Little Garden.
Despite having "Little" in its name, the island was anything but small. When Marcus actually laid eyes on it, he couldn't help but whistle.
In the original story, it had seemed like two Sea Kings occupied roughly half the island each. But seeing it in person made him realize just how massive this place really was, at least three times bigger than Whiskey Peak, maybe more.
At first glance, there appeared to be two enormous white mountains dominating the landscape. But he knew better. Those weren't mountains at all, they were fish bones. The skeletal remains of Sea Kings so massive it was hard to wrap his head around how big they must have been when they were alive.
And the most mind-blowing part? The two giants who'd managed to hunt down creatures that enormous had to be absolutely terrifying in terms of raw power.
Thinking back to the original story, it had always seemed ridiculous that Mr. 3's Wax-Wax Fruit could trap warriors of that caliber. Sure, the wax was supposedly as hard as steel, but come on, Dorry and Brogy were former captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates. Even exhausted from their century-long duel, they should've been able to break free.
Marcus found himself wondering if they'd run into the giants during their stay here. That could get interesting real fast.
The Going Merry followed a small stream deeper into the island, and it didn't take long for the crew to spot the local wildlife. Usopp took one look at the massive beasts roaming the shoreline, each one at least three to four meters long, and started trembling.
"You know what? Maybe we should just stay on the ship. This place looks way too dangerous."
Nami nodded immediately. "I'm with Usopp on this one. Staying put sounds like a reasonable plan."
But Vivi was excited as she stared at the prehistoric creatures wandering around. Having grown up locked away in the palace, she'd always dreamed of exploring the outside world. Even joining Baroque Works had given her some freedom, but most of her time had been consumed by missions. She'd rarely had a chance to just explore for the sake of exploring.
Now, finally, she had a moment of freedom.
"I think I've seen that one in books before, it's a saber-toothed tiger! Oh my god, look over there! That's a dinosaur! This is a prehistoric island!" Vivi pointed excitedly at a long-necked dinosaur peacefully munching on tree leaves.
"DINOSAURS?!" Usopp's eyes bulged. "I think I just came down with a serious case of can't-set-foot-on-dangerous-islands disease!"
Nami nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I'm feeling symptoms of that illness coming on."
Meanwhile, Kira had spread her wings and taken to the air, circling above the island to get a better view of the prehistoric wonderland spread out below them.
"I can see a T-rex! Oh! It's fighting a triceratops! This is incredible! Can I go get a closer look?" she called down excitedly.
"I'm coming too!" Luffy shouted back, stretching his arms up to grab onto Kira's legs. The two of them prepared to take off together for some sightseeing.
"Hold on, Kira!" he yelled down to the ship. "Hey, Sanji! My lunch!"
Sanji had already anticipated this and stepped out of the kitchen with a packed bento box, which he tossed up into the air. Luffy caught it.
He quickly prepared additional lunch boxes for the others who might be venturing onto the island.
When it came time to offer food to Nami and Usopp, both of them shook their heads.
"We're definitely not going anywhere!"
"No problem. There's plenty more in the kitchen if you get hungry. Help yourselves."
"Wait, you're leaving too?" Usopp asked suspiciously, not liking where this was heading.
"We're running low on certain seasonings, so I figured I'd do some foraging. Besides, I've always wanted to try cooking dinosaur meat. This might be my only chance."
Sanji watched Kira and Luffy flying off into the distance. "That lucky bastard gets to grab onto Kira like that right in front of everyone..."
Zoro let out a massive yawn and stretched. "Huh? We're already at the island? Might as well take a walk and see what's what."
As he got up to leave, he noticed Sanji was also preparing to head out. The two rivals locked eyes, and Marcus could see the sparks flying between them.
"You're going hunting too? Perfect. Make sure you bring back a dinosaur while you're at it, we'll have dinosaur stew tonight."
Zoro smirked. "Don't worry. I'll bring back one way bigger than whatever scrawny thing you manage to catch."
Sanji's forehead immediately bulged with veins. "What did you just say?"
"I said I'll catch a bigger dinosaur than you, cook. That too complicated for your pretty-boy brain to understand?"
"You moss-headed bastard! Fine! Let's make it a proper contest then, see who can bag the biggest prey!"
"You're on!"
Just like in the original story, the two prepared for their hunting competition, both wanting to prove their superiority over the other.
That left Marcus, Usopp, Nami, Vivi, and Alvida still on the ship.
Marcus packed some food supplies into his inventory, then announced his plans. "I'm gonna head up to check out that volcano crater and do some mining while I'm at it."
"Can I come with you?" Vivi asked, clearly eager for adventure.
Marcus looked at her thoughtfully. "You sure about that? My route's probably going to be pretty boring, just a lot of digging and resource gathering."
"Or you could come with me instead," Alvida interjected. "I'm planning to hunt some dinosaurs myself. Should be a lot more exciting than watching someone mine rocks."
Sanji immediately perked up at this. "Oh, you are joining our competition? That's wonderful! Your catch will definitely be bigger than that moss-head's!"
Zoro rolled his eyes dismissively. "You're gonna die in the arms of a woman someday."
With that parting shot, he stalked off into the jungle.
Vivi considered her options for a moment, then made her decision. She climbed onto Karoo's back and chose to follow Alvida.
And just like that, only Nami and Usopp remained, suddenly very aware of how exposed and vulnerable they were.
"Wait a minute!" Usopp said. "They all just left us here alone! What are we supposed to do?"
Nami also realized this. With everyone else gone, the two of them felt like the air around the ship had become thicker.
"N-Nami..."
"What?" she asked nervously, glancing around at the sounds echoing from the jungle.
"Protect me!"
"Get lost!" Nami delivered a solid punch to Usopp's head, though her heart wasn't really in it. She was just as scared as he was.
---
Marcus made his way through the jungle toward the volcano he'd spotted earlier. The trek was surprisingly peaceful, he didn't encounter any aggressive dinosaurs, though he did notice something interesting about the local flora.
The plants along his path reminded him strongly of the Island of Rare Animals back in the East Blue. These had that same ancient, prehistoric quality to them. It seemed like many of the plant species there had been remnants from this same era.
"Should I collect some seeds while I'm here?" he mused to himself.
Since arriving in the One Piece world, he'd discovered something fascinating about the differences between various types of Minecraft trees. For him personally, the differences were negligible, whether he punched them bare-handed or chopped them with an axe, they all felt the same as the original game.
But for other people, the differences were significant.
Most standard wood blocks required the usual ten hits to break, which had become the baseline measurement. But certain specialized woods, like the wood used for the Going Merry's keel, were considerably tougher than ordinary lumber.
Those harder woods required around fifteen strikes or more to break down completely.
After chopping down one of the prehistoric trees and collecting its seeds, he sold them all to his transmutation tablet.
Finally, he reached the base of the active volcano. The smell of sulfur filled his nostrils, making him wrinkle his nose.
Before proceeding, he decided to take precautions. He pulled out an Enchanted Golden Apple. Honestly, he'd been nervous when he first attempted to craft it. It required placing an apple in the center of a crafting table and surrounding it with eight gold blocks. That recipe had been removed in version 1.9. Successfully crafting it showed that this world's Minecraft mechanics weren't the same as the ones he was familiar with.
He climbed halfway up the volcano's slope and began mining with his pickaxe. He could feel the temperature steadily rising as he worked deeper into the volcanic rock. Sweat dripped from his forehead down to the tip of his nose.
"Getting pretty toasty in here..."
After breaking through the final layer of stone, Marcus found himself face-to-face with the erupting heart of the volcano. In that exact moment, a spray of molten lava burst from the crater, barely missing him as he threw himself backward.
Without hesitation, he bit into the enchanted golden apple.
A five-minute Fire Resistance buff appeared in his status bar, and the suffocating heat around him gradually became manageable. He could still feel the intense temperature, but it no longer felt like it was trying to cook him alive.
Curious to test the limits of his resistance, he carefully reached out toward some lava that had splattered nearby on the ground.
He felt the scorching heat, but that was all.
"Not bad at all..."
Growing bolder, he inched closer to the crater's edge and slowly extended his hand toward the bubbling surface of the lava pool.
Still hot, but entirely manageable. The enchanted apple was working exactly as intended.