Chapter 29: Wood, the Disgraced Navy Trainee

Although Logue Town, where Smoker was born, had a great reputation, it was located in the East Blue, often referred to as the "weakest sea." With an average bounty of 3 million berries, a 20 million berries bounty was considered a big deal in Smoker's eyes.

Yet, before even entering the Navy Academy, Wood had already possessed the ability to single-handedly defeat such a figure!

Although Wood was older than Smoker at the time, he couldn't have been much older.

"Hina understands now. This Wood must be like Hina, a Devil Fruit user," Hina remarked.

At a similar age to Smoker, Hina had relied on her strength to enter the Navy Academy, while Smoker had relied on his determination and ambition.

Or more accurately, Hina relied on the power she gained from her Devil Fruit.

Although Devil Fruits were said to be cursed by the sea, there's no denying that they granted immense and mysterious powers.

Even a child or an elderly person with no physical strength could become a powerful figure on the sea if they consumed a powerful Devil Fruit.

Moreover, Devil Fruits were rare, and even on the black market, they could fetch prices in the billions of berries.

Hina was a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit user, possessing the "Cage-Cage Fruit," which allowed her to generate iron bars to trap enemies, block ships, or even create iron spears for long-range attacks.

The Cage-Cage Fruit was not considered particularly strong among the Paramecia-type fruits, but it wasn't weak either. After all, the power of a Devil Fruit depended greatly on how its user developed and utilized it.

And there's no denying that Devil Fruit users, aside from their inability to swim, had an innate advantage over most ordinary people.

The same was true for Hina, who, despite being a young girl, was already capable of defeating most people in the Navy academy.

It was a good thing when a Devil Fruit user decided to join the Navy, which is why Hina became a student at the academy. And due to her being one of the few female students, she was assigned to share a dorm with Gion.

Given that Wood had defeated a pirate with a bounty of 20 million berries at such a young age, Hina naturally assumed that Wood, like her, possessed an innate advantage as a Devil Fruit user.

However, before Hina could finish expressing her thoughts, Gion interrupted.

"No, this guy can't be a Devil Fruit user. I've seen him go into the water more than once during this past year at the academy," Gion clarified.

The three Navy trainees who had beaten up Smoker were eventually taken away by the disciplinary department, and their fate didn't look promising.

Not wanting to interact too much with Gion, Wood led Smoker back to their dormitory with a disgruntled expression.

As they settled in, Smoker, while painfully applying ointment to his bruises, curiously asked, "Wood, you and Gion-senpai must have a good relationship, right? Otherwise, she wouldn't have helped you get into the officer training program and then helped us out just now."

Since most of the senior trainees had left the academy to report to their assigned units, there weren't many seniors left on campus.

So far, Smoker had only encountered Wood and Gion among the remaining seniors.

Smoker couldn't help but admire Gion. She was the epitome of a Navy elite—strong and gentle. Despite being a woman, her ability to effortlessly defeat three Navy trainees in one move filled Smoker with respect.

As for Wood, Smoker felt that he was more of a disgrace to the Navy than an elite.

Not only had Wood tricked him, a newbie, into paying for his meal, but he also pushed him into danger to take the hit when things got tough—Wood was the worst kind of scum.

Despite what Gion-senpai had said about Wood's past exploits, Smoker found it hard to believe.

Rather than believing Wood's shameless behavior was just a facade, Smoker was more inclined to think that Wood's true nature was exactly what he displayed now. Maybe the Wood from Maple Leaf Island and the Wood now were two completely different people!

"Good relationship with Gion? You must be joking. Didn't you see how she was itching to cut me with her sword earlier? Let me give you some advice as my junior—no matter how pretty a Navy woman might be, never get involved with them. Gion is a pain. Every time I run into her, it's bad news. If it weren't for her having so many fans and powerful backers, I would've smacked her over my knee by now," Wood ranted.

Smoker remained silent, continuing to apply the ointment. Although he wanted to respond, he knew that Wood was full of hot air.

In Smoker's opinion, there was no way Wood could be a match for Gion, the current number one trainee at the academy. Wood's demeanor when facing her earlier had already shown how little credibility his words had.

Not wanting to either flatter Wood insincerely or get himself punched for speaking the truth, Smoker wisely chose to keep quiet.

Boasting to himself wasn't much fun, and Wood had hoped to have a junior who would at least play along with his ego, but Smoker just wasn't that kind of person.

Several days passed, and although Wood made multiple attempts to submit his graduation application, all of them were unsurprisingly rejected.

While Smoker and the new recruits began their basic training, Wood and the remaining trainees began their "Navy Officer" advanced training.

Compared to the basic training for Navy grunts, the officer training covered much more.

The curriculum included command, hand-to-hand combat, martial arts, swordsmanship, and the Rokushiki techniques.

Of course, since one's energy is limited, aside from command training and hand-to-hand combat, the students could choose to specialize in either martial arts, swordsmanship, or Rokushiki.

Even the Rokushiki techniques themselves weren't something that every student could fully master.

Finally, Wood understood why he hadn't seen much of Zephyr at the academy—it was simple.

As a Navy Admiral, Zephyr had a certain level of prestige, and not just any Navy trainee had the honor of being his student.

Only those who were considered the Navy's elite and were being groomed as future officers had the privilege of being taught by him.

Out of the thousands who had initially joined the Navy academy in Wood's cohort, fewer than a hundred remained.

"From today onward, I will be your combat instructor. I'll also be responsible for teaching you Rokushiki, combat strategy, martial arts, and other courses. You may refer to me as Instructor Zephyr."

Note: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 68 at patreon.com/Betek.