Chapter 5: The Village's Strongest Warrior After Seven Years

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Noir furrowed his brow and asked, "System, does martial arts count as a talent?"

"The system recognizes both innate talents and acquired skills. As long as the ability is rare in this world and only possessed by a special group of people, it can be copied by the system."

"Additionally, innate talents determine a person's potential upper limits, and everyone has at least one. Acquired talents, on the other hand, can improve in quality through training."

Noir nodded. Gen's village police combat skills were rare enough to be considered a talent.

Gen hesitated and pointed to the three children, asking, "Bell-mère, who are they?"

"They are the children I adopted."

"Children?" Gen was surprised. "But you're still so young..."

Bell-mère patted his shoulder casually and smiled, "No worries, I'm quite good at raising kids!"

"But isn't this child a bit too old?"

Gen pointed curiously at Noir, who slapped his hand away, saying, "My name is Noir, and I'm only three years old!"

Taking advantage of the moment, Noir quickly took out two duplicate cards and copied Gen's white talents. After all, finding someone in Cocoyasi Village with some combat prowess to copy was not easy, so there was no need to hesitate.

Just as he felt the sting of losing two cards, Nami, who was dozing in Bell-mère's arms, yawned, glanced at the grinning Gen, and started crying.

Gen scratched his head awkwardly while Bell-mère soothed Nami and chided Gen, "Mr. Gen, why did you scare Nami!"

"I didn't..."

After some commotion, Nami was finally pacified, and Bell-mère led them home.

Bell-mère's house, located on the outskirts, was a moderately sized home that soon came into view.

After tidying up a room, Noir finally had a home.

Nojiko and Nami hopped around curiously while Noir found Bell-mère in the backyard.

"We still need to plant some oranges! I wonder if there are any seeds left in the warehouse," Bell-mère mused, looking at her large backyard.

Noir suddenly remembered the system's rewards and retrieved the seeds. Pretending he had just arrived, he dragged the bag over and called, "Bell-mère! Are you looking for these?"

Bell-mère turned around, surprised to see Noir with a bag of seeds. She took a handful, examined them, and exclaimed delightfully, "These are exactly what I needed! Noir, you're so clever!"

During dinner, the family ate joyously together. Thinking back to the days of scavenging to survive seemed like a distant dream.

Noir took a bite of his food, looking at the cheerful trio of mother and daughters, and couldn't help but smile.

From that point on, Noir settled down. His physique increased, and with the "Focus Only" talent, he started learning swordsmanship.

To his surprise, he wasn't bad at it. Though not on Zoro's level, Noir was not disappointed. The system also began tracking his swordsmanship progress.

Thus, Noir trained in swordsmanship and village police combat skills, with his physique growing swiftly as he aged. Time flew by.

Years passed, and Noir turned ten in the blink of an eye. He became a handsome young man, living up to Bell-mère's expectations.

His height growth slowed, but he had already surpassed 180 cm, which even made Bell-mère marvel. 

"Raising a child for seven years, and he's already taller than me. What should I do?"

Over the years, Noir honed his skills and sparred with the village's strong men. Unsurprisingly, he was undefeated in the town by the age of ten. Villagers marvelled, saying Bell-mère's household had produced a fighting prodigy.

Due to Noir's impressive combat skills, Bell-mère relaxed her control over him, allowing him more freedom. However, Nojiko and Nami weren't as lucky and remained under her watchful eye. 

Despite Nami's persistent pleas for Noir to take her out to play, he firmly refused, knowing Bell-mère's fists were no joke.

When Cocoyasi Village fishermen went to sea, Noir eagerly followed. Sitting on the deck, he reviewed his stats:

"Host: Kyros D. Noir

Ability Values:

Charm: 87 (max 100)

Physique: 213 (max 999)

Swordsmanship: 150 (max 999)

Possessions: Gold Talent Duplicate Card 1, Purple Talent Duplicate Card 1, Blue Talent Duplicate Card 1, White Talent Duplicate Card 1

Talents: Otherworldly Visitor, Energy Boost, Climate Perception, Focus Only, Village Police Combat Skills..."

Noir was quite satisfied with his progress over the past seven years. His physique and swordsmanship surpassed 100, and his charm increased by seven points thanks to the "Otherworldly Visitor" talent.

He estimated that if he were to become a pirate now, his bounty would likely be in the millions. However, he knew it wasn't enough. With two years left until Arlong's invasion, he needed to raise at least one of his stats to above 300 for a chance at victory.

One downside Noir discovered about the system was that it required strong opponents to copy better talents. However, in Cocoyasi Village, no strong individuals were left—he could easily defeat them all.

"Noir! There's a big one here! Give us a hand!" 

The fishermen excitedly called out to the sighing Noir as they spotted a giant fish.

"Coming!" Noir responded, but before he could act, the massive fish surfaced, revealing a menacing head, blood-red eyes, and dripping fangs.

This was no ordinary fish—it was a miniature Sea King. The fishermen would have fled in the past, but times had changed.

"Time for a meal!"

"Look at that meat; it'll be delicious steamed!"

"You're crazy! Grilled fish is the best!"

The Sea King glared at them, thinking, "You treat me as prey, yet you want to grill me?"

Furious, the Sea King lashed out with its tail, creating a powerful surge. However, the fishermen remained unflustered. 

As the massive tail descended upon the boat, a flash of silver light sliced through the air!

The Sea King's eyes widened in shock as it saw the human leaping into the air and then looked at its own body, now separated and drifting apart.

"Actually... steamed is fine..."

This was the Sea King's last thought.

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