Pirates Devouring Fruit

Following Uncle Tucker to an old tavern, Uncle Tucker was familiar with saying hello to the boss and ordered a few dishes in a corner.

The first thing that came out was the spicy whole rabbit served on a large tray. The aroma of the red sauce and the side dishes sprinkled on it whetted one’s appetite.

The tenderness of the rabbit meat paired with the spicy taste and the slight sweetness of the sauce makes you want to eat it even though it’s spicy.

Next is the roasted venison leg. Because venison has less connective tissue, the meat is tender and refreshing, with more lean meat. Combined with the chef's delicate grilling technique, the color is browned and shiny, and it is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with a unique flavor.

But the deliciousness is delicious. The speed and appetite of the meal really scared Tucker...

There is no way. As your strength increases, your appetite will naturally increase. It’s just the law of conservation of mass, so it’s natural to have a big appetite.

"Hey, are there any interesting animals in the king's hunting ground?" Sora asked while chewing on a deer leg.

"How should I know? That's the private hunting ground of His Majesty the King. How could ordinary people be allowed in?" Uncle Tucker rolled his eyes at Sora and said unhappily.

"But I heard that His Majesty the King will collect some animals from overseas and put them in the hunting park. There should be a lot of new and exotic animals."

"I heard that they always used sealed iron boxes to pack a lot of animals. The soldiers who were carrying the animals said that there were always banging sounds inside the boxes."

"I'm afraid there's some large beast in the box, but it's strange that I didn't hear any roar of the beast." Tucker said casually while taking a sip of beer and feeling a little drunk.

Tucker seemed to have drunk a little too much. He lowered his head and said mysteriously, "A while ago, the hunting team formed by our town ran to the wall while chasing prey in the forest. Unexpectedly, we heard someone's cry for help on the other side of the wall."

Tucker said with some regret: "When our hunting team was on the other side of the wall asking what happened, the man died. Later, the soldiers on the other side of the hunting park came over and said that a servant had fallen behind and was chased by an animal and they didn't have time to rescue him. Otherwise, the beast-scare cannon might have saved his life."

Later, when the news of this matter spread, the king originally planned to compensate his family, but since he was an orphan, the king arranged for him to be buried with great honor.

"Did anything else happen outside the city walls?" Dawn asked.

Tucker waved his hand: "The king's hunting ground is very large, how come there is basically no sound? That was just an accident."

"Oh oh oh!" Sora looked at Tucker with shining eyes and was about to say something, but Dawn quickly grabbed a deer leg and blocked Sora's mouth.

Seeing this, Tina had no idea what Sora wanted to say, so she changed the subject. After Uncle Tucker had eaten his fill, a few of them said they wanted to walk around and said goodbye to Tucker.

When they reached the edge of the forest, Sora couldn't help but ask, "Dawn, why didn't you let me speak just now?"

"I told you to talk later. Even if you want to go secretly, I'm afraid you can't. If something happens, you will be the first person suspected." Beriguld gave Sora a cold look.

"So you are willing to go on the adventure with me?" Sora said excitedly with his eyes lighting up.

Xiona rolled her eyes: "Who would go with you to get into trouble?!"

Xialinkul: "If we are discovered, then as naval lieutenants we are bringing shame to the navy. Do you want to go back and be scolded?"

Hawkins still had a cold face and said nothing: "…"

Looking at the pitiful Solatina, she consoled him, "Don't even think about it. Trespassing into the king's territory is too bad. Even if we don't stop you, Dawn won't agree."

Seeing Sora's pitiful look, Dawn smiled and said, "It's just a king's private hunting ground. It's okay to sneak in to satisfy your curiosity. Let's go and take a look tonight."

“Eeheeeheeeh!!!!”

Not only Berigold, Xiuen, and Tina looked surprised, but even Sora looked surprised. It seemed that they did not expect that Dawn, who had always been steady, would support her actions (making trouble) for the first time.

Dawn hadn't originally planned to go and take a look. He stuffed Sora's mouth with meat just because he didn't want to cause trouble.

But it was obvious that Tucker drank a little too much later, and said something that caught Dawn's attention.

There were collision sounds in the box but no sound was emitted, which looked suspicious because generally speaking, an ordinary iron cage would be enough to catch any animal, but the king specially used a sealed iron cage.

Is there something shameful? Or... is there actually a human in the box?

When Dawn was fighting against gangs in the West Sea, he often saw gangs smuggling slaves. Dawn still remembers the miserable appearance of those slaves. Dawn hates the slave trade.

It just so happened that Sola was also full of curiosity and just went to find out by the way. If it was really just a simple hunting ground, it would be considered a visit. If it was really a secret slave trade, Dawn would not sit idly by.

Dawn: "Let's go to the town and buy some clothes to change into. At least we can't wear navy uniforms when we sneak in."

There was no explanation as to why, because it was just a guess and there was no need to make them nervous. If there were really only animals bought by the king, then it would just be to satisfy Sora's curiosity.

I changed my number and bought some casual clothes. The sun had already set and the sky was beginning to darken, but because it was a sunny day, there were many stars that could be seen clearly tonight.

A few people went into the woods and headed towards the king's hunting ground. For ordinary people, the night might mean danger, but for Dawn and his group, even for the overlord of the forest, it was just a midnight snack.

Arriving at the city wall in the forest, Dawn made an empty ladder and the others climbed up the wall leisurely and entered the king's hunting park.

Chapter 124 Hunter Island (Part )

In the pitch-black night, the figures of Dawn and others were quietly reflected in the owl's eyes.

At this moment, Dawn and the others have entered the dark forest. The dense forest has long lost its daytime scenery, and the faint moonlight gives people a desolate feeling.

There was only silence in this dark forest. The leaves of the forest were rustling in the wind, and the sudden roar of beasts from time to time made people feel creepy.

However, there are no eggs.

At least that's the case for Dawn and his companions. Not to mention the king's hunting park, they have even lived on deserted islands in the New World before. The animals there are so powerful that they cannot be trapped by a mere wall.

Because Sora has the animal-type Tiger-Tiger Fruit, a tiger's vision is six times that of a human at night, and the same is true for Sora who has transformed into a half-orc.

Therefore, for this night operation, Sora, who has excellent eyesight, was responsible for reconnaissance of the surrounding environment.

Standing on the protective wall and looking inside, Dawn found that all the trees near the wall had been cut down, like a firebreak, but further out was the city wall to prevent wild beasts from escaping, and no one knew why these trees were cut down.

"Could it be that they need wood, and in order not to destroy the environment of the hunting grounds, they cut down the trees outside?" Dawn thought about it and put the doubts behind him. It's better to wait and see.

After Dawn created an empty ladder, several people came down from the six or seven meter wall one after another. The first scene that caught Sora's eyes made Sora look around and enter combat state in an instant.

"What's wrong?" Dawn, who used his Observation Haki, was the first to notice that something was wrong with Sora, and swept his Observation Haki in the direction Sora was looking.

Upon hearing this, the other people immediately entered combat mode, ready to take action at any time.

"There's a body over there." Sora pointed in a dark direction.

Dawn hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's go over and take a look. Sora, be careful and be alert all around."

Follow Sora towards the corpse, and when several people approached, they found that there was a corpse leaning against the protective wall.

Judging from his attire, the clothes on the corpse looked very tattered, and the wounds of varying sizes on his body proved that he had suffered many injuries before his death, but what was noticeable was that there was an arrow stuck in his neck.

"We also walked through the center of the forest before. Could this be the body that was asking for help?" Although Sora has a carefree personality, his intuition is very accurate. Thinking of what Uncle Tucker said before, he couldn't help but guess.

"It's very likely, and this body was obviously killed by humans. Even if the king didn't collect the body, why wasn't it eaten by animals?" Tina said with an uncertain and serious look.

Berrygood shook his head. "That's not clear yet, but we should not touch the body. It might be poisonous."

Dawn patted the silent Hawkins' shoulder and said, "Hawkins' situation is a little beyond our expectations. Please ensure our safety during this trip."

"I see."

Several straws appeared on Hawkins' body, and then he took out a card and placed it on the thin straws. He turned over the card and raised the corner of Hawkins' mouth slightly: "Our chance of survival in this operation is 90%."

"So this trip is almost danger-free?" Sora was naturally the first to accept this answer, because safety meant that they could continue to "take risks."

Dawn's curiosity was aroused at this moment. After thinking about it, he decided to move on, but he remained serious on the surface and said:

"Since Hawkins's divination indicates that there is basically no danger, let's move on and see what's going on here. But we must be careful not to be discovered. It will be very troublesome if our identities are exposed."

"Got it." Everyone nodded and continued to move towards the center of the hunting ground.

Along the way, the few of them deliberately slowed down in order to maintain quietness, but even so it only took them thirty minutes to reach the central area of ​​the hunting ground.

As for why they were so sure that this was the central area, it was naturally not what Dawn and the others thought, but because there was a barbed wire fence here that was as high as the outer city wall.

The wire meshes were arranged alternately horizontally and vertically to form an airtight net. The densely packed holes were covered by the crisscrossed wires. The meshes were so small that even larger insects could not get in. The entire net was covered with iron thorns like a bramble.

Just by getting close to here, you can smell the bloody smell floating in the air. This pungent smell seems to have settled here, lingering in everyone's nose and cannot be shaken off.

After turning the box around and finding nothing useful, Dawn and the others decided to look inside the iron cage.

They walked down the empty ladder made by Dawn and entered the tall iron cage. But after they got down from the empty ladder, they found that there was more coagulated blood inside.

The blood on the iron net had dried up and turned black, dyeing the entire iron net black, as if this huge iron cage was a giant beast that was ready to devour its prey.

After walking around the iron cage for a distance, Sora discovered that the cage was almost entirely covered with black dried blood, and there was also some black blood remaining on the ground.

Hearing Sora say this, everyone's faces began to look ugly. They thought that the corpse before and the scene in the iron cage now made them think of bad things.

"These dried bloodstains are almost everywhere. I can't imagine how many lives this king has hunted here. It's almost like a slaughterhouse."

Sora pinched his nose with one hand and fanned his face with the other hand, as if this could drive away the unpleasant smell in the air.

Dawn said with a serious face, "Keep going forward. We seem to have heard some noise just now so we need to be careful. Sora, you go ahead and report any situation at any time. It seems there are some wild animals here so be careful to avoid them."

"Leave it to me." At this moment in the dark, in order not to attract attention, Dawn and others' exploration now mainly depends on Sora's night vision.

Sora took the lead and headed forward. Although he encountered a few wolves on the way, they did not cause any trouble at all in the hands of Dawn and his companions.

After walking about a hundred meters, Sora looked ahead and stopped with a sigh, and reported: "Dawn, there is a small house here."

Berigud asked in confusion, "Why is there a hut here? Isn't this a hunting ground? Is it a place for the king to rest temporarily?"

"Go and take a look first before talking."

Dawn led the group to the cabin. The shabby wooden door was not locked. His observation Haki had already told Dawn that there was no one in the cabin.

Indicating that there was no danger, Sora pushed open the wooden door directly, and a creaking sound was heard in the darkness.

With the help of the faint moonlight, Sora looked around.

There was only an old hardwood bed in the shabby little house. It looked like a bed made of a few broken wooden boards and some straw.

Sora turned his head and saw a few black things that looked like food scattered in the corner of the ground. Apart from that, there was nothing else in the room.

No, perhaps the bits of dried black blood stuck on the walls, the ground, and the straw bed could also be considered a kind of "thing".

Walking out of the house, Sora shook his head to indicate that he had not found anything, but he already had a bad feeling in his heart. All the signs along the way indicated that this was not just a simple hunting ground.

Just as a few people were looking at Sora who had come out and wanted to ask something, a scream suddenly rang out in the quiet night sky.

Chapter 125 "Hunter Island (Part )

The silent dark forest seemed to suddenly become lively. The noise in the distance became louder and louder, and it was approaching the location where Dawn and the others were.

"Hurry, hide!" Moving in this silent forest would make noises from weeds and fallen leaves, so Dawn instantly created an empty ladder to signal everyone to follow.

Fortunately, it was night time and they were in a forest. Several people stood on tree branches, using the trees to conceal their bodies, and then observed the situation below in the dim night light.

But what they saw afterwards made them feel extremely cruel and dark!

Men and women in tattered clothes who looked thin and hungry ran forward shouting. What were chasing them were not wild beasts but soldiers holding torches and weapons, who were also human beings!

"Help! I don't want to die here!!"