This trip to the Sabaody Archipelago to capture pirates was, plainly put, meant to let Mo Xingchen rack up military merit. That way, when he was promoted, no one could gossip about it. It would also be a chance to see whether he had the ability to take charge on his own, so Garp would not be accompanying him.
Since they were going to capture pirates, they obviously needed a warship and soldiers. With Mo Xingchen's current rank, there was clearly no way he could have his own dedicated warship.
While discussing borrowing a ship and troops, Garp also told him how the spoils from pirate captures were usually distributed aboard his warship.
Because the specific distribution differed from ship to ship, it was generally decided by the warship's highest-ranking commander. A commander who loved money would take a larger share, while one who cared for the soldiers would take less.
At the same time, Garp reminded him to visit Vice Admiral Tsuru before setting out and get more intelligence—what pirates currently at the Sabaody Archipelago were worth noting, which pirates might reach the Sabaody Archipelago within the next month based on route analysis, and so on. That experience could make his operation go much more smoothly.
Dragon returned home right around mealtime. When he heard Mo Xingchen and his Old Man discussing the trip to the Sabaody Archipelago to capture pirates, he eagerly volunteered himself.
"Brother Mo! Take me with you! These past two years in Training Camp have practically driven me insane!"
"If my luck is bad, I might not get back from the Sabaody Archipelago until right before your award ceremony. Besides, aren't you about to finish training? Isn't Admiral Zephyr taking you out for some kind of graduation assessment? Where would you find the time to come play with me?"
Mo Xingchen asked with a puzzled look.
"Graduation assessment? Ha, Brother Mo, that's for the recruit camp. The lowest rank in our elite class is Major at Headquarters. We came here for advanced training, mainly to learn Haki techniques from Teacher Zephyr. To put it bluntly, practically all of the Navy's future mid- and high-ranking officers for the next few decades are in this class.
"So from here on out, we're basically being left to our own devices. Teacher Zephyr said he'd already taught us everything he could, and the rest was up to us. If we didn't have our award ceremony in just a month, I'd have gone out to sea to capture pirates already."
"Fine. Once I'm ready in the next couple of days, I'll call you when it's time to leave."
Hearing Dragon put it that way, Mo Xingchen agreed. Having a companion along the way would be nice. After the guards brought them their food and they finished dinner together, the two headed for the training grounds for Dragon's extra training that day.
Along the way, Dragon turned into a curious child.
"Brother Mo, what was that move you used today, where your whole body glowed and blocked Vice Admiral Sakazuki's Meteor Volcano? It was insanely cool. Can I learn it?"
"The Six Ding Six Jia Body Protection Divine Spell. Don't even think about it. It was handed down by my ancestors—you can't learn it."
"Ohhh... Then why was Vice Admiral Sakazuki completely fine after you kept attacking all his joints for so long? If it were me, I probably wouldn't even be able to crawl."
"After taking a beating for that long, he definitely would have been injured. It's just that his physique is far stronger than yours, and in the heat of battle, his anger temporarily suppressed the pain. Now that he's calmed down, he might be rolling around in bed screaming in pain."
"Hahahaha! Brother Mo, if I run into an opponent with a powerful physique and high durability in the future, how should I beat him?"
"First, train your movement techniques. That'll help you take fewer hits, and even if you can't win, at least you can run away. Take Borsalino, for example. Why is he also called a Monster? He has strength, of course, but the biggest factor is his Devil Fruit ability. If you can't keep up with his speed, he can fight whenever he wants, and if he doesn't want to fight, you can't keep him there. It's a troublesome ability.
"Second, strengthen your physique. That's also my current weakness. In a situation like today's, with no one interfering, it comes down to who runs out of stamina first. Whoever does loses. Naturally, as your physique grows stronger, your ability to withstand attacks will improve as well.
"Take yourself, for example. Think about how long you could last when you first sparred with me, then compare it to how long you can last now.
"Third, cultivate your Armament Haki. Don't let it merely cling to the surface of your body, forming a protective layer or letting you grab Logia Type Devil Fruit users.
"You need to make it leave your body. Through your attacks, it should pierce through your enemy's Armament Haki and the protective layer of his skin, striking directly at the bones and even organs inside his body. No matter how strong a Monster's physique is, he can't endure that forever.
"That's an advanced Armament Haki technique. Right now, I only know the direction—I still can't use it."
"I understand. Oh, right, Brother Mo. You don't seem to train much normally, so why do I feel like you're still getting stronger? Is there some secret?"
"What secret? My cultivation method is just different from most people's. I meditate and sit in meditation every day. It's a form of cultivation for one's essence, qi, and spirit."
"Then..."
Mo Xingchen patiently answered Dragon's questions. During their sparring, though, he put a little more force into it than usual that day. It was absolutely not because Dragon had annoyed him with too many questions. Mm... absolutely not!
Over the next two days, Mo Xingchen busied himself with all kinds of preparations. When recruiting soldiers, he had expected to have to ask around with a smile, but after he merely mentioned it to Lieutenant William in the operations room, the man enthusiastically took the matter upon himself.
Seeing how fired up he was, Mo Xingchen felt that if he had not said they did not need many people this time and only needed enough, the lieutenant might have dragged everyone aboard the ship along. It gave him a brief moment of narcissistic satisfaction over his current reputation.
Then, when he went to Vice Admiral Tsuru for intelligence, she had already prepared a thick stack of documents. The moment she saw him enter, she tossed them over and told him to make his own tea if he wanted any, and to get lost if he had nothing else to do so he would not disturb her work.
As Mo Xingchen headed out, she also told him that she had already called the commander of the Sabaody Archipelago branch, and that the branch's situation was included in the documents. Mo Xingchen could only sigh. Tsk, what a charming big sister!
When the lieutenant from the operations room came to tell him the soldiers had been recruited and they could depart at any time, Mo Xingchen had him notify everyone to gather at the docks at eight o'clock sharp the next morning and set sail.
He also handed the lieutenant the pirate intelligence for him to familiarize himself with. Mo Xingchen, meanwhile, planned to go back and review the information on the Sabaody Archipelago branch before notifying Dragon.
Early the next morning, a warship with a dog's head figurehead slowly sailed out of the harbor and headed toward the Sabaody Archipelago.
Everything seemed utterly ordinary. After all, this was not some major operation. The voyage was short, and there were only around twenty soldiers in total—one combat squad and one engineering squad. They had not even brought a cook squad, since they would definitely be stationed at the branch when they arrived. They had brought the combat squad only so that captured pirates could be watched over conveniently.
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