Chapter 105: Onward to Rusukaina
Chapter 105: Onward to Rusukaina
The month and a half that the crew had spent training and learning on Weatheria had been incredibly productive. Everyone had benefited from endurance training at high altitude, most of the crew had directly benefited in some fashion from training in the EWC facility against various forms of New World weather, and the few who hadn’t had still made good use of the time by visiting other locations.
Nojiko’s trio of meetings with Neethrax, for example, had helped her make several breakthroughs with her Crystal-Crystal fruit. Likewise, Pagaya had taken the chance to visit Skypiea, both to see his daughter and talk shop with his fellow Dial engineers about several ideas he’d had. Even the locals were enthusiastic about their stay, with the Weather Wizards claiming the various sessions in the EWC had produced fascinating data for them to pour over. Enough so that the entire crew had a standing invite to visit for more ‘experiments.’
All in all, Luffy was extremely pleased with these developments, and happy his initial near writing-off of the island had been corrected quickly and to such spectacular effect. He and several of the crew were certainly going to be taking the locals up on their open offer, as the EWC in particular still had a great deal of use to them as a training tool. Yet, as nice as it might have been to stay longer, particularly given how unlikely it would be for the World Government to find them here, they did need to move on. The island had been slowly drifting toward the New World, which conveniently put them part of the way to Rusukaina, yet they still had a good week and a half of sailing to reach the meeting place. Thankfully, with the Discovery not being particularly beholden to the vagaries of Paradise weather and currents at this point, they should still reach their destination in plenty of time.
Even so they were, of course, still leaving days earlier than should be required. Paradise or not, it was still the Grand Line, and claiming to be able to truly predict your own fate on this particular sea was a great way of taunting disaster. It was thus with cheerful farewells to the locals that the Discovery cast off…into the sky. The island had been skirting the Calm Belt anyway, and there was a nearby section of the White Sea available at the moment to cruise at least part of the distance they needed to cover. No reason to make the WG’s job of finding them any easier than they absolutely needed to. Besides, it would allow them to continue their high-altitude training for a few days longer, and keep them high enough to avoid most of the weirder phenomena that plagued the Line as well.
It was as Nami called out instructions for Dis and the few crew currently assigned to actual ship duties, that Luffy took the chance to check on a part of his System that he had been ignoring for a while. Well, no. He hadn’t been stupid enough to outright ignore the Tutorials section again. He had, however, only just skimmed the new features he’d gained from Robin, Yamato and Vivi joining his…harem, he supposed. The new features hadn’t been too much of a surprise, given that the Map feature had unlocked in the first place when he first started dating Nami. Given how low his Karma had been after spending it so desperately back at the Archipelago to fight that Elder, he hadn’t particularly trusted the events that had appeared on the map enough to detour for any of them since then. Since Robin and Vivi’s additions to the System had mostly been related to the Map and Event Markers, he’d left things alone until now.
Thankfully, even though he tried never to let the thought of Karma points influence his actions, his balance had bounced back somewhat in the months since the battle. It was no where near the amount he’d built up in the past, but saving Little East Blue from the Minotaur Pirates and helping Drakestone against the cultists and Thraaxx had pushed things more firmly back into the positive. Enough so that he was willing to trust that the Events labeled on the map were more likely to be advantageous to him and his than disasters waiting to happen.
Investigating the changes once again, Robin’s influence was the most obvious.
Previously, the only markers that had appeared on the map were either general information or temporary Karmic Event markers. Now, in addition to those, little shovel and magnifying glass symbols appeared as well. Exploring a few of such tags that rested in places they’d already been, such as Asuka Island, made it clear what he was seeing. Each of the symbols represented archaeological or informational finds. The old Temple on Asuka, the Frozen Library, and the hidden chamber with the Poneglyph on Alabasta were just three examples of symbols that already had names and brief details. Which meant the large number of unknown symbols scattered around every island he’d ever visited were admittedly intriguing.
Some of those could very well be more poneglpyhs, or other historical sites that might be of considerable value. Certainly to Robin, but also possibly to others, since among the markings that had already been IDed were things like the location where Shichiseiken had been sealed. Visiting some of those locations might well prove of use to them, and Luffy had already marked the idea as something to do after they hit the most useful of the islands he already knew about.
Vivi’s addition to the System also involved the map, with two changes reflecting on it. The first was, he suspected, only a side-effect of her Devil Fruit. There were a lot more ‘Karmic Events’ that were marked down as things he could reach in time to take advantage of. In truth, he suspected that those had been present since she ate the Door-Door Fruit, rather than being added after she became his girlfriend.
No, her actual ‘unlock’ when she’d become his girlfriend was a subtle, but nevertheless immensely useful addition. It added popularity and reputation meters for every island and individual group. He’d had a vague idea that his System tracked such things, but now it was highlighted in stark numbers. For example, he now knew how popular he was on Alabasta, with the various islands recently made part of the Alabastian Alliance, and dozens of other places. Moreover, it seemed to cover quite a few places he’d never even been or heard of before now. So long as someone in his crew had a connection to a group or location, it seemed to be included.
A surprisingly large number of islands in Paradise had at least neutral reactions to him and his, which was nice to know. Less nice to know was just how much the World Government loathed him, and some rather concerning things about groups he knew little about. He was very uncertain just why most of the Vinsmoke family had a massive hate-boner for their crew, for example. His limited knowledge of One Piece past Fishman Island was apparently biting him in the ass, there. It almost had to be something to do with Sanji, but aside from the fact that he had a sister the Rule 34 artists had spammed a bunch of drawings of, Luffy was largely in the dark.
Of more hopeful note was the varying reputations he apparently had with all parties involved in the upcoming summit, with even Hancock’s being surprisingly positive. Hardly massively so, but she was at least actually in the positive, rather than her being neutral or negatively inclined towards him. His best guess regarding why he had a positive value with her was that he’d been attributed with killing multiple Celestial Dragons and essentially leveling the Human Auction House. Given her history with the Celestial Twats, he suspected that was what had earned a level of approval from her. It was only a guess, for now. It was, at least, somewhat reassuring that she might not turn him to stone, though. As for the others that were to be part of the summit, he apparently had ‘Respected Status’ from both the Revolutionary Army and Whitebeard’s Sons, whatever that mean. Jinbe was honestly the closest to true neutral, though edging to the positive side of that neutrality.
Moving on from Vivi, be it because of her comparative power level, or something about Yamato’s own nature, her own effect was a bit more than an addition to the Map. She did provide an addition to the Map as well, as it happened, but it was only a visual representation of the new System he was most carefully reading the tutorial for. Specifically, Yamato’s own incredible drive to be stronger, had created within the System something it referred to as the Challenge Locator.
The Challenge Locator system, from what he was reading, might well be the most important addition to the System he’d ever gotten. Well, perhaps not as important as the Karma System, given how it had saved them at the Archipelago. Though even that was questionable, as Rayleigh might well have been able to help them at least escape the Elder without Luffy dumping all those Karma points into rolling the dice. The Challenge Locator was, in a way, even more important to the future, as its function was literally in the name. It gave Luffy the ability to find a challenge. One that would push either him, or a selected crewmate, in ways that would help them grow.
From what he was reading, those ways weren’t necessarily straightforward. For example, he suspected if used on Sanji it was just as likely to help the man find a cooking rival as it was to help him find a fight that would push his Haki to the limit. Either way, however, it offered a means to guide both himself and his crew to constantly improve, until they were at the very top of the world and there were no challenges left. If such a thing was even possible.
Pleased that his playing with the new system seemed to indicate that Rusukaina itself would provide a suitable challenge for most of his crew, he determined he’d spend the next several hours attempting to work out the best possible uses for these new additions. They only had a few islands he already knew about left to visit after the summit, after all…
… … …
Their trip through the Grand Line had proceeded smoothly enough, something that was never certain, but which they admittedly had some advantages in accomplishing. They had, for example, stayed on the White Sea for a few days, only descending once the patch of that oddest of ‘oceans’ they’d initially encountered faded. It might have been possible to avoid any trouble on the Grand Line at all by remaining at high altitude. Yet, there were reasons Luffy hadn’t ordered them to do so. So far as they were aware, the Discovery’s ability to fly was still unknown to the World Government or Marines, and he wasn’t particularly eager to give away a major advantage by having them spotted flying out in the open.
Descending back to the ‘Blue Sea’ had slowed their travel a bit, even the Discovery not being as fast on the water as in flight, and forcing them to deal with a few weather events. Yet, they’d reached the southern Calm Belt with very little real issue, and taken to the air again there to avoid the nesting Sea Kings. It was only once they got within a day of Rusukaina that they’d dropped back to the ocean and leaned on his and Yamato’s Conqueror’s Haki to scare off the Sea Kings off. Which Luffy presumed was likely how some of the more powerful crews like Shanks’ were able to cross the Calm Belts relatively unmolested. Alternatively, he supposed, they might just kill enough of the giant Sea Kings to scare the others off. Though that seemed suboptimal. No matter how strong your crew was, your ship could still be battered apart from below if you weren’t careful.
Regardless, spending an entire day under his and Yamato’s Conqueror’s Haki had also proven to be both good training for the crew in resisting it…and the final push required for Zoro and Kuina to both unlock it. The fact that both of them had done so nearly simultaneously had taken Luffy by surprise. He’d had some loose idea that Zoro had the ability, based on what little future knowledge he had left, but he’d possessed no knowledge that Kuina had the potential as well. It was a detail that added yet more evidence to his mind that the idea you were ‘born with it’ was most likely bullshit. His own suspicion was that it took a specific personality to unlock the third form of Haki, and people had historically mistaken that fact for an inborn trait.
Haki in general was, for all intents and purposes, an exercise in being so willful you told reality that it was wrong and to fuck off with its supposed ‘limits.’ But, while normal Haki told reality where to get bent regarding you, Conqueror’s seemed to take that reality bending one extra step farther and tell someone else’s reality to get bent. Essentially changing how reality interacted with them instead of how it interacted with you. It was something which required more than pure will, since it inherently required you to believe that your purpose for their reality was more important than their own. A King’s Disposition, as some described it, saying that your vision was more important than some serf’s free will and self-determination.
In truth, it was probably not a great sign of an entirely healthy personality if you could use it.
It was a theory Luffy both tried not to think about, while also still doing his best to simultaneously never forget, resisting the temptation to misuse it that came with the understanding. One way or another, and assuming he was even right in his personal thoughts on the subject, both Zoro and Kuina had proven to have whatever it was that let someone unlock Conqueror’s Haki. Which was going to be an extra fly in the ointment which made him grateful they were arriving several days early. The last thing they needed was for their lack of control over it to cause one of the other powerful parties that would be present for the summit to get offended when they let it slip.
Time to give his minions a crash course in how to control Conqueror’s Haki so they didn’t cause a diplomatic incident. Somehow, he didn’t think that sentence was one ‘normal’ pirates ever needed to contemplate…
… … …
Rusukaina was both satisfyingly useful and frustratingly useless.
Four days of constantly using the island to challenge the crew, particularly Kuina and Zoro, who were tasked to try dominating the weaker creatures here over and over until the duo passed out, had produced fantastic results. The variety of types and strengths of enemies, as well as the fact the animals here could legitimately hurt them, had caused quite a few of the crew to rapidly sharpen up their Haki usage. Sparring just wasn’t the same, as they inherently knew and instinctively believed that their fellow crewmates wouldn’t kill them. The knowledge that many of the beasts here would and could put them in the ground and devour their remains? It made a noticeable difference in speed of progression.
The frustrating part was that Yamato and Luffy couldn’t say the same for themselves.
They could sense that, deep in the interior of the island, there were a couple of presences that might at least be able to give them a decent challenge. There were, however, at most, only three such that they could sense. Even that was most likely being a bit overgenerous to one of the presences, the fact it felt odder than the others being the primary reason for giving it the benefit of the doubt. None of the three had bothered to come out and challenge them, likely seeing their staying on the edges of the island as respect for their territory. Stuck to staying by the coast to protect both their crewmates and the Discovery, they couldn’t go to investigate. Something which left them largely unable to see to any of their own training, despite how well the rest of the crew was doing.
Heck, even Pagaya was actively testing his Crystal Mech against the local wildlife, with pretty decent results. He’d even managed to unlock fits and starts of Armament…mostly because he was pissed at the beasts for managing to do a significant amount of damage to his baby, despite how tough it was by normal standards and how good he’d gotten with Observation. He hadn’t previously found much motivation to be better with Armament, so Luffy was happy the older man was at least making breakthroughs with some use of it. It was just annoying that Luffy, himself, wasn’t getting much out of the island so far.
Well, hopefully that would end soon, given that the summit they were here for was due to start in two days, and he’d just sensed multiple powerful presences out to sea. It seemed that Rayleigh and Hancock were arriving together. Which probably made a degree of sense, given their past association, and was certainly a relief to Luffy, who was still a bit wary of Hancock, despite his System insisting she was positively inclined toward him…
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A/N 1: I hope people like the new systems :-). Nami unlocked the Map, so it only stood to reason that the rest of the girls would trigger their own unlocks. I didn't want to make them super overpowered, that's not the type of Gamer Fic this is. But something subtly useful to keep the crew growing? That I figured fit pretty well with the way I've run his System from the start. More of an enabler than an outright cheat.