After leaving Retsy's place, Toz went back to the Bunglehopper base to begin executing the modified second step of their plan to plunge Pirate Haven into chaos and eventually put Toz on the throne as king of pirates.
The original plan had been to entice the Red Hook Pirate Crew to cooperate with Toz's group and the Bunglehoppers. It wasn't the most optimal solution, but it had to be enough considering the strength of the leaders of each crew.
However, the Cult of Nihiltas' invitation and meeting with Toz had opened up a whole new world of opportunities for Toz and the others to overturn Pirate Haven. Though unless Toz made the right moves, it might also lead to complications that could turn the entire city against him.
After Toz returned to the base, he drafted a message to the Red Hook Pirate Crew before disappearing once again. The cats, who had already explored Pirate Haven a few times, guided Toz to the Red Hook Pirate Crew's headquarters in the city.
The Red Hook Pirate Crew's headquarters was more like an encampment of simple huts similar to the slums rather than a proper pirate base. The sole exception was a single large house that looked like it could withstand someone sneezing on it. Toz assumed that it was the most important building and headed there while hiding himself as much as possible.
Toz was confident that not a lot of people would be able to sense his presence, even if they looked right at his location, but the Representative of the Void had proven that it was better to overestimate the leaders' capabilities. Toz gently moved around the base as he looked for an opportunity to deliver his message to the central building without anyone noticing.
However, on the way, Toz noticed that there weren't even close to as many pirates at the Red Hook Pirate Crew's headquarters as there were at the other two headquarters he had visited. He also couldn't sense anyone above the seventh level, which either meant there wasn't anyone at a higher level at the base or that they were skilled enough to avoid his detection.
Considering the state of the base, Toz guessed the former and moved closer to the central building.
When he got close to the building, Toz sensed two pairs of footsteps approach from the opposite direction. Toz stood still as he waited for the two pirates to walk past him.
"This shit fucking sucks!"
"I know, but we need the extra money guard duty gives, so keep it together for a few more hours and shut up!"
"But why do we need to guard a bunch of empty houses?"
"Even if they're empty houses, this is still our base, y'know?"
"Why do we even have a base here when the island is much fucking better?"
The pirate didn't seem to have an answer to that and only smacked his companion on the head before he continued to patrol.
Toz looked up in the direction of the Void and at the Red Hook Pirate Crew's island. He only thought the islands were a place for the crews to house the pirates and their families, and to store all the ships and boats, so he hadn't paid much attention to them. However, it seemed like his thinking had been too shallow.
Toz wondered if he had to go there instead of the base he was already at in order to deliver his message. However, that would be a lot riskier than simply sneaking into their almost empty base, and since he wasn't out to pick a fight, he decided he would have to hand over the message to the person inside the central building.
Toz sneaked to the front door and placed the roll of paper on the ground before knocking on the door and disappearing into thin air.
It only took a few seconds for the door to open and reveal a grey-haired man with burn scars on his face and arm. The scarred man reached out and grabbed the letter after looking around and not seeing anyone.
His eyes flashed after reading through the paper, and he instantly headed to the closest dock, where he boarded a small boat and sailed toward the island.
Toz looked at the grey-haired man set off.
"Toz, why didn't you want them to see you if they're still gonna send a message to the Bunglehoppers."
"Do I even need to answer that, Asilean? Of course, it's because it's more mysterious. We're hatching plots and scheming like crazy. Sneaking around is a must!"
"Indeed."
Lucy nodded sagely in approval at Toz's response to Asilean's question.
"I see…."
After making sure that the Red Hook Pirate Crew had received the message, Toz and the cats made their way back to the Bunglehopper base.
Toz and the others entered another waiting period as they awaited the Red Hook Pirate Crew's response. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long for the Red Hook pirates to decide that it was an agreeable deal that Toz had proposed.
While waiting, the Bunglehoppers decided to spar and prepare for the upcoming battles. Since leaving the base was risky, considering all the pirates the Blue Lounge League had watching them, the only thing they could do was stay cooped up in the base.
Fortunately, it wasn't so easy to get bored with so many individuals around. It also provided a lot of different ways to fight.
Since Stris was a sword fighter, the Bunglehoppers, and especially Wulf and Hayar, wanted to spar with Toz as much as possible. Toz was limited to using his sword and magic that imitated the sword techniques Stris knew.
Although Toz did benefit a little, Wulf was too weak for Toz to accurately prepare against the potential battle against Stris. However, as Wulf slowly became more and more used to the technique, his strength grew almost explosively, and Toz found it challenging to match him with only his skill in wielding the sword. Toz conveniently didn't think about how he was three levels below Wulf and that it was already incredible that he could fight evenly with Wulf.
