Tony activated the bangle and waved his hand. As he did that, he was surprised by what the bangle did. He felt his body suddenly tense up, his muscles freezing solid.

He tried to move, but he found it difficult to do so. He could tell that because of the bangle, his defenses had gotten far stronger.

He let go of the power, feeling flexibility come back to his body. “I… I got so strong,” Tony said. “It was as though my entire body was made up of rock.”

“You couldn’t move? You froze there,” Ning said.

“No, my entire body literally feels like a rock. Like something hard, and I can’t move at all,” Tony said.

“Use it again, I wanna test some things,” Ning said and took a couple of things from the table next to him.

Tony activated the bangle, and as soon as he did, something struck his chest. He felt the hit, but it didn’t go beyond that. There was no pain.

He looked down at what was thrown at him and realized it was a metal plate, something they had eaten out of last night.

“No pain?” Ning asked.

Tony shook his head.

“Hmm, curious,” Ning said and threw a metal cup this time around. Tony felt the force stronger this time, but once again, he was unharmed for the most part. Another object flew at him right after, and Tony felt the force even harder this time. “Any pain?” Ning asked.

“No,” Tony said. “It’s a weird sensation, I feel the hit, but there’s nothing painful at all.”

Ning was about to hit again when Tony felt the power drain away from him. He realized that the hardness around his body was leaving.

“Wait, wait, wait—”

Ning stopped. “What?” he asked.

“It’s gone,” Tony said. “I can only activate it for 10 seconds in total, and it stops. I have to activate it again.”

Tony took a deep breath and activated the bangle, feeling the stiffness taken over him. “Now,” he barely spoke and Ning threw something once again.

One after another, Ning repeatedly threw objects until they reached the threshold where Tony began to feel pain.

“This is actually not bad,” Ning said. “You will surprise gun wounds with this active. It’s quite strong.”

Tony gave a wide grin. “Really?” he asked.

Ning nodded. “It’s not a bad treasure.” He wondered if this was why the man was called Ironheart Sam. Because his body became hard as an iron when in battle.

Once Tim woke up sometime later, he placed the bangle on his book and recorded it.

Bangle of Defense

/ The Iron Bangle

/ The Shield Maker

/ Iron Muscle Bangle

/ Bangle of Human Castle

Anyone wearing this can activate the bangle for 10 full seconds and become impervious to a lot of damage. The bangle must be reactivated to use it once again.

The names for the bangle throughout time had been quite unique and the description of it was exactly what Tony had said.

There wasn’t too much about the bangle they could learn from the book. “It’s good, but it feels so… dangerous,” Tim said. “What if you get attacked while it deactivates?”

“Then you become like Ironheart Sam,” Ning said. “You die. You would’ve died without this. Now, that certainty comes down to a possibility. That is more than you can ask for.”

“Ning is right,” Tony said “I had nothing like this before. This is better than nothing. Besides, using it together with my watch, I can time it pretty well, I would say. I will know when to use it and when to not use it.”

“That’s a good point,” Tim replied.

They cleaned up the room and had some food ordered once again to eat, planning to leave the penthouse later on.

Around noon when Ning and the rest planned to leave the hotel and go check out more of the pirate city, Elisa came running up once again to meet them.

“Captain Stillwater has asked that you come down immediately. Pirates from all over have come and are causing trouble. She is asking for your help,” she said.

“Well, I don’t really plan on helping her,” Ning said. “But the situation seems interesting enough. You guys wanna go there instead of visiting the city?”

“Sure,” Jasmine said. “Are we really not helping her?” “No,” Ning said and walked out the door.

They went down the stairs and walked outside to find a mob gathered some distance away from the hotel. However hotheaded they may be, they were still not going to get too close to where the Stillheart pirates reigned supreme.

Ning and the rest made their way through the gathered crowd, arriving where the main conflict was happening. Saʀᴄh th NvlFir(.)nt website on Ggl to access chapters of nvels early and in the highest quality.

Stillwater stood with her pirates on one side, talking to a few people on the other side. Ning looked through the opposing people and recognized maybe 3 people just based on the names he had read earlier today.

Redfist was a massive man with a gold-colored glove in his hand. His advisor Gouge was a timid man, and Captain Yolan was a handsome young man with blond hair.

How people stood around them made Ning more certain of just who they were.

He caught part of the conversation and realized the people were here for Sam’s murder and what the Stillheart pirates intended by stealing his treasure.

They asked why Stillheart did that and wanted answers. It appeared as though Stillwater had yet to give them any sort of answer to their question.

Stillwater’s eyes moved toward Ning and the others, seemingly feeling relieved to see them.

“That’s them,” one of the men said. “That’s the boy that stole Silvereye’s treasure.”

“Captain, that is the man that hurt our men,” another person spoke, pointing to Ning.

Eyes started shifting toward Ning and his group, each person looking curious at them, trying to see who they were.

Redfist moved away from Stillwater and walked toward Ning. As he moved, the entire crowd seemed to shift along with him. The ones on Stillwater’s side were on the lookout for whatever he did, and the others were following him to see what he would do. And maybe follow his lead in some cases.

The man arrived before Ning and the ground, standing a head taller than Ning who was pretty tall among the group himself.

“You seem to be the boss of your little group. I heard you shot my man yesterday,” Redfist said.

“I believe I did,” Ning said. “Are you here for that though? Or have you come for some other reason?”

“Does it matter to you what I’ve come for?” Redfist asked. “I do what I want.”

“Same here,” Ning said with a smirk.

Redfist stared into Ning’s eyes, seemingly searching for a hint of acting or a facade of strength. He expected to see Ning scared underneath, but no such signs could be seen in his eyes.

Redfist could see the others scared but not Ning. Either Ning was truly stupid, or truly confident. There was no third possibility in Redfist’s mind, and he failed to see just which one it was.

“Do you work for Stillwater?” he asked. “Work for her? No,” Ning said. “In a way, she works for me.”

Gasps and murmurs rose around the crowd as people tried to discern the truth in Ning’s words. No way could they believe that Ning was over Stillwater.

“She works for you?” Redfist asked.

“Do you know what happened to Ironheart Sam?” Ning asked Redfist.

“We do. That is why we are here,” Redfist said. “We are here to learn why Stillwater would go after someone and his treasure, the very same day another person’s treasure had been stolen by your group.”

“Tony, show him the bangle,” Ning said.

Tony was slightly taken aback, but he did as asked, raising his hand to show the golden bangle gleaming brightly in the sunlight. His bangle drew on the eyes of everyone present and even without getting close to see it properly, they could tell it was a treasure.

This close to Tony, Redfist had no doubt he was looking at Ironheart Sam’s bangles.

“You… you truly have his bangle,” Redfist said. He turned toward Stillwater. “You’re doing his bidding? Why?”

“What has the young man promised you, Stillwater?” the blond Yolan spoke. “Did he promise you fame? Power? Wealth? Don’t you already have those?”

Stillwater was somewhat relieved and angry at the situation. She was relieved that the focus had been moved away from her and her pirate group. She was no longer the center of the problem.

She was also angry at the same time as it made her look like a sellout. It made her look like a pawn in Ning’s games which she never was.

“I promised her nothing more than what she already has,” Ning said. “If you are curious, I will promise you the same thing.”

“Oh? And what is that?” Redfist asked.

“Give me your glove and your first mate’s ropes. I will return it within two minutes after I record them in a book. That was the same deal I made with Stillwater, and that is the same one I will make with you.”

Redfist was taken aback. “Give you my glove?” he asked. “You want me to hand you my treasure.”

“You heard it correctly,” Ning said.

“And that’s the same thing I told Stillwater,” he said.

“And what if I refuse?” Redfist asked.

“Then we’ll do the same thing to you as we said we would to Stillwater,” Ning said. “We will take your treasures. It’s your choice.”

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