On a nameless stretch of sea, a dilapidated sailboat struggled against the wind. Silas intentionally kept the sails angled just so, forcing the ship to crawl forward at a torturously slow pace. At times, it would even begin to drift backward, and in those moments, the strain on the ship's sole power source became immense.
"You rotten old man, you'll get what's coming to you!"
A furious roar echoed from the lower deck, where Rocks was panting like a bull, his muscles screaming in protest. On his left and right were two massive oars that Silas had specially lengthened for him, turning the boy into a human engine.
To put it nicely, Silas called it physical training.
"Alright, that's enough for today," Silas called down from the main deck.
Hearing those words, the tension in Rocks's body instantly vanished, and he collapsed onto the wooden planks in a boneless heap.
A month had passed since the clash with the Blood Skull Pirates. In that time, they had passed two islands recorded on Silas's Log Pose, but both were nations unaffiliated with the World Government. This meant he could not cash in the 160-million-Belly bounty on Farrell's head. After paying his old crew, Silas had less than five million Belly to his name. It was more than enough for a quiet retirement, but for the comeback he now envisioned, it was practically nothing.
Of course, the task of cashing in the bounty would have to fall to Rocks, whose record was still clean. If Silas himself tried it, he would be swarmed by a Marine fleet within minutes.
"Captain, is this training method really effective?" Rocks asked, his voice hollow. He lay sprawled on the floor, staring listlessly at the ceiling above. This was a far cry from the life of freedom he had imagined on the high seas.
"Of course it is," Silas replied bluntly, raising an eyebrow. "With your current strength, you couldn't even beat a regular Marine officer. Your physical conditioning is far too poor. The foundation for any powerful technique is a body strong enough to handle it."
"Then when can I learn that technique you used?" Rocks asked, barely managing to lift his aching arm.
Silas knew what he meant. He was talking about Hakoku, the sea-splitting strike of the giants. But for a normal person who had not eaten a Devil Fruit to master such a move?
"At the very least," Silas said, "you'll have to learn Haki first."
Right now, Rocks was essentially a normal person. A strong one by civilian standards, but his strength had not yet crossed the threshold into the realm of monsters. His rate of improvement, however, was a different story. A month ago, he could barely move the oversized oars. Now, he could row continuously for half an hour before feeling the burn of fatigue.
The potential of a future conqueror was truly terrifying. Silas knew that if Rocks had not foolishly provoked the Celestial Dragons in the future, sparking a war against the World Government and the Roger Pirates simultaneously, the title of Pirate King might have belonged to him.
At this rate, it would not be long before Rocks was ready to learn the Six Powers. Haki was also on the agenda. And if the boy awakened his own Conqueror's Haki… Silas drew a sharp breath. The thought sent a wave of pressure through him. He was old, and his potential was exhausted. Even with the system's help, a gap would always remain between him and the future emperors of the sea unless he could completely master Conqueror's Haki himself.
Haki was a latent power that everyone possessed, but few could awaken. Observation Haki enhanced the senses, allowing one to predict attacks or even glimpse the future. Armament Haki coated the body in invisible armor, hardening attacks and defenses.
But Conqueror's Haki was the rarest of all, the mark of a true king. It was the power to impose one's will upon the world. Before the system's arrival, Silas did not have the aptitude for it. Now, his opinion of the flawed system had changed. If not for its bizarre conditions, he might never have gained this chance.
Since I now have the aptitude for a king, Silas thought with a flicker of delight, could the aptitude for future sight be far behind?
"Captain, how much farther to Elbaf?"
After a short rest, Rocks climbed to his feet. He stood with one hand on his hip, scooping water from a barrel to quench his thirst. Although he still dreamed of captaining his own ship, a new plan had taken root in his mind. This old guy doesn't have many years left. I'll stick with him for now, learn everything he knows, and then send him off to a nice, quiet retirement.
Coming from a small town, Rocks knew that talent was not enough. You needed a great teacher to show you the way. As brutal as Silas's training was, he could feel the results. The him of today could easily beat several versions of the him from a month ago.
"Soon," Silas answered without looking up, his gaze fixed on the Eternal Pose in his hand.
After sailing the seas for so many years, he had collected a small mountain of these special compasses, including one for the Land of Giants, Elbaf.
His reasons for going there were twofold. First, there was the matter of his ship.
"Old friend, you've worked hard all these years," Silas said softly, gently stroking the weathered planks of the Black Pearl. The ship had been with him for forty-five years, a lifetime on these harsh seas. Its keel was forged from a piece of Adam Wood, the toughest timber in the world, which Silas had found by sheer luck. But even Adam Wood could not withstand the test of time forever.
The Black Pearl had completed its mission. It could no longer accompany him on new adventures. As a great pirate, Silas looked down on ships built from ordinary wood. If he was going to build a new vessel, he would build the best. And deep within the Land of Giants stood a colossal, living Adam Tree.
That was the first reason. As for the second, a flicker of anticipation lit up Silas's eyes.
At this point in time, he thought, one of the future Four Emperors, Charlotte Linlin, should have already arrived in Elbaf, shouldn't she?
[Chapter Complete]
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