Chapter 5

A fight. What is a fight? Well, a fight is… They aren't interested? Bu… Fine ;(

Ahem, James got ready while the other participant named Extra #1 or #1, why? Well, he will never appear in the story again.

Anyway #1 started running towards James.

James started to feel the devil fruits power and turned his feet into swamp and spread it around him.

"What is this?!"

Shouted #1 when he stepped on the swamp.

'Now!'

The moment #1 stepped on the swamp, James could feel it and he started making it soft, making #1's feet sink into it while the swamp started sending tendril like strands of swamp out of it and started wrapping #1 in them, holding him in place.

"Let go of me!! Let g…"

James controlled his swamp to cover #1's mouth.

"Did I win?"

James asked the referee.

"Y-Yes"

The referee was a bit out of it, he has never seen something like that before.

James brought all the swamp back into his body and started walking to the waiting area.

'I did it!! I really did it!! I won!!'

While cheering internally, he was a bit surprised, using the fruit felt instinctive to him, it is only the basic things, but it felt like it did whatever he thought of.

[Congratulations host, you have won your first battle and unlocked the achievement first win]

[First win: The first win is important, it is the starting line, now will you keep winning or never win again? No one can answer that, but to make your chances of winning higher you have to become strong, smarter, more skilled, will you work for it or give up?]

[As you possess the first win achievement, you have gain the ability, winner's right]

[Winner's right:

As a winner you're allowed to boast of your victory.

Description: The more wins you have the better impression you leave on people you meet for the first time.

Current wins: 1

Current boost: 0.01%]

'Doesn't it mean I need 10,000 wins for 100%?!'

[I do not make the rules host]

James felt like he will never win 1000 fights, never mind 10000.

'Forget it, it is a passive, so at least I have it'

James gave up on worrying about it and started thinking of his abilities again, he did good, at least he thinks so since this is his first fight, but he still felt like this fruit can do much more than just that.

Time passed and the fights continued, both James and Lin won all of their matches and finally the semi-finals started.

Lin again effortlessly won her match and it was James's turn.

He too didn't have much problem, some did better than the others against him, but at the end of the day, none of them could actually hit him.

"It is time for the second and last match of the semi-finals!! On one side we have the young master of the Xiu family, Xiu Bao and on the other, we have the mysterious participant that came out of nowhere, with his mysterious sludge powers, SLUDGE MONSTER!!"

'WHO THE FUCK GAVE ME THAT NAME?! I WILL KILL THEM?!'

James has no idea who started it, but at some point everyone started calling him sludge monster since they weren't able to say his name, everytime he hears it he can't help but cringe, but the reason he was really mad, is that he has a bad feeling that it will stick around.

"Participants, get ready, FIGHT!!"

James was brought out of his thoughts with the referee's shout.

He looked at the man in front of him, he was slim with a snake like face, he had long hair and was 1.80 meters tall.

James didn't know why, but he felt a bit of danger from that guy, but the constant easy wins got to his head, so he ignored the feeling.

Which was a big mistake he noticed when suddenly Bao disappeared and he suddenly felt pain in his back, without him even noticing, Bao somehow got behind him and hit him.

Unlike the time with the horses, this time even his instincts weren't fast enough to turn him into swamp.

'Fuck, I didn't expect this'

Although the other people so far were fast, this was on another level, he couldn't even follow his speed.

'I might lose this'

James started to worry, he can't follow the enemy's movement so he doesn't know when to turn and he can't just keep being swamp or he will lose all of his stamina, the thing that carried him so far was the one piece body, even if it was weak it still had a lot of stamina compared to his previous body, but it wouldn't be enough to keep his body turned for more than a minute.

Turning the body completely takes a shit ton of stamina to maintain.

Same with creating a pool of swamp, he was able to win so far because he made the pool big enough to catch the enemy since he knew where they were, so he could finish it fast, but with a fast enemy like that, he doesn't know where they are, and he can't cover the whole arena.

While he was thinking, he suddenly felt pain in his face and fell to the ground with a bleeding nose.

"Hihihihihi, you're weak, how did you even reach the semi-finals with just this much power?"

James started standing up, only to feel a kick to his side, making him fly and slide along the arena.

'FUCK!! IT HURT!!'

This is probably the most pain James felt in both of his lives.

"You're probably wondering why you can't follow my speed, well it is simple, I'm using my family's martial art, slithering snake movement technique, it makes the user move extremely fast while making no sound"

'I can't see or hear him, fuck'

James was planning to follow the sound since he can't see him, but it seems that plan was already dead before he even used it.

'Think James!! Think!!'

While he was thinking again, he felt a kick to his face, making him fly back again and hit his head on the ground, making it bleed.

"You can never win!! Give up!!"

'I can't hear or see him, I can only!!!'

Suddenly it felt like a light bulb went off in his head, he had a plan.

James got up.

"I still didn't give up"

"Amusing"

Said Bao with a sadistic smile, he enjoyed tormenting people in fights, but his opponents normally just give up after an attack or two, it is rare when someone doesn't give up, and it just makes it more enjoyable to him when he breaks that will and hope, and see them in despair.

Suddenly Bao disappeared and James felt pain on his back again, but this time he was ready for it, still he wasn't fast enough and he flew away.

"AGAIN!"

Shouted James after he stood up.

"AGAIN!"

"AGAIN"

"AGAI…"

And so, a routine of James getting up, getting hit, falling and getting up again started.

The audience started wincing, after so many times, James was bleeding from multiple places, and they were sure he broke at least a few bones.

But finally, it paid off.

'NOW!!'

As soon as James felt something touch him, he activated his fruit, making Bao's fist go through his body.

The audience stood in horror, thinking that Bao's punch made a hole in James's body. That is until…

"My hand!! Let go of my hand!!"

Bao started shouting when he wasn't able to retrieve his hand from James's torso.

"Finally!"

James couldn't help but cheer, he suffered so much beating just for this moment, the moment he can time it perfectly to capture Bao's hand.

Without waiting, James brought his hands up and started beating the surprised Bao, Bao didn't even have enough time to think, and he couldn't dodge because his hand was stuck, so all he could do was stand there while swamp started holding his legs and arms and fists started showering his face.

After an enjoyable fist shower, at least enjoyable to James, Bao passed out.

Letting go of Bao and returning all the swamp back into his body, James finally started relaxing, letting all the adrenaline leave and the pain come.

"THE WINNER IS SLUDGE MONSTER!!"

Of course James could barely hear, all he could think of was the pain.

However, before he could pass out, a message came from the system.

[Conqueror's Haki unlock condition unlocked]

[Conqueror's haki 2/3]

[You have reached 10 spirit levels]

[Armament Haki unlock condition unlocked]

[Armament Haki 1/2]

[You have reach 15 spirit levels]

[Observation Haki unlock condition unlocked]

[Observation Haki:

Level: Basic.

Allows the user to sense people and animals in a range of 100 meters, as it is still basic, it is hard to differentiate someone from someone else.

Allows the user to predict the movement of opponents, as it is still basic, you cannot predict the movement of people that are a lot stronger than you]

[New Trials unlocked]

When James saw that, he couldn't help but smile.

And he passed out.

Thankfully for him, the fight was so intense that the organizers and even most of the audience agreed that it is better to continue with it tomorrow, both because they want to rest after all the excitement but also because a lot of people want to see a battle between James and Xiao Lin, they didn't just want it to end with a technical victory to Xiao Lin.

And so, after a day full of surprises and battles, James is finally finishing his first day in a new world.

Tune in next time for the final battle