Twenty-Seven Devil Fruits!
The sacred music "The Bible Future - The Descent of God" has become popular, even though it's only in the Sabaody Archipelago and Mary Geoise.
The former goes without saying; these past few days, whenever Celestial Dragons has passed through, the music can be heard along the way. For Vidal, the latter is what pleases him the most, after all, that is the center of the world's highest power, and he has even heard that the Five Elders highly praise it.
It was already mid-November. As the Celestial Dragons arrived one after another like dumplings being dropped into a pot, Devil Fruits seemed to have sprouted wings and flew into Vidal's office, but he moved them all to his own bedroom in Marineford.
Do you know how many there are?
That evening, Vidal stared blankly at the stacks of wooden boxes in the room.
Besides the two Devil Fruits that Raymond de Saint initially gave him, there were two plant-type Devil Fruits that he exchanged for using his own military merits. The remaining eighteen were all the Sacred Music fees paid by other Celestial Dragons within the past month.
That's right, there were a total of twenty-two Devil Fruits of various types in front of him!
Twenty-two!!
Four uniformly sized wooden boxes were stacked in each row, arranged in five rows, with two boxes placed on top, making it look very neat.
If we add the five Devil Fruits possessed by the G-8 Branch, he has a total of twenty-seven Devil Fruits. Honestly, he should be the person in the world with the most Devil Fruits right now.
But what to do with so many Devil Fruits has now become a big problem that needs to be considered.
Should we store them all at home? Or at the G-8 Branch's botanical garden?
In fact, Vidal preferred the former, and even considered bringing the Rumble-Rumble Fruits from the G-8 Branch here. After all, he already had so many Devil Fruits, so having a few more wouldn't be very noticeable.
Given his current status, background, and power, surely no one would force their way into his home and steal from him?
From now on, all treasures and money will be stored at G-8 Branch, while Devil Fruits will be kept at Marineford!
However, when Vidal's gaze fell on the box on the far left of the top of the 'Box Mountain', he hesitated. He wondered how he could give this Devil Fruit to someone he could trust, so that hiding things would be much easier in the future.
The question is, who should it be given to?
This is tantamount to handing over all your possessions and Devil Fruits to the other party for management; you must be careful!
In fact, if Cornell and Enid hadn't had unsuitable professions, they would have been the most trustworthy people.
Many faces flashed through Vidal's mind— Woonan, Nacil, Rogers, and so on—but he found none of them quite right. It was then that he realized that, apart from Yixiao, he seemed to have no one he could entrust with important matters.
"Ah, I'm a little troubled," he said, plopping down on the bed and stroking his chin in a thoughtful manner.
"Who is there that I can completely trust and who will always be by my side?"
He pondered for nearly an hour, his eyes unfocused as he immersed himself in his inner world. Gradually, his gaze sharpened and brightened, as if he had found a new approach.
Why does it have to be a person?
"It seems that humans aren't the only ones who can eat Devil Fruits; animals can too, and what about plants? As long as they can obey my commands!"
Vidal actually knew that objects could also be used, but there were two problems: first, he didn't know how to do it; second, objects seemed to be able to 'eat' Zoan Devil Fruits, probably because only Zoan had Lineage Factors.
The Devil Fruit he's interested in isn't Zoan, so the object aspect is out of the question.
"As for the plant." Vidal blinked, then raised his right hand, put two fingers together, and gently hooked them towards the wooden board in front of him. As green light bloomed from his fingertips, a green sapling covered with sharp, long leaves began to grow on the board.
What's most interesting is that it not only has eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but also long limbs. It even automatically turns to face Vidal as soon as it appears, clearly indicating that it possesses a certain level of intelligence.
This is the new skill he acquired on the Boin Archipelago: the ability to create plants with the intelligence and magical abilities of cats and dogs.
Vidal stood up abruptly, picked up a wooden box from the 'mountain of boxes' and placed it on the table beside him. Then he took out Devil Fruit that was clearly not Zoan.
He had already investigated the approximate abilities of these Devil Fruits. It was easy to identify whether they were Zoan; if the image of a certain animal did not appear, then they definitely weren't.
But just as he was about to hand over the fruit, he suddenly stopped.
He thought it was unreliable. Since Zoan Devil Fruits could be 'eaten' by objects because of Lineage Factors, plant and non- Zoan Devil Fruits didn't have Lineage Factors, so how could they be effective?
If this humanoid sapling takes a bite of a Devil Fruit and then fails to inherit it, wouldn't it be a complete waste?
He may have quite a few Devil Fruits now, but he can't just act recklessly like this. Knowing there's a high chance of failure, why would he still try?
Isn't that just being stupid?
It's not even gambling. At least in gambling, the person involved thinks they have a chance of winning. Now that he himself thinks it's impossible, why would he still go for it?
With that in mind, Vidal decided to put the Devil Fruit back. Then, standing in front of the 'Box Mountain' for a moment, he picked up another box containing Zoan -Zoan.
"Since it's proven that Zoan Devil Fruits can have their abilities inherited by objects without Lineage Factors, then plants are very likely to be able to as well!"
He first used the power of the Woods-Woods Fruit to determine the animal form of the fruit in his hand, and then spent some time reshaping the humanoid sapling.
He had just done it casually before, but now that he was going to feed it Devil Fruit, he naturally wanted to dress it up properly, because he suspected that some unexpected things might happen after it ate the fruit.
Five minutes later, everything was ready. The previously humanoid sapling had turned into a strange creature, entirely green with a pink ring around its chin and abdomen, six yellow beads on its back, and a thick, long tail made of emerald green leaves.
In Vidal's eyes, this was a living, 1.7-meter-tall giant figurine.
Then, through 'invisible signals between plants,' it was given the command to eat it.
There was nothing he could do about it. Back in the Boin Archipelago, he had already discovered that these magical plants were difficult to control with words, just like ordinary animals couldn't understand human speech.
[Chuckle chuckle]
It was obvious that these magical plants had no sense of taste, and the Devil Fruit, which was extremely unpalatable to humans, was quickly devoured by it in no time.
"Come on, let me see if you can actually 'eat' Devil Fruits."
Under Vidal's expectant gaze, its body began to undergo astonishing changes.
Its originally dull eyes suddenly turned into lively yellow pupils and black vertical pupils, its limbs seemed to swell up as if filled with muscles, and its tail swayed back and forth.
A humanoid, green lizard, standing 1.7 meters tall, appeared right in front of Vidal!
What does a magical plant composed of Adam Wood and sharp-edged branches and leaves, combined with an iguana-shaped lizard- Zoan fruit, equal?
Vidal looked at the 'little guy' who was staring back at him with some excitement, feeling as if a childhood dream had come true.
"From today onwards, you will be called the Sceptile!"
Two hundred chapters! Two hundred chapters!!
I think that no matter how amazing the plants of the Boin Archipelago are, they are still plants at their core, and it's unlikely that they have Lineage Factors involved.
So, if you give Zoan Devil Fruit to a magical plant, wouldn't that create a Grass-type Pokémon?
This is my idea, but I feel we shouldn't do too many of these things, otherwise it would be putting the cart before the horse. Let's treat this Sceptile as an experiment. We can create one or two more at most to guard places Vidal values, like the Boin Archipelago. Interested readers can discuss this with me. I hope the remaining two will be Grass-type Pokémon, and please make sure it's plausible. For example, which type of Zoan-type Devil Fruit can be used, and they also need to have some combat power. Otherwise, cuteness alone won't be effective against Vidal.