Ancient Zoan

Pushing open the door, Roy saw a red sun hanging at the horizon, tearing through the clouds and casting thousands of radiant streaks across the sky. He took a deep, refreshing breath of air and immediately felt invigorated, yesterday's exhaustion swept away.

King Gilia, meanwhile, sat on a stone chair in the courtyard without the slightest regal airs. His sleeves were still dotted with dew, making it clear that he had been waiting for quite some time.

Roy nodded slightly. No one could find fault with being treated with such respect.

"Lord Roy, you haven't eaten yet, have you? How about we have breakfast before heading to the Underground Palace?" the king asked in an exceedingly ingratiating tone.

"No need. We can talk as we walk." As he spoke, Roy conjured a pear-like fruit out of thin air and began eating it. King Gilia stared in stunned disbelief, finding Lord Roy even more unfathomable.

This was a Devil Fruit Ability Roy had developed recently. Of course, it was not truly creating something from nothing—that was still beyond a realm Roy could reach.

The principle was that Roy turned fruit into illusory objects and stored them in the Dream Realm, then converted them back into physical objects and retrieved them when needed. Naturally, this ability was useless against living beings with consciousness.

Put less grandly, it could simply be considered a spatial ring. Its greatest advantage was convenience.

"Lord Roy, the entrance to the Underground Palace is actually beneath my bedchamber."

Roy paused at that, his face twitching as he asked, "If I remember correctly, that indescribable place from yesterday was inside the palace, wasn't it? Don't tell me..."

The king wore a miserable expression as well. "Lord Roy, there's really no way around it. I wanted to send people to clean it up yesterday, but it was simply beyond our capabilities. Thankfully, my bedchamber wasn't contaminated. The smell is just rather strong."

Roy sighed softly. Naturally, he knew just how horrifying that filth was. It was not something that could be dealt with in a day or two, so he did not press the matter further.

When they neared the Royal Palace, the king handed Roy a mask and put one on himself as well. In a muffled voice, he said, "Lord Roy, you should wear one too. It may not help much, but it's better than nothing."

Roy naturally did not refuse. He readily put on the mask and forced down his nausea as he entered the king's bedchamber.

It had to be said, the man's bedchamber was truly luxurious. However, Roy paid it little attention. With a legendary Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit right beneath his feet, who would care about such yellow and white trinkets?

The king moved aside a mural hanging on the wall, revealing a numeric keypad. After entering the password, the floor beneath Roy's feet rumbled as it split apart to either side.

Roy could not even be bothered to mock the password anymore. He jumped directly into the Underground Palace and lit the lamps on both sides, instantly illuminating the place.

The king had told Roy that the Underground Palace was essentially a long corridor. As long as one made it through while avoiding the traps along the way, one could obtain the final treasure.

"Interesting." Confident in his abilities, Roy stepped straight into the corridor without much inspection.

Boom!

The walls on both sides rumbled loudly as sharp, cold-glinting spikes thrust out from them. The walls themselves slowly began moving inward, as if telling the challenger that if he did not quickly pass through the first section of the corridor, he would soon be crushed into a meat patty—one riddled with holes.

With Roy's swordsmanship, destroying the wall mechanisms outright would have been effortless. But after spending so many years in the Pirate World, this was the first time he had encountered something so interesting. Clearing it directly would ruin the gaming experience.

Well, Roy was roughly in the same mood as when he had visited an amusement park in his previous life.

Roy quickened his pace, but before he had taken more than a few steps, a massive hammer suddenly dropped from the ceiling, clearly intending to catch the challenger off guard.

Roy took a large stride forward to evade the hammer. At the same time, the spikes on both sides suddenly extended, making him sigh at just how devious the person who designed these traps had been.

In truth, the walls did not move very quickly. Even an ordinary person could pass through before they met. But anyone seeing them would surely panic and try to rush through, only to be caught off guard by the endless traps that followed and meet a bleak end.

Unfortunately, Roy's five senses were simply too sharp. Even without paying much attention, he avoided every trap through his body's natural reactions alone.

After swiftly passing through the first section, Roy's interest was piqued. He could somewhat understand why no member of the royal family had ever cleared it all these years.

Upon entering the second section, Roy discovered flames igniting across the ground behind him. They slowly crept forward, leaving him somewhat speechless. This again?

Sure enough, spikes emerged from both sides once more, this time crackling with electricity. Roy could not help but marvel at how inventive King Gilia's ancestors had been. The second section had directly switched to elemental attacks, making him curious about what novel trick the third section would bring.

As Roy walked, he kept count. This stretch featured flames, lightning, ice, fierce winds, lasers, and other attacks, making Roy rant inwardly. Damn, was the Gilia Kingdom's technology really this advanced? If they had such insane black technology back then, what the hell did they need Devil Fruits for?

When he entered the third section, it was indeed the same familiar formula. The ground began collapsing, with part of the path caving in at regular intervals. If he did not want to fall into the abyss, he had to keep running forward.

Boom!

A huge number of rolling boulders suddenly appeared ahead, crushing everything in their path as they barreled toward him. Roy could not help but praise the ingenious trap design.

Roy could have shattered every boulder in the corridor into dust with a single slash, but since this was already the final section, he worried that his Sword Qi might accidentally damage the Devil Fruit. So he chose the safest method instead.

Pseudo Moonwalk!

Roy remained suspended in midair, completely ignoring the collapsing floor and the oncoming boulders. He simply waited for all the traps to activate, then walked through the air to the other side.

Compared to the elaborate traps before it, the place where the Devil Fruit was stored seemed rather dilapidated. There was only an earthen pedestal, upon which sat a jewel-encrusted box.

Roy opened the box. Inside was another banana-shaped Devil Fruit, though it did indeed differ subtly from the Devil Fruit Roy had obtained before. He could easily sense the weight of ancient years within this fruit, as though it had emerged from primordial time.

This also made Roy feel fortunate. If he had not obtained the Dream-Dream Fruit, he might very well have eaten that Zoan Devil Fruit. Looking at them now, that fruit had most likely only been an ordinary Zoan Fruit.

"A person cannot eat a second Devil Fruit. I'm not a monster like Blackbeard, so there's no need to risk my life on a pointless attempt. This Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit is indeed immensely valuable—it could easily help me cultivate a powerful subordinate. Still, it would be best for a strong specialist in Body Technique to eat it. Unfortunately, Patch has already eaten a Devil Fruit. Otherwise, among my officers, he would have been the most suitable."

"Hmm, King is a sniper, so this fruit would not mean much to him. Yonji meets the requirements, but he has been modified through Lineage Factor, and I don't know whether that would conflict with a Devil Fruit. Forget it, better rule him out. Kenkon and Kayou... hmm, forget it. This is too troublesome. I don't want to think about it anymore. I'll just ask them directly later."