46. Castor & Pollux

"Skillful Grade Swords, are you serious old man?"-Buggy is surprised by the swords' grade

"Yeah, as a swordsmith, I know many famed swords. These 2 have been disappeared for more than 70 years if I'm not wrong. To think that you found them, what a stroke of luck."-Drey

"Well, I hope that my luck doesn't run out because I found them. So, which one is Castor & which one is Pollux?"-Buggy

"The black one is Castor, while the white one is Pollux. Both swords have the same specification and are even made from the same material. The only difference is just their creator, which is twins too."-Drey

Drey explains that Castor was made by the older twin, while Pollux by the younger one. They were made around 100 years ago on Grandline at the request of a prince that wants to be the Strongest Swordsman.

Even though the prince failed to get the title of Strongest Swordsman, but the swords have gained enough fame to be one of the 50 Skillful Grade Swords. It's not only the fame of course, but the swords' high quality too.

"Strongest Swordsman, huh? It's not my type of thing, but I will take the swords. How is their condition?"-Buggy

"They're still in really good condition, just what I expected from famed swords. It just needs basic maintenance, not much needs to be done. Do you want me to do it- No, please let me do it. It's not an everyday thing to come across famed swords after all."-Drey

"Sure, that's why I came here, right? Please inspect them further, because they'll have a lot of battles from now on."-Buggy

"Alright, you can wait here for a few minutes."-Drey

"No, I'll leave & return again later. I want to explore the town for now."-Buggy

"Alright."-Drey

Buggy leaves the workshop to explore the town. The fact that he found famed swords really surprised him. He's really lucky to find them, they're one of the best swords in the world after all.

Even if Skillful Grade Swords aren't the best, but they're still top-grade swords. Only 21 Great Grade Swords & 12 Supreme Grade Swords are above them.

'Their devil fruit might have raised their grade to Great Grade. Then if I can turn them into Black Blade with my haki, they might become Supreme Grade. Well, it's just my assumption, but at least they will be Great Grade if I can make them Black permanently with haki.'-Buggy

Buggy decides to not think much about it and just wait for the future. However, when he thinks of the devil fruit, he becomes shocked.

'To add devil fruit on famed swords, just what was that researcher thinking? Is it because famed swords are stronger? But what if his research failed and broke the swords? Hmm, I think researcher like him doesn't care much about the swords' condition, huh?'-Buggy

Buggy is curious about the researcher's reason to use famed swords. He doesn't explain it in his journal, he doesn't even write that the swords are famed.

"Meh, who cares about that. The swords are fine and even became better. I need to thank him instead of questioning his motive."-Buggy

Buggy walks around the town and looks around for their specialties. The town is home to Craftsmen, so Buggy finds any kind of crafts. He's not into something like this, but he knows that these products are good.

Buggy keeps walking around, and he doesn't find anything he likes except some food. He just buys a lot of food before he returns to Drey's workshop after walking around for an hour.

"How is it?"-Buggy

"There's no problem, just some dirt inside the hilt and scabbard. No rust at all even after years of abandonment. Just what I expected from famed swords."-Drey

Buggy takes the swords and they've become cleaner. Buggy also buy some maintenance kits for his swords. They need good care, so he needs proper tools. Previously, he just use oil on his old normal shortswords.

"How much?"-Buggy

"No need, it's just a little maintenance, so no need for payment. Furthermore, being able to hold 2 of the legendary swords is enough for a swordsmith in West Blue like me."-Drey smile

"Heh, it seems my luck hasn't run out, hahahaha."-Buggy

Buggy then leaves the workshop and returns to his ship. His mates haven't returned, and there's only Salaki there. Buggy gives the food that he bought to Salaki before he starts to train.

"Alright, you've been cleaned, so show me your power!"-Buggy

Buggy starts his sword training using his twin swords. He trains like normal, like training his swings, parry, block, and other techniques. He also keeps trying to use the sword's devil fruit power, but it's not working.

"Just how can I use their power?"-Buggy

Buggy then tries to flow his colorless haki to the swords. He try to have a connection with the swords, so he can command them, but it also didn't work.

"Sigh, I'll work on it slowly. Solving a mystery like this need slow but steady work."-Buggy

Buggy keeps doing his sword training while using his haki. Now he uses hardening, and his hardening is black with a light bluish color. It will form a connection with his swords, and also train his haki.

By using haki extensively until he runs out of it, he will raise his haki capacity slowly. It can also train his haki hardness because he keeps using it. His goal is haki projection, but he needs strong armament haki for that.

"Haki can grow stronger faster if I fight with strong haki users. However, I haven't fought with any haki user so far. My only way is to train it regularly like this. Maybe I can spar with my crew when they can use armament haki."-Buggy

Sometime later, Buggy's crewmates return carrying many groceries. Mantis bought many food ingredients, but she order Cricket to carry them. Jude bought some navigation tools, women's necessities, and also a spear.

"You bought a spear? Can you use it?"-Buggy

"No, but I want to train it. Even with my devil fruit, fighting closely is still scary, so I bought a long spear. I want to use guns, but I don't know how to combine it with my devil fruit, so I choose spear instead."-Jude

"Well, you're free to use whatever you want as long as you train it seriously."-Buggy

"Yes."-Jude

"Hey guys, what'd you want to eat tonight?"-Mantis

"I want meat stew."-Buggy

"Can you make fruit salad?"-Jude

"Anything's fine."-Cricket

"Okay then."-Mantis

Mantis go to the kitchen to cook their dinner. While waiting, the rest of them train their skills. Jude trains his spearsmanship by following a guidebook. As for Buggy & Cricket, they sparred with hand-to-hand combat.

Cricket is actually good in hand-to-hand combat, but he uses his pistols more often because he could defeat his enemies with pistols before he needs to use his hands. His hand-to-hand combat style is also unique because he shapes his hands like beaks, similar to Bentham.

"You need to use your hand-to-hand combat more often! Your pistols will be handy in early battle, but when you fight the bosses, they usually become useless. Even more so if they're devil fruit users."-Buggy

"But I use it every day when I train with you, isn't it enough?"-Cricket

"No, sparring is not a real battle, and fighting one opponent every day isn't useful enough. Everyone has a different fighting style, so you'll need a different approach for each enemy."-Buggy

"Fine, I'll try to use it more often."-Cricket

They keep training until the dinner is ready. They stop their training to eat, and they finish their day with that.

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