Chapter 2
While Robin spoke with the rest of the crew about the information she got on Montblanc Cricket, Markus went and made himself comfortable. He had no real plans to mess with the canon at the moment. Not when he was so close to reaching Skypiea. If he made a mistake now he would regret it for the rest of his life. So, he just kept his mouth shut and found a spot out of the way.
To pass the time he decided to check out his crafting system. He went into the ship's stores and snagged a single plank of wood, it should be more than enough to make a few sword handles. With all the materials necessary to make the cutlass he bought the recipe for, Markus found a place to sit down and try it out. The process was extremely simple. He just had to place the recipe inside of a special slot, designate the slots that contained the necessary materials, and push the 'Craft' button. As soon as he did, a timer appeared next to the recipe. It would take an hour to craft the cutlass.
While the timer ticked... nothing else happened. His supply of materials was lowered but that was it. He could just keep pressing buttons and make a brand new cutlass every hour. In his judgment, if he sold the swords to people they should fetch somewhere around 125,000 or so each. With the materials he had, minus wood, he could make at least 75 swords. That would be a total of 9.3 million Belly, or 4.6 million if he sold it all to the shop. Not a bad profit at 3.1 million Belly.
...
He froze for a bit. Did the system really give him a method to obtain infinite money? Even after thinking about it, he could only think of the possibility that the system wouldn't give him half of the sale value for the swords. That would be the best way to prevent him from generating infinite money. He planned to find out for sure in an hour! He flipped to the blueprint tab of the shop and took another look at the blueprints for sale. He picked one he'd initially skipped before, mostly because it could save him money, a bullet blueprint.
He'd missed it the first time, but on the second look he noticed that the required material for the bullet was listed as 'anything hard enough'. In other words, it could be lead, iron, steel, or... Seastone! To make the bullet only required brass, gunpowder, and something for the bullet. He had everything he needed thanks to robbing Smoker's ship in Alabasta, he had dozens of barrels of gunpowder. Probably enough to make thousands of bullets, if not more. He grinned broadly as he knew he could make the deadliest bullets in One Piece. Not to mention he had a ton of Seastone too thanks to Crocodile's donation!
As he was thinking about making Seastone bullets, a loud annoying noise started to reverberate through the ship, shaking and breaking it. He looked up and used his Haki to see what the crew was doing. Currently, they were trying to get away from a second monkey-looking man. Markus ignored it and lay back to relax. Soon they were out of range of the monkey-man's howling and heading for Cricket's place again. Right now he needed to decide on a few things he could do to make the journey more convenient.
Two possible events were coming up that weren't unrelated. He knew they would need a Southbird if they wanted to get to the knock up stream. When the crew originally left to get the bird, Bellamy came to Cricket's place to rob him and beat the hell of out Cricket and the monkeys. When the crew returned, Luffy took off to beat the snot out of Bellamy and get Cricket's gold back. He was trying to decide if he should just snag a bird and cut to the chase or let things happen as they did in canon. Either way wouldn't affect the journey.
As he thought about it... he decided not to interfere with the canon story and instead do something else. He'd almost forgotten an important thing about Skypeia and he planned to take advantage of it. He sat up and looked around the ship until he found a shovel and a few empty crates. He stored all of it inside of his inventory then sat back down to relax once again. It took the ship a good forty minutes to sail around the island and arrive at Cricket's house. Markus decided to stay on the ship, for the time being, the cutlass was almost done and he had two things to check after that!
As he waited he grew bored and pulled out the newspaper he'd bought. He didn't know how but he'd been able to read and speak the language of the world since the beginning. He supposed it had to do with the system or how he got here. As he flipped through the pages of the newspaper, three bounty fliers fell out. The newspaper usually only contained newly released or recently updated bounties. He looked at them and smiled. Luffy's jolly mug was staring back at him from the flyer. As Markus looked it over his eyes widened a bit, his bounty had only gone up to 75 million instead of the 100 million it should have been.
After he thought about it, he shrugged his shoulders. Luffy hadn't been the one to defeat Crocodile, it had been him so Luffy's bounty not going up as much made sense. Markus flipped to the next one and saw a bloody Zoro on it, his bounty was the same as in canon, 60 million. He'd gotten that bounty for beating Daz Bonez so it made sense as well. He flipped to the last bounty. The moment he saw it his eyes widened. His own face was staring back at him. He felt excited as he looked at the bottom to see what his bounty was.
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Markus
Wanted Dead or Alive
125,000,000 Belly
Class changed! New Class: Wanted Pirate (125m)
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He felt like his eyes were going to explode out of his skull from being opened too wide. What the hell?! Why was his bounty so goddamned high?! Sure he captured Crocodile but that didn't justify his bounty being so much higher than Crocodile's had been before he became a Shichibukai! Markus closed his eyes and thought about it for a while. He came to a conclusion, Haki. His ability to use Haki proficiently had probably triggered Smoker and led to the government considering him a bigger threat than his own captain. He hid his bounty poster inside of his inventory. Luffy couldn't be allowed to see it! He did not want to deal with the idiot complaining about it.
As for his class... it didn't change anything but at least he was no longer labeled as a newbie! As he stuck the poster into his inventory, he heard multiple gunshots coming from outside. He expanded his Haki to check the situation and saw Cricket was doing the firing. He went back to ignoring it. Finally, a few minutes later, his first cutlass was completed!
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You have crafted your first item. New System Store Tab unlocked: Materials. +1 All Attributes.
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Bonus! Being able to buy materials from his shop would help out. He just wished it wasn't random items. He ignored that for now and pulled the cutlass that he'd made out of his inventory to look it over. It was simple, basic, nothing to write home about or be proud of. It's one redeeming feature was that it came out razor-sharp and ready for use. The damage is could deal was only a measly 28-49, hardly worth using at this point.
He stored it back inside of his inventory and opened his shop tab. Immediately after switching to his sell option, he searched for the cutlass. When he saw what it could sell for, he froze. His estimates were a bit off but the sword could be sold to the system for 50,000 Belly! If he made and sold all 75 cutlass swords, he would make a profit of 2,250,000 Belly. It wasn't as much as he made gambling but it was still a fair amount and free. He could do it passively too!
Of course, he might be able to find something with a better profit margin later on. Either way, it was a help. Now between making and selling items as well as farming money in his Image Training, he had several ways to farm money making it no longer a concern he needed to worry about. With that out of the way, he moved onto the next thing he wanted to check.
He set the bullet recipe in the crafting slot and designated both the brass and gunpowder he had. After that, he selected the jail he stole from Crocodile and the Seastone contained within. Unlike with the sword, a new option popped up allowing him to select what caliber he wanted to craft the bullets in. Naturally, he selected .44 so the bullets would work in his two revolvers.
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Unable to craft. Your Crafting skill is too low to work with the following materials: Seastone.
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Markus sighed, "Of course it wouldn't be that easy."
He hadn't truly expected to be able to make Seastone bullets right away, but a man could hope, right? He switched back to the cutlass recipe and set the system to make another. Once it started, he tried pressing it again to see if he could set a queue for crafting, lots of games let the players set up a queue and let it run but not all. It was worth a try. To his delight, he could queue up four items after the one that was already being made letting him have a total of five items in production at once. Nice!
With nothing else for him to do, Markus decided to leave the ship and see how things were going outside. As he poked his head out of the ship, he heard another gunshot but only a single one this time. Expanding his Haki, he saw that Cricket had taken a shot at Usopp. It looked like Cricket was telling the rest of the crew his story while one of the two ape brothers sat outside. Markus stretched and yawned. He already knew everything about what happened with Nolad 'the Liar' and Jaya. He looked up at the sky and smiled a bit. Maybe he could give Cricket a little hope before the group rang the bell and revealed the truth.
He could just put forth a 'theory' about a knock up stream blowing half of Jaya into the sky but he didn't want to rob Robin of her fun. She and Nami would find the evidence and figure out that Jaya and the Upper Yard of Skypiea used to be the same island 400 or so years ago. It would be no fun for them if he ruined their discovery. He stepped up to the railing of the ship and ran his hands along it, "Hey Merry, I think this might be our last adventure together. What do you say we make it a good one?"
To others, it might seem stupid to talk to a ship like it was a person but Markus knew that Merry had a spirit. The love of the crew and their care for the ship gave birth to the spirit that inhabited it. Just remembering the scene in the anime where the crew gave the Merry a Viking funeral brought tears to his eyes. He made a decision at that moment.
With his decision made, Markus hopped off of the boat. The orangutang looking brother, Shoujou, looked over at Markus, "Ah, your friends are inside the house."
Markus gave him a wave, "Thanks but I think I'll take a walk first."
Markus walked past the house and made his way into the woods. There were three things he wanted to collect from them. The first and second were easy enough. He moved deeper into the woods before retrieving Kashu from his inventory and wearing it on his waist. Once he found a couple of trees that weren't too thick, he sliced them down with Kashu coated in Armament Haki. Before the trees could completely fall, he stored them inside of his inventory.
After collecting a dozen trees, which weirdly only took one slot inside of his inventory, he retrieved the shovel and an empty crate. He started digging up the ground and putting it in the crate. To the people of Skypiea, dirt, or 'Vearth', was a precious commodity. Even with more than half of Jaya up there it wasn't easily available since the area was considered 'Holy Ground'. For a bit of effort, he would have priceless Vearth to trade for things like dials.
Once he filled five large crates with dirt, he stored them away and started looking for the last item on his list. He activated his Observation Haki and started searching around. After a few minutes of searching at high speed, he found what he was looking for sitting on the branch of a tree minding its own business. A Southbird! Markus instantly accelerated then leaped into the air using Geppo to close in on the bird instantly. He couldn't quite combine the two techniques but he could use Geppo while he was still moving fast due to momentum.
Just as the bird realized something was coming close to it, Markus wrapped his right hand around its neck and his left around its beak to prevent it from calling out. The damned birds could use the bugs in the forest as an army to chase people out. With the Southbird firmly in hand, Markus moved at his maximum speed and made his way directly to Cricket's place. He arrived just as night was falling and could hear a party going on inside. He smiled to himself and decided to join the others.
He walked up to the building and shoved the door open while shouting, "Hey guys! Check out this strange bird I found while taking a walk!"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Markus as he held the Southbird up by its feet. Their heads snapped back and forth between the bird he was holding in his hand and a golden statue sitting in front of them. Nami was the first to exclaim, "It's the same!"
Everyone was excited about seeing the bird and the statue together. Cricket though, had his jaw hanging open allowing his cigarette to fall to the ground. Cricket was a muscular man with blond hair and a weird chestnut like thing on his head. "AH! I almost forgot! We need that bird!"
Everyone looked at him in confusion. Before they could ask, he explained, "Listen closely! The knock up stream that should appear tomorrow is directly south of this cape. So how do you think we'll get there?"
Luffy answered as if he was ridiculing Cricket, "By sailing south, duh."
Nami clobbered Luffy over the head, "This is the Grand Line idiot! Compasses don't work so there's no telling what direction we would be sailing in!"
Cricket pulled out another cigarette and lit it, "That's right and that's where the bird comes in. There are some animal species that have a way of accurately perceiving magnetic waves to orient themselves."
Luffy looked at Zoro while laughing, "Guess that makes you worse than an animal Zoro!"
Zoro punched Luffy harmlessly, "AS IF YOU CAN TALK!"
Cricket continued as if they weren't there, "The Southbird is the keenest of such animals. Even if you throw it in a featureless desert or ocean, it'll accurately point south." He turned to Markus, "Good job catching one, without it heading south would have been impossible."
Markus deadpanned, "So does that mean Sanji can't cook it? But it looked so tasty."
The bird, still firmly gripped by its legs, flapped its wings while letting out its weird cry. Maybe because of his growing relationship with Nami, he didn't get punched in the head for his comment. Instead, she just snatched the bird out of his hands, "Hell no you can't eat it!"
Cricket provided a set of chains to lock the bird up with so it couldn't escape. He looked outside at the darkness of the night, "We shouldn't be partying anyway, we need to repair and upgrade your boat so it can survive the knock up stream!"
Cricket, the Saruyama brothers, and their crews immediately got to work on getting the Going Merry ready for tomorrow. They worked for a few hours before another ship appeared on the water and came up to the shore. After docking, the crew of the ship disembarked. The moment they say the people coming toward them, Luffy and Zoro turned deadly serious. When he saw their leader, Markus felt the unbridled urge to punch him in the face. Bellamy and his pirates hard arrived.
The only noteworthy, minimally, people on Bellamy's crew were Bellamy himself and his first mate Sarquiss. Bellamy was a tall man with tanned skin and short blond hair. He acted like a bigshot and wore a long jacket as a cloak as if he was some bigshot navy admiral or something. It was grating on the nerves. Sarquiss was just as dumb looking. He, for whatever reason, seemed to think he was some sort of badass and wore a white fur coat along with a purple visor over his eyes. The single thing about him that was slightly interesting was his light blue colored hair. That's it.
Originally, Markus had intended to let things play out as they had in the canon but when he was on the Going Merry and talking to her, he changed his mind. Bellamy would heavily damage Merry and Markus wasn't going to let that happen this time. Merry deserved more than that! Instead, Bellamy and his shit crew were going to get their asses handed to them right here and now!
Markus sat at a table made of a large stump with logs for chairs and relaxed. No one in Bellamy's crew, not even Bellamy, was worth him lifting a finger to fight. Hell, Luffy could take out Bellamy in a single blow, let alone the losers with him. Markus rested his chin on his palm as Bellamy went off on a rant about the 'new pirate era' or whatever. All that mattered to Markus was seeing rage building in not only Luffy's eyes but everyone else's as well.
The only thing Markus found even slightly interesting was Bellamy's Devil Fruit, the Bane Bane no Mi. Being able to create springs from any part of your body had its fair share of power and usefulness. It was like an inferior version of the Gomu Gomu no Mi and could do similar things, like mimic Luffy's Pistol attack. But Bellamy was a moron, all he did with such power was jump around like a two-year-old on a bed. How Bellamy ever got a bounty of 55 million was a mystery.
Bellamy got all cocky in front of Luffy and without buildings around to really bounce off of, he just went at Luffy head-on. All it got him was a single blow to the face and a mouthful of dirt. When Sarquiss tried to do something from behind Luffy, he was instantly cut down by Zoro before Luffy could even say anything. Markus yawned and called out, "Are you guys done beating up the weaklings?"
Luffy grabbed Bellamy and threw him at the rest of his crew, "Leave."
Bellamy's crew scrambled to grab Bellamy and Sarquiss before leaving immediately. Markus smiled at that. The Merry had been spared any extra damage, his goal had been met and Bellamy got his face caved in. All was well with the world.