Peter calmly stood at the doorway to the lab on the ship and let out a soft sigh. It took a couple of days to create and upgrade both Merlin and Vivienne, the name he'd picked for the Lady of the Lake, and now they were both in deep discussions with Valeria on Magic, technology, and enchanting. He'd given them what information he could and their genius minds were all crunching the data and coming to conclusions, which they then tested.
Seeing all three women, geniuses each, working together was... TERRIFYING.
It was like their intelligence increase my an order of magnitude, each, while working together. He couldn't even follow their conversation anymore! In just hours after waking from her dose of Spider Venom, Merlin had figured out how to perform basic elemental magic. A few hours after that the madwoman made a giant iceberg with a simple wave of her hand! Then proceeded to melt with with a terrible blast of fire.
Meanwhile, Vivienne had already figured out some basic enchanting. The first thing she did was make unbreakable glass. The second, unbreakable swords. Or at least, so durable that Alex and Artoria had yet to break one even when going all out.
Now all three women were working together to use magic and enchanting to skip steps in the evolution of technology to help Valeria out. He shook his head at the sight and left them too it to make his way up to the deck. His crew was crazy overpowered.
It was AWESOME.
Peter looked at his work as he hung from a rope at the stern of the ship. He'd finally come up with a fitting name for the ship and decided to write it bold as brass.
"The Coming Storm. I think that's pretty fitting considering what we're going to accomplish."
He smirked an put the paint brush in the bucket then put the bucket in his storage ring so he could haul himself back up onto the deck. As his boots hit the deck he heard a bright voice shout, "Land Ho!" from the crows nest where Ai was strumming a guitar and practicing some lyrics.
Peter retrieved his spy glass and looked through it to get a better view of Hana Island. It was not only the island closest to the entrance to the Grand Line, it was also a ship building island filled with dry docks and ports where ships could be built, repaired, or overhauled. They were named after the massive flowering trees that grew all over the island and made up the bulk of the wood used for their ships. It was good wood, not as good as Adams wood, but still good.
The plan was to get a dry dock and begin retrofitting their ship into something much more interesting than a standard Carrack. He also hoped to find a shipwright to join the crew, or failing that to be able to pay a shipwright to make a skill potion. He'd be happy with either. Valeria was good and had designed an amazing ship, but they wouldn't be building it until they reached Water 7 on the Grand Line.
A few hours later the crew disembarked from the ship, each of them flush with cash given out by Peter. They were to buy anything that would help them out, or that they wanted. As they left, none of them failed to notice the attention they were gaining, specifically the girls. It was to be expected since every last one of them was beautiful. Some of that attention was definitely because of exotic features, such as Ai's eyes or the butterfly-like wings on Vivienne's back.
They made sure to at least stick together in pairs with at least one combatant member sticking to a non-combatant. Not that they couldn't all take care of themselves, but certain members among them just didn't like fighting. Erina, Ai, and Vivienne especially didn't like to fight. They would defend themselves, but they would never enjoy a good brawl.
Peter, Alex, and Sakuya were the last to disembark. Peter looked over to Alex and addressed him, "After you finish your shopping, look around and see if there isn't anyone interesting for you to copy some skills from."
Alex gave a gruff grunt of acknowledgment and disappeared into the streets of the city. Peter wasn't sure but he expected that the marines here had to be led by someone strong. Someone like Smoker over in the East Blue, to prevent pirates from making it to the Grand Line or getting their hands on a ship from the island. He might have to pick a fight with them before leaving. He and his crew were going to be named pirates soon enough, regardless of what they did. His goal was to, essentially, destroy the current world government, after all.
Aside from that, he also planned to utterly ruin any pirates he came across that weren't decent folk like Luffy. He barely considered Luffy and his crew to be pirates, honestly. More like rambunctious adventurers just looking to have fun. Bartolomeo and Law were descent folk, but others, such as Eustass Kid, needed to be put down. He didn't care how much they may have helped in a pinch moment, that didn't make up for the horrific things they did before then.
He put those thoughts out of his mind and began exploring the city. He wasn't looking for anything in particular, but he did have his eyes out for anything that could help with his work or be useful in some other way. No one on the crew needed to worry for raw materials, only finished products held any interest. He hummed to himself when he found a nice looking weapon shop. Might as well take a look. If any place was going to have a Meito it would be one right by the Grand Line entrance.
Stepping into the shop, Peter found himself surrounded by weapons on display. Swords, knives, axes, hammers, and even a few morning stars, all hung on the walls. Near the back of the store was a counter slash display case the featured just two swords. Even from the door and with minimal knowledge, Peter could tell they were special. He calmly made his way to the display to look at the exquisite weapons.
The first was a katana, not much of a surprise. What was surprising was the way it looked. The blade was mostly a swirling mix of gray that looked like clouds while the hamon was sharp zigzagging jagged line that had a light yellow tint to it, and a stark white razors edge. The tsuba was an unadorned oval while the handle was wrapped in dark blue with yellow ray skin beneath.