23 Downfall [Part 1]
...
Feeling the air hit my face while smiling, I sighed happily seeing the sunset in front of me as the sudden feeling of being extremely relaxed filled my body.
Currently, I was sitting on top of one of the castle's towers calmly admiring the enormous and beautiful landscape of Alubarna and the desert surrounding us. Normally, I would just be going towards my secret base right now to rest from a good day of work here at the palace, however, since I was feeling like it today, I decided to climb to the highest spot of the Royal Castle and then take a rest there to admire the view.
There was no particular reason for it, I just kinda wanted to do it.
Besides, with my enhanced eyesight, the scenery was just incredibly awesome. Even though the people roaming across the streets of Alubarna were extremely far away, I was still somewhat able to see their faces. Though, most of them were still slightly blurry.
The whole city in which I had been living my whole life seemed really small at a moment like this.
Me as well... I am sure that right now I was looking simply like a dot in the distance for the people down there... Nothing to really care about.
'Though, that's only for now. In the future, there will be no one that doesn't know my name and looks at me in amazement
Looking at my own fist, I smiled confidently, before I stood up and patted my clothes in order to look a bit less messy the moment I got down.
The sun was already setting, and I needed to go back to my base before it became dark. Otherwise, finding the candles in the middle of the darkness was really going to be a pain in the ass.
-Tap!-
Jumping down from the tower I was sitting on just a few seconds ago, I rapidly landed at the entrance of the castle, startling slightly the guards protecting the door, before I then began walking towards the central plaza and disappeared into the crowd.
-Sigh...-
I wonder when did I begin to consider jumping down from a tower something normal and not dangerous in the slightest.
Well, even then, it didn't hurt. After all, right now my body was on a whole different level than what it once was.
Across these three years of having become a Royal Guard, my status has kept increasing and increasing to the point where I'm honestly incredibly curious about what is awaiting me at further levels... After all, If I'm already this strong, just how powerful will I be when I max out every stat?
▽
『Name: Farid』
-Age: 12
-Species: Human
-〈STATUS〉-
『User characteristics:』
▸Strength: [700]〈0/10〉
▸Defense: [1000]〈0/100〉
▸Stamina: [1000]〈0/100〉
▸Internal Defense: [250]〈0/100〉
▸Soul Power: [150]〈0/1000〉
『Body abilities:』
▸Psychomotor ability: [Lvl 250/1000]〈0/1,000,000〉
▸Healing speed: [Lvl 200/1000]〈0/1000〉
▸Cerebral power: [Lvl 200/1000]〈0/1000〉
『Senses:』
▸Eyesight: [Lvl 25/100]〈0/1,000,000〉
▸Hearing: [Lvl 10/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Touch: [Lvl 10/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Smell: [Lvl 10/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Taste: [Lvl 15/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Gut's feeling: [Lvl 25/100]〈0/1,000,000〉
『Special skills:』
▸Armament Haki: [Lvl 150]〈0/1000〉
▸Observation Haki: [Lvl 150]〈0/1000〉
▸Conqueror's Haki: [Lvl 100]〈0/1000〉
▸Voice: [Lvl 5/100]〈0/100,000〉
___________________
『Status points remaining: [2,972,378]
△
During these past three years, my defense and my stamina had both reached a thousand points, and honestly, I was quite surprised when I discovered that the status points required for leveling the stat each time became 100 instead of just 10 as it had been until then.
Moreover, this wasn't the only stat which price increased immediately after it reached a certain level. Psychomotor ability, eyesight, and my gut's feeling prices skyrocketed right when they reached a specific level, making each of them cost 1,000,000 status points just to level it up one time.
I was honestly baffled about it at first. However, soon after I pondered about it a little bit, I arrived at the conclusion that it was probably because something special would happen after I leveled it up.
That... Or from now on each of their levels will cost a million status points...
...
Let's just hope it's the first option.
Either way, after discovering the updated costs of every stat in the status window, I decided to save up my status points until I became able to buy the three stats at once, and thus spent the least amount on the other stats if needed while saving some for eyesight, gut's feeling, and the psychomotor ability stats.
I was curious about what would happen once I made each of them reach level 26, after all.
Leaving those stats aside, my cerebral power and my healing speed also reached a level of 200, making my thinking speed and learning speed skyrocket enormously in the process... And if I had to be honest, I think my reaction speed had also heightened enormously in the process.
Somehow, every time I fought a pirate, I would see their attacks in a mixture of slow-motion and normal speed, making them extremely easy to dodge, but also not painfully slow to the point where I can't bear it.
I also increased most of my stats in the senses category to level 10 since I was kinda curious, and in the process ended up leveling up my taste stat to level 15, since I wanted to enjoy even more the foods of the palace with my now incredibly powerful tastebuds.
The cooks were awesome after all.
And for my healing speed stat... Well, I haven't gotten any injuries across these three years. So I don't really know if it is really that fast now.
Either way, I would probably discover it eventually as I fought stronger and stronger people.
Finally, there was the "voice" stat...
...
Well... It didn't do anything, despite me increasing its level by 2.
I was still a bad singer, and my voice sounded the same as always, so I was still damn disappointed in it.
Honestly, I don't think I will focus on it any time soon, as there's really nothing that makes it worth leveling it up... And my current earnings of status points aren't that big to afford to level this stat up either.
That Osamu guy may have been a lot more troublesome than the guy who I had selected as an opponent before, however, most of it was only because he had a devil fruit. So, even though I had still chosen Osamu as my new opponent for the system to collect status points, the increase wasn't that big from the previous one, and my current earnings became around 0.4 status points every 6 seconds.
And that's really most of the changes that had happened since I became a Royal guard... Honestly, I didn't really feel any big change in my combat power, however, that was probably because there was simply no one left in this Kingdom that could put up a fight for long enough against me.
It made me wonder if ever in the future I would face anyone strong enough to pose a challenge to me. Osamu was strong, but now that I possessed that Haki thingy, he was not even near being a threat to me.
He had passed from being an annoyance to being another random pirate in just one day.
Honestly, it made me ponder whether he was really strong, or his Devil Fruit was. Otherwise, why was it so easy?
Furthermore, as I managed to discover, apparently, he was an enormously strong pirate here in the GrandLine... So, I really doubt that there is someone strong enough to be considered a challenge for me anymore.
Maybe the Yonkos are the only ones who can put up a fight against me... Though, I will only know that once I meet one of them.
"Hmm... Should I leave this Kingdom later when I'm older in order to fight against them?... Otherwise, I will never get to fight them if I stay here, and my position as the strongest man in the world will never be achieved"
Looking at the horizon in wonder, I sighed for a brief moment, before I looked at the castle silently.
That's right, there was still Vivi there. I couldn't simply leave her alone so suddenly, right?
-Bustling crowd sounds-
Hmm? There sure are a lot of people out in the streets today...
Suddenly, as I was still lost in my thoughts, the sounds of the crowd surrounding me snapped me out of my daze and made me realize just how crowdy the streets were today.
It was even comparable to the days when king Cobra made his speeches... And damn, in those days you barely can move through the streets solely because of the number of people everywhere.
Did something happen?
Curious about what was happening I moved toward the central point of the crowd and started trying to hear what were the people talking about.
It was a bit hard in the beginning because of the overwhelming amount of people surrounding me and talking at the same time, however, soon I managed to focus only on one of them and finally got to understand what was happening.
"You mean that Graybeard is in that abandoned building at the south of the city?! What is a big shot like him doing in Arabasta?!"
"Don't tell me he is planning on taking over the Kingdom?!"
"Hmph, let him try, we have Alubarna's defender here. Even if he tries, he will end up like all the other pirates"
As the two men continued talking about such things, I muttered the name of the pirate they just mentioned and started thinking deeply.
"Graybeard... huh?"
Yeah, I had seen some of his posters around the city, his bounty was that of 110 million bellys, and he was one of the most powerful pirates in the whole Grand line... Though, there were several marines looking for him. So I had somewhat expected that they would have captured him by now.
I guess I was wrong.
Why would he come here though? I don't think there's anything worth here that would make a pirate like him come here. Besides, unlike Osamu and all the others pirates I had beaten down until now, he has no reason to be here and make such a fuzz with the danger of the marines coming after him.
Well, It's not like pirates care about such things either. So I guess he wasn't an exception.
I guess I'll have to beat him up before going home... Well, whatever. It isn't like I had any other plans for today.
"Hey, did you hear? Graybeard took some hostages with him into that building. Apparently, he is planning to use them to coarse Alubarna's defender to leave him alone!"
"What? Such a despicable bastard... Who did he take as hostages?"
Raising an eyebrow at the sudden mention of hostages being involucrated, I sighed knowing that it would become a troublesome situation, before suddenly the words of one of the people reached my ears, and made my whole body grow cold.
"It seems he took the kids from the orphanage and their caretaker!"
...
What?
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|Inside an abandoned building...|
"P-please, just leave the kids out of this! There's no need for them to get involucrated!"
"As I said, you just need to shut the fuck up for the time being, and we will leave you alone once we are done in this place... Easy to understand, right?"
"B-but you only need a hostage, right? Then you just need me, the kids don't need to go through something like this"
"What an annoying bitch, should we kill her and just keep the kids instead?"
"Don't, that will probably lower the value of these hostages, and if you do that, then the captain will probably be enraged"
"What a pain in the ass..."
Inside a very dark and big building, the confused and scared expressions of the kids from the orphanage were slightly illuminated by the light of a candle, as they watched the several men surrounding them with horror in their eyes.
Sister Elena, who was tied to a chair and separated from the kids by several meters, could only pray in hope that Alubarna's defender would appear soon to save them, as she hoped as well that none of the men there would hurt the kids until then.
Fear was filling each of their bodies, as none of them had really lived a moment like this until now, and for the first time in their lives, they were experiencing what real pirates were like.
-Tack!-
Suddenly, the sound of someone walking echoed from the entrance of the building and made everyone turn to look there.
"Captain, you came back!"
Smiling in delight, the men there cheered happily once they saw their captain entering the building with the same serious look of always.
Soon, he approached one of the men and slammed him violently against the ground, making all the others flinch in fear right after that.
"Which one of you was, you bastards?!"
Yelling in rage, Graybeard stepped over his subordinate, before he looked at the rest of them with an enraged expression.
"Which one of you was seen kidnapping the children?! Now the whole city knows about us being in this building, and it is a matter of time before that bounty hunter appears!"
"The whole city knows...?"
"Then what we did was completely useless...?"
Muttering in disbelief, the pirates widened their eyes, before they started looking around with confused expressions on their eyes.
Seeing his subordinates like this, Graybeard sighed with a stressed-out tone, before he walked toward Sister Elena, and grabbed her by the hair.
"Listen well, that bastard will probably appear any minute now, so each of you grab a hostage and make sure to be ready to take their life at any minute. Only then will that bounty hunter have no more option but to follow our orders!"
""O-Oh!""
Nodding their heads, all the pirates took their daggers out, before they grabbed the kids of the orphanage and pressed the blades against their throats, ready to kill them at any minute their captain desired it.
"I, the great Graybeard, will not go down in a place like this! Even if I have to kill this whole town, I will make sure to survive"
Taking out his sword, Graybeard rapidly moved behind Sister Elena and placed his sword on her throat as well, ready to kill her immediately.
Immediately after that, a horrible and cold silence fell upon the building, with no one daring to move even a muscle for even a second, as if waiting for something in specific to happen.
Seconds passed, and soon, the seconds turned into minutes... And even then, what they were waiting for had yet to happen.
-Tap-
Suddenly, however, a certain sound made everyone flinch, as their eyes were immediately directed toward the entrance in nervousness.
There, the enormous man of ten meters that they were expecting didn't appear... And instead, only a small kid of average height appeared at the entrance with a surprised expression on his face.
Seeing this, Graybeard couldn't help but feel baffled.
"A kid? Hey, you bastards, did you forget to kidnap one of the kids from the orphanage?!"
Growling in anger, the captain rapidly turned to look at his subordinates, before he noticed that all of them were shaking their heads in denial.
"Then where did this...-?"
"FARID, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
Suddenly, as Graybeard was muttering to himself in confusion, the harsh voice of Elena startled him and made him look at the kid in surprise.
"So he was indeed one of your kids, hey you bastards, get him with the others... The more hostages the better"
Pointing with his thumb at the other kids, Graybeard sighed in relief, before suddenly a sharp pain assaulted his foot.
Sister Elena, who had been calm until then to a certain extent, suddenly exploded in anger and violently stomped the captain's foot with all her might.
"Leave him alone, he is not part of the orphanage!!"
-Back!-
"Ack, you damn...-!"
Feeling the anger fill his head, Graybeard cursed under his breath before he violently slapped Elena's face with rage, and made the chair on which she was sitting fall to the floor heavily.
Feeling the pain filling her face, sister Elena let out a pained cry, before small tears soon started leaving her eyes.
Taking a breath to calm his anger, the pirate soon massaged slowly his wrist, as he looked at sister Elena with contempt in his eyes before he scoffed in anger.
"That should teach you who you are dealing with, bitch!"
It was then, that suddenly the whole world around the pirates turned dizzy, and their whole senses immediately woke up in caution.
Sweat was pouring like crazy from out of their bodies, as their primal instincts were for the first time in many years awoken.
Their skin, their muscles, their senses, their bones... Everything was telling them to look back, or else they wouldn't be able to face the danger that was currently threatening their lives.
The instincts were screaming at them to survive.
Slowly, they all started turning around, before they began doing their best to identify the predator that was making them all feel like that.
There, they saw the same kid they had seen earlier, just that this time, his eyes looked completely different from before.
Their bodies were screaming at them, that what they were seeing at that moment wasn't a kid...
...
... But a monster.
...
-To be continued-
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(A/N: Let's hope that didn't turn out to be too edgy)
