looked large enough and enthusiastically shoved it into her massive sack.
"Hey, Chloe, it looks like you have relatives living up here," Yamato pointed toward a nearby settlement.
"Relatives?"
"Yeah, look! There are tons of people walking around with white wings on their backs! What are they doing with Aunt Amphelite over there?"
Following Yamato's gaze, Chloe saw a large crowd of Sky Island residents excitedly chatting with Amphelite near the shore. Many of them quickly rushed back to their homes, only to return moments later carrying massive bundles of assorted Dials.
"They're just trading," Chloe explained casually. "And those wings on their backs are fake. They're just biological decorative traits; they can't actually fly."
"But why would they grow completely useless, cumbersome decorations on their backs?" Yamato asked, scratching her head. "Do you think maybe they met your ancestors a long, long time ago, and slowly evolved to mimic them?"
"Maybe," Chloe shrugged. "Who knows what happened in the ancient past? Even Mommy doesn't know the exact details of our history."
Having three people manually comb the beaches for Dials was highly inefficient; letting the two girls scavenge was mostly just an excuse to let them play. The vast majority of the Dials they needed were being acquired through direct trade with the locals.
However, the currency they used wasn't Berries, nor was it jewels or gold.
It was ordinary, unassuming potted plants.
On Sky Island, actual soil—"Vearth"—was a miraculously rare, sacred resource. If not for the Knock-Up Stream blasting a massive chunk of Jaya into the sky nearly four centuries ago, trace amounts of soil would be literally non-existent up here.
Therefore, something that could be casually scooped up from the dirt anywhere on the Blue Sea was considered an unimaginably priceless luxury item by the Skypieans.
Conversely, Sky Dials were as common to Skypieans as household appliances. They were completely mundane items used for cooking, lighting, and recording sound. Consequently, Amphelite rapidly exchanged her cargo of Blue Sea plants for mountains of high-quality Dials.
In the eyes of the Skypieans, trading ubiquitous, everyday shells for sacred Vearth was the absolute greatest bargain of the century.
Currently, the "God" of Skypiea was still the benevolent Gan Fall. The brutal, terrifying tyrannical era of Enel hadn't arrived yet, and Skypiea was enjoying a period of relative peace, making the trade negotiations incredibly smooth.
The reason it was only relative peace was due to the Shandians, who had been blasted into the sky alongside the golden city of Shandora.
Because the Skypieans possessed an obsessive, religious reverence for Vearth, when the island of Jaya arrived in the sky four hundred years ago, the Skypiean God of that era launched a brutal war to seize the sacred land. Ever since, the descendants of the Shandians had waged a relentless guerrilla war to reclaim their ancestral homeland.
Originally, the Shandians lacked the sheer military power to launch a full-scale invasion. But a few years ago, a massive variable drastically altered the balance of power.
Mont Blanc Cricket, after enduring unimaginable hardships and receiving invaluable assistance from the Tontatta Tribe, successfully rode the Knock-Up Stream and arrived in Skypiea.
While Cricket's personal combat prowess was relatively average, he didn't arrive alone—he brought a fiercely loyal, terrifyingly strong detachment of Tontatta warriors with him.
While the Tontattas might struggle against the absolute apex monsters of the New World, in the isolated, Haki-deprived environment of Skypiea, their blinding speed and monstrous physical strength made them an unstoppable force of nature.
The Tontattas possessed a deep, unwavering gratitude for the legendary Noland's historical kindness toward their tribe. Because the great Shandian warrior Kalgara had been Noland's closest friend, the incredibly naive but fiercely loyal dwarves naturally viewed Kalgara's descendants—the Shandians—as their sworn allies.
With the sudden, overwhelming addition of the Tontatta warriors, the scales of war violently tipped. The Shandians successfully reclaimed their ancestral homeland and, with tears streaming down their faces, finally rang the legendary Golden Bell of Shandora in Mont Blanc Cricket's presence.
Now, the geopolitical situation had flipped: it was the Skypieans who were launching desperate raids to reclaim their "sacred" land. Fortunately, Gan Fall was a staunch pacifist who constantly advocated for peace talks. However, due to the fundamental, irreconcilable conflict over the Vearth, progress was agonizingly slow.
Acquiring gold from the Shandians proved even easier than trading with the Skypieans.
The Shandians were highly isolationist, rigidly adhering to traditions established over four centuries ago. If it weren't for Noland's historical influence, they would be completely primitive. To them, gold was entirely worthless—it was literally just generic building material. Trading scattered chunks of gold rubble for advanced medical supplies and tools from the Blue Sea was standard practice.
By the time they finished their business, Yamato's face was painted with several streaks of vibrant, ceremonial war paint.
The Shandians' method of communication was refreshingly primitive: whoever had the biggest fists commanded the most respect. After engaging in a few "friendly," bone-rattling sparring matches with the tribal warriors, Yamato had earned profound respect within the village.
"Hey, want to try a completely different way of leaving this place?" Chloe suddenly asked, standing precariously close to the edge of the Sea of Clouds.
"What way? Is it fun?!" Yamato's eyes instantly sparkled with excitement.
"It should be super fun! Hand over your sack of loot first."
Chloe took Yamato's massive, two-meter-tall sack of Dials and tossed it aside. She then pulled out a strange, tightly packed bundle and securely strapped it onto Yamato's back, meticulously double-checking the heavy-duty safety harnesses woven across Yamato's chest and thighs.
"Alright, listen carefully. When I yell 'PULL!', you aggressively yank this specific cord right here. I'll handle the rest. Do you understand?" Chloe pointed to a thick ripcord resting near Yamato's shoulder.
"Yep, I un—!"
Before the word "understand" could fully leave Yamato's mouth, Chloe violently shoved her squarely in the back.
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