[Current Balance: 11,416,922,658 R]
---AUGUST 26, 1714---
A week had passed since Alaric met with Edward Kenway. After planting a Hiraishin marker in Port Royal, he teleported back to Havana and spent a quiet night in a modest inn.
[Money Withdrawal: 25 R]
[Current Balance: 11,416,922,633 R]
By morning, after a simple breakfast of fruit and bread, he took to the skies, heading towards Trinidad, then banking northwest toward Saint-Domingue.
Compared to Cuba, which at least had Havana and Santiago de Cuba showing some signs of proper city life, Saint-Domingue was still pretty raw, at least in terms of how built-up it was.
Alaric flew over settlements like Cap-Français, Limonade, Jacmel, and Petit-Goâve. They weren't really towns yet, more like scattered outposts of colonial ambition, surrounded by vast fields. Even from high up, the plantation system was obvious, they were a patchwork of cultivated land carved out of the tropical green.
Saint-Domingue was the pride of France's Caribbean empire, a money-making machine fueled by sweat and blood. Sugar plantations stretched as far as the eye could see, worked by thousands of enslaved Africans. French soldiers and overseers were everywhere, their white uniforms were obvious as the colors were too different from the landscape, and their black powder muskets were always held.
Alaric didn't linger too long in Saint-Domingue, just enough to get the lay of the land, before heading back towards Jamaica.
He wasn't aiming for Port Royal or Kingston this time. He was headed for Bahía de Manteca, or as he remembered it from the game, "Long Bay."
Well, he wasn't quite there yet. He was still airborne, cruising effortlessly, enjoying the sensation of slicing through the clouds.
Seeing Long Bay approaching below, a stretch of coastline that looked remarkably familiar, he slowed and then stopped, hovering motionless in mid-air.
"…"
"Shinra… Tensei," Alaric muttered under his breath, then chuckled. "Heh… I could technically just buy the Rinnegan and actually do it."
He shook his head, dismissing the thought, and looked down.
The area below was thick with jungle, but nestled within it were small patches of settlements. Mayan, by the looks of their architecture and attire. There were maybe two hundred of them, going about their lives, but with an air of watchfulness, clearly ready for intruders.
What really caught his eye, though, were the massive, perfectly cut stone blocks that formed structures within the Mayan village. They looked out of place, too precise, too… advanced.
'Definitely Isu-tech,' Alaric mused. 'It seems like I'm in the right place.'
Alaric descended smoothly, landing with a soft thud on top of one of the huge, weathered Isu blocks. He spotted what looked like an entrance, a section of the stone that seemed more like a sealed doorway than part of the ancient ruin. 'This should be it. The Observatory entrance. Only a Sage is supposed to be able to open this, if I remember right.'
He walked up to it. Instead of looking for a hidden mechanism, he simply coated his right fist with a visible layer of crackling blue chakra. He drew his arm back and punched.
CRACK!
The stone door shuddered, and a network of fine cracks spread from the point of impact, but it held.
'Huh. Of course,' Alaric thought, a little surprised but also impressed. 'It's Isu-made. Tough stuff.'
'But it ain't tougher than the one at Thera,' He pulled his fist back again, this time pouring a bit more power into it. The chakra around his hand flared brighter. He struck again, a solid, meat-on-stone impact. This time, the Isu stonework didn't just crack; it exploded inwards with a grinding shriek of tortured material. Fragments of ancient, glowing rock flew, and the intricate mechanisms within the doorway sparked and died with a sigh.
'I commend the Isu for their knowledge, their craftsmanship is top-notch,' Alaric thought, stepping through the ruined entrance. 'But my chakra-based abilities are just too OP… even for them.'
He walked down a sloping passage, the air growing cooler. There was only one way to go. Soon, he emerged onto a narrow stone bridge that spanned a chasm. Meters below, an underground river flowed silently in the darkness.
He crossed the bridge with a casual stride. As he reached the other side, a heavy stone door ahead of him began to lift upwards with a smooth, almost silent hiss, revealing another passage.
Continuing on, Alaric climbed a set of stairs and finally entered a large, circular chamber. In the center stood the device he'd come for: the Observatory. A complex, golden, circular mechanism, with a crystalline skull resting at its heart.
'From what I remember, this is a highly advanced piece of Isu tech that's capable of real-time surveillance across the world,' Alaric thought, approaching the intricate device. 'A drop of blood is all it takes to activate it for someone else. Super high-tech for this era, or any era, really.'
The crystal skull sat on a pedestal in the middle of the golden rings. It had a small, square indentation on its forehead, clearly designed to hold something… the blood vials.
"How much money would I get from the System for this, I wonder?" Alaric murmured, reaching out to touch the cool surface of the skull and the surrounding golden mechanism. "Ten million pounds? More?"
He focused his intent.
[Buy][Sell]
Mentally, he pressed [Sell]. The Crystal Skull, an artifact of immense power and untold history, vanished from its pedestal in an instant, without so much as a shimmer.
A notification pinged in his mind.
[+ 513,613,592 R](Approx. £16,050,424 15s.)
[Current Balance: 11,930,536,225 R]
"Sixteen million pounds?" Alaric whistled softly, a grin spreading across his face. "Not bad at all. Definitely worth the trip."
"Now… I better get back to La Providencia before Kassandra kills me…"
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