Chapter 10

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You have gained the skill "Electrolysis".

Electrolysis

[Active, Level 1, 0.0%]

By passing electrical current in a circuit through a medium, such as water, you are able to separate materials into their chemical components.

Cost: 15 Willpower/Second

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Markus looked over the description of the skill and smiled. It seemed like he might be able to use it for more than what he did, he'd have to explore that in the future. Still, he couldn't help thinking that the skill probably shouldn't have worked in the first place. Then again, the rules of his old world only had some similarities with the rules in this world. After all, there was apparently enough atmosphere and air between the earth and the moon for Enel to fly to the moon with nothing covering his ship.

Either way, he got the skill and that's all that mattered to him! Now there was one more skill he wanted to create before calling it a night and getting some sleep. For the next skill he wanted to create, he had a pretty good understanding of the concept, he just needed to try the execution out. He set the scene as the town setting once more and selected a Marine Private with a rifle as his opponent.

As soon as the Marine appeared, Markus dashed back a fair distance. The Marine didn't chase and instead tried firing at Markus from where he was. That's exactly why Markus had picked him as an opponent. He needed a target that wouldn't move much or kill itself by attacking him in melee. Markus retrieved a regular iron bullet from his inventory, one not locked inside of a case. Bullets basically came in two types. The more modern cartridge bullets and more old fashioned ball bullets. All were made of iron as lead was apparently rare and pretty deadly.

While the private fired at him, ineffectively, Markus held the bullet in his hand and focused on drawing out his electrical power. That was the easy part. The hard part was using that power to create two oblong loops of electricity horizontal to the ground. The one on the left began to rotate counterclockwise while the one on the right rotated clockwise. This way the sides facing each other moved in the same direction. He amped up the power causing arcs of electricity to jump off of him and strike around randomly, a sign of his lack of control.

He let the power build for a bit before he curled his finger and flicked the iron ball in between the oblong circles of electricity. As soon as the bullet got close it was captured by the electromagnetic field he generated and instantly accelerated to supersonic speed. There was a loud crack as the bullet easily broke the sound barrier. Nearly instantly the bullet slammed into the ground a dozen feet away from the Private that was still shooting at him.

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You have gained the skill "Railgun".

Railgun

[Active, Level 1, 0.0%]

This skill allows the user to generate a strong electromagnetic field that propels a projectile at extremely high speeds to deal devastating kinetic damage to the target. The more Willpower spent to charge the skill, the more kinetic damage the skill will deal.

[Minimum]

+100% Damage

Cost: 50 Willpower

[Maximum]

+1,000% Damage

Cost: 500 Willpower

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Looking at the description of the Railgun skill brought a smile to his face. Now that he had a skill for it, it would become much easier to use. That being the case, he pulled out another bullet and used his brand new skill while aiming at the private. As the skill activated sparks of electricity leaped off of his body once more. The odd thing though was that the skill wasn't exactly the same as what he used to create it. Instead, his power gathered into a small spot in front of the bullet in his hand and followed his hand as he moved it around.

After the power gathered, he decided on the minimum power for now. It only took a second to gather and once his aim was set, he flicked the bullet into the gathered ball of power. As soon as the bullet touched the ball of power there was a sonic boom as the bullet once again broke the sound barrier. This time his aim was true as the bullet slammed into the Private and blew a massive hole through his chest.

As soon as the Private died, Markus summoned another copy of him and pulled out another bullet. Something about the way the system did the Railgun skill intrigued him and he wanted to study it more. As soon as the Private started shooting at him, Markus activated his Railgun skill. This time he held off on firing it and focused on studying the ball of power that was conjured for it. There was something... off about it. The more he studied it the more confused he became until he had a sudden inspiration!

"Of course! It's called 'Electromagnetism' for a reason!"

His mind dug into his memories for everything he could remember on the subject. Even if he couldn't remember his friends or family, he could remember his education, and his college physics class had covered electromagnetism. He recited what he could remember about it, "Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental forces along with gravity, strong force, and weak force. You can't have one without the other, even if the other is infinitesimally small." He chuckled, "Maybe the Goro Goro no Mi should be called the Denji Denji no Mi (Electromagnetic Electromagnetic Fruit). I should have known better than to just think of it as electricity or lightning. It covers the entire force. Things like friction, elasticity, and even the forces holding solids together are all controlled by electromagnetism. If I can master this Devil Fruit... I could do anything. Rip things apart at the atomic level and put them back together into something else! I'm a long way away from that though."

He continued to mutter to himself while observing the ball of magnetic force in front of him, completely forgetting that he was constantly being shot by the Marine Private not too far away from him. He aimed the force and flicked the iron bullet into it. As he watched the force seemed to split into two halves, both highly negatively charged. The iron bullet was automatically coated in one half causing it to instantly be repelled with extreme force. As before, the Marine private had his chest obliterated by the bullet.

Markus resummoned and promptly ignored the same marine once again. Instead, he focused on the ground beneath his feet, "The normal force that keeps me from being forced through the ground by gravity is the result of the electrons in my body being repelled by the electrons in the ground. Increasing the strength at which my body is repelled should lead to flight... right?"

There was only one way to know for sure. Ever since he saw the Railgun skill of the system, he knew that he could control magnetic forces. Just knowing he could was all that mattered. He focused on increasing the negative charge of his entire body. From his understanding, electrons were negatively charged so if he increased his negative charge it would increase the force repelling him from the surface of the ground.

It took a lot of concentration and focus as he forced his entire body to become more negatively charged, he slowly rose off of the ground. As soon as he rose a few inches, he lost his balance and fell foreword, standing on literally nothing was pretty difficult no matter how good your balance was. On the bright side, because he changed the charge of his entire body he didn't land face-first on the ground. He just fell into the air and floated a few inches above it still.

"It's not quite flight but I sure can float!"

The more he increased his negative charge, the higher he rose. The problem was, he couldn't figure out how to propel himself in any direction but up. After floating a dozen feet above the ground for a short time while being constantly shot, he gave up, "Maybe my control isn't good enough yet, I didn't even get a new skill."

Markus reduced his charge back to neutral and slowly dropped to the ground. Once he stood up he used a basic Lightning Bolt to kill the marine and exit his Image Training. He was feeling pretty mentally drained and decided to get some actual sleep. On the bright side, it had been a productive time inside of his Image Training.

When he woke up the following morning and rejoined the still ongoing party. He once again sang, danced, and made merry with the others. He even snuck in a private dance with just himself and Nami off to the side. He only found a private spot for more practice after he had his fill of fun and food for the time being. Once he entered his Image Training he started practicing his new skills and trying to develop more. He continued to do this for the next few days as everyone continued to celebrate their freedom and the end to the war between the Skypiean and Shandians.

Markus enjoyed every moment of it, but the fun and games ended one morning when Luffy woke up Nami and set off a loud chain reaction that woke up every sleeping person nearby. A plan was hatched. Some of them were going to sneak into the gigantic sleeping snake and steal all of the golden objects it had eaten and failed to digest over the centuries it had lived. If Markus recalled correctly, the gold they managed to recover only filled one or two sacks and was valued at something like two hundred million Belly. If that was true then the gold from the Arc Maxim being disassembled in his system right now was likely worth billions or even trillions.

That being the case, he decided to help the crew out with some more money that should, hopefully, result in a bigger and better Sunny Go later on. With his mind made up and the plan made, Markus left the group to get the one last thing he wanted, something the locals wanted to give the crew anyway. With his Observation Haki, it didn't take any effort for him to locate a large cluster of people pulling on thick vines to raise up the golden belfry and bell. Markus quickly joined them and began helping. As strong as he was he couldn't raise the belfry singlehandedly. Well, maybe he could? With the repelling forces his fruit could provide he could, technically, make anything move just by altering their magnetic charges a bit.

Just thinking about some of the nasty discoveries he'd made after learning how the system's Railgun ability worked made him chuckle. If Enel even had a clue about how much he wasted the power of the Goro Goro no Mi he would probably try to kill himself. Forget making clouds and giant attacks of lightning, once he had enough Willpower, Markus could lift an entire island into the sky and drop it.

Markus continued to have these thoughts until the vine went slack in his hands, the belfry had been pulled up and successfully placed on solid ground once more. Markus admired the belfry and giant golden bell, it was an exquisite work of art. He wasn't the only one though, everyone was. Robin had shown up and was looking over the text of the poneglyph while talking to the Shandian chief. Markus didn't care about it and tuned the conversation out. The true history of the world meant nothing to him, just as the title 'King of the Pirates' meant nothing to him.

Once their conversation was done, the entire group decided to give the crew the pillar of gold that had broken off of the belfry as thanks. Markus joined them in lifting the pillar and carrying it back to the city where the party had been held for so long. As they got close he, along with everyone else, could hear Luffy shouting, "HEY! ROBIN! MARKUS! HURRY UP! We stole their gold! We need to hurry and leave!"

Instantly a commotion broke out causing both Robin and Markus to laugh. Luffy and the others thought the covered pillar of gold was a weapon of some sort and wanted to run away with the gold they'd found inside of the giant snake. Meanwhile, the locals couldn't care less and even wanted to give the crew even more gold. Markus planned to rub this in their face at some point in time, maybe.

In the end, Markus joined Robin in running after the crew while laughing. He had a show to put on after all. The whole crew ran through the forest of giant trees toward the location of the Going Merry where Nami had already retreated. As they were running, Markus noticed that his memory of how much gold the group got was slightly off. Everyone but him and Robin were carrying small sacks with golden objects inside of them. If Nami had one too then it meant they had six small bags. About the same as he estimated overall even if it was broken into smaller sacks.

As everyone ran, Markus let himself fall behind a bit. Before anyone could notice he suddenly vanished. Using his speed he arrived back at the group of Skypeians with a grin. They wanted to question him but he didn't say anything, instead, he just placed his hand on the pillar of gold. A moment later it vanished into thin air. Everyone was shocked but Markus just gave a simple two-finger salute, "Thanks!"

The next moment he was gone once again and back at the rear of the group running to the Going Merry. No one had even noticed he'd left for that brief moment. It wasn't long before they were all back on the ship together and sailing. They rushed to get to Cloud's End with Conis and her father leading the way on their black crow themed waver. As they sailed, the whole crew got excited and placed all the treasure they had together in a pile. Almost everyone was thrilled and excited about all of the gold, the exceptions being Zoro, Robin, and Markus.

Markus looked at the pile of gold laying on the floor and the giant pillar of gold inside of his inventory. If that small pile of gold was worth two or three hundred million, just how much was the pillar alone worth? There was only one way to find out. He opened his inventory, selected the shop tab for selling things, and selected to sell the pillar. The moment he saw how much the pillar was worth, he choked on his own spit and started coughing a lung out.

The rest of the crew looked at Markus strangely, but he chose to ignore them and sold the pillar to the system shop. Instantly his account bloomed from a little over twelve million to a shocking 150 billion Belly! He could only begin to wonder just how much the gold contained in the Arc Maxim would be worth. The pillar was just a small fraction of all the gold contained in the city. Even if the Arc Maxim didn't have all that gold, though Enel said it did, he'd still be at least a trillionaire when he sold it all!

Seeing all of that money, Markus decided to see if there was anything worth spending it on. He immediately went to the techniques tab to see what was for sale today. Once he looked at it he was a bit intrigued. Today the Black Leg Style was for sale, in other words, the style that Sanji fought with. This meant he could buy the techniques used by his crew members, maybe even Zoro's Santoryu sword style. Not that he would though. He admired Sanji's fighting style and legs were almost always stronger than arms. He just didn't like the idea of using his friend's techniques. It almost felt like he would be stealing a part of their unique personality if he did. So, he ignored it.

As for the other shop tabs, he only bought everything from the materials tab and called it a day. There was nothing else worthwhile and until the Maxim was done being disassembled in three days, he couldn't craft anything to boost the level of his Crafting skill. He could stock up on materials to keep grinding it though.

While he was shopping, Conis and her father had called out the crew, they'd arrived at Cloud's End, the exit to the sky island and their way back to the blue sea. Markus joined the others with a smile on his face. The sadistic part of his personality was looking forward to the looks of fear and surprise about to appear on his crewmate's faces.

As they got closer, Conis's father instructed them to raise their sails. Markus chose to help with that while others secured their gold in a cabinet to keep it from being lost on the way down. From the sounds of it, the rest of the crew expected a long slide down or something, they were in for a shock! As they got closer to the exit and goodbyes were being exchanged, they all heard the loud angry cries of a Southbird as it came flying at them.

As they all looked in surprise, the Southbird slammed into Luffy and crushed him down into the deck. Sitting comfortably on Luffy's back crying out in anger. Chopper translated, "He's saying 'Don't forget me here!'"

Nami looked at the scene blankly, "Oh yeah, we took him along with us on our way up..."

She quickly shook the scene off and held up her wrist to look at the Log Pose held there on a bracelet, "Alright captain, it looks like the next island is locked in!"

Luffy hopped to his feet with an excited look, "This is the start of a brand new adventure!! Alright crew, let's GO BACK TO THE BLUE SEAS!"

He ended up shouting at the end and riling up everyone. Even the usually apathetic Robin and Markus joined in with the rest of the crew as they let out a loud wordless shout of excitement. As they were all shouting happily, Conis shouted at them, "Everyone, be careful! You guys are about to start falling soon!"

Everyone but Markus asked the exact same question at once, "Did she say 'fall'?"

By the time her words really sunk in, it was too late as the entire ship was already out in the middle of the air with nowhere to go but down. Looks of horror appeared on everyone's faces as gravity kicked in a moment later and the ship dropped out from beneath them. It looked like everyone's souls had fled their bodies, which caused Markus to begin laughing uproariously. He had been gripping the railing of the Going Merry tightly since the moment the entered the gate of Cloud's End.

Lucky for them Conis was a good friend and didn't want them all to die a horrible death, not that Markus would have let it happen anyway. A moment after they began their death fall, she blew loudly on a whistle. An instant later a giant octopus erupted out of the sea clouds nearby and wrapped its tentacles around the ship. Markus laughed again at the reactions of the crew just before they were all slammed into the deck of the ship due to momentum. The octopus had slowed the ship's descent by expanding into a massive balloon.

As they floated down they could hear the golden bell ringing, the Skypians wishing them a safe journey and welcoming them back anytime. Everyone on the crew smiled brightly as they listened to the lovely sound of the bell ringing in the air.