【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Lucci looked at the smile of the man opposite him. The freckles on his face seemed to sparkle under the sun because of this smile, but looking at his smile, he didn't know why he felt something seemed wrong, as if this was not the smile he usually showed.

"I'm really sorry for attacking you just now." Ace remembered Makino's teachings and immediately apologized to the man for his behavior.

"Ah? It's okay." Lucci didn't expect that he would actually apologize to him. Although he felt that he was not the kind of person who would be polite, he still developed a good impression of him.

"Hello, my name is Lu Qi, what's your name?" Lu Qi asked with a smile.

"Lucci!?" Ace shouted a little excitedly, but then he remembered that there was also a boatman in Water City with this name, and his expression eased. "My name is Ace, and your name, Lucci, is very common." Ace said with a smile.

Although Lucci thought his expression was a bit strange, he still didn't ask. Then he thought of the cave entrance and said to Ace, "Come with me to a place. There seems to be a treasure there. You should like it."

"Hey! Really?" Ace asked curiously. He had been out to sea for so long but had never found real treasure on the island.

Lucci took Ace to the cave entrance they had discovered earlier.

"That's it, let's go down," Lucci said, looking at the cave entrance.

Ace followed Lucci curiously and looked around the surrounding environment. After they came down from the cave entrance, they found that there was a round cave inside.

Ace could see an inconspicuous cave in the shadow of the corner, and on the other side was a bag of scattered gold and a skeleton wrapped in tattered clothes, slumped on the ground, holding a box in the skeleton's hands. Ace and Lucci looked at each other.

Lu Qi stepped forward and looked at the skeleton carefully. "This skeleton seems to have been in the cave for a long time."

"What is he doing here?" Ace inquired.

"Maybe he is trapped here like me, but he is not as lucky as me to meet you." Lucci said calmly, "There should be something very important in that box."

Lucci moved closer, bent his knees, squatted in front of the skeleton, and threw the box in the skeleton's hand to Ace who was standing aside, then rummaged through his tattered clothes.

Ace subconsciously caught the box thrown by Lucci. He looked at the box in his hand and looked at Lucci with a little surprise.

Lucci was rummaging through the inner pocket of the skeleton. He felt something in the pocket from the outside. Lucci took it out and it was a piece of worn parchment. Then he found a pistol and a compass on the skeleton. Lucci picked up the parchment and spread it on the ground.

Ace watched with him with great interest.

"Oh, what is this? Another treasure map?" Ace asked curiously.

"It looks like the shape of this deserted island." Lucci replied, looking at the pattern on the parchment on the ground.

He had already walked around the island. Although the location was not marked on the map, he could tell by looking at the familiar coastline that this was the map of the island where they were staying.

"But it is indeed a treasure map. Look at this." Lucci pointed to several marked locations. "This should be another treasure map location of his. It should not be far from us."

"But there are three locations marked here." Ace looked at the three points marked on the map. "How do you know where the treasure is exactly?" Ace looked up and asked puzzledly.

"Look at the positions of these three points. The distances between them are equal." Lucci pointed at the three marks and drew marks on them with his hands. "The center point of these three positions is here. This should be the real treasure hiding spot."

Ace looked at the place pointed by Lucci and asked excitedly, "Do you know where this is?"

"Judging from the distance, it shouldn't be far." Lucci looked around and saw the hole under the shadow. He picked up the brown paper and compared it carefully. "Let's go this way. If we are lucky, the place where this hole leads to should be the location of the treasure."

Ace followed Lucci leisurely with the treasure chest in his hand. He didn't really care whether there was a treasure or not, but he really enjoyed the treasure hunt with him.

And for some reason, when he first saw him, he was very wary of this person who suddenly appeared, but after they had been together for a while, he had completely relaxed. And when he was around him, he felt very safe and calm. He gave him the feeling that no matter what problems they encountered, he could come up with a solution, and he never liked to think about problems that required thinking.

Lucci looked at the cave in front of him. The cave was not as small as it looked. The width inside was wide enough for two of them to walk together. The light became darker as they went inside. By now they could hardly see each other at all, but his observation Haki told him that Ace was right beside him.

"Snapped!"

Suddenly a small flame emerged from Ace's fingertips. His freckles became more obvious under the flame. Through Ace's flame they could clearly see the surrounding environment.

"Your ability is really useful!" Lucci couldn't help but sigh.

"Of course, I got this ability when I first went out to sea. It helped Deuce and I leave a deserted island like this one. I have also found many more uses for this ability." Ace responded proudly.

"That's really good." Lucci smiled.

The passage was long but there were few forks in the road. Lucci would occasionally check the map to see if they were heading in the right direction.

"Cuckoo!"

"Are you hungry?" Lucci asked with amusement, then took out some food from his bag and handed it to Ace.

"Ah, thank you!" Ace scratched his hair, took the food handed to him by Lucci with a smile, and then started eating it in big mouthfuls.

Lucci looked at Ace while he was eating and knew that he was doing the same thing as him. Lucci quickly took out the remaining food and put it on the ground, then he and Ace started eating it together.

After they had eaten their fill, they continued walking down, and soon they saw a glowing cave entrance.

"The exit should be in front." Lucci said, and then Lucci and Ace walked quickly towards the exit. After coming out of the long and narrow passage, what appeared in front of them was a cave that was larger than the previous one. This cave was close to the bay, and the light they saw was the light from outside the bay reflected from another large cave.

Lucci and Ace walked a little closer, and then saw a tattered sailboat standing quietly inside. The sailboat was covered with traces of being hit by the waves. The mast and sail were gone, and the hull was full of holes left by the impact.

It seems to have been here for a long time and gives it a very old feel.

"This is a sailboat, why is it here?" Ace looked at it with a little excitement.

"I don't know, but there are usually no boats in places like this. I don't know how they got him in." Lucci responded.

"There should be treasure there, let's go up and take a look!" Ace said a little excitedly.

"Okay," Lucci responded, then looked at the flames coming out of Ace's body due to excitement, and added with a smile, "Be careful with the flames on your body, I don't want to be trapped in it, Ace!"

"Hey!" Ace looked at the flame on his shoulder, smiled, then extinguished the flame on his body and said with a smirk, "Don't worry, I will take you out."

Lucci shook his head, and Ace used the power of fire to quickly fly onto the ship. Lucci followed closely behind, using the surrounding rocks and the ship's hull to quickly jump on.

When they stood on the deck, they could clearly see that the ship was even more dilapidated than what they saw from the outside. The decayed environment inside was like a ghost ship in a storybook. It must have been abandoned for decades. The deck was covered with blood, but strangely, there was not a single corpse.