20 Happy Troubles

Sherwin gripped the Longsword in his hand, eyes closed, slowly adjusting his breathing.

As he opened his eyes, a streak of black swiftly spread across the entire blade—or rather, the entire fish.

Holding the "black fish" in his hand, Sherwin performed a set of hunter sword techniques. Only then did the blackness gradually fade. After sheathing the Longsword, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips...

"I've finally mastered Armament Haki completely."

In fact, awakening Armament Haki hadn't taken Sherwin that much time, but mastering it had proven extremely difficult.

Although Sherwin had relied on skills from Monster Hunter to touch the threshold of Armament Haki ahead of time, it had also led to a peculiar drawback:

in order to trigger Armament Haki initially, he had to enter demon mode, or use specific moves such as Iai Slash, True Charged Slash, or Charged Slash.

However, without facing Devil Fruit users, especially Logia-type ones, whether or not he used Armament Haki in those moves didn't make much of a difference.

Both the hunter moves and the Haki primarily boosted his attack power—and in terms of pure offensive output, the Monster Hunter moves were arguably even more effective.

Moreover, Sherwin original intention in mastering Armament Haki was to counter Devil Fruit users—especially Logia users.

A version of Haki that couldn't be maintained for long was nothing more than a chicken rib to him—tasteless, yet a waste to throw away.

He had only come to this realization later: using Monster Hunter skills to awaken Haki was essentially like skipping class in a game.

Sure, he could jump ahead to fight the boss—but if his own strength wasn't enough to defeat the boss, skipping class or not made no difference. In the end, he would still have to make up the skipped lessons.

Once he understood this, Sherwin had no choice but to abandon the Monster Hunter skills and try to train his Armament Haki in a normal state.

That said, his early "class-skipping" wasn't entirely without benefits. At the very least, when retraining Haki, he could avoid many detours.

And so, Sherwin spent a lot more time—and finally, today, he completely mastered Armament Haki.

"Next is finishing the map of this island, then building a ship and getting ready to set sail!"

Finally about to begin a new journey, Sherwin couldn't help but feel a little excited.

Unfortunately, Klee Meow and Sanji Meow weren't around. He wanted to share the good news, but for the moment couldn't find anyone to talk to.

Just as Sherwin was hesitating between continuing his training or going to look for the two cats, Klee Meow voice came from not far away.

"Sherwin-nii! Klee just found a super huge monster, meow!"

A small red figure dashed out from the bushes nearby, then scrambled up Sherwin back with all fours.

One paw rested on his shoulder while the other pointed back in the direction she'd come from, her mouth moving rapidly:

"Klee was just blasting fish by the sea, and suddenly a creature kinda like the Jyuratodus popped out from the ocean, meow! But it way bigger than the Jyuratodus. Klee thinks it might be one of those Sea Kings you mentioned, Sherwin-nii, meow!"

"Really? Is it still by the shore?"

As Sherwin confirmed with her, he started running in the direction she pointed.

As one of the signature beings from the world of One Piece, Sea Kings probably deserved their own page in the Hunter Guide, right?

"Of course it still there, meow!" Klee Meow, lying on Sherwin back, proudly shook her little head.

"Klee knocked it out with a Bouncy Bomb. There no way it waking up anytime soon, meow! And Sanji-nii is watching over it too!"

"Nice work!"

Sherwin reached back and gently patted her head, loudly praising her.

"Eh-hehe~" Klee Meow nuzzled against Sherwin neck at the praise, then asked expectantly, "Are we getting another new comrade, meow?"

Sherwin had already explained the Hunter Guide to Klee Meow long ago. That was the main reason why she had chosen to stun the Sea King instead of simply blowing it up.

"I'm not too sure," Sherwin said honestly. "But we should at least be able to get another third of a summon ticket fragment."

As he spoke, he carried Klee Meow on his back to the shore. Sure enough, a massive Sea King lay there. Though it resembled the Jyuratodus somewhat, it actually looked more like a plesiosaur.

Not that its appearance mattered. The moment Sherwin saw it, he immediately pulled out the Hunter Guide...

Well, even if he hadn't, Sanji Meow—who'd been guarding the Sea King the whole time—would've pestered him to check it.

The rest unfolded just as Sherwin had expected. Upon unlocking the Sea King page in the guide, he received a second Felyne companion summon ticket fragment. Even its color matched the first one—primarily off-white.

When Sherwin took out the first shard as well, the two shards automatically merged into one, becoming a "Felyne Summoning Ticket (2/3)."

"That amazing, meow!" Sanji Meow was visibly thrilled at the sight, his imagination running wild.

"Maybe by the time you finish exploring this island, Sherwin, you'll have the complete second summoning ticket, meow!"

"Yeah, I was just about to talk to you guys about that." Sherwin gave Sanji Meow a quick pet and followed up with another bit of good news.

"I've successfully mastered Armament Haki, so now I can focus on fully uncovering the map, and also start preparing a ship to head out to sea."

Hearing this, Sanji Meow lit up with joy. He patted his chest confidently and said, "Uncovering the map is easy, meow! I've already run around the entire island once, meow!"

Having undergone his own round of intense training, Sanji Meow had also grown significantly stronger.

While he still wasn't on par with Sanji from the manga, exploring the previously dangerous areas he had once avoided was no longer a problem.

If it weren't for the requirement that Sherwin, as the "player," had to be present to uncover new map sections, the island would've been explored to 100% long ago.

"Sherwin-nii, what do we do with this Sea King, meow?"

Klee Meow, resting obediently on Sherwin shoulder, waited for his conversation with Sanji Meow to end before asking in her usual sweet tone.

"Hmm…" Sherwin paused for a moment, then drew the Longsword and walked toward the Sea King.

"Let take it down and have Sanji cook us a feast with it!"

To be honest, his initial idea was to see if he could tame the Sea King and have it carry them across the ocean.

But Sherwin vaguely remembered that Sea Kings only obeyed the mermaid princess who had awakened the power of the Sea Kings. No one else could tame them, so he gave up on that thought.

Of course, the biggest reason was probably the small Felyne on his shoulder—her drool was already threatening to drip down the back of his neck. Naturally, he didn't want to disappoint Klee Meow.

Besides, he had been curious about Sea King meat for a while now. It wasn't so much about the taste, but more about the speculation among One Piece fans and fanfic writers that Sea King meat likely had body-enhancing effects. Sherwin personally agreed with this theory…

Otherwise, how do you explain the ridiculously strong vitality of the locals here? Even the average civilian, with barely any training, had absurd durability.

Which is exactly why it was utterly ridiculous that Kuina died falling down "the staircase"!

While ranting about that part of the manga, Sherwin stabbed the Sea King in the head with his Armament Haki-coated Longsword, then took out a hunter dagger and began carving into the corpse.

After securing a premium Sea King tenderloin, he decided to try stabbing it again…

After all, with something this massive, there was a chance he could harvest it a second time, right?

"Click!"

Sherwin clicked his tongue in frustration as his attempt failed. He begrudgingly put away his hunter dagger and started helping Sanji Meow process the enormous beast…

There was no other choice. Whether it was his own or the Felynes dimensional backpacks, the internal space was still limited.

Without breaking the Sea King down first, they wouldn't be able to fit the entire thing in.

That night, Sherwin and the two Felynes feasted on a grand Sea King banquet.

Whether or not it would enhance their physical bodies wasn't clear for now, but the taste was absolutely amazing.

Even Klee Meow ended up stuffing her tiny belly full, lying in Sherwin arms and letting out soft "meow-ooo~ meow-ooo~" groans.

"You little glutton," Sherwin chuckled while rubbing Klee Meow belly, tapping her small nose with mock reproach.

"Let see if you dare to eat that much again."

"Awuuu… Sherwin-nii, stop talking, meow…"

Klee Meow bashfully covered her face with her tiny paws, her little head burrowing hard into Sherwin belly…

Which made Sanji Meow, watching from the side, quite envious.

Sherwin gently shifted Klee Meow aside, then smiled and beckoned to him.

"I'm not that eager to be petted by you, meow…"

Even as he grumbled, Sanji Meow climbed into Sherwin arms and rolled onto his back, exposing his soft, fluffy belly with a tiny whimper.

"Yes, yes. I'm only doing this to thank you for tonight dinner, offering to give you a massage out of gratitude."

Sherwin didn't call out the tsundere cat for being dishonest. He threw himself wholeheartedly into the great endeavor of pampering his Felynes.

Sigh… If I summon more Felynes in the future, I might not have enough hands to pet them all… Besides the Flower-Flower Fruit, I wonder if there a Clone-Clone Fruit or something like that…

Something like the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan-Type, Thousand-Armed Kannon Form—maybe a Devil Fruit like that could give him a few extra hands.

Sherwin, with one hand for each Felyne, was happily troubled by the thought.