-Can I have a light here, Atom? – William asks as he offers a small torch.
-You sure can, cowboy. – Atom responds as he takes his cigarette and touches the torch with it.
After the torch was lit, William drops it down the hole. It drops for a couple of seconds until it reaches the bottom with a splash.
-Well, that can be either ok or supremely bad… – William states as he prepares to descend into the darkness.
He throws down some rope and starts to slowly and carefully climb down the sidewall of the hole.
Few seconds go by until they hear the Captain screaming.
-Come on down, guys! You would not guess what's down here!
After receiving the signal from William, they climb down the rope. First Duros and Ragnar followed by Atom.
While Verona was getting ready to climb down, he notices some hesitation coming from Pearl.
-What's wrong? – He asks.
-Umm… About that water. H-how deep is it? – She asks with serious concern.
-Well, William got there with no problem. So it mustn't be that deep.
-Oh… ok.
Verona can understand her being afraid of water. But didn't seem bothered by it while they were sailing.
Regardless, the two of them descend through the hole.
As they climb down the rope, they now understand what William was talking about.
An entire underground village is presented before their eyes. Wooden houses are scattered across this giant cavern. It would have been magnificent if not for the apparent state of disrepair of the place and the lack of people.
Verona and Pearl drop down the rope landing into the rather shallow pool of water at the bottom. It barely reaches to their knees.
-This sure is impressive. – Verona comments.
-Y-yeah. It sure is… – Pearl affirms with a rather weak voice. As if she could barely stand.
-Are you okay?
-Yeah, just a bit out of breath. Let's just get out of the water.
He concurs while helping her walk out of the water.
Atom witnesses all of this. And as he turns to talk to William, he is presented with his gaze fixated on him.
-So, Atom. Did you know about this place? – William asks nonchalantly.
He blows some smoke out of his mouth before responding.
-You ask me if I knew about this? This is exactly why I came here! A group of rather eccentric pirates told me 'bout this place. They said that the people down here have been hoarding treasure for years. That's why I'm here. I mean, aren't you guys here for the same reason?
-I'm gonna be honest with you, the guy who made our ship gave us a piece of parchment that pointed to this place saying that there was a Devil Fruit here.
Atom raises an eyebrow at this information.
-A Devil Fruit? Those guys didn't say anything about that. Yall can keep it as long as you leave the treasure to me.
William would certainly like to have some money on top of the Devil Fruit. But he doesn't want to start a commotion with this guy. William started to grow fond of him.
As they walk through the village, the most striking thing is the destruction of the place. Houses littered with strange holes all over the place. It was as if someone shot the walls with a pistol. But on a much larger scale.
-This place looks like a ghost town. – Ragnar comments.
-It sure does. It doesn't seem to be anyone here. – Duros adds as they walk by the houses looking for any evidence of what happened here.
They reach what seems to be the main road leading to the center of the town.
The second thing they notice is the plethora of bear statues scattered throughout the village. It seems that they worshiped some king of bear spirit or something.
Atom looks through the houses hoping to find anything of value. But it seems that the place was picked clean. Which makes him very upset as he starts to think about his plan B.
Verona notices that Ragnar going inside one of the houses and decides to follow him.
-Did you find anything in there, Ragnar?
Ragnar stays silent as he picks something from the floor.
-Ragnar. Is everything ok? – Verona asks again in a louder tone.
-…Yeah. Don't worry. I just found something.
His voice seems to be full of contained rage. Ragnar stands up putting something resembling a flag inside his pocket and walks out.
Verona follows him in silence. His attitude is very similar to when Pearl asked him why he became a pirate. So he decides to not pester him about the matter.
After walking a bit more, they reach the center of the town. A big area with a giant bear statue right in the middle. At the base of the statue, there is something that appears to be a small stone chest. It is closed, but someone definitely tried to open it thanks to the scratches and bullet marks all over it.
-Well it looks like they left one chest behind. – William says as he walks towards the chest to take a closer look.
-Not so fast, cowboy. – Atom says in a serious tone.
William looks at him. He's standing beside Pearl with a hand on her shoulder and the other on his jacket pocket.
-As yall can see, there's no treasure anywhere in this damn town. And I doubt that little chest right there will have enough Bellys to satiate my needs. – He says with a serious tone as he looks at the crew – This girl. I saw her on a Wanted poster. She has a rather big bounty on her head. And I was planning to let her go, since I expected to be a mountain of treasure down here. But there ain't shit!
Pearl looks at the group in fear. She knows that this guy's explosives are enough to tear het to pieces.
-Atom, let go of her. You don't want to do this. – Duros says in a firm voice.
-You fellas don't understand what's at stake for me here! So this is my offer, William.
William takes a step closer to Atom.
-If there's nothing inside that chest that's more valuable than this girl. I'll take her. Understood?
William takes a deep breath as he looks at him dead in the eye.
-Sure! She isn't even a part of my crew. You can do anything you want with her.
Pearl looks at him with genuine sadness.
-William?... – She says with tears in her eyes.
-Captain? – Duros looks as William with confusion.
William turns around and gives his crew a wink.
-Ragnar, Duros, come here. You guys can smash that thing open right?
The two of them follow their captain to the stone chest.
-You too, Atom. So you can see what's inside. – William complements with a smirk.
Atom hesitates for a second. It would be very easy for them to just pile on him as he gets closer. However, they must know how much power his explosions have.
-Stay right there, girl. – He says to Pearl as he follows William and the others to the treasure chest.