Trouble

The berries that the crew received were spent on fixing up the ship and buying anything that was missing.

Alyssia was enjoying her time browsing the weapons shops and looking at the different styles of staffs and guns in their possession.

Even in Logue Town, the weapon store there sold many types of weapons but even the cheap sword barrel had a price range of fifty thousand berries per sword while the weapons behind the counter were shown to range from one to five million berries per weapon which were believed to be his better quality items.

Thanks to the difficulty to kill a Sea King and their rarity of appearing on the market after being coveted by the Navy, World Government and the Nobles, the crew had a lot of spending money.

After purchasing a couple of different styles of guns and rifles and their bullets for her and Nica's research purposes, she picked out a couple of different shapes of staffs of high quality and asked the shopkeeper. "Who made these? Is it anyone local?"

Although she was not an expert in forging and metalworking from what she had learned on Zou, she still had an eye for high quality products especially when there was a higher price tag on it.

There were some skills that needed a lot of studying and experimentation which made them easy to master but others take too long to perfect the timing, control and use of various materials for skills like blacksmithing to forge different types of weapons, armour or other tools.

If it was another skill that did not require so much time and patience then she would gladly put her time into learning it earnestly but truthfully she did not have the talent for it and even with the systems help there would always be some kind of fault with her final product.

Her and Nica's specialty was in engineering, energy science and physics so although repairs could be made and things could be built, they would not be the most sturdy or high quality items unless she found someone to properly forge the parts from the design so that the final product does not break apart during a battle.

The old man at the counter inspected them and spoke. "Don't even think about it… I had a hard time getting hold of those myself. Some of them are from the islands best forger but he is tied up with the royalty of the country and cannot escape from his duty to produce weapons for their army but some slip through to some of the higher ranking noble families or the black market. The others are brought in from another island but I have their information in the back if you need it?"

'So if I approach such an individual for his skills I risk offending the royals just as I have settled down here temporarily… I can't have them complaining to the Marines and risk a bounty on my head.' Alyssia nodded and then replied. "Alright, that would be a great help thanks."

Alyssia thought about it again and came to the conclusion. 'I really need a character like Franky who is good with building things and has knowledge in many different areas or at least someone with high forging skills.'

After a couple of days, her crew had bought many things after her weapon purchases.

Nica bought many different types of books, ores, minerals and other types of materials like some gun powder to develop her weapons further and research.

Carrot bought many clothes for herself and the others as she visited many clothing stores.

Tristan bought any books containing techniques or methods to deal with various diseases, poisons or injuries to enhance her usefulness to the crew in times of need along with some herbs and other tools.

Clifford bought two swords to replace his badly damaged and old sword that he had carried for a long time while Archie bought some wood, nails and other tools to help make some repairs and modifications on the ship.

On the ship, the sound of hammering and the busy crew members working on their own things.

After working out at a high intensity, Alyssia could be seen in a yoga-like pose stretching and bending her body in different ways.

As she finished she wiped her face with a towel and headed out of the room to check on the others progress.

On the ship there were many types of new things but now there were even different types of weights for training but the biggest change was the front of the ship which had been modified a little.

The top half of the Sea King's head in its skeletal form was now put in place on the front of the ship exposing the large teeth in a clear view of those that have a view of the front of the ship.

Instead of the design of the two snakes on the front of the ship like the Kuja Pirates, her own ship now had the top half of the skull from a Sea King which had a crack at the top of it from Alyssia's kick.

Suddenly there was a commotion nearby which distracted her from the status of her crew members.

A large group of pirates were approaching the ship with a look of greed in their eyes.

After the sale of the Sea King, many would be tempted by the large amount of berries that it was sold for and her crew would become targets of such people.

There were factions split into different categories among them too.

One group believed that her crew had taken down the Sea King with their own skills, another group believed that they must have a high grade weapon capable of killing Sea Kings while another believed that they just so happened to come across its dead body by luck.

If the first was true then she and her crew were dangerous and should not be provoked but if the other two were true then there was little risk of their deaths if they tested out their theory or let others do it for them because they believed that Alyssia and her crew would not risk using such a weapon in front of so many people on the island that could also cause the surroundings heavy damage.

The first people who approached was a small time and greedy group of pirates with a low bounty who believed that their opponents were either lucky to get the Sea King corpse after its death or it was already heavily wounded so was easy to finish off with cannons so they felt no threat from Alyssia's crew.

Looking at them below as they tried to climb aboard the ship, Alyssia yelled. "Everyone get ready to fight! No use of special abilities and practice your physical skills or use of weapons. If possible subdue but if you cannot help killing them nobody would care."

As their cover was that they were zoan devil fruit users, they could not use their Electro in public and killing many people would create a bad image even if they were pirates.

She took out the couple of different staffs that she had purchased and chose one to wield while the others got themselves ready for combat in their own way.

Suddenly a declaration was heard from the ship by the pirates who were climbing on board. "We challenge you pirates to a duel! Name yourselves and accept if you dare!"

Angered by the challenge their captain yelled in a rage. "As the Blood Axe Pirates Captain, Vic Goa, I accept your duel but do not think I will spare you! If you want mercy from me you will be asking the wrong person ahahaha. Men! Kill them all!"

On board the ship Alyssia was seen resting her body on the upright staff while looking down at the approaching pirates and she let out a sigh. "It is time to earn back some points and gain more fame…"

She looked at the side of the docking area where there were many onlookers in the dark and her eyes turned cold. "Keep sending them.. it will only feed me more."

A big smirk appeared on her face as her crew appeared behind her one by one waiting for the arrival of the pirates.