"Cymbospondylus."
"Tanystropheus."
"Otodus megalodon."
...
With just a glance at these bizarrely shaped fish, a multitude of matching textual descriptions automatically surfaced in Luffy's mind.
One could only say it was a perfect match.
But this left Nami and the others utterly flabbergasted.
It was fine for Luffy to be strong, even incredibly strong.
But aside from combat prowess, in terms of other knowledge, Luffy could know a fair bit, but he couldn't know this much!
Didn't that make them seem incompetent?
In other words, if even an idiot like Luffy knew about this, how could they not know?
"You're not just making this up, are you?" Zoro, who held the deepest ingrained impression of Luffy, was somewhat skeptical.
Robin came to Luffy's defense. She crouched down, carefully observing a strange fish with thick, armor-like scales and a protruding mouth. "He's quite right, actually," she said softly. "Mr. Luffy has observed very carefully. The characteristics of these fish align well with some ancient species recorded in historical texts. This suggests that this sea area, or a nearby island, might harbor an ecosystem that has continued from ancient times, largely un-evolved."
She paused before adding, "We should be arriving at Little Garden soon."
"Little Garden?" Luffy tilted his head.
Nami, who had learned the general information about Little Garden from Robin, had forgotten to mention it. She explained, "The Log Pose points to the next island, which is Little Garden."
Robin stood up and added with a smile, "According to the information sent back by Mr. 3 and the others, due to the unique magnetic forces and climate of the Grand Line, the island may have never truly 'evolved.' It's said to be an island that has preserved its primeval appearance—a giant primordial forest."
"And the prehistoric creatures living there, such as dinosaurs."
Because of the difficulties of navigation, there was little communication between islands in this world. Each island had developed its own civilization.
There were islands with highly advanced civilizations, and there were islands that had seen no progress for tens of millions of years, like Little Garden, where the island's appearance had never changed.
The chaotic climate of the Grand Line made such things entirely possible.
"Dinosaurs?!"
Aside from Robin and Merry, who seemed to have sensed something earlier, everyone else exclaimed in shock.
"You didn't say there were dinosaurs before!" Nami's face instantly paled.
Giants were one thing, but now dinosaurs were appearing too? Before, when Robin mentioned there were two giants on the island, Nami had wondered: with giants living there for so many years, what could they possibly eat? Now she knew—they had an endless supply of dinosaurs to eat.
Robin smiled at Nami. "Is that so? Perhaps I forgot."
This woman was definitely doing it on purpose.
Her heart was probably as dark and terrifying as her thick, jet-black hair!
Images of being chased by giant beasts already flashing through her mind, Nami instinctively grabbed Luffy's arm beside her.
Sanji's chef spirit was burning, his eyes turning into hearts. Prehistoric creature meat was the ultimate, dream-like ingredient!
"Dinosaurs? Sounds interesting."
Zoro's eyes flashed with fighting spirit, his hand resting on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji. He was already imagining testing his blades on dinosaurs.
Although Usopp's legs felt like jelly with fear, he still feigned composure. Clearing his throat, he walked up to Zoro with a serious air and patted his waist. "Ahem! As a brave warrior of the sea, how could I, the great Captain Usopp, miss such an expedition! Besides, Zoro, you're a directionally-challenged idiot. Without me to guide you, you'd definitely get lost in that primeval forest and wander to your death! Fine, I'll reluctantly team up with you!"
His actual thought was: Sticking with the strongest fighter is definitely the safest.
The strongest was undoubtedly Luffy.
But leaving aside whether there was a spot for him next to Luffy, Luffy simply wasn't as 'safe' as Zoro.
After Merry's disturbance with the fish schools, the climate in the surrounding sea area seemed to have stabilized considerably. It was no longer as unpredictably violent as when they first entered the Grand Line; the harsh weather gradually subsided.
Holding a grilled fish, Luffy remarked, "It's much calmer than before."
When they first entered the Grand Line, it was all gales, downpours, followed by thunder, lightning, and hail all at once.
"Our future sailing should generally become more stable."
Nami, sensing the now-calmer sea winds and currents, explained:
"Right after entering the Grand Line, because the seven magnetic routes run very close to each other, their magnetic fields and ocean currents interfere with one another, leading to that extreme and chaotic weather and sea state. Once we leave that area, although sailing is still far more difficult than in the Four Blues, those extreme weather phenomena won't occur as frequently."
The Grand Line was the ultimate test of a navigator.
If a navigator's skill wasn't high, the probability of dying in some unknown corner was far too great.
Luffy grinned, ruffling the little head of Merry on his shoulder. "It's fine! We have Merry, and the best navigator, Nami!"
Although scared of dinosaurs, hearing Luffy's praise made Nami unable to suppress a light, proud hum. She raised her chin slightly, but a happy curve tugged uncontrollably at the corner of her mouth.
He sure knew how to say the right things.
Sailing the Grand Line, after the initial chaos, seemed to be getting a bit boring.
Because aside from converging at the starting point, Reverse Mountain, and the endpoint, Sabaody Archipelago, the seven routes hardly interfered with each other mid-journey, making it difficult to encounter other ships. This was completely different from the East Blue, where they'd run into pirate crews or Marines from time to time.
"It's so slow! When are we getting to Little Garden?"
Luffy was doing push-ups while perched on the sheep's head, with Merry sitting on his back, helping him count.
This sort of stacking act on him no longer felt out of place.
The training intensity from The Plan was just that high.
Not long ago, he spent several hours learning with Robin, then came out to work on his Devil Fruit ability development. Even the time to eat grilled fish was snatched in bits and pieces.
Luffy had plenty of ideas in his head.
Hearing that Little Garden had both giants and dinosaurs, he was itching to try things out on them.
Gear Third was developed based on the concept of a giant. If he saw real giants, could he develop new techniques?
That's why he was so eager.
"Almost there, almost there! Look ahead!"
Nami pointed at the sight appearing on the distant horizon.
A massive island gradually came into view.
Most eye-catching was the towering white peak at the island's center, soaring into the clouds. It was bare, like the horn of some gigantic creature.
Surrounding the peak was a lush, boundless primeval forest. The trees were unimaginably tall and thick, as if they had been growing for thousands of years.
"Wow, those trees are huge!"
"Is that Little Garden?"
"Even the smell of the air is different."
Everyone gathered at the bow, gazing curiously.
Little Garden had arrived.
***
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