Chapter 60: Time Flies
Chapter 60: Time Flies
He had awakened two skills at once, and their power was immense, even in his pup state.
And these were only his primary bloodline talents.
Comparing himself to the wolf was infuriating. Shane looked at the little creature before him, feeling a genuine twinge of envy.
He couldn't just magically awaken powers; he had to rely on grueling training to improve his strength.
"We'll use this attack," Shane instructed, "but if you keep blasting like that, you'll probably shut down after a few shots, right? So, just use the minimum power necessary. Conserve your energy and focus on speed. Got it?"
"Awoo!"
Gin nodded emphatically. He tried again, concentrating, and spat out a thin, pale blue stream of electricity about the thickness of a finger.
This time, it didn't even pierce the trunk of a nearby tree, but its speed was still significantly faster than a bullet from a flintlock pistol.
"That's it! Smart boy!"
Shane praised him with a grin and a thumbs-up. "Alright, let's officially begin!"
Where else could he find such an excellent and obedient sparring partner, whose daily wage was just a dozen cartons of strawberry milk?
…
The biting wind carried flurries of snow across the mountaintop, but in the blink of an eye, it was replaced by the gentle caress of a warm spring breeze.
Just like that, six months passed.
With Gin's help, Shane successfully mastered Paper Art.
At the same time, his Armament Haki had also progressed significantly. In the beginning, he could only faintly sense its power by recalling his fight with Garp.
Now, he could achieve a preliminary level of localized coating and hardening.
On the mountaintop.
BOOM!
A deep crater was blasted into the thick steel plate in front of him. Shane slowly retracted his fist, which was still wreathed in black Haki.
"The destructive power of an Armament-coated fist is truly terrifying."
Shane grinned. Without Haki, his punch would have, at most, dented this special-grade steel plate by a few dozen centimeters.
Two or three months ago, he had started to feel that the mountains of Cocoyasi Village could no longer withstand his training.
So, he had Manba and the others purchase a batch of steel plates from a nearby town. When they were all destroyed, he would have them transported back, melted down, and reforged into even heavier, thicker plates. It was a perfect cycle.
Shane glanced at his System panel. In the skills section, his Armament Haki was now listed as "Beginner."
For the past six months, he had dedicated only his afternoons to studying and practicing Armament Haki. Reaching this stage was already quite impressive.
However, to advance to the "Adept" level and truly master Haki, Shane estimated he would need a much longer period of intensive training.
He wasn't in a hurry; he was already very satisfied with his rate of progress.
After all, even the "Laughing Nika Kid," under the one-on-one tutelage of the master Rayleigh, took two years just to grasp the basics of Haki.
As for the "200x Effort King"...
Well, he was a once-in-a-millennium genius, an exceptionally rare case.
…
Over the next few months, a few more items that caught Shane's eye appeared in the System's marketplace.
The first was—
[Reinforced Occlumency]
Type: Training Manual
Price: 4,000 Points
Description: Through meditative practice, you can drastically enhance your mental fortitude. Upon mastery, an invisible barrier will automatically form around your consciousness, shielding you from all forms of mental control, mind-reading, or abilities that manipulate the body.
Seller's Note: I stole this from the headmaster's office. I'm not familiar with this world, but a teacher named Quirrell has invited me for a late-night chat in his room tonight. Should I go?
This was, aside from the Wonders, the most expensive item Shane had ever seen since acquiring the System.
But there was no doubt it was worth the price. In fact, it was an absolute bargain!
For a transmigrator full of secrets, this was one of the most coveted skills imaginable.
Especially in the world of One Piece, which was teeming with Devil Fruit abilities that could affect the minds and bodies of others.
Putting aside the Puppet-Puppet Fruit he had already witnessed, he could count several others off the top of his head.
There was Big Mom's Soul-Soul Fruit, Viola's Glare-Glare Fruit, Pudding's Memo-Memo Fruit, Sugar's Hobby-Hobby Fruit, and the String-String Fruit of that news-obsessed king…
The variety was endless, and their methods were bizarre and unpredictable.
Even the strongest warriors who had mastered Haki to its peak were not immune to such insidious attacks.
He bought it on the spot without a moment's hesitation. After a quick look, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the barrier to entry for mastering this skill wasn't high.
He just needed to wake up early every morning and meditate for an hour or two while his mind was at its freshest. A few months of this, and he would master it.
In addition to that, following Copper Head and Iron Bones, Shane spent another 1,200 points to purchase the third part of the Flesh-Melting Furnace Art, called Thick Skin.
As the name suggested, upon mastery, the defensive capabilities of his skin's surface would be greatly enhanced, acting like an invisible membrane that could significantly weaken the damage from blunt-force attacks.
It was a highly versatile skill in real combat, especially since so many powerful fighters in this world used blunt weapons or simply their fists and feet as their primary means of attack.
Shane mused that once he mastered this, combined with his increasingly powerful body, by the time he set sail…
Tsk.
Perhaps he could even withstand a Thunder Bagua from Emperor Kaido.
In any case, Shane formulated a new training plan. He elevated Reinforced Occlumency to the highest priority, heading to the mountaintop at the crack of dawn every day to sit cross-legged in meditation.
Next on the list was training in Thick Skin and the skill he had been eagerly anticipating for a long time: Life Return.
His plan to strengthen his Armament Haki also continued unabated.
The priority for Tempest Kick, however, remained at the bottom of the list.
In Shane's plan, once he had mastered Life Return and there were no new skills he wanted to train in, he would use the downtime to spend a few hours a day practicing it. There was no rush.
…
The gears of time turned slowly.
Shane's training continued day after day, without rest. Aside from leaving for his annual "wool-shearing" trip in late autumn, he almost never left Cocoyasi Village.
As the day he would turn eighteen and set sail grew closer, he began to set aside more and more time during the day, beyond his physical training, to spend with his family.
Sometimes, he would help Belle-mère pick tangerines, just like in the old days, or clumsily assist in the kitchen.
Other times, he would be huddled together with Nami, laughing as they studied nautical charts or played geography quiz games.
Then, the scene would flash to the coastline, where he would put on a stern expression, pretending to be serious as he personally instructed Nojiko in her training…
And just like that, time slipped away, drop by drop.
Before he knew it, more than two years had passed.
From the autumn of 1513, the calendar had turned to the late spring of the year 1516.
Out on the vast, boundless sea, major events continued to unfold one after another. Some made the headlines of the newspapers, while others occurred without a sound.
And all of this seemed to have no connection to a remote village in the East Blue called Cocoyasi.
In this season, on the cusp of a scorching summer, the black-haired young man named Shane welcomed his eighteenth birthday.
According to the common customs of the East Blue, and indeed the entire world, he was now officially an adult.
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