Its metal wings on its back retracted into its exoskeleton, making it appear, at least from the outside, as if it didn't have two pairs of wings.
"Roar!!!"
The Ant King charged forward again at high speed; it was the king of this island, how could it tolerate someone challenging its authority!
"Hahahahaha, you're still not convinced? Then I'll beat you until you are!"
Nox's Kenbunshoku Haki clearly sensed the Ant King's unconvinced mood. With a loud laugh, he swung his fist and smashed it over again.
The Ant King's Busoshoku Haki and strength were both very strong, capable of fighting even Bullet for a while, but it encountered Nox. Even if Nox only used his pure physical body, he could easily overwhelm the Ant King.
Nox's fists smashed onto the Ant King's body one after another. Although the Ant King's massive body reacted very flexibly, no matter how flexible it was, it couldn't dodge Nox's fists.
"Crack!!"
The Ant King's sturdy metal exoskeleton was smashed to pieces under Nox's fists, and the strong metal exoskeleton was even smashed and embedded into its flesh and blood.
Originally, the Ant King wanted to turn the tables and regain its ground, but it didn't expect to end up being the object of continuous beating.
In just one minute, the Ant King had been beaten beyond recognition, completely losing the appearance an Ant King should have.
Nox's actions didn't stop. After smashing the Ant King flying, he immediately rushed over again to continue smashing.
"How about it, are you convinced or not!"
After stopping, Nox stood in front of the Ant King and asked, using Kenbunshoku Haki to convey his meaning as he spoke.
Possessing top-tier Kenbunshoku Haki, he had now mastered the method of using Kenbunshoku Haki to transmit his voice and will, which was equivalent to a method of transmitting sound over a thousand miles, or a way to communicate with other creatures. In Training terms, it was equivalent to divine sense transmission.
"Roar!!!"
The Ant King let out an angry roar, indicating that it was very unconvinced.
"Oh, you still dare to be unconvinced? Looks like you haven't been beaten badly enough!"
Seeing the Ant King's stubborn temper, Nox raised his fist and smashed down again, sending it flying dozens of meters with one punch.
The Ant King wanted to escape, but its speed was too slow, it couldn't escape at all. The moment it landed, it was smashed flying in another direction by Nox's punch again.
It wanted to spread its wings and fly away, but Nox rushed into the sky with Moonwalk, and then smashed it to the ground with another punch.
"Convinced or not?"
Nox kept smashing while shouting loudly.
"Roar!!!"
The Ant King was a Beast King after all, how could it be beaten into submission by a human? Its temper was extremely stubborn.
However, no matter how stubborn the temper, when it encountered a brute like Nox, it could only be beaten into submission.
Nox beat the Ant King for a full fifteen minutes before the Ant King finally surrendered under the education of these punches.
If Nox hadn't taken a liking to its talent, he probably would have killed it long ago. Why bother hitting it for fifteen minutes?
"Yo, it's a good child to correct its mistakes when it knows them. Seeing how mighty you were before, from now on you'll be called Hermes!"
"Let's go, Hermes, I'll take you to get your injuries treated."
Nox looked at the Ant King kneeling in front of him with great satisfaction. With this kind of strength, it could even be an Executive Officer in the Limitless Pirates.
Even if it was a Beast King, it still couldn't stop Nox's intention to recruit it. Just relying on talent alone made it so strong, wouldn't it be even stronger with some training?
If it could eat a Devil Fruit that granted it human-like intelligence, making it as smart as a human, and after training, wouldn't it become another top-tier combatant in the future?
"Roar!!!"
Hearing Nox's words, the Ant King could only silently follow behind Nox. Who told it that it couldn't beat the other party?
Surrender if you can't win, this is an innate belief carried in the law of the jungle among beasts, and even a Beast King must follow it.
"Nox, you've taken it in?"
Athena looked at the disfigured, injured Ant King and said.
She had seen this guy before; it actually possessed Haoshoku Haki. She didn't expect her Husband could also take it in.
"Of course. Who do you think your Husband is? Taking in a Beast King is just a piece of cake."
Nox said somewhat proudly.
"Get the metal ores and food from the ship for me, and find a doctor to treat it."
After returning to the Hades Meijin, Nox had people get food for Hermes.
The food the Ant King ate was metal, and it also ate meat. The metal exoskeleton on its body was something that evolved to protect itself after eating metal ores.
"Roar!!!"
Seeing the delicious food and metal ores, Hermes immediately pounced and ate frantically.
By the time it was full, its injuries had recovered significantly.
Then, the medical personnel sprinkled some rapid recovery potions on Hermes and also had it eat some. Hermes' injuries healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In just under an hour, it had completely recovered.
"Roar!!!"
After recovering, Hermes immediately let out a loud roar, seemingly venting the suppressed anger from being beaten just now.
"What? Is your skin itchy again? Do you want another beating?"
However, Hermes had just roared when it saw Nox standing in front of him, raising his fist.
Seeing Nox, Hermes didn't dare to roar anymore and immediately closed its mouth.
"Hmm, very good, very good!"
"Don't worry, after following me, you'll have enough to eat every day. I'll also teach you to become stronger and take you to see the vast World outside."
"The island you are on is just a very small place. This World is very big, and you will see more wonderful worlds in the future!"
Nox nodded with satisfaction.
Hearing Nox's words, a light seemed to flicker in Hermes' eyes. It was a Beast King, its intelligence was higher than other beasts, so it naturally wanted to see the outside world and become stronger.
"Let's go to the center of the island and collect the gravity stone of this island."
Saying that, Nox took Hermes and Eva towards the center of the island. Athena chose to stay on the ship and wait for Nox to return.
"gravity stone, it's also this kind of gravity stone on this island that caused the change in the island's gravity. I wonder if other Gravity Islands are the same."
Nox looked at the gravity stone in front, which was like a small mountain, with most of it buried underground, and murmured.
"Eva, let's start. Integrate this gravity stone into your body, and you will become stronger."
Nox said. Eva's original body was also a gravity stone, but it was made into a Homies by Charlotte Linlin.
Homies can also grow, just like Eva now. By integrating gravity stones similar to its original body, it can grow itself.
"Brother, brother, then I'll start!"
After Eva finished speaking, it immediately lay on the gravity stone and began to slowly integrate the gravity stone on the island into its body using its own power.
A day later, Eva finally completely integrated the gravity stone from this island into its body, and it also became stronger.
"Eva, how many times the gravity can you control now?"
Nox asked curiously.
"Brother, I can control 25 times the gravity, and my original body has also become twice as heavy as before."
Eva said happily.
"That's good. This mission is successfully completed. Let's go."
Nox nodded with satisfaction.
Hermes looked at the home it had stayed in for many years. It knew that once it left this time, it probably wouldn't come back again.
"What, Hermes, you don't want to leave?"
"But you don't have to worry. If you want to come back in the future, I'll have someone bring you back."
Nox smiled.
"Roar!!!"
After hearing Nox's words, Hermes didn't continue to reminisce about anything, but followed behind Nox and left.
"Hermes, this is a Devil Fruit. It's something that can give you human-like intelligence and powerful strength. Eat it!"
After returning to Oni Island in Wano Country, Nox took out the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Great Monk form Devil Fruit that he had treasured for a long time.
He had originally planned to prepare this Devil Fruit for his child, but none of the child who were suitable to eat Devil Fruits chose it.
And his three child who hadn't eaten Devil Fruits yet wouldn't reach the age to eat Devil Fruits for many years.
So after seeing Hermes, he decided to take out this Human-Human Fruit and give it to Hermes.
In the original work, Chopper was just an ordinary animal, but after eating the Human-Human Fruit, he became so smart and strong.
Hermes possesses Busoshoku Haki and Haoshoku Haki. Its original strength is already comparable to ordinary Executive Officers of the Limitless Pirates. With such strong talent and strength, plus this Human-Human Fruit Mythical Zoan that can increase its strength limit, it might be able to become a core Executive Officer of the Limitless Pirates, or even the Vice Captain, just like Bullet in the future.
"Roar!!!"
Hearing Nox's words, Hermes immediately swallowed the Devil Fruit. It truly swallowed it completely, without even needing to chew, directly into its stomach to be digested by stomach acid.
"Roar!!!"
Just after eating the Devil Fruit, Hermes let out a loud roar. Instantly, it, which was originally on all fours, stood up like a human. Its height of nearly eight meters gave off a huge sense of oppression.
Following that, many changes occurred in Hermes' body. Overall, it became more like a human, or rather, a beast-human body similar to humans.
Its original claws turned into something like human hands, but the fingers were still in the shape of claws. The changes in its feet were similar, and its two pairs of metal wings folded behind its back.
Its head and face looked like a combination of an ant and a human face, which was very consistent with Chopper's human-beast form after eating the Devil Fruit in the original work.
"Captain, this is?"
After Bullet arrived at Oni Island, he saw the tall and mighty human-beast body standing in front of Nox. Bullet felt a powerful aura on him, which made the battle-loving Bullet's fists itch.
"Hahahaha, Bullet, this is our new Executive Officer of the Limitless Pirates, Hermes, the Beast King Ant King who ate the Human-Human Fruit Mythical Zoan."
"It just joined the Limitless Pirates and just ate the Devil Fruit and transformed into a human body. I asked you to come here because I want you to teach it body art and the use of Haki."
Seeing Bullet arrive, Nox introduced him to Bullet.
"Hermes, this is Bullet, he is also your companion from now on. For the next period, he will teach you to become stronger."
Nox said to Hermes.
Hermes was most suitable for learning body art. The strongest in body art in the Limitless Pirates were Bullet and Chinjao, but Chinjao's body art was not suitable for Hermes, so he had Bullet come to teach Hermes.
"Hahahahaha, Captain, don't worry, I will definitely teach Hermes well."
When Bullet heard Nox's words, his eyes immediately lit up. A Beast King eating the Human-Human Fruit Mythical Zoan?
Since it could be valued by his Captain and given a Mythical Zoan, it must be very powerful. Bullet was very interested in this.
"Roar!!!"
Although Hermes couldn't speak yet, after eating the Devil Fruit, it seemed to have become smarter. Even though Bullet didn't communicate with it using special Kenbunshoku Haki like Nox, it could roughly understand Bullet's meaning.
"Alright then, you two can get to know each other well on Oni Island. Later, I will have someone come and teach Hermes how to speak."
Nox said.
Hermes couldn't speak like Chopper yet, but having eaten the Human-Human Fruit, it was only a matter of time before Hermes learned to speak.
After entrusting the task of teaching Hermes to Bullet, Nox left Oni Island. For the near future, having Bullet teach Hermes was enough.
Grimore Island in the West Blue is an island very close to the Calm Belt, so it is very remote, with almost no merchant ships coming here, and the people living on the island are few and poor.
However, Grimore Island became exceptionally lively and prosperous because of a word from the underground world, and a large number of merchant ships came here from all over the West Blue, and even from the other three seas.
"Have you heard? The Limitless Pirates are going to conduct various commodity trades on Grimore Island in the West Blue. The traded goods include the Limitless Pirates' weapons, medicine, swords and weapons, and various scarce goods from the New World."
"How could I not have heard? Now, the representatives of the five major mafias in the West Blue, merchant ships from various countries, and people from various underground forces in the West Blue are all heading to Grimore Island, all wanting to purchase enough goods."
"News from the underground forces says that the Limitless Pirates' trading partners are primarily those forces that possess the various resources the Limitless Pirates need, followed by forces that trade with various treasures and Devil Fruits, and finally people like us who only have Berries. So, it's already very difficult to get the best goods from the Limitless Pirates using just Berries."
"Holy crap, if that's the case, isn't it very fair for people like us who don't have any power?"
"Fair? You're joking, right? There's no such thing as fairness in this World!"
"..."
In many taverns in the West Blue, people were discussing what was about to happen on Grimore Island, which was that the Limitless Pirates were going to transport goods through the Calm Belt to Grimore Island for trade.
This news, with the help of the underground world, quickly spread throughout the entire West Blue, and even to the other three seas.
At the same time, it also reached the ears of the Marine and the World Government.