Chapter 87 + 88: Another Application of the IQ Potion

"Ari, bring Vic over."

Upon hearing the command, Ari instantly grasped Noah's intention: "I'll bring him right away."

Minutes later, Ari and Vic emerged from a wormhole.

Standing nearly 3.3 meters tall, Vic towered over everyone. With a puzzled look, he asked, "Big brother, there don't seem to be any enemies around. What did you call me here for?"

"It's for something good, this is the Rock Rock Fruit, eat it," Noah handed the Rock Rock Fruit to Vic.

"Rock Rock Fruit?"

"Don't refuse. You must feel the bottleneck now, right?"

Vic bowed his head; he indeed felt his limits. At 17 years old, after seven years of consistent training and leveraging various resources from the Noah family, his abilities had reached the level of an elite admiral.

Reaching such a rank at his age through physical prowess and overpowering spirit alone was impressive.

Unfortunately, Vic's progress had slowed significantly over the past year, even with training sessions that drained his life force.

Clearly, Vic's physical potential had reached its end.

As for the Vampire Fruit that Noah had prepared, Vic had never asked for it, feeling it unsuitable for a hard-fighting physical combatant like himself.

But when Noah considered the Rock Rock Fruit, he found it perfectly suited for Vic.

After some hesitation, Vic picked up the Rock Rock Fruit, knowing he couldn't afford to be willful any longer—the family needed more top-tier generals to face future adversaries.

Expressionless, he ate the grape-like Rock Rock Fruit without leaving a trace.

As soon as he swallowed the fruit, a powerful shockwave burst forth from within him.

"Is that the Conqueror's Haki?" Noah was astonished; he hadn't expected Vic to possess such potential.

But soon, he noticed something peculiar—the Conqueror's Haki emanating from Vic was crimson, blending with Noah's own.

As the two forces mingled, Noah could sense Vic's resolve.

It was pure determination: constant self-conditioning, relentless physical training, coupled with the evolutionary power of the IQ component, awakening the crimson Conqueror's Haki.

"So, Conqueror's Haki can also be trained like this…"

Vic's situation provided Noah with a precise answer.

Pure faith and a strong body, with the IQ component as a catalyst, could potentially awaken someone's Conqueror's Haki.

Of course, this was also inseparable from Noah's ideological teachings.

Typically, among pirate crews, it's rare for more than one or two individuals to manifest Conqueror's Haki—the captain's beliefs must resonate with the crew.

And in a pirate crew, only the captain is entitled to pursue the dream of becoming the 'Pirate King.'

This dream does not accommodate the ambition of a second awakener of Conqueror's Haki.

For instance, Ace, who joined Whitebeard's crew, always wanted Whitebeard to become the Pirate King. In such circumstances, his Conqueror's Haki could hardly be potent.

Kings do not share mountains, unless one is willing to submit.

But a Conqueror's Haki awakener who submits cannot truly be strong, like Doflamingo, who always bowed to Kaido and Big Mom, hardly enhancing his own Conqueror's Haki.

The Noah family is different, especially the core members who have adopted Noah's teachings. While they recognize and respect Noah as their elder brother, they harbor the conviction to change the world.

A dream to create a new world can accommodate countless awakeners of Conqueror's Haki.

After all, there can only be one Pirate King, but there can be innumerable saviors.

This is the difference in dreams.

Noah's dream can encompass everyone.

The dream of the Pirate King belongs only to one.

With the awakening of Vic's Conqueror's Haki, Noah's faith grew ever stronger.

Seeing Archino struggle, Vic, newly awakened, realized his Conqueror's Haki was suppressing the other, which was quite normal.

Archino had joined forcibly only over a month ago and naturally could not resonate with Noah's spirit, thus remaining vulnerable to Conqueror's Haki oppression.

Vic retracted his Conqueror's Haki and respectfully said to Noah, "Big brother, thank you for your guidance."

"Don't underestimate yourself; your efforts are also the foundation of today. Now that you've gained this power, use it well to strive for a brand-new utopia."

"Yes, that's also my belief!" Vic's gaze was unwavering.

"Is this the power of belief?" Robin looked at Vic with surprise. She wasn't familiar with him, only knowing that he was Noah's childhood friend and one of the earliest members of the Noah family.

Noah turned to the others: "The awakening of Conqueror's Haki is the crystallization of belief. As long as you truly embrace the dream of creating an ideal state, coupled with a strong body and the evolutionary force of the IQ potion, you all might awaken Conqueror's Haki."

"Everyone can?" Kuro was thoughtful.

Noah looked at Kuro: "To be precise, the purer the belief, the easier the awakening. You're smart, but being too clever can complicate your thoughts, reducing your chances of awakening Conqueror's Haki."

Kuro immediately understood Noah's point: "So, the simpler a person, with a pure dream and the stimulation of the IQ potion, might awaken Conqueror's Haki. It seems I indeed have a hard time awakening."

This is a common psychological issue among strategists.

Overthinking complicates beliefs.

This is why, among the Noah family members, Vic became the second to awaken Conqueror's Haki after Noah.

As Vic awakened his Conqueror's Haki, Noah also began instructing everyone to thoroughly plunder the treasures of the Kingdom of Ankura.

Noah focused on collecting gold and silver, while Robin was interested in the frozen books, statues, and murals.

Vic began using his abilities to gather various gems.

The Rock Rock Fruit had one characteristic: initially, it could only create ordinary rocks, but with samples of other stones, it could record them.

The various gems left here nearly encompassed all gem types known in the pirate world, including rubies, sapphires, emeralds, crystals, amber, beeswax, diamonds, jade, and more.

With his abilities, Vic replicated these gems' compositions, allowing him to imitate these gems as long as the necessary elemental components were present.

It took Noah and his crew over a week to completely scour the remnants of the Kingdom of Ankura.

The gold and silver alone were worth over thirty billion Belly.

As for the gems, with Vic's abilities, if the Noah family wished, they could literally pave the ground with gems.

Chapter 88: Stones and Schemes, Noah and his crew returned to the Storm Archipelago through a wormhole, a place favorable for training.

On Qianshan Island, specifically used for training, Vic was now experimenting with the various abilities of the Rock Rock Fruit.

The fundamental ability of the Nature-type Rock Rock Fruit was elemental transformation, allowing Vic to morph into various kinds of stones. However, considering the immunity provided by elemental transformation, using sand as the base material would be relatively practical.

Vic didn't dwell too much on elemental transformation but instead transformed his body into diamond.

Kuro, acting as his sparring partner, struck Vic silently and swiftly with his claw.

Clang, clang, clang...

Sparks flew as the claw collided with Vic's diamond body, and Kuro soon coated his claw with Armament Haki.

Still, he couldn't breach the defense.

Vic's diamond form evidently had a very high defensive strength.

But in the next moment, Archino, his body in a high-heat state, landed a punch on Vic, partially igniting the diamond on Vic's surface, forcing him to shift into his sand elemental form to avoid further damage.

From a distance, Noah reminded him, "That's the weakness of diamond, temperatures over eight hundred degrees Celsius can ignite it, so you need to develop other types of rock armor."

Next, Vic experimented with creation and shaping abilities.

He conjured massive and sturdy rock giants, troublesome rock-sand serpents, and even abilities similar to Crocodile's sand-sand fruit which could absorb water.

As a superior version of the Sand-Sand Fruit, the Rock Rock Fruit could replicate all of its abilities.

After these trials, it was time for Noah's various concepts.

On Vic's body emerged a ruby cannon, with a chamber filled with pyrite gears shaped like teeth. Soaked by the water absorbed by the sand, they began to rub together rapidly.

Soon, the energy inside the cannon soared and converged on a ruby laser emitter.

A laser beam shot forth from the muzzle.

Zzzzzz...

In an instant, it pierced through a distant mountain.

The Ruby Laser Cannon, this was one application of science.

Next, a cloud of "dust" emerged from Vic, rapidly dispersing in all directions.

"What is this stuff?" Kuro's Observation Haki sent frantic danger signals.

Using a strong magnetic field, Noah blocked the advancing dust from getting close, while explaining to Archino and Kuro, "This is asbestos dust, a type of fine needle-shaped rock almost invisible to the naked eye. Breathing in large amounts of asbestos dust can quickly cause bodily diseases, similar to Freyvance's platinum disease."

"Should my high-heat body be immune?" Archino asked, unsure.

"To be precise, your high-heat body should be immune to most viruses, toxins, bacteria, and harmful substances, but it depends on whether your stamina can hold up," Noah explained.

Archino immediately recalled an experience when Noah had worn him down, understanding that Devil Fruit abilities also required physical stamina support.

After experimenting with asbestos dust, Vic transformed the dust back into ordinary rock.

If he didn't revert the asbestos dust, the training ground would be completely ruined, as anyone training there could easily inhale the settled asbestos.

Then, Vic changed his body into opal, and by continuously adjusting the surface structure of the opal, he gradually blended into the surrounding environment.

More terrifyingly, as a wielder of the Rock Rock Fruit, Vic could easily camouflage himself as a rock, merging with the environment and thus becoming undetectable by ordinary Observation Haki.

Kuro's Observation Haki failed to detect Vic's presence.

However, Noah's higher level of Observation Haki could still sense faint vibrations, especially when entering the electromagnetic wave amplification mode, making the sensation much clearer.

After experimenting with the opal's environmental camouflage, Vic transformed his body into a moissanite armor.

"Archino, try testing the heat resistance limit of this armor," Noah suggested.

"No problem."

Archino's fist, glowing with fiery red heat, smashed into Vic's armor.

He soon reported a finding, "Not bad, it can withstand temperatures below 2700 degrees Celsius, and the hardness is only slightly less than the diamond armor."

This temperature was sufficient unless facing the Heat-Heat Fruit, Heat Body Fruit, Burn-Burn Fruit, Thunder-Thunder Fruit, Flash-Flash Fruit, and the awakened state of the Magma-Magma Fruit, this set of moissanite armor could withstand attacks from most formidable opponents.

Except for the Flash-Flash Fruit and the unawakened Magma-Magma Fruit, only those in the Noah family who mastered Conqueror's Haki binding and Armament Haki internal destruction could breach Vic's defenses.

But Vic wasn't foolish enough to just stand and let himself be hit.

Then, Noah summoned from a card the historical Poneglyph slab found in the ruins of Shandora.

Vic immediately understood Noah's idea. Touching the slab with both hands, he soon opened his eyes, "Big brother, I can control this stone, but I can't create it."

"Is it the sea-prism stone composition affecting it?"

"There is indeed a special substance interfering with my abilities."

Noah had some guesses—if the historical texts were so easily destroyed, the World Government would have already acted to obliterate them.

Clearly, general Devil Fruit powers couldn't affect the Poneglyphs.

That wasn't absolute, though.

For instance, Archino, whose body temperature could reach ten thousand degrees Celsius, could vaporize the Poneglyph by extreme heat.

Under such terrifying temperatures, any stone would be evaporated.

"It looks like to enhance your strength, we need to plan for that thing."

Vic was puzzled, "Big brother, what thing?"

"A special mineral found in the New World—Explosive Rock."

"Explosive Rock?"

"Just a fist-sized piece of Explosive Rock can destroy several hundred meters around it, and hundreds of such pieces can obliterate a small island."

Kuro adjusted his glasses, "That must not be easy to obtain, right?"

"Correct, it's tightly controlled by the World Government and the Navy, only high-ranking officials and the Five Elders know its exact storage locations."

But Noah then smiled, "But as a mineral, it must have a source. Through the underworld, I've locked down five potential islands."

Even if the World Government and the Navy had depleted the Explosive Rock, the remaining mines would certainly have undiscovered veins.

And Vic, being a Rock Rock Fruit user, could easily find these buried veins in the strata, without needing to locate the stockpiles of manufactured Explosive Rock.

"In half a month, we set off for the New World."

"Yes."

Vic stayed behind to continue practicing his Devil Fruit powers.

Meanwhile, Noah and his crew prepared for their journey to the New World in half a month.

After all, the New World, unlike Paradise, was divided among three Sea Emperors who already controlled nearly 40% of the region.

The remaining territories were either controlled by the World Government and its allied nations, about 27%, or by semi-independent pirate crews like the Beehive Island, strong world powers like Elbaph, or were inhospitable, unpopulated areas.