“Wait, why do I feel like… I can’t breathe easily?”
As their altitude increased, Yamato suddenly noticed that something felt wrong. It was different from when they had been down at sea level.
Even though she was simply breathing normally, Yamato kept feeling as though she could not get enough air.
“Ah, sorry. I flew too fast. I forgot that you need some time to adjust to the altitude…”
At this point, they had not yet reached Skypiea. They had only arrived at the White Sea, seven thousand meters above sea level, a vast white ocean formed from Sea Clouds.
As altitude increased, the air became thinner. Under normal circumstances, people with stronger physiques actually tended to suffer from altitude sickness more easily because their bodies required more oxygen.
Those who were naturally frail sometimes showed less of a reaction upon arriving in a place like this. However, the strong people of this sea all possessed a certain degree of physical adaptability.
They might feel uncomfortable when first arriving, but after some time, they would grow accustomed to the environmental effects.
Once Chloe slowed down slightly, Yamato quickly adjusted.
As for Chloe herself, Lunarians had long since evolved highly developed adaptability. Neither she nor Amphitrite was affected in the slightest.
“First task: find Skypiea Dials. Focus mainly on shells that are already empty. You can bring back living ones too, but don’t bother with any that are too small.
They mainly live among the reefs near the shallows, so they’re not difficult to find.
Remember, you’re only allowed to move around in the shallows. Do not go near the deeper parts of the Sea Clouds.”
That last sentence was directed at Yamato. Everything on Skypiea was related to clouds. Although quite a few unusually shaped Sky Fish lived in the vast Sea Clouds, these Sea Clouds had no bottom.
Near the shore, there were still Island Clouds beneath their feet, but if she ventured into the deeper parts of the Sea Clouds, she would simply fall all the way back down to the Blue Sea below.
Yamato herself was a Devil Fruit user, so falling into the Sea Clouds would also leave her body powerless. If she really slipped and fell, fishing her back out would be rather troublesome.
Only Chloe could move freely through the Sea Clouds without any concerns.
Although the composition of Sea Clouds made it difficult even for Fish-Men to swim through them, that hardly mattered when Chloe could fly.
Yamato could not distinguish between the different types of Dials, so whenever she found one large enough, she scooped it up and stuffed it into her backpack.
“Chloe, it looks like you have relatives here.”
“Relatives?”
“Look, there are lots of people with white wings… What are they doing over by Aunt Amphy?”
Following the direction Yamato was pointing, Chloe saw quite a few Skypiea residents talking with Amphitrite by the shore. After speaking with her, many of them returned to their homes, then came back not long afterward carrying all kinds of shells, large and small.
“Trading, obviously. Also, the wings on those people’s backs are fake. They’re just decorations.”
“But why would they wear decorations that have no practical purpose and are even somewhat cumbersome? Maybe their ancestors saw your ancestors a long time ago, and that’s why they started imitating them?”
“Maybe. Who knows what happened that long ago? Even Mom can’t explain the details of that history clearly.”
With only three people, they could not gather many shells by hand. Letting Chloe and Yamato pick up shells over there was mostly just giving them something fun to do. The larger supply of Dials came from trading with the Skypieans.
However, what they traded was not paper currency like Berries, nor jewelry or gold, but ordinary potted plants.
On Skypiea, soil was an extremely scarce resource. If the Knock Up Stream had not sent part of Jaya Island up here nearly a hundred years ago, there would not have been any trace of soil on Skypiea at all.
Thus, something that could be obtained simply by digging into the ground anywhere on the Blue Sea was an incomparably precious luxury on Skypiea.
Dials, on the other hand, were extremely common on Skypiea, nothing more than ordinary household items. Before long, Amphitrite had already traded for quite a few Dials from the residents.
Exchanging Dials that could be found everywhere for Blue Sea potted plants grown in precious soil was an enormously profitable trade in the eyes of the Skypieans.
At present, the “God” of Skypiea was still Gan Fall, and Skypiea had yet to enter the era of Enel’s reign of terror. It was currently in a relatively peaceful period, so overall, the trading went very smoothly.
The reason it was only relatively peaceful was because the Shandians had also been blasted into the sky together with Shandora.
Because of Skypiea’s desperate desire for land, after Shandora was sent into the sky, the God of Skypiea at the time led his people in seizing that land. The descendants of the Shandians, meanwhile, had always wanted to reclaim the ancestral homeland that had been taken from them.
Originally, the Shandians lacked sufficient military strength and had always been forced to fight a guerrilla war, but a few years ago, something changed.
After enduring countless hardships, Cricket successfully reached Skypiea with the help of the Tontatta Tribe.
Cricket himself was not particularly strong, but he had brought a group of Tontatta warriors with him.
They might have struggled greatly against the powerful pirates of the New World, but Skypiea was a completely different matter.
They had always remembered Noland’s help, and since the Great Warrior Kalgara was Noland’s friend, these Shandians, as Kalgara’s descendants, were naturally seen as allies in the eyes of the guileless Tontattas.
The arrival of this fresh fighting force tipped the balance of power. The Shandians reclaimed their homeland and once again rang the Golden Bell before Cricket.
Now it was the native residents of Skypiea who wanted to reclaim their holy land. However, Gan Fall was also a pacifist and had always advocated negotiating peace with the Shandians. Unfortunately, because the fundamental conflict revolved around the land itself, the talks had made little progress.
Obtaining gold was not difficult either. The Shandians were even more isolated than the local Skypiea residents, and many places still maintained customs from four hundred years ago.
Thanks to Noland, the Shandians could even be considered relatively progressive. To them, gold was hardly any different from building material, and exchanging scattered chunks of it for medicine and similar goods was quite normal.
When they finally left Skypiea, Yamato even still had several streaks of paint left on her face.
After all, the Shandians had an extremely traditional way of interacting with others—so traditional that whoever had the bigger fist had a greater say. After a friendly bout, Yamato had earned quite a bit of respect within the tribe.
“Want to try a different way of leaving this place?”
Standing at the edge of the Sea Clouds, Chloe suddenly asked Yamato a question.
“What kind of way? Is it fun?”
“It should be pretty fun. Hand me your bag first.”
Chloe took the bag on Yamato’s back, which was over two meters tall, then pulled out another bulging bag and strapped it onto Yamato. She repeatedly checked the safety ropes tied around Yamato several times.
“In a moment, when I tell you to pull, pull this cord. Leave the rest to me. Understand?”
Yamato had just nodded, and before she could even say the word “understand,” she was suddenly pushed from behind.
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