[S-rank box opening, please wait]
[ROLL in progress]
The blue die began to spin rapidly. Nao took a sip from his glass of water, his eyes locked firmly on it.
Even though he was no longer that rookie fresh out of the beginner village, whenever it came to opening an S-rank box, he still couldn't help but feel a little rush of excitement and nervous tension.
[ROLL complete]
[This box's reward type: Defensive Item.]
[You have obtained a new item: Warmog's Armor]
…
"Ho~"
Nao couldn't help but lower his crossed leg, his eyes flashing with a bit of surprise. "So it turned out to be this…"
As the box opened, dazzling golden light flared, and from it slowly emerged a set of full-body armor, deep green and covered in intricate patterns.
[Warmog's Armor]
[Type: Defensive Item]
[Description: When equipped, gain an additional 10% of your current stamina as bonus stats. Outside of combat, gain double stamina recovery.]
[Note: The second passive does not activate during continuous combat. Please take note.]
['Master Ai, stop hitting, stop hitting, my HP is almost full again…"]
…
"The first passive is similar to the Boots of Lightness."
Nao looked at the description and calculated in his mind. "My Stamina is currently at 36 points. Which means after equipping this, I'll get +3 points, making it effectively 39 points of Stamina …"
And what did that mean?
At his current level of power, even a single stat point's difference wasn't trivial. Each increase through the system required astronomical amounts of points.
Stamina, especially—it cost a staggering 2,000,000 points per stat!
In other words—
Forget everything else. Just that one passive alone was worth a minimum of 6 million points!
What's more, the bonus was percentage-based. Which meant as his Stamina continued to grow in the future, the armor's effect would scale with it, offering increasingly terrifying boosts!
"My stamina cap… feels like it just shot up by sixty to seventy percent…"
Nao closed his eyes briefly, feeling the surging, inexhaustible strength pumping through his body. His lips curled into a grin.
"Now I wonder… if I compared my Stamina to Kaido's, who would come out on top?"
In the past, although his Stamina had always been a point of pride, strong as it was, it was still half a tier below the level of Admirals and Emperors.
But now, with the Warmog's Armor? Nao was confident—
In terms of Stamina alone, he had already reached the peak of the world and was on the same level as monsters like Kaido, Garp, and Whitebeard!
As for the second passive—
It couldn't be used in combat, but that didn't affect its usefulness.
Nao's natural recovery rate was already frightening. Now, with it doubled…
"Wait."
A thought suddenly struck him, his gaze turning oddly amused. "That kind of… 'battle' shouldn't count as combat, right?"
Ah…
That made this armor seem a whole lot more practical.
While he was letting his imagination wander, the Warmog's Armor automatically stored itself into his inventory, immediately set to "equipped." At the same time, a flash of blue light—
The second S-rank box began to open.
[S-rank box opening, please wait]
[ROLL in progress]
[ROLL complete]
[This box's reward type: Skill Scroll.]
Nao's eyes were instantly drawn back. He watched as the blue die stopped spinning, and a brand-new prompt appeared from the golden glow:
[You have obtained a new item: Fate Sealed Skill Scroll]
[Skill: Sealed Dust: Fate Sealed]
[Type: Special Sword Technique]
[Description: A powerful sword energy exclusive to dual-blade swordsman. When unleashed, the swordsman dashes forward, crossing both blades.]
[The resulting howling storm will sweep up everyone within the area struck by the blades, launching them skyward into a brief state of stasis, and upon your landing, deal massive damage.]
["One slash to purge evil, one slash to calm the soul!"]
[Note 1: A combination of a powerful crowd control and damage skill. The power and range are directly proportional to the player's swordsmanship level and the skill's proficiency]
[Note 2: Any enemies caught in the area who fail to dodge will always be knocked up and suspended. It is a rule-based skill, with no exceptions.]
[Note 3: If not used on enemies, it may also be a good teleportation skill.]
[Prerequisite to learn: Master-level Swordsmanship]
[Currently unable to learn. The scroll has been automatically sealed in your inventory. Unlock once requirements are met.]
…
Fate Sealed!
Even Nao couldn't keep his cool this time. This was Yone's ultimate move—the sword technique he had dreamed about since his days in the beginner village!
Not only was its style value maxed out and ridiculously cool, but the skill's effects were insanely broken as well…
The only problem—
"Why does it have to require Master-level Swordsmanship?"
Nao rubbed his chin, feeling a bit disappointed, though it did make sense. Hard to complain.
After all, when he drew the Wind Barrier skill scroll back then, it had required at least Advanced-level Swordsmanship to learn.
"Tch… whatever. I've got it now, it's not going anywhere. Can't learn it yet? Then so be it. No big deal."
He could take it as motivation—to push himself harder, break through the swordsmanship bottleneck he'd been stuck at for a year, and finally reach Master level.
…
In summary—
An S-rank box truly lived up to its name. Its quality never disappointed. This time, both rewards had even exceeded his expectations.
Feeling refreshed, Nao leaned back in the chair with legs crossed, letting out a long breath. He then looked at the new features that had appeared below the stat list.
There were actually only two.
The first—was a Map Function.
The interface looked just like those in MMORPGs, displaying a world map of the One Piece world.
But only the places Nao had personally visited appeared in detail. Zooming in even showed terrain features like rivers, mountains, and elevation. Everywhere else was just black fog.
"Pretty handy."
Nao stroked his chin thoughtfully. "At least when going back to places I've already explored, it'll be like having GPS—never again do I have to worry about getting lost…"
Zoro would probably dream of having this thing.
The second new feature—
Was a Progress Display, showing detailed stats of Nao's current "conquest progress" across the world, seemingly tied to the system's renaming…
Looking at it now, the data given was as follows:
[Name: Natsuya Nao]
[Current Final Conquests: 3]
[Total Final Conquests: 4]
[Racial Distribution: Human (3), Other races (0)]
…
[Current Initial Conquests: 1,553,830]
[Total Initial Conquests: 1,592,022]
[Racial Distribution: Human (1,342,434), Long-Arm Tribe (2,330), Mink Tribe (1,354), Giant (25), Mermaid (123), Fishman (0)…]
…
It listed every intelligent race in the world. Nao even spotted several names he'd never heard of before. His gaze kept scrolling down, leaving him scratching his head.
"Without even realizing it… I've already broken past a million fans?"
He pursed his lips. "Back in my previous life, this would've made me a verified influencer with over a million followers—basically top-tier in the scene, huh?"
Of course, that was just him joking around.
This new system feature was clearly aimed straight at the so-called "Sea King cultivation," and this thing worked like the perfect fish-pond monitoring tool.
Unfortunately, Nao wasn't very interested. With how honest and devoted he was, how could someone like him ever become a Sea King?
———
While Nao was complaining about the system's new features.
A few hundred meters away from Tom's Workers.
Franky was biting the straw in his cola bottle and leisurely following Iceburg out of the alley. Just as they were about to turn toward the shopping district, Iceburg suddenly reached out and pressed him against the wall.
"Uh..." Franky was startled. "What are you doing, Iceburg..."
"You're a real idiot, Franky," Iceburg said with a grim expression. "I really want to take your head apart and see what's inside. It's one thing that you're always wandering around causing trouble, but you actually brought this kind of person here. What were you thinking?!"
"Why are you so angry?" Franky shrugged and said with a chuckle, "Just pretend my head is full of cola..."
"I don't have time to joke around with you!"
Iceburg suddenly grabbed his collar, eyes blazing with fury as if about to erupt. "That guy is a Vice Admiral of Marine Headquarters! Do you have any idea how hard it is to deal with someone at that level? And you actually let Tom-sensei take on a commission for his flagship? Do you even realize what sensei is already busy with every single day?"
"I know. The sea train, right?"
Franky brushed it off with a laugh. "The judges of Enies Lobby agreed to give the old man ten more years to live in exchange for building it. They even hinted that if he succeeds, he might get his sentence reduced."
"Since you know this concerns sensei's very life, why would you still do something like this?"
Iceburg gritted his teeth. "The initial draft for the sea train has only just been finished. There's still a mountain of work to be done at this early stage. Where does sensei have the time to spare months—maybe even half a year—to build some big shot's flagship?"
"If the ship satisfied that guy, then fine—it would just delay the schedule a bit."
"But if he's not satisfied, and starts nitpicking and finding faults, then not only will the sea train never be completed, sensei might even get thrown back into prison under some pretext, his life in danger! Do you understand that?"
Franky continued to chew on the straw in his cola bottle, a wide grin on his face, and didn't answer.
"You bastard..." Iceburg was even more furious at the sight and was about to throw a punch when an old, deep sigh suddenly came from the wall next to them.
"Let him go, Iceburg."
That familiar voice made Iceburg instinctively look up. Sure enough, perched cross-legged on the wall was his teacher, the Fish Man Tom, smiling cheerfully at him.
Tom had clearly just returned from errands at the shopping district—his face still bore the dust and exhaustion that couldn't be hidden.
Beside him crouched his pet, a giant toad named Yokozuna, panting heavily under the weight of a huge bundle strapped to its back.
"In front of your senior, are you still going to keep playing dumb, Franky?"
Tom narrowed his eyes at Franky with a smile. "Or do you need him to beat you up before you'll honestly tell us your plan?"
Franky pouted, clearly annoyed at being exposed, while Iceburg frowned. "Plan?"
"That's right! This brat came up with an incredible plan to get me acquitted!"
Tom let out a hearty laugh and vaulted down from the wall, while Yokozuna tried to copy him—only to crash flat on the ground, sending the contents of the bundle clattering everywhere.
"You idiot…" om sighed, pulling the massive toad upright with one hand. Then he turned back to Franky with a grin. "Well? Do I have to explain it myself?"
"Stupid old man…"
Franky snorted, reluctantly turning toward Iceburg. Folding his arms and lifting his chin proudly, he declared:
"It's like this! Haven't you heard of Vice Admiral Nao's deeds?"
"Of course I have."
Iceburg answered instinctively. "Anyone who reads the papers regularly knows that guy. Defeated Shichibukai William, took down the three Calamities of the Beasts Pirates, even clashed head-on with two of the Yonko…" He suddenly realized he was getting off track and frowned. "Why are you talking about these useless things?"
"Useless? Come on! That guy is only twenty-one, the same age as you, Iceburg!"
Franky casually tossed his empty glass cola bottle into the trash can and grinned. "Can't you see it? At his age, with achievements like that, he's bound to become Fleet Admiral one day! No… maybe even the greatest leader in Marine history!"
"And if someone destined to go down in history, who embodies justice itself with countless achievements…"
Franky pulled another cola from who knows where, bit it open, stuck in a straw, and took a long sip before continuing leisurely, "…if the world knew that his personal flagship was built by sensei's own hands, then wouldn't Tom-sensei share in that glory too?"
Iceburg froze, his expression turning thoughtful.
He finally understood what Franky was getting at…
"Exactly! In that case, building a ship for that bastard Roger won't even matter anymore, right?"
Franky bit down on his straw and threw up his arm with a booming laugh. "The crime would be canceled out! The old man's name would resound across the seas once more! He could move back to the central district, live in a spacious, bright home, and happily focus on researching the Sea Train again!"
"Living in a junkyard like this, being despised by people, and living in fear every day... What's the point of this?! Why should he have to?!"
"My master is the greatest shipwright in the entire world!"