Among the sixteen slaves, Charles swept his gaze over them and saw nothing but numb expressions and vacant eyes.
But that was not a problem. With slave traders, even if they had thoughts of their own, they could never show them.
Charles looked them over, pointed vaguely at a few slaves, and said, "Keep these. Replace the rest with another batch."
The slave trader smiled. "As you wish, sir! You lot stay. The rest of you, go back!"
Very quickly, the selected slaves obediently moved aside.
Guards brought another batch of slaves into the courtyard.
Charles continued making his selections.
This time, he planned to buy twenty slaves to dilute the proportion of pirates within the Undertow Pirate Crew.
But he did not intend to buy them all from a single trader.
After selecting continuously, Charles chose a total of ten apprentice Tide Warrior slaves from this trader.
The first batch brought out for selection had been the best quality. The quality of those brought out afterward gradually declined.
After choosing ten, Charles followed the broker to another slave trader and selected ten more slaves.
These trained slaves were much more expensive.
Each slave cost between eighty and one hundred twenty Golden Shells.
But they were worth the price.
These trained slaves had previously been guards or sailors on merchant ships and knew sea voyages well.
They were also all apprentice Tide Warriors.
Even if their prolonged lives as slaves meant they could not be directly promoted to Tide Warriors, after a period of recuperation and the use of Magic Beast essence, they would recover or even strengthen their original combat power.
Charles led the twenty slaves toward where his Black Pearl was moored.
The twenty slaves formed two lines and followed behind Charles.
They were indifferent to their surroundings,