Skill Pearl

Doflamingo shook his head, then turned to leave.

Three-Headed Hydra, who was sprawled on the ground howling in pain, suddenly flashed a vicious glint in his eyes. He seized his broadsword and slashed at Doflamingo's neck!

"Guhahahahaha! I won! In the end, I still won!" Three-Headed Hydra laughed viciously. Then he suddenly saw that Doflamingo's head had not fallen off. Instead, Doflamingo slowly turned around.

"You~ won~? How~ did~ you~ win~?"

"Urk~~!" Three-Headed Hydra rolled his eyes and fainted on the spot.

"What a scaredy-cat." Doflamingo shook his head. In that instant, he had already detected Three-Headed Hydra's movement with Observation Haki. Thus, when the slash came down, he had already turned his neck intangible.

When he turned around, pirates and sailors alike scattered in a panic, scrambling and crawling away, leaving an empty stretch more than ten meters wide in the middle of the battlefield.

"Are you kidding me? With guts that small, why even go out to sea?" Doflamingo did not know whether to laugh or cry. He only felt that the people of the Pirate World were truly unreasonable.

Wouldn't normal people assume he had used some method to dodge that slash? Why were these people looking at him as if they had seen a ghost?

"Don't be afraid! He's not a ghost—he must be a Devil Fruit ability user!" At that moment, Aji, the little dwarf who had just been stomped into the ground, sprang up and shouted.

This was the Grand Line, after all. They had at least heard of Devil Fruits. Upon hearing that, several pirates immediately found their courage again.

Doflamingo frowned. Though he was unharmed and had not seemed to exert much effort just now, using his intangibility ability actually consumed a great deal of stamina.

And in the end, in order to make Three-Headed Hydra lower his guard, he had taken that fellow's overhead slash head-on. His arms and legs now felt weak and sore, and he still could not muster much strength.

Glancing at the pirate grunts closing in, Doflamingo could not be bothered to waste any more time. The blade in his hand flashed sharply.

Splat! Blood gushed out wildly as a massive head fell to the ground. The unconscious Three-Headed Hydra lost his life just like that.

Come to think of it, Doflamingo had not even known his name until now.

This move intimidated every pirate, and terror immediately appeared on their faces. Then they saw Doflamingo's figure grow larger and larger as all manner of terrifying tentacles sprouted from him.

"A monster! He really is a monster! Run!"

This time, Aji, the little dwarf lying on the ground, said nothing. He was the first to pump his two short little legs and vanish into the distance.

Although he did not believe Doflamingo was some monster, this sight alone told him that Doflamingo was a top-tier Devil Fruit ability user. He was certainly not someone the Three-Headed Hydra Pirates could handle.

The other pirates scattered in fright as well. Yet before they had taken more than a few steps, the sailors cut them down one after another.

The sailors found it rather strange too. They had no idea what madness had suddenly seized the pirates; one after another, they did not even know to resist and simply ran straight into their blades.

At this time, the merchant ship captain, who had been barely holding on against the pirate leader's two younger brothers, suddenly discovered that the two huge pirates had gone mad and begun hacking at each other. Before long, they had hacked each other into a near-death state and collapsed on the ground.

Everyone in the merchant convoy looked at one another, their faces full of bafflement. They had no idea what had happened.

The merchant captain, however, wore an expression of sudden realization as he looked at Doflamingo.

"Steve, you're incredible! I never thought you'd become a Devil Fruit ability user!"

Doflamingo curled his lip slightly. He had used his illusion ability to implant an image of Steve into every merchant convoy member's mind, but that image was actually very shallow and could not withstand scrutiny at all.

However, this captain did not seem particularly clever. It would be more accurate to say that in the entire Pirate World, nine out of ten people were simple-minded, while the remaining one simply had no brain at all.

Clearly, this captain had no doubts whatsoever about "Steve."

Looking again at the excited crew, well, fine. They did not seem to harbor any doubts either.

Doflamingo sighed inwardly. Don't ask—this was simply a Pirate World specialty.

Taking out the Three-Headed Hydra Pirates was not without benefits. At the very least, their three leaders were worth quite a bit in bounty money.

Among them, the pirate crew's captain, Big Mouth Andrew—the Three-Headed Hydra Doflamingo had beheaded—carried a bounty of fifty million.

It did not sound particularly high, but Pirate King Roger had not yet conquered the Grand Line. Bounties in this era were worth far more than they would be later.

In the future, Andrew would be worth at least over a hundred million. He could barely count as a supernova.

With money to be made, Doflamingo naturally would not refuse. Andrew had been killed by his hand in full view of everyone, so no one would compete with him for the bounty.

There was no Marine branch on this small island. After the merchant convoy members restocked their supplies, they held a feast on the island before leaving.

The Three-Headed Hydra Pirates were not excessively cruel. At the very least, they had not done anything to the island's residents; they had merely forced a few free meals out of them. Therefore, the merchant ship encountered no difficulty replenishing its supplies.

After this battle, "Steve" became a hero aboard the merchant ship. Because of his fighting strength, the merchant convoy members all treated him with great respect.

Thus, Doflamingo simply began living like a pampered lord aboard the merchant ship, with clothes brought to him and meals served to him. He no longer even needed to use invisibility.

More importantly, however, Doflamingo discovered a special use for his cheat.

Inside the Illusion Space, Doflamingo stared wide-eyed at the Blood-colored Puppet before him. It stood over four meters tall, and its size alone made it clear that it was connected to Andrew.

"What is this? Do the souls of everyone I kill get absorbed into my cheat?"

But after looking at the Blood-colored Puppets around him that bore the forms of pirates, Doflamingo shook his head. "It should be that anyone who dies near me gets drawn into the Illusion Space, right?"

After muttering to himself for a moment, Doflamingo decisively reached out and directly absorbed Andrew's soul completely.

"Hmm? What's this?" After the soul had been completely absorbed, a pile of red sand remained on the ground, with a faint glow showing through its center.

Doflamingo casually sifted through it and picked out an object resembling a pearl, causing him to frown.

The Observation Haki within him sensed a nearly kindred power from the pearl. After thinking briefly, Doflamingo directly absorbed the pearl into his body.