On the second day, their ship anchored at a small island where a handover was needed.

A merchant ship flying the Order's flag sailed in from the distance.

"It's here,"

Andre, who was already standing at the bow, called out upon seeing it.

As the ship arrived, workers began unloading cargo into the Blue Fist's hold, with Hamo directing the operation from below.

Compared to the supplies, Ed and the others were clearly more curious about the person who would be boarding to replace Bobby.

"Let's bet on his gender," Jason suddenly suggested from the side.

Ed and Elena looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

"Male." ×2

"Then I choose female," Jason said with a pout, truly hoping the new member was a beautiful girl.

The stake was one silver coin.

At that moment, Andre, who had just visited the Church's merchant ship, returned alone.

Instead of a person, there was a... mechanical device?

It was brass-colored, somewhat resembling an insect, with four slender, pointed legs and a capsule-shaped upper body.

Its movement didn't come from rotors or gears, but from clearly visible incantations glowing at the joints.

The entire device was completely sealed, appearing both agile and fragile.

"What is that?" Jason frowned, unable to resist asking.

Ed similarly shook his head; the thing looked strange and didn't quite fit the current aesthetic.

"Gami? That's Gami, isn't it?"

Elena clearly recognized the device, a hint of surprise in her voice.

Seeing their curious glances, she explained, "That's not a 'what'—it's a person inside. But… he won't grow up."

Hearing this, Ed looked more closely. The sealed, capsule-like container on top did look like it could hold a five or six-year-old child.

Won't grow up… dwarfism? That was Ed's first thought.

Before they could finish their conversation, Andre brought the machine aboard. Vanessa and Sankaka also came onto the deck.

Seeing everyone was present, Andre pointed to the mechanical device beside him.

"Let me introduce you. This is our newest member, the Church's blacksmith, who will be joining our treasure-hunting team."

As he finished speaking, the capsule-like opening at the top of the device revealed a boy who looked about five or six years old. He smiled and waved.

"Hello, my name is Gami, Gami Gard."

Though curious, everyone nodded politely and introduced themselves.

Andre looked at his daughter. "Elena, you know him well. Why don't you show him around the Blue Fist?"

Elena nodded and walked over. Gami, inside the mechanical device, widened his eyes upon seeing her, then visibly shrank back in fear, which made Elena feel somewhat embarrassed.

But she still managed to smile and say, "Gami, long time no see. Come on, let me show you around."

"Haha, Elena. It's alright, I can just look around by myself."

"I said, I'll show you around the Blue Fist."

Elena's tone became more serious after his rejection, thinking he was ruining her kind-hearted image.

"Yes, yes!" Gami answered hastily, though anyone could see the little guy didn't want to be alone with her.

The scene gave everyone the impression that Elena was bullying a child.

Jason leaned close to Ed's ear and whispered, "Why does he seem so afraid of Elena?"

"No need to seem, he really is. Seems like Elena 'trained' with him too. Otherwise, I can't think of any reason for such fear."

Gami then quickly retreated into the machine and sealed the hatch. The device, controlling its four pointed legs, began to follow Elena across the ship.

"Elena wasn't so gentle and patient when she was little. Back then, she was like a wild child who enjoyed bullying others and making trouble everywhere. Luckily, her mother corrected her before it got out of hand," Andre said with a sigh, watching his daughter's back.

Hearing this, Ed and Jason, who had experienced how brutal and wild Elena could be during their own training, could roughly reconstruct Gami's fear. It might stem from childhood trauma.

The wild child Elena clearly fought with her fists and bullied everyone at the church. This indicated that in her childhood, she might have been the pack's leader, absolutely invincible in a fight.

How could the boys let a girl be the leader? So those brain-dead brats definitely looked for death by trying to teach her a lesson, Ed thought, and the consequences were predictable.

"Alright, everyone's here. Get to know each other for a while, then we'll move on to our objective."

With that, Andre waved his hand. The sails automatically unfurled with a clattering sound, and the ship slowly sailed into the distance.

Ed didn't return to his room but went to the captain's cabin instead. Jason, in charge of intelligence gathering and analysis, was also at the table and nodded when he saw Ed enter.

His interactions with Ed had made him realize that Ed also valued intelligence highly, because without it, his system couldn't identify treasures or provide clues, and was extremely thirsty for it. He felt Ed's thirst for information was even more exaggerated than his own. However, Ed clearly preferred acquiring various kinds of information rather than analyzing it.

Ed sat down next to Jason and began flipping through the documents scattered across the long table.

"This time, we can roughly determine the location: Pardora, the Dark Region."

He pointed to the area on the large map—the same one Arka had specifically inquired about, which contained a large amount of blue-tier treasure and even a small amount of gold-tier treasure.

[ Pardora - Dark Region

Treasures: White - Huge Amount, Blue - Large Amount, Gold - Small Amount.

Difficulty: Dangerous

Information: The site of the Vastin Empire's destruction. At the moment of its demise, a special ritual fully released the power of the [Scepter]-level treasure [Shadow of Darkness], radiating outwards indiscriminately. It destroyed the enemy, the Menichel Alliance—along with itself. The entire sea area has been shrouded in darkness for years due to the spread of its power.

Since Ed had seen the intelligence on the target location the day before, the information was almost completely revealed.

The entire Dark Region covered an area almost three times the size of the Blood Gold Alliance, demonstrating how powerful the two alliances within it had been.

Their one-time mutual destruction buried both nations' countless riches and treasures in the ruins, attracting countless seekers ever since.

However, as the destruction was caused by releasing a [Scepter]-level treasure's power, which still envelops the entire sea, the area remains extremely dangerous.

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