Rain steadied his emotions and was about to open his status panel when his eyes suddenly caught a small line at the end of Squard's record.
[Wish List: (activatable)]
"Huh?" Rain raised an eyebrow. "This guy has a wish too? Let me see… don't tell me he wants me to take care of his pet spider or something."
Curious, he tapped "Activate."
With Rain's confirmation, the text flared with brilliant light and displayed itself clearly.
[Squard's Regret: Obsession of Revenge]
Description:
"Gol D. Roger… that man! He personally crushed my proud pirate crew and took everything from me! My greatest regret is that I never got to take revenge with my own hands—never got to drive my blade into his heart!"
Objective: Personally kill Gol D. Roger.
Rain stared at the objective, blinking once—then laughed.
"Personally kill Roger?"
Ding!
[Detected: Host is Gol D. Roger's executioner.]
[Squard's Regret: Obsession of Revenge] completed.
[Reward: You may choose one additional option from Squard's remaining selectable rewards.]
Rain froze on the spot.
"Wait—what?!" Joy practically overflowed in his chest. "I killed Roger when you didn't even know where you were, and that still counts as completing your wish?!"
It was a gift from the heavens.
Fighting the urge to grin too hard, Rain opened Squard's remaining rewards without the slightest guilt.
He'd chosen [Physique Inheritance] earlier and hadn't even properly checked what an SSR-level target could offer.
[Swordsmanship (Advanced)]
Not needed.
[Armament Haki (Advanced)]
Same—worse than his.
…
His eyes finally locked onto a talent unique to Squard.
[Talent: Whirlpool Sense]
In the ever-changing environment at sea, your combat intuition and bodily stability will be greatly enhanced.
"This one!" Rain's eyes lit up. "A god-tier passive on the ocean. No wonder he was still so fierce on that chaotic deck—he had a built-in buff!"
"I choose [Talent: Whirlpool Sense]!"
A strange, subtle sensation merged into his body. Then Rain opened his newly refreshed status panel.
Name: Corvo Rain
Age: 17
Rank: Sergeant
[Physique Tier]: Top-Tier
[Talents]: Voice of All Things, Life Return, Whirlpool Sense
[Skills]: Swordsmanship (Top-Tier), Marksmanship (Top-Tier), Rokushiki (Advanced), Combat Techniques (Top-Tier), Cooking (Top-Tier), Stealth (Advanced), Fishing (Intermediate)
[Haki]: Observation Haki (Peak), Armament Haki (Top-Tier)
[Sin Points]: 365,237
"Physique finally reached [Top-Tier]—and along with it, Marksmanship and Combat Techniques also stacked up to [Top-Tier] through selectable rewards."
Feeling the power surging inside him, Rain began planning calmly.
Now that his physique met the threshold, the next step…
He immediately opened the [Exchange Shop], eyes burning as he checked the upgrade options for [Haki] and [Skills].
[Haki · Top-Tier Armament Haki → Peak Armament Haki]
Cost: 1,000,000 Sin Points
[Skill · Top-Tier Swordsmanship → Peak Swordsmanship]
Cost: 1,000,000 Sin Points
"One million?!" Rain sucked his teeth at the endless zeros.
"That's robbery. I don't even have a fraction of that."
He dropped the idea of upgrading immediately and started planning for the long run.
Now that his physique was [Top-Tier], it meant that if he could accumulate enough Sin Points, he could push either Armament Haki or Swordsmanship to [Peak].
With Top-Tier physique plus Peak Armament or Peak swordsmanship—on top of his already-Peak Observation—
His strength would likely touch the threshold of those admiral/emperor-tier monsters.
Even if he were on the weaker end of that tier, it would still be enough to truly stand on these seas and protect himself.
Plan set, Rain suppressed his excitement, picked up his sword, and headed back to the cave where Rosinante was hiding.
The moment he stepped in, he heard weak groaning. Rosinante was bracing himself against the rock wall, wobbling to his feet—clearly just waking up.
"Rain! You're okay too! Thank goodness…" Rosinante looked relieved, then immediately tensed again. "Where… where are we now—?"
He cut himself off with a startled "Huh," his eyes snagging on something in the cave corner.
"Rain, look… what's that?"
Rain followed his finger, and his pupils shrank sharply.
In a patch of damp moss and rotting fruit, a purple fruit covered in strange patterns lay quietly in a crack between stones.
"What the hell?!" Rain's mind jolted. "When I hid Rosinante in here, I checked this cave carefully. There were only a few rotten fruits—nothing else!"
Keeping his face neutral, he pulled up the system and quickly flipped through every pirate judgment record he'd just created—no Devil Fruit users.
So this wasn't a nearby fruit "respawn" caused by a user's death.
"This… it spawned out of nowhere?!" Rain's thoughts whirled. "What kind of insane luck is this? Is the universe literally shoving a fruit into his mouth?!"
Rosinante, clueless about Rain's internal panic, simply walked over and awkwardly picked the fruit up.
"Rain! This—this is a Devil Fruit, right?!"
His eyes glittered with naive excitement. "Rain! You should eat it! You're already strong—if you eat this you'll be even stronger!"
Rain didn't take it right away.
He wasn't against Devil Fruits.
In fact, after seeing some of their powers in the canon story, he'd long craved a top-tier disaster-class Logia.
Or a Mythical Zoan that further boosted physique—another ideal choice.
Because pushing his physique from [Top-Tier] to [Peak] would be insanely difficult, and a powerful fruit was the best shortcut.
But all of that depended on one thing:
Knowing what you were eating.
There was no way Rain would gamble on a mystery-box fruit and risk becoming a useless non-swimmer for life.
"Hold on," Rain said evenly. "I need to check what this is first."
He turned around and pretended to rummage in his pocket.
Rosinante watched curiously but didn't think it was strange—after all, he'd already seen Rain's "storage magic" during survival training.
While miming the search, Rain opened the shop and spent 10,000 points to redeem a [Devil Fruit Encyclopedia].
When Rain "pulled" the thick book out of his pocket—
"Whoa! Rain! You even have a book like that?!" Rosinante gasped.
Rain ignored him, set the encyclopedia on a flat rock, and flipped rapidly under the faint light from the cave mouth.
"Purple… strange patterns…"
His page-turning stopped abruptly.
He carefully compared the illustration to the fruit in Rosinante's hand.
"This pattern… no mistake. It's the [Calm-Calm Fruit]! Isn't this Corazon's fruit in the canon story?!"
"Fate, huh…"
Rosinante was still urging him. "Well? Rain? Is it a powerful fruit? Hurry, eat it!"
Rain didn't answer. He simply slid the encyclopedia toward Rosinante.
"Read it yourself."
"Me?" Rosinante blinked, then read aloud, word by word:
"[Calm-Calm Fruit]… Paramecia. The user can create a soundproof space where sound cannot travel in or out. The user can also erase all sound produced by their own actions…"
When he finished, the excitement on his face visibly collapsed into confusion and disappointment.
"Silence?" He scratched his head. "W-what's that good for? It can't shoot fire or lightning… it's not even for fighting."
"Who said power has to be for fighting?"
Rain's calm voice cut in.
"You crave power, don't you?" he asked slowly. "You hate what Vice Admiral Sakazuki does. You want to save people with your kind of justice. But you can't even protect yourself on the battlefield."
Rain tapped the fruit's illustration gently.
"And this… is power made for your kind of justice."
"Me?" Rosinante still looked like he couldn't believe it.
"Yes." Rain's tone left no room for debate. "Think about it. You trip when you walk. You miss when you shoot. But with this ability, you can move without anyone noticing. You can infiltrate the most dangerous places. You can create a silent domain at the critical moment and pull out the people you want to save—while your enemy remains completely unaware."
He watched Rosinante's eyes slowly brighten.
"It won't let you breathe fire. But it will let you save people when it matters, without anyone realizing. Isn't that… exactly the power you want?"
Rosinante was completely convinced.
He stared at the purple fruit in his hands, a sense of mission rising in his gaze.
He remembered Sakazuki's magma that burned everything. He remembered Rain's cold silhouette in the alley.
He took a deep breath. The naive clumsiness faded from his face, replaced by a steadiness he'd never shown before.
"Okay, Rain!" he nodded hard. "I'll listen to you!"
He didn't hesitate anymore. Like it was a sacred ritual, he squeezed his eyes shut and took a huge bite.
"Pff—!"
The next second, his face twisted like a bitter gourd, features scrunched into misery.
He opened his mouth and tried to scream with all his might:
"IT'S—SO—DISGUSTING—!!!"
But not a single sound came out.
The cave fell into absolute silence.
~~~
Patreon.com/Weze_
— You can read more Chapters in my Patreon Page! please vote, comment, share this, or visit my Patreon Page and join the Free Membership!