Ruins

After resting aboard the ship for over ten days, Werther found that his injuries had completely healed.

That was right. In just over ten days, the wound on Werther's waist and abdomen had basically scabbed over and healed. Years of training in the Lightning Stimulation Method had finally begun to show results.

Moreover, Werther found that his Thunder Core had been growing stronger and stronger recently, and his body's Lightning abilities were constantly improving as well.

It seemed that all those years of effort and sweat were finally about to bear fruit.

There had been countless times when he trained his body until he collapsed on the ground, unable even to get back up.

There had been countless times when intense sword training left him unable to hold his chopsticks steadily during meals, forcing his senior brother and master to feed him.

There had been countless times when he activated his Lightning ability, only to be tortured beyond endurance by the violent Lightning.

Combined with the intense battles of recent days, Werther knew that the peak period of his strength's growth was about to arrive.

As Werther sensed the changes in his body, he suddenly wondered where Rabbit had gone. He had not seen Rabbit all morning.

They had lived together for over ten days and had become quite familiar with each other. Moreover, the clever Rabbit could already understand some simple words.

After searching around the ship for a while, Werther found Rabbit lounging in a deck chair on the deck, holding a carrot in one hand and juice in the other, basking comfortably in the sun.

With a smile, Werther went to the Restaurant for a glass of juice before heading to the deck.

When Rabbit saw Werther approaching, Rabbit sat up in the lounge chair before Werther could even sit down, then began gesturing wildly.

After spending several days together, Werther could roughly understand. Rabbit seemed to want to take him somewhere.

"Oh? Where to?" Werther asked Rabbit using the simplest words he could.

Rabbit pointed toward Black Iron Rock Island. Werther started the ship and sailed toward the Island, returning to its shore shortly afterward.

Then Rabbit launched into another string of hand gestures that no one else could possibly understand.

This time, not only did no one else understand, even Werther could not make sense of it. He could only shake his head to show that he did not understand Rabbit language.

Rabbit stopped gesturing and instead jumped directly onto the Island, motioning for Werther to follow.

Seeing the situation, Werther could only follow behind Rabbit.

After running across the Island with Rabbit for about ten minutes, Werther found himself in a field of iron ruins.

These ruins should have been the ancient ruins Ferdinand had mentioned.

Before him stood a vast expanse of iron houses. Every building was tall and spacious. Their doors and windows were probably not made of iron, so they had vanished under the erosion of time, leaving only the frames behind.

Perhaps because they had been scoured by lava for so long, every iron house was black and covered in dark red rust, giving off a heavy, desolate feeling.

Rabbit entered the sprawling ruins, seeming very familiar with the terrain, and went into one of the houses. There was nothing special about this particular house.

After following Rabbit inside, Werther found Rabbit constantly knocking on the wall, striking a different spot each time.

After Rabbit knocked more than ten times, the wall made a series of clicking sounds, and a hidden compartment opened in it.

Werther walked over curiously to see what was inside. After one glance, he was speechless. It was actually a pile of tree bark from the Island, all of it fresh and tender.

It seemed that after enjoying food and drink aboard Werther's ship for over ten days, Rabbit wanted to repay Werther's hospitality.

Rabbit picked up a piece first and happily put it into their mouth.

But after taking a few bites, Rabbit opened their mouth wide and spat out the bark in one gulp. Then Rabbit stared at the bark in surprise, unable to understand why the bark that had once seemed delicious now tasted so awful.

How could Rabbit know that Rabbit had once eaten even worse food and grown used to it, which was why tree bark had seemed tasty before?

The vegetables and fruit aboard Werther's ship were all premium ingredients. For a foodie like Werther, the kitchen's supplies had to be top quality—there was no room for negotiation on that matter.

Seeing that the food Rabbit had offered Werther was actually so awful, Rabbit lowered their head in disappointment.

Seeing Rabbit's dejected mood, Werther immediately understood what had happened. He picked up a piece of bark and began eating it in big bites.

To be honest, it was tough and carried a sulfurous taste. It was terrible, but Werther still swallowed a large piece in just a few bites. He did it for no other reason than to cheer up the Rabbit who had once saved his life.

Just as Werther was about to return to the ship with Rabbit, he noticed that the hidden compartment in the wall contained more than just a pile of bark. There was also a black stone inside, about half a meter long and over ten centimeters thick, seemingly a stone tablet.

Driven by curiosity, Werther stepped forward to examine it. After just one glance, his pupils contracted sharply.

He recognized the writing on it. That alone would not have meant much, but these characters were actually the ancient script his master had taught him.

Calling Rabbit over, Werther took the stone tablet out from among the bark and carefully began deciphering it.

Werther was not particularly skilled in ancient writing. He could only decipher it, but doing so took quite a long time.

After nearly two hours of deciphering, Rabbit had become so bored beside him that Rabbit began playing with their own exoskeleton. Only then did Werther finally work out the tablet's general contents.

This tablet, from who knew where, had quite an impressive origin. If Werther had guessed correctly, the material it was made from should have been the same material used to carve Poneglyphs.

The contents were simple as well. This tablet was the key to a forbidden area of a nation. That nation had nearly been wiped out several centuries ago, and its last surviving people had entrusted the Kozuki Family with making this tablet to ensure that their civilization would not be completely forgotten.

As for the reason their people had been exterminated, the tablet only gave a brief explanation because of its limited space.

It seemed that they had refused recruitment by the other royal families. Furthermore, their nation possessed an advanced technology, and the other royal families had wanted to use that technology to defeat certain enemies.

There was also an extremely important passage written on it.

"You will never obtain Pluton, nor will you use our Wisdom Fruit to do those things. Even if you succeed, how will you face the people of the entire world? The organization you establish will not even dare to possess history. Your history is filthy, despised by the people. Just wait and see, you arrogant royal families. One day, someone will rise up and resist your ****! Your descendants will surely be cast into the abyss by the people amid pride and sin."

After reading those words, Werther thought that there must once have been a nation here. Because that nation had refused to join the royal families' alliance and possessed a technology highly suited for war, it had been destroyed. He did not know whether that technology still remained.

Only after reading the final passage did Werther finally learn the location of that nation's forbidden area. And that location was something Werther saw every day: the very bottom of the artificial volcano at the Island's center.