Chapter 89: Sea of Mists

 Year 1508 of the Sea Calendar, February 3

Above Thunder God Island in the New World, a wormhole opened over the towering cumulonimbus clouds, and one by one, Noah and his crew emerged.

Noah then released the Nautilus. Vic placed his hands on the ship's hull, and in an instant, a layer of opal spread across its surface, causing the Nautilus to vanish into the air.

Once everyone boarded, the Nautilus shot off in a single direction.

Kuro looked down at the three Eternal Pointers in his hand, constantly monitoring their course to ensure they stayed on track.

Their destination was the Sea of Mists in the New World.

According to their intelligence, this region was dotted with islands but was heavily guarded by the World Government.

Noah had reason to suspect that this might be the origin of Explosive Rock, based on a particular piece of information.

In 1476, a convoy from the World Government had been ambushed by a formidable pirate crew in the Sea of Mists, causing a catastrophic tsunami in the surrounding waters.

In response, the Navy had dispatched Bloodhand Admiral Beré to permanently guard the Sea of Mists. He didn't leave until around 1488.

Under what circumstances could such a tsunami occur?

There are only a few answers: Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit, a massive explosion, or an attack from the ancient weapon, Uranus.

First, Uranus could be ruled out, as at this time, Vegapunk had yet to create the Sacred Mother Flame, and Uranus wouldn't have had sufficient energy. Imu wouldn't casually deploy such a weapon.

That left Whitebeard or Explosive Rock.

The pirate crew that attacked the convoy was none other than the infamous Rocks Pirates, and at that time, Whitebeard was a member of the crew.

Given the Navy's response, Noah knew there had to be something within the Sea of Mists that was vitally important to the World Government.

A week later.

The Nautilus entered the outer edges of the Sea of Mists.

Using electromagnetic waves to amplify his Observation Haki, Noah quickly detected several surveillance outposts the Navy had established in the area.

Clearly, the World Government hadn't completely abandoned the Sea of Mists.

But these outposts were of little consequence to the airborne Noah family.

Soon, the Nautilus descended into the heart of the Sea of Mists.

After locating the first uninhabited island, the Nautilus landed from high above.

The island was eerily quiet. Noah couldn't sense any large animals, and even the vegetation was sparse and malnourished.

However, Noah soon discovered some ruins on the island.

Kuro glanced at the rusted mine tracks and the rubble at the end of the rails. "A mining tunnel, but it's been blasted shut."

"I'll handle it!" Vic placed his hands into the ground and began assimilating the surrounding rock.

After about ten minutes, Vic shook his head. "It's not here. There's only an old copper mine below."

"Then onto the next island."

The Nautilus took off once more.

There were over thirty islands within the Sea of Mists. Noah and his crew searched eight of them in succession but found no traces of Explosive Rock.

On the ninth deserted island, which was particularly small—less than 20,000 square meters—Vic didn't expect much and routinely extended his senses into the earth. But he quickly opened his eyes. "Big Brother, I found something."

"What is it?" Noah hadn't held much hope for this tiny island.

"There's a massive vortex-shaped cavity beneath the seabed on the northeast side of the island. I sensed some unstable rock formations below—it resembles the Explosive Rock you described."

"Take a sample, and we'll know for sure."

Vic nodded and manipulated the surrounding rocks to extract some of the unstable material buried over 500 meters below.

As soon as the unstable rock surfaced, it began to expand.

Boom! A violent explosion erupted, instantly obliterating the layer of rock Vic had formed around it.

Noah, seeing the pebble-like stone, immediately recognized it as Explosive Rock. "That's it."

"Incredible power!" Kuro calculated that the small chunk of Explosive Rock had destroyed nearly a 120-meter radius of rock in an instant.

"So, this is Explosive Rock?" Vic quickly sank underground again and located more of the Explosive Rock. By sensing its elemental structure, he soon understood its composition.

When Vic emerged from the ground, he held a piece of Explosive Rock encased in crystal in his palm.

"You can already replicate the structure of Explosive Rock?"

Vic nodded. "Yes, I can now produce Explosive Rock in large quantities."

The Noah family wasn't lacking in powerful explosives. For instance, Gairam could create cubes of metallic hydrogen with his Cube Fruit, which had power on par with Explosive Rock.

However, metallic hydrogen cubes had a drawback: only Noah and Gairam could activate the explosive command within them.

The cubes required a specific compression release to detonate instantly.

In contrast, the Explosive Rock Vic created, although similarly volatile, wouldn't detonate unless exposed to oxygen.

By encasing the Explosive Rock in a layer of crystal, Vic isolated it from the air. The crystal wasn't particularly strong, so as soon as it struck a hard surface, like a building or a rock, the casing would shatter, exposing the Explosive Rock to air and triggering an explosion.

This meant that Explosive Rock could now be used as a standard weapon.

Of course, Noah wouldn't casually allow ordinary members access to Explosive Rock weaponry, as their lack of strength might lead to the weapons being seized by enemies.

If Explosive Rock was to be weaponized, it would be deployed on the ark warships.

As for ancient weapons like Pluton, Noah no longer cared. A fleet of ark warships armed with Explosive Rock could unleash island-level destruction.

And unlike Pluton, arks could be mass-produced.

From now on, the Noah family and the Nation of Dawn had the foundational power to challenge the World Government.

Still, Noah remained level-headed about the potential of Explosive Rock weaponry.

Its destructive force was lethal against regular people and islands, but against elite vice-admirals, it posed little fatal threat.

Later, Z could attest to this. Even when Borsalino was struck directly by Explosive Rock, he didn't even dirty his clothes. Other Marine Headquarters vice-admirals sustained only minor injuries from Explosive Rock's blast.

Of course, if hundreds of tons of Explosive Rock detonated at once, even high-level fighters in the explosion's core couldn't survive.

However, the presence of Observation Haki made ambushes of this kind hard to guarantee success.

But with Vic now possessing the ability to create Explosive Rock, his strength was essentially at admiral level, possibly even surpassing typical admirals.

Such is the advantage of a top-tier Logia fruit.

After consuming the Rock-Rock Fruit, Vic's potential would skyrocket, soon allowing him to match Joshua and Lilian.

As for Monet, even with Noah's guidance on developing her Snow-Snow Fruit, she would likely only reach quasi-admiral level. To attain full admiral status, she would need Z-level physical conditioning or awaken Conqueror's Haki.