Mysterious Water Source

Splash.

The sound of water reached Luo Sa's ears, drawing his attention.

"Haah, finally found a water source."

Licking his parched lips, Luo Sa walked over.

Roar roar roar!

Just then, a fierce howl rang out, and a massive bear appeared before him.

"I'm really hungry, so... please just die quickly!"

Luo Sa decided to finish this fast. He transformed directly into his Winged Gull Half-Beastman form, his wings wrapped in white light, and instantly killed the bear in a flash!

Dragging the bear to the riverbank, Luo Sa couldn't help but cup his hands and gulp down the water.

"Hm? This feeling!"

Suddenly, Luo Sa's eyes went wide, an expression of disbelief on his face.

Under his perception, his Transformation Energy, which had reached 270 points, suddenly surged by a large margin, hitting 275 points!

Just from drinking this mouthful of water, his energy value had increased by 5 points!

Moreover, as he focused, he found that even his body had grown slightly stronger.

Luo Sa's eyes lit up. He plunged his head into the water and drank greedily.

But...

After he had chugged a bellyful of water, his Transformation Energy didn't increase at all!

"No, that's not right. I definitely felt a stream of energy flowing into my body from the water, even if it was minuscule!"

Luo Sa frowned, confused by the situation before him.

"Could it be like a Devil Fruit—only the first bite has any effect?"

Patting his uncomfortably swollen stomach, Luo Sa considered a possibility.

Shaking his head in slight disappointment, Luo Sa slapped his belly and spat out all the water.

Gurgle.

Right on cue, his stomach growled, reminding him it was time to eat!

Luo Sa had no choice but to suppress his doubts for now and start preparing today's lunch.

Half an hour later, Luo Sa lay comfortably under a tree, holding his round belly.

He began to examine his Transformation Energy, wondering if he had just been hallucinating from hunger earlier.

This observation shocked him—after eating an entire bear, his energy value had actually increased by another point, reaching 276!

Luo Sa's excitement flared. The monsters on Monster Island seemed to be something special!

His gaze turned toward the depths of the forest, and that signaled the start of a massacre.

It was now the third day of the Survival Trial.

Over these three days, Distress Flares had been going off in the sky from time to time.

Each one marked the elimination of a recruit.

Hard to believe, but among these recruits, a full eighty percent had been forced to withdraw due to dehydration.

Of the remaining twenty percent, over half had been severely injured fighting beasts for water and had to leave!

It was hard to swallow, but it was the truth—in this Survival Trial, their greatest threat wasn't the beasts, but the lack of water!

"Haah, three days have passed! I've been absolutely insane these past three days, eating about ten beasts every single day. All I did was hunt and eat!"

Thinking back on those days, Luo Sa felt a bit of a headache.

Luckily, the outcome was good. With his efforts, his energy value had reached 300 points!

Raising it by 30 points in three days—just thinking about it felt crazy!

But he wouldn't stop there. The hunting continued.

"Hm? So that's how it is? This is already the third beast I've eaten, and my energy value hasn't gone up by a single point!"

Luo Sa's face darkened after just finishing off another beast.

Just like the situation he had encountered before, once his energy value hit 300 points, the difficulty of gaining more had multiplied several times over!

Even so, Luo Sa didn't give up.

Another two days passed.

During this time, after Luo Sa had devoured a full thirty beasts, his energy value finally increased by 1 point, reaching 301.

"The difficulty actually increased to thirty times what it was before?"

Luo Sa's expression was extremely grim; this truly exceeded his expectations!

And this was still on Monster Island, with these savage beasts that could boost energy—if he left here, heaven knew how long it would take to raise even a single point!

The Survival Trial had already passed five days, with only two days left until the end.

At this point, almost everyone still remaining was a strong contender, and the Distress Flares had not sounded for a very long time.

As the strongest in this year's New Recruit Camp, Sakartam naturally had the strength to survive.

A day ago, he and Monkey had killed the savage beast at this water source and seized it for themselves.

Three days ago, a troop of monkeys had unexpectedly arrived at this water source. As a user of the Zoan Type Monkey-Monkey Fruit, Monkey used his ability to become their king.

Over the next two days, the two of them lived quite comfortably, letting the monkey troop handle all their enemies.

But today, an uninvited guest came to this water source—not a savage beast, but a person.

"It's that Luo Sa!"

Monkey, hidden in the tree, narrowed his eyes with a sharp glint.

"It's him! Perfect, perfect!"

Sakartam's face twisted into a wild grin, his eyes brimming with killing intent.

"Kill him, Monkey. We have to kill him!"

Monkey was startled and hesitated. "That's not a good idea. If Vice Admiral Garp finds out, they won't let us off!"

"What's there to fear? This place is so remote—even if we kill him, they won't trace it back to us."

"We've been careful to avoid the monitors all these days; we won't get caught!"

"And besides... who said we'd do the killing ourselves?"

Sakartam sneered. "He overestimates himself, picking a fight with the monkey troop, and gets killed by them—what does that have to do with us?"

Monkey's eyes lit up. That was actually a good plan. Even if they investigated, they could wash their hands of it!

"We just need to do this... and this... and this..."

The two huddled together, whispering for a long time, before finally showing satisfied smiles.

On the other side, Luo Sa had no idea he was being plotted against again. He cheerfully began searching for prey.

"Hm? Why is it so quiet here? Normally, every water source should have a group of savage beasts guarding it!" Luo Sa squinted in confusion. "Could the beasts be in the water?"

Without a second thought, he walked straight toward the water's edge. In his Winged Gull form, he was nearly invincible in this forest.

And even if he couldn't win, he still had the means to fly—nothing here could keep him down!

Just as Luo Sa reached the water source, a sudden clamor erupted around him. A troop of monkeys burst out of the forest, surrounding him in a tight encirclement.