A Year of Training Results

A year passed quickly.

On Flour Island, Minos wore a strange black helmet on his head, blocking not only his sight but also muffling all sound.

Opposite him, Talon gripped his Iron Mace and swung it down at Minos's head. The wind howled as the entire mace blurred into afterimages.

Minos shifted his body slightly. The Iron Mace grazed past him and smashed into the ground. Talon's expression didn't change. Using the rebound force, he turned the vertical strike into a horizontal sweep.

Minos leaped lightly. The sweeping mace brushed under his soles, looking perilously close, yet still failed to touch a single hair on him.

"HAAAAAAH!" After several misses, Talon roared skyward. The Iron Mace in his hand transformed into countless shadowy strikes, raining down without mercy.

Minos showed little reaction. His body trembled faintly, dodging each mace blow with pinpoint precision. Every attack ultimately hit nothing but air.

"Huff... huff... huff..." After pounding the training ground into a crater-filled mess for over ten minutes, Talon finally stopped. It wasn't exhaustion that halted him, but the frustration of never touching Minos. Once his surge of anger dissipated, he saw no point in wasting further effort.

Minos yanked off the black helmet. "Feels like your improvement speed is slowing down, Talon."

"No, it's your Observation Haki that's just too insane," Talon said, rolling his eyes and panting. "Seriously, the Three-Eyed Tribe really is blessed when it comes to Observation Haki."

Minos smiled. "Talon, don't sell yourself short. At least in Armament Haki, I'm far behind you."

After a year of training, Minos's strength had naturally skyrocketed. He possessed a wealth of memory and experience, but due to world differences, he couldn't fully apply it to the pirate world. Still, his training speed far exceeded someone starting from scratch.

In physical training, Minos not only kept pace with Talon, a member of the Oni Tribe who had trained since childhood, but even gained the upper hand through the higher-level Life Return derived from National Arts. Despite their similar physical strength, Minos's future potential surpassed Talon's.

After all, National Arts emphasized body control, sharing the same principles as Life Return. Even if only a fraction of that experience was truly useful, it greatly enhanced his ability to control his own body.

Unlike the World Government and Marines, who had the Marine Rokushiki to systematically refine Life Return, pirates naturally developed their own crude methods through long-term training. Combined with the memories in Minos's mind, this allowed him to maximize the efficiency of his physical refinement.

In Observation Haki, possessing the memory of the "Sincerity Path" that granted precognition, along with the sensory boost from his Evil Eye, Minos's talent was absurdly strong. He awakened Observation Haki the moment he trained, and with just a few sessions, he expanded its range to cover the entire Wheat Island.

By now, even the future-sight variant of Observation Haki worked for Minos, albeit inconsistently. Within the entire Charlotte Pirates, aside from Katakuri, not even Charlotte Linlin could claim stronger Observation Haki than Minos.

His only weak point was Armament Haki. During this period, Minos had focused more on Observation Haki and physical conditioning. He hadn't put much effort into Armament Haki training, and without any cheat to rely on, he had only just awakened it. He hadn't even achieved hardening yet.

Aside from being able to counter logia users, its boost to his defense and offense was negligible.

Talon, on the other hand, could already achieve localized Armament Haki hardening. The Oni Tribe clearly had a natural talent for both physical training and Armament Haki.

But once they reached this level, their training had hit a ceiling. In the pirate world, the fastest way to grow wasn't training—it was battle.

Just as Luffy's two years under Rayleigh paled in comparison to the growth he gained from fighting Katakuri and Kaido, their current training was merely laying a foundation.

With the foundation set, further progress required real combat. The survivors became the strong; the dead were called cannon fodder.

Of course, as members of a major pirate crew, their odds of survival were far higher than ordinary pirates. But that didn't mean there was no danger.

With Observation Haki training done, Minos picked up his longsword, ready for close-combat practice with Talon.

"Alright, stop!"

Just then, a voice came from afar. The tall, cool-looking Katakuri walked into the training ground.

"Katakuri boss!" Talon gripped his Iron Mace, a hint of surprise flashing across his face. "Are we finally setting sail?"

Katakuri glanced at the two. "That's right. Your foundation is solid after this year. Your combat strength is already on par with some pirates worth over a hundred million berries. It's time for you to see the world."

"Minos, didn't you mention seeing members of the Doflamingo Pirates in Dressrosa a while back? This time, we'll head to Dressrosa and take a look."

"I hear Dressrosa has the Gaze-Gaze Fruit. It should suit your abilities perfectly."

Minos was slightly surprised. Ever since awakening Observation Haki, the observation range of the Evil Eye on his forehead had been expanding.

In the Yu Yu Hakusho manga, Hiei's Evil Eye was said to see through the Three Realms, but that clearly required development by its owner. With Minos's current strength, seeing a few hundred kilometers was already his limit.

Within that range, aside from the Charlotte Pirates' Whole Cake Island, only a few scattered nations like Dressrosa existed. So, it became Minos's target for practicing his Evil Eye.

The reason Dressrosa remained unaffected despite being near Whole Cake Island was that it was one of the original twenty member nations that founded the World Government. Even for the sake of its own face, the World Government couldn't let Whole Cake Island take it over.

The Charlotte Pirates also had no desire to directly clash with the World Government over such a small island nation. This meant that while Dressrosa often suffered raids from minor pirates, it never became territory of the Four Emperors.