Chapter 12 'The Collector'

"Well, this wasn't what I was expecting," I said in confusion as we pulled into 'port', the port which consisted of logs set up in a way to mirror a dock. The 'village' was a bunch of tree houses connected by wooden-draw bridges connected with nothing but rope..

"It has its own charm, look there," Mori said pointing toward one of the tallest trees with a Berrie flag on top.

"Wow there actually is a bounty office in this place" Drake said in surprise. 'Honestly, we should start getting used to things like this, once we make it to the Grand line things like this will look like high-class living.'

"Oh, I almost forgot. Here is your guy's cut of the bounties, 4.5 mil each. Go do some shopping around town or something I have to meet a contact at the office today so I won't be back for most of the day"I told them both as I handed them two suitcases full of money.

"4..4…4 million" Drake said in shock grabbing the case with a shaking hand.

"Yeah. 10% each, you guys did the heavy lifting too. Don't be too shocked, this will be chump change to us soon" I said with a smirk smacking him in the back of the head.

"Try to find something useful to help you in a fight, who knows this town could be a treasure trove," I said with a smirk before getting on a bridge and heading towards the office.

Heading towards the office I'm greeted by a guy about a foot shorting than me, dual swords strapped to his waist, and a head full of red hair. As I walk over to him I notice a large suitcase overflowing with berries.

"Haruta right?" I asked vaguely recognizing him as the future 12th commander.

"Yes, I'm the one who fixed ya up kid. Vista sure did a number on ya, I'm pretty sure none of us were even planning to raid your ship in the first place" he said with a laugh reaching over for a handshake, I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow at my name. 'Fucking Vista!'

"How old are you?" I said dumbly as I shook his hand. His face went red with rage,

"I'm 25!" He yelled dragging my hand towards him so he could yell in my face. 'Edward?'

"Ok, ok sorry dude. Here's the fruit" I said handing over the Cheetah Zoan, he grabbed it quickly before throwing the briefcase at my chest and storming off. 'Huh? I guess personalities very'

"Hey man hold on I had a question for you?" I yelled to him before he left, he seemed surprised before huffing and turning towards me.

"What is it?" He asked annoyed.

"Will you take these with you also, I'd like to get them appraised and you guys can just send me the Berries later" I said handing him the Monkey fruit and the Kilo fruit.

"Kid, where the hell are you getting all these?" Haruta asked me suspiciously and mildly worried.

"I'm good at what I do, I will have more soon." I said resolutely. He threw the fruits up in down in his hand before giving me a look, he sighed while putting them in his pack.

"Any info on them Mr.Devil fruit collector?" Haruta asked.

"The banana one is a Monkey Zoan while the weird cylinder one is a Paramecia, the Kilo kilo fruit to be precise. I'm pretty sure that one is in the encyclopedia" I answered him as he was writing it down on a notepad.

"Ok kid, I shouldn't have to say this but keep these deals on the 'low', Pops has a lot of enemies that wouldn't take it so kindly with him strengthening his forces. If you can do what you say all of the emperors will be after you, so keep it chill kid. Vista will be in touch" He said smiling at me before walking away.

'Well I already expected that, the only reason I'm selling to you guys is that I met you first' I thought before heading inside the bounty office

10 minutes later I finished my business in the bounty office and walked out 45 million berries richer, plus the 250 mill from the Whitebeards. 'I'm fucking rich!' I yelled in my mind while skipping back to the ship in excitement. 'Too bad I'm about to be broke again'

BERRIE COUNTER:303,430,000

WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRADE 300,000,000 BERRIES FOR 3,000 COINS Y/N

3,000 COINS ADDED.

'Hm, yep just about worth it. I could probably make an insane profit with my drawing-to-coin ratio, If I can pull just one Epic-Legendary fruit I could probably sell it for almost a billion.' I thought before accepting the quest rewards on one of the bounty questlines.

QUESTLINE COMPLETED

ALL THE TREASURE III

OBJECTIVE: ACCUMULATE 50,000,000 BERRIES FROM BOUNTIES

PROGRESS: 67,000,000/50,000,000

REWARDS:1,050 GACHA COINS,50 STAT POINTS,(PERFECT)RARE-GRADE SKILL ORB.

'Yes! So many coins, and even another perfect orb. At this rate, I'll be strong enough to leave the North Blue in a few months!' I thought with excitement about being able to start sailing the other blues to build my crew and collect some treasures, but what I'm most excited about is exploring the 'Forgotten Island'. 'I should probably find out what the requirement are for the fourth quest'

BOUNTY QUESTLINE

ALL THE TREASURE IIII

OBJECTIVE: ACCUMULATE 150,000,000 BERRIES FROM BOUNTIES

PROGRESS: 67,000,000/150,000,000

REWARDS:2,500 GACHA COINS, 750,000XP,???

'Hmm, at least I'm less than a hundred million away. One or two more good hunts and I'll have that down.'

'I should probably wait to use this, I don't want to distract myself with another skill. At least until I finish the 'Novice' level of Observation Haki' with that in mind I put the orb into my inventory. A few minutes later and I'm back on the shipping sitting in my office.

*peryperypery peryperypery*

"Huh? Who's calling?" I thought curiously before answering the call.

"Hello?" I asked into the snail.

"Hey kid, did everything go well? Haruta just got back with a little more than we agreed."I hear Vista's voice answer.

"What the hell do you mean? It's been 40 minutes at the most!" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah kid, Soru and Geppo are known by most Pirates in the New World, plus we've been docked on Rubbeck for a few days to get supplies for our journey. Now, what are these two fruits for, you could've told me beforehand you had more to sell. Pops is going to be annoyed with ya changing the deal." Vista said with a sigh.

"It's a promise for our next deal? I don't need the money now, but I'm most likely going to have something rare in a week or two. Figured I could give you guys those now so you can give me a price on something like those for future reference" I answered him seriously. 'What Captain would say no to an endless supply of fruits, plus the Whitebeards are probably the Richest pirates right now. Considering how long they've been around and the amount of territory they control. I'd estimate they have at least a few trillion berries on hand'

"These are real right?" Vista asked skeptically about my abilities.

"I don't know, eat one jackass" I said with a smirk hoping he eats the garbage Kilo fruit.

"I know Haruta already told you this but keep this a secret kid, I'm serious. If you actually have some ability to find these fruits everyone will be after you, not just pirates but the World government will hunt you like a dog" Vista warned seriously.

"Well, you and your partner are the only ones who know right? Keep it like that Vista" I said before hanging up the Snail.

'Man I know putting this out there is dangerous, I don't really have a choice, I need the berries' I thought with a sigh before heading toward the Cargo hold. Jumping down through the deck opening I find my new training ground for a while. A huge boulder was tied to the ceiling along with a bunch of smaller rocks tied as well. I set it so that when the bigger boulder is moved it would continue to engage the others. Forcing me to try and focus my Haki on multiple targets.

After the fight with Vista I realized the trick to Observation, you have to focus the energy on people to be able to know where it is. It's not a circle of energy that senses anything entering it like I first thought, at least at the beginning levels. 'Not to mention the insane amount of progress I made in my fight against him'

(NOVICE) OBSERVATION HAKI LVL 7-(22)/50-USING YOUR WILLPOWER YOU CAN OPEN A SIXTH SENSE TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU, SENSING ATTACKS AND EVEN GAINING AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR THREAT LEVEL OR INTENT.

CURRENT RANGE:12-(15)METERS.

'Almost 15 levels at the cost of my fingers, not really worth it but still, that's months of progress' I intoned before closing my eyes and pushing the first boulder to engage the others. Activating my Haki I spread it around the room trying to lock it onto the 15 different rocks that are now swinging around the room.

{Right shoulder} {Left temple}

Dropping into a quick crouch I dodge the first two but failed to sense the one that was heading to my knee, which now hit my shoulder. Brushing off the pain I stand again focusing harder than before.

{Right knee} {Left eye} {Left shoulder}

Jumping into the air I spin through the three attacking boulders but I again missed one that hit my right ankle on landing. 'Damn it, at least I'm getting a warning almost every time now'

4 HOURS LATER…..

{Left knee} {Upper back}

Taking a quick step to the right I dodge both rocks, tensing up expecting another to be missed I'm surprised to find I dodged without a hit that time.

SKILL LEVEL UP

(NOVICE) OBSERVATION HAKI: 22-23

'Phew, finally' I thought in happiness, opening my eyes and dodging the flying rocks I head towards the upper deck.

'I wonder if the boys are back yet?' I thought curiously looking around the empty deck. Turns out they weren't so I decided to head into my office/Bounty room to do some draws and figure out our next targets. 'Hmm, I wonder how many coins I actually have?'

GACHA COINS: 4,050

"Huhahah, I guess the days of scraping together a few hundred coins are over" I said with a smirk, getting together over four thousand coins in less than 2 days was not even a thought a few weeks ago.

'Now how should I draw these? 40 rares and 5 uncommons or 4 epics and 5 uncommons?' I debated while taking a seat in my comfy office chair.'Hmm, let's do 3 epics 10 rares, and 5 uncommons. Start with the lower ones then end it with a bang' I thought before pulling up the Gacha shop.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO 5 UNCOMMON DRAWS FOR 50 COINS?

DRAWING.....

Waiting patiently for the items to appear I'm a little disheartened to see 3 briefcases fall, along with a weird butt-shaped fruit and a Katana. Opening up all three briefcases the total amount came to 1.5 million berries.'So the money drops have got to be the lowest possible reward. In berries terms it costs a million to do an uncommon draw. So for 3 million berries, I got half my money or 'coins' back. However, I bet these will make up the coins/money lost, probably even put me in the positive' I thought looking over the fruit and sword waiting for observe to finish scanning them.

RARE-GRADE PARAMECIA FRUIT ACQUIRED

SUBE SUBE NO MI

EFFECT: BECOME A SLIPPERY HUMAN AND MAKE MOST BLUNT ATTACKS USELESS, ALSO MAKES THE USERS BODY 'FIT'

'This is the fruit that made Alvida a total babe, ew why the hell did I think that' I finished the thought spitting out the window in disgust. Turning to the Katana with a completely black guard I wait for it to be graded.

RARE-GRADE MEITO SWORD ACQUIRED

SHIRA

EFFECT: ONE OF THE MANY GRADED BLADES THIS SWORD OFFERS A 15% BOOST TO DEXTERITY.

'Hmm not bad. Not sure how much a regular graded blade goes for but I'd guess around a million. So with the Slip fruit, I'd say I made a profit.' I estimated before putting everything into my inventory. 'Now for the 10X Rares'

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO 10 RARE DRAWS FOR 1,000 COINS?

DRAWING…..

Like before I had more money drops but this time it was only half and they were all epic grade, opening the five cases I received a total of 27 million berries, a 23 million loss. But sitting on the table are 2 fruits,2 different color skill orbs, and a map of what I can guess from a glance is somewhere in the East Blue.

But out of everything the thing that had my curiosity peaked was the light blue fruit that I could feel a wind of coldness from. 'There's no way this is the Ice Logia, Kuzan should already have it! But what else could it be, this has to be a Logia' I thought frantically, grabbing the fruit and trying to figure out what it could be.

EPIC-GRADE LOGIA FRUIT ACQUIRED

YUKI YUKI NO MI (SNOW-SNOW FRUIT)

EFFECT: BECOME THE AVATAR OF SNOW, YOUR BODY WILL TAKE ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SNOW AND BE ABLE TO FAZE THROUGH ANYTHING NOT COATED IN HAKI. GRANTS A PERMANENT BOOST OF +500 DEXTERITY.

"Holy shit, I completely forgot about Monet," I said aloud remembering the bird chimera girl from Punk Hazard. 'My first Logia!' I thought with excitement, it may be the lesser version of the Ice fruit but it's still awesome. 'This will definitely sell for a billion if I decide to sell it!' I thought with a smirk before sending it to my inventory and grabbing the next fruit, It was a dark orange colored peach.

EPIC-GRADE ANCIENT ZOAN FRUIT ACQUIRED

UMA UMA NO MI MODEL: WOOLY RHINOCEROS

EFFECT: TURN INTO THE POWERFUL ANCIENT RHINO, PERMANENT BOOST OF +450 STRENGTH AND +350 ENDURANCE. 6.5X BOOST TO ALL STATS WHEN TRANSFORMED.

"Sickkkk, this is the perfect fruit for a tank" I thought in excitement. 'I don't know if I want to sell this one though, it'd be perfect for one of the people I'm hoping to recruit' I debated before putting it into the not-for-sale side of my mind. Depositing it as well as the other rare grade skill orb, I turned to the new purple-colored skill orb in curiosity

EPIC-GRADE SKILL ORB ACQUIRED

EFFECT: CRUSH TO RECEIVE AN EPIC GRADE SKILL

'Nice I'll definitely use this once I get Observation down, who knows what skill could be graded higher than Observation Haki. It's got to be something good'

'Alright, last thing to check before the big Epic draws' grabbing the map I notice its a depiction of the Coyomi Islands with an 'X' Marked on the uppermost island.

EPIC-GRADE TREASURE MAP ACQUIRED

DESCRIPTION: THE LOST TREASURE OF THE 'PHONEIX' PIRATES WAS LEFT IN A CAVE ON COYOMI ISLANDS.

'HA, that's a riot. A lost treasure was located so close to Nami's village and she never found it' I laughed at the irony. 'But damn, these draws have been pretty good, 4 epics from a thousand coins isn't a bad pay-off. Alright let's get these last three Epic draws done then look for the boys'

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO 3 EPIC DRAWS FOR 3,000 COINS?

DRAWING…..

This time only a single fruit fell along with a beautifully crafted Jian sword and a purple briefcase. Opening the briefcase I find it stuffed with 60 million berries. 'Damn they even have cash drops in the epic tier, such a scam. At Least I'm only down forty million right now' I thought before grabbing the fruit first. It was a half 'melted' silver fruit, I can't really tell what it used to be.

EPIC-GRADE PARAMECIA FRUIT ACQUIRED

TOKU TOKU NO MI (DISSOLVE-DISSOLVE FRUIT)

EFFECT: BECOME A DISSOLVING HUMAN. PERMANENT BOOST OF +350 INTELLIGENCE.

'Well shit, I don't know what dissolving has to do with intelligence but I guess I have a crewmate to pick up, I made a promise to him after all' I thought with a smirk wondering if he's the King of the jungle yet. 'I wouldn't doubt it at this point, he did knock Drake out once'.

'Looks like I'll only have two fruits and a sword to sell so far' I intoned before grabbing the SIlver Jian sword. Releasing it from the scabbard I noticed it had a beautiful flower pattern at the base of the blade.

EPIC-GRADE SKILLFUL GRADE SWORD ACQUIRED

YANG

EFFECT: 1.3X DEXTERITY BOOST, DAMAGE +120% WHEN WIELDING,

"Damn, three straight epics, must've used all my luck on the rares. Still this sword may be better than Tengoku, at least in close combat considering its about half a meter shorter.'

'Still not a bad haul all together, I basically spent 400,000,000 and I'm sure I can get about triple that back from the Snow Logia by itself. So I definitely profited all together by a lot" I finished going over the numbers while depositing everything into my inventory. Leaving the office I head towards the living area to see if the boys are back yet so we can go over who to hunt next.