Chapter 141: Drum Kingdom

Atlantis—

Noon.

The sun blazed overhead.

After finishing the morning training and a hearty lunch, Lillian—who served as both lookout and navigator—noticed a change in the weather ahead. She immediately called out to the island-cloud Homie, Atlantis, "There's a big storm coming up ahead. We need to steer clear…"

She pulled out a Vivre Card, observing its slight movement to judge their direction. "Head toward three o'clock, bypass the storm, and we can continue on to Drum Kingdom!"

"Yes, Lillian-sama!" Atlantis responded in a deep, booming voice and quickly adjusted its course, steering around the approaching storm. High above, various flying Homies circling the sky were also called back in.

Just two minutes after they had bypassed the area, the previously sunny sea turned dark and ominous.

'Whooooosh—' The wind howled, lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain poured down in torrents.

Unaffected by the storm, Atlantis continued its journey toward Drum Kingdom, guided by Lillian. As they traveled, the air gradually grew colder, indicating they were nearing the winter island climate.

"El, what are we heading to Drum Kingdom for?"

Tsuru, her hair tied in a ponytail and looking poised and curious, approached and asked, "I've heard it's a snowy island with exceptional doctors, known as a leading nation in medicine."

Since the recent days of bonding and teamwork—particularly after the fusion training with Lily, El, Lillian, and others—everyone had grown closer. With El's approval, Tsuru had started addressing him by his name rather than "Captain."

"13,355… 13,356… 13,357…"

Standing at the edge of the coast, facing the incoming wind, El continued his afternoon workout, swinging his dragon hammer with rhythmic precision. He barely looked up as he answered, "Two reasons…"

"First, I've heard of a famous doctor there named Dr. Kureha, known as the 'Witch' with exceptional skills and longevity techniques. I want to see if she'd consider joining us… If she refuses, then at the very least, she must have collected notes on a wide range of medical cases and treatments over her many years in practice. Nef could make good use of those!"

"I'd also like to ask for her help in developing a special medicine with Nef that could alter the transformation wavelength for Zoan Devil Fruit users."

"And the second reason," he continued, "is that Sally's intelligence network across the Grand Line recently uncovered some information. It seems that a few years ago, someone in Drum Kingdom happened upon a Devil Fruit, which was then taken by the royal family."

"If that Devil Fruit is still around and hasn't been eaten, we'll be taking it."

Even if Sally hadn't uncovered the intel on Drum Kingdom, he had planned to visit. But he hadn't expected her network to grow so quickly that it now reached even Drum Kingdom.

He wondered if the Devil Fruit in the royal family's possession might be the Paramecia-type Munch-Munch Fruit he was looking for.

"Is that so?"

Tsuru was surprised. She knew El had ambitious plans and was always gathering various Devil Fruits to build up his crew's strength.

When they returned to the New World, he would surely recruit more crew members and expand the Fallen Angel Pirates.

"For you to be so interested, Dr. Kureha's medical skills must be impressive!"

Though she sometimes clashed with Nef and didn't always get along with her, Tsuru respected Nef's medical expertise. She had seen firsthand how Nef had kept three critically injured Government commanders alive with ease.

While Nef hadn't fully healed them, that was more out of choice than necessity.

El's remarks clearly implied that Dr. Kureha's skills might surpass even Nef's.

"El-sama, we've arrived… up ahead is Drum Kingdom!"

At that moment, Lillian turned to El and asked, "Should we head down directly?"

Atlantis was floating ten thousand meters in the air, without any cover from the White Sea or the White-White Sea.

Anyone paying attention would notice that the massive cloud overhead looked a bit odd.

"If you all want to go down, go ahead!"

Seeing everyone eager to descend, El shrugged, unconcerned about exposing their location.

After all, the World Government was so far away that by the time they received word and made the journey here, the crew would likely have already left.

Not to mention, at this point, El wasn't particularly worried about being discovered.

If they sent a small force, it would just be more targets; if they sent a large one, he could always retreat.

With that, El clenched his fists, his gaze sharpening: "Life Return!"

Bones cracked and muscles rippled throughout his body, even his wings quivering as he compressed his form down to about three meters.

Though the flames behind his head and his black wings remained striking, his formidable presence was more contained, making him look less imposing and intimidating.

"Hey, El Oniichan, I'm coming too!"

Linlin strode over with a grin, her towering seven-meter figure scooping up the now "miniature" El and nuzzling him affectionately, her eyes smiling.

"I'm heading to the palace. Tag along if you want…" El rolled his eyes and replied, unconcerned.

Then, he turned to Linlin, "By the way, how's your progress with Life Return? I've spent a lot of time teaching you, after all!"

Thanks to the powers of the Pile-Pile Fruit and El's dedicated guidance, Linlin, Lily, Gerd, and others had learned the basics of Life Return with remarkable speed, though each had mastered it to varying degrees.

Gerd, in particular, had made great strides recently. With the ability to inject her own soul into her body, she had achieved the most refined form of Life Return. Being a giant over ten meters tall, she could compress her massive size to a fraction of its original height, even more dramatically than El himself.

Linlin, though limited by her age and power, also had extraordinary talent, quickly mastering Life Return beyond the level of most.

"Hehe, I can compress down to five meters, but reaching the level you've achieved is still pretty challenging!" Linlin gave El a quick kiss and laughed.

For her, this degree of Life Return was already sufficient for battle, as sacrificing a bit of power in exchange for greater speed had both advantages and disadvantages.

As a Mythical Zoan user with the Vampire form, her speed was already significantly enhanced, giving her more options in combat depending on her opponent.

Of course, her size could sometimes be inconvenient, so she planned to keep working on refining her Life Return to achieve a more human-sized form whenever she wanted.

"Hey, don't leave me behind!"

Gerd's voice called from a distance as she leaped down from a high platform, gracefully landing on bubbles that brought her swiftly to the group.

But now she looked quite different from her usual giant appearance.

Instead, Gerd stood at only three or four meters tall, just slightly taller than El.

Her features were lively and radiant, her demeanor cheerful and energetic as she embraced El with a warm smile.

"Hehe, simply amazing…"

Seeing Gerd's form so similar to a human, albeit slightly larger, Tsuru, Nef, Lillian, and the others couldn't help but be amazed, despite having seen her use Life Return to shrink her size before.

With her skin and bone density intensely compressed, Gerd's already impressive giant defense was further strengthened. Although she wasn't as indestructible as El or Linlin, and didn't match the durability of someone like Little Oars Jr., she was still nearly invulnerable to standard weapons, an impressive feat in itself.

While she sacrificed some raw power in her compressed form, Gerd's strength was still far above that of most giants, let alone humans.

In particular, her reduced size granted her agility far beyond what she could achieve in her giant form. Combined with her Soul-Soul Fruit powers, this greatly boosted her combat abilities.