Four hundred gold coins

A few days later.

The skies were clear, and the sea was calm.

On the deck of the [Black Pearl].

"Hey! Hah! Hey! Hah!"

A group of pirates trained under Green's direction.

Dunn trained alongside them as well.

Although the pirates had all become second-tier professionals, these professionals from such unorthodox backgrounds had very poor fundamentals and combat skills alike.

Even Dunn still fought mainly by overwhelming his opponents with his attributes.

If he encountered a professional whose strength was not much different from his own, he would essentially be thrashed.

After all, he had only been an ordinary person in his previous life. Although his original self had been forced by his parents to memorize supernatural knowledge by rote, he had never done any proper training either.

So, after discussing it with Annie, they had Green teach the pirates some less important sword techniques, saber techniques, breathing techniques, and the like.

This would improve the pirates' fighting strength while also burning off some of their excessive energy after advancing.

Dunn joined the training as well to improve his own combat skills.

At the same time, Dunn taught Green the career ability Rokushiki. However, Green's training did not go very smoothly. Annie had initially been interested too, but when she saw that even Green could not master it easily, she gave up.

The other five techniques of Rokushiki were manageable, and Green soon became capable of using them at a basic level. Only Geppo, which Green valued most, progressed very slowly.

According to Green's research, if someone outside the [Pirate] class wanted to learn Geppo,

they needed at least 15 points in both strength and constitution, and at least 18 in agility.

Alternatively, strength or constitution at the supernatural level or above could lower the agility requirement.

Of the seven main attributes, strength represented pure brute force, while constitution represented bodily toughness, muscle density, and defensive ability.

Agility represented the body's flexibility, coordination, and degree of control.

The higher one's agility, the easier it was to learn martial arts.

The supernatural feat [Handy], gained at 20 agility, greatly reduced the difficulty of learning any career skill for a professional.

"Hey, hey, Dunn, come over here! There's news."

Dressed in light clothing, Annie lay on a lounge chair beneath an enormous parasol, with a glass of chilled, freshly squeezed juice on the table beside her, leisurely reading the newspaper in her hands.

Hearing her call, Dunn slowly finished his final set of movements, then rose and walked over to Annie.

When Dunn came over, Annie shared the newspaper in her hands with him.

Dunn picked up the newspaper.

[A new legend is born! The whole world celebrates!]

[The Wave Sword Saint and several other legends reach an agreement with the nations along the western coast of the Old World to jointly establish the Joint Naval Headquarters.]

[The crown prince of the Kingdom of Lyon will depart for the New World in the coming days.]

[The Tulip Chamber of Commerce's fleet bound for the New World will soon return!]

[Many outstanding fourth-tier youths come to blows over the greatest beauty of the nine seas.]

[An adult dragon appears somewhere in the Old World.]

The newspaper was about the same size as those from his previous life, densely covered in information, all in the form of headlines.

Its functions, however, were far beyond anything the newspapers of his previous life could compare to.

This newspaper was published by the [Press] and sold for 100 gold coins.

Although it was also called a newspaper, its functions were closer to those of a news feed from his previous life.

The [Press] was a neutral organization founded by a legendary wizard together with several legendary powerhouses, and it held a monopoly over the industry.

The nations of the Old World had once tried publishing their own newspapers to control public opinion. However, for various reasons, those newspapers had serious problems with their information, bias, and so on, making them unpopular.

The newspaper was a magical product developed by a legendary wizard. Its material had been reinforced with magic. Although it felt no different from paper, anyone who tried to destroy it would find that tearing it was no easier than tearing steel.

The densely packed headlines on the page could be browsed by region, and there was also a keyword search function.

Furthermore, all kinds of information were updated in real time. Except for places such as the depths of the Storm Sea, which diminished mystical power, most of the known world had a "signal."

Annie pointed to a spot on the newspaper, and Dunn followed her finger.

[Why has the White Elephant Chamber of Commerce offered a hefty bounty on a lowly sailor after its expensively built merchant ship was plundered by the Oathkeeper?]

Annie lightly tapped the headline with her finger.

A square, coin-sized opening appeared in the newspaper.

This was a coin slot. Inserting a silver coin allowed the reader to view the details of the selected headline.

Once inserted, the silver coin would be transported to the [Press]'s vault by the teleportation magic attached to the newspaper.

After a silver coin was inserted, the words on the newspaper changed.

[The [Giant Tooth], a merchant ship built at great expense by the White Elephant Chamber of Commerce, was plundered by the Oathkeeper Pirate Crew shortly after crossing the Storm Sea. The third-tier professional [Tide Rider] and a squad of second-tier professionals were killed in battle.]

[Afterward, for unknown reasons, the captaincy of the [Giant Tooth] ultimately fell to Dunn Campbell, formerly a sailor aboard the [Giant Tooth].]

[After news reached the White Elephant Chamber of Commerce, it dispatched men to eliminate the sailors who had disembarked from the former [Giant Tooth] and issued substantial bounties on the [Oathkeeper] and Dunn Campbell.]

[Dunn Campbell is rumored to be one of Heaven's Favored, born extraordinary.]

[Given the substantial bounty the White Elephant Chamber of Commerce has placed on Dunn Campbell, we have reason to believe that Dunn Campbell has seized the [Giant Tooth] and become a pirate.]

The newspaper also included two bounty notices with magical portraits.

One was for Gannis, the [Oathkeeper], marked at 2,000 gold coins. Added to his previous bounty, Gannis now had a total bounty of 3,500 gold coins.

The other was naturally Dunn's. The portrait showed him as he had looked when he joined the White Elephant Chamber of Commerce, and the amount listed was 400 gold coins.

Looking at the bounty, Dunn sighed. "Four hundred gold coins? The White Elephant Chamber of Commerce really is stingy."

Seeing Dunn's expression, Annie replied beside him, "You should be satisfied. This has fulfilled nearly half your advancement requirement in one go. That amount is already a little excessive for a single bounty on a second-tier professional. Nobody's gold coins grow on trees."

"That's true. At least it takes some of the pressure off my advancement." Dunn nodded. Although he was dissatisfied with the White Elephant Chamber of Commerce's "stinginess," he also knew it was impossible to expect them to set his bounty high enough to fulfill the entire requirement at once.

After all, if a bounty of several thousand gold coins really were placed on Dunn, a mere second-tier professional like him would probably be hunted down by third-tier professionals. Several thousand gold coins was no small sum for most third-tier professionals.

When that happened, he probably would not even be able to find an island to dock at on the vast sea.

As for the White Elephant Chamber of Commerce eliminating the sailors who had disembarked from the former [Giant Tooth], neither Dunn nor Annie was surprised. After all, as Old Quill had said, those lofty noble lords would not mind casually killing these peasants to vent their anger.

In this supernatural world, that was the norm.