After roaring out his fear, Vice Admiral Dalmatian felt much better. He sat down heavily on a fallen tree trunk and asked Loa, "So what are you doing? Where did these stones come from? They look like pieces of some building."
Dalmatian's decision to stop giving him trouble was a relief, but Loa still felt awkward. Who knew why that stone had bounced? It had looked just like the others, and he had struck it with the same force and at the same angle.
And it had bounced so far!
It had nearly hit Vice Admiral Dalmatian in the head!
At the question, Loa gave an embarrassed smile. "Well, I found an abandoned temple in the clearing over there. I thought there might be something valuable inside, so I took it apart to have a look."
Loa still hadn't figured out what that familiar sensation was, and Dalmatian wouldn't have understood it either. So Loa skipped the rest of the explanation and said he had been after treasure.
That sort of thing was perfectly normal in the One Piece World. Pirates weren't the only ones who hunted for treasure; marines sometimes searched uncharted islands for it too.
Travel was so limited in this world, and there were countless undiscovered islands. Loa's explanation was hardly strange.
Except...
"You demolished someone's temple to look for treasure?" Dalmatian stared at Loa, stunned. "That does sound like you..."
But since nothing was wrong, he had no intention of digging deeper. He stood, dusted the dirt off his backside, and asked, "So, did you find anything good?"
"Of course!"
Loa grinned proudly and drew an absurdly long sword from behind his back.
Only then did Dalmatian notice it strapped behind Loa, hidden by his Dragon Wings. Intrigued, he reached out. "A weapon! Loa, you're lucky.