Experiment

"Cadet Venator takes cadet Gradi and Lapid's places.", Jax called out, before asking Venator, "Would you like to transfer the extra spot to anyone else?"

When he said that, the cadets in the normal camp looked at Venator with hopeful eyes, and Venator glanced at all of them before replying, "I would like to transfer cadet Lapid's spot to cadet Stes."

"Stes?", Jax mumbled before pulling out a clip and flipping through papers.

"Alright, that's fine. Cadet Stes will take cadet Lapid's place as the No. 87 of the elite camp. Cadet Venator will take Gradi's place as the No. 60 of the elite camp."

Venator nodded and headed for his dorm to gather his baggage, on his way, he spotted Stes and beckoned him to follow Venator.

"Come on, let's go. We need to get our things."

"You passed already?"

"Of course."

"How did your opponents fight?"

"They were both close-ranged fighters."

Stes asked Venator many questions about his fight, and Venator calmly answered all of them.

When they got back to their dorm, they headed to their room immediately, and packed up their things.

After they were finished, they headed to the building next to theirs; the elite's.

The moment Venator stepped into the building, he could already see the differences in treatment between the two camps.

Compared to the rundown building of the normal recruits, the elite's building was far more elegant and beautiful. The interior was decorated with paintings and the cafeteria served food that was incomparable to their previous residence's.

Stes gasped in pleasant surprise as they entered the building, and he excitedly pointed out everything to Venator.

"Look! There's paintings everywhere, and the food looks tasty as well!"

"I'm aware. Quiet down, Stes. You're making a commotion."

Stes realized that he was speaking a little too loudly and he shot an apologetic glance to Venator, and they continued on their way to their rooms.

When they arrived, Venator opened the door and he was met with a sudden rush of heat.

"Sakazuki-san, please stop using your devil fruit, it may harm the new arrivals~"

Venator looked at the floor and his eyebrows rose when he saw magma dripping on it. He quickly found the source of the magma when he looked at the occupant of the bed in the corner, a young man in a red outfit.

"Hm?"

The man grunted in surprised and stopped whatever he was doing, before glancing at Venator and Stes.

"You must be the new arrivals.", the man asked.

Venator nodded in response.

After getting his answer, he nodded and went back to whatever he was doing.

Venator then glanced at the other occupant of the room, and he introduced himself.

"Hello, my name is Venator. It's nice to meet you."

"You as well~ My name's Borsalino, and he's Sakazuki. You and the boy look quite young. How old are you guys?"

"I'm 17, and he's 12. His name is Stes, by the way."

"Mmh... Stes is quite young."

"I agree."

"Well, the beds over there," Borsalino pointed at the unoccupied bed on the opposite side of the room, "Are yours. Feel free to place your belongings in the closet." Borsalino finished as he gestured towards the closet.

"Thank you."

Venator and Stes began unloading their luggage, and Stes asked a question.

"Hey Borsalino, does Sakazuki have a devil fruit? Do you have a devil fruit?"

Sakazuki, the man in question, glanced at Stes and gruffly replied, "We both have devil fruits."

Borsalino went into more details, "He ate the Magu Magu no Mi and became a magma human, while I ate the Pika Pika no Mi, and I'm a light human."

"Woah! That's so cool! Can you do some cool tricks?"

Borsalino chuckled and said, "Of course."

He then proceeded to create balls of light and made it flow towards the ceiling, before exploding them in a shower of gold glitter.

Stes clapped in response to that, and he glanced at Sakazuki.

"Can you do something as well?"

"I'd destroy the room."

"Oh."

Stes' stomach rumbled, and Venator asked him, "Are you hungry?"

Stes nodded in response.

"Then let's go eat. Would you like to join us, Sakazuki, Borsalino?"

"I just ate."

"Me as well~"

"Alright, then have a good day."

Venator and Stes left the room and headed for the cafeteria, where they got their portions of food.

"Great! Now we won't have to ste- MMH", Venator covered Stes' mouth before he gave out any 'unneeded' information.

Their food was packed with protein, being steaks, and they had vegetables on the side as well.

"Eat your vegetables.", Venator reminded Stes.

"Alright."

They enjoyed their meals, and Venator gave Stes 30 minutes to digest before beckoning him to go outside for more training.

"Alright, today's your aim training. Hit that branch off the tree."

"Mmmh."

Stes drew his bow and aimed at his target, before letting the arrow fly through the air, hitting exactly where he intended.

"Good. Now practice shooting while moving."

"Okay."

Venator threw rocks at Stes, and he dodged while he drew more arrows and fired them at Venator.

Most of the arrows missed, but there were a few that lucked their way into forcing Venator to deflect them with his own bow.

"Now, practice shooting moving target. I expect you to hit at least half."

"Okay."

Venator continued throwing rocks at Stes, and Stes started firing arrows towards the rocks flying at him.

The flurry of rocks and arrows collided with each other knocking both out of them out of the air.

Venator nodded in approval, and gathered more rocks.

"Good luck."

This time, Venator threw all of them at once, and Stes was forced to try and do the same.

Stes drew many arrows and fitted as many of them on his bow as he possibly could, before drawing and releasing the bowstring, letting the arrows loose.

Some arrows were dropped to the ground, while others sailed through the air and hit their marks, but in the end, most of the arrows failed to hit their targets.

"Practice shooting many arrows at once. Trust me, that'll be very useful."

"Okay."

Then, Venator walked away to do his own training with his devil fruit.

...

Once Venator was sure that he was far enough away from the camps, he activated his ability, gathering wisps of blue energy and solidifying them into many different shapes.

He created some blades and commanded them to fly at a tree, and surprisingly, it was quite easy to do so, although the blades did little to harm the tree.

'If I don't have my bow with me, I could do this for unarmed combat...'

That was when Venator was struck with inspiration.

If he could create blades out of thin air, why couldn't he create a bow?

Venator willed the blue energy form a bow, before grasping it in his hand.

He adjusted the bow's shape until he felt comfortable with it, and created arrows and nocked them on the ethereal bowstring.

He pulled the string back and let loose the arrows, aiming at a tree.

The arrows pierced the tree with ease, penetrating it and the one behind it as well.

Although the results were good, Venator frowned.

'It's not as good as when I do it with my actual bow...'

The ability to form a bow out of thin air would be useful to Venator, but that only applied to situations where he wouldn't have his bow, which would be extremely rare due to the fact that he always carry his bow with him.

"Tch." Venator clicked his tongue and proceeded to experiment more.

He would be here for a very long time.