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The second-floor laboratory.

Kureha had built a warm, humid environment in one corner, where the salamanders they had caught were kept.

Every so often, she dissected them for research.

Sometimes she studied their limbs, sometimes their organs, but the main focus was their brains.

When the salamanders regenerated, she extracted useful regenerative cells from the regrowing parts, cultured them in a solution, injected them with medicine, and observed their growth cycles.

She was researching drugs that could develop the "brain domain" by affecting the growth and changes in the salamanders' brains.

The days passed.

Bear Cub shaped the gold into ingots.

Garp came by once, but Mercer did not go with him to the East Blue.

Instead, he focused on his own work.

Garp took half the gold with him when he left, along with the gold recovered from the Slave Ship, to buy some experimental drugs and equipment.

Kureha had asked Garp to handle these "odds and ends."

Of course, she paid him for his trouble.

It was also a way to socialize.

A month later, Garp delivered the supplies he had purchased.

As a result, Kureha became even busier, and sometimes she was nowhere to be seen all day.

Bear Cub brought her three meals every day. As for Mercer, he remained engrossed in making more "named blades."

Bear Cub ran back and forth every day, going to the cave to extract metal ore, delivering it to Mercer, then heading home to cook.

When mealtime came, Mercer would return with whatever prey he had managed to hunt.

After eating, he would head back to the forging cave in Drum Peak's eastern mountains.

Making a named blade didn't always succeed.

But even when a weapon failed to meet the mark, it still counted as a Refined Weapon by the standards of the outside world.

Because of time and efficiency concerns, Mercer only made small weapons: daggers, short knives, short swords, and arm shields. That kept the time investment to a minimum.

Every day, Mercer brought Bear Cub one or two Refined Weapons or scraps as food when he came back for meals.

These excellent weapons and pieces of equipment, coveted by people outside, were being used as food by a bear in an unknown corner of the world.

If swordsmen or other weapon enthusiasts knew, they would surely be so furious their chests would heave and their bodies tremble.

Time passed.

As Mercer made more and more things, his technique grew increasingly refined, and he produced "Sharp Blades" more and more often.

He also gained a deeper understanding of how to combine the patterns in metal and bring together the materials' latent properties during forging.

Mercer's equipment and Kureha's had both been upgraded.

Even their surgical knives had been replaced with Sharp Blade-grade ones.

Even the kitchen knives at home were Sharp Blade-grade, though their edges hadn't been sharpened as keenly as weapons.

They only needed to cut vegetables and meat and chop through bones.

Sea Year 1505, May.

A year passed in the blink of an eye.

Mercer was five years old.

"We're out of iron ore."

Aside from the ore deposits held by the king, Bear Cub had mined almost all the iron ore that could be found on the island.

"Even the cleverest housewife can't cook without rice."

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

Sweating, Mercer sharpened a silver-white short sword about the length of his forearm on a whetstone.

Once it was sharp, he fixed the hilt in place.

The scabbard he had made fit it perfectly.

"Appraisal."

[C-rank Short Sword (Good Grade Sword): A high-quality short sword made from a special cold-type alloy. Its blade can condense moisture in the air into dew.

"Mu... Murasame?"

Mercer blinked. The first Good Grade Sword he had ever made, which had taken him a whole week, had given him quite a surprise.

"Two months ago, Bear Cub found a piece of cold-type meteoric iron by chance in the cave's iron mine. I refined and combined it with his Fruit power to make the only C-rank alloy. At least it didn't go to waste."

At the same time, Mercer opened the status panel and looked at the Gifted Abilities section.

As expected, over the past year, "Forging" had naturally grown from D-rank to D+ as the frequency of his Sharp Blade production increased. Now, with the creation of this Good Grade Sword, its quality had officially risen.

[C-rank Gift: Forging]

Mercer turned the short sword over in his hands, thinking, Forging a fine weapon takes time and effort.

Smelting metal together is already difficult. Just that step alone takes far too much time.

But Bear Cub's Munch-Munch Fruit power lets me skip that prerequisite entirely, saving me a great deal of time.

All I have to do is put in the effort to forge the refined alloy.

The patterns in ordinary alloys are easy to work with when forging Sharp Blades. Bringing the material's latent properties together is the troublesome part, but once I manage it, the weapon will come out as long as nothing goes wrong in the later steps.

Good Grade Swords are different. Their rare alloy patterns are harder to combine, and drawing out the material's latent properties takes even more effort. Every step of the forging process has to go right. It's a good thing I can enter a state of Unity of Heaven and Man, achieving absolute calm and focus. Otherwise, I never would have been able to make this Good Grade Sword.

Mercer reflected on the past year of forging, from his first Sharp Blades to today's successful creation of a Good Grade Sword.

His understanding of forging had advanced by leaps and bounds.

At his current level, making a Sharp Blade was no longer any challenge at all.

The only thing that could hold him back was the quality of his materials.

He had gained quite a lot over the past year.

Sharp Blades had legendary properties as weapons.

Under the conceptual property of [Weapon], Mercer had discovered that when a weapon was smaller than a dagger, the Merit Points he could extract dropped sharply.

He could extract the standard 1,000 Merit Points from a normal Sharp Blade dagger.

But a Sharp Blade-grade surgical knife yielded only 100 Merit Points.

As for Sharp Blade-grade Silver Needles, each one yielded a mere 1 Merit Point.

And besides—

"Forging Sharp Blade-grade Silver Needles and surgical knives is torture. Gathering the materials' latent properties is downright deranged."

After making his first Silver Needle and extracting its Merit Points, Mercer had secretly decided that unless something unexpected happened, he would never make another one in his life.

It took too much time and effort.

The value for money was awful.

Over the past year, Mercer had found time to make Bear Cub a well-fitting set of armor and weapons as a reward for the tireless miner bear.

Or perhaps as wages.

Aside from the "Sharp Blades" he kept for himself, which were not for sale, Mercer had accumulated sixty Sharp Blade weapons over the course of the year, not counting his failed attempts.

After extracting all of them—

Mercer had gained 60,101 Merit Points.

That was practically the equivalent of extracting an A-rank Devil Fruit.

With his review of the past year complete, Mercer's lips curled. It was time for the fruit farmer to reap his harvest.

He looked at the several Gifted Abilities in the ability section that he had yet to manifest in reality.

Merit Points consumed.

50,000 Merit Points invested.

He manifested the Gift he had been yearning for.

The next moment, a strange sensation took shape inside Mercer, as if a breeze were sweeping through every part of him, inside and out.

At first, it felt pleasant.

But then pain from every part of his body struck him.

Unimaginable pain.

Mercer clenched his teeth.

He tried to control his breathing.

He emptied his mind.

After an unknown amount of time, Mercer suddenly let out a breath.

At the same time, an instinctive sensation surfaced. Mercer looked at the short sword in his hand, then at a white speck on the rock wall ten meters away. An instinctive urge welled up inside him.

He tossed the sword casually, using a throwing motion. He had only meant to throw it at random, but the instant it left his hand, guided by the thought of hitting the mark, his fingers instinctively made a slight adjustment.

It felt as though that was simply what he was supposed to do.

The next moment, the short sword he had tossed carelessly seemed to fly by divine inspiration, hitting the sesame-seed-sized white speck with perfect accuracy.

It embedded itself in the rock wall.

Mercer fell into thought.

"Instinct?"

"So Precision gives me a talent, an instinct. It isn't some conceptual power that interferes with probability. It's an ability to observe and predict, then use my own capabilities to correct the outcome."

Mercer looked at the Gifted Abilities in his ability panel.

[A-rank Gift: Precision] (Can grow freely)

[Gift Effect: Corrects outcomes related to the probability of a successful hit through the user's own abilities, including eyesight, technique, physique, and thinking.]

[Gift Evaluation: The difference between precision and inaccuracy is the difference between surgery and slaughter.]

A smile tugged at his lips. Mercer was very satisfied with the Gift's effects.

"Rather than leave everything up to some elusive chance, I prefer to create the results I want with my own hands.

"And there's another surprise. I didn't realize Precision could grow freely. I misjudged it before."

Merit Points: 11,078

Adding the points he had earned through daily Sign-ins over the years to the points left over from earlier extractions, this was all he had left.

"Merit Points are very useful, and very hard to come by."

"Of course, that's what I would have said before I forged a 'named blade.'"

Looking at his remaining Merit Points, Mercer couldn't help feeling the urge to spend.

And the way he could spend them was—

[Prize Draw]

This was a feature he had never used since he started earning Merit Points. But now that he had "money," it was meant to be spent.

[Prize Draw]: Spend Merit Points to draw treasures from the myriad worlds of the multiverse. Prizes can include Gifted Abilities, items, people, and more. (The Merit Point cost range for each quality tier can fluctuate.)

"I can forge Sharp Blades, so I'll spend 1,000 points first and see what I get. A little practice run."

Mercer acted on the impulse. He spent 1,000 Merit Points, blinking as he waited to see how the prize draw worked.

The next moment, his consciousness was drawn inward and entered his mindscape, appearing in front of that indescribable "Light Orb."

A "vortex" appeared on the surface of the orb, spinning faster and faster.

At one point—

An indescribable "light speck" suddenly appeared.

It shot out of the vortex.

Then Mercer opened his eyes.

At the same time, an object wrapped in a palm-sized "Light Orb" appeared in front of him.

Mercer reached out and touched it. The orb vanished, leaving a small booklet in his hand. A piece of "information" came to him.

He flipped through it briefly and found that he could read it. The text inside had appeared in the script of this world.

Was that some kind of adjustment to the rules?

The answer was yes.

Mercer looked at the item's description.

[D-rank Item: Crow Breeding Manual]

[Item Contents: Select, breed, and medicate birds to raise high-quality flying birds that can understand human speech, speak human language, or both.]

[Item Evaluation: Crows are friends to humanity. Please treat them kindly.]

Mercer blinked. "Is this telling me to choose 'Taming' as the next Gift I manifest?"

It wasn't especially useful, but it wasn't useless either.

He could only call it a pleasant little surprise.

Kuja had their own "snakes."

Alabasta had its own "Super Spot-Billed Ducks."

Morgans had his own "News Coo."

So why not raise an army of talking "crows" too?

Could pandas talk, by the way?

Their vocal systems seemed pretty developed, didn't they?

"Let's put that aside for now. The draw's gone well, so let's do another."

This time, Mercer steeled himself and spent 10,000 Merit Points.

A few seconds later, a "light speck" appeared from the vortex in the "Light Orb" in his mind.

Another "Light Orb" appeared in front of Mercer.

"Touch."

A standard red-and-white capsule with no label appeared in his hand.

Mercer blinked, and the item's information came to him naturally.

[B-rank Item: APTX 4869]

[Item Effect: APOPTOXIN-4869 is a highly potent chemical poison that leaves no detectable cause of death. In an exceedingly rare number of cases, its side effects can restore a person's physical functions to their developmental stage.]

[Item Evaluation: "A miraculous, mysterious drug that brings the dead back to life." In reality, its main effect is to kill people. The funny thing is, if it fails to kill you, its lingering side effects really can grant you "youth" in a certain sense.]

Mercer stared in disbelief, reading the item information for APTX 4869 three times in a row. "This thing actually qualifies as B-rank? So its high quality is entirely thanks to the side effects?"

I've seen it all now.

Mercer opened the bottle, tipped the capsules into his palm, and counted them carefully. A wry smile crossed his face.

"There are a hundred of them. Guess they're going for volume."

Mercer rubbed his chin, thinking as he recalled APTX 4869's side effects. "In a certain sense, this really is a miraculous drug that can make you young again."

"If it were combined with adjustments to the 'Lineage Factor' and further development, could these 'side effects' be refined into the drug's actual effect?"

"Whatever its creator intended, judging by its results, this is a successful drug with epoch-making significance: it interferes with the human body's genes to reverse the aging process.

"Although its primary effect is to induce programmed cell death, it also boosts the activity of human telomerase, thereby increasing the cells' ability to proliferate.

"And thanks to its side effects—which are both accidental and inevitable—the body regresses to the developmental level of a young child without affecting the mind."

"Maybe I should take it back and let Doctor Doriel have a look. See if she can develop it further with her skills?"

"Hmm, it'd be hard to explain where it came from." Mercer scratched his head, troubled.

"If I lie, I'll just need more lies later to patch the holes. Forget it. I'll decide when I get back."

"I should take a break from forging weapons for a while, too. Sigh, why is there so little iron ore?"

Mercer tucked the Crow Breeding Manual and a bottle of APTX 4869 into his pocket, tidied up the Forging Room, put out the fire, and took the short sword off the rock wall.

He took off his work jacket and changed into his own clothes, sealed the cave entrance, and cheerfully headed down the mountain.

As he walked through the Snow Forest,

Mercer read through the Crow Breeding Manual. It contained knowledge about training highly intelligent crows, and it opened his eyes.

"The drug development section is especially interesting. These are drugs that affect an organism's 'brain regions.' Tsk, who knows, maybe this will turn out to be my biggest discovery today."

"I remember there are crows on the island, too. I think they're white-necked crows. I'll go raid a nest tomorrow and try hatching some eggs."

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P.S. Here's an interesting fact about Kōzuki Oden.

At age 0, he hurled his wet nurse away with all his might. At age 2, he caught two rabbits at once, displaying astonishing speed. At age 4, he killed a giant bear by throwing a boulder at it. At age 6, he began frequenting the pleasure district. At age 8, he got into a brawl with gamblers while drinking. At age 9, he was blacklisted by the yakuza, and in his fury, burned down their gambling den. He was arrested for violently assaulting people. At age 10, he served his sentence as a prisoner in a stone quarry, and thanks to the Kōzuki family's talent, rose to become the head stonemason. At age 14, he altered a river's course because of a drought, causing a major flood, and was wanted once again. At age 15, he threatened the abbot of a temple and took refuge there. Every night, he abducted women and built a harem. The women were usually free to leave, but were captivated by Oden's charm. Even so, he provoked public outrage and was attacked by a mob. Oden gladly fought back, and Wano Country called the incident the "Harem Rebellion."