90 Chapter 3
Markus looked at the notice from his system before dismissing it. It seemed like the system wanted to push him to become a Yonko. It's not that he minded it but he didn't have a crew. A one-man Yonko was unheard of. He'd take a look at the system when he was alone to see what it was all about. Hopefully, it hadn't turned into a kingdom building game, those looked so boring in his memories.
He continued to chat with Vivi and King Nefertari for a while discussing how he could help them thanks to how fast he could move. They even discussed putting up his Jolly Roger, something he needed to announce to the world somehow, but they refused. The King and Vivi were both adamant about doing things legally and waving a pirate flag on their island was definitely not.
The only reason they were even willing to accept his offer of helping them was because it was him making the offer. They knew him and knew they could trust him. Markus accepted it for what it was. After the discussion, he made a request that he'd wanted to make since he arrived. It was quickly granted.
A few minutes later, Markus was only wearing a towel around his waist as he stood within the royal baths once again, "Ahhhh, I missed this place! The facilities on the Merry and Sunny were alright but they've got nothing on this place!"
Once again King Nefertari and Igaram had joined him in the bath. When they spotted the tattoo on his back, Igaram spoke, "When did you get such a large tattoo?"
Markus glanced over his shoulder, "I got it at Water 7. I've been planning to leave Luffy's crew for a while. Ever since I gained my power I've steadily been getting much stronger than them. If I stayed by there sides, their growth would stagnate. Now that all of this has happened, they'll need some time on their own. I didn't want to cut all ties though so I based the design off of Luffy's Jolly Roger and added some of my own touches."
Igaram nodded. Though bounty posters were not an absolute measurement of a pirate's strength, it was still a decent estimation tool. With Markus's current bounty of over four billion Belly, he was leagues ahead of his companions. If they stuck together it could cause issues exactly as Markus described, or worse.
After washing his body, Markus relaxed in the swimming pool sized bath and let out a sigh. He closed his eyes and could feel Vivi and Terracotta who were just beyond the wall in the women's bath. He was still getting used to the changes brought about by his Gravity Sense. The image was still blurry and hard to see but he knew it would get better over time. He just needed to increase his Gravity Control.
While relaxing in the bath, he went over his short term plans for the future. The next thing he needed to do was stalk Jewelry Bonney for a bit. Now, as attractive as Bonney was, he wasn't stalking her for her looks. From what he remembered, she was captured by the marines shortly after entering the New World. He didn't remember the specific details so he planned to stalk her until it happened. It was manipulative but, he wanted Bonney in his debt.
Once she owed him one, he planned to send her to Drum Island to de-age Dr. Kureha. Maybe he'd take her there himself so he could just pick the good doctor up. With his boat and an Eternal Pose, he could probably make the journey in a month or less. Alone, he could do it in minutes but he still couldn't take people with him at his highest speeds.
Maybe he should just recruit Bonney while he was at it. He wasn't sure what her specialty was, if she even had one, but her Devil Fruit was rather powerful and could come in handy. If he could teach her Observation and Armament Haki, she could be pretty formidable. The same could be said for Dr. Kureha. Though she didn't have a devil fruit, he had a small collection now. Perhaps the Doa Doa no Mi? Since she was a doctor perhaps she could use it to open people up to operate? Who knows. He'd only seen Blueno use it and his uses weren't exactly ingenious.
After recruit one, or both, of the women, his next stop should be Dressrosa. He needed to finish what he started when he killed Doflamingo. The rest of his crew needed to be dealt with, though he might try recruiting Baby 5. As weird as it sounded, she was actually pretty innocent. Not in her acts but in her mentality. Why did he suddenly feel like he was building a harem ship? That's not what he wanted. After all, if he could have, he would have recruited Issho in an instant.
He wasn't sure of many men he could potentially recruit, maybe he would meet some on his journey. That was all he could think of as he exited the bath and dressed in a simple yukata to sleep in. He would spend the night in the palace tonight. Tomorrow he had something to do out in the desert then he needed to return to Sabaody and head for the red line.
After breakfast the next morning he stood in front of King Nefertari, Princess Vivi, the head guards Chaka and Pell, as well as Igaram and Terracotta, "I'm going to head out now. I've got some things to do and places to be. Keep those papers I marked safe. If something dangerous happens, tear one apart and I will come as soon as I can. Remember that, okay?"
Vivi nodded and held up one of the sheets of paper. On it, he could see a facsimile of his Jolly Roger. Seeing that made him smile, "Alright, I'm off. I'll be sure to drop by for a visit sometime."
Vivi jumped at him to give him a tight hug, "We'll look forward to your next visit!"
Markus returned the hug and when they parted, he floated into the air. He used his maximum speed while using G-TK to move toward the desert while activating his Observation Haki. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. Deep in the desert, buried underground, was an object of massive weight that made it a bit of a beacon to him. It was a Poneglyph, specifically, the one Luffy and the others found while trekking through the desert.
The Poneglyph would make an excellent practice tool for raising the level of his G-TK skill. He also had two more skills to develop. The desert was the perfect place for that. He landed on the sandy ground and focused on the Poneglyph. He used his G-TK to the best of his ability to lift the Poneglyph. He wanted to pull it out of the ground instead of simply going in and getting it. The Poneglyph barely wiggled despite him putting his full focus on moving it. That's just how heavy the supposedly indestructible block of an unknown material was.
It didn't bother him though. The longer he tried to move it, the more experience his G-TK skill gained, the stronger it became. Telekinesis of any kind was generally one of the more powerful skills someone could have. As long as it was properly developed, that is. Markus focused intensely for half an hour before the Poneglyph finally did something other than shimmy and shake. His G-TK had leveled up enough for him to begin slowly lifting it out of the ground. Very slowly, a couple of inches a minute slowly.
He didn't let it bother him and continued to slowly lift the Poneglyph. It was good training and how could he dislike good training? After an hour of work, the Poneglyph finally rose out of the ground and landed next to him. Markus rand his fingers over it, sadly he couldn't read it and there'd been no sign of skills that could allow him to do so. Maybe, one day, he would gain the 'Voice of All Things' skill just like Luffy and Roger.
Now that the Poneglyph was out of the ground, he planned to use it as the target for developing two new skills. With it being indestructible and all, it made for a good target dummy. The two skills he wanted to develop were similar to his G-TK but were more offense-oriented. He could already lift and crush objects, next he wanted to push and pull them. Time to become a Jedi!
Neither one should be all that difficult to accomplish. Compared to moving objects in multiple directions with his G-TK, one direction should be easy. He focused on his gravity power and the Poneglyph. His desire was to drastically and swiftly change the direction that gravity was affecting the object. Instead of the downward force of normal gravity, he wanted it to be oriented away from him. He gathered his energy before thrusting his hand toward the gigantic block.
...
It wobbled a little.
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You have gained the skill "Gravity Push."
Gravity Push
[Active, Level 1, 0.0% Experience]
The user of this skill is able to change the force of gravity around them or of specific objects to 'push' their intended targets away. The more Willpower used, the more powerful the 'push' will become.
[Minimum]
Push the target 10 feet
+3% Damage
Cost: 25 Willpower
Extra:
+1 Foot, +1% Damage per additional 2 Willpower Spent
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With the skill generated, Markus tried to push the Poneglyph once again. He just used the bare minimum of the skill and shoved the Poneglyph back exactly ten feet. Due to the weight of the object, it didn't go flying but instead slid across the desert leaving a deep gouge in the sand. He left the Poneglyph there and concentrated on creating the opposite effect. He gathered his power once more and basically did the opposite of before. He created a gravity well between himself and the Poneglyph with the intention of pulling it.
...
It wiggled again.
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You have gained the skill "Gravity Pull."
Gravity Pull
[Active, Level 1, 0.0% Experience]
The user of this skill is capable of pulling things toward himself. The further an object is from the user, the higher the Willpower cost.
[Minimum]
Pull a target from 10 feet away.
Cost: 25 Willpower
Extra:
+1 Foot per additional 2 Willpower Spent
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Markus looked over the skill and nodded. the lack of damage on it made sense, he was just pulling the target to himself. Once the target was close he could deal melee damage to it. This was a good counter to ranged fighters who would try techniques like kiting him. Not that those methods would work since he had his own long-ranged attacks. Still, it was a good idea to cover all of his bases while he had spare time.
He lifted his hand and used Gravity Pull to pull the Poneglyph right to him. The moment it touched his hand he stored it inside of his inventory. He'd show it to Robin later. He would probably meet up with her when he took the time to fulfill Kuma's final request to him. He was trying to be a man of his word so he would seek out Dragon and give him a hand for a while. Hopefully, with his help, Dragon would be able to execute some bold moves against the World Government.
With his new skill created and the Poneglyph secured, there was one last thing he wanted to check out, his new system option. After opening his system he moved to his new option 'Territory Control'. The display was extremely simple and only showed a list. The only thing on the list was 'Alabasta'.
After selecting Alabasta from the list he was presented with two options, 'Status' and 'Tribute.' He selected Status first. A new display opened and showed him the current status of Alabasta as well as his reputation on the island.
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Island Name: Alabasta
Current Leader: King Nefertari Cobra (Monarchy)
Loyalty: World Government
Allies: Strawhat Pirates, Silvers D. Markus
Reputation: 2,600 - Friendly
Population: 10 Million+
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Markus looked over the information for a bit. He briefly considered how to increase his reputation but quickly gave up. There were no obvious clues or hints but he suspected that his reputation would increase if he did things to help the island out. That seemed like the only obvious option. He was certain that before his fall, Crocodile had a high reputation on the island. Now, it was his turn to do the same... If he felt like it. He only planned to help them out in bad situations, for now.
After browsing the information for a bit, he closed the window and checked the tribute window.
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Island Name: Alabasta
Current Tribute: None
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Oh, well, that was informative... Not. He could understand what the tributes were for at least. If he became the official protector of the island, then they would be expected to give him a tribute for his work. Since he wasn't an official protector yet, no tribute. Simple as that.
He closed all the windows and popped into the shop to take a look at things. Ever since he was swimming in money it seemed like the shop had been carrying less interesting things. He couldn't count how many times he'd seen useless skills or skills he wouldn't ever want to use, like Okama Kempo. Today was the same, the skill for sale was Electro. This had to be the fourth or fifth time he'd seen it for sale. He was tempted to buy it and not learn it, just to see if it would stay out of the rotation.
He was also disappointed with the dial selection. After getting his hands on the Laser Dial, he hadn't seen anything else powerful. It was rather disappointing. He still bought out the food tab daily, just to make sure he had plenty on hand for any emergencies. Well, maybe it was more of a habit now than anything else.
He looked around at the desert a bit. He'd accomplished more here than he'd planned on. Metting Issho was a nice twist of fate. Now it was time to get back on track. He didn't know how long Luffy would be unconscious so he was still waiting for the message announcing the two-year break. It hadn't even been a week yet and it took a little over two weeks in the canon. While waiting for that, he picked where he needed to go.
Markus opened his map and used his Quick Travel to practically teleport to Sabaody. One second he was in the middle of the desert, the next he was in the lush green mangroves. Markus inhaled deeply and enjoyed the sudden humidity of the island. It was much better than the dry arid air of the desert. He rolled his shoulders to relax a bit before expanding his observation Haki. He didn't feel any of his tags on the island. That meant Bonney had already set sail. He was just looking for anything interesting.
After finding nothing of interest, he floated into the air and went toward the nearest tag he could detect. He flew as quickly as he could with his G-TK, a bit faster than running. He could see the cliff face of the Red Line in front of him but felt the tag was below him. It seemed like Bonney was still at Fishman Island, probably getting a second coating for the trip back to the surface.
Since she was down there, there was nothing he could do. He flew higher into the air, toward the clouds, to avoid detection. As he flew over the Red Line, he could see Mary Geoise. As much as he hated to admit it, it was a beautiful looking place. He really wanted to blow it to smithereens right then and there. Maybe once he got stronger with the Zushi Zushi no Mi he would drop a few meteors on the place.
He chuckled to himself as he pictured the panic and fear of the Celestial Dragons if he was to fly over every now and then to drop a single meteor on the place. Not to destroy them but to harass them. Actually, it might not be a bad idea. If he did that it seemed likely that the greedy Celestial Dragons would increase their tribute demands and it would build tension between them and the other countries. He'd bring up the idea to Dragon when they met.
Markus completely flew over the Red Line and only stopped when he arrived at the other side. The Red Line really was massive. It was honestly surprising that there weren't more cities on such a big continent. Even if it wasn't the nicest, it was still huge. He shrugged the random thought off and landed on the edge of the cliff. He wasn't sure exactly where Bonney would come out from so he would need to camp out here and wait for Bonney to surface.
With no telling how long it would take for Bonney to come out of Fishman Island, he needed to spend his time somehow. He found a comfortable area to set up his camp, first. He still had his tent from his days on his first island as well as all the camping supplies he'd earned from his daily quests. Within an hour, he had a nice campsite setup. He got comfortable and closed his eyes. He would spend the next few days working on improving his Zushi Zushi no Mi inside of his Image Training.
For three days he trained with his Zushi Zushi no Mi to gain a better understanding of it and increase the level of his skills. He didn't go for much of an experience grind though. With his current level nearing three hundred, skill levels were far more important than his own level. It was only on the fourth day that he spotted a ship coming out from below the surface of the ocean.
He looked over at it and smiled. He could feel a tag on that ship and it wasn't a ship he was familiar with. He was pretty certain it was Bonney's ship but, just to be sure... He jumped off of the massive cliff and allowed himself to free fall through the air. He knew he could fly but free-falling still gave him such an adrenaline rush! It was the same concept of bungee jumping.
Just before he hit the surface of the water, he caught himself with his G-TK and flew in the direction of the ship with his tag on board. Once he confirmed Bonney was on board, he would pack up his camp and sta... follow her from a distance for a while. He smiled as he thought about building his own crew. This was going to be fun!
