Ning looked at the drink in front of him and then at the grinning Captain Darkwater who stood before him. He stared at the man for just 2 seconds before grinning himself.

He grabbed the chalice and drank the rum down in one large gulp, not even showing any disgust as the rancid rum slid down his throat.

He handed back the chalice to the Captain, who stared with a smirk on his face. The captain grabbed the chalice to take it back, but Ning’s grip was so tight that he couldn’t pull it back easily.

The captain grunted and tried to pull even harder but he couldn’t move it away.

Seeing the situation, many of the people around the captain got closer to shoot Ning upon order.

“What do ya think you’re doing, brat?” the Captain asked angrily.

“Captain Darkwater,” Ning said slowly. “Captain… were you a captain in a ship?”

Darkwater let go of the chalice and pulled out a flintlock pistol, pointing it at Ning’s head.

“You have 3 seconds to let go of the chalice, lad before I blow your brains out,” the Captain said.

“Start the countdown,” Ning said.

Jasmine and Tim were more than horrified at the thought of being involved in the gunfire.

“Sir Ning, what are you doing?” Tim asked hurriedly. “Let go.”

“Do you want to die?” Jasmine asked.

“One!”

At the start of the countdown, both Jasmine and Tim ran away to a corner, hiding themselves.

The Captain stared at Ning’s smile and then at his Chalice. The Chalice was something he had accidentally found after he was attacked in the midst of a fog on an island he had docked at for the night and had to defeat a monster that attacked them in the night.

Nearly 30 of his crew of 50 had died that night, but after putting enough bullets in the thing, the mist had vanished and all that had remained in the end was the chalice.

When he realized what the chalice was and what it could do, he decided to change his life around a little. There was no longer any need to earn money himself. He could have other people do it.

He gave up pirating.

“Two!” As soon as the captain spoke, something appeared in Ning’s hand, making everyone nearly pull their trigger.

However, before they could, the Captain stopped them as he realized what had appeared in Ning’s hand.

A single, golden brick. “What is this?” the Captain asked, reaching his hands toward the gold brick. He couldn’t imagine how there could be a golden brick in this place. They were supposed to leave everything outside before coming in here.

“What do you think this is?” Ning asked the man and handed over the gold brick.

The captain took the brick and felt the weight shift onto his hands as Ning let go. He grunted a little at the weight. “This is gold alright,” he said. “Are ya paying on behalf of the lass?” “Of course,” Ning said.

The Captain, with his gun still pointed at Ning, turned back around to look at the woman with the accounting book. “Take 1000 gold coins off the girl’s name.”

“Yes, captain,” the girl answered quickly and started writing. However, before she could even begin writing, she was confronted with more gasps. She looked up, and another gold brick had appeared in Ning’s hands.

Ning handed it over to the Captain, and the captain felt the heaviness of the gold brick again. He could not understand how and where these bricks were coming from.

“Did you sneak in a treasure, lad?” the Captain asked.

Ning shrugged. “You’re free to check me if you want to,” he said. “In the meanwhile, why don’t you take another?”

A third gold brick appeared.

At that point, people had already put down their guns and were looking at Ning in awe. Even Tim and Jasmine who were huddled in a corner were now staring at Ning with some level of surprise.

They had seen Ning do more than just this, but that did little to fully take away the feeling that came every time they saw him do something similar.

The Captain couldn’t take the gold brick, so Ning placed it on the table before them. Then he placed another one, and then another one.

The captain placed the gold brick in his hand too, making a total of 5 gold bricks.

“You three,” the Captain motioned three men with his guns. “Check his body for treasures.”

“Yes, Captain!” The three complied with their captain’s orders and came to pat down Ning again. This time, they were a little more thorough, patting through everywhere to make sure Ning hadn’t hidden anything from him.

“There’s nothing here, captain,” the three said.

“Check his clothes. His buttons,” the Captain said. “Does any of it feel look like a treasure? Check his belt.”

The three shook their head. “We checked. He doesn’t have a belt or a shirt with buttons.”

“Is this all?” the Captain asked Ning directly.

Ning chuckled a little. “Of course not,” he said. At the next moment, a massive bunch of gold bricks appeared in Ning’s hands, ordered in a 6 by 4 by 4 layout.

He placed the gold bricks on the table and the table immediately broke upon the gold’s weight, the bricks crashing onto the plastered ground, shaking the entire building.

The captain moved back to protect himself, but other than that nothing else happened. When they came out of their fear, they looked down at the many bricks of gold with their wide eyes.

The captain looked at it all and started counting. The others did so along with him as well.

“51, 52, 53. 53 gold bricks!” the Captain’s eyes were wide open. He looked up at Ning with wide eyes. “How did you…”

“Does that matter?” Ning asked.

“No,” the Captain said slowly and looked back down at the gold coins. He turned around toward the woman.

“Clear out 53 thousand gold coins from little Jas’s tab,” he ordered. Only, as he spoke out the number, he realized that the math wasn’t correct at all.