Chapter 146: Seastone Mine
Seastone.
A super-rare mineral that only appeared in very few locations in the world, equivalent to the crystallization of the sea. Its composition was similar to seawater, and could even be said to be the solid form of the sea itself. Its restraint on Devil Fruit users was even stronger than seawater.
High-purity seastone would instantly drain all strength from ability users the moment they touched it. Even the most powerful ability users were helpless when faced with seastone.
Moreover, beyond just restraining ability users, seastone possessed another characteristic - it had hardness far exceeding ordinary materials. It was said that seastone's hardness surpassed even diamonds, while its toughness was far superior.
So even when dealing with non-ability users, seastone handcuffs were often used for restraint.
These two properties made seastone one of the most precious minerals in the world. After all, most of the strong figures on the seas were ability users, making seastone, which could restrain ability users, extremely important.
The problem was that seastone production was far too scarce. The only place in the world with stable seastone output was Wano Country.
But it seemed this situation was about to change?
Brett stared in a daze at the unremarkable black stone on the table.
That made sense - Wano Country could produce seastone, but there was no reason it should be the only place in the world with seastone mines, unless seastone was created by Pluton.
In the boundless sea, there was naturally a high possibility of buried seastone veins, so why couldn't one be near Fish-Man Island?
This was truly striking treasure.
It couldn't be that only this one piece of seastone could be found in that location, right?
"Brett, are you certain?"
Jinbei felt his heart pounding, blood flowing up through his vessels, turning his entire face bright red.
He slapped the table and stood up.
"There's no mistake."
Brett reached out to touch the stone on the table again, and the same feeling of powerlessness he'd experienced before struck again, making him collapse onto the table once more.
Jinbei reached over to take the stone, examining it with a mixture of surprise and joy. "To think such a thing could happen?"
It really was seastone?
This stuff was extremely precious!
"Wait, wait?"
Mark shook his head vigorously, the slight intoxication completely disappearing. He widened his eyes. "Brett, you're saying this is - sea, sea-"
Seastone!!
Even he knew about that stuff!
The mineral that could restrain ability users!
"You've made an outstanding contribution to this country, old friend!"
Brett climbed back up from the table, speaking seriously to Mark.
"Con, contribution?"
Mark scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, then grinned slyly. "Does that mean I can get a raise?"
"Of course."
Brett looked at him meaningfully. "You might even get a promotion."
No matter what, discovering a possible seastone vein was an enormous achievement.
"Anyway, this matter must be kept secret!"
Brett looked around at the miners at the table. "This absolutely cannot get out."
"Of course!"
The miners nodded heavily. "If you say so, Big Brother Brett, we'd die before letting a single word slip out!"
"You don't need to go that far, just be careful."
Brett waved his hand. "Anyway, Mark,"
He looked at Mark. "First take us to see where you dug up this stone."
"Right!"
Mark nodded heavily.
Even he knew that a seastone vein was extremely important for Fish-Man Island.
Without any delay, Brett and Jinbei went together with Mark to the mining area.
Although it was already after work hours, Brett and Jinbei arriving together naturally wouldn't face any obstruction.
They entered directly into the mine tunnels.
This mine located in the deep-sea rift valley had become completely different from the past after nearly two years of excavation. The interior of the cliff walls and beneath the seabed plains had been excavated into a network of interconnected mine tunnels.
Coming here again without a guide would really result in getting lost.
Fortunately, they had Mark. Although he'd become a small supervisor at the mining company, this guy hadn't left the front lines, which was why he'd been able to dig up seastone.
"It's just ahead!"
Mark swam forward through the mine tunnel while turning back to Brett and the others.
Brett's eyes widened slightly.
Then countless sounds, both subtle and noisy, entered his ears.
"Brother Jinbei, our luck seems pretty good!"
A trace of joy appeared on Brett's face.
He could hear it.
From a large area extending deep and far down through the mine tunnels, extraordinary sounds were entering his ears.
Those were the sounds of seastone.
"Brett, are you saying?"
The smile on Jinbei's face could no longer be suppressed.
"From here going down,"
Brett extended his hand, pointing toward the bottom of the mine tunnel, then upward, toward the right. "Then going right, extending several kilometers in each direction, this entire area is distributed with large amounts of seastone."
"I don't know what scale Wano's seastone veins are, but our deposit here should be pretty decent, right?"
"Is that so?"
Jinbei was overjoyed. "Then this should already be a remarkably impressive vein, right? After all, seastone is very rare on the seas!"
"I think so too."
Brett said.
For ordinary iron ore, copper ore, or coal mines, this scale naturally wouldn't amount to much, but seastone was far more precious than precious metals like gold. The entire Fish-Man Island currently couldn't find any seastone.
Such a vein could naturally be considered a rich deposit.
"Anyway, let's go find Neptune first,"
Brett said. "This vein is far too significant - we need to discuss it properly."
"Mm."
Jinbei strongly agreed.
Major affairs of Fish-Man Island now generally required discussion among the three leaders.
Brett and Jinbei went to find Neptune that very night.
After the already-sleeping Neptune groggily listened to the two explain the matter, he was overjoyed, but immediately this joy was replaced by fear.
"Seastone is indeed extremely valuable, but if this news gets out-"
"That's what I'm worried about too."
Brett nodded lightly.
The reason Kaido occupied Wano Country was mainly for Pluton, secondly for the Road Poneglyph, but the third reason was probably the seastone there.
Without exaggeration, this stuff was the world's most precious natural resource. If it became known that Fish-Man Island had such a seastone vein, probably even the monsters would be unable to sit still.
"My suggestion is to quietly mine it on a small scale,"
Brett said seriously. "Fish-Man Island doesn't lack money right now anyway, so let's first extract some seastone and store it as strategic resources."
Seastone's greatest use was dealing with ability users - there would always be times when it came in handy.
"That makes sense."
Neptune nodded in agreement.
They'd let Mark take the lead then, since he'd discovered it first, and they'd promised him a promotion and raise. They'd specially create a new department for seastone excavation.
But there was still one problem.
The excavated seastone couldn't be processed.