As someone who possessed a copy of the Sea Diary, Uta also knew perfectly well what would happen if she tried telling other people about it.
That sensation—as though her heart were being squeezed by some mysterious giant hand—was something Uta had experienced only once, yet once had been more than enough. It had simply been far too unpleasant.
Precisely because she knew how awful it felt, Uta almost hoped that those people who possessed copies of the Sea Diary yet remained blindly loyal to the World Government would get to experience that heart-wrenching sensation a few more times.
She had to admit that merely imagining those people suffering through it made her feel strangely excited.
"Uta, what's wrong? Why do you seem a little… strange?"
Tashigi looked curiously at the visibly excited Uta beside her.
Tashigi considered herself fairly familiar with Uta. Although Uta had a lively and rather unpredictable personality, she was unquestionably a very clever person. Normally, someone as sharp as Uta would not suddenly display such an oddly foolish expression for no apparent reason.
Precisely because Tashigi knew this, she hurriedly asked what was going on.
If she could intervene quickly enough and snap Uta back to her senses, Tashigi would be more than willing to help.
As someone who understood Uta's circumstances, Tashigi knew that her Sing-Sing Fruit was an extraordinarily special Devil Fruit.
Perhaps Uta was acting like this because she had somehow been affected by the Sing-Sing Fruit itself.
Tashigi even knew that when Uta lost control of its power, she could unleash a tremendously powerful creature known as Tot Musica.
She had learned that from what Arton had written in the Sea Diary.
Even now, Tashigi could still remember how shocked she had been when she first learned about it.
Tot Musica's power was actually capable of affecting the entire world.
In Tashigi's eyes, an ability like that was no weaker than the most powerful Paramecia Devil Fruits she had heard about, such as Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit, or the formidable Logia abilities wielded by the Marine Admirals. It might even surpass some of the legendary Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits.
Sometimes, Tashigi even felt that Uta's Paramecia Devil Fruit could rival the templates Arton had given them.
At least for the moment, the power of Uta's Devil Fruit could indeed stand alongside the templates possessed by the others.
There was no helping it. Arton's templates were excellent, but in order to truly bring out their full power, the users still needed to train as much as possible.
And the reality was that even with points available to them, completely developing a template's power was still extremely difficult.
It wasn't that Arton's points were ineffective. On the contrary, Tashigi believed points were practically essential if they wanted to fully unlock their templates.
If they relied solely on their own conventional training, it would probably take an extremely long time before they could bring out a template's complete strength.
The reason the members of the Flame Blade Pirates had not yet fully developed the power of their templates could almost entirely be blamed on the fact that they had not worked hard enough to earn points.
That was right.
They needed to work even harder at showing Arton everything they had, so they could earn more points.
…
Chapter 919: The Purpose of Points
Arton's points were incredibly powerful. As long as someone used them in training, they could grow stronger at an astonishing speed.
And when someone who possessed a copy of the Sea Diary used points to train a template, the template developed even faster.
That rate of progress was even greater than the speed at which Sea Diary holders could use points to train their Haki or develop their Devil Fruit powers.
Because of that, Uta suspected that points might fundamentally be a form of power intended specifically for developing templates.
After all, the compatibility between the two was simply too perfect.
Without points, Uta honestly found it difficult to imagine how anyone possessing a template could ever bring its strength all the way to its absolute limit.
Take Uta's own template, for example. On the surface, it appeared as though all of its restrictions had already been completely removed.
Yet as the template's actual owner, Uta knew that there were still many abilities she had not developed.
At present, what she could use amounted at most to the power of a Servant. If she developed her template to an even higher level, however, she might eventually be able to wield the power of the Heroic Spirit Elisabeth herself.
Not an Elisabeth summoned by a magus as a Servant, but the true Elisabeth residing in the Throne of Heroes.
That Elisabeth would possess the power—and Noble Phantasms—of all her classes.
Uta had that distinct feeling, and she believed the other template holders probably felt the same way.
Whenever Arton demonstrated a template's abilities, he most likely had never shown its full power.
Perhaps Arton was worried that revealing everything at once would place too much pressure on them.
Either way, Uta felt that points were clearly the means by which they were supposed to improve their templates.
As for why points could also help people train Haki and develop Devil Fruits, that was probably simply because points were ridiculously versatile.
And for people like them, who had already joined Arton's Flame Blade Pirates, earning points was actually fairly simple.
As long as they showed Arton everything and gave him opportunities to take photos and record videos of them, Arton could help them earn more than enough points.
Uta even felt that if she performed some of those special dances for Arton, he would probably be more than happy to photograph her.
If anything, she could only blame herself for never giving Arton many opportunities to take pictures of her before.
Still, there had been little she could do about that. Back then, Nami and Carina were still constantly competing over Arton, and that atmosphere had made it difficult for people like Uta to openly reveal everything.
Things were different now.
Nami and Carina were already showing signs of growing closer to Arton. As long as those two successfully became his women, everything afterward would become much easier.
No matter what happens, I have to make sure Nami and Carina become Captain's women.
Even if they lose their nerve at the last moment, I'll have to encourage them to keep going.
That was what Uta was thinking.
"Uta, what's wrong with you? Please don't scare me like that."
A familiar voice suddenly sounded beside her ear, and at the same time, a hand landed on Uta's shoulder.
Uta turned around and realized Tashigi had been speaking to her.
"Tashigi? What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
Uta looked genuinely confused.
Tashigi's lips twitched as she stared at her in exasperation.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"
...
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