CHAPTER 20: A SANE ONE?

Later in the evening, after the interaction with Mihawk, Thorne, who in his entire time in the isolated has not stopped training and doing his routine, not even sleeping, just stopped, allowing himself to rest, and lie on his back, the moment his back touched the ground, the moment of relief immediately washed over him, and he immediately fall asleep, with his arms still instinctively lifting the weight.

The morning came, Thorne woke up, and he immediately noticed that his body grew stronger, even though he did not continue training, he got taller and his face, became more mature looking, his hair, became even longer, where before, it's length is just barely touching his upper back, now, it almost reached his butt, which is weird.

'What the hell just happened to me?' Thorne couldn't help but ask, since when he slept last night, he was only 6 feet tall, now he was approaching the size of 8 feet, almost as tall as Garp's height.

"You're body underwent into metamorphosis," Mihawk said, seeing the confusion in Thorne's eyes, knowing the questions he would asked,

"How did you know that?" Thorne asked Mihawk, wanting to hear what happened during the time he was sleeping,

"After your mind went to sleep, your body became still. Your physique remained in its overcharged healing state. From what I observed, it looks like it repaired the damage you did to your body, adapting to the fatigue you inflicted on it. The fire that was burning you also helped with the process—some of it entered your body, making your healing ability much more potent. It was trying to heal the internal damage caused by the fire. If I had to guess, even if you were struck and the attack went through to your stomach, your organs would still function due to the adaptation your body underwent. This is the first time I've seen something like this happen in such a short amount of time." Mihawk explained, stating what had happened to Thorne during the night.

"So that's what happened. I wonder how strong I am now," Thorne said to Mihawk, who just looked at him and immediately unsheathed Yoru without Thorne asking.

"Let's fin d out shall we," Mihawk said, slashing towards Thorne, who was hit head on since he was not trying to avoid, after a few minutes, the dusts that Mihawks attack generated, was gone, leaving only the sight of Thorne, who was bleeding, but without any cut visible to his body, meaning that the attack injured him but healed him in a short amount of time, this was almost at the same level as the God's Knight, but Thorne, did not yet receive the blessing of Imu.

"I'm immortal," Thorne said, after observing what happened to his body, making him curious what would happen to him if he inhaled every poison that the platform would release if he let it touch the ground.

"You are thinking of doing something reckless. I admire your courage, Kid," Mihawk said, praising the confront-it-head-on personality of Thorne.

"Call me Thorne, swordsman," Thorne said to Mihawk, finally introducing himself.

"Well then, call me Mihawk, I know you know my name, but it's proper etiquetteto introduce oneself to a potential future enemy or ally," Mihawk said, with Thorne just smiling at him.

Mihawk, who saw Thorne smile, could not help but think about the person he met years ago, a friend and a rival, of sorts, with Mihawk overlapping his smile into Shanks' image, and he could not help but see the resemblance, thinking that this man must be connected to Akagami, one of the few people who could match his talents and strength.

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Thorne then decided to start doing his exercise again, but this time, he added another difficulty, deciding to risk his life rushing himself to be stronger, and having this resolve, he was now willing to do everything that would take, so he reminded Mihawk first and foremost.

"Mihawk, you may have to walk back a bit, this could be dangerous," Thorne said to Mihawk, who just walked backwards, looking at Thorne with curiosity, wondering what Thorne would do that he needed to remind him that it would be dangerous. He then saw Thorne, let the chain extend, and did not resist the pull of the platform, letting it touch the ground. The moment it touched the ground, a purple gas smoke was suddenly released, which Thorne immediately inhaled, taking in every single purple gas smoke into his body.

Thorne then suddenly felt weak; his newfound strength was dwindling fast. Thorne then immediately used the Hercules Method, pushing his healing to its maximum capacity, but the poison in his body did not immediately get cured; it was still poisoning him from within, adapting to his healing, becoming stronger every second, with his healing also adapting to combat against the poison, it was like a cycle.

Thorne then started his routine, punching with all the strength he could muster, but it was noticeably weaker than before; more than 80% of his full strength was lost, but Thorne just kept punching, becoming tired faster, unlike before when he could train using his full strength for 2 months, even without eating, but now, he felt like he would got tired just after an hour of similar routine, but Thorne did not give up, kept punching, even he was on the verge of collapse, he did not stop, his breath was so heavy that it could be heard in the entire island.

Mihawk who was just observing the craziness that Thorne was willing to put his body through just to become strong, suddenly felt envy, he could remember the days where he would do craziness to obtain more strength, since he has that goal from start of the beginning, but now, he achieved his dream, his passion was now for something else, that is to find a worthy opponent, and he thinks that Thorne would be one of future opponents that would be either kill Mihawk or elevate his strength to a higher reach, making Mihawk excited about the future.

Back to Thorne, who was struggling to breathe, he began to feel the poison's effects growing stronger. His healing powers were slowly being overwhelmed, outpaced by the poison itself. This made the already exhausted Thorne even more fatigued. With one final punch, he suddenly collapsed. His body then redirected all of its energy toward fighting the poison, becoming far more efficient than before. This shift gave his healing time to catch up and allowed his organs to adapt to the damage, ultimately making them stronger than ever.