"Yes." Dalma looked at him curiously. "The Kraken."
Rigel blinked, sensing that John had truly had bad luck, but he wasn't as frightened as the crew.
Unlike them, Rigel knew that Davy Jones wasn't truly omnipotent, he wouldn't just be guarding the treasure of some random pirate he'd killed.
Although a treasure of half a million pounds would be truly tempting, Barbossa had amassed far more than that on Isla de Muerta, the man spent 10 years with an immortal body, able to plunder at will without any consequences. Even John Slint had to weigh the pros and cons, but Barbossa didn't, regardless of the opponent, his cursed pirates held no fear.
So Rigel wasn't concerned with the money, instead, it was Galileo's diary he was after, more specifically, the ruby on its cover.
The crew was somewhere between scared and excited, Elizabeth being the most animated part, she looked like a squirrel jumping around Will, who was sadly smiling again.
Rigel ignored all of that, just like Dalma, for her, human wealth held little interest, instead she looked at Rigel with ever-increasing curiosity.
Upon landing on the island, Rigel took few with him, Clemens volunteered to go, curious about Captain Flint. Elizabeth looked at Rigel with pitying eyes for a long moment before he let her go. Anna was dragged along by her, and Will came along to look after Elizabeth.
Finally, Rigel also brought Ragetti and Pintel, in addition to Salazar and Jack, who were already perched on his shoulders.
Dalma, to Rigel's surprise, didn't want to go with them, instead, she also disembarked, but went into the forest alone, for reasons unknown. Rigel wasn't curious enough to ask, so he ignored her, only requesting that she be back by the end of the day.
The expedition set off soon after, following not some treasure map, but the compass needle.
"I hate the bush." Pintel complained unhappily, walking ahead with Ragetti wielding machetes to cut the tall vegetation.
Behind them, Elizabeth and Anna whispered, Rigel and Clemens came right after with Will keeping an eye on the back.
Rigel saw many snakes, none of them attacked them, they only stared at Rigel for a moment, nodded, and then fled.
Clemens noticed. "How do you do that? Is it some kind of hypnotic control over snakes? I've heard that's popular in Asia."
Rigel rolled his eyes. "Don't try to make sense of magic with your knowledge, Clemens, magic is just science that you don't understand yet."
Clemens blinked, pausing for a moment, before Will nudged him. "Don't stand there, doctor, if you get poisoned there won't be anyone to save people."
Clemens stopped, nodded, and continued walking. In his hand, he held neither swords nor pistols, but his medical bag.
Clemens walked beside Will and asked in a low voice. "Aren't you curious?"
Will laughed, shaking his head. "No, my friend, unlike you, I'm just a blacksmith, I only understand swords and hammers."
Clemens smiled slightly and said. "You don't need a degree to enjoy learning."
"Well, I think you've chosen the wrong place to learn things, Doctor. The only math pirates understand is the amount of rum in their warehouses and coins in their pockets." Will joked, making Clemens chuckle slightly.
The journey was long, the island was not small, and it seemed that John Flint had hidden his treasure right in the center of it.
"Captain! There's a cave ahead!" Ragetti shouted.
Elizabeth was the first to run forward, excitedly, which alarmed Will, who immediately ran after her.
Everyone gathered around to take a look. Ahead of them, a waterfall continued to cascade into a deep natural pool. Right next to it was a dark cave, inaccessible by land. Rigel wasn't worried, even when the compass pointed to the entrance.
He opened his bag and began pulling a dinghy out of it.
In their view, Rigel was pulling the boat out of nowhere, which confused them even more, but when the boat was brought to shore with the oars still inside, nobody gave it much thought, except Clemens, who stared at the boat as if it owed him money.
Everyone boarded, although it was a bit cramped, there was still room for everyone. Clemens was the last one, still looking at the boat and squeezing it from time to time, trying to understand what he was seeing.
Rigel sat while Ragetti and Pintel rowed. Ragetti didn't mind, but Pintel was unhappy that he was always the one who ended up doing the manual labor.
Even so, the pair said nothing while rowing.
The cave was long, and the sound was limited to a few drops of water falling from the stalactites on the ceiling from time to time, the sound of oars cutting through the water, and the heavy breathing of Ragetti and Pintel.
"Could Captain Flint's treasure really be here?" Elizabeth asked, only to be surprised by the volume of her voice echoing through the cave.
This even caused some bats to fly over their heads away from the cave.
Rigel simply looked at her and ignored the anxious girl, instead, sensing the light growing dim, he pointed with his wand and spoke. "Lumos."
The light flickered at the tip of her wand, focusing on the front.
The group was a little surprised, but grateful for the light source.
Eventually, the outside light was completely lost for a long time, it was only after five minutes of rowing that they finally saw another light source.
It started as a light at the end of the tunnel, but as it progressed, they finally managed to see what was inside.
It was a gigantic natural cave, at the top of the cave, an opening about three meters in diameter let light through, illuminating the cave enough for Rigel to cast the illumination spell.
They looked towards the center of the cave, where a small island had formed. The group exchanged glances, with Rigel looking at the compass, he realized it was pointing directly at the island.
The group disembarked, there was enough space for everyone to relax. In the center of the island, there was a dug hole. They approached, only to see a skeleton atop a pile of open chests filled with gold, silver, and jewels scattered around it.
The others became excited as soon as they saw the treasure, even Clemens and Will, who weren't particularly interested in such things, felt their hearts beat a little faster, that was the allure of wealth.
However, Rigel's eyes never left the skeleton, he saw that in one of its hands rested a leather notebook, and the ruby embedded in the book's cover also gave him certainty that it was what he was looking for.
Rigel, however, felt the power of the Aztec Rune vibrate as he approached, he looked back at the skeleton, and the skeleton's head slowly turned towards them as well.
This shocked the excited group, causing them to recoil in fear.
The skeleton suddenly began to rise, his other hand firmly gripping his sword, he seemed ready to defend the treasure with his life.
Rigel blinked, activating the power of the Rune, the skeleton stopped in its tracks, trembling constantly, fighting against Rigel.
Rigel frowned, the rapidly increasing magical consumption showed that this was no mere lifeless skeleton.
Rigel didn't hesitate, waving his wand, Diabolus appeared again, she lunged forward, swallowing the skeleton that was still fighting against Rigel.
As soon as he swallowed the skeleton, Rigel heard a horrible scream coming from it, but unfortunately for the skeleton, it didn't last long.
In the end, only Galileo's notebook and the sword were spat out by Diabolus.
The skeleton turned into black mist before disappearing forever.
The adventure book chose this moment to open.
[Congratulations, writer...]
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A/N: Free chapter of the week, same rules. 160 Power Stones. 6 bonus chapters.