Because there were over twenty Shandia warriors aboard, the Hot Air Balloons had been forced down at the edge of Sky Island above Jaya Island. That actually worked out perfectly. They did not want to fly straight up for the next stretch anyway—too many people were suffering from altitude sickness, and they needed to rest.
In truth, people in the One Piece World were incredibly resilient. When Nami and Robin went up to Sky Island, they had not had any problems at all. It was only when Luffy and the others needed large amounts of oxygen while fighting the Shandia warriors that they showed signs of oxygen deprivation.
A sudden ascent like the one the Hot Air Balloons had just made would indeed make them uncomfortable, but if they entered battle in that state, they might suffer a total rout.
To be safe, they needed to rest for a while.
The Shandia warriors also sat in a circle and began exchanging pleasantries with Mont Blanc Cricket.
"I always thought the island had sunk into the sea, so I kept salvaging gold from the seafloor..." Mont Blanc shook his head. He seemed far more alive than before, perhaps because he had adapted to the thin mountain air, or perhaps because meeting the Shandia had cleared his ancestor's name.
The Shandia warriors felt somewhat ashamed. To be honest, when the Shandia had first fought the Sky Island residents, they had suffered devastating losses. Altitude sickness had killed too many of them, and the survivors had struggled on while conserving their strength. They had stubbornly fixated on reclaiming the Golden Bell, without anyone considering whether half of the island might still be down below.
Not until these people arrived.
Only then had the Shandia realized that they had kept staring at the Golden