Eating the Shadow-Shadow Fruit outright was not something Maud had done on a whim.
He had seriously considered it beforehand, and he also acknowledged the Shadow-Shadow Fruit's potential upper limit.
The fundamental reason that had prompted him to make this decision was still that huge wave a year later.
Hunting was not the only way to improve his overall strength in the short term.
Battles between life and death, or Devil Fruits, could accomplish that as well.
To establish himself on that battlefield teeming with powerful figures, eating a Devil Fruit was one of Maud's higher-priority choices at this stage.
Strictly speaking, Maud did not have much time left.
And the Shadow-Shadow Fruit was about the best Devil Fruit with a decent upper limit that Maud could obtain the fastest.
If circumstances allowed, what Maud really wanted was Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
However, that was highly unrealistic.
Maud frowned and struggled to swallow the pulp that had rolled around twice in his mouth.
The taste was truly indescribable.
The moment it entered his mouth, it gave him an almost overwhelming urge to vomit.
Nearby, Luo and Lafitte, both ability users themselves, looked at Maud's unusually bitter expression. In perfect tacit understanding, they lowered their eyes to hide their amusement.
Maud did not notice their reactions. He lowered his head and silently stared at the Shadow-Shadow Fruit in his hand, which he had bitten into.
A Devil Fruit only required one bite to grant its ability.
But...
In the hazy depths of his past memories, he vaguely recalled people always going on and on about one thing.
That was, one had to eat the entire Devil Fruit to obtain one hundred percent of its power.
At first, Maud had merely laughed it off when he heard that.
But now...
Maud hesitated for