BOOM
Ivar landed beside the body of the dead Sea King. Lifting his head, he examined his surroundings. After making sure there was no danger around, he pulled a Den Den Mushi from his pocket.
He had enjoyed the hunt, but now he was stuck at the bottom of the hole, so he needed someone to pull him out.
"I should call Draven first to get me out of here. He's gonna be pissed about this," Ivar muttered to himself, a strange expression crossing his face as he thought of his brother's reaction.
"Brother, where the hell have you been for the last three days? The ship is nearly finished!" came the voice of a young man from the other side of the Den Den Mushi.
"About that… I'm kinda stuck?" Ivar replied, fully aware of how his brother would respond.
"Stuck? Where the hell are you to be stuck?" Draven asked, his voice filled with confusion.
"Well… you remember father's condition for us to leave the island, right?"
"Oi, oi… Don't tell me…"
"I kinda got carried away and did it?"
"Ivar."
"Yes?"
"FUCK YOU."
BEEP BEEP
"Well, that went about as bad as I expected," Ivar muttered, rubbing his temples. "Guess I'll just hang around until he cools down and comes to get me out of here. He can't stay mad for too long… right?"
With a dry laugh, Ivar shook his head. He couldn't blame his brother for being upset. Their father had been a piece of work, and the fact that they were still following his wishes was a tough pill for Draven to swallow.
'You deadbeat father… this is the last thing I do in your name. From now on, we'll live for ourselves. You deserved your death, and now you can rest in peace… if you even know what that means,' Ivar thought, his mood complicated. He had no excuse for his father's actions, but this was something he needed for closure.
Shaking the thoughts from his mind, Ivar focused on the surroundings again.
After walking for some time, he got a good sense of the area. It was underwhelming, to say the least.
This abyss-like hole in the middle of the forest was a place very few people knew about, and most of those who did had little interest in exploring it. The cliffs alone were enough to deter most, and the unknown wildlife residing within sealed the deal.
From above, it looked like just another patch of forest, making it appear uninteresting to casual observers. Ivar, too, had little interest in the place itself—what intrigued him was what kind of beast might live there.
The Sea King he had just killed would come here from time to time, only to leave shortly after. Something had to be attracting it to this place, or so he thought.
After several hours of wandering around without finding anything noteworthy, Ivar returned to where the Sea King's body lay.
"I wonder how long I'll be stuck here…" he muttered, knowing that his brother's anger would last a while, meaning he'd be stuck down here for some time.
A week passed, and Draven was nowhere to be found.
"Fucking hell… How long is he planning on leaving me down here, for heaven's sake?" Ivar was starting to lose his temper. For the past week, he had done nothing but eat and sleep. Only bones remained of the Sea King's carcass, and hunger was gnawing at him.
His body, massive at three meters tall and built with well-defined muscles, consumed huge amounts of food, and now he was starting to feel the toll of being stuck in this hole.
"Well, I guess I'll train a bit to pass the time," Ivar said, sitting cross-legged as he unleashed his Observation Haki, feeling everything around him in the hollow.
Two more days passed, and while Draven was still nowhere to be found, something else caught Ivar's attention.
He had noticed a small rabbit that kept appearing and disappearing, seemingly from nowhere. For the rabbit to survive in this environment, there had to be a secret path out of the hole.
'Got you,' Ivar thought, closing his eyes as he tracked the rabbit's movement, pinpointing it two kilometers to his left.
'Where are you popping in from, little guy?' Ivar stood and began moving toward it, his movements swift but silent, disturbing nothing in the environment around him, like a ghost.
He stopped just three meters away from the rabbit, which was still nibbling at some plants, completely unaware of the three-meter-tall predator watching it.
After eating its fill, the rabbit darted toward a nearby stone cliff. Right before it reached the cliff, the rabbit suddenly disappeared—vanishing into thin air with no opening in sight.
"Interesting..." Ivar whispered, intrigued. He took out his scythe and carefully approached the spot where the rabbit had vanished.
Sure enough, as soon as he was within a meter of the cliff, the scenery around him shifted, revealing the ruins of an ancient era, with a rectangular structure standing at the center.
"An illusion? Or just visual distortion? I think it's the latter..." Ivar muttered, examining the surroundings. Though he loved battle, this sort of thing was his true specialty—and what he enjoyed the most.
"This is going to be fun... I hope," Ivar said, a huge grin spreading across his face. After a whole week of boredom, the thrill of discovery and danger was finally upon him.