The Boin Archipelago was roughly the size of a small, ordinary island. At Bellamy's current flight speed, it would take him only a short time to fly over the entire island. Of course, that was just for a quick pass over the forest canopy. Trying to spot a single person within such a vast forest with the naked eye was still a bit difficult.
Fortunately, Bellamy's Observation Haki was powerful enough to scan a wide swath of the island horizontally. All he had to do was activate his Haki and fly over the island. No living creature on the island could escape his perception.
Soon, Bellamy sensed an unusual mental fluctuation deep within the forest. Such a complex emotional wave could only come from a humanoid being. The minds of ordinary beasts were far too simple. Since there were no other people on this island, it had to be the wild man.
Bellamy flew rapidly in the direction his Observation Haki had indicated. Before long, a wild man nearly three meters tall and wearing a rhinoceros beetle mask appeared before him.
Since Bellamy had made no effort to conceal his presence, the wild man quickly spotted him as well.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
Although it wasn't the first time Heracles had seen outsiders on this island, he had never encountered anyone who made an entrance quite like Bellamy. To fly directly out of the sky... and he sensed that Bellamy had used some kind of special ability to find him so easily.
Heracles had lived on this island for many years, surrounded by dangerous carnivorous plants and various giant insects. Occasionally, even Sea Kings would appear, rampaging through the forest. Such a dangerous environment had honed his intuition to be even sharper than that of a wild beast. He was, in fact, only a single step away from awakening Observation Haki. If someone could just give him that final push, Heracles could awaken his Haki in an instant.
Moreover, despite living on an island overflowing with high-energy food, his physique hadn't gone out of shape. This indicated that Heracles maintained an extremely high level of physical activity, and his body must be incredibly formidable. With some serious training, the man could probably awaken two types of Haki in no time.
Bellamy studied the wild man for a few moments and found him rather agreeable.
"I'm a pirate," Bellamy stated, getting straight to the point without any pretense. "I came here specifically to find you." He had no need for it. "You seem to have lived here for a long time. I need your help."
Heracles stared at the strange boy who had appeared out of nowhere, his eyes filled with caution. The moment this seemingly ordinary boy had shown up, his intuition began screaming warnings. He had never felt this tense, not even when facing the most dangerous beasts in the forest.
This man is terrifying.
An intuition sharper than any beast's told Heracles that the boy before him was not as ordinary as he appeared.
"I'll go with you," Heracles said, making a swift decision.
"Excellent." Bellamy nodded in satisfaction. The wild man's compliance saved him a lot of effort. "What's your name?"
"Heracles."
"A fine name." It was indeed a good name, sharing it with the Greek god of strength. "Let's go. My crew is by the coast."
Since the other man was being so cooperative, Bellamy decided to show him some courtesy. He landed on the ground and began walking through the forest alongside Heracles.
As they walked, Bellamy curiously observed the depths of the forest. The area where Heracles lived was already very close to the center of the Boin Archipelago. This was the most dangerous part of the forest, but also where the vegetation was the most lush. It was clear that the plants here were much larger than those at the island's edge. The various foods growing on them were also noticeably more fragrant than those in the outer areas.
"Be careful," Heracles warned suddenly. "The Iron Beetles' nest is up ahead."
Besides the dangerous man-eating plants, the Boin Archipelago was also home to many giant insects. After giving Bellamy a deliberate warning, Heracles secretly watched his expression from the corner of his eye.
"Oh," Bellamy replied casually, paying the so-called beetles no mind at all. On this island, aside from the Stomach Baron itself, there wasn't a single creature worthy of his concern.
Seeing the boy's completely unfazed expression, Heracles opened his mouth to offer a few more words of caution. Just then, Bellamy suddenly extended his right hand and gave a light push towards the space in front of him. The air was violently compressed by an immense force, and a white shockwave suddenly appeared in his palm.
Voidwalker Palm.
With a deafening boom, all the trees in front of Bellamy were instantly torn to shreds. The Iron Beetles' nest, along with dozens of giant Iron Beetles, were all crushed to dust under this single, overwhelmingly powerful palm strike.
"You! You! You!?"
The astonishing scene left Heracles with his mouth hanging wide open, unable to close it for a long time. He didn't know how to express the shock he was feeling. Although he had vaguely sensed the boy's terrifying nature, seeing Bellamy's power firsthand still nearly made his jaw drop to the floor.
"What about me?" Bellamy patted his shoulder and shook his head with a smile. He had only used about half his strength just now. An attack of that level was truly nothing special. "It's just a bit of brute force and a trick to applying it. No need to make such a fuss."
Heracles had lived on this island his whole life, never seeing the outside world. It was no wonder he was so shocked by such a display of destructive power. But in the outside world, this level of strength would only barely qualify someone as a noteworthy figure.
"If you want to learn," Bellamy offered, "I can teach you."
The purpose of coming here was to train anyway; adding one more person wouldn't take much extra effort. Besides, Bellamy had other ideas. He was short on crew members, to the point where he could barely operate his ship. A simple-minded and seemingly strong wild man like Heracles was a good candidate. If he could pass a few tests, the Bellamy Pirates might just have a new member.
"Can I really?" Heracles clearly couldn't resist the allure of power.
But this desire for strength only made Bellamy more satisfied. When faced with greater power, some people would only resist, fear, or worry, rather than desire, learn, and study it. Bellamy had no respect for people like that.
"Of course, you can," Bellamy confirmed. "I forgot to introduce myself."
"My name is Bellamy, captain of the Bellamy Pirates." He paused, a confident smirk playing on his lips. "And I'm the man who will become the strongest in the world."
Why hadn't he introduced himself at the beginning? Simply because he hadn't felt like it. But now that he found this wild man to be quite promising, he was naturally taking things more seriously.
I'll observe him for a while, Bellamy thought. Give him a few tests. If his character proved to be sound, and he was decent in all other aspects, then he would recruit him.