Tom's Class Change

"Wait, where's the gift I prepared for Luffy?"

Garp rummaged through boxes and drawers, somehow pulling out a book.

I'm the Man Who Will Become a Marine Admiral.

The moment Lin Qi saw the title, his heart nearly stopped. He really wanted to ask, Are you sure your eldest grandson can even read this?

"Alright, I understand. I'll give it to Luffy myself."

"Hahahaha, thanks."

With Smoker and Hina in tow, Lin Qi set out on his first independent voyage.

Sengoku had assigned him a medium-sized, twin-sailed fast ship. Among ships of its size, its speed was top-notch.

It was equipped with twenty cannons and two hundred Marine soldiers from Headquarters, enough to deal devastating blows to any Pirates they encountered.

"Raise the sails, set off!"

Following Yosef's resounding shout, the Warship departed from the harbor and vanished over the sea.

One day later.

Other than two small groups of Pirates who had been sent to the bottom of the sea by a single burst of Lin Qi's Conqueror's Haki, the journey had been calm and uneventful.

"Hahahahaha, Smoker, your Logia isn't all that either."

On the deck, Smoker, who had been floating in midair, was cut down by Lin Qi's sword and slammed onto the deck.

Smoker got back up with a gloomy expression. He had not expected Lin Qi's Observation Haki to surpass his by so much.

Lin Qi had precisely caught the instant when he shifted from elemental form back into a physical body.

A Logia was invincible against those who could not use Haki, because its users could passively transform into elements. Only attacks imbued with Armament Haki could hit them.

However, as long as one's Observation Haki was strong enough, one could actively transform into an element to evade even Armament Haki attacks.

From that perspective, Logias truly deserved their reputation as the strongest.

Unfortunately, in all three types of Haki, Smoker was being suppressed by Lin Qi.

"Still want to fight?"

Lin Qi walked over and pulled Smoker up from the ground.

"No more. Let me get used to the Smoke-Smoke Fruit first. Next time, I'll definitely beat you."

Proud Smoker naturally refused to admit defeat. After all, he had only eaten the Smoke-Smoke Fruit a few days ago.

As he spoke, Smoker pulled out a cigar tied to his shoulder and began smoking it, handing one to Lin Qi as well. "Want one?"

Smoker had not smoked before, but ever since eating the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, he had discovered that his stamina recovered rapidly wherever there was smoke...

The smile vanished from Hina's face. Her large eyes stared fixedly at Lin Qi, as though they were saying, You dare smoke?

"No, I don't smoke." Faced with the girl's murderous gaze, Lin Qi put away the urge to try it.

After a moment of silence, Lin Qi spoke. "The World Government was wrong this time. They shouldn't have thrown you into East Blue."

Smoker took a deep drag and gazed into the distance. "It's already good enough that I got to keep my life."

"Wait for me. Once I become an Admiral, I'll come pull you out of there."

"..."

Hina quietly listened to the two men's conversation, leaning against the railing with a hand on her cheek as she looked toward East Blue.

East Blue, her hometown. She had not seen her parents in a year. She wondered whether they were doing well now.

Suddenly, Hina felt something tugging at her pant leg. Looking down, she saw Tom.

"Pfft~" Hina looked at the comical Tom before her and rubbed his ears. "Tom, if you sneakily wear your master's clothes, be careful he doesn't beat you."

Tom had draped himself in the Justice Cape Lin Qi had left in his room. The cape fit Lin Qi perfectly, but on Tom, it looked like he was wearing a blanket. Three-quarters of the long cape dragged along the ground.

Besides that, a Flintlock Pistol hung at Tom's left hip, while he held a Navy Sword in his hand.

Ding. Detected a change in Tom Cat's mindset. Would you like to change his class to Navy Tom Cat?

"Tom?" Lin Qi, who had been speaking with Smoker, shifted his gaze over.

This cat could change classes too???

This incident seemed to have unlocked something incredible. Quite a few locked professions began appearing one after another on Tom's interface.

Uchiha Tom. Hawk Eyes Tom. Uchiha Tom Madara. Stark Tom. Magician Tom...

No single word could possibly describe how awesome this was.

It was hard to imagine what Tom Cat would look like if he became Uchiha Madara.

Unfortunately, unlocking them would not be easy.

"Change class."

As Lin Qi selected the class change, a dense white glow emanated from Tom's body.

When the white light faded, Tom's weapons and cape had changed into forms that fit him properly. He actually looked pretty cool.

"Did your cat eat a Devil Fruit too?" Smoker rubbed his eyes in astonishment.

"..."

Tom opened his eyes and noticed the changes to himself. Excited, he leaped two meters into the air, then landed and pointed his sword at Smoker.

In Tom's mind, Lin Qi was his master and could not be attacked. Hina often gave him Dried Fish and could not be attacked. Smoker—could be attacked!

This dumb cat had gotten completely carried away.

Lin Qi watched Tom challenge Smoker with an amused smile.

After changing into an ordinary Navy Tom Cat, Tom's combat ability had merely gone from a level-five weakling to a level-ten weakling. He could handle small-time Pirates, but challenging Smoker was pure overconfidence.

Most importantly, Tom could not use Haki. Even if Smoker stood still and let him attack, Tom might not be able to hit him.

Why might? Because this was Tom. Even if he did hit him, Lin Qi would not find it strange.

Still, Smoker could not do anything to Tom either. Theoretically speaking, no one in the world could kill Tom.

"Um... Smoker, since Tom wants to challenge you, play with him for a bit."

Smoker nodded. He rather liked the little cat too.

With the mindset of simply playing around, Smoker swung his Jitte down. It was not very fast; it would be awkward if he accidentally killed Lin Qi's pet.

Seeing Smoker moving as slowly as a turtle, Tom gave a mocking grin and thrust his sword straight at Smoker's thigh.

Smack~

Just as expected, the sword in Tom's hand was knocked away and shattered into two pieces.

Smoker's weapon was made of Seastone. Ordinary weapons could not compare to its hardness.

Bang bang bang~

Tom swiftly drew the Flintlock Pistol at his waist and fired seven shots in rapid succession.

At that point, Lin Qi noticed something was wrong.

A Flintlock Pistol could only fire one shot at a time. Why did it seem to have unlimited ammunition in Tom's hands? He did not need to reload at all.

After firing more than a dozen shots, Tom's tongue hung out as he panted heavily. It seemed he could directly convert stamina into bullets.

With Tom Cat's recovery speed, he would be back to full health in less than two minutes. Interesting.

None of the dozen-plus bullets hit, and Tom panicked, especially when the Jitte was already above his head.

Tom Cat suddenly flattened himself, transforming from a rectangular cat into a square one and dodging the attack.

"Interesting cat, but this is where it ends." Smoker spun his Jitte and swept it toward Tom's legs.

Tom had only just flattened himself and had not yet recovered. There was nowhere left for him to dodge.

Just as Smoker thought it was over, one of Tom's hands grabbed his own tail.

Then... Tom grabbed his tail and lifted himself off the ground, hanging in midair.

If Newton saw that, he would leap right out of his coffin.