Summary:
Luffy, Sanji and Usopp are on their way to the sacrificial altar located in the Upper Yard. They travel the milky way in a boat given to them by Conis. Sanji is worried about Conis, but Usopp tells him to trust Gan Fall and that he will be safe with him. Luffy is still unhappy about how slow and cold their ship is, but Sanji just tells him to stop being picky.
They soon see the entrance to the forest and are amazed at its size. Sanji notes that it must have taken thousands of years for the trees to grow so huge. Luffy plans to climb the trees while Usopp searches the map for some clue about the forest. When they reach the entrance, Sanji tells them that there is no turning back and asks if they are ready. Usopp wants to say he’s not ready and wants to go back, but before he can finish his sentence, Luffy yells, “Let’s go!” The forest looks scary and Usopp is really scared because it feels like someone is watching them.
While Usopp is still wondering why there are so many ships lying around, cut in half, a huge chained blade swings at them. They are saved by a close call, but soon realize that there are more of those “blackbird monsters” as Luffy describes them. Soon Luffy, Sanji and Usopp start paddling really fast to avoid the rest of the blades. After a big fight, they dodge all the blades only to realize that they have now traveled too far from the entrance. Suddenly, a huge eel monster appears in front of them. Sanji defeats the eel with a single kick, but realizes that there is something someone is trying to protect, which is why there are so many traps. They soon arrive at a huge gate resembling a statue with four paths. The signs at the entrances say “Trial of Swamp”, “Trial of Iron”, “Trial of String” and “Trial of Orb”. He must choose a path.
Back at the sacrificial altar, Zoro is having a hard time fighting the sky sharks. Then the shark takes Zoro under the clouds and Robin, Nami and Chopper start to worry if Zoro has been eaten. But Robin notes that if that happened, the color of the clouds would turn red, and Nami tells Robin to stop saying such scary things. Finally, Zoro punches the shark and sends it flying.
Zoro says that the shrimp left them in a dangerous place and they can’t go anywhere because there are too many sharks. Nami notes that even though Zoro is a swordsman, he punched a shark and Chopper finds Zoro incredibly strong. Zoro tells Robin that since the bottom of the Going Merry is broken, they can’t leave with it. Zoro tells Chopper to start repairing him while he goes into the forest to find a way out. Zoro tells Nami that Luffy and the others will come here eventually, so it’s best to stay put, but Nami comments that he’s not the one to talk about being lost. Zoro longs to meet the God that everyone talks about, but Nami tells him that he can’t and that he must apologize to God and pray for forgiveness. Zoro replies that he has never prayed to a god. Chopper is really impressed by Zoro’s answer while Nami prays to God to tell him that she is not related to Zoro.
Robin asks Zoro if she can join, to which Zoro agrees, but tells her to stay out of his way. Robin said the sacrificial altar looks thousands of years old and history always makes things exciting. He also says that if they find any gems or treasure, then it might help them fix the ship. Upon hearing the word “gems”, Nami decides to join Zoro and Robin, her excuse being that she is interested in history, which Chopper finds to be a complete lie. Zoro and Robin soon cross the river by swinging on the vines but when it was Nami’s turn she was scared of heights but when she got up the courage she jumped but only to find that she was going too fast. Robin slows her down using her devil fruit powers. They leave the sacrificial altar and Zoro tells Chopper that he trusts him to fix the ship. Chopper tells himself that he didn’t go because he was scared and would rather stay here on the ship alone. Then it occurs to him that he is the one in the greatest danger