"Queen, activate shields!" Samir shouted while watching the spaceships preparing for another salvo.

Meanwhile, inside the main spaceship, Captain Roger was tapping his finger on the armchair while eyeing a hologram that was zoomed in on the hole, rocks, and sprays laying everywhere.

"Zoom in on those sprays and give me their details." Captain Roger ordered Miss Kylie.

A moment later, a full page filled with information about those sprays was displayed before Captain Roger.

Upon reading that it was meant for dangerous types of bugs, he started to analyze the situation in this standoff, 'There must be dangerous bugs below that hole, forcing them to take such measures. Since it is written on the bottle that the effect lasts for 2 hours and that the sand hadn't fully covered them yet, it's safe to guess that they are still down there.'

'Since the number of bottles is 10, it is only natural to assume that ten individuals are currently below.' Captain sneered faintly, 'That's the reason, those in that spaceship are trying their best to take us down before we get here and their passiveness after we reached it.'

It was to be expected for a Captain of a pirates fleet to have remarkable intelligence since it was a dangerous business to run in this Era.

"Captain, do we fire?' Liam inquired.

"No, tell the fleet to change the aim to the hole and not pull off the trigger." Captain Roger smirked faintly, "Let's see if they will ignore our call this time."

The moment the order was taken into effect, Samir and Declan were left in great horror after spotting that the hole was being aimed at by tens of brightened weapons!

"Don't tell me they found out about the squad?!" Samir sweated a little from his forehead.

"Possib..."

Tsshshshs.

Declan got interrupted by scratching noises coming out of the spaceship's radio.

Following it was a line written on a hologram above it, >Operator Liam wants to make a contact.

If he received such a message before, Samir would have ignored it in a heartbeat, but seeing their weapons aimed at the hole made him understand that ignoring them any further wouldn't bode well for his squad.

"Sir Felix, are you guys in the tunnel yet?!' Samir said with an agitated tone, 'The pirates have realized your existence down below and currently aiming at the hole. They are requesting contact, probably want to negotiate.'

Felix didn't even flinch when he replied, 'Accept their contact and do your best to prolonge it. If they wanted to negotiate, try making it as long as possible. I will be sending you some pictures of the herbal garden to show them so their greed would get in the way to destroy the ruins.'

'If you feel like you can't handle it, leave it to elder Declan, he should know what to say.' Felix ended the connection the moment he said so.

He was busy with his own issues down there.

Vrr vrrr

Upon receiving the pictures and some parts of the videos, Samir and Declan were the first to get shocked and marveled by the Herbal Garden's holy grace.

But, they weren't given time to appreciate it as one spaceship had fired off a warning shot near the hole, managing to lift the sand hundreds of meters in the sky!

Not wanting to test their patience, Samir quickly accepted the call.

"Captain, should we bombarded the are...Never mind, they have accepted it." Liam's disappointed voice traveled inside the cockpit, making Samir's and Declan's hearts skip a beat.

"At last we can talk like civilized gentlemen." Captain Roger introduced himself with a dignified voice, "I am Roger, the Captain of the Bloody Mary Fleet. Mind trading the honor?"

Samir's expression turned extra frosty the moment he recalled the way his wife got taken away from him by the hands of pirates.

He knew that it wasn't the Bloody Mary pirates who did it but he was still pissed and revolted just by the idea of conversing with them politely.

He couldn't fake it even if he wanted.

'Leave it to me.' Declan gave him a head nod and spoke composedly, "Name Declan, owner, and captain of the Northern Sentinel."

"Captain huh?" Captain Roger sneered, "You think I am dumb enough to believe that the captain remained behind while the squad went down to explore the ruins?"

"I don't know what are you talking about." Declan tried to play it dumb.

"Enough! I neither want to play games nor waste my time talking nonsense with you." Captain Roger squinted his eyes and said, "I am willing to make a deal that will benefit both of us."

"A deal? How so?"

"We will allow your squad to leave the ruins safely but we want 70% of everything that had been found down there." Captain Roger proposed.

"Sure enough, no matter if you used brute force or diplomacy, pirates always make sure to rob one-off clean." Declan snickered.

"70% for their safety is nothing." Captain Roger shrugged his shoulders, "After all, how can you put a price on life itself?"

"You are talking like you are confident that you can kill them." Declan scoffed.

"They are called ruins for a reason." Captain Roger laughed, "If they can't survive the firepower of the ancient times how can they survive firepower of tens of energy weapons?"

"Wanna test it out?" He taunted.

"Watch this first to curb your unwelcoming cockiness." Declan sent him the pictures and the videos to their spaceship's memory storage.

The moment connection was established, they had received these kinds of information to facilitate connection.

Liam picked up the package from the memory storage and clicked on the first picture on it.

The moment those three saw the breathtaking herbal garden, their mouths started salivating while their hearts began beating out of their chests.

Excitement, disbelief, awe, desire, and greed! Those emotions fueled their bodies as their eyes kept feeding on each picture that was showing high leveled natural treasures planted everywhere!

For pirates, this herbal garden was the same as finding the treasure island for the golden age pirates in the earthling history!

'This is it! The chance we have been waiting for to strike rich once and for all then retire from pirating! This is it!' Roger's eyes were starting to get bloodshot from the rush and also fury after seeing Erik and the rest, digging them out.

Thankfully, their faces were hidden, helping him avoid seeing their elated expressions as they took those treasures.

"So, are you daring enough to destroy those ruins now?" Declan asked with a faint smirk.

Upon hearing his voice, Captain Roger took deep breaths to regain his composure and continued on with a nonchalant tone, "I got to admit that my eyes have been widened. But, that doesn't mean that I will not destroy something that I can't have."

"If you want everything, I can't help you out." Declan kept talking just for the sake of talking to waste time, "But, if you are willing to accept a split of 65% to us and 35% to your crew, then we have a deal."

"Not good enough." Captain Roger's intense tone from before was gone after he realized the stacks were risen by tenfolds. "We want 60% and we won't negotiate any further than this."

"I know that the captain would rather get buried down there than 60% of his loot after the dangers they had experienced down there."

"You are making this difficult for me." Captain Roger frowned his eyebrows in irritation.

"The feeling is mutual." Declan said.

Knowing that he can't give up on those treasures, Captain Roger reeled in his anger and continued on negotiating with Declan.

While this was ongoing, Felix and the rest were still inspecting carefully the area around them.

Felix had already finished an entire portion of a wall and was currently examining the ground.

The rest were starting to lose some confidence in his theory that the room was below and there must a key to open it up.

Who could blame them? They had already gone through almost the entire area yet not a single scratch had been found on those rocks.

'There must be something I am missing.' Felix narrowed his eyes at the rocks on the ground and kept pondering, 'I was a bit foolish to think that the researcher would leave the key to such vital room exposed. He must have cast an illusion to hide it from plain sight. This meant we shouldn't be using just our eyes but also touch.'

Felix knew that this could be dangerous since his squad might end up activating a trap instead of finding the key.

The worst part, they were all gathered together so if they did activate it, it wouldn't end pleasantly for them.

Still, it needed to be done if they wanted to get out of here alive.

Declan was doing a fine job stalling but he couldn't keep it forever since Captain Roger was bound to figure out that they were not planning to take his deal no matter what.

After all, a deal with pirates was always one-sided.

They end up signing a contract with the Queen's supervision but the pirates were merely using their 'word' as a guarantee!