Chapter eighteen- realization and determination
Gabriel stood at the front of the going Merry a grin on his face despite the harsh winds, rain and harsh seas he held his ground grinning as he looked ahead.
The sight ahead of him made his heart race. Reverse mountain. The red line stretched high above the clouds straight up, and reverse mountain was supposedly even higher.
"So that's it hm, the way into the grand line" Luffy asked from his spot atop the figurehead of the going Merry.
Gabriel nodded as he raised his hat with his hands to keep the rain from his eyes, "yeah, the entrance into paradise" he said grinning, "our destinies and dreams lay ahead of us"
Luffy chuckled as he pulled his hat down to shade his eyes before bursting out laughing, "Let's go!!"
"Aye aye" Nami called from the back of the ship as she leaned on the railing over a map, "Usopp, Sanji, adjust five degrees starboard, we need to line up and ride the currents!"
"Roger that!", "as you say Nami-swan" is sop and Sanji called from below as they pushed and pulled at the rudder controls.
Gabriel felt the ship beginning to shift beneath his feet before it gave a jerk as it caught one of the more powerful currents, 'here we go'
With the powerful currents the Merry shot forward towards the narrow entrance ahead of them.
"A little more starboard, we're not directly aligned!" Gabriel called back remembering the anime.
"Got it!" Usopp yelled was he and Sanji adjusted course once again fighting against the current to ajust their heading.
Nami squints her eyes through the rain to see ahead a bit more before she called out, "good eye Gabriel"
Gabriel nodded back to her before turning to brace himself as the Going Merry passed through the first gate and shot up the rapidly rising currents that climbed the height of the mountain.
After what felt like ages past the apex of the mountain came in sight and Gabriel gripped the railing of the ship tightly, "everybody hold on!" He yelled out just as Merry shot up and into the air
Breath caught in Gabriel's throat as his eyes widened at the sight before him.
Ocean as far as his eye could see, the waters of the grand line sparkling far below. The sight made his heart hammer in his chest, this was it.
The reality of everything finally set in for him as he looked out at the vast ocean spread out before him. Ever since he had arrived in this world it hadn't seemed real to him, but now as he felt the sun on his face, the wind around him, in that single second it all seemed like there was nothing more real than this.
He remembered what he had told Luffy, his "dream" to become a Yonkō and to be the strongest, at first he had just said that because he figured it would be a good a dream as any. But as he looked out at the vast ocean beneath him he realised just how vast that dream was the idea of him attaining that level of strength was daunting and yet he felt his heart pumping in his ears and his entire body shake with excitement and also fear.
He knew from the series just what powerful enemies were out there, how a number of them could kill him easily. But he also knew that if he wanted to achieve what he had said he would he would have to overcome all of them, to reach the top of this world.
'Well as the saying goes, "if your dreams don't scare you, you aren't dreaming big enough"' he thought to himself and felt laughter begin to bubble in the back of his throat.
He was excited, fearful and exhilarated all at the same time. This was all real, he was going to the most dangerous place ever, and he was laughing. He must be insane. No, it was just that he had never meant what he said before, not really. But now he did, this was his life now and he was going to make it one hell of a ride.
All of those thoughts passed through Gabriel's mind in the split second before Merry crashed back down on the currents and began to shoot down the other side of reverse mountain.
Gabriel gripped the railing hard, 'let the adventure begin'
A few seconds after the ship shot down the currents Gabriel turned and started back down to the main deck. He knew what was going to happen next and there wouldn't be any point in him getting involved until later so he would use this time for his own advantage.
"Hey, I'm going below deck, give me a call when we reach the bottom and are coming ashore at the twin capes" Gabriel told them as he walked down.
"Kay!" Luffy called back to him keeping his eyes forward with anticipation and excitement bubbling in his voice.
Making his way below deck Gabriel made for his bunk to lay down and enter his mind palace but before he got there he heard two bell sounds in his head seconds before his eyes opened wide as two new quest screens came up in front of him and what they said made left him breathless.
Quest: Title Yonkō
Goals:
Do a deed so great that you are named as a Yonko
Reward: 10TP, 20,000AP, 500,000,000 Beri
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Quest: World's strongest
Goals:
Defeat Kaido and Whitebeard (prime) one on two (can be accomplished in mind palace)
Reward: 20TP, 30,000AP, 1,000,000,000 Beri
Reading the both of them Gabriel felt a cold sweat on his brow, this was his dream, and the system had made it his goal, the rewards were absolutely incredible but he just knew that both of them would be next to impossible to complete any time soon especially that second one of beating both Kaido and Whitebeard in their prime in his mind palace.
He only had one option, he accepted both and stood there on the spot and took a deep breath, the quests were his future, for now he had to focus on his present. And with that he lay himself down in his bunk, closed his eyes and slipped into his mind palace.
The second he found himself standing on the familiar grassy fields Gabriel pictured his next opponent's and brought up Chew and Kuroobi both at the same time. If he was going to take his dream seriously he'd have to take on every tough opponent he could from now on to get stronger, and even if he wasn't facing them in the real world he would still fight them here in his mind palace and keep doing so until they were easy for him to beat.
Almost instantly the two fishmen rushed him without a word. Gabriel clenched his fists and charged headfirst at them, ducking under a fist from Kuroobi and returning with one of his own shatter fists before he had to make his whole body vibrate to avoid a water shot from Chew.
The second he stopped Kuroobi launched a spinning kick at his head and he met it with another shatter fist and knocked him back before he launched himself at Chew evading two more water shots from him as he ran at him and phased through a kick before delivering a shaking upper cut that launched the long mouthed fishman into the air.
He turned after that just in time to dodge a flurry of fast punches from Kuroobi before dropping down and lashing out with a kick to the fishmans shins knocking him off balance, but before he could take advantage of the opening he had to roll to the side as a large shot of water came at him from Chew.
Coming to a stop Gabriel gritted his teeth and charged in again meeting Kuroobi's fist with his own pushing all of his devil fruit powers into the punch causing Kuroobi to cry out in pain as his fist was shattered by the impact and the fist continue on to drive the stingray fishman into the ground.
After the impact Gabriel jumped back to avoid yet another water shot and gave chew a glare, 'that is really starting to get annoying' he thought before rushing at Chew as he shook his entire body the next second as Chew started to rapid fire his attacks only for them to pass through Gabriel as he closed in and delivered a final punch straight into Chews extended mouth and planting him in the ground just as he had done with Kuroobi.
Standing up and taking a breath Gabriel watched as both fishmen disappeared evidently beaten enough to count as his win before a screen appeared up in front of him informing him of his victory.
Chew of the Arlong pirates has been defeated
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Kuroobi of the Arlong pirates has been defeated
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40AP and 14,500 Beri have been added to user profile
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Looking at that Gabriel grinned, it seemed that when beating pirates with bounties he not only got a certain amount of AP he also got beri depending on their bounties when he defeated them in his mind palace. Chew if he remembered had a five and a have million berry bounty, while Kuroobi had a nine million bounty, so he got one, one thousand of their bounty as cash.
While not a lot in the grand scheme of things he could see how that would mean much bigger pay outs when he was able to take on those with much higher bounties.
He paused at that second and considered what this meant. The system had effectively given him a way to earn endless cash that he could spend, he could now effectively live off the system indefinitely even if he were to be captured and thrown into Impel Down. That would bare thinking on in the future.
But with this system it would also mean that he could fight more than just enemies, if he could fight anyone with a bounty or had seen them before. He could even fight each of the members of the straw hat crew. That would be interesting, but he wasn't going to do that for the moment. Mainly for three reasons, one, while he knew he could hurt Luffy even minorly he wasn't confident that he could beat him yet, two none of them besides Luffy had a bounty so there would be nothing to gain by doing so, and three he honestly didn't know how he would feel about beating each of them.
While he was not officially a member of the crew they were still going to be traveling together, and he still saw them as friends. He felt rather uncomfortable with the idea of farming them in his mind palace for points to grow stronger and then seeing them in real life, so he'd hold of on farming any of them until later when they were all stronger or he desperately needed the points, right now he still had plenty of other options.
Standing up straight again Gabriel rotated his shoulders and cracked his neck, he had rested long enough it was time to get back to farming and he knew just who to fight next.