Treasure Hunting System： The Ocean Conquerer

Chapter 521: Chapter 257: Human Skin Map

”Can you still drink?” Alka looked at Balazs. Balazs’s cheeks were flushed, and he reeked of alcohol, his eyes half-open.

”My friend, don’t underestimate me. I grew up with alcohol... so this little bit is nothing to me.”

Listening to him, his words already slurring, it was clear he wasn’t as capable as he claimed. It seems the alcohol he grew up on wasn’t very strong, Alka thought.

”Alright, then. One more glass,” Alka said with a sigh, clinking his glass against Balazs’s. After all, Balazs wasn’t in a good mood, and alcohol was the simplest way to vent. At least he wasn’t making a drunken scene; that was good, wasn’t it? As long as he didn’t make a drunken scene, getting drunk was fine.

”AH~ REFRESHING!” Balazs exclaimed, setting his glass on the table and leaning heavily against the nearby wall.

”I’ve had some terrible luck this time. It’s all those damn traitors’ fault.”

”I consider myself a decent captain. I’ve been trading for over ten years, starting from a small ship of just over thirty meters to now owning a large merchant ship of seventy meters. And my brothers who followed me, I’ve never mistreated them.”

”But those scoundrels betrayed me for a mere 382 Golden Sails. Sigh.” Leaning against the wall, he sighed heavily.

Then, with his eyes still half-closed, he looked at Alka and asked gravely, ”Friend, I know you also possess Treasures. There are only so many slots; when they’re gone, there’s nothing I can do, right?”

Hearing this, Alka’s eyes widened slightly, and he cautiously scanned their surroundings. This was clearly not the place for such a conversation.

Seeing Alka’s reaction, Balazs smiled and patted his shoulder. ”Relax, friend. I’m just drunk, not that foolish.”

With that, he opened his left hand, revealing a circular pattern in his palm from which a faint Magic Power flowed. A white, disc-shaped stone object, intricately engraved with dense Rule patterns, materialized from his palm. The moment it appeared, Alka sensed it. This is a Treasure.

Then, Balazs did something that astonished Alka. He took the Treasure and casually tossed it towards the proprietor behind the bar. ”Rochela, catch! Keep this safe for me.”

The muscular, dark-skinned old man opened his single eye, raised his right hand, and deftly caught the Treasure. He then casually tossed it onto a shelf behind the bar, seemingly unconcerned. The other patrons drinking nearby merely glanced up, apparently accustomed to such displays and uninterested.

”See?” Balazs’s expression was a bit smug. He leaned forward slightly and whispered to Alka, ”This isn’t an ordinary bar. There’s a Spell by every seat that alters what’s spoken. People without Treasures can’t even get in here.”

Hearing this, Alka looked at the table he was leaning on but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Only now, thinking about it carefully, did he realize something was indeed off. The conversations drifting from the surrounding seats had been exceedingly mundane, always sounding like normal idle chatter. Alka had assumed the patrons of this bar were simply very civilized. So, this was the reason? Moreover, he hadn’t sensed any mechanism for detecting Treasures when he entered. No, what was truly astonishing was that a mechanism capable of detecting whether someone possessed a Treasure even existed. And in this tavern alone... there were only a little over ten people seated. If that was the case... it was extraordinary. This place was clearly only frequented by those intimately familiar with this Island. Treasures here were truly, unusually plentiful. The Endless Sea... it truly couldn’t be underestimated. I need to be even more low-key.

Then, Alka heard Balazs continue to drunkenly vent his grievances.

”You might not believe this, but when I first obtained my Treasure, more than half of its slots had already been used! By the time I got it, I could only grant Enlightenment to a dozen or so people.” He said this with tremendous frustration.

”Sigh... I can understand them, but of course, there was nothing I could do. Every slot for Enlightenment is so precious. I did my utmost to provide slots for the friends who had journeyed with me all this way, but it still fell short.” Saying this, he poured himself another drink and took a solitary sip.

To be honest, Alka couldn’t empathize with him. He didn’t think the Enlightenment slots were particularly precious; if anything, there were too many. On their ship, there were currently a total of six people who controlled Treasures. This excluded Jason, who wielded a living ’Treasure,’ and Lucilia, with her special, non-human Treasure. The remaining four people controlled five Treasures, which collectively had over 600 slots, approaching 700. They had hardly used any of the slots from the Treasures they controlled. Even if some had been used, the individuals who once occupied those slots were long dead. In the Homeland Sea, the total number of people they had granted Enlightenment to was less than twenty. He had absolutely no idea how they would ever use so many slots; how could he possibly empathize with Balazs’s plight?

Although he couldn’t empathize, Alka could understand the sentiment. It wasn’t scarcity that bred discontent, but unequal distribution. Moreover, the later one received Enlightenment, the wider the disparity in strength became, naturally making one more anxious.

Seeing that Balazs had apparently finished his tirade and was now leaning against the wall, drinking by himself, Alka suddenly said, ”Speaking of which, before we left this time, we encountered something interesting.”