Teacher Zephyr's Philosophy!

We're all adults here, and colleagues to boot, so most things can be laughed off and let go without much fuss.

That guy Momonga got his wish to help his goddess, ending up in the last row as desk mates with Kajiki, while Ortolan directly inherited Momonga's legacy and dreams, becoming desk mates with Gion.

But clearly, now wasn't the time for chit-chat. Once Gion sat down, Admiral Zephyr tapped the podium, drawing everyone's attention.

"I'm glad to see that our Marine elites here are still full of vitality, sunshine, and joy." Zephyr started with a teasing remark.

The onlookers in the class let out a few chuckles, playing along to save Admiral Zephyr's face.

Still, what had just happened was pretty amusing.

"The fact that you were selected and have joined this first Officer Training Camp fully proves that you are all standouts in the Marines. I also hope that you standouts can set aside your arrogance and approach this as learners. This training camp has cost this old man a lot of effort, and I've called in favors to invite excellent seniors to teach on schedule, including but not limited to Chief Staff Officer Tsuru from Headquarters, Vice Admiral Garp, Admiral Sengoku..." Admiral Zephyr said with a smile.

As soon as he finished, everyone got excited.

The officers present, though standouts among their Marine peers, were still low in rank—mostly captains and commodores. Only someone with connections like Gion, through her relationship with Chief Staff Officer Tsuru, could regularly interact with big shots like Sengoku and Garp and learn a thing or two.

The rest, including Ortolan, were small fry. On a normal day, forget learning from those big shots—even meeting them was tough. No Marine Admiral would hang out with random commodores or captains.

From this, you could see just how valuable this training camp was. Including Zephyr himself, the instructors he'd mentioned were top-notch not just in the Marines, but across the entire world!

Zephyr then went over some rules, mostly the same as standard Marine regulations. No one had any questions, and Ortolan understood well enough, raising no objections.

After that, Teacher Zephyr got to the core curriculum.

"What elements do you need to master to become an excellent Marine commander?" Teacher Zephyr looked at the students and asked.

"Strength. Overwhelming strength to eliminate evil and suppress crime!" Onigumo answered immediately.

Zephyr nodded, and then Hoshigaki spoke up: "Big-picture thinking, strategic acumen!"

"Justice and a sense of responsibility!"

"Caring for subordinates..."

A flood of answers came out, and Zephyr nodded approvingly at each.

After a long pause, once the class had quieted down, Zephyr continued: "Strength, military acumen, a sense of justice, responsibility, big-picture thinking—these are all necessary, and they're what we'll be learning here!"

He paused briefly, then pulled out a curriculum sheet and said, "As for strength, our future courses will include but are not limited to swordsmanship, Haki, Body Techniques, and ability development guidance. You can choose areas you're good at or interested in as electives. Of course, if you think you have the energy and have already mastered some skills, you can take the full course."

"Teacher Zephyr, what counts as passing these courses?" Momonga, sitting in the last row, asked.

"There's no rigid limit. If I had to say, it's based on my personal judgment." Zephyr rubbed his chin, speaking very frankly.

In other words, if Teacher Zephyr thought you weren't good enough, then you weren't—no formal reason needed!

That sounded pretty unreasonable, but no one objected. That was just how the Marines operated.

Then Zephyr went into detail about the differences between these subjects. Swordsmanship: over eight hundred years of Marine history had produced many Great Swordsmen, each leaving behind their swordsmanship essentials. The Marines also had many swordsmanship experts internally. In fact, because high-ranking Marine officers had a tradition of wearing command swords, basically anyone above Rear Admiral knew at least a bit of swordsmanship!

But from what Ortolan remembered, while there were many Marine swordsmen later on, there didn't seem to be many top-tier Great Swordsmen?

Borsalino should count as one—he could clash evenly with Rayleigh using swordsmanship—but his strength was mainly showcased through his Devil Fruit ability. Gion probably counted too? As for the rest, Ortolan didn't have much of an impression.

Aside from swordsmanship, Haki went without saying. It wasn't much different from other factions—how it was divided was how it was divided, with no schools to speak of.

Then there were Body Techniques. The most notable among them was the Marines' basic training method, the 'Marine Six Powers'!

That's right, the powerful Marine Six Powers, in Zephyr's words, was just a 'basic training method.' And the goal of training in the Six Powers was to let the practitioner continuously deepen their control over their own body!

That was the main point. Things like Soru, Geppo, and Shigan were just flashy derivatives.

The core of this training was to deeply master the Six Powers, thereby gaining control over things like one's hair and blood—things humans normally couldn't control—achieving one hundred percent control over the body and reaching true 'superhuman' status.

Because only by reaching that level could one have an advantage over ordinary people in higher-level techniques like Haki!

The Marine Six Powers could be considered the Marines' basic textbook, so its adoption rate was high. As a result, it had spread quite a bit outside, and its secrecy wasn't very tight. Even some pirates knew a move or two!

But the Marines had never really cared much about that. The reason they let it spread without concern was that things like Shigan and Geppo weren't the core. The core lay in techniques like Life Return, which unified the Six Powers and integrated mind, body, and technique—advanced skills for complete body control!

As for ability development after Body Techniques, because the Marines had a large base, many Devil Fruit users, and a long history, they had accumulated a wealth of experience and key points on ability development. Basically, for every recorded Devil Fruit ability, you could find related development and training records in the Marines—that was how exaggerated it was!

Ortolan asked a question at this point: did the Marines have any relevant experience with his Goro Goro no Mi?

Teacher Zephyr confidently told Ortolan that in the Marines' eight-hundred-plus-year history, including Ortolan, there had been three Goro Goro no Mi users. The previous two had left behind related development and training notes. The most recent one was the strongest on the seas two hundred years ago, who had also served as a Marine Admiral under the title White Night Yaksha. If Ortolan was interested, he could apply to review their development notes later.

It was at that moment that Ortolan truly grasped the depth of the Marines' foundation!

This was something no ordinary force could compare to. Whether it was Shiki's pirate crew, the Big Mom Pirates, or even the Whitebeard Pirates, who were later said to have suppressed an entire era in the New World—none of them could match the Marines in terms of foundation!

For Ortolan to get a development manual or notes on the Goro Goro no Mi from them was completely impossible. That was the gap in foundation!

"Strength is important, but we don't focus solely on it. Each subject has its own fixed credits. Later, there will also be credits for tactical, strategic, military acumen, navigation knowledge, and other cultural courses. In fact, as long as you accumulate enough credits for me to approve your graduation, even if you're as weak as a chicken in terms of strength, this old man can still approve your graduation, grant you the corresponding rank, and recommend you to a suitable department!" Zephyr emphasized again.

Graduation here was credit-based, not time-based. As long as you had enough credits, you could graduate quickly, and there were no mandatory requirements—like needing a certain score in a specific subject. Even if you were a total weakling, if you knew astronomy above and geography below, with extremely high military acumen and strategic level, you could still graduate!

Similarly, even if you couldn't read a single word and were just a hothead, if your strength was formidable enough to max out your credits, you could still graduate through brute force!

In Admiral Zephyr's view, whether someone was good at fighting or good at academics, they were all talents to the Marines, and there were suitable positions for them to serve in!

Teaching according to aptitude and cultivating officers and commanders excellent in all aspects—that was Zephyr's original intention in founding this Officer Training Camp!

If you find this book good, to avoid losing it next time, please remember to add it to your bookshelf.