Chapter 4 The First Bounty

In the jungle North of Embassa city a very odd and peculiar scene was occurring, looking closer through the trees one can see a heated battle taking place. On one side a thin young man with Silver hair was seen shirtless and covered in bruises. On the other, a 3-meter tall Gorilla stands proudly, arts set up in an angle, knees bent with his hips facing his enemy. Far into the future, this monster would one day be known as the Legendary boxing Gorilla of Embassa city!

With a look both charge in and begin a flurry of blows and blocks, the ape goes for a strong straight while the young man tilts his head to the side to make it inside the beast guard, with a furious snarl the man sends an uppercut landing flush on the beast chin. The beast looks dazed for a moment before his eyes light, jumping back quickly to dodge a powerful fight-ending hook.

'Damn, this bastards getting good. I mean I did find the most intelligent Gorilla in this jungle but he's almost advancing faster than me' I click my tongue in dissatisfaction before flexing my arms and raising them above my head leaving my core and chest open for attack. 'TEKAI' I internally yell, flexing every muscle in my body.

"COME ON YOU BIG BASTARD" I yell to the beast daring him to take shots at my open body.

After the many times I've done this the Ape has decided to take it as a personal challenge, with a mighty roar the beast charges in throwing a flurry of straights right onto my chest and stomach with a few hooks to the liver added in.

*BANG *BANG* *BANG*

'God dammit this shit still hurts, I swear this bastards getting stronger as the days go on. Come on, he's already hit me like fifty times. Why isn't it leve..'

SKILL LEVELED UP

TEKAI LVL 21/100- ONE OF THE SIX SECRET AND POWERFUL MARINE TECHNIQUES, TEKAI GIVES ITS USER THE ABILITY TO FLEX EVERY MUSCLE IN THE BODY TO GREATLY INCREASE OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE CAPABILITY.

CURRENT MASTERY:(NEW)ABLE TO USE WHILE WALKING, 121% BOOST TO DEFENSE WHEN ENGAGING IN UNARMED COMBAT.

"ENOUGH" I yelled, sending a fast jab that impacts his nose, the insanely fast blow causes the beast to fall to a knee holding his face in pain.

SKILL LEVELED UP

(NOVICE)BOXING LVL 22/50-THE WAY OF THE FIST, A FOOTWORK AND PUNCHING COMBO-BASED MARTIAL ART THAT IS BEST USED IN MID-RANGE TO CLOSE-RANGE COMBAT

CURRENT MASTERY:27% STRENGTH BOOST, 27% DEXTERITY BOOST, AND 32% DAMAGE BOOST DURING UNARMED COMBAT.

AGGREGATED +7 STRENGTH +5 DEXTERITY,+9 WILLPOWER, AND +11 ENDURANCE

"HELL YEAH," I yell out in joy. 'In only four days I've been able to get my boxing skill close to my swordsmanship, not to mention I finally don't have to stand around to use Tekai anymore' I think to myself with a smirk as I throw an uncooked piece of steak to my training partner in thanks.

"Ok buddy, I won't be back tomorrow but I'll come back the day after," I tell the beast he seemed to understand but the jury's still out on that. Throwing the beast a wave I head back towards town.

'Now some may be wondering why I'm not in a heated battle with Valor Mori, well there are two simple reasons. I check around town every day with bounty vision and nothing has shown up yet, so either he's not shown his face or I've been unlucky and missed him. The second reason is I'm a little suspicious of that whole situation, a Royal guard stole something and nobody's in a hurry to see justice served? Somethings fishy and it's not the ocean' I think to myself before the system agrees.

SECRET MYSTERY QUEST DISCOVERED

THE MYSTERY OF THE NIGHT GUARD

OBJECTIVE: DISCOVER WHY MORI ISN'T BEING HUNTED

REWARDS:20,000XP,???,???

'Ohhhh a mystery? I love a good mystery, even the rewards are a mystery, that makes it even more exciting.' I think to myself with a smile before deciding to really start hunting him. With a pep in my step I turn towards the eastern side of the city and start walking, checking everyone I pass to make sure I don't miss anyone with bounty vision.

Walking throughout the whole eastern side of town I can't help but sigh as I decided to stop doing things the hard way and pull out my compass, it stayed stationary before pointing directly northeast towards the jungle, with a smirk I pull my sword from my inventory and a couple surprises I hide in my coat.

It's only an hour later before I start seeing signs of humans, boot prints and animal blood, looks like he's turned to hunting to avoid being seen in the village. Drawing my blade in preparation I begin heading towards the smoke trail and the smell of cooking meat. A short walk later I come upon his camp, exiting the bushes I get my first real look at the man, about 20 years old, over 2 meters tall, black-haired man still dressed in what I can guess is his military uniform. Sitting seemingly waiting for me with his spear sitting over his shoulder and a short sword sheathed at his hip.

"So the first hunter to come for me is a skinny teenager, I don't know whether to feel disrespected or happy that my bounty is so low the big guys overlook it" He said with a sigh before standing up and giving his spear a twirl.

"Ha, don't get too cocky I might just surprise ya" I reply back with no concern for his taunt, brandishing my sword and getting into a stance. He gives my blade his first real look before his eyes widen in mild surprise.

"Nice sword you have there, Meitos are rare on this part of the sea," He tells me with a smirk before going for a sneaky quick stab, I easily parry it to the side with seemingly no effort, smirking I slice straight through the wooden base. He robotically turned his head down to look at his broken spear that I destroyed in under a second with a new look in his eye that wasn't there before.

"Well shit, I was never good at spear play to begin with" He said before throwing the useless stick away and drawing his short sword looking at me in caution. As if a mental signal was given between us we rush at each other meeting in the middle sword to sword.

*CLING* *CLING* *CLASH!*

After a flurry of exchanges we both use to get a gauge on each other we end up back where we started, blade to blade, face to face.

Breaking apart quickly I follow the flow turning my backward momentum into a spinning back slash aiming for his neck, with surprising grace he parried it, turning from his parrying into an overhead slash. I decide not to parry it and just sidestep it, now that I'm in his guard I decide to not be greedy and simply stab his foot before quickly retreating his large horizontal slash.

Destroying an opponent's movement will always be the first thing I'll go for, in any fight where you don't have an obvious advantage you should make one yourself. Deciding to quickly push my new advantage in speed I head in and begin to overwhelm him with a flurry of blows. Surprisingly he showed his years of experience he parries almost every blow with minimum movement.

This continued for almost 10 minutes before he fell to his knee and I had to stop my overhead flash mere centimeters away from taking his head.

"Why'd you stop?" He asked me in confusion between labored breaths, 'Well how the hell would I learn the mystery if he's dead'.

"I'm curious about a couple of things to be honest, a banished Royal guard that can appear in town weekly without bounty hunters chasing you. Something doesn't add up, I'm also curious at what you stole. Not to mention your strength doesn't match your bounty" 'this guys is at least worth a normal 10 million berry pirate'. He turns to me obviously thinking over whether he should answer or not before seeing my sword still unsheathed obviously helping his decision.

"I didn't really steal anything" He said with a mildly embarrassed look.

"Like hell I'm gonna believe that" I replied back, obviously the guy was lying.

"I was caught leaving the princesses' room during the night by another guard. The entire castle went into an uproar, I escaped in the chaos. From what I know the head guard placed the bounty on my head, luckily the King never found out or I'm sure my Bounty would at least be 50 million"

'You've got to be fucking kidding me, the damn system trolled me again! I was expecting at least some type of conspiracy.'

"So you stole the princess's virginity and now your exiled, damn man you should've kept it in your pants" I said with a sigh of disappointment realizing I got my hopes up for nothing. He looks sheepish for a minute before turning to me curiously.

"So what now, turning me in for my bounty and having me shipped back off to the Capital?" He asked resigned to his fate.

MYSTERY QUEST COMPLETED

THE MYSTERY OF THE NIGHT GUARD

OBJECTIVE: DISCOVER WHY MORI ISN'T BEING HUNTED

REWARDS:20,000XP,15 GACHA COINS, 5 STAT POINTS.

LVL UP….5 STAT POINTS ADDED

'Man why the hell did this feel like a tutorial bounty quest, eh who cares I got more coins and a level up!' My emotions change quickly from disappointment to elation, realizing I've been distracted I turn back to Mori who's looking at me curiously, probably wondering why I haven't tied him up yet. Thinking over his honestly decent fighting skills an idea comes to mind. Remembering a conversation I had with James yesterday after I headed back to ask him a few questions.

As it turns out bounties under 50,000,000 million that are not issued by the World Government can be paid off, I was honestly surprised at first but after a while it made sense for the bounty office to accept this. They get paid the entire bounty instead of a percentage, it's honestly a good business model.

"Hmmm, not necessarily" I reply to him before debating to myself if it's worth it.

'Honestly, it's nice going solo but it's really not optimal, I'm not going to be a pirate crew soloing menace for at least a little while longer. Not to mention I'd need at least another person to help me run a ship on hunts. There's always the chance he would betray me and run but that's going to be the truth for anybody I try to recruit, hopefully I can make him feel indebted to me for saving his ass from execution. Another thing is he's a swordsman. It'll be nice to have a sparring partner' I come to a decision after weighing the pros and cons.

"Alright bro I got an offer for ya," I told him with a salesman's smile as his eyes lit up in hope, probably thinking I might just walk away.

"I'll pay off your bounty and you'll work for me from now on. I'll even pay you well and help you get stronger, how does that sound?" I ask him while holding out an arm to offer him a handshake. He thinks for all of 20 seconds before grabbing my hand.

"Avoid being executed and no longer being wanted? Best deal I ever made,GUHAHA" He agreed with a laugh before using my arm to help him stand.

"Welcome to the group, It's just us now so it's a little new,Haha" I welcomed him with a laugh, our previous battle completely forgotten.

"Never thought I'd be a bounty hunter but I said the same thing about Princess Siara,GUHAHAHA" He said with a boisterous laugh a second later I join him, it was a decent joke.

"So what's the plan boss?" Mori asked, limping back over to a log to sit on.

"Well the first thing I gotta do is head over to the Bounty office to pay you off, then hopefully either commission for a ship or buy one either or, we'll probably train like crazy until we decide to set out on a hunt." I said to him picking up his dropped sword to check it out, its a short saber-like blade white line separating the blade from the rest of it.

RARE GRADE MEITO SWORD

KORO

"Nice blade Mori it's the same quality as mine" I complimented the sword before tossing it over to him. He grabbed it out of the air without much trouble before trying to address the hole in his foot, removing his shoe to see his foot sliced from the middle to halfway up the base.

"That sounds cool and all boss but I don't know how much training I'm going to get done, this gonna take at least a week to heal. Ya really had to stab my foot, shits dirty?" He complained in a sour tone.

"Dirty? HaHA, you've probably never fought pirates have ya? Just spars with your fellow guards in the castle I'd bet. We're gonna have to get those bad habits out of ya because a pirate will kick you in the nuts and blow your brains out with a smile. There's no place for honor on the sea" I warn him before getting a good idea to get him back on his feet.

"Yeah yeah I know, I'm just being salty. What's that?" He asked curiously, seeing me pull a white apple out of nowhere.

"Since you know about Meitos I'm sure you've heard about devil fruits right?" I asked him as his eyes lit up in wonder eyeing the fruit with a newfound sense of curiosity.

"Which fruit is it? I used to read the Devil fruit encyclopedia for fun while on night duty but that's one I don't recognize. If I had to guess it's a Zoan right?"

"Yeah it's a Zoan, it's the Bear Bear Fruit Model: Panda. You want it?" I asked him curiously, holding it out towards him. 'Honestly, it would probably wouldn't sell for more than 10 mill and it'd make him at least as strong as a 50 million berry pirate just from eating it with his already decent base skills, even if he turns on me after I should still be able to take him'

Not a second after I offered it to him it disappeared from my hand.

*CHOMP* *CHEW* *GULP*

"AHHH THIS IS FUCKING GROSS" He yelled in disgust before tossing the fruit away after his bite. Not even a second later his body starts changing, black and white fur sprouts from everywhere, hands and feet turn into paws, and teeth turn into fangs. His size explodes from 2 meters all the way up to 3.5 meters. Looking over the bear fruit I can't help but admit I underestimate it slightly, looks pretty fearsome.

"God damn, you're big as hell now. So how's it feel?" I asked Mori in curiosity, more about transforming than power.

"Honestly it felt like a hidden beast inside me woke up and I transformed with its power, I feel at least four or maybe five times as strong as before!" He said excitedly, throwing a couple of test jabs into the air.

"Too bad your sword is like a toothpick in that form, you should probably invest in a great sword or Axe in the future" I advised him seriously., he gives a nod before shrinking back down to size.

"What the hell? How are your clothes still in one piece, that literally makes zero sense!" I yell out in confusion, he just shrugs and wipes a few beads of sweat from his brow.

"Wheeww, that takes a lot of stamina to maintain. Thanks boss, I promise to not let ya down." He said with a genuine smile before looking down at his fully healed leg. 'Yep them Zoan fruits are definitely good for pure regen'

"Yeah yeah, come on we got a lot of shit to do still, so get all your stuff together, I'll be right back after I take a leak" I tell him as I head off into the woods and pull up the Gacha Shop. 'Yep I couldn't wait, I have an addiction and I can accept that'

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO A 10-COIN UNCOMMON DRAW

Y/N….. DRAWING.....

Like usual I hold out my hand waiting for something to fall, my eyes light up seeing a dark brown Pineapple fall into my hand. 'There's no way I'm this fucking lucky, two fruits from an uncommon draw is crazy!' Just as I finished the thought observe finished scanning.

EPIC GRADE ANCIENT ZOAN TYPE DEVIL FRUIT

RYU RYU NO MI MODEL:PTERODACTYL

EFFECT: FLY IN THE SKY AS A MIGHTY DINOSAUR, PERMANENT +350 BOOST TO ENDURANCE AND DEXTERITY. 7X BOOST TO ALL STATS WHEN TRANSFORMED.

Physically stopping my hand from bringing the fruit to my mouth I stop to think logically.

'Yes, it sounds absolutely fucking awesome but I can't help but think that system ranks it only one tier better than a regular Zoan, what is Ace's fire Logia graded or the Operation fruit? I don't have enough information right now nor am I in enough danger to rashly make this decision. I'll wait to decide whether to eat it or not.' I resolved to look at other options before blindly eating it.

'But damn the difference in effect between a Zoan and an ancient one is staggering, 2 stats boosted by 350 instead of one is massive and an extra 2X boost to stats during transformation is a little scary. How much of a boost could a Mythical Zoan be? Three stats boosted by 450? A 10X multiplier to all stats? What are the special effects of Paramecias and Logias? I really know too little to make a decision,' I think to myself before drawing again.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO A 10-COIN UNCOMMON DRAW

Y/N….. DRAWING.....

I can't help but smile seeing a big Red suitcase fall into my lap.

RARE-GRADE MONEY PRIZE

6,500,000 BERRIES AWARDED.

'YES! My luck is crazy today, now I bet I have enough now to get a full-sized Caravel like the Going Merry, yes that's enough for today. I'm sure I've used up all my luck for the week' Heading back to Mori with excitement ready to either buy or ship or get one made.