"Land ahoy," Elly exclaimed from her spot at the top of the crow's nest, causing me to open my eyes and stop humming to myself in a relaxed manner as I stood up to take a look.
And sure enough, I could see the silhouette of a giant Swallow-shaped mountain, showing that we were close to Swallow island. "I didn't think I'd be back here so soon," Law said with a complicated expression as he looked at the iconic mountain.
"Well, think of it as a chance to stop being so edgy and properly say goodbye to your friends," Wilson said with a smirk as he patted the surgeon's shoulder.
"Begone, you meat-headed primate," Law replied with a scowl, slapping away Wilson's hand to go brood by himself in a dark corner somewhere.
"This guy needs to loosen up a little," Wilson said while shaking his head as he watched Law turn around and make himself scarce. "I can't disagree with that," I added with a shrug, chuckling slightly.
"But then again, we can't all be carefree brutes like your," I added, nudging my four-armed friend's side with my elbow. "The ship that old Jim spent so much effort to build would sink in a heartbeat if that were the case," Bob commented from the side with his usual neutral tone, but there was a very faint smile on his face.
"Shut your mouth, cook. I ran out of alcohol yesterday, and I'm not in the mood to deal with you," Wilson replied with a scowl, causally picking an empty barrel and throwing it at Bob, as the latter effortlessly dodged, which sent the poor barrel straight to the sea.
"You can always have some of my whisky or that cloud wine we got from Skygaurd," I said with a shrug, offering him my whisky bottle. "I'm sick of whisky, and that cloud wine tastes like shit," Wilson replied in a depressed tone, turning around and leaving to join Law in brooding.
-0-
It didn't take us long after that to reach the swallow island's port, and we disembarked immediately, with Wilson being the fastest one to do so. He headed straight to the closest bar while ignoring Wolf, rudd, and the rest of our Swallow island acquaintances that came to welcome us.
My crew and I casually greeted the people receiving us at the dock and quickly separated, each doing their own thing. Elly, Laffite, and I went with Wolf to his hideout to talk about our findings in Skygaurd, intending to ask him to upgrade the black pearl with the Dials we found.
Laffitte, of course, had to be present because he was the navigator, and he had to know the ship like he knew the back of his hands. Elly, however, merely chose to come out of curiosity since she's quite the tinkerer herself.
As for me, then it goes without saying that I had to be there since it's my ship that Wolf will modify, and I'll be paying for said upgrades, but I digress.
Wilson ran straight to the closest bar to get wasted, making for the time he spent sober while we were in the sea. Doc Q and Law came with us to Wolf's hideout, but they went somewhere when we arrived there, saying they wanted to compare notes. Bepo, Shachi, and penguin went with the two doctors, too.
Bob, like usual, stayed on the ship, and Kozue surprisingly chose to stay there too to train Charles, who quickly made his way to the black pearl.
Speaking of the little shit, he seemed to be doing well here, and Wolf had nothing but praise to say about his hard-working nature, but he was still the smug piece of turd I first met in Spider Miles, so there's that.
Byron followed after Wilson after greeting our friends, but he separated from him halfway through their drinking session, probably visiting the local brothels.
"A sea of clouds above the blue sea, you say?" Wolf asked with an incredulous expression on his face, causing me to shrug with a smile. "And there islands with people living on them?" he added and nodded at him.
"That's not all," I said, causing the inventor to raise an eyebrow. "There's more?" he asked as his expression turned even more incredulous and astonished.
"There are also many species that you can't find down here, not even in the grand line," I explained, gesturing with my hands. "Giant sky lamprey, cloud sharks, and all manner of creatures," I added, raising a finger with each creature I named.
"Butt most importantly, they had these things called Dials," I stated, opening the barrel I brought with me from the black pearl. "Seashells?" Wolf said in a confused tone as he picked up one of the Dials.
"Seashells!" I replied with a nod of my head. "But not any seashells. These babies can do many things," I said as I took a tone dial from the barrel, recording my voice and letting it play it in front of the inventor.
"There are many types of Dials, and each of them can do something different," I explained as I began showcasing different Dials in front of Wolf, who was strangely silent while observing the various effects displayed by the seashells.
"This is incredible," Wolf said, literal stars in his eyes as he watched the dials with an intense look. "You're eager. Good!" I said while patting on the shoulder.
"Because I want you to use these Dials to upgrade my ship," I added as I began explaining what I wanted the inventor to do with Dials. Wolf listened quietly, nodding or asking the occasional question while adding some ideas of his own.
'No wonder this guy is an inventor.' To say that Wolf's creativity merely impressed me would be an understatement. I had a lot of time to think about what kind of upgrades would be possible with the Dials, but my ideas were barely comparable to the ones Wolf came up with on the spot, but I wasn't complaining as that would only improve my ship.
"So, how much time do you think you need to get it done?" I asked after we had a rough idea of what the black pearl would look like in the end.
"Normally, it would take me at least three months," Wolf replied while scratching his head, causing me to sigh in exasperation. "But you do remember that I said I'll have a surprise waiting for you when you got back, don't you?" the inventor asked, causing me to be still for a second.
"Oh yeah, there was that," I said with a chuckle. "A lot happened, and I forgot about it," I said while shrugging my shoulders.
"No matter, come with me," Wolf said with a smile, turning around gesturing for us to follow him, and we did so, arriving at a private dock that Wolf had built.
"Welcome to Aqua Wolf dry dock," the inventor exclaimed while spreading his arms dramatically. "It's something that I've been working on for some time now to build a special ship that can travel undersea," he stated while pointing towards a large dry dock to the side of the port.
"I put more effort into it while you left Swallow island since I wanted to install some of my inventions into your ship as thanks for taking care of my ungrateful son," the inventor explained, leading us to the inside of the dry dock. The interior of the dry dock was full of complicated machinery that looked too advanced to have any right to being in a place like Swallow island.
"With the help of the Aqua wolf's dry dock, I can speed up the procedure by at least three times," the inventor explained with a proud smile on his face.