Feng Chou looked around and saw that the five merchant ships that had been attacked by the Koutao sahagins, apart from his own Patrick, had all turned around and sailed in the opposite direction of the fleet. There was no need to ask, they'd all been captured.
The battle at the front of the fleet also ended quickly. The Braineater pirate fleet that had succeeded in their plunder retreated on their own accord and broke away from contact. The human warships couldn't give chase due to their inferior mobility and could only watch as the pirates quickly left.
After the enemy left, the fleet didn't dare tarry and continued north.
The crew didn't dare slack off this time. They drove the merchant ship madly and used the Patrick's excellent speed to squeeze into the inner circle of the fleet.
Feng Chou didn't dare go into seclusion for the rest of the journey. He patrolled the ship from time to time and urged the crew to drive carefully and keep the merchant ship in the inner circle of the fleet.
It was a good thing that the Patrick's performance was excellent and it wasn't difficult to do this.
The fleet chased after each other and arrived at Brook Island after half a month.
Brook Island was located in the north of the Dark Forest.
Unlike the bustling Troll and Lizardmen border near Malades Island, the area between the northern part of the Dark Forest and the Emerald Forest was almost empty. The Troll clan in the south avoided this area.
The reason was simple. The nature elves in the north were too strong. They would clean up the border every once in a while, and the Troll couldn't stay here at all.
Brook Island's prosperity wasn't because of the nature elves or the Troll, but because of the numerous large caves along the coastline to the west of Brook Island.
Many of the caves along the coastline were estuaries that connected the Dark Forest to the surface ocean. It was said that these estuaries weren't far from the nearby Drow cities.
In reality, Brook Island was a trading port with the underground world.
If someone asked what trade was the most profitable in the prime material plane, eight out of ten people would answer that it was trade with the underground world.
The underground world was incomparably rich in mineral resources, but lacked food, cloth, and other basic resources. You could even use the most ordinary food to exchange for precious alchemy materials from the underground world.
Although this trading port was remote, it had the convenience of water transportation, and the trade volume was considerable. Ordinary underground trade was often difficult to do in large quantities. The sea route that led to the underground world solved this problem.
As usual, a lot of alchemy cloths, blank scrolls, basic potions that were not infused with spells, and many other basic alchemy items had been prepared on the Patrick.
Second Mate Colbert traded these goods to a local merchant guild with great familiarity, receiving large amounts of refined alchemical ores from the underground world as well as some excellent weapons and armor produced by Drow and the gray dwarves.
During the trading period, Feng Chou wandered around the magic market on Brook Island. He saw many bizarre magic items from the Dark Zone, but he didn't find anything that was similar to the black dragon statue.
There was one thing in Brooke's Secret Magic Market that other cities couldn't see — the slave market that was openly opened here.
Slavery had long been abolished in the human world. Therefore, in human cities, there would never be a slave market, at least not one that was open and aboveboard.
The reason why there was a slave market in Brook Harbour was because it didn't belong to the human world.
In fact, Brook Harbour was a free port that was built by human merchants on their own initiative.
There was neither a huge army nor a tall magic tower here.
However, according to his experience, this port was a safer place than Maledean Port.
The reason why this port could stand on the dangerous west coast was because it relied on the protection of the Dark Zone.
Maintaining a trading port here was a consensus among the forces in the Dark Zone. Any pirates or other forces that dared to invade this port would be fiercely attacked by the forces in the Dark Zone. The few powerful pirate groups from the Dark Zone also never harassed this port.
Feng Chou walked into one of the slave markets out of curiosity.
He saw many strange races that came from the Dark Zone, such as the Tauren who were bigger than the ogres and had a bull's head on their necks; the grey dwarves who had greyish-black skin and were only two-thirds of a human's height, but were as wide as half of a human's. Of course, there were also the Drow elves with purplish-black skin, silver-white hair and red eyes.
In addition to the Tauren, Feng Chou also saw many Troll slaves here.
Without exception, these slaves all wore a black collar around their necks.
Qiankun Pagoda told Feng Chou that these collars were alchemy products. From the analysis of the magic circuits inside the collars, these collars not only had electric shock functions that could cause pain or even kill the wearer, but they also had psychological suggestion functions that could control the wearer's mind for a short period of time.
After listening to Qiankun Pagoda's explanation, Feng Chou suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. Once such a collar was worn, not only would one's life and death be in the hands of others, but even one's thoughts would not be under one's control. It was scarier than death!
Feng Chou gradually understood the use of these slaves after listening to the endless explanation of the slave market's attendant beside him.
Above the vast ocean was a world where the laws of the land could not reach. Here, violence was the foundation of everything.
The slaves sold here were all powerful professionals. For example, the Tauren were born with a level 6 creature rank and could become a powerful fighter with a little training. The grey dwarves, in addition to not being weak in strength, were also excellent craftsmen. They could not only be fighters on the ship, but also be craftsmen. The strong and agile Drow warriors and Troll hunters were also excellent sailors.
On the west coast, both pirate leaders and merchant ship captains liked to use slaves as fighters. After signing a devil's contract, slaves were far more useful than recruited sailors. Moreover, they did not need to be paid, and were considered a one-time investment. In the long run, it was far more worth it than hiring sailors.
However, there were disadvantages to using slaves. These slaves could not enter the territory of humans or nature elves.
In human cities, once the captain was found to be using slaves, he would be prosecuted and face a hefty fine.
In the territory of nature elves, the consequences would be even more severe. Merchant ships would be permanently banished, unable to do business with nature elves.
Even so, there were still many captains who liked to use cheap and high-quality slaves. At most, they would hide them in the bottom of the ship after docking.
Compared to merchant ship captains, pirate captains preferred slaves. Many pirate captains even relied on slaves to control the ordinary pirates under their command.