70 Chapter 6

Markus looked over his rewards with a newfound skepticism. He ignored the experience because it was his lowest priority at the moment. The Random Skill Upgrade Token was completely random so he just took it out and used it right away. Since there was no way to predict what would gain the free levels or even how many levels he would gain, there was no point in waiting. He retrieved the token and activated it right away.

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Selecting a random skill...

Goro Goro no Mi Control selected!

Selecting a random number of skill levels...

Congratulations! Goro Goro no Mi Control has increased by 45 levels!

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After looking over the result, Markus nodded to himself. It wasn't a shabby result. His control had increased from level 15 straight to level 60. He felt more comfortable with his power, like it was flowing more easily through his body. He could also use the system to generate five new abilities related to his Devil Fruit. If it had been a few days ago he would have been more excited but with his new suspicions and recent decision to grow as a person without his system... This sudden upgrade in power seemed suspect.

He ignored it and decided he could enjoy that later. As for his new skill book... He left it in his inventory. The King Punch was a powerful technique but it had a major drawback in how long it took to charge up said power. Compared to what he could do instantly with his Goro Goro no Mi it seemed... lacking. At least when it was on its own. Later, when he could use his Skill Fusion once again he could find some interesting combinations for it, he was certain.

He dismissed his system and looked around at his crewmates as they went about their usual activities. Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp were off playing around. Zoro was in the crow's nest working out to get stronger. Franky was down in his workshop building something. Robin was relaxing in the library reading. Nami was tending to her trees. As for their newest crewmember, Brook, he was laying on the grass deck and looking up at the bright blue sky. He still greatly enjoyed the feeling of sunlight shining down on his bones.

Markus walked down to the deck and sat on the grass next to Brook. Neither of them spoke for a while and just enjoyed a little sunbathing. Markus eventually broke the silence, "You know, if you stare at the sun like that you'll burn your eyes out. Ah! Not that you have any eyes!"

Brook instantly shot up to a sitting position and pointed a boney finger at Markus while his jaw hung so far down that Markus couldn't help wondering if it had dislocated. Brook didn't say anything but his whole body seemed to be shaking in shock as his empty eye sockets stared at Markus. Markus grinned playfully at Brook's shocked reaction, "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

Brook started to laugh, "Yohohoho! Good one!"

"So, I'm curious about something Brook. Your Yomi Yomi no Mi, is bringing you back to life really all it does?"

Markus wanted to talk to Brook about his Devil Fruit early to get him moving down a proper path to develop its abilities sooner so his control over his energy could come sooner and become stronger during his two years of training. Hearing Markus's question, Brook nodded, "That's right. When I died it allowed my soul to leave the netherworld and return to my body! Though it took me a year to find it! By then I was just bones!"

Markus nodded, "The power of the Devil Fruits can't be judged with common sense. After all, according to common sense, a skeleton shouldn't be able to be alive." Brook nodded in perfect agreement while Markus continued, "I think your Devil Fruit did more than you think, Brook. I mean, think about it. As a skeleton, you can see without eyes, hear without ears, speak without lungs or a throat, even east, drink, poop, and heal! How does any of that make any sense when it comes to a skeleton?"

Brook hadn't really ever thought about it before but what Markus said made sense. He'd just continued to live, alone, as he had when he was alive. Eating, drinking, all of it was stuff he'd always done so it never felt awkward or out of place to him. Until Markus pointed out just how weird it actually was, "What are you trying to say?"

"Easy. I think there's a lot more to your power than just bringing you back to life after dying the first time. There's always more to a Devil Fruit than what you can see on the surface. Just look at the rest of us on the crew that hold powers. Robin, for example, has developed her powers in interesting ways. On the surface, it just looks like she can make copies of her body parts. Yet, she can do amazing things like creating wings out of them! Sure, she can only hold her wings for a few seconds now but with some practice that could easily change. I bet that with enough practice and understanding of her power, she could even clone her entire body!"

Brook look interested, "Is that so? Then, do you believe there is more to my power?"

Markus nodded, "That's right. If it just revived you once and only kept your body alive, why can you do everything you could do when you were alive? If it just revived you, then you should be a limp skeleton that couldn't move or do anything else but lie on the deck of your ship where you died. Instead, the only difference between you now and before you died is your looks, as far as your body is concerned. But, does that make any sense? Coming back from the netherworld can't be that easy! The power required to rip a soul out of the netherworld, where it belongs, and keep it in the living world must be astronomical! I bet you can use that energy!"

Brook looked shocked, if the way his jaw hung open was anything to go by, "Are you sure?"

Markus shook his head, "I'm not, but there's a way to find out! If you have gained strength from your soul being held in this world by your power, then we can test for it very easily!"

Markus drew The Devil's Flintlock from its holster on his hip. Seeing Markus drawing a gun, Brook spoke up, "Uh, I'm a swordsman, not a gunman."

Markus waved his free hand dismissively, "That doesn't matter. You see, this flintlock is a special weapon that can only be properly used by power holders. But more than that, it only works for people that have energy-based powers, like me. Let me show you."

Brook watched with interest as Markus held up the flintlock and aimed it off of the starboard side of the ship, "My power is a logia type, specifically the Goro Goro no Mi. While its name refers to thunder, it's really based on electricity."

Small sparks flickered around the barrel of the flintlock before Markus pulled the trigger and fired a bullet of compressed electricity into the air while aiming at nothing in particular. As the bullet faded from sight, Markus turned to look at Brook, "If you do have some form of energy due to the power you hold then you should be able to fire it out using this flintlock."

Markus grabbed the pistol by the barrel and held it toward Brook, "Just try to fire a shot off the side of the ship and we'll know for sure."

Brook reached out with his boney hand and gripped the handle of the pistol and held it a little awkwardly. As a pirate, he'd never really used a gun of any kind before and preferred to use his sword for all of his combat needs. Without wasting much time, Brook aimed the flintlock off the side of the ship and pulled the trigger. There was a loud click as nothing happened. Brook turned to look at Markus, "Looks like nothing happened, Yohohoho!"

Markus frowned and looked at the flintlock in Brook's hand. Brook should have an energy-based power. In fact, he should have two forms of energy. The first being the soul energy that lets him project himself in an astral form and reattached parts of his body to each other. Markus clearly had a memory of Brook being decapitated and then reattaching his head with said energy. The second form of energy was his ability to coat his sword in ice. Even if he didn't have much control over that energy yet, he should still have it.

"Try once more but this time try to focus on the pistol before pulling the trigger. Maybe it would help you to imagine something going from your body into the pistol and then pulling the trigger. It's not as easy as I made it look."

Brook listened to Markus and nodded before trying once more. He stayed still for a few minutes before greenish colored energy began to gather within the barrel of the flintlock. Seeing it, Brook pulled the trigger. There was a crack as the flintlock fired a greenish bullet. It only flew a short distance before it unraveled and disintegrated into nothing. Despite that, Brook leaped to his feet and danced around, "It worked! It fired! Yohohoho!"

Markus climbed to his feet and nodded, "Congrats Brook. It looks like you have some form of energy within your body that you can manipulate. Now it's up to you to figure out more about it."

Brook turned and held the flintlock back out to Markus, "Thank you Markus. You've opened up my mind to the possibilities! Ah! Not that I have a brain! Yohohoho!"

Markus accepted his flintlock back and holstered it on his hip once more, "Glad to be of help, Brook. You should see if you can figure out what that energy does and how it works."

Brook shook his head and let out a sigh, "If I had known sooner, I could have practiced for the last fifty years! It might have at least staved off some boredom! Ahhhh, I'm so glad to be alive right now! New friends! New things to explore!"

Markus smiled at the excited Brook as he pulled out his violin and began to play a jolly tune in his excitement. While Brook played, Markus took out his seastone bracelet and made his way to the library to do some reading in silence with Robin. He hadn't spent much time educating himself and instead relied on his memories falsely believing that they told him everything he needed to know. While they did tell him a lot about combat and high-level things like Haki, as far as general information on the world went, he was as dumb as Luffy! Maybe dumber!

As he walked into the library, Robin looked up from her book and arched an eyebrow, "My, it's rare to see you here. What brings you to the library, Markus?"

He sighed and started looking over the spines of the books to pick one to read, "I recently realized that my education has been rather skewed. My old man has really only taught me how to fight and survive. It's probably a miracle that I can speak and write given my education. So, I decided to do a little reading and spread my horizons a bit."

Robin didn't say much, instead, she stood up and selected a book from the shelf before holding it out to him, "You should start with this one."

Markus accepted the book and looked over the title. It was a history book, recent given that all history past a certain point had been wiped out and only existed in Poneglyph form. He sat in one of the comfortable chairs and started to read in silence with Robin. He knew a little about the history of the world but it was only in general terms. The book covered more specific events and people, filling in some of the gaps in his knowledge and given him more information. He spent most of his time over the next few days inside of the library reading books that Robin recommended to him.

Through reading, he knew his outlook on the world had been too nieve and simply blowing up the world nobles wouldn't solve all of his issues. He still planned to do it but he needed more to the plan than simply killing them all. He thought about it for a bit and decided to do a few things. He already despised Akainu so during the war he planned to kill him or at least cripple him. This would make sure that Aokiji rose to take over Sengoku's position as the leader of the Marines. He also wanted to make contact with the Revolutionary Army. Just killing the World Nobles would leave a huge power vacuum that he had no idea how to deal with. Surely the Revolutionary Army would have some sort of plan.

He paused his reading and thought for a bit. He would go on his own for a while, a year at most, before finding the Revolutionary Army and coordinating with them to destroy the World Nobles and restructure the government. Before doing the serious work he planned to explore on his own and grow a little more as a person. That seemed like a good plan, to him. Once he was ready to join the cause, he'd focus on training his strength and use it to wipe every World Noble out.

As he went to return to reading his book, he heard Nami shouting over the intercom calling for all hands on deck. Moments after she spoke the ship began to shake violently. After putting the book back and securing it with the others, Markus left the library and teleported to the main deck. The sky had turned pitch black while waterspouts began to erupt out of the ocean. The waterspouts became even more dangerous as they began to twist and curve to return to the ocean.

"They're serpent currents!"

With the way the spiraling torrents of water slivered and snaked around the ocean, the name was fitting. Markus joined Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Franky to defend the ship against random currents that came charging at them. Simple Lightning Bolts weren't enough to stop the currents forcing him to resort to Lightning Blasts. Nami shouted out directions to help guide them through safely. The area of serpent currents lasted for almost half an hour before they got through it.

As the dark clouds cleared up, the entire crew could see a sight they hadn't seen in a long time. Except for Franky, he'd never seen it before. The cliffs of the Red Line! Everyone was excited, at first, but that soon turned to confusion as they couldn't figure out what to do next. Even Markus wasn't sure in which direction to go. The Log Pose was also zero help as it was just pointing straight down into the ocean. So, they did the only thing they could do.

Thanks to Franky being something of a genius, a weird one but a genius none the less, he'd created a submarine to support the Thousand Sunny. It was launched with Robin, Luffy, and Brook riding in it to explore beneath the ocean to see if they could figure out what to do next. Markus honestly wondered why the people piloting the undersea exploration vehicle were all people with Devil Fruits. Well, not that it mattered but it was still odd to him.

As they explored, everyone else but Zoro stood around a Den Den Mushi connected to the submarine to talk to the explorers. Like everything else, even exploring under the ocean became a loud event as a sea king found the submarine and tried to eat it. No one was worried about them, Sanji even presented some snacks while the sound of Brook screaming could be heard over the Den Den Mushi. Markus just chuckled and looked around. He honestly couldn't recall how they found the way to Sabaody Archipelago.

The submarine surfaced a short time later and everyone climbed out. Markus looked down at the shark-shaped submarine and smiled. He was tempted to see if he could design one himself. The only thing he would need to worry about would be air. Propulsion could be handled with his Devil Fruit. He could even design a basic air compressor for it. Honestly, it sounded kind of fun and could be pretty useful for ducking storms while sailing.

While everyone was chatting with the submarine crew, the sea king that had attacked them below, surfaced and growled at them. The sea king looked like a mix between a fish and a rabbit, though it had a mouth filled with sharp teeth for eating meat. Luffy grinned while rolling his shoulder, "To come to the surface... You must want to be eaten! Gomu Gomu RIFLE!"

Luffy threw his arm back while rotating it before firing it into the monster's stomach with enough force to bend the giant creature in half. As the monster started to fall back, it coughed and sent something flying out of its mouth. Seeing this reminded Markus of something he'd forgotten. Everyone looked up at the sky to see two objects, no two beings, falling from the sky and heading straight for the main deck of the Sunny.

Sanji stared up at the sky while shouting, "It... It can't be!!"

Despite his words, he was clearly excited at what he was seeing. He didn't even move a muscle as a mermaid with a pink tail crash-landed directly on top of him and crushed him onto the deck. Everyone watched in surprise while Luffy noticed something much smaller and a lot weirder than a mermaid, a starfish wearing a rastacap.

The young woman slowly sat up while breathing heavily but the moment she saw the flattened Sanji she started to scream, "WAAAHH!! I FLATTENED A HUMAN!!!" She grabbed Sanji by the shoulders and lifted him up into a sitting position, "I'm sorry!! Are you okay?!"

Sanji assured her he was okay with hearts in his eyes as everyone else stared at the woman. Finally, what they were seeing sank in and most of the more excitable crew members shouted, "MERMAID?!"