Amphitrite's foundation was never poor. Lunarian's growth potential was there to begin with; what she lacked was simply a qualified teacher.
Although Rayleigh had long carried the reputation of being a "mediocre teacher" on the seas, Luffy's strength did indeed increase tremendously after undergoing Rayleigh's special training.
Amphitrite's basics were solid enough, and under Nereus's personal guidance, her mastery of Haki steadily improved. Compared to her former self, she had already become stronger by more than just a small margin.
Once she became even more proficient with Haki and paired it with a sufficiently powerful Devil Fruit, she would be considered a strong fighter even in the New World.
At present, time was still on her side, and she still had plenty of room to grow.
As Amphitrite's sparring partner, Nanamo could clearly feel all of this.
However, compared to that, Nanamo was more curious about who the "accompanist" Nereus had mentioned actually was.
"You'll know once you meet them. It's definitely someone you'd never guess."
Nereus deliberately kept her in suspense, and indeed, it was something most people would find hard to guess. Because the accompanist he was talking about was a skeleton.
Kuma wasn't the type who could stay idle. On the very day they set out, he joined the sailors' ranks. Even though he had reverted to the state of a child, the monstrous strength of his Buccaneer bloodline was exceptional, even surpassing the strength of some Fish-Men.
However, this situation didn't last long. Nereus didn't let Kuma continue working aboard the ship, instead tossing him into the ship's classroom.
There had always been teachers on Nereus's ship, but the children who usually attended classes were currently staying on Fishman Island or on Delta Island in the New World, where other people had been settled.
Now that there were some new young faces, the teachers had work to do again.
Even Shaq was here at the moment, attending general knowledge classes together with them.
The usual curriculum wasn't suitable for the current stage, so the lessons mainly covered practical topics such as the distribution of power across the seas and how to respond to crises.
After spending several years as a slave and becoming somewhat disconnected from reality, this was a good chance for Shaq to reacquaint himself with the world.
Since there were no particularly complicated subjects, there were no struggling students for the time being. However, after their lesson ended, a cloud drifted into the room.
"Yo, newcomers. Enjoying class?"
"It was pretty good, Mr. Cloud. We learned a lot of things we'd never heard about before."
Ginny and Shaq were still wondering why a cloud could talk, but Kuma had already politely given an answer.
"Mr. Cloud? Actually, I don't have a fixed gender. You're assuming my gender, but that's not important.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Hermes, the honorary president of Princess Nanamo's fan club. Would you like to join Princess Nanamo's fan club? When she holds concerts in the future, you'll get front-row seats for free."
Hermes casually slung an arm over Kuma's shoulder and even pulled several glow sticks out of its body. Its body was like Doraemon's magic pocket, always taking out all kinds of strange little items.
That said, its capacity was related to its own size. There was no space-compression technology involved.
"They should've told you during class, right? Princess Nanamo is Lord Nereus's only daughter, and at least for the foreseeable future, that won't change.
There's no downside to joining the fan club. You just have to help hype things up~"
As a loyal cloud, Hermes was simply carrying out its duties, such as recruiting people for the fan club.
Nanamo's concerts could only be considered internal events for now, basically just Nereus's subordinates coming to support her. She was still a very long way from stepping onto a big stage.
As for the fan club members, they could be considered fixed audience members.
In fact, almost everyone on the ship was more or less part of this fan club. After all, she was the boss's daughter, and playing along didn't hurt anyone.
In the end, under Hermes's pyramid-scheme-like persuasion, Kuma and the others all joined the fan club and each received a set of support shirts.
Because they had the ability to freely traverse the Calm Belt, even when entering the first half of the Grand Line, Nereus and his group didn't go through Reverse Mountain.
The return journey was calmer than the trip there, and they encountered very little trouble. Kuma and Ginny also got to see firsthand how the Fish-Men conducted naval battles.
[Fish-Man Karate • Spear Wave!]
[Fish-Man Jujutsu • Ocean Current Shoulder Throw!]
None of the ship's officers took action, and Nereus himself did not move either. Faced with a provoking pirate ship, a squad of combatants slipped into the sea.
The Spear Wave pierced straight through the enemy ship's hull, and the surge raised by the Ocean Current Shoulder Throw unleashed by several people working together directly threw the enemy vessel off balance, capsizing it on the surface of the sea.
From beginning to end, the enemy never even caught sight of a Fish-Man.
Approaching the surface, boarding the deck—those were actions Fish-Men only took when they intended to seize a ship. If they merely wanted to destroy one, it was an extremely simple matter for their race.
Stronger officers could accomplish it alone, while weaker ones needed to operate in teams. Once Nereus had gathered many powerful individuals together and cultivated a group of qualified warriors, such tasks became even easier.
Overall, the return voyage was fairly calm, encountering only a single pirate crew that took the initiative to attack.
Meanwhile, Nereus and his group's ship gradually drew closer to a sea region shrouded in fog.
The sea fog here never disperses year-round, plunging ships that sailed through it into something like perpetual darkness.
Worse still, this fog blocked a mandatory route along the way and could not be bypassed. Because its general shape was triangular, it was also known as the Florian Triangle.
"Hey! The ship ahead! Don't go in there! There are ghosts, there are ghosts in this sea!"
As Nereus and the others were heading toward the dense fog, a ship that looked rather battered emerged from it, the people aboard shouting words like "Stop!"
They showed no intention of lingering and charged straight past Nereus's ship.
This naturally wasn't enough to make Nereus and his group stop. If anything, what Nereus was looking for was precisely these "ghosts."
However, after sailing through the foggy waters for a while, Sebastian sensed something amiss.
"Boss, that didn't look like a pirate ship just now. It seemed more like a merchant vessel scared out of its wits. Could there really be some monsters in this fog?"
Debris from ships floated on the nearby sea surface, looking as though they had been destroyed by some kind of external force.
"Whether there are monsters or not, I don't know. But a giant, there really is one."
Following Nereus's gaze, Sebastian looked ahead. Within the fog, an enormous shadow was slowly taking shape.
Obscured by the thick fog, it appeared to be some kind of bull-headed monster.
In reality, however, it was merely the bow of a warship.
Just as Sebastian was about to move, Nereus stopped him.
"You can't handle this. Let me."
As he spoke, wings sprang from Nereus's back, and in an instant he vanished from the deck.
"Harald! Why are you here!"
TN: Hey guys, I will be releasing extra chapters for every 20 power stones. (5-7 chapters.)
Please support on pat*eon for extra chapters; there is date to date subscription enabled on patreon. [There is a 7-day trial version availabe on patreon.]
https://www.pat*eon.com/dmtranslations
You can read ahead upto 25 chapters on my pa*reon.