Chapter 1
The following day, things were going smoothly. Some of the crew were fishing to toss them into the aquarium that was built into the boat. With it they could always have fresh fish, not that finding fish was hard. Markus helped out by tossing a few bolts of electricity into the water to stun the fish making them super easy to catch with a net.
Everyone was enjoying the wonderful facilities that Franky had built into the Thousand Sunny. Everything was perfect, if a little silly sometimes. After a little fishing, Markus made his way to the crows nest which also doubled as a workout room and changed into his weighted workout clothing. Before starting his workout, he opened his inventory and retrieved two skill books, the ones he'd gotten for his quest at Enies Lobby. He'd ignored them until now since he wasn't in a rush to learn them before.
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Aura of Fear
[Active, Level 1, 0.0% Experience]
When activated you project an aura that incites fear in anyone whose Spirit attribute is lower than your own. The bigger the difference in your respective Spirit attributes the greater the fear your enemies fear. If the difference between Spirit attributes is large enough it is possible for the fear felt to lead to death.
Aura of Despair
[Active, Level 1, 0.0% Experience]
When activated you project an aura that instills despair into anyone whose Spirit attribute is lower than your own. The greater the difference in your respective Spirit attributes the greater the despair your enemies fear. If the difference between Spirit attributes is large enough it is possible to break the very will of your enemies and drive them insane.
Skill synergy detected. Would you like to combine Aura of Fear, Aura of Despair, and Conqueror's Haki into a single skill?
WARNING! Doing so will result in the loss of all levels of the skills being combined but will result in a much stronger skill.
Proceed? [Y/N]
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Markus looked it over for a bit before shrugging his shoulders and accepting it. He didn't use his Conqueror's Haki all that much outside of his training and he could level it up again easily enough. There was no reason not to combine them and he wouldn't have to level all of the skills separately.
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Combining skills...
New skill created!
Dominator's Haki
[Active, Level 1, 0.0% Experience]
Dominator's Haki is a mutated form of Conqueror's Haki that includes aspects of fear and despair into it. User's of this skill can manifest their will and use it to oppress the will of others, fill them with fear, and/or fill them with despair. In its rawest form, Dominator's Haki is an unconstrained wave of pressure and negativity that can have disastrous effects on anyone weak enough to succumb to it. With better control, the user is not only able to choose any combination of the three effects but is also able to control who the skill will target.
Cost: 5 Willpower/Second per effect
Unconscious Effect:
Less than 25% of your Spirit – Targets rendered unconscious for 1 minute.
Less than 50% of your Spirit – Targets rendered unconscious for 30 seconds.
Less than 75% of your Spirit – Target rendered unconscious for 15 seconds.
Fear Effect:
Less than 25% of your Spirit - Targets rendered helpless and afraid for 1 minute, possibly instantly killed.
Less than 50% of your Spirit - Targets rendered helpless and afraid for 30 seconds.
Less than 75% of your Spirit - Targets feel a sense of dread and may succumb to fear for 15 seconds.
Despair Effect:
Less than 25% of your Spirit - Targets enter a deep bottomless depression that can break their will and even lead to thoughts of suicide for 1 minute.
Less than 50% of your Spirit - Targets enter a state of depression for 30 seconds.
Less than 75% of your Spirit - Targets feel a sense of despair and may become depressed for 15 seconds.
Haki Clash: When clashing with someone who possesses Conqueror's Haki, you may spend Willpower to increase the strength of your Haki if necessary. The cost will vary based on the opponent's strength.
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Markus read over the description of the new skill and arched his eyebrow. Anyone with less than 122 Willpower, without his friendship buff, could die instantly if he used the fear option. That was... cruel. He could essentially one-shot all the peons out there without any effort and minimal resource costs.
He dismissed the system and began his workout. The sweatsuit the system gave him always pushed him to the limit by automatically adjusting its weight. That combined with the nice selection of weights Franky had included in the ship made for a great workout. He hadn't been able to work out like this in a while since the sheer weight he needed to lift for any results would have destroyed the Going Merry.
Sweat flowed as Markus did push-ups with weights on his back, sit-ups with weights on his chest, squats while holding a bar of weights, arm curls, bench presses, and anything else he could think of. He pushed his body as hard as he could and wore his seastone bracelet the entire time. His everything hurt but he felt like it was worth it every time he saw that he gained a point in his Strength or Vitality.
At some point, Zoro had joined him in working out. It was weird for Zoro to see Markus using less weight than himself and yet struggling to lift it. Zoro didn't spend much time thinking about it though and put more focus on swinging the weights he'd selected to strengthen his arms. The two of them worked out in silence until Markus was too exhausted to continue. He left the room and made his way to the male cabin to grab some clothes before taking a bath.
Everyone got together for dinner and had a lot of fun. They were still getting to know Franky and the Thousand Sunny. The ship was amazing and Franky was a decent guy, a total weirdo but still decent. Once everyone was ready to turn in for the night, Markus returned to the crows nest and found a comfortable spot to relax in before entering his Image Training.
Tonight his goal wasn't to increase his level. He was plenty strong enough to deal with the immediate issues that would arise. No, tonight he wanted to focus on a single skill, his sword mastery. The Shodai Kitetsu he'd gotten was one of the strongest weapons in the world and it would be an insult to the sword if he continued to wield it like a rank amateur. He settled Shodai on his hip and put all of his other gear inside of his inventory. He would practice with only the sword tonight.
Once he was ready, Markus opened his opponent selection and picked an opponent he was still somewhat afraid of. His level might be above his opponents by more than forty but that didn't lower his trepidation in the least. A person's level wasn't everything and didn't include things like skill levels, Devil Fruit abilities, or anything else, only raw attribute points. Markus steeled himself and selected his opponent, Dracule "Hawk Eyes" Mihawk.
Mihawk appeared in the open plain that Markus had selected for this session. Mihawk looked exactly as he had back in the East Blue when Markus first met him. He was tall, looked somewhat like a Spanish swordsman from the distant past, and carried Yoru on his back. Yoru is an ornately decorated sword with a total length of seven feet with a huge crossguard and a single-edged black blade with a curve at the tip. It is also one of the twelve strongest swords in the world matching Markus's own Shodai Kitetsu but without the bother of a curse.
Markus chose Mihawk because he couldn't think of anyone better to fight against to gain proficiency in his sword mastery. He restricted himself to only using his base attributes and not relying on his Devil Fruit to gain an advantage. Though, he would use it to get away if things became too difficult or his life was in danger. As soon as Mihawk was summoned, he immediately drew Yoru from his back and viciously slashed in Markus's direction.
Even though the distance between Markus and Mihawk was a hundred feet, Markus knew he was in danger and immediately drew Shodai, covered it in Armament Haki, and slashed. His slash intercepted and deflected the flying slash launched by Mihawk. The pressure of the blow caused Markus's hand to feel a bit numb. Mihawk didn't stop there and used the opening when Markus was recovering to dash right in front of him and slash again. The clones created in the Image Training always went for the kill and never held back.
As Mihawk closed in on Markus, he performed a powerful horizontal slash attempting to bisect Markus at his waist. Markus barely managed to swing Shodai down in time to intercept Yoru. As the blades clashed sparks flew in the air and Markus could feel an excited vibration in Shodai. It had found an opponent worthy of clashing against. Mihawk didn't pause in his assault as his blade became a blur launching multiple attacks from different angles. Markus found himself purely on the defensive as he tried to prevent Mihawk from slicing him to shreds.
Mihawk's attacks were fast, precise, and very powerful. Every blow Markus managed to block sent a vibration down his arm and quickly made his entire arm numb. It took every last ounce of Markus's effort to block every blow coming his way. Even then, he couldn't completely block all of them and ended up with several small wounds that bled for a brief moment before stopping. The main issue was that his hit points were slowly but surely being chipped away. There was nothing he could do to prevent it either. Mihawk's attacks left him with no openings to exploit and no time to even think about counter-attacking.
In this contest of skill, Markus lost and lost badly. If it wasn't for his high-level Observation Haki as well as his high attributes, he would have been slaughtered by Mihawk in mere moments. Despite all of that, Markus had a grin on his face as he continued to defend himself against the greatest swordsman in the world. He could feel his skill improving little by little as Shodai became faster in his hands.
Markus managed to fend off Mihawk for a total of five minutes before he had to end the training. He collapsed on the ground breathing heavily as he tried to recover from the battle. Five minutes might not sound like a long time to most people but considering he, as a beginner, was fighting the world's greatest, it was a hell of an achievement to last that long. Even so, his subpar skill meant that Mihawk had managed to whittle his hit points down to just over a thousand. Markus didn't feel comfortable letting the battle continue after that. Just one solid hit from Mihawk and he would have died at that point.
Thanks to his wonderful recovery speed, it would only take Markus a little over twelve minutes to recover all of his health, since he still had a fair amount of hit points left, it took him less than ten minutes to recover back to full. He ate a quick snack since fighting really burned a lot of calories and made him hungry. Once he was ready, he summoned Mihawk once again and got back to fighting... if defending himself from certain death for a few minutes at a time could be considered fighting.
The following morning, Markus cleaned his blood off of the floor and wall before changing into fresh clothing. He'd spent the entire night being abused by Mihawk but his gains had been worth it. His Observation Haki, Armament Haki, Physical Resistance, and Beginner Sword Mastery had all gained levels. Naturally, his Beginner Sword Mastery had gained the most and he was close to reaching his current level cap in the skill. Soon he would need to buy the skill book for the next rank to continue leveling it up. All-in-all, he'd made great progress.
After making sure that all traces of his blood had been cleaned, he made his way back down to the deck and went to the dining room where Sanji was preparing breakfast for everyone. Luffy was being his usual self and urging Sanji to hurry up so he could eat. Markus smiled at the familiar scene of everyone sitting down to eat together while chatting about recent events and the Sunny. Everyone was very carefree and looking forward to arriving at Fishman Island soon.
After an enjoyable breakfast, everyone went to do their own thing. Usopp and Luffy went to the main deck and started fishing again. They were obsessed with filling up the aquarium with tons of delicious fish to look at and eat later. Robin, Franky, and Sanji were relaxing in the aquarium bar and chatting, Nami had decided to take a bath, Chopper was relaxing with a medical book in the sickbay, and Zoro was in the workout room slash crow's nest keeping an eye out and trying not to sleep. Markus found a nice spot to relax and enjoy the wind through his hair. They should enter the Florian Triangle anytime now and he was looking forward to trying to procure two more Devil Fruits.
As he was pondering his acquisitions of the Kage Kage no Mi and the Suke Suke no Mi, Luffy, and Usopp became overly excited about catching a shark. They threw it into the aquarium with the rest of the fish and ran for the aquarium bar to see it. Markus shook his head and smiled as he heard yelling. Naturally, tossing a predator into a tank full of prey was just a bad idea. The majority of the crew started discussing the best way to eat the shark as punishment.
As the group continued to discuss the fate of the shark, Zoro suddenly shouted down at everyone, "HEY! Something's floating in the water!!"
Everyone became interested and ran out of the sip onto the deck to take a look. Floating in the water was a large barrel with a flag sticking out of it. Once they spotted the word 'treasure' on the flag, the barrel was quickly scooped up and pulled onto the ship. Everyone excitedly discussed what could be inside of the barrel. They were all curious and quickly opened it up. As soon as the lid came off there was a small explosion that launched a flare into the sky that burned a bright red. Markus looked up at the flare and scratched his head. He wasn't familiar with this particular incident.
Worried that the flare might be a trap to give away their position, everyone started looking around to see if there were any ships closing in on their position. As they did, Nami looked around before shouting out, "Everyone to your posts! We're fleeing south south-east! A 'raging storm' is on the way! We've only got five minutes!"
True to her word, a storm appeared five minutes later. The sea became chaotic while thick dark storm clouds poured down rain and lightning bolts. Markus easily fended off any lightning bolts that could come near the Sunny and went about his work per Nami's orders. She looked frustrated as she said, "It's all headwind!"
Franky grinned, "Hey! Think that's all this ship's got?!"
Nami looked enlightened and started shouting out orders, "Everyone, take up the sails! The paddles are coming out!"
Everyone got excited since this would be the first time they saw one of Franky's tricks in action. They worked to raise the sails while Usopp followed Franky's instructions. The Thousand Sunny was equipped with a system called the 'Soldier Dock System' that had multiple functions. Right now it had been switched to channel 0 and when Usopp activated it the side of the Sunny opened. Once the doors opened, large paddles came sliding out on the side of the ship and began spinning, propelling the Sunny forward.
Markus watched as the paddles rolled. They reminded him of old steam paddleboats from his previous life. Only, these ones somehow ran off of cola. The ship moved quickly and after a while, they exited the storm however, the sky was still dark and a thick fog was rolling in making visibility even lower. Everyone looked around while Zoro remarked, "It shouldn't be night time yet."
Nami looked around, "Could it be we've entered that part of the sea already?"
Clueless, Usopp chimed in, "Oh! We've already arrived at mermaid island?!"
Luffy grinned playfully, "No, that sea monsters appear!"
Franky put on a serious look though he was smiling, "That's right. Don't relax just yet. This area is that famous, Florian Triangle! The strange sea where almost everything disappears shrouded in mystery."
Naturally, Usopp began to panic and complain since he hadn't been a member of the crew when Kokoro explained the Florian Triangle to them back in Water 7. Sanji threw more fuel on Usopp's cowardly flames by lighting a match and using it to mask his face in shadows as he spoke, "Listen Usopp, every year over a hundred ships mysteriously vanish. What's more, ghost ships carrying corpses wander these waters. Or so they say..."
Sanji's act caused Usopp to manic even more and even got to Chopper a bit. As those two freaked out, an eerie voice came across the ocean, "Yohohoho~~"
At the same time, a piece of low eerie music started to play along with the voice. Shivering like he was caught in a snowstorm, Usopp slowly turned around before screaming, "IT CAME OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTT!!!"
Everyone but Markus and Robin joined in to scream, "GHOST SHIIIIIIIIP!"