The First Day of Solitary Sea Travel

Early the next morning, Teach prepared to set out. He knew the map of the New World well—the named islands and the territories controlled by its major powers. Holding a nautical chart of the New World, he knew that after leaving Whitebeard's territory, reaching Wano Country alone would require passing through sixteen islands, including four nations. That did not even account for unexpected incidents that might alter his route, or unknown islands along the way.

By Teach's calculations, the journey would take at least three months. He prepared a small boat, brought an Eternal Pose, and set out alone without saying goodbye to anyone.

The weather was excellent today, bright and sunny—a fine day to sail. Teach gazed into the distance at the boundless sea, anticipation stirring within him. This was his first time spending such a long period at sea alone, and he felt a little nervous. No, it was excitement—excitement for adventure, curiosity toward the unknown. He felt that he would gain a great deal from this journey. Thinking that, Teach could not help touching the Den Den Mushi stored against his chest. To prevent anything happening to Teach, Whitebeard had specifically left him with one. If he ran into trouble, he could call the Whitebeard Pirates for help, or simply chat about his travels when there was nothing else to do.

Everyone knew that the New World's weather was wildly unpredictable and exceptionally harsh. Without a skilled navigator, one could easily be brought down by terrifying natural disasters at sea, ending in shipwreck and death.

Not long after setting sail, Teach encountered a torrential downpour. The sunny weather vanished in an instant, followed by dark clouds rapidly gathering in the sky at a speed visible to the naked eye. Raindrops began to fall, each as large as a bean. Seeing this, Teach knew that the heavy rain was about to arrive. Having spent so long aboard Whitebeard's pirate ship, he understood basic weather patterns quite well.

The tiny vessel drifted across the sea, its wooden planks creaking against one another. Teach sat steadily in the boat. Calling it a small boat was generous—it was merely a little fishing boat, without even a place to shelter from the rain.

Still, ships built for the New World were all extremely sturdy, designed to withstand its strange weather. Torrential rain was perfectly normal in the New World; rain alone could not destroy this boat.

But this was precisely what tempering was. "Hahaha, the rain won't stop, and the boat's about to break apart." Teach laughed and joked as he used a scoop to bail water from the boat into the sea. Otherwise, the boat would sink. He had no desire to swim the rest of the way.

Teach rode the small boat through the waves, gripping an oar in each hand and rowing forward with all his strength to keep the vessel from straying off its intended course.

However, the water collecting in the boat had to be cleared out every few moments.

After sailing through the downpour for three straight hours, the rain suddenly stopped. Yet Teach did not relax. His expression changed as he sprang to his feet, both hands forming claws. "Yaochi-onna!" Flames and lightning burned around his hands as he continuously struck at the sky above. Massive hailstones fell from the heavens. In the New World, hail was undoubtedly terrifying. If weaker pirates were struck by it, they would either be severely injured or killed, and its destructive power against ships was among the worst. If he did nothing, this little boat would be destroyed in less than three minutes.

One could see huge hailstones being sliced in half as they neared Teach, then melting away and dissipating in midair.

Teach's claw technique was nearing completion. A claw technique combined with Teach's Swordsmanship had been his goal from the beginning. That was why Teach had constantly trained his hands. It was somewhat like the unity of man and sword from his previous life—turning one's body into a sword. Teach, however, treated his fingers as swords, allowing him to slash out Sword Qi with nothing but his fingers.

If one looked closely, Teach's hands were gradually shedding the very concept of hands and becoming more like claws. His fingers had grown longer and sharper, while his palms seemed to have become broader as well. With flames and lightning attached, and Armament Haki added on top of that, they looked even more like demonic claws—Demon Claw.

This was the effect of Life Return. In less than a month, Teach had progressed quickly with Life Return. He had now initially mastered it and could make adjustments to localized parts of his body. Its effect resembled the assassination techniques of the Zoldyck Family from Hunter x Hunter: bodily control, instantly making his fingers sharper as an effective means of enhancing his attacks.

His fine-detail Observation Haki allowed Teach to seemingly see the essence of things. He understood every aspect of his body extremely well, granting him precise control over his strength and his body. Finding an opportunity, Teach had gone alone overnight to the sea where the battle had taken place and retrieved the two Devil Fruits hidden in the ship's lower compartment by Vice Admiral Thomson, the complete Marine Six Styles notes, and the treasure.

Teach had memorized the location where the warship sank. During the previous month, he found time to go there, spending nearly three full days searching. He remembered the location clearly—it was roughly five or six kilometers northwest of an island.

The haul was extremely satisfying. Treasure worth hundreds of millions was of little use to Teach now, but it was still very valuable. The complete Marine Six Styles notes gave Teach many insights from the experiences recorded within. After all, most physical techniques shared common principles. And Life Return, which Teach had long desired, could raise his strength to another level.

Both Devil Fruits were Zoan-type Devil Fruits. One was the Zoan-Zoan Fruit Model: Mantis, while the other was the Ancient Zoan-Ancient Crocodile Fruit. One was a top-tier Zoan Devil Fruit, while the other was a top-tier Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit. The ancient crocodile was undoubtedly an apex creature in ancient times, a ruler of both land and water.

He had not expected such two powerful abilities. Both mantises and ancient crocodiles were formidable hunters, though one belonged to the microscopic world and the other to the macroscopic one. If not for Teach, these two Devil Fruits would have been buried in the sea, with no one knowing how long it would take before they reappeared.

Teach's eyes had long since locked onto every hailstone that was about to strike the small boat. Where else could he find such a natural place to hone his combat ability? Besides, one of the purposes of this journey was to temper himself.

More than twenty minutes later, Teach was gasping for breath, sweat covering his body. The hail had fallen continuously for over twenty minutes, and he had attacked without pause for just as long, smashing and destroying every hailstone that descended. At least ten to twenty hailstones struck toward the small boat every second, at an extremely rapid rate.

The hail finally stopped, and the clouds in the sky scattered apart as rays of sunlight streamed down. Before Teach could even breathe a sigh of relief, the weather changed again. The sunlight vanished in a flash, the sky gradually darkened, and the wind steadily grew stronger. The small boat rocked up and down with the waves.

With a thunderous boom, lightning danced wildly. Teach's face darkened. He felt incredibly unlucky—on his first day out, he had encountered three kinds of extreme weather. He had never felt much of it when he was aboard the pirate ship, where harsh weather was relatively rare. That was because they had a navigator who detected changing weather in advance and avoided those areas. The New World's ever-changing extreme climates were localized, and this was where the importance of a navigator became apparent. In every pirate crew of the New World, a navigator's status was no lower than that of a core member.

Still, Teach feared nothing. He cut through the wind and waves, pressing onward. Alone amid the raging storm at sea, his arms thickened with exertion. Fortunately, the oars were high quality, or he truly would have been left drifting with the currents.

The muscles in his arms swelled, and the throbbing veins beneath his soaked clothes were visible even through the fabric clinging to his skin.

Teach felt the might of nature, yet he refused to yield in the slightest. It was as though there was only him between heaven and earth. Loneliness was extremely frightening, but Teach could endure it. Through countless days and nights, he had trained alone in his room. Then he heard deep calls rising from the sea, echoing between heaven and earth. Instinctively lowering his head as if he had discovered something, Teach smiled.

From above, a massive shadow could be seen passing beneath Teach's small boat. It circled the vessel again and again, swimming back and forth as though it had set its sights on prey.

Teach had already discovered it. It was a Sea King—a Sea King that had targeted him. "Zehahaha, then let me give it a try," Teach said with a grin.

The enormous shadow rose from the water in front of Teach's boat, blotting out the sky and sun. Compared to this Sea King, Teach was far too small. At a glance, its body alone, emerging above the water, already stood three hundred meters tall.

It was a sea serpent Sea King. Lowering its head to look at Teach, it opened its massive jaws, revealing densely packed sharp teeth. Its long tongue flicked out, and farther within was a mouth as deep as an abyss. The Sea King then dove downward, charging toward Teach as though it intended to swallow him in one bite.

"Get lost!" Teach's eyes widened as invisible Haki spread outward, directed at the Sea King.

Time seemed to freeze. Under the impact of Teach's Conqueror's Haki, circles seemed to appear in the Sea King's eyes. It went blank and lost consciousness. Its enormous body halted in midair before crashing into the sea and gradually sinking beneath the waves.

This was the first time Teach had used Conqueror's Haki against a living creature since awakening it that day. He could feel that his spirit had grown much stronger, especially after today's tempering. It had increased further, and Teach could clearly feel it.

This storm lasted exceptionally long, but Teach's condition did not decline much. After all, training for an entire day—or even several days—was commonplace for him. A mere storm could not affect Teach.

Teach looked at the Eternal Pose. The boat was advancing in the same direction as the needle pointed. He let the waves push the boat onward. No matter what, as long as he was in the New World and had an Eternal Pose, Teach would never lose his way.

Standing steadily alone on the boat, he began a solitary training session. The wrist and ankle weights he wore had long since been replaced with a new design. Each one weighed a ton, meaning Teach's total weight load had reached six tons. The weights were large, but they were hidden beneath his clothes and trousers, normally impossible to notice. They would only show when he moved.

Alone on the boat, he quietly did push-ups, training both his arm strength and willpower. The raging wind and rain seemed unable to affect Teach. Like an ascetic, he did not say a word; there was no one for him to talk to anyway. Training required focus—he could not let his mind wander.

Who knew how much time had passed? The storm had already ended. The sky brightened, sunlight spilling across the sea and radiating dazzling brilliance. The azure ocean was incomparably beautiful and magnificent at that moment.

The sea was nature's greatest miracle.

Teach could not help lifting his head and stopping what he was doing. Light shone in his eyes, and a smile appeared on his face. It was a feeling he had never experienced before.

Far ahead, the outline of an island emerged. He had finally arrived.