Marcus stared at his experience bar, watching the numbers tick upward.
From 62% to 62.5%.
Half a percent. That's what he'd gotten for disenchanting an entire golden sword.
"Well... shit."
He ran the math in his head. Killing livestock these days gave him basically nothing, maybe 0.0001% per animal. So getting 0.5% from a single disenchant was huge by comparison.
But still. Half a percent per sword? That meant he'd need two hundred enchanted weapons just to gain a single level at his current progression rate.
"Better than nothing, I guess."
He grabbed another enchanted golden sword from the chest and placed it on the grindstone.
Ding.
The enchantment dissolved, flowing into him as a tiny trickle of experience. He grabbed the next sword. And the next.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Grab sword, place on grindstone, remove enchantment, toss the plain sword aside. Repeat. The pile of disenchanted weapons grew steadily beside him while the enchanted stack in the chest dwindled.
His hands moved on autopilot. This was basically the Minecraft equivalent of farming mobs for hours.
When he finally looked up, the chest was empty and his back was sore from hunching over.
Level 57.
Two full levels from that grinding session. Not bad, considering where he'd started.
He stretched. Then he turned to look at the transmutation tablet sitting in the corner, and an idea struck him.
He walked over and pulled up the interface. Sure enough, enchanted golden swords were available for purchase using EMC. The cheapest ones, Sharpness I with barely any durability left, cost 2,120 EMC each.
He checked his current balance: 830 million EMC.
A quick calculation made his eyes widen. At 2,120 per sword, he could buy 391,509 enchanted weapons. Even accounting for the exponentially increasing experience requirements at higher levels, that was enough to push him significantly further.
But he needed to test it first, and make sure purchased items worked the same way as found loot.
He bought a single enchanted golden sword. It materialized in his hand.
He placed it on the grindstone.
Ding.
His experience bar increased.
"Yes! It works!"
Without hesitation, he dove back into the grinding. He bought enchanted swords in bulk batches, disenchanting them as fast as he could manage.
Ding ding ding ding ding.
He lost track of time completely. Six Hours passed. Maybe more. He had no idea.
Then a different sound broke through his focus.
Whoosh.
That was the rushing sound of a level-up.
He blinked. Level 60. He'd done it.
He checked his EMC balance and immediately winced. "700 million? I burned through 130 million EMC?"
That meant he'd disenchanted roughly... he did the math... 61,320 golden swords.
He grabbed one more enchanted sword from his latest batch and ran it through the grindstone out of curiosity.
Ding.
+0.0005% experience.
He stared at the number. Back at level 54, each disenchant had given him 0.5%. Now it was giving him five ten-thousandths of a percent.
"Are you kidding me?"
He ran the numbers. To gain a single level now, he'd need to disenchant 200,000 enchanted weapons. At 2,120 EMC each, that was 424 million EMC per level.
His head throbbed, and his hands ached from the repetitive motion. Even his eyes felt strained from staring at the grindstone for hours on end.
"I need a break."
He stood up and stretched properly this time. When he finally left the enchanting room, he found Alvida sitting in the corridor, wrapped in a blanket and looking half-asleep.
"What are you doing out here?"
She looked up at him with bleary eyes, then wordlessly reached out and grabbed onto him like a koala latching onto a tree.
He didn't resist. He just stood there while she pressed her face against his chest and apparently fell back asleep standing up.
"Okay then."
He tried knocking on the women's dormitory door while Alvida clung to him. No answer.
That made sense. Ever since they'd gotten Minecraft beds, everyone fell asleep the instant they lay down. Waking them up was nearly impossible unless you destroyed the bed or hurt them.
The door was locked from the inside anyway. He could bypass it easily enough with his abilities, but walking into the women's quarters uninvited seemed like a terrible idea.
The men's dorm had the same situation, everyone knocked out cold.
After a moment's consideration, he decided to head for the Nether Portal instead. He'd set up a spare bed down there in the Nether hub, just a regular bed rather than a Minecraft one. Alvida could sleep there just fine.
He'd only taken two steps when she shifted in his arms, moving like a sleepy cat trying to find a more comfortable position.
He glanced down at her. Her eyes were still closed. He kept walking.
Through the Nether Portal, past the main hub. He looked around for Goliath to say hello, but the iron golem had apparently gone back to the ship to recharge.
Marcus made several jumps through his teleportation network, heading down toward the bedrock layer where he'd built his private workshop area.
The moment he arrived, Alvida's eyes snapped open, suddenly bright and alert.
"Oh. You're awake."
"Hard not to be when you're teleporting me around like luggage," she grumbled, but she didn't let go. "That dizzy feeling goes right through your sleep."
"Sorry. I forgot about that."
He was so used to the disorienting sensation of teleportation that he barely noticed it anymore. But everyone else on the crew still found it nauseating, especially when caught off guard.
"So what were you doing all day?" Alvida asked.
"Leveling up."
"Leveling up?"
It was a strange term.
She processed that for a moment, then smirked. "No wonder you're getting stronger so fast. You're just abusing your fruit powers."
"This kind of leveling doesn't make me stronger," Marcus corrected. "It just unlocks new mods and abilities. If I want to get physically tougher, I still have to train the old-fashioned way."
"Speaking of training..." Alvida finally unwrapped her legs from around him and dropped to the ground. "Today I'm going to prove I've gotten stronger!"
She grabbed his arm and started dragging him toward their usual sparring area.
"Wait, what? Right now?"
"Right now!"
The Haki training session was brutal.
Marcus would throw stone blocks at her from random angles while Alvida tried to dodge with her eyes closed. She had been training relentlessly ever since their encounter with Crocodile. She'd seen firsthand what Logia users could do, and she was determined never to be helpless against them again.
But Marcus had been training just as hard.
They sparred for hours, pushing each other harder and harder. Alvida had definitely improved. But she still couldn't awaken Haki.
When they finally stopped, she was breathing hard.
She stared at her hands. "Damn it."
"You're getting better," Marcus offered.
"Not fast enough." She clenched her fists. "Next time. Next time..."
She headed back to the ship to continue her daily training routine, and began grinding hard.
Marcus watched her go, then returned to the men's dormitory to get some sleep. But first, he checked what new mod had unlocked at Level 60.
The notification made him sit up straight.
"Enchanting Infusers?!"
He was on his feet immediately, rushing back to his enchanting room. He broke down the standard enchanting table with a few quick strikes, watching it pop into item form.
The crafting recipe appeared in his mind: three crying obsidian, two emeralds, one book, and one enchanting table.
"Crying obsidian? Seriously?"
That stuff was expensive. He hadn't even set up a Respawn Anchor yet.
But this was too important to skip.
The emeralds weren't a problem. He'd accumulated plenty of emerald jewelry from Buggy's treasure, Arlong's hoard, and the gifts from King Cobra and Koza back in Arabasta. He'd just forgotten about them until now.
He headed to the storage room, where piles of treasure sat collecting dust. A quick search turned up an emerald-encrusted dagger and a matching necklace.
He handed them to Goliath, who used his Munch-Munch Fruit ability to break them down into pure emerald gems.
"Perfect."
With the materials gathered, he crafted the Basic Enchanting Infuser. But there was an even more advanced version available. The Advanced Enchanting Infuser required netherite instead of emeralds.
That was actually easier to get. He had plenty of netherite.
Out of curiosity, he placed down the basic enchanting infuser first, and examined the interface.
This thing was basically cheat mode for enchanting.
It could apply custom enchantments and even combine effects. Sharpness, Bane of Arthropods, and Smite, all three on one sword, something that should've been impossible in vanilla Minecraft.
Just like he remembered from the modded version he'd played.
The interface had a sliding scale for each enchantment level, with different tiers consuming varying amounts of experience and lapis lazuli. Some of the mechanics had been tweaked slightly from the original mod, but the core functionality remained intact.
And there was one feature he liked.
You could use EMC to offset experience costs. Lapis lazuli could also be directly purchased with EMC rather than mined.
"That's incredibly convenient."
After a moment's consideration, he upgraded the basic infuser to the advanced enchanting infuser. If he was going to do this, he might as well go all the way.
He was curious what additional features the upgraded version would unlock. He opened the advanced enchanting infuser interface.
The layout was familiar, nearly identical to the basic version but with additional options scattered throughout the menus.
The EMC deduction feature was still there, thank god.
The upgraded infuser could apply multiple enchantments simultaneously, modify existing enchantments without removing them entirely, repair damaged enchanted items, and, most interestingly, break through normal enchantment level caps.
There was a restriction, though. It could only push enchantments to double their normal maximum.
Sharpness V was usually the cap. Now he could reach Sharpness X. That was the new limit for this system.
And it had unlocked additional enchantments that didn't exist in vanilla Minecraft.
He immediately noticed the Sweeping Edge option available for swords.
In the game, this enchantment caused area-of-effect damage with sword swings, and higher levels increased the damage of the initial strike significantly.
But what would it do in reality?
Would it create actual sword waves? Ranged slashing attacks?
His curiosity was burning, but he wasn't about to experiment with the Shichiseiken. That sword was too valuable, better to test with something disposable.
He grabbed a diamond sword from his storage and maxed out Sweeping Edge to level VI using the Infuser.
The ship clearly wasn't the right place to test destructive enchantments. He needed open space and disposable targets, so he teleported straight to the Nether.
The moment he arrived, an enderman spotted him and teleported directly into his face. But he was ready. His sword was already in motion before the enderman fully materialized.
A pale blue slash shot out from his blade, cutting through the enderman and continuing forward into the distance.
"Damn... It actually creates flying slashes."
The power wasn't bad either. Roughly comparable to Zoro's early 36 Pound Phoenix technique, back when the swordsman had first started developing ranged attacks.
And that was without using much force or coating the blade in Haki.
Marcus coated the diamond sword in Armament Haki. He looked toward a massive group of zombified piglins wandering in the distance.
"Let's see what happens with a normal swing."
A flash of sword light. The pale blue slash shot forward, amplified by his Haki. Over two hundred zombified piglins were instantly cut down. The slash kept going, cutting through netherbrick and glowstone before finally dissipating into the air.
He switched to a regular unenchanted diamond sword and swung again with the same amount of force.
This time the slash cut down about 156 zombified piglins before fading.
"So it boosts flying slashes by roughly a third... and there seems to be a distance limit before the effect disperses."
---
Back on the ship, Marcus checked through the rest of the available enchantments. Most were standard options he recognized from various Minecraft versions. Protection, Unbreaking, Mending, Fortune, Efficiency, all the classics were there.
But there were additional enchantments that caught his attention.
For swords, new options had appeared: Channeling, Thorns, Protection, Projectile Protection, and Feather Falling.
Normally, Channeling only worked on tridents. The others were exclusively armor enchantments.
But now they were all available for swords.
Channeling on a sword... would that summon lightning strikes on whoever got hit? Or would the wielder call down lightning somehow?
Even stranger were the armor enchantments. What possible use were Thorns, Protection, and Feather Falling on a sword?
Would holding the sword grant damage reduction? That seemed absurd, but then again, the Shichiseiken could manipulate ghost energy to heal its wielder. Maybe it wasn't that far-fetched in this merged Minecraft-One Piece reality.
"Only one way to find out."
Marcus grabbed another diamond sword to use as a test subject.
The Shichiseiken immediately released a surge of ghostly energy, expressing its displeasure.
The sword's consciousness was getting increasingly agitated, radiating jealous resentment as Marcus kept experimenting with other weapons.
"Don't fuss. I'll upgrade you too once I figure out what works best."
The Shichiseiken quieted down, though ghostly energy still leaked out sporadically, clearly showing its impatience.
Marcus ignored the moody sword and began applying enchantments to the diamond sword test subject.
But when he saw the EMC cost for Channeling, he froze.
Earlier, when adding Sweeping Edge, he'd checked the costs carefully:
Sweeping Edge I: 1,000 EMC (same as Sharpness I).
Level II: 2,000 EMC.
Level III: 3,000 EMC.
The cost increased by 1,000 per level, which seemed reasonable.
But after reaching level IV, the price jumped to 6,000 EMC, double the expected cost, presumably because it exceeded the original level cap.
Level V was 9,000, and level VI followed the same pattern.
But Channeling started at 10,000 EMC right from level I. And Channeling II didn't cost 20,000, it jumped straight to 40,000.
He worked through the logic. If the base cost was high because Channeling was normally a trident-exclusive enchantment, then applying it to a sword would double the cost due to equipment type restriction. That would make level I cost 20,000... but it only showed 10,000.
Wait, no. He had it backwards.
The base cost for Channeling I on a trident would be 5,000 EMC. Applying it to a sword doubled it to 10,000. Then Channeling II would normally cost 10,000, but crossing equipment restrictions doubled it to 20,000, and exceeding the normal level cap doubled it again to 40,000.
"That's an expensive enchantment."
But he applied it anyway. He had 700 million EMC sitting unused. What was 10,000 compared to that?
The diamond sword began emitting a hazy purple glow.
He teleported back to the Nether to test it out.
This time he stayed at a distance and launched a flying slash at a group of zombified piglins, he wasn't eager to get struck by lightning if the enchantment worked on the wielder instead of the target.
The slash killed the zombified piglins instantly.
No lightning strike followed.
He frowned. "Too much damage? Or do flying slashes not trigger Channeling?"
That made sense. With tridents, the Channeling effect only activated when the weapon itself hit the target.
He looked around the Nether until he spotted an enderman that had just spawned nearby.
The moment their eyes met, the enderman teleported directly in front of him. He thrust the enchanted diamond sword straight into the enderman's chest.
Thunder crashed through the Nether.
Even though the enderman died instantly from the sword strike, a massive bolt of lightning still struck down from above, completely vaporizing the ender pearl that had started to drop.
Marcus stood there, staring at the scorch marks on the ground.
"So that's what Channeling I does... but what does level II improve?"
Channeling I already summoned a lightning bolt from above. What did level II add? Two lightning bolts instead of one? More damage? Longer duration?
He hadn't noticed any obvious difference when the lightning struck the enderman.
Marcus ran another test, this time comparing Channeling I and Channeling II on separate diamond swords. He stabbed zombified piglins with each blade, observing the resulting lightning strikes.
The difference between the two levels wasn't obvious at all. At least, he couldn't detect anything particularly special about the upgraded version.
After the fifth test yielded the same unclear results, he gave up trying to figure it out.
"Probably like Infinity I versus Infinity II. Both are infinite anyway, so what's the point of the distinction?"
He headed back to the enchanting room and placed the Shichiseiken on the advanced enchanting infuser.
Time to go absolutely crazy with this thing.
Sharpness X, Bane of Arthropods X, Smite X, Knockback IV, Fire Aspect IV, Channeling II, Looting VI, Sweeping Edge VI, Power X, Punch IV, Flame II, Infinity II...
Even though some of these enchantments were weird combinations, he didn't care. He maxed out every single option available.
He didn't even notice his EMC balance was plummeting at an alarming rate as each enchantment was applied.
Quick Charge VI, Piercing VIII, Multishot II, Loyalty VI, Riptide VI, Impaling X.
"Hm?"
The Shichiseiken started trembling violently on the enchanting table, releasing thick waves of ghostly energy.
Marcus placed his hand on the sword's hilt.
The intense ghost energy immediately crawled up his arm. A strange sensation spread through his palm.
"Don't worry. I'll fill you up completely," he said with a grin, selecting the next batch of enchantments.
A few tens of thousands of EMC at most. He glanced at the remaining options.
Efficiency?
What would a mining enchantment even do on a sword?
"Screw it. Add it anyway."
Efficiency X, Silk Touch II, Fortune VI, Luck of the Sea VI, Lure VI.
Then came the armor enchantments.
Protection VIII, Fire Protection VIII, Blast Protection VIII, Projectile Protection VIII, Thorns VI, Respiration VI, Aqua Affinity II, Feather Falling VIII, Depth Strider VI, Unbreaking VI, Mending II, Frost Walker IV, Soul Speed VI.
After maxing out literally every single enchantment available, he nodded in satisfaction.
The Shichiseiken now shimmered with a dark aura, looking like something pulled straight from a fantasy game's endgame content.
Marcus reviewed the long list of enchantments displayed in the interface.
"That'll do."
As for weird combinations like Frost Walker and Lure on a sword... he couldn't care less. Maximum everything was the goal, and he'd achieved it.
"Huh. No reaction?"
Usually at this point, the Shichiseiken would release ghostly energy to express its emotions. But this time, the sword was completely silent.
Marcus channeled some Haki into the blade to activate the ghost energy. And then he understood what was happening. He'd poured in too much at once.
The Shichiseiken was completely full, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new powers it had absorbed. The sword seemed to be... processing.
"Let's see what you can do now."
He carried the Shichiseiken to the Nether, trying to figure out how to properly test all these enchantments at once.
The moment he started thinking about attacking, flames and lightning began coiling around the blade. And on top of that... he felt cold.
He looked down. At some point, frost had formed beneath his feet without him noticing, spreading outward in a thin layer.
He blinked.
The frost was there, and he could sense the chill, but it didn't actually feel cold. There was no uncomfortable freezing sensation.
In the distance, zombified piglins had respawned and were wandering aimlessly.
He gave a light swing.
A brilliant purple slash tore through the air, wreathed in terrifying flames and crackling with lightning. It struck the piglins directly.
"Wait, what?"
Lightning had coated the slash, traveling with it through the air.
Was this the Channeling effect? No, that hadn't happened when he'd used Channeling on the diamond sword. That had only triggered lightning on direct physical hits.
Then he felt it, the Shichiseiken transmitting emotions to him.
"Ah, Haki... so Channeling II lets you infuse lightning into the blade, not just summon it on impact. I wasn't triggering it before because I wasn't coating the weapon with Haki. And since the Shichiseiken has sentience, it can control when to activate the effect."
The sword radiated joy.
At this moment, the ghostly energy of the Shichiseiken was unbelievably gentle.
So gentle that he actually felt uncomfortable.
In the past, even when his Haki had forcibly dominated the blade, the sword had only appeared to obey. Deep down it had remained proud, constantly sending little waves of protest and dissatisfaction.
But now? Not only was it docile, there was even this strange sense of devotion.
The sword answered his unspoken question with a single concept transmitted directly to his mind: Loyalty.
"Ah..." Marcus remembered now.
Normally, Loyalty was just a trident enchantment that made the weapon return to the thrower after being thrown.
But after exceeding the normal level cap, or perhaps because the Loyalty enchantment had been applied to a sentient weapon, something had changed.
"Well... I guess that's not a bad thing."
His hand glided lightly over the blade. He could feel the intense heat of the flames coating it, but the fire and lightning didn't hurt him at all. As his fingers traced along the edge, his Haki flowed naturally into the sword.
The flames and lightning flared more intensely in response.
Combined with the sword's own ghostly fire, it was as if something deep inside the blade had been switched to maximum output.
He nodded in satisfaction.
The Infinity enchantment had definitely changed.
He'd only infused a small amount of Haki initially, but once it entered the sword, the energy seemed to achieve perpetual motion. The power level was locked at full capacity, maintaining itself without any additional input needed.
As long as he channeled Haki once, this metaphorical eight-cylinder engine would keep roaring in his hand. And as long as he maintained physical contact with the hilt, the power would never fade or diminish.
"In that case... let's see what happens when I actually try."
He took a proper fighting stance.
Armament Haki coated his arms.
In an instant, his shirt was shredded by the sheer force of his power, bursting into countless strips of cloth that fluttered through the Nether's strange atmosphere.
Countless arcs of lightning and tongues of flame coiled around his arms. Even more shocking, waves of ghostly fire burst from his arms alongside the other elements. The spectral flames snarled and writhed.
As he gathered power, the thin layer of frost beneath his feet rapidly expanded outward. Just as he prepared to swing, he felt a surge from the blade, ghost energy mixing with enchantment effects, multiplying the power exponentially.
The air around him rippled violently.
"Serious Slash!"
The sword slash tore through the Nether. Black ghostly energy mixed with roaring flames and crackling lightning. The air warped around the attack. Everything in the slash's path simply ceased to exist, devoured by the overwhelming combination of elements.
The zombified piglins didn't even have time to turn their heads. One second they were there, the next they were gone. Not even their drops remained. The attack had completely disintegrated them.
BOOM.
Three thousand blocks away, the slash finally hit solid netherrack. The explosion was massive. Marcus squinted into the distance and could see that at least a hundred blocks of netherrack had been completely obliterated in a straight line.
And that was just the visible damage on the surface. If you counted the entire cross-section of destruction... this single attack had wiped out thousands of blocks.
"Holy shit," he muttered. "That's... actually kind of terrifying."
He'd known the enchantments would make the Shichiseiken stronger, but this was on another level entirely. Based on what he'd just seen, that single swing had the destructive power of a strong swordsman, maybe even approaching Great Swordsman territory.
And he hadn't even used advanced techniques. Just raw strength amplified by basic Armament Haki and the sword's enchantments.
As he stood there processing what he'd just done, slow clapping echoed through the Nether.
He spun around.
Goliath stood a few meters away.
"When did you get here?"
"I followed you through the portal earlier. You've been jumping between locations so frequently that I thought it prudent to maintain proximity in case of emergencies."
Marcus thought back and vaguely remembered seeing Goliath behind him at some point. He just hadn't paid much attention at the time.
Goliath gestured toward the Shichiseiken. "The sword was already a Great Grade before your modifications. As a cursed weapon, it naturally amplifies its wielder's strength through the ghost energy it generates. But with these enchantments... Even an average swordsman could challenge top-tier fighters while wielding it now."
Marcus looked down at the blade in his hands.
"I guess I did create something pretty crazy, huh?"
"'Pretty crazy' hardly does it justice," Goliath said seriously. "You've created what can only be described as a divine weapon. Though even that term feels insufficient given the sheer amount of power you've invested in it."
Marcus scratched his head. Nobody was immune to a well-placed compliment, after all.
The moment he stepped onto the deck with the upgraded Shichiseiken, Zoro opened his eyes. The swordsman had been napping against the mast, but something had yanked him out of sleep. He sat up straight.
For someone who'd dedicated their entire life to the blade, the presence of a truly powerful weapon was impossible to ignore. It called to them on some primal level, like a predator recognizing another predator's scent.
His eye locked onto the Shichiseiken in Marcus' hand.
He'd felt the weapon's aura before, back when Marcus had first claimed it. But the sword's presence had grown so intense that it was radiating pressure even while dormant.
It was like Luffy spotting a feast when he was starving, or Sanji seeing a gorgeous woman walk past, or Zoro himself smelling rare aged sake.
He could sense quality with just a glance. And what he was sensing from the Shichiseiken right now made his palms itch.
"What did you do to it?"
Marcus walked past him, trying and failing to suppress a smug grin. "What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb. Did the Shichiseiken get stronger again?"
"Oh, you noticed?" Marcus said innocently. "Yeah, I did some work on it last night."
He leaned against the railing and stared out at the ocean dramatically. "Man, how many days have we been sailing? When are we gonna reach the next island?"
Zoro's eye twitched. The guy was practically vibrating with the need to explain what he'd done. But his curiosity won out. "Alright, I'll bite. How did you upgrade it?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely..." Marcus briefly explained about the enchanting infuser.
Everyone on the crew knew about the enchanting room, he had never kept it secret. But none of them had actually seen what it could do until now.
"So you're telling me," he said slowly, "that you can make weapons this much stronger?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Could you... do the same thing to mine?"
Marcus' grin widened. "Well, I don't know. Could I?"
"Marcus."
"Maybe I could. Maybe I couldn't."
"Marcus."
"I suppose if someone asked nicely—"
"For fuck's sake, Marcus, will you enchant my swords or not?!"
Marcus laughed and held out his hand. "Alright. Hand them over."
Zoro immediately unbuckled his sword belt and passed all three blades to him.
Marcus hurried toward the enchanting room. This was going to be awesome.
He placed Wado Ichimonji on the enchanting infuser first and started selecting the first enchantment. After adjusting the level of Sharpness to 10, the interface wouldn't let him proceed.
"What the hell?"
He checked his EMC balance and froze.
The number staring back at him was 732.
"...What?"
He closed the interface and opened it again, certain there had been some kind of glitch.
732 EMC.
"No. No, that's wrong. That has to be wrong."
He'd had 700 million EMC. SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION. And now he had seven hundred?
"Where the fuck did it all go?!"
The last thing he'd done was enchant the Shichiseiken. He'd maxed out every single enchantment available, but surely that couldn't have cost 700 million EMC. That was insane.
Unless...
He pulled up the enchantment cost breakdown and started reading through it. His face went pale as the numbers sank in.
The first few enchantments had been cheap. A few thousand EMC each. But then the costs had started climbing. Each new enchantment added to the weapon increased the price of the next one exponentially.
At first it was double. Then triple. Then quadruple. The costs had snowballed completely out of control.
By the time he'd gotten to the later enchantments, each one was costing hundreds of thousands of EMC. Some of the final additions had cost over a million each.
"Oh my god, I'm an idiot..."
He'd been so excited about maxing everything out that he hadn't even glanced at the total cost. He'd just kept adding enchantments until he ran out of options.
700 million EMC, gone in a single crafting session.
In his head, he'd figured the upgrade would cost maybe a few hundred thousand at most. That would've been manageable. After all, converting a Devil Fruit cost around eighty million. Compared to that, a few hundred thousand seemed reasonable.
But 700 million?
His chest hurt.
For a moment, he seriously considered reverting all the enchantments and starting over. But the system quickly made it clear that wasn't an option, removing enchantments would cost even more EMC as a penalty fee. This wasn't like using a grindstone where you got your experience back. Once the EMC was spent, it was gone.
"Shit. What am I supposed to do now?"
The problem wasn't really about the EMC shortage itself. He could always generate more eventually. What actually worried him was that he'd promised Zoro he'd enchant his swords, and now he was basically broke.
He teleported to the Nether and spent the next hour clearing out all the zombified piglin drops that he and Goliath had accumulated over the past few days. The loot converted to about a hundred and twenty thousand EMC.
It was something, but nowhere near enough.
He searched through every storage chest on the ship, converting anything he didn't need. After scraping together every resource he could find, he barely managed to enchant Zoro's three swords with Fire Aspect VI, Sharpness X, and Power X.
It was way less than what he'd done to the Shichiseiken, but at least it was something.
When he delivered the enchanted swords back to Zoro, the swordsman's eye lit up as he felt the power radiating from the blades.
"These are incredible," he said, giving Sandai Kitetsu a few test swings. "Way better than before."
"Glad you like them," Marcus said, trying not to show his relief. "If you want more enchantments later, just let me know. I'll add them when I can."
Zoro nodded, completely satisfied. He didn't ask about the Shichiseiken or why his swords hadn't gotten as many enchantments. After all, he knew Marcus' cursed sword was special, it made sense that it would have unique properties.
Marcus was about to head back to his room when he caught sight of Alvida leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, staring at him with an expression he couldn't quite read.
Oh. Right.
On the ship, there were only a handful of people who fought with weapons. Three-sword style Zoro. One-sword style Marcus. Mace-wielding Alvida. Nami technically used a weapon, but her Clima-Tact was more of a specialized tool than a traditional weapon. And Vivi was already getting tired of her Peacock Slashers.
Everyone else fought with their fists, legs, or Devil Fruit powers.
So he had enchanted Zoro's swords and his own sword, but had completely forgotten about Alvida. His eye twitched. Keeping everyone happy was harder than fighting enemies sometimes.
"Alvida—"
She held up a hand. "Before you start making excuses, just tell me honestly. Can you enchant my mace?"
"Not right now."
After comforting her and explaining the current situation,
she readily accepted it.
He sighed in relief again.
After Alvida left, he headed straight back to the Nether. He needed to start farming EMC again. Fortunately, he had Goliath's help.
In a short time, he managed to accumulate over a million EMC. But he stopped. It wasn't that he didn't want to keep farming, but they had already reached their next island.
He went back to the ship, climbed up to the main deck, and squinted at the island in the distance. It wasn't Jaya, which meant it definitely wasn't Mock Town.
He observed his map, and his eyes widened. There was a treasure marker on the island. The same kind of marker that had led him to the Chimera Fruit.
Meanwhile, Nami began preparing for the next expedition.
Although the ship's water needs were basically handled thanks to the infinite water system, they still had to store some normal water, after all, there were times when real water was necessary. For instance, when cooking soup, Minecraft water couldn't boil, and many ingredients required slow simmering.
The crew made landfall five minutes later. After some discussion about how to split up for resource gathering, they drew lots to determine who would handle what tasks.
He ended up with fruit and food collection, which worked out perfectly given the treasure marker's location. He wouldn't have to make excuses about wandering off alone.
Except he wasn't going to be alone. Vivi volunteered to help him, and not wanting to be left out, Alvida tagged along as well
The three of them set off into the forest, with Marcus following the treasure marker on his map. Vivi and Alvida walked behind him, chatting pleasantly about training routines and combat techniques.
After about twenty minutes of walking, they reached a small clearing. In the center stood a tree with strange-looking fruit hanging from its branches.
But Marcus wasn't looking at the regular fruit. His eyes were locked on a small fruit hanging from a low branch, one covered in spiral patterns, shaped vaguely like an ear with lips on top. It looked kind of like a cashew, if cashews had mouths.
Vivi and Alvida were still chatting and didn't notice at first. But when Marcus reached up and plucked the fruit from the tree, they both fell silent.
"Is that a Devil Fruit?" Vivi asked.
"Yes."
Marcus turned the fruit over in his hands, examining the name.
Whisper-Whisper Fruit.
He stared at it for a long moment.
"No way," he muttered. He was taken aback. It seemed like the Devil Fruits really could choose their own owners.
"What is it?" Alvida asked, moving closer to look.
"It's the Whisper-Whisper Fruit."
"Whisper-Whisper?" Alvida frowned. "That doesn't sound powerful."
Vivi, however, covered her mouth in shock. "It actually appeared!"
"What do you mean 'appeared'?"
Vivi quickly explained that Devil Fruits sometimes seemed to choose their own users, appearing when someone needed them or was meant to have them.
Alvida's expression turned complicated. When she'd gotten her Slip-Slip Fruit, hadn't Marcus been the one who'd given it to her? So was that the fruit choosing her, or Marcus choosing her?
She felt confused about what that meant.
Then she looked at the fruit and didn't know what to say. After all of Vivi's training and dedication, this was the fruit she'd wanted? Even a Zoan-type Devil Fruit would've made more sense for combat purposes.
"So you've been working so hard, just to get a fruit that lets you... whisper to people?"
"It's more than that," Vivi said defensively. "The Whisper-Whisper Fruit would let me communicate over long distances, gather information without being detected, coordinate allies in battle... It's perfect for someone with my skills."
"If you say so."
While the two women discussed the fruit's potential uses, Marcus remained silent, turning the Devil Fruit over in his hands.
Of course this would happen now, right when he had less than a million EMC left. Was the fruit somehow sensing danger, or was this just really bad timing?
He weighed the fruit in his palm, considering his options. After a moment, he stored the fruit in his inventory.
Vivi blinked in surprise. Alvida frowned. "Marcus?"
"I need to record the data first."
Both women relaxed.
Vivi, though curious, wasn't impatient. Her mind was already wandering, imagining ways she could develop the powers of the Whisper-Whisper Fruit.
"You two handle the regular fruit. I'm going to check if there are any other interesting resources on this island."
As for the rest of the fruit-gathering work, he left that to Vivi and Alvida. He returned to the ship, stepped through the Nether Portal, and got back to grinding EMC.