Chapter 14

Markus looked over his options for his Image Training with a smile. For this session, he selected a desert-scape so he would be fighting in a proper environment. He decided to work his way up from the lower numbers to the higher numbers so Mr. 4, Lassoo, and Ms. Merry Christmas were all summoned as a team for him to fight against. Mr. 4 was a large round man that wielded a four-ton baseball bat. Lassoo was a weird combination of a dog and a gun. Meanwhile, Ms. Merry Christmas was a short older looking woman with a brown skin tone and a reddish colored afro.

While Ms. Merry Christmas used her Devil Fruit, the Mogu Mogu no Mi, to turn into her mole form and started digging a bunch of tunnels for her and Mr. 4 to hide inside, Markus adjusted his equipment. He wasn't a big fan of katanas but since he had two high-grade ones, he decided to use at least one of them. He chose the simple-looking Kashu to go along with his two revolvers.

--------------------------------------------------

Kashu

Item Level 100

Katana

Damage: 204-342

Features: Heavy, Durable, Eternal Sharpness

--------------------------------------------------

Markus drew the katana to get a feel for it. It really was heavier than its look would imply. The spine of the sword was black while the hamon, or pattern, on the blade was a simple rounded wave that looked light blue while the edge was shining silver. The tsuba, or guard, was a simple round design that gave the whole blade a simplistic look. It wasn't as cool looking as Zoro's Sandai Kitetsu but it would work for him. Aside from that, the amount of damage it could deal was phenomenal.

Once Ms. Merry Christmas finished digging her network of tunnels in the desert, their teamwork attacks began. Lassoo was a special gun that had somehow been fed one of the Inu Inu no Mi Devil Fruits. How a non-living item could eat a Devil Fruit was never really explained in the series so even with all his knowledge, Markus still didn't know how to do it. Lasoo would fire explosive baseballs from his mouth. If they missed their target, Mr. 4 would pop out of one of the tunnels and use his four-ton baseball bat to hit the ball back at the target.

While those two did that, Ms. Merry Christmas would use her ability to dig through the ground and attempt to open holes beneath Markus to catch him, pop out of the ground to try and slash him with her long claws, or try to grab his feet to pull him around. With his Observation Haki, Markus was able to dodge every attack they sent his way. If he couldn't outright dodge it he could escape the area of effect with his speed. With the combination of his Haki and speed, every one of their attacks was useless against him. He let the fight go on for a while to get a read on all of their skills and found them... lacking. When he was bored with it all, he decapitated all three of them.

--------------------------------------------------

You have defeated Babe (Mr. 4), +10,000 experience.

You have defeated Drophy (Ms. Merry Christmas), +14,000 experience.

You have defeated Lassoo, +5,000 experience.

--------------------------------------------------

The amount of experience they gave clearly demonstrated just how weak they were. Still, they could be quickly and easily farmed for the experience. His next opponent was Mr. 2. He was clearly a man that needed to meet up with Emporio Ivankov and get a quick sex change. He wore an excessive amount of feminine makeup and a ballerina outfit complete with wings and swans on his back. His Devil Fruit really had very little combat utility to it. It was excellent for assassination or spy work but other than that it wasn't all that great. Now, if it could copy EVERYTHING about someone, including their Devil Fruit, then it would be the single most powerful Devil Fruit in the world.

Since Mr. 2 pretty much only had his Okama Kenpo to rely on when fighting Markus, the fight was pretty one-sided. That wasn't to say that Mr. 2 wasn't surprisingly strong given how thin his limbs were, it was just a bad match up. If Markus put Kashu away the fight would be significantly harder but a physical body without Armament Haki was no match for a sharp blade coated in Haki. Mr. 2 was swiftly sliced apart.

--------------------------------------------------

You have defeated Bentham (Mr. 2 Bon Clay), +45,000 experience.

You have leveled up! Hit Points and Willpower fully restored. You have gained 5 attribute points.

--------------------------------------------------

Markus smiled at his level up. Thanks to how much experience Mr. 2 was worth, he was looking forward to seeing what Mr. 1 and Ms. Doublfinger were worth. He decided to fight Ms. Doublefinger next. Ms. Doublefinger was the second most attractive woman working for Baroque Works. Like most of the beautiful women in One Piece, she was tall and slender with a buxom chest. There was one flaw with her looks though, her waist was almost sickeningly thin. Her long blue hair almost looked similar to an afro. Personally, he preferred when she had her hair tied in a ponytail and wore a bandana with her 'Paula' disguise.

Her Devil Fruit let her generate sharp spikes from any part of her body and impale her targets with them. The spikes could be created with enough speed and force to pierce through solid stone or concrete walls. It also gave her the ability to walk on any solid surface by creating spikes on the bottom of her feet. The most interesting thing she could do was a 'doping' ability that greatly enhanced her physical strength.

The spikes she could generate also made for an excellent defense against melee fighters. Since she could generate spikes instantly, she could instantly counter-attack. It was decent but didn't help her much against him with his Tekkai and Armament Haki to tank attacks he couldn't dodge from up close. With Kashu and his Armament Haki, he didn't have much trouble cutting through her defenses and putting her down.

--------------------------------------------------

You have defeated Zala (Ms. Doublefinger), +35,000 experience.

--------------------------------------------------

Markus sat back and thought for a bit. He honestly wasn't sure if he could defeat Mr. 1 or not. It wasn't a matter of him having the strength or not but about Mr. 1's unique body. He was basically made of solid steel and would make blades out of his entire body. Markus's sword skill was nowhere near good enough to slice through steel on its own. He wasn't even sure he could do so with his Armament Haki. With his Hasshoken he could easily decimate Mr. 1 but at the same time, it would be like punching the edge a sword.

Markus thought about it for a bit and decided to go for it. If he couldn't find a way to defeat Mr. 1 then there was always the option of quitting. He had no fear of Mr. 1 being able to defeat him, just of the fight pointlessly dragging out. With his mind made up, he summoned Mr. 1 and began the fight.

Mr. 1 was a tall muscular man with darkly tanned skin and a shaved head. His long arms and fingers matched well with his Devil Fruit, the Supa Supa no Mi, which allowed him to turn any part of his body into a blade. It was definitely a pretty impressive fruit granting excellent offensive and defensive abilities. However, it lacked utility and would be significantly less powerful in the second half of the Grand Line where just about any decent swordsman could cut steel. If he wanted a weapon-related Devil Fruit though, Baby 5's Buki Buki no Mi was similar to the Supa Supa no Mi but could also produce other weapons at will making it superior, in his opinion.

As the fight began, Markus activated both of his Haki skills turning the blade of Kashu pitch black. Markus thought it looked better that way. On his side, Mr. 1 turned the edges of his fingers and forearm into sharp blades easily capable of slicing through stone. As Mr. 1 charged at Markus, he shifted Kashu to his left hand and used it to block Mr. 1's incoming attack. As Mr. 1's fingers clashed with Markus's blade, four slash marks appeared in the ground behind Markus. Markus counter-attacked by punching at Mr. 1's stomach with his Armament Haki coated fist.

As Markus's black fist slammed into Mr. 1's stomach there was a loud metallic clash followed by the air rippling as Markus added his Hasshoken to his punch. Mr. 1 was forced back by the impact but stopped after only a couple of feet. Markus took a few steps back and checked his hand. Despite the coating of Haki, there were still a few gashes on his knuckles from punching Mr. 1 and the blades he created on his stomach when Markus punched him.

The fight would be a lot simpler if he could use Hasshoken though his sword but it was restricted to his body. At least the damage he took was minimal and he dealt more to Mr. 1 in exchange. The fight immediately continued as Mr. 1 charged at Markus. It took time and effort but Markus was able to, eventually, wear Mr. 1 down and defeat him by using the True Damage bonus from his Hasshoken skill.

--------------------------------------------------

You have defeated Daz Bonez (Mr. 1), +50,000 experience.

--------------------------------------------------

He smiled, he'd forgotten that Mr. 1 had one of the cooler names in One Piece. Markus left his Image Training and started using his Meditation skill to recover his lost health. There was no need for him to waste perfectly good health potions outside of combat. Once he was recovered, he went back into his image training and looked at his list. The last person he wanted to beat the snot out of was Crocodile.

To give Crocodile as much of an edge as he could, Markus picked a straight desert setting with nothing else in sight. Crocodile's best defense was the intangibility granted by all Logia-type Devil Fruits. That wasn't to say Crocodile was weak or couldn't handle himself in a fight. Far from it. Crocodile could fight against both Doflomingo and Mihawk at the battle of Marineford after he was freed from Impel Down. He didn't beat them but he did manage to block attacks from both of them and come out relatively unharmed. Still, Markus had a plan to deal with Crocodile in reality. In his Image Training, he could just kill him as much as he wanted.

The point of fighting Corocdile in his image training was to learn his moves and prepare countermeasures. With that being the case, Markus left Kashu in its sheath. As Crocodile appeared in front of him, the simulation wasted no time and aggressively attacked. His right hand turned into writhing sand shaped like a blade. He bent over and stabbed the sand blade directly into the ground. Markus both recognized the attack and felt it coming with his Haki allowing him to dodge the straightforward attack with ease. As Markus dodged to the side a massive slash mark appeared on the ground.

The clones in the system never spoke so unlike the real Crocodile, the fake didn't call out the names of his attacks. Frankly, that was something Markus never understood. Calling out the name sounded cool and all but it also gave information to your enemy. Still, it seemed like tradition so when he had special attacks he might call out some of their names for giggles. With the first attack failing, Crocodile summoned another sand blade with his hand and slammed it into the ground. It wasn't the same attack though. The ground beneath Markus instantly started to collapse as it became a sinkhole.

Markus leaped into the air and starting kicking off of it to escape the range of the sinkhole and get away from the attack. With the last of his steps, he landed next to Crocodile while wrapping his right hand with Armament Haki and curling it into a fist with only his index finger sticking out. His Shigan stabbed into Crocodile's shoulder while his Haki prevented Crocodile from turning into sand to avoid the damage. After his blow landed, Markus leaped back and got out of range of a counter-attack.

The simulations didn't care about damage or feel pain, they acted just like a true NPC from a game. Crocodile didn't flinch from the attack and immediately began to counter-attack. Crocodile swung his arm launching a crescent-shaped wave of sand. Markus felt extreme danger from the attack and quickly used Geppo to leap through the air and avoid it. If he wasn't mistaken, that attack was one of the ones Crocodile used to drain the moisture out of people and mummify them, something Markus had no intention of experiencing.

Once he landed, Markus activated his footwork and drastically increased his movement speed. With his footwork activated, Crocodile's threat level dropped significantly. Crodocile was fast but with his footwork, Markus reached a speed equivalent to having nearly 900 Agility. If the buff actually increased his agility it would be extremely broken, sadly it only affected his movement speed. Crocodile was fast, extremely fast, but nowhere near 900 Agility fast. Markus used his speed advantage to move close and dish out attacks combining his Armament Haki and Shigan to riddle the man with bullet-like holes. Markus finished off Crocodile before the buff from his footwork wore off.

--------------------------------------------------

You have defeated Crocodile, +85,000 experience.

You have leveled up! Hit Points and Willpower fully restored. You have gained 5 attribute points.

--------------------------------------------------

Markus sighed and sat on the ground. Speed really was king in a fight. That brought a smile to his face. Once he got his hands on the Goro Goro no Mi there was only one person he knew for sure would be faster than him, Kizaru and his Pika Pika no Mi. There was literally nothing faster than the speed of light and if there was, the laws of physics would completely break down. At least, that was how it worked in his old world. Who knew if that was true in the One Piece world?

Markus spent some time pondering that before getting into his grinding. He started with Mr. 4 and Ms. Merry Christmas, followed by Mr. 2, and Mr. 1 until their experience value dropped too low to be worthwhile. He didn't have enough time to make his way to beating Crocodile and Ms. Doublefinger until they were worthless. When the sun came up he'd reached level 51. His skills grew along with his level, however, his Basic Sword Mastery skill stopped at level 75 just as his Basic Gun Mastery had. He had no idea why those two skills wouldn't continue to grow any further.

With the levels he'd gained, he had a total of fifty attribute points he could spend now. He crossed his arms over his chest and wondered how he should spend his points. After looking things over for a bit he slowly and carefully spent his points and increase every attribute he could by at least a little bit. When he was done he looked over his status with a smile.

--------------------------------------------------

Name: Silvers D. Markus

Age: 16

Class: Noob Pirate

Level: 51

Exp: 3,016,000/3,251,250

Hit Points: 1,300/1,300 (+75.4/minute)

Willpower: 2,000/2,000 (+55/30 seconds)

Strength (STR): 165

Vitality (VIT): 130

Agility (AGI): 150

Spirit (SPT): 200

Wisdom (WIS): 100

Charisma (CHA): 73

Luck (LCK): 62

Attribute Points: 0

Belly: 131,574,350

New Skill!

True Spirit

[Passive]

Your Spirit has grown to an impressive degree giving you insight into your own mind and soul.

Willpower recovery time reduced by 50%.

Willpower recovery rate reduced by 50%.

--------------------------------------------------

Markus looked over the new skill and was perplexed by it for a moment. It didn't seem like much at first glance but really, it was quite excellent. The total amount of Willpower he would recover in a minute was unchanged but now he would get two ticks per minute instead of just one. It meant that when he used a skill like his footwork, which cost 25 Willpower, he would recover that spent Willpower in 30 seconds rather than an entire minute. It was definitely far more convenient for him to recover his Willpower that little bit sooner in some cases.

After getting dressed in his black suit and putting on his pig-face, Markus enjoyed a nice breakfast before heading to Rain Dinners to gain a few million more Belly. He picked a roulette table with a pretty woman working at it and tortured her with his ugly mug and terrible flirting while he played. Just an hour or so after he started playing he felt a sudden surge of power flowing through his body as his 'Power of Friendship' skill activated. Before long it was followed shortly by a loud commotion coming from outside of the casino. He continued to play while he looked in the direction of the noise. Seconds later, Luffy, Nami, Zoro, and Usopp came crashing into Rain Dinners. Luffy immediately started shouting, "CROCODILE!!! SHOW YOURSELF!!!"

Markus smiled at the scene but didn't move from where he was sitting. He could let them go play for a while, while he sat where he was making money. Maybe after all of this was over, he'd find a chance to go on a date with Nami. It wouldn't be much longer before they arrived in Skypeia. His plan was to separate from them for a while to get the hang of the powers he would be gaining. He wasn't sure if he would rejoin them for Eins Lobby or not but he would definitely see Luffy again at the War of Marineford.

As he was thinking and absent-mindedly gambling, Smoker came running into Rain Dinners chasing after Luffy. The group took off through the building and ran toward a door labeled 'VIP' with Smoker right on their heels. Once they were out of sight, Markus returned most of his attention to his gambling. For now, he'd leave things to happen below as they did in the canon story. He didn't need to be present to listen to Crocodile give away all of his plans while Smoker listened. On the bright side, this meant that tomorrow he would be able to kick the crap out of Crocodile once and for all.

By the time Crocodile finished his exposition and left through the VIP entrance, Markus had pocketed another 4.5 million Belly. As Crocodile and Robin were making their way out of the casino, Robin glanced in Markus's direction. Spotting her looking at him, he gave her a playful wink. She immediately looked away and continued to follow Crocodile out of the casino. With them leaving, it was time for Markus to make his move. He collected his winnings from the table and pocketed them. As the pretty woman working the table watched him, Markus reverted his piggy face back to his real face.

As the woman watched Markus's face shift, her jaw dropped. Markus wasn't the most attractive man in the world, but for a brief moment when he reverted his face, he looked like an Adonis to the woman. Markus flipped her a 5,000 Belly chip as a tip and winked at her before pulling his hat down over his eyes and made his way to the VIP entrance. Nobody stopped him as he walked through the door. At the end of the hallway was a sign that pointed to the left and right. Left for VIP's, right for pirates. Markus took the right while smiling. It quickly led to a dead-end with a trapdoor.

Markus knelt down and curled his hand into a fist. He punched the floor and used his Hasshoken to cause vibrations in it. The vibrations reverberated causing the floor to shatter into pieces and drop him down into the darkness below.

--------------------------------------------------

New Hasshoken Subskill Unlocked!

Shatterpoint - Using the reverberations of the Hasshoken skill you can destroy almost any solid surface in a single blow.

--------------------------------------------------

Markus fell through the dark for a few seconds before comfortably landing on his feet in knee-deep water. Everyone locked inside of the cage looked at Markus in surprise. Markus smiled and raised his hand, "Yo!"