"This is the place."
Bellamy was led to a remote corner of the island. In the grassy area ahead grew several lush bushes, and the surrounding trees were of a common type found all over the island. The area looked completely ordinary, with nothing strange about it at all. If Heracles hadn't brought him here, Bellamy would have passed right by without noticing a thing.
Heracles, knowing how ordinary the place looked, walked over to the bushes and pushed them aside.
"Lord Bellamy, look here."
Concealed beneath the bushes was a hidden cave.
"They collect a strange liquid in this cave. I don't know what it's for."
Clearly, Heracles must have been inside before.
Bellamy nodded at him. The man had been a huge help this time. "Wait for me outside. I'm going in to take a look."
The entrance to the cave was small. Bellamy squeezed his body through and crawled inside.
Once underground, the light almost completely vanished. Bellamy swept the area with his Observation Haki, immediately mapping out the entire cave's layout. The cave wasn't large, consisting of a single, straight passage that went dozens of meters underground. The cave was completely empty; it seemed as though the people who had been here had left nothing behind.
Just then, Bellamy sensed something and a look of surprise crossed his face.
What's going on?
Something was blocking his Observation Haki. The feeling was somewhat familiar.
It's Seastone.
When his Observation Haki reached the bottom of the cave, he had detected Seastone.
This piqued Bellamy's curiosity. The cave was only a few dozen meters deep, a distance he could cross in a single leap. Bellamy lightly pushed off the ground, his body vanishing from the spot like a phantom. In the next instant, he appeared at the very bottom of the cave.
Under the scan of his Observation Haki, the entire cave held no secrets from him. Bellamy reached out and grabbed an iron pipe embedded in the cave wall. The moment his skin made contact with the pipe, his stamina began to drain rapidly.
"It really is Seastone."
And it was a specially forged Seastone pipe. The technology to forge Seastone was currently only possessed by the World Government. There was no longer any doubt as to who had left this behind.
Why didn't they take it with them?
The Seastone pipe didn't look very large and could be easily carried away. Bellamy didn't understand why it had been left here.
Bellamy wrapped a piece of his clothing around the pipe and pulled hard, trying to yank it out. To his surprise, the pipe didn't budge an inch. The part of the pipe that was exposed looked short, but there was a much longer section embedded deep within the stone wall.
Moreover, his forceful tug seemed to have triggered something. A mysterious liquid began to slowly drip from the pipe.
Could this be the strange liquid Heracles had mentioned?
Bellamy dipped his finger in it and brought it to his nose for a sniff. "A fresh, plant-like scent." It was like resin from a large tree.
There was really only one type of plant on the Boin Archipelago: the Stomach Baron. Could this be the resin of the Stomach Baron? Collected from dozens of meters underground, using a pipe made of Seastone... it seemed that only the resin of the Stomach Baron could explain all of this.
But what was it used for?
The Celestial Dragons wouldn't go to such great lengths without a purpose. And the people who came to collect it did so at regular intervals, which meant the substance was quite useful.
"I'll take some back and see."
Bellamy couldn't figure out what it was for, so he could only take it back to Mia for analysis. He went outside, chopped down a tree to make a wooden bowl, and collected a large bowlful of the mysterious resin.
"Is this the stuff those people took?"
"Yes, I saw it once. It's this exact liquid."
Heracles had actually been inside a few times, but he had never discovered where this resin came from. The pipe was embedded in the cave wall with only a short section exposed; it was truly hard to find without a careful search.
"Let's go back."
There were still many secrets on this island that he had yet to uncover. Bellamy would be staying here for about a year; he had plenty of time and energy to slowly explore.
Returning to their temporary camp, Bellamy handed the bowl of mysterious resin to Mia.
"Help me figure out what this is," he said. "Be careful. The Celestial Dragons invested a lot to get this, so it's definitely not simple."
Mia took the wooden bowl, dipped a drop of the resin, and sniffed it. "I've never smelled anything like this before."
The scent of plants was extremely complex, with each one having its own unique aroma. Someone who hadn't seriously studied in this field wouldn't pay attention to such strange details. But Mia, with just one sniff, immediately recognized the uniqueness of this resin. It was a plant she had never encountered before, and it was vastly different from any other plant she had ever seen. It was as if it were the product of a plant from another world, with characteristics completely beyond what could be born in this world's environment.
"Captain, where did you get this?" The captain always managed to find some strange things whenever he went out. Last time it was a wild man, and this time it was a completely new type of plant.
Mia still didn't know that the food she had been eating, the drinks she had been drinking, and the place she had been sleeping for the past few days were all part of the same plant. She couldn't even imagine that the island itself was a giant plant. Without someone telling her, it was truly difficult to think in that direction.
Bellamy pointed to the ground. "Dig down a few dozen meters, make a big hole, and you should be able to collect this liquid." Of course, without a pipe made of an incredibly hard material like Seastone, digging into the body of the Stomach Baron was no easy task.
"Is there something underground?" Mia still didn't quite understand what he meant.
"Not just underground, the entire island," Bellamy clarified. "This resin is flowing from the island itself."
The origin of the Stomach Baron was too complex for Bellamy to be certain of the correct information. He could only vaguely explain the general situation of the island to Mia.
Finally, Mia had a look of realization. "So, we're on a giant carnivorous plant right now?"
"You could say that." In fact, Bellamy felt that the Stomach Baron was more like an ancient weapon. The fact that it could move was a clear indication of its offensive capabilities.
"So, what does this resin do?" Mia dipped another bit of resin and tasted it.
Suddenly, her expression turned strange. "Captain... I think it's an aphrodisiac?"
"What?" Bellamy thought he had misheard.
Mia shot the captain a sharp glare and repeated loudly, "An aphrodisiac!"
In the hands of the Celestial Dragons, this was indeed a rare treasure. But what use did he have for this stuff?