Sorbet

After spending some time studying at Torino Kingdom after leaving Karate Island, Alyssia and a few others continued onto the next destination.

As she arrived at the port, she took in the view of the kingdom before her.

The Sorbet Kingdom is a nation in the South Blue that was once ruled by the revolutionary turned Warlord, Bartholomew Kuma.

Due to unknown events, he ended up leaving the revolutionaries and losing his royal status to become a Warlord of the Sea and a test subject in the Pacifista program, where he was slowly converted into a cyborg by Dr Vegapunk.

Many stone monuments, statues and old tombs and ruins came into her view along with a vast desert.

She looked at the lands before herself and tried to endure the scorching heat. 'If Alabasta was based on Egypt then this place seems more like ancient Persia or Greece. It is quite beautiful but this heat is terrible.'

During the next couple of days she spent some time adjusting to the heat and learning about the kingdom.

Although it may not have been as terrible as Alabasta which was suffering from a severe lack of rainfall and poor water resources, it was the perfect place for her to train in under harsh conditions and build up a little resistance to one of her biggest weaknesses.

After gaining enough information on the royalty currently stationed there, she began to say her goodbyes to her crew who returned to Torino Kingdom after taking enough supplies, materials and berries along with getting herself settled there.

After another month, her crew entered the Reverse Mountain and arrived back at the first half of the Grand Line.

They continued their journey as they met up with Alfred again and people like Pascia and other potential entertainers were brought into the White Storm.

Although Ann was currently the biggest Diva they had working for them along with Aizah, Pascia's beauty and dancing skills gave her more than enough potential to become a worldly famous star so she began to make some appearances with Ann and Aizah during their live performances to help promote her and prepare her for a solo performance.

———

A couple of weeks after remaining on the lands of the Sorbet Kingdom, within a deserted land a figure sat by a camp fire with a boiling pot as they kept most of their body covered up in clothes suitable for the desert.

By the side of the fire was a disassembled carcass of a large snake, all that had remained was the poison sac, some bones, scales, fangs and some other more poisonous parts.

Alyssia carefully placed the poison sac within her backpack and then removed a strange looking syringe.

The contents within looked to be harmful at first sight but Alyssia showed no hesitation as she began to inject it into her body.

Her face showed slight irritation and fatigue but after eating and replenishing her energy, she became a little more relaxed as she remembered back to before she left the Torino Kingdom.

Back then, Tristan handed her several vials and syringes and said. 'This is my latest completed research on various poisons and other kinds of toxins or venoms. If you take a small dose for a long time, your body will begin to build up resistance against harmful substances. Although my research is not completed enough to give you complete immunity, it will help you become immune to most lesser poisons.'

Building up immunity to various venoms and poisons was beneficial for Alyssia's overall survival but there were always lots more ways to harm her.

Whether it be natural disease, chemical or an allergen based harmful substance, each was capable of being placed in her food or drink one day and it may actually successfully harm or kill her.

Although there were no big threats right now, there may be some in the future and the most skilled assassins would use more subtle methods against her rather than confront her after investigating her combat strength.

She closed her eyes and checked the status of the system.

[Poison/Venom Resistance 9/100%]

[Heat Resistance -10/100%]

[Cold Resistance 38/100%]

[Thunder/Electro Resistance 74/100%]

After checking the growth of her status as resistances were gradually rising everyday while enduring the heat, Electro training and injecting herself with what Tristan had created, she found that she had improved a lot.

Her electric based resistances were the best thanks to her race as a Mink but she also gained much more from the training method that she was using.

Cold resistance had been at around fifteen at first but after enduring harsh endurance training in Baldimore and the icy waters around it, she had built up further resistance.

At first the heat resistance was at minus twenty but because of her enduring the heat and training in the Sorbet Kingdom and within its desert, it had risen by ten points leaving her with minus ten resistance.

Although her weakness was not completely eliminated, her endurance and stamina had begun to improve under the harsh conditions along with the slow rise in her heat resistance that was getting slightly closer to 0% that most humans and other races started at.

As she was sitting there enjoying the night time where it became freezing cold without the scorching heat torturing her, she finished her meal but still looked to be unsatisfied but a smile later appeared on her face as she sense movement nearby.

She count subtly sense a large life form within her range as she remained in place and kept her eyes closed until she began to throw several stones nearby.

As they landed with a thud, a large creature appeared from underground as it shook the sand off its body.

Large pincers, a long pointed and deadly tail and a large armoured body appeared before her eyes as the sand fell from its body.

It tried to grab onto something above it but found nothing but air as its pincers snapped shut and shortly after Alyssia stood up and took out the two halves of her scythe blade in each hand as she activated the Electro on her body.

Electro began to take form on part of her lower body and she quickly disappeared with one step as she appeared on top of it.

A small part of the Electro was channelled and moved to the scythe blades as they cut its body within a short moment.

The large and sturdy armoured body seemed to have been cut through effortlessly but the large scorpion still had amazing vitality and a hard enough carapace to survive even if it had been stunned from the Electro attack that came with the cuts into its body.

Although her blade skills did not reach the level of a master, she had improved a great deal fighting many desert bandits and those that had ill intentions.

Even if she could not yet cut through steel, the armoured scorpion was a goal she had set for herself.

She had encountered this one several times but it would always flee after realising it was outmatched so it was difficult to wound or kill for most and even herself if she was solely focussed on her weapon skills.

The scorpion began to realise that it had fallen into a trap and met the wrong opponent but just as it wished to flee, the scythe blades were both thrust deep into the wounds on its body along with a large release of Electro.

However it was different from a normal show of her power as the Electro began to take form around the scythe blades in a serpentine shape and wrapped around it.

As the scythe blades entered wound, the serpent like Electro shot straight into the body and cause a large amount of damage within.

After slowly gaining better control over her Conquerers Haki, she had been attempting to manifest her martial arts into a form but it always took on the form of a serpent and acted according to her understanding of martial arts.

A thrust or piercing attack would have more penetrative power, a slice would have more cutting power and a blunt attack would have more force to break through tough defences or cause internal injuries and the addition of the absorbing feature attached to it allowed those attacks to add additional effects and power to those attacks.

When Electro was used, the attacks became even more destructive and she had not even added the power of wind to any of her attacks by using a wind blade or bullet attack which would further increase her cutting and piercing power to another level.

However the more power used, the more control over it was needed which required a much higher mastery of her Conquerors Haki.

The attack was much weaker compared to the manifestation of her White Storm Leg Style martial arts but it was more than enough to kill the large armoured scorpion quickly.

Shortly afterwards, she finished taking it apart and began cooking the edible parts while collecting the poisonous sac adding it to her presents for Tristan and some additional samples of the various types of creatures she had come across.

Her research did not just stop at intelligent life classified as a living and thinking being.

Any types of sea, sky or land creatures, bugs or plant life did not escape her desire to study so if it was hostile it would become her food while the rest of it would be kept for her research.

As she later lay on the sand and fell into a deep sleep, she thought. 'This is not so bad actually.. but I cannot remain here forever. There is still much to do!'