08. Cozia

'Okay, while we're flying, there's time to look at the bonus prize. Although everything is clear there.' - I thought, opening the description of the ring.

< Interspartial Ring >

< Type: Auxiliary Item >

< Origin: Tales of Demons and Gods >

< Description: A simple-looking ring to which, through enchanted inscriptions, an isolated space has been attached, which serves as a warehouse for storing the belongings of Fighters or Demon Spiritualist. >

< Capabilities: The isolated space bound to this ring has a size of five hundred square meters, and time inside is three hundred times slower than outside. Any inanimate object or plant can be placed inside. To activate, the ring automatically absorbs a small amount of soul force from the wearer. >

- As expected, but who would have thought it was from this world…. - I muttered, taking out a blue ring from my inventory, which I immediately put on my finger.

Deciding to check if the ring was functioning, I touched the bag with money and wished to send it to inner space. Everything went as it should and the bag disappeared, and then returned back.

Not noticing any problems, I again thought: 'Works great, and I did not even feel any loss of energy. Apparently, I have a lot of soul force.'

After going to my cabin to get my things, I sent all my clothes, money, food, and the Mera Mera no Mi into the ring. Now, I will be calmer and I'm sure that no one will be able to steal my property and all important things are now always with me. Nice sense of security.

The funny thing is that now I can store my things in the ring, and I can send the ring itself to the lottery inventory, even if it is filled to capacity. Double security.

And given how roomy the inside of the ring is, I'll never have to worry about running out of space for my stuff again. The ring is really a great accessory that will make my life easier and I'm especially pleased that I got it for free.

Although, in the lottery it would be possible to simply make a regular inventory without restrictions and not have to worry about it so much, but there is no point in complaining.

- [Sir, we have almost arrived at the Cozia Island.] - The Oracle caught my attention when an island appeared on the horizon.

Cozia has only one port city, which occupies almost 50% of the island area. Due to its location and the fact that Cozia is an important link in the transport network of this region, about ten years ago, Germa 66 tried to capture the island.

In the end, the World Government ordered them to stop the invasion, as it could hurt the economy of the East Blue, and Germa left with nothing. But, thanks to the help of his sister, Sanji was able to escape from his family and received the long-awaited freedom. Although, we all remember how it ended for him, but at least now he has a good life on Baratie.

I was able to learn from Alvida's mind that the Germa invasion was caused by the royal family of the Oykot Kingdom. About 17 years ago, their native island was mired in a civil war that eventually ended in the destruction of the country.

When the royal family fled their homeland, they expected that they would be given another island to manage, since their Kingdom was part of the World Government, and there were already similar precedents.

But because this civil war itself, somehow, quite severely violated the plans of the Marines, the royal family received only a mansion on one of the islands, where they were supposed to live out their comfortable old age.

It is clear that such a situation did not suit the royal family, and when they realized that no one would give them anything just like that, they decided to take one of the East Blue islands by force and hired Germa 66 for this. The task is just for their profile.

Nothing came of it, as I said earlier, and if rumors are to be believed, the entire Oykot royal family simply disappeared without a trace, and no one has heard from them for almost 10 years. Looks like they've caused too much trouble for the Government, and the killers from Cipher Pol have been sent after them.

The choice of the Oykot royal family fell on Cozia, for the above reasons, and also because Cozia is not considered a kingdom and, although they pay tribute to the World Noble, the island is ruled by the mayor, who founded the city on the island after his homeland was destroyed by pirates.

Cozia is also known for having very rough seas around the island, due to the fact that the island is right next to the Calm Belt. Apparently, the proximity to the sea of ​​​​s serenity, where there is absolute calm, negatively affects the ordinary sea.

Only very skilled seafarers can reach Cozia, which the locals use to train their helmsmen, who are renowned throughout the East Blue for their skill. Almost every merchant ship in the region is sailed by a native of Cozia, which is why the island is part of the trade route, despite the difficult sea.

It also serves as an excellent protection against pirates. Sometimes, of course, there are those who can get to the island, but this is very rare, because of which there is no base of the Marines on the island. In general, the invasion of the Germa, who have no problem to overcome the rough seas around Cozia, thanks to their advanced ships, was the last major problem for the island.

Troubled seas mean nothing to me as I travel by air, and although I have no objective reason to visit Cozia, I thought it was a good place to rest for the night. And possibly two nights.

- I will take control. We need to find a good place to land. - I told the Oracle as I took the controls of the Quinjet.

Leaving Goat Island, of course, I took Alvida too, after all, 3 million are never superfluous. But I don't want to carry her everywhere with me, so I just paralyzed and put her to sleep with telepathy, and decided to leave her in the Quinjet.

But while she is in the jet, I can't send it back to my lottery inventory or my new ring. Leaving her just on the street is too cruel, all the more they can find her, so all that remains is to hide the Quinjet itself, along with she, in some secluded place.

Which is basically what I was doing right now. In the south of Cozia, far from the city, there is a mountain range, on the top of which I found a good place to land. Thanks to Stealth Mode, no one will find the Quinjet, and in such a secluded place, no one will accidentally stumble upon it.

Of course, I don't want to leave my jet unattended, but either that, or I will have to carry Alvilda with me everywhere, which is actually not easy. In general, I decided to choose a comfortable visit to the island, without unnecessary complications.

- Oracle, I'll try to get back within a day. Keep holding the disguise and make sure no one finds the jet. As a last resort, I give you permission to move the jet to the south of the island. - I ordered, unhooking my seat belts and getting up from my pilot's seat.

- [Received. What should we do if our guest wakes up?] - asked the Oracle.

- She won't wake up until I want her to. Might be worth moving her to a bed, though. She is still a girl. - I said and picked up Alvida's body, carried her to the cabin and laid her on the bed. Fortunately, she fit, albeit with difficulty.

- Okay, I went. Don't miss me, Oracle. - I said walking out into the street. Since now all my things are always with me, I could immediately go to the city.

- [Good luck, sir.] - the Oracle replied, closing the gangway behind me and disappearing from view thanks to the camouflage.

- Oh, now go on foot. And why did the gentleman wake up in me? - I asked myself discontentedly, and went down to the foot of the ridge, where the border of the city was located.

When the bare rocks ended and the first trees appeared, I realized that these were good targets for testing my new guns. Taking out both pistols from inventory, I tried to shoot them at the trees, but nothing came of it.

- Oh yes. Um, owner registration? - I remembered and tried, using the voice chip of the guns, to become the owner of the weapon.

- *PIP* - the pistols simultaneously made a sound and blue light bulbs shone on their housing.

- Captain Nemo. - I introduced myself, deciding that it was necessary to give a sample of my voice and give my name in order for the registration to be successful.

- *PIP*…. *Beep-Beep*…. *CHING* - The Element Guns started beeping again and the lights started flashing in different colors until they stopped at green.

- Ready? - I asked and tried to shoot again. This time, everything worked and a red laser beam flew out of the muzzle of the gun, which burned a hole in the tree without any problems and flew somewhere further.

- Powerful. That alone would be enough, but you can do more, can't you, Clarice, Terry? - I asked with an anticipatory smile, and raising both weapons, continued to attack the trees.

I quickly realized that it was possible to control the power and thickness of laser shots, just by giving a mental command with a pistol. Somehow, they have no problem understanding what I want from them, and can change the configuration of the shot.

For example, the weakest shot is as thick as a needle, but still has enough power to go right through one tree. And the most powerful one is as thick as my fist, and it is able to wipe a large boulder from the face of the earth.

Really powerful. And the rate of fire of these pistols is simply excellent and it can also be changed, depending on the situation. I think even with one of these guns, you can easily dominate the East Blue. Though it certainly won't last too long.

But even those who have eaten a Devil Fruit can't be hurt if they get shot at full power. The same Gomu Gomu no Mi will not help Luffy in any way to resist a laser shot. Especially point blank.

Of course, I understand that the further I go on my journey, the more dangerous and powerful my opponents will become, and this will make these Element Guns less useful. Still, I think Armament Haki, even in its basic form, will be able to protect against a laser shot. Well, at least it will reduce the damage.

But at this stage, when I'm still weak and I'll need any tricks up my sleeve to survive, it's hard to imagine a weapon that suits me better than Element Guns. And after all, this is only the basic function of these pistols.

- Okay, let's see what you can do with the elements. How about, 'Ice Beam'? - I said the name of the attack aloud to get a better idea of ​​what result I want.

Guns got it right and almost instantly, a beam of cold energy shot out of the pistols, freezing everything I aimed at. In less than ten seconds, almost the entire clearing where I trained was covered with a thin crust of ice, as if liquid nitrogen had been spilled here.

- Again, powerful. But, energy intensive. - I said after seeing the result of the attack and the energy indicator, which showed that I had now spent almost 30% of the entire reserve.

At the same time, before that, all my tests required only 10% of the charge, and I fired over 1000 times.

'It turned out to be more difficult than I thought. I need to correctly understand which attack to use and when to do it, as well as monitor how much energy is spent. For now, it's best to shoot with regular laser beams, which cost next to nothing. Although, perhaps due to the fact that I held the trigger for a long time, and also mixed the two elements, Air and Water, it took a lot of wasted energy to create Ice.' - I thought, then fired an ice beam once more, but for only two seconds.

- Hmm, almost 10%. Already better, but it seems that energy costs will have to be learned empirically for each element. Come on, 'Fire Bullet'…. 'Electro Bullet'…. 'Water Bullet'… 'Wind Bullet'… - I said and started shooting a series of bullets from different elements to find a pattern.

- 1% percentage of energy for each element. Not bad. Without a break, I can fire at least a hundred times with each gun. Although, it is also worth considering that as soon as the energy reserve begins to decline, the battery begins to absorb this very energy from the environment. And the recharge itself is quite fast, almost 10% per minute. So in theory, I can shoot endlessly. - I thought thoughtfully when I saw the results.

- Now let's try mixed elements. 'Ice Bullet'… 'Plasma Bullet'… 'Explosive Bullet'… 'Boiling Bullet'…. 3% for each bullet. And if we assume, 'Plasma Beam'. Three times more energy. It seems that the more complex the attack configuration and the longer it lasts, the more energy is wasted. I also need to take into account the power of the shot itself, which can also be adjusted. How curious. - I muttered thoughtfully.

- It takes some skill and experience to fire from you, doesn't it? - I asked with a smile, my Element Guns, which I begin to like more and more.

- It's even more interesting. - I said flippantly, putting the Element Guns into inventory.

To be honest, I really like that everything is not so simple and I need to learn how to properly shoot this weapon, constantly remembering the energy consumption and understanding when it is better to use a certain element, and when need to sacrifice power for the sake of efficiency.

In my opinion, this makes guns real weapons, and not a toy that I will shoot for fun or because I'm too lazy to fight hand to hand. Although, of course, such things complicate shooting, I, on the contrary, like such a compromise, for the sake of versatility. Somehow, it seems more correct.

In general, I was completely satisfied with this prize, even more than I initially thought. Now, I'm even more eager to exchange money and play the lottery again. Looks like I'm starting to get addicted...

'Okay, it's getting quite dark, time to finish. And I overdid it, a little.' - I thought as I looked at the destruction that the guns attacks had wrought. After me, only scorched earth remained here, on which it is unlikely, something will grow.

Since further the slope was less steep, I decided to get the Wingcycle and continue path on it. Although it was originally designed for high-speed driving in the city, Dick installed a few gadgets that will allow me to ride on a difficult road.

- Well, I've found it, off-road mode. - I muttered as I got behind the wheel, adjusting the motorcycle's interface for my current situation.

As a result, the suspension has risen by almost 15 cm, centimeter spikes have come out of the tires, which will improve traction, and the wheels themselves have split in the middle, and now it is, in fact, an all-terrain vehicle, although a little strange in shape.

As befits a vehicle based on the Batcycle, the Wingcycle has many different adaptations and modes for all occasions. The list is so big that it's pointless to even talk about it. Almost everything what you can imagine and what can physically fit into a motorcycle, it has.

- How convenient all the same. Thank you, Dick, for your forethought. - I said with a smirk as I started the electric motor and headed into town to finally find an inn and get some sleep.