Over the past few days, the Merry had seemed to turn into a mobile dojo floating on the Great Sea.
Under Ronan's almost perverse training, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji's Thirteen Protectors Hard Qi Training had progressed rapidly.
Their physical strength had long since surpassed its original limits.
Tough sinews and bones, abundant vitality and blood—all of it provided the perfect breeding ground for the awakening of Haki.
Yesterday, following Ronan, Luffy and Zoro—and even Sanji, who had joined last—had all successively touched upon the threshold of Armament Haki.
They had successfully lit that lamp in their minds known as the "armor of will."
Looking at the three of them, who had taken only a few days to complete a path of Haki awakening that ordinary people might need years to walk,
Ronan could not help but feel waves crashing through his heart.
Was this the worth of being children of destiny...?
Ronan clicked his tongue to himself.
After all, he had only mastered Armament Haki so quickly thanks to the Perseverance System's tenfold continuous Deathmatch multiplier.
Yet these three had forcibly broken through their bottlenecks merely through his guidance and beatings, relying on their physical instincts and terrifying talent.
"Phew... phew..."
A fierce round of sparring came to an end.
The four of them sat sprawled across the deck bare-chested, without a shred of dignity left.
Sweat ran down the contours of their bulging muscles, gleaming with an oily sheen beneath the sunlight.
After several weeks of baptism through Thirteen Protectors' Horizontal Training, the Straw Hat Pirates' three main fighters had undergone astonishing changes.
The once-scrawny Luffy now had broad shoulders and a full chest.
Though he still retained the lean look of a rubber man, it was now a lean frame packed with explosive power, and he had shot