Training

5 months have passed.

In these five months a lot has happened since Ian had reached the island with his crew.

When his had father started to train his crew, he had them take some tests to assess their physical strength and their stamina. And it was with no surprise that Bert came up the first. He was a mink, after all, thus he would have more stamina.

Geo then for the first two months had them do basic training of the body, to increase their raw strength and stamina. The training was just like Ian did ages ago. Running with weights, climbing the steep mountains just after you finish a run and similar exercises.

Since the crew was already quite mature they didn't need a lot of time to be able to adapt to the training. And then after two months, came the next part of the training.

That was the start of the official training of Elene and co, supervised by Geo, Ian's father, which spanned three months.

Ian's father had a simple but effective training. Since the crew would need to learn Haki, he started them on the similar but easier basic forms among the six marine skills, just like he did for Ian.

If one mastered Iron body, he would find it easier to master Armament Haki. Similarly if one mastered Paper art, they would find it easier to master Observation Haki. The rest of the arts though, would useful attacks and escape techniques, but it still was a choice left to them. If they didn't want to learn them he can't force them.

So that was what Geo had started them on. Well apart from Elene who already had a basic mastery for them. Basic mastery because she still could not use them as she likes without tiring.

He had her, in particular, help him in the training of the rest, which would also serve to make her more proficient at them.

Geo had Elene spare with Robin, as both of them knew Paper art. Sparing unarmed, was the best way for one to learn Paper art, and to master it. Which was something the both of the girls needed.

You only had to think of one thing during this training. HIT, and don't get HIT.

Similarly, Bert spared with Stella. One would think that the arrangement was unfair for Stella, but they would be wrong. Stella was as nimble as Bert if not even more. In their sparing she was the one who delivered the most attacks.

Since Elene and co were fast learners, they had ended up mastering Paper art quite easily and in a short time. After which Geo started them on the next skill. Iron body.

Likewise, it too didn't take them much time to master before they moved to learn the rest of the techniques. And the reason why they were learning things this quick, was due to Ian.

He had been healing their fatigue and muscle strain every time they finish training, making them ready to go back training right away.

Now after five months of training the crew was ready to start on their next part. Haki.

****

Ian was right now sitting on clearing with the rest of his crew as he observed them.

There was not a lot of changes about them, apart from some muscle build in the case of the girls. However, they were all now masters of the six arts.

They were sparing with each other using those very same skills right now. While Ian and Geo watched from the side.

Ian then turned to look at his right hand. From which blue electricity was dancing between each finger.

He too had changed in the last five months.

He had actually gone ahead and used the blood of Whitebeard. But unlike what he thought, it did nothing for him. It had zero effects on him. And Ian had spent a while trying to think of the reason.

Before finally reaching a conclusion. Whitebeard was a half-giant, while he had already injected the full bloodline of the giants. As such the old man was just a normal person to Ian.

But he was not discouraged for long. He still had the bloodline of a more stronger species. The diávoloi.

He had used it at that exact time and directly reached the next stage. The third one, which he aptly named the emperor realm as he likes the name from reading Chinese novels.

Though his height didn't increase after that, his body practically exploded with newfound strength. The increase was so much that his earlier strength started to look overly weak in his eyes. He even started to consider himself the strongest there was and that there was no equal to him…

But after a few seconds, the euphoria accompanying each strengthening went away, and along with it all his egoistic thoughts and grandeur. Though the strength remained. Plus he was able to notice something had changed about himself. He had acquired a second heart just like that devil had. A second chance at life if he ever reached that point.

His mind reached new heights. He went straight ahead on that day and tried many skills and acts using his telekinesis. He was even able to make the ship fly. But there was a limited time for that. As after two hours of staying on the flying ship, he started getting tired mentally. All his mental abilities like mind reading, telepathy, and the like were made stronger.

And thus due to the increase of his strength, he too had to start his training. But his was more… extreme.

He spent close to two months training underwater, apart from the time he took to sleep and eat.

He used gravity on himself underwater while wearing weights… until he finally was able to control his strength. Otherwise, a casual step of his would send him flying to the sky in a second.

Then after that, he started thinking back to the war. He knew he didn't have many destructive attacks like the old man whitebeard. His abilities made him more of a crowd control person. Just like what was shown in the war, against a large opponent the most he could do is launch his spear like a meteor.

So he made the decision to eat a devil fruit. And he had two. But one was unknown, which left him with the Rumble-Rumble fruit.

Which was actually one of the few highly destructive fruits in the world. But Ian was not about to acquire the weakness for seawater.

He had found out a secret about the devil fruits. There was something extra in each fruit, an evil dormant energy. And Ian didn't know what it was, but his instincts warned him about it. So he had used his energy on all the fruits in his possession and took that extra energy out. He even did the same on the ones from his crew who already ate the fruits, taking that extra whatever energy out.

'I still don't know what that was…' Ian thought to himself as he reached that thought.

And after then when Ian ate his fruit, he was happy that it was just like he thought, and he didn't lose his ability to swim nor was he affected by Stella's sea stone daggers, and even when he asked his crew to try swimming they found out that they too could.

After that Ian reached a conclusion. The curse of the sea and sea stones was put on that dormant energy in the fruit but not the fruit itself.

As such after that, Ian spent the remaining time, three months, training his fruit and discovering and creating new moves. He had become a lightening human. he could move at lightning speed, and his reaction speed was also close to that. Unlike Enel who moved at lightening speed but fails to react to much much slower attacks than that.

And now he was there sitting and anticipating what would happen tonight. He had shared a talk with Elene and Robin and talked about their relationship these past months.

He even informed his father and crew about them.

Somedays, he stopped his training and took the girls on dates but not both at the same time. Since there were many places on the island he liked and wanted them to see.

And tonight finally Robin had said she would like to spend the night in his room, which practically spelled her intentions of sleeping with him.

'I am a man after all…' He couldn't help but get excited as Robin was someone he liked a lot. And probably the sexiest one piece character to him, except that she was now real.