To obtain the gold needed to modify Thriller Bark, Maud decided to try his luck at the nearest treasure site.
After informing the entire crew of his decision to set sail, Thriller Bark turned around under Lafitte's command about ten minutes later and sped toward the treasure site.
Thanks to the extremely high speed granted by the Float-Float Fruit, and with decent luck keeping them from encountering storms or other severe weather along the way, Thriller Bark reached the New World waters where the treasure site was located in just five days.
"Jaya, maintain our course and descend slowly."
Lafitte stared intently at the pointer as he relayed the maneuvering order to Jaya.
Jaya followed the order, controlling Thriller Bark to maintain its course while slowly lowering the ship toward the white clouds below.
Whoosh—!
The hard, rock-covered bottom of the ship, carrying tremendous pressure, pushed through the clouds and slowly descended toward the sea.
Maud stood atop Thriller Bark's enormous mast and looked down at an island the size of a palm far away on the sea.
If nothing unexpected had happened, that island was the location marked on the treasure map.
With Lafitte and Jaya working together, Thriller Bark descended smoothly toward the sea.
At this rate of descent, by the time Thriller Bark reached the surface, it would already be close to the destination island.
But...
"Are those whirlpools?"
Maud focused his eyes and saw countless whirlpools distributed across the sea around the island, all visible to the naked eye.
The whirlpools varied in size, but even the largest was only about as big as a basketball court. There were simply too many of them, scattered all around.
With so many whirlpools, even if the current in each one was not fast, ordinary ships would have difficulty