Second Gold Trait, Iron Body

After many days, Kenji unexpectedly received another reward: the freedom to choose and upgrade his traits.

Seeing the familiar '+' sign behind each trait, he was surprised.

"The main mission reward this time is a huge improvement, it can be considered an advanced reward, right? Is it because of overcompletion?"

The last time Kenji received a reward like this was... the last time.

Well, in fact, when that side mission was initially issued, the system had given a clear description of the reward: it was an assignable upgrade opportunity.

However, the basic reward for that mission was only 1 chance, which changed to 3 chances after overcompleting the mission, but the most basic 'assignable upgrade opportunity' did not change.

This time, the reward advanced from a fixed upgrade of the lowest rarity trait to a selectable one, and the upgrade opportunities also increased to 2.

The reward could be said to be an all-round improvement, completely beyond Kenji's expectations.

"It would have been great if this kind of 'surprise' had come earlier, at least I would have been in a good mood all day."

The gloom in Kenji's heart was swept away.

If this surprise reward had appeared earlier, when he had just left the pirate town, even if his ship had sunk at sea, Kenji would have happily called everyone to the lifeboat.

Good news makes one feel refreshed. Now that he was happy, his thoughts became clear and agile.

"Two chances, hmm, let me see which traits are about to advance..." Kenji brought up his personal ability panel and checked them carefully one by one.

[Name: Kenji]

[Traits: Armament Haki (Super Purple), Observation Haki (Dark Purple), Conqueror's Haki (Dark Blue), Physique (Light Gold), Hand-to-Hand Combat (Light Purple), Swordsmanship (Super Blue), Sea Beast Power (Light Blue), Superspeed Regeneration (Light Blue)]

"Armament Haki is a must!"

After checking, Kenji no longer hesitated and directly chose to upgrade the Armament Haki trait once.

[Your Armament Haki (Super Purple) has been upgraded to Armament Haki (Light Gold)!]

The light changed, and the purple-to-black Armament Haki trait disappeared, reappearing with a golden glow.

"The second gold trait!"

Kenji looked at the two light gold traits he possessed, feeling greatly satisfied.

When a trait advances, its power is significantly enhanced.

At this moment, Kenji could feel the change in his Armament Haki's power.

"The range and power of Armament Haki emission have increased."

He raised his hand to release Armament Haki, and the invisible Haki rushed out, exploding on the sea surface tens of meters away.

That was the technique of Armament Haki: Emission.

After a brief attempt, Kenji withdrew his hand and refocused his attention on the interface.

Having experienced the advancement of a gold trait last time, he did not rush to use the upgrade opportunity again, waiting silently.

As expected, the system prompt text reappeared in his vision without warning.

[Your Armament Haki trait has reached Light Gold!]

[Armament Haki (Light Gold) triggers derivative evolution... New trait generated! Iron Body!]

[Iron Body: A special innate Physique that may appear in only one in a million people, with a tough and powerful body, and defense comparable to steel!]

"Iron Body? It sounds a bit familiar, a Physique similar to Charlotte Linlin's?" Kenji decided to test it.

He casually took out a sharp sword, and without strengthening his defense with Armament Haki, he let the blade slide across his skin in its normal state.

Sizzle!

His skin was slightly indented by the blade, and a sharp, grating sound like metal friction emanated from it.

"With this level of defense, taking bullets with bare hands is no problem." Kenji nodded secretly, then released Armament Haki to strengthen the blade.

Next, he again ran the Armament Haki-enhanced black blade across his skin.

Pfft!

This time, a gash was cut on his skin, but it was not deep, and streaks of blood flowed out.

Kenji put away the sword with satisfaction. He had pretty much tested the current defensive limit of Iron Body.

"Blocking guns and cannons is no problem, but defending against Armament Haki-enhanced weapons is still a bit difficult."

"It can be confirmed that the current Iron Body's defense is not as good as Charlotte Linlin's."

Even so, Kenji still felt quite satisfied. He didn't care if his Iron Body was weaker than others. He only compared himself to his previous self.

It is extremely difficult to find a second 'natural destroyer' like Charlotte Linlin in the whole world. She belongs to the category of genius among geniuses.

Towards such a true genius, Kenji's mentality had always been very balanced.

Many years ago, when he first joined Marine, Kenji had already accepted his mediocre talent and would not envy those with astonishing talent.

Moreover, Iron Body is not merely a skill. It is a fundamental innate ability, similar to Sea Beast Power.

Just with this, Kenji's talent at this moment has surpassedt Sengoku, and even Garp and other geniuses.

Sea Beast Power can serve as a foundational strength, allowing one to exert power many times stronger than a sea beast through combat techniques.

Iron Body can naturally also be stacked with Armament Haki, greatly improving defensive capabilities.

"If both are enhanced with Armament Haki..." Kenji suddenly became interested again.

He took the sword again, reinforced the blade with Armament Haki, and then similarly reinforced the skin on his arm with Armament Haki.

Rip!

The black blade again ran across his skin, but it didn't even leave a single mark.

Kenji first carefully made small cuts, then forcefully cut, and finally simply chopped with great force.

Clang... Clang... Clang!

Sounds of metal clashing echoed through the warship, sounding like someone was blacksmithing.

"Is Shirojishi Admiral... a little abnormal?"

"Shh, don't talk nonsense, maybe something happened that we don't know about..."

The soldiers stood on the rear deck, watching in stunned silence.

Marie noticed some clues, her heroic eyes fixed intently on Kenji's arm, which was being repeatedly chopped.

The Armament Haki-enhanced arm had no wounds, not even a single mark appeared.

"Phew... That's about enough." Finally, Kenji stopped his actions and exhaled a turbid breath.

After his series of tests, he had confirmed that his Armament Haki-enhanced defense was stronger than before. However, he didn't test exactly how much stronger the defense was.

After all, making himself fully attack with the resolve to cut off his own arm...

He couldn't bring himself to commit such self-mutilation.

"Later." Kenji planned to test it through actual combat when he had the chance in the future.

Anyway, the Iron Body trait would continue to upgrade, so even if he tested the limit of his Armament Haki-enhanced defense now, it wouldn't be of much significance.

Kenji casually threw away the sword and turned his attention back to the interface.

"I still have 1 upgrade chance... Which one should I choose?"

He scanned around and found that none of the remaining purple traits had reached 'Super Purple' rarity.

If not limited to 'purple', some of the other traits had reached the point of being ready to advance.

For example, [Swordsmanship (Super Blue)].

However, Kenji felt it wasn't quite worth it to use the last upgrade chance on the Swordsmanship trait.

Ultimately, he still decided to upgrade the strong rather than the weak, choosing [Observation Haki (Dark Purple)].

(End of Chapter)

Regarding Bonus Chapters, I have decided to release them at the start of every week.

100 PS = 1 Bonus Chapter