[BONUS] Swordsmanship Upgrade

At the dock, the pirates who had been 'cleaned out' stared blankly at the warship slowly setting sail across from them.

The warship was riding very low in the water, clearly loaded with a large amount of heavy cargo.

Kenji stood at the bow, casually toying with the Mag-Mag fruit, which was being stared at with fervent gazes by countless pirates.

Although these covetous gazes made him uncomfortable, Kenji magnanimously ignored them and did not punish them.

It's good to leave a little leeway. Since they offered their wealth, he might as well be generous.

"With the Mag-Mag fruit... the rest will be easier to handle." Kenji mused for a moment, then put the fruit away.

He did not intend to consume this Devil Fruit. For Kenji, eating the Mag-Mag fruit would only add a relatively powerful Devil Fruit ability, increasing his combat power for a short time.

To bear the side effect of not being able to swim for that small increase in combat power was simply not worth it.

If he needed combat power, couldn't he just diligently complete more system missions and receive rewards?

Of course, Kenji's arduous journey to acquire this devil fruit was not just for display.

"If I'm not mistaken... I'm not far from my ideal life of slacking off." Kenji stroked his chin, already envisioning his blueprint for slacking.

If he was mistaken, then he would simply act as if nothing had happened.

On the deck, Marie directed the soldiers to hoist the sails and row, striving to make this warship, laden with gold and silver treasures, navigate with difficulty through the sea.

"A bit of a miscalculation, I should have brought a large warship." Kenji stood at the bow, clearly seeing that the warship's waterline was very close to the deck.

This warship was indeed sturdy, but it was only a regular medium-sized warship, and its carrying capacity was far inferior to that of a large warship.

Thinking about the possibility of capsizing if they encountered stormy weather again, Kenji's mood soured a bit.

Just then, Marie suddenly scurried over and reported in a low voice, "We just received news from that person. The two Supernova pirates, Kaido and King, who were handed over to the World Government, are confirmed to have escaped."

Kenji narrowed his eyes, truly annoyed this time. "Those guys in the World Government are utterly useless."

More than half a month ago, for certain purposes, CP0 personnel took Kaido and King from the Marine prison.

In fact, Kenji knew that those CP0 personnel just wanted to snatch credit, but the Marine and the World Government each had independent promotion systems, so they certainly couldn't steal Kenji's military achievements.

At the same time, the Marine had gained certain exchange benefits through Kaido and King, and even if Kaido and King escaped from the World Government now, the Marine would not give up the benefits they had gained.

It just made Kenji laugh in anger to see those CP0 guys couldn't even manage to snatch credit properly.

"Kenji, how should we handle this incident?" Marie asked with some worry, her heroic eyebrows tightly furrowed.

"According to Kaido's past style, he is very likely to re-form a pirate crew... and might come back for revenge someday."

Kenji smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Let the Fleet Admiral handle this, there's nothing to worry about."

Kenji genuinely felt indifferent. If Kaido immediately reformed his pirate crew and came for revenge, it would just help him complete more system missions.

"However, hearing this news right after setting sail isn't a good sign... isn't there any good news?"

After Marie left, Kenji remained standing at the bow, feeling a bit depressed.

He closed his eyes, raised a hand to rub his brow, and when he opened his eyes again, his vision was filled with densely packed, glowing system text.

[You successfully survived until Red Count, Patrick Redfield left!]

[Missiom (Side): Successfully retreat or survive until Red Count, Patrick Redfield leaves!]

[Reward: Upgrade a random owned trait once]

[Reward being distributed...]

[Sea Beast Power (Super White) has been upgraded to Sea Beast Power (Light Blue)!]

"The [Sea Beast Power] trait has advanced," Kenji silently felt it, the basic strength of [Sea Beast Power] had clearly increased significantly.

"Hmm, a free reward, not bad... Oh? There's more?"

In his vision, the system prompt text changed rapidly.

[You successfully annihilated the World Pirates with your own strength! Your combat achievements are enough to shock the Marineford generals!]

[Mission (Side): Send a message to nearby Marine and assist the Marine in jointly subjugating the World Pirates! —Overcompleted!]

[Reward increased!)

[Reward has been changed to: Upgrade a random owned trait 3 times!]

[Reward being distributed...]

[Swordsmanship (Light Blue) has been upgraded to Swordsmanship (Super Blue)!]

"The [Swordsmanship] trait?" Kenji was stunned.

If it weren't for this reward upgrade notification, he would have almost forgotten that he could even use a sword.

When Kenji first joined Marine School, like many others, he had dreams of becoming a great swordsman, and for that, he diligently studied kendo for several years.

Then he confirmed that his kendo talent was merely ordinary, and he never mentioned kendo or being a swordsman again.

Years of neglect led to his swordsmanship continuously deteriorating, and when the system awakened, the [Swordsmanship] trait had only a 'Light Blue' rarity.

This was only slightly higher than the 'White' rarity of a beginner.

In the previous few times, Kenji was lucky. The system's random trait upgrade reward didn't fall on [Swordsmanship].

But random upgrades will always have their skewed moments. This time, it happened.

Fortunately, it wasn't wasted. Even if the upgrade was skewed, it was still his trait. At most, it was less profit, not a loss.

It was just that the magnitude of this upgrade quite displeased Kenji.

"Upgrading [Swordsmanship] is good too, but it just happens to be stuck at 'Super Blue' rarity..."

Each time a trait advances, its strength receives a significant boost.

[Swordsmanship (White)] belongs to the beginner level, while Blue is roughly the level of graduating from a kendo dojo.

To become a proper famous swordsman, one would at least need Purple rarity.

As for those world-renowned great swordsmen, they would certainly need [Swordsmanship (Gold)].

Kenji's current [Swordsmanship] was stuck right before the purple threshold, which made him feel a bit of a pity.

"Huh? Another reward?"

The glowing text in his vision changed again, and the new reward content surprised Kenji somewhat.

[You successfully annihilated the World Pirates! You proved to all students of Marine School who the strongest student is with your formidable combat achievements!]

[Mission (Main): Complete Instructor Zephyr's graduation assessment—Annihilate a pirate crew with a bounty of at least ten million Berries or more! —Overcompleted!]

[Reward increased!]

[Reward has been changed to: 2 Assignable upgrade opportunities!]

At the end of the prompt text, traits appeared one by one, and a '+' symbol appeared out of nowhere after each trait.