Chapter 185

"This looks like a good spot..." Johnny remarked, prompting Laffite to stop the ship in the sea a little distance away from Jaya, the others going to work as they lowered the anchor and unfurled the sails.

"You guys get ready to dive while I clear the area," Johnny said with a smile as he dived into the water, causing Law, Bepo, and Doc, who still didn't know about his immunity to seawater, to panic, assuming he would drown.

"Quick! someone jump in and help the captain before he drowns!" Law exclaimed as he quickly moved to the railing, looking down at the seawater, Doc, and Law right behind him, preparing to dive while others merely laughed.

"Relax. Johnny will be fine," Wilson said with a smile, reaching for Doc and Bepo's shoulders before they jumped into the water after Johnny.

"I don't know how but the bastard can still swim even after eating a devil fruit," he added, gesturing with his head towards the water as the bruised body of a gigantic turtle slightly smaller than the Black Peal floated to the surface.

The trio were confused, their gazes alternating between the seawater, Wilson, the turtle, and their other crew members, who all nodded their heads with helpless shrugs.

Though they stopped trying to dive behind Johnny, their eyes were still glued to the seawater as corpses of gigantic sea monsters kept popping out of the water, staining the water red.

Five minutes or so later, Johnny finally emerged from the water. "It's all clear. Get your re-breathers and jump in!" Johnny exclaimed, giving them a thumbs-up as he dived back into the water.

"Well, I'll be..." Doc said, his expression a mixture of confusion and awe as he watched Johnny dive right back into the water, unaffected by the seawater.

...

I smiled as I looked down after diving, seeing the shipwreck at the bottom of the sea below me as I flared my observation Haki one last time to make sure I didn't miss any sea monster.

'It doesn't look like I missed anyone. Good.' I nodded to myself as I began diving towards the shipwreck, giving myself a mental pat on the shoulder for buying the respirator with the change CP I had left after getting Triton.

I sensed a ripple in the water and turned to look up, smiling as my crewmates began diving into the water, holding Dials in their mouths as they did.

The Dials were one of Wolf's inventions. They were everyday Dials the inventor adjusted to hold oxygen after some tinkering. It's a real shame he didn't want to leave Swallow Island. We'd have a great inventor in our crew otherwise.

In any case, I gestured for my crewmates, mainly Elly, Kozue, Bepo, as the others were either uninterested in treasure hunting or simply incapable of it because of eating devil fruits.

Elly was the first to spot me, and she proceeded to nudge the other two, pointing towards me as she dived down towards the shipwreck. The other two nodded at each other and followed suit, prompting me to turn to the sea bottom and resume my dive.

'Clipper merchant ship...' I immediately identified the wrecked ship as I looked at it from above, noticing the three broken masts lying next to the vessel's skeleton.

I was roughly the same size as my Black Pearl, but I couldn't give a proper estimate of its size as it was in two pieces, every half of it lying a distance away from the other, with reefs, algae, and small sea critters obscuring its size.

Clipper merchant ships were built for hauling cargo through long and dangerous trade routes, emphasizing speed over anything else while forgoing durability, firepower, and even maneuverability with the sole purpose of moving precious items from point A to point B.

So whatever this ship was hauling should prove interesting if nothing else, assuming it hasn't been salvaged already, that is.

I felt a nudge to my side, snapping me out of my thoughts, and turned to see Elly floating beside me, gesturing towards the shipwreck with an urging expression.

I merely smiled, shrugging my shoulder as I obliged and dived towards the vessel, Elly and the others who had already caught up right behind me.

We quickly reached the shipwreck and split up, Kozue and Bepo going for the distant half of the ship, leaving Kozue and me to explore the one in front of us.

I turned to look at Kozue, nodding at her as I dived towards our portion of the shipwreck. We got the rear half of the ship. It had the mizzen (the mast near the ship's rear), the captain's cabin, and the rudder, and our first destination were the lower decks.

We made our way through the small sea critters and sea plants through the ship's side and immediately noticed several crates strewn all over the ship's inside.

However, it was dark, and I could barely see thanks to my enhanced vision, so I gestured towards Elly, and she nodded, fishing out a dial from her pockets.

She clicked the protrusion on the dial's side and threw it into the ground as it lit up, producing a light that was strong enough to illuminate the entirety of the lower decks.

I approached one crate and smashed it open with a punch, raising an eyebrow at the flintlocks and sabers flowing from within it, all rusted and damaged beyond repair.

'This might not be a regular merchant ship after all...' I shook my head as I moved on to the other crates, with Elly doing the same. But the result wasn't different, and the only things we found were arms and armor, all damaged and unusable, along with the occasional skeleton here and there.

We kept looking around the lower decks just in case we missed something and then moved on after finding nothing new as we made our way towards the captain's cabin.

We swam out of the lower decks and headed towards the captain's cabin from the top through the upper decks. However, the door was surprisingly locked, making me raise an eyebrow at the lock's durability as the ship seems to have been here for several decades at least.

I merely put more strength into my hand and pried off the door in its entirety from its frame, throwing it to the side and waving my hand in front of my face to clear the dirt my forceful actions roused into the water.

Once the dirt settled. Elly took out another Dial from her pocket and threw it into the captain's cabin, lighting up the area. I was met with the sight of what could have been a fancy wooden cabin before the ship sunk, with a wooden desk, tattered maps, and log poses resting on top of it.

Paintings decorated the walls. However, the wear and tear of the sea had turned into nothing but colorful smudges within wooden frames with no artistic value whatsoever.

There were also several barrels, and various other decorations were strewn all over the captain's cabin. But my attention was immediately gripped by a fancy-looking chest behind the captain's desk.

'Bingo.' I smiled as I nudged Elly in her side while gesturing towards the fancy chest, prompting her to smile in excitement as we both swam towards it.