I Never Expected Rocks to Be Like This!

For the next two or three days, Ortolan barely left Cake Island, nor did he see Charlotte Linlin again.

In fact, aside from Perospero and Katakuri, he did not see any of his other blood-related "siblings" either. Even Cracker had vanished.

It was as though Charlotte Linlin had no intention of introducing him to the others. From Katakuri's description, only the few of them currently knew his identity.

Ortolan did not find Charlotte Linlin's absence strange.

After all, the Big Mom Pirates seemed quite busy at the moment. Faced with Shiki's threat of war, she needed to devote herself fully to dealing with it.

At the same time, unlike the rough-and-ready style of most pirate crews, the Big Mom Pirates were moving toward becoming a "nation." As the queen of Whole Cake Island, Charlotte Linlin had plenty of daily affairs to keep her busy.

Of course, Ortolan had no particular desire to meet Charlotte Linlin either. He was completely absorbed in the castle's grand library!

Most of Ortolan's understanding of this world came from what he knew in his previous life, as well as some amusing anecdotes his old man had told him after he arrived here. He had never taken them too seriously before, but after talking with Katakuri several times on the way here, he realized he was utterly clueless about much of this world's common knowledge.

For example, he knew that the world's seas were broadly divided into the East, West, South, and North Blues, along with the Grand Line, which was cut off by the Calm Belts to the north and south. The First Half of Grand Line was called "Paradise," while the latter half was called the "New World."

But that was about all he knew regarding the seas. Beyond that, he was completely in the dark. He knew the names of some islands and which seas they belonged to, but he had no idea where they were located exactly.

Thus, after learning that the castle contained a grand library where Charlotte Linlin had collected all kinds of knowledge, Ortolan moved straight into it!

Before one of the grand library's bookshelves, Ortolan sat cross-legged on the floor, stacks of books piled around him. He held one book in his hands and read it intently.

There was even a small square table in front of him, with a notebook resting on it. Whenever Ortolan came across an important point, he would write it down.

From the front, one could see the title of the book in Ortolan's hands: "Haki: From Beginner to Burial."

The title was thoroughly unreliable, and its contents were a mixed bag. It began with the fundamentals of Haki before moving on to more advanced applications. Whether it was Armament Haki, Observation Haki, or even Conqueror's Haki, it offered remarkably unique insights.

Logically speaking, this should have been an excellent book. Yet it was also filled with topics completely unrelated to its central subject, including but not limited to "Whitebeard's Secret Lover," "Kaido's Crush Is Probably Linlin," "That Bastard Shiki Always Wants to Shit on My Head," "I Guess John's Treasure Is Probably Buried Somewhere-or-Other," "How to Change Katakuri's Diapers," "Linlin's Fourth Husband Has a Bad Temper," and "Could Gloriosa Possibly Let Me Marry into Amazon Lily?"—all sorts of random nonsense.

The reason it was such a mess was that the author was not any sort of professional. Rather, it was... the legendary Great Pirate, Rocks D. Xebec.

That was right—the Supreme Leader of the Rocks Pirates... This morning, Ortolan had stumbled across the book by accident. Curious about the mysterious powerhouse known as Rocks and eager to learn more about Haki, he had opened it.

Then, Rocks's image in his mind—mysterious, powerful, cold, cruel, and savage—underwent a complete upheaval!

Judging by how much he loved gossip, how he even had the leisure to write a book, and how he had written all that gossip into it, Rocks might truly have been powerful, but at heart, he was probably a complete goofball!

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"Is there no normal person in this D Clan?" After reading the detailed guide on "How to Change Katakuri's Diapers," Ortolan could not help muttering.

After flipping past all those messy descriptions, he soon found Rocks getting back to the main topic and explaining Haki.

Come to think of it, Ortolan was not unfamiliar with Haki. It was not as though he had never encountered it before. On the contrary, he currently possessed both Armament Haki and Observation Haki. As for Conqueror's Haki, he had no idea whether he had it or not. In any case, it had not awakened yet.

That was something determined by fate. If you had it, you were born with it, and it would awaken when the time came. If you did not have it, no amount of wishing would grant it to you, nor could you acquire it through training.

The reason Ortolan possessed two types of Haki was because his old man was, at the very least, a pirate with a bounty exceeding a hundred million who had made his living in the New World!

As everyone knew, Haki might be fairly rare outside the New World, but in the New World—the most brutal sea of all—anyone daring enough to make a living on the ocean knew at least some of it. Even the Marine grunts stationed in the New World could be said to have Armament Haki as standard equipment.

However, Ortolan's old man was not highly educated, had no talent for teaching, was not among the very strongest, and was not a powerhouse renowned for Haki. As a result, the Haki training he gave Ortolan was only slightly better than ordinary instruction.

Thus, while Ortolan possessed Haki, he was far from proficient with it. Now, the explanations about Haki recorded in this book by a top-tier powerhouse like Rocks truly opened Ortolan's eyes. Every so often, thoughts such as So that's how it is and You can do it like that too? would spring into his mind.

According to Rocks, the progress of Haki training could be summed up as three parts destiny and seven parts hard work!

Although everyone could train Armament Haki and Observation Haki, Rocks believed that, at their core, they were still connected to a certain extent with Conqueror's Haki, a power obtained entirely through talent.

Some people were born exceptionally sensitive to Armament Haki. They could grasp that power very quickly and improve at an astounding pace. The same applied to Observation Haki.

Ortolan thought it over and compared it to several examples from his memories. It really did seem to make sense. Take the legendary Great Pirate, the Lone Red... the Red Count, Byrnndi World. His Observation Haki was terrifying enough to reach the level of "hearing people's hearts." Moreover, it was an innate talent—he had been capable of it since childhood. Relying on that gift, even Rocks praised the Red Count's Observation Haki highly in this book.

Ortolan had never met the Red Count, but he did know another naturally gifted person—Katakuri. According to Katakuri himself, his senses had been exceptionally sharp since childhood, and his Observation Haki was now nearing the point of awakening an advanced form.

Every now and then, he could use his Observation Haki to "see the future." Ortolan knew very well that Katakuri would eventually make this a regular ability, consistently using Observation Haki to unleash the power of "seeing the future"!

As for Armament Haki, one of the gifted people Rocks praised was Marine Admiral Zephyr. In Ortolan's previous life, Zephyr's fame had not spread as widely as that of veteran Marine powerhouses such as Garp and Sengoku.

Yet in this book, Rocks rated Zephyr extremely highly. Considering that Zephyr had earned the title "Black Arm" and ascended to the seat of Admiral—known as the "highest combat power"—without relying on a Devil Fruit ability, using only his fighting techniques and Haki, his talent for Armament Haki was indeed terrifying.

Furthermore, he was known as the "Admiral Who Does Not Kill." He never beat people to death, only subdued them outright. That made Zephyr's overwhelming strength and ease all the more apparent.

A few more pages in, Ortolan found Rocks's further interpretation: the seven parts hard work.

Armament Haki and Observation Haki did indeed have a certain "talent threshold," but that threshold was not high. Rocks believed that even those with merely ordinary talent could still break through their own limits in these two forms of Haki through tireless day-after-day training, catching up to those so-called "talented types."

That was what he meant by "seven parts hard work." His exact words were: "Haki is the fairest power the sea has bestowed upon everyone. Whether you are exceptionally gifted or utterly ordinary, if you wish to reach the pinnacle of this path, you must devote unwavering patience and focus. The starting points on this road may differ, but everyone can reach its end!"