Werther turned the gemstone over in his hand, amazed.
It was a translucent emerald green. Sunlight made it sparkle like a diamond and cast a pale green glow, as though it were brimming with life.
"What kind of gemstone is this? It seems special."
Holding the green gem, Werther felt something strange: a longing rising in his heart.
That surprised him. He had seen plenty of gems, and the ones piled up in his Pocket Watch were practically a mountain.
"It's a Vitality Crystal, an extremely rare gemstone. Rarer than Seastone. The Celestial Dragons in Mary Geoise love these things and will pay a high price for them.
"If we sold these Vitality Crystals to the Celestial Dragons, we'd get at least a billion Beli."
Werther frowned and thought it over. If the Celestial Dragons prized this gem so highly, there had to be more to it.
After all, those same Celestial Dragons had forced Boa Hancock to eat the Love-Love Fruit merely for their amusement.
That alone showed how vast their wealth was.
"Do they buy them regularly?" Werther asked, testing the waters.
"Yes, they're always buying. We suspected there was something unusual about them too, but no matter how we studied them, we found nothing. Eventually, we gave up and decided to sell them to the Celestial Dragons."
Tillman's answer only made Werther more certain that the gems had some unusual property.
Plenty of people had likely tried conventional methods, so Werther decided to test this gem in a less conventional way.
He applied a little pressure. With a crack, the Vitality Crystal broke apart.
The gem was not sturdy. In fact, it was rather brittle.
Even broken, the Vitality Crystal remained a vivid green, and the sunlight reflecting off it gave off a strangely soothing impression.
Werther