90. Reward of Hardwork

Jude's sudden appearance on the Volcano's peak without any preparation has made Buggy & Ruff depressed. Both of them need a lot of effort to reach this place, but Jude just comes here like it's a walk in the park.

"I get defeated by my crew," says Buggy with a depressed tone.

"That's nothing, I've tried to climb for 5 years and made many items to help me. To think this is just an easy thing for someone else really breaks my heart. What a useless 5 years," says Ruff with a more depressed tone.

Jude gets flustered and thinks of a way to cheer them, but nothing comes to her mind. Now she feels bad for coming up here.

"C-Captain, s-sorry," says Jude with an apologetic tone.

"It's fine, everyone has their strength & weakness. I'm just not strong enough," says Buggy, still with a depressed tone, and his mouth is twitching.

"Yeah, let's just finish this fast. I will cry if we stay here for too long," says Ruff with a dead expression.

Buggy & Ruff stand and walk again, but they walk weakly like their souls have left their bodies. Jude can only look down and sighs seeing this. She follows them to walk around the volcano's mouth.

They walk around for some minutes while looking at their surrounding. There might be something unusual in this place and they can't miss it. Their guess is right because they see something in the cliff, near the lava below.

They see a small black stick that comes out from the cliff. It is a charred wood that doesn't burn to ashes even though the temperature is very high. Then on the tip of that wood is a small round item.

"No way! A devil fruit!?" claims Buggy with a surprised tone.

"Fruit? How is it possible for a fruit to grow here?" asks Ruff curiously.

"It's not any fruit, it's a devil fruit. They can survive in any extreme condition that will surely destroy normal fruits," says Buggy excitedly.

"But it's still a fruit, right? The tree should grow first before the fruit and a tree can't grow here. Even if it could, the eruptions should blow it away. At the very least, the molten lava should cover it and it will become a rock when the lava cooled down," says Ruff with an expression of doubt.

Buggy gives Ruff annoyed looks and says, "But the proof is here. Don't use your logic on something like devil fruit!"

"Hey, I just tried to analyze the possibility," says Ruff to defend himself.

"Maybe this volcano was just a normal mountain in the past?" ponders Jude.

"Who cares about the reason or anything else. The important thing is that we should take that devil fruit. Jude, I will forgive you if you take that fruit. Heat isn't a problem for you, so only you can take it easily," says Buggy to Jude.

Jude & Ruff look stinkily at Buggy, "What a cheapskate."

Buggy gets pissed and shouts, "JUST HURRY UP AND TAKE IT!"

"Aye aye," says Jude lazily.

Jude then transforms her hands into ashes and flies them to take the fruit. She grabbed the fruit and pluck it easily from its tree. After the fruit is plucked, the tree suddenly withers and turns into ashes.

"So the fruit is the one that makes the wood survive," ponders Buggy.

Jude takes the fruit and gives it to Buggy for an inspection. The fruit is like a melon with black stonish color & texture, similar to lava rock. It has red glowing swirling lines with some red-like cracks too.

"I have never seen this fruit in any books about devil fruit. It seems this fruit was here for a very long time and no one has found it," ponders Buggy.

"What fruit do you think it is?" asks Jude.

"I don't know. The only way to find it out is by letting someone eat it. But I can guess that it has the power that involves a volcano. It won't be magma or lava logia though, because someone else has that power," says Buggy.

"How'd you know that it involves a volcano though?" asks Ruff.

"Because of its growing place. No one knows exactly how a devil fruit can manifest. But there's a theory that if a devil fruit user dies, the fruit will reincarnate to the closest fruit with the highest compatibility. However, no one knows exactly how the first devil fruits appear. My guess is from the environment, especially an extreme one like this," says Buggy.

"But how about something like your Chop Chop Fruit? What environment that have extreme chopping condition?" asks Jude curiously.

"I told you that's just a guess. No one knows for sure how it happened. No one even knows when did the first devil fruits appeared," says Buggy.

They just get more confused as they talk about it, so they leave that topic. They'll just be happy with their finding and leave the difficult topic alone. Someone else might want to think about it, but they won't be that someone.

Buggy places the fruit in his backpack and then they climbed down. They don't find anything else and they've been here for too long. Buggy & Ruff's suits also seem to almost reach their limit, so they need to leave.

The three arrived on the volcano's foot after some minutes. They're surprised to see that there are many people there. Buggy's crew and Ruff's mother are among the crowd too.

"Did something happen?" asks Buggy.

"Of course, you succeeded to climb the volcano, that's what happened. These people want to see if you've really done it, so they came here," says Cricket while smirking.

"Oh, so it's nothing serious," says Buggy.

"So, how is it?" asks Cricket.

"It's very nice up there until someone made me depressed," says Buggy while looking at Jude.

"Captain, you said you'll forgive me," says Jude with a wronged look.

"I forgive you, but I never said I will forget it," says Buggy.

"Cheapskate," say the Clowns together.

Buggy gets pissed and shouts at them, "YOU GUYS WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND WHAT I FEEL. IT WAS VERY HARD FOR ME, BUT SHE JUST CAME THERE LIKE NOTHING."

"That's what we always felt when we saw your power," says Cricket.

"THIS AND THAT ARE DIFFERENT," shouts Buggy pissedly.

Buggy keeps rambling and complaining to his crew. They also argue back to him and say what they want, especially Cricket. Buggy & Cricket then get into a brawl like kids. The other crewmates just watch and let them brawl.

While that happens, Ruff goes to his mother and just smiles. Riana looks at her son and smiles too while hugging him. She is very proud of her son and most importantly, she is glad that he is safe.

The town's people start to surround Ruff and ask him many things. They want to confirm if Ruff really reached the peak or not. Ruff answers everything to prove his success.

After hearing all Ruff's answers, the town's people finally believed him. They're shocked that someone really succeeded. But they're also happy because a great history is created on their island today.

______________________________________________________________

You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one in my Pa_treon page if you are interested.

I've uploaded:

1. Chapter 109 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater

2. Chapter 120 of Transcended as Lord Buggy

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