Peter calmly filled the empty water bottles with the potion ending up with a half dozen full bottles. As tempting as it was to make himself immortal, or give himself a healing factor that would make Wolverine jealous, he couldn't until he fixed his base body first. Drinking either of those potions would, essentially, freeze him as he currently was. That might seem counter intuitive with the regeneration potion but the potion would 'think' that his current body was the right way for him to be. Sure, it would let him build muscle and become stronger, but it wouldn't fix his bones, repair his lungs, or heal any of the current damage to his body. In fact, if he drank it now then healed the damage with a potion later, the regeneration potion would revert him back to a damaged state.
As for making and drinking any kind of potion that granted him a permanent power boost? It'd most likely be more power than his body could handle and would cause him to simply explode. He was all about not exploding so he would take it step by step. His ultimate goal was to become an unkillable god, but that would take a long time. For now he was focused on the much more achievable 'healthy' status.
Peter looked at the bottle of thick brown goo that reeked of dirty socks and exhaled all the air from his lungs before lifting it to his lips and throwing his head back. His throat fought against him, as if rejecting the very possibility of swallowing the concoction. This left the potion sitting on his tongue. The taste was so foul it brought tears to his eyes. It took a supreme effort of will to force himself to swallow it and not spit it out and begin vomiting all over the place. He had literally eaten rotten and moldy food that tasted better than what he'd just swallowed.
As soon as he swallowed a few mouthfuls of the potion, he conjured a bottle of water and began to vigorously rinse his mouth out in an attempt to get rid of the flavor clinging to his tongue. He gagged and shuddered violently, but refused to vomit it up as that would just mean taking more sooner than he needed to. He was already hating the fact he would be taking another dose in the future.
Still, it was out of the way for the time being. That left him with a simple question, what now? The potion he'd just taken was already at work though it would take time to show results. While waiting for that, he could literally make anything. Though, perhaps he should look into his ability to create homunculi?
It takes all of five seconds for him to realize there's no way in hell for him to make a homunculus with his current limitations. He, basically, needed a fully furnished lab to be able to make one. The process required a tank to grow the body within a bath of specific nutrients. He also needed a blood sample of a specific race if he wanted to make something other than human. Which was actually as simple as thinking of what he wanted and getting it instantly delivered. Hell, he could use the blood of specific people to clone them!
That... was very very tempting to him. He knew all kinds of amazing people he could make copies of! Then they would be perfectly loyal to him and him alone. He could MAKE the perfect crew for sailing the seas! He didn't want to become king of the pirates or rule the world, but he did have a dream.
He wanted to wipe out the Celestial Dragons, the Five Elder Stars, and all the leadership of the Marines. He wanted to end the corruption and have the marines truly live up to the claims they paid false service to. No more bullshit like Buster Calls that killed as many innocent as guilty. No more psychopaths being given free reign to kill people in the name of 'justice' without due process. He wanted the world government to be more like the United Nations from his past life. Though with far more authority and military might, obviously.
With both himself and his homunculi immortal, they could keep things running until such a time as the people of the world could take care of things properly themselves. It wouldn't be anything remotely like a utopia, human nature made that impossible, but it would still be better than the way things were now!
With a goal to work toward, Peter dived into his mind and began trying to determine which potions he should make next.
Peter stayed in the forest clearing for over a week. Food and water were easy to come by and food replacement potions were highly nutritious which helped with his Nourishment potions repairing the damage to his body. By the time he returned to the small coastal town he'd lived most of his life in, he was a different man entirely.
His hair was so black that it reflected purple and so healthy it would make any woman who saw it jealous. Thanks to a few things he did it was now naturally spiky with a single spike hanging down between his eyes. His eyes looked like chips of obsidian and sparkled in the light. His once stick-thin body was now healthy and rippling with muscles that most people only got by living at the gym. He's also grown a bit going from his previous five foot one inch to a nice round six feet.
The only thing even hinting at his previous stature was the ragged pair of shorts he was wearing that bit into his skin tightly. It was also the only stitch of clothing he was wearing as nothing else he owned even remotely fit. Sadly, his power didn't give him the ability to make clothing. He could make silk thread by the mile, but he had no idea how to weave it into cloth and then turn the cloth into clothing.
None of that would matter for long though as he opened the door to the towns pawn shop. One might expect the place to be gloomy and run by a greasy pig of a man, they would be wrong. The pawn shop was actually one of the better shops on the island. It had items from all four blues and even some from the Grand Line, all brought to their shore by sailors looking for a few extra Belly to spend. There was no telling what you might find in the place as the goods changed almost entirely after every few ships arrived.
The bell above the door jingled to announce Peter's presence and drew the attention of the young woman working behind the counter as well as the large man covered in muscles standing guard in a corner. They both eyed him with different looks. The man assessed him for threats in a rather professional manner while the woman gave him a once over before licking her lips. Peter was aware of how good looking he'd become over the last week and appreciated her gaze. Until he realized he probably looked like a bum and therefore an easy mark.
Still, the woman was a professional and didn't just dismiss him on sight because of his garb, or lack thereof. Instead she gave him a polite business smile and asked, "How can I help you today?"
Peter lifted his hand and dropped the small sack he'd been carrying in it on the counter with a loud 'thunk' of something heavy hitting wood. The woman, clearly curious, gestured to the pouch, "May I?"
At his nod she opened the pouch and dumped out several chunks of solid gold onto the counter. She let out a low whistle at the sight of the glittering metal, "Selling or pawning?"
"Selling."
With a nod she got to work. Out came a scale and abacus so she could weigh it and calculate its value. As she did she informed Peter, "The shop takes twenty-five percent off the top. No negotiation."
Peter had the instinctive urge to protest but crushed it with the knowledge that he could just produce gold whenever he wanted in whatever amount he wanted. Money literally meant nothing to him. Gold, silver, gems, and precious stones were all items he could procure as ingredients. Naturally things like gems would be uncut, thus lowering their value some, but making a thousand diamonds the size of ostrich eggs wasn't impossible for him.
He silently watched as the woman weighed the gold and used the abacus to calculate its total value. It took only a minute or so before she said, "The gold you have is worth five million Belly, minus our commission and you're looking at three million seven hundred and fifty thousand Belly."
Losing over a million Belly sucked, but again, he could make as much as he wanted. Three point seven million was more than enough for him to buy the things he needed right then. His thoughts were interrupted when she spoke again, "If you want to take a look around the shop and pick up a few items, I'll give you a ten percent discount on them and take it right out of the gold. You can have the rest as cash after."