Chapter 5 - The Blood Fang Pirates (1)

East Blue, 1512

Today was a special day. A new year started. It's been almost 6 months since Raiden transmigrated. And these 6 months were amazing for him. Training, eating amazing food and living in a stress free world. Everything was going amazingly well for him.

His initial fear of Celestial Dragons was for naught, given how not a lot of nobles wanted to come in this remote region of East Blue.

As for the pirates, Rock's fear kept them away.

Today was another fine day like normal in this part of East Blue.

Grandma Mary was busy with... whatever she did in her free time. Bob was trying to hit on girls. Rock was not the island. He said he had some work to do with his ex colleagues.

Raiden got up later than usual and left the house to go to his usual training spot.

Couple of days back Rock gave him two medium length twin daggers and Raiden was over the moon. He finally had a chance to use a weapon.

He was barely 20 min into his training when he heard the system notification go off.

[Ding]

[Strength stat reached 10 points

Host has unlocked the following active skill

•Heavy strike -(1 skill point)

Deals 100% damage. User enters a zone. Next three strikes will cause 20% more damage.(Burns user's stamina)

Cooldown - 30 seconds

Agility stat reached 10 points

Host has unlocked the following active skill

•Flash steps -(1 skill point)

Increase user's movement speed by 100% for the next 30 seconds.(Burns user's stamina)

Cooldown - 1 minute.]

Without even thinking twice, Raiden used two skill points to buy both skills.

[Ding]

[Skill Heavy strike learned

Skill Fash step learned]

[Host can now learn the skill Blink Strike(2 skill points)]

[Blink strike - User can increase his movement speed and attack strength by 3 times. The enhancement are valid until the strike is landed. Uses high amounts of stamina. User's stats are lowered by 50% for next 1 hour.]

Raiden was shocked. Both stat increase skills he learned were good enough on there own, but blink strike was another level.

He looked at the number of stat points he needed to unlock the skill and sighed. This skill will have to wait.

He was about to resume his workout when heard a loud *bang* going off somewhere at the distance.

Raiden narrowed his eye and looked towards the direction where that sound came from.

'No way it's a pirate attack. Who would dare attack the island with Rock being on the isl...'

Raiden's eyes widened.

Rock wasn't on the island.

Now, under Rock's protection the island was peaceful and people here had the chance to prosper. In short people here were richer than average.

Many pirates had there eyes on the island, but Rock's fear kept them away.

But now Rock was not here and for the pirates, this was the perfect time to take this treasure trove for themselves.

Raiden gritted his teeths and started sprinting towards the village.

It took him less than a minute to reach the village, but what he saw made his blood freeze.

Multiple houses were on fire. There were pirates dragging women and children towards there ship and killing any men and elderly they laid their eyes on.

There were already dozens of bodies scattered on the road.

Raiden pulled out his daggers with a blank face and started towards the nearest pirate he saw.

He was standing on top of a women and was forcing himself on her with a disgusting glint in his eye.

This women was someone Raiden knew. Someone who always had a happy, gentle smile. But at this point, she was reduced to sobbing mess.

Unacceptable.

*Stab*

The pirates movements stilled. He looked down and there it was, a beautiful black dagger that ripped his heart out. He didn't even had a chance to see who killed him.

*Thud*

[Ding]

[First kill aquired! Experience gained doubled]

[Level 4 pirates killed! Experience gained 60]

[First kill multiplier ×2]

[Exp gained 120]

[Level up]

He didn't even pay attention to the notification.

This was the first time he took a life. Even if he was a scum, he was still a human.

*Sigh*

"Get inside your house, aunty Lily"

"Wha.."

"Go.Inside"

Lily never imagined the sweet little boy could be so terrifying. She just nodded her head and went inside. She knew he was stronger than her, and worrying about him would be insulting to Raiden.

After the first kill, Raiden moved.

Most of these pirates were level 3-4 so they east picking.

[Flash steps]

Raiden vanished. Or more like vanished for normal people.

He reached the closest pirate and before he could even react, slit his throat.

[Ding...]

The next pirate who saw his brother getting killed, wanted to scream but before he could do that, Raiden reached him.

Before he could even say a word, Raiden who was smaller in stature than the pirate, jumped pointing both his daggers towards his throat and decapacitated him.

[Flash step- 25 seconds left]

Raiden moved again and every 5 second a pirate dropped.

[Level up]

[Host's physical conditions have been restored]

The Blood Fang Pirates had nearly 50 members and Raiden already eliminated 6 of them.

Raiden knew he was the only combatant on the island. Everyone else was just a civilian with pathetic stats.

He decisively put 5 points in strength, 10 in agility and 5 in his constitution.

As he felt energy filling him, Raiden moved again.

Luckily the pirates were spread thin throughout the village. Raiden started picking them one by one. He didn't confornt them head on, instead used his smaller stature to his advantage by hiding and doing sneak attacks.

[Level up!]

He didn't save his points this time and added them to his agility which now reached 25 points.

________________________________________

By the time he killed another 25 of them, the remaining realised something was wrong. The island was becoming quiter.

All the pirates alive right now were veterans. And that included the captain of Blood Fang Pirates,

[Rabbid Dog, Skylar]

[Bounty - 12 million berry]

[Wanted - Dead or Alive]

Unlike his name Skylar was a calculating man. He was stronger than his Bounty suggested. Why? Because he methodically regulated his Bounty so that it remained low. He didn't want to show off. He was slowly growing his power in East Blue and planned to enter the grand line keeping a low profile and once he firmly established himself in the grand line, he'll show his true powers.

Black Rock island had a lot of rich people, everyone knew that but no one attacked it because of the Rear Admiral.

He placed one of him men on the island to keep an eye on the old man.

Today was the day he had to strike. The old man left the island and he won't get this opportunity again.

It was supposed to be an easy loot, but for some reason, his men stopped coordinating.

This pissed him off. He took deep breaths to calm himself down and realised that ones not responding have died. He had an ability that allowed him to remember the smell of anything he smelled once. Right now nearly 30 of crewmates had their smells entangled with blood.

Skylar was on high alert. There was someone on this island capable enough to kill half his men. Worst case scenario, the old man was back.

He didn't want to risk anything anymore. The one that died were cannon fodder anyway.

He turned towards his vice captain and said

"Ron call everyone back, load the loot and captives and move"

Before Ron could even respond he heard a *thud*.

Skylar and Ron turned towards the direction of the sound and we're shocked to see little boy no more than 10 covered in blood walking towards them.

________________________________________

Raiden was beyond pissed. He couldn't find his grandma or Bob.

He searched everywhere but couldn't find them.

But then he did.

He watched at a distance, there were a bunch of villagers gathered. Most, shivering in fear.

He started walking towards them, not caring that the pirates can see him.

He spotted her. There she was, it looked liked she had a lot of bruises. Next to her was Bob, whose condition was worse.

He looked up at Skylar and Ron who were staring at the boy with menacing gaze.

"Well well, brat it looks like you're the one who killed my men huh?" Skylar walked towards Raiden. Somehow his fear of the unknown was gone.

'It's just a kid how strong could he be. He probably did sneak attacks on most of them.' Skylar's deduction was spot on and logical. It was the only way possible for a kid as small as Raiden to kill so many of his men.

'Still it's impressive. Getting a drop on one or two is understandable but that many ? This kid has some serious talents.'

"You know what boy, join my crew and I'll let you off the hook. How about it ? You're pretty good, join my crew I'll train you real good. You'll be even stronger. What do ya say?"

Raiden who never took his eyes off his grandma and Bob, looked up at him for the first time.

"Oi."

Skylar felt uneasy at the little boy's gaze. Before he could say anything, Raiden continued.

*Shling*

Just then an absolutely tyrannical pressure descended on the island. Most people and pirates immediately lost consciousness.

*Thud**Thud*

The only one left was Skylar, who was already on in knees.

'I'm going to die!'

That was his last thought before heard a chilling voice.

"How dare you touch them...mutt."