Chapter 12
As Luffy and Usopp fished Mr. 2 out of the ocean, Markus moved into the cabin of the ship to avoid having his face copied. Of course, with Seimei Kikan, it was actually easier for him to make changes to himself and hide. It'd just be even easier without Mr. 2 having a copy of his face. While there was a bit of a party mood going on outside, Markus sat at the table and opened his status to look at his gains over the last few days.
He'd managed to gain seven levels, though it had become a real grind at the end. Thanks to his efforts though, he had fifty attribute points he could currently spend. After looking over his attributes for a while, he finally spent all the points and evened out a few of them. When he was done he examined his base attributes with a smile.
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Name: Silvers D. Markus
Age: 16
Class: Noob Pirate
Level: 42
Exp: 2,133,900/2,205,000
Hit Points: 1,200/1,200 (+69/minute) [1,680/1,680 (+96.6/minute)]
Willpower: 1,750/1,750 (+94.5/minute) [2,450/2,450 (+132.3/minute)]
Strength (STR): 150 [210]
Vitality (VIT): 120 [168]
Agility (AGI): 125 [175]
Spirit (SPT): 175 [245]
Wisdom (WIS): 80 [112]
Charisma (CHA): 64 [89]
Luck (LCK): 53 [74]
Attribute Points: 0
Belly: 2,741,000
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He liked seeing his attributes being so high but he wasn't going to rely on his new skill. One theme a lot of novels in his memory taught him is to never rely on borrowed power. Though it was a nice bonus, he planned to pay more attention to his real attributes. Now that his points were spent he looked over his skills to examine their growth as well.
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Meditation - Level 57
Analysis - Level 17
Physical Resistance - Level 41
Observation Haki - Level 72
Armament Haki - Level 51
Basic Sword Mastery - Level 71
Basic Gun Mastery - Level 75
Brawling - Level 85
Pussyfoot Maneuver - Level 61
Tekkai - Level 47
Shigan - Level 22
Seimei Kikan - Level 15
Hasshoken - Level 22
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By the time he finished looking everything over, Mr. 2 had rejoined his ship and Vivi had realized his identity and that he had somehow copied her father's face. They weren't too far from Alabasta now and Markus was looking forward to when they arrived. He left the cabin and looked to the horizon. The weather was slowly becoming hotter, it was already to the point that Chopper was laying down in the shade panting heavily. As a reindeer, his body was adapted to the cold so heat gave him a lot of trouble.
Markus had to discard his hoodie from his outfit and stick to just wearing the teeshirt, anything else was just too hot. He still kept on his black pants and combat boots though, he was willing to suffer a little bit for fashion. As they continued to get closer to Alabasta, a few incidents happened in quick succession. First, a giant sea king-like monster known as a Sea Cat appeared. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji all wanted to eat the creature, scaring it. Vivi ended up smacking all three of them with a broom to get them to leave the creature alone. Second, after the sea cat left, a large fleet of Baroque Works ships were spotted coming up from behind them.
The crew discussed and decided to do something to counter Mr. 2's cloning ability. They all marked their hands and arms then covered them with wrapped bandages. They could use the marks to prove their identities to each other, just in case. Once the marks were wrapped up, Markus approached Vivi, "Can I have a moment?"
Vivi nodded so Markus led her into the cabin of the ship, "I'd like you to do me a favor." He set a sheet of paper and a pen on the table, "I'd appreciate it if you could write a note for me."
Vivi looked confused, "A note?"
Markus explained, "Yes, specifically a note that says I'm your friend and can be trusted, just in case."
Vivi still looked confused but she wrote the small note for Markus regardless. Once he had it he grinned broadly. With this, he should be able to do something crazy to mess with the canon story. With that taken care of, the two of them stepped out of the cabin just in time to hear Luffy shout, "To a restaurant we go!! ... And then to Alabasta..."
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New Quest!
Journey to Alabasta Part 3!
The journey to saving Alabasta is nearing its conclusion. Crocodile's plans are in full swing. Baroque Works is gathering. Civil war is on the horizon. Destroy Crocodile's plans and bring him to his knees!
Objective 1: Defeat members of the Millions.
Objective 2: Defeat members of the Billions.
Objective 3: Defeat one or more officer agent.
Objective 4: Work to prevent the civil war from happening.
Objective 5: Defeat Crocodile!
Failure Conditions: Death, Death of any crew members
Rewards:
Objective 1: +10% Experience per member of the Millions beaten
Objective 2: +20% Experience per member of the Billions beaten
Objective 3: 50,000 Experience, Choice of 1 Rokushiki Skill Book
Objective 4: +1 Experience per person not harmed, -10 Experience per person harmed.
Objective 5: Rewards TBD
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Markus read over the quest and felt his jaw drop. The first two objectives, meh. But the third objective was excellent while the fourth was phenomenal! There were going to be at least a million people participating in the civil war on both sides, two million total if not more. It would be downright impossible to prevent anyone from getting hurt but he could probably prevent quite a few injuries and deaths. As long as there were less than 200,000 injuries he would gain at least some experience but if he could get it down to less than 100,000 injuries he would make a killing!
He fought the urge to drool over the sheer amount of experience he would gain from this quest. Multistage quests were the best! He would have to find an officer agent to beat so he could get his hands on the skill book, as far a beating some millions and billions, eh. He wouldn't go out of his way to hunt them down. He started making plans while smiling brightly. He was going to have a lot of fun over the next couple of days.
As he planned his course of action, the Going Merry finally docked just outside the city of Nanohana. Luffy immediately leaped off the ship and charged forward blindly. The rest of the crew wasn't surprised in the least. Markus gave Nami a wink, "I'll see you guys later! If something happens, don't wait around for me. I'll be fine on my own."
Nami and the others looked confused but before anyone could ask any questions, Markus vanished from their sight. He had things to do! Once he was out of sight, he came to a stop in a dark alley and started using his Seimei Kikan to make some changes to himself. Mostly, he just made himself look fatter. Once he looked like he put on a fair amount of weight he bought a headwrap from a street vendor and wrapped it around his head so only his eyes were visible as well as a light brown robe to cover his clothing. With his disguise complete, he looked like a fat local.
For the first phase of his plan, he walked around the bazaar and purchased every different kind of fruit and vegetable he could find, along with nuts just to be on the safe side. Though they were called Devil Fruits, there was no proof, he could remember, that they couldn't reincarnate into vegetables or other grown foods. He picked up a few large crates to store all of his food purchases inside. He bought at least half a dozen of everything he could find. Thankfully, Nanohana had a bustling economy and a lot was available. Still, it was naturally impossible for him to get every fruit in the world, but he had many bases covered.
He stored all of the fruit and vegetables in different crates. After they were packed up, he found an alley to hide in so he could store the crates in secret. From now on, whenever he killed someone with a Devil Fruit, he would make sure the crates were out so the fruit could reincarnate into one of them. Thanks to time not passing inside of his inventory, the food would remain fresh no matter how long it was in there.
As he was exploring the bazaar looking for little gifts to get Nami and Vivi, he spotted Tashigi yelling at a merchant about selling a crappy sword at a ridiculously high price. As she was yelling at the merchant, Smoker came from another street and called out to her. He watched as the pair of marines left and made their way to a restaurant. Markus contemplated heading there as well to meet Ace, but he shrugged it off as a better idea came to him.
He wasted some time buying pretty trinkets for the two women. Little pieces of jewelry and some perfume were the items he picked for them. As he was paying for them he heard a loud crash coming from the restaurant. Hearing the noise brought a smile to his face, Luffy had arrived. Soon, Marines were crowding the street and chasing after Luffy to catch him. Markus watched for a moment and then turned away and made his way to the docks. Spotting the marine ship wasn't hard at all.
As he approached the ship he activated his Observation Haki to cover the entire thing and check for marines still on board. He was surprised to find there was only a single person on board and they were tied to the mast of the ship. Clearly a prisoner. Markus climbed aboard and had a wicked grin when he saw the prisoner on the ship. He'd forgotten about this and it would save him a lot of effort. The man tied to the mast was Mr. 11, one of the officer agents of Baroque Works!
Seeing Markus climb aboard the ship gave Mr. 11 some hope. He struggled against the ropes, "Hey! You! Give me a hand and I'll give you a nice reward!"
Mr. 11 was a short man wearing a suit with a top hat. On his face, he had a tattoo of his agent number on each side of his face below his eyes. Markus smiled beneath his head wrap as he opened his robe and drew the pistol in his shoulder holster, "You sure will."
Markus pulled the trigger and fired off three shots to kill Mr. 11.
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You have killed Mr. 11, +5,000 Experience.
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With Mr. 11 dead, he'd completed one of the objectives in his quest easily. He felt no pity or remorse over his actions for the simple fact that Mr. 11 was destined to die at the hands of his fellow agents. It was also one of the few times he could act unrestrained without worrying over affecting the timeline. He holstered his gun after reloading it and made his way into the ship. He planned to rob them of everything they had! He moved through every level and room in the ship to store everything that wasn't nailed down inside of his inventory. He stole every scrap of food and water, every single cannon, all of their weapons and ammo. Even all of the furniture. The best rooms for loot were Smoker's and Tashigi's.
Within Smoker's room, he found a pair of Seastone handcuffs along with the key to them. They were invaluable. Seastone was hard to come across and worth a fortune all on its own. If he could, he'd strip the seastone off the bottom of the ship. He stole every scrap of paper and book out of Smoker's room, the only thing he left was the Den Den Mushi. Because it was a living thing, the Den Den Mushi couldn't be stored inside of his inventory and he didn't want to carry such incriminating evidence around where it could possibly be seen.
Within Tashigi's room, he found two items he hadn't been expecting. Two of the fifty known Ryo Wazamono grade swords! They were the same grade as Zoro's Yubashiri and a grade above Tashigi's own Shigure. He stole both of them along with everything else in her room. He left nothing on the ship for anyone, not even their clothing! They were going to be pissed when they got back.
Markus left the ship with his loot and returned to Nanohana. Things within the city seemed to have calmed down while he was busy with his looting. He walked along the shore until he saw where the Going Merry had been docked, it was gone. He looked out over the ocean and saw a massive blast of fire decimating a small fleet of ships. It looked like the crew had left and Ace had joined them.He was a little sad he hadn't gotten to meet Ace but he was glad he wasn't with them. They were about to pointlessly spend days walking through the desert to the wrong location. The rebels were currently in the nearby city of Katorea. It might be a bit of a dick move but he had plans and the crew sticking around would mess with them.
He turned away from the ocean and began walking through the city and making his way toward Katorea. The next phase of his plan was to really mess with Crocodile's plans. The trek through the desert was short and simple. It only took him a few minutes to arrive at the nearby city. On the way there he reverted the changes he'd made to himself with Seimei Kikan and returned to his thinner more muscular natural body. With all of the crew so far away, he no longer gained a buff from 'The Power of Friendship' leaving him with just his base attributes. He could live with that.
Finding the small rebel camp proved to be no problem thanks to his Observation Haki. Spotting slightly stronger people with a bunch of hidden weapons was a cakewalk. He stood away from the camp and looked at it for a while trying to decide on his approach. After a while, he came to a decision and walked toward one of the guards, "I'm here to see Koza. Tell him Vivi sent me."
The guard looked suspiciously at Markus before calling over another one and sending him to get Koza. Markus didn't do anything to raise suspicions against him. He patiently waited for nearly thirty minutes before Koza arrived. Koza was a tall man with blond hair that he kept swept back. He wore a long trench coat over a white shirt, black pants, and boots with a sash tied around his waist. He looked suspiciously at Markus while holding a sheathed sword in his left hand, "You claim Princess Vivi sent you?"
Markus nodded and slowly reached into his robe to pull the note he had Vivi write out of his inventory. He carefully pulled the note out before offering it to Koza, "Take a look."
Koza took the note and looked it over. His eyes widened slightly before he turned his suspicious look back on Markus, "What do you want?"
Markus held his hand out for the note. Once Koza gave it back to him he stored it away safely before looking around, "Is there somewhere private we could talk?"
Koza nodded and led Markus to a tent off to the side where they could speak alone. Once they were inside, Koza immediately turned to stare at Markus with narrowed eyes, "What do you know about Vivi?"
"Everything. For example, I know you got that snazzy scar over your eye while protecting her from bandits." Markus grinned when he saw the look of surprise on Koza's face, "I know she disappeared from the kingdom a few years ago and what she's been up to since then. Ever since the incident with the dance powder, she knew something was wrong and someone was framing the King."
Kora interrupted, "But dance powder was also found in the palace!"
Markus rolled his eyes, "Please. Don't even pretend you're that stupid. You're the leader of the rebel army. If anyone knows how a real smuggling operation works, it would be you. Or do you have your men transport huge amounts of your supplies through the middle of a busy city? Do you have your supplies transported directly to where you're located with your name on the tip of their tongues? Or do you have them go through third parties and safe houses first?"
Koza looked slightly taken aback. After he thought about it he sighed, "Fine, but if it wasn't the king then who was it?"
Markus crossed his arms over his chest, "Vivi spent the last few years trying to find that out. She infiltrated the criminal organization Baroque Works and worked her way up the ladder until she got the information she needed. She found the person behind everything, the person trying to take over this country and make it their own. The person who is using you and pushing for you to go to war for them."
Koza looked infuriated. He grit his teeth as he asked, "Who?"
"Crocodile."
Koza looked surprised and then frowned, "Impossible. He protects the kingdom from pirates and keeps people safe."
Markus scoffed, "Can you think of a better cover for someone trying to take over a kingdom? If he succeeds the citizens will cheer. He's playing every side of this conflict against the other to set himself up to take over."
Koza frowned and placed his hand on his chin as he thought. Finally, he let out a long sigh, "I see. What is it that you want?"
Markus uncrossed his arms and smiled, "Simple. I want to screw Crocodile over and destroy his plans while saving this country. Your part should be exceedingly simple. Just don't fight. Tell your men that you're delaying the attack on the capitol for a week. Ah, that reminds me. Members of Baroque Works have infiltrated your rebellion. Anyone who aggressively pushes for you to attack is likely working for Crocodile. If the problem hasn't been resolved within the week, then you can go ahead with your attack. If you need further proof of what I've said, keep an eye on the palace. Within the next few days, they should begin moving after they receive a letter from Vivi. Have someone you trust watch for Carue to arrive."
Koza sighed, "I can do that. Not having to shed any blood for a week isn't a big price to pay if you're right."
Markus grinned broadly, "That's all I ask and what Vivi wants. She's distraught at the idea of her people killing each other. In a few days, this entire mess will be taken care of and everything can go back to normal." He turned to leave the tent, "Oh, one more thing. When King Cobra heads into Nanohana to confess to using the dance powder with the intent to burn the city down, call him Mr. 2. I think you'll understand why by his reaction. My job here is done, I have other things to take care of. Just remember what I've said."
He left the tent before Koza could ask how he knew what was going to happen and returned to the city to get his hands on a map and a camel. He wasn't going to walk all the way to Rain Dinners in the city of Rainbase. It was Crocodile's main base. He'd do a little gambling and relax in comfort while waiting for the others to arrive. He could catch up with the crew there and let Luffy fight Crocodile and lose before taking the man out himself. He just didn't feel like listening to Luffy complain over not getting to kick Crocodile's ass. If he lost against Crocodile then he would have nothing to complain about when Markus kicked his ass.
Markus grinned as he rode the camel through the desert. This was a nice relaxing way to cross the harsh desert. Much better than traveling with Luffy and constantly running out of food and water because of him.