Night. The Welcome Banquet.
Impel Down's staff gathered together.
From Lord Warden Magellan down to the ordinary jailers, everyone had assembled to enjoy a feast.
The guest of honor at the Welcome Banquet was, of course, the newly appointed Jailer Chief of Crimson Lotus Hell!
After a brief introduction,
Storm had more or less begun to fit in with the staff of Impel Down.
"Storm, the work here at Impel Down can be pretty grueling."
Magellan, the warden, raised his glass to the newcomer.
"You're very welcome here!"
Magellan had a rather good first impression of Storm.
After all, he knew Storm had applied to work at Impel Down of his own accord!
What a fine young man!
He was who knew how many times better than the likes of Hannyabal.
But before Magellan could take a sip of his drink,
Hannyabal stood up and pointed at Lord Warden Magellan, letting loose a torrent of abuse.
"Magellan! Don't sit here! Go sit at the table over there!"
"Huh?"
Magellan held up his glass and stared at Hannyabal, at a loss.
"This is a banquet! A banquet!
"How can you make the warden sit at another table?"
"Then hurry up and get out of the warden's seat!"
Hannyabal had "accidentally" revealed his ambition once again.
"I misspoke. What I meant was—
"Hurry up and get out of here!"
"Hannyabal, you're going too far."
Magellan closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.
"How did I end up with a subordinate as ungrateful as you..."
Wisps of pale purple smoke poured from Magellan's mouth, spreading through the room in an instant.
Storm felt someone grab his arm and drag him away from the table.
He turned his head and saw that the person holding him was a woman with long, wavy blonde hair—
Domino, Impel Down's current Deputy Warden.
"Lord Warden is a Devil Fruit User with the Venom-Venom Fruit. He's a Poison Human."
Domino noticed Storm looking at her and quietly warned him.
"Be careful whenever you're near him.
"Even the air Lord Warden breathes out is genuine poison gas."
As Domino was warning Storm,
Hannyabal beside them hurriedly covered his nose and mouth to avoid inhaling the poisonous gas.
"Magellan! You're poisoning the place again!"
"Hahaha!"
Magellan didn't mind in the slightest. He pointed at Hannyabal and laughed.
"That's right!
"That's what you get, you idiot subordinate!"
Several veins instantly bulged on Hannyabal's forehead, making him look even more terrifying.
"You... You bastard! Damn it!"
Storm watched Magellan and Hannyabal's intense "workplace rivalry" with great interest.
Fake workplace warfare: strategize and plan every move in advance.
Real workplace warfare: poison your rival to his face! Break your comrade's legs if that's what it takes to get promoted!
At that moment, a certain famous saying seemed to take shape in Storm's mind—
(At Impel Down,) everyone's talented, and they all speak so nicely!
Just then, a cold voice came from nearby.
"What a pointless farce."
Shiryu stood up and turned to leave without hesitation, ignoring everyone else at the table.
Magellan and Hannyabal, who had been horsing around, stopped when they saw Shiryu leave.
"Shiryu!"
Magellan's expression turned serious at once.
"Where are you going?"
Shiryu stopped, but didn't turn around.
"Going downstairs to stretch my legs."
"Don't hurt—"
Magellan had just begun to say something
when Shiryu cut him off.
"Magellan!"
Shiryu turned around and rested a hand on the hilt of his Famous Sword, Rain Shower. He looked at Magellan coldly.
"I'm Impel Down's Deputy Warden!
"I don't need your permission to do what I want."
Magellan and Shiryu locked eyes, and sparks seemed to crackle in the air between them.
Even Hannyabal, who loved to joke around, clamped his mouth shut, afraid to make the slightest sound.
Magellan stared at Shiryu, but in the end, he did nothing.
Shiryu left.
Magellan slumped in his seat.
"Sorry about that, Storm."
Lord Warden managed a strained smile at the newly appointed Jailer Chief.
"I'm sorry you had to see that.
"Everyone, keep eating and drinking."
But after all that had happened,
the mood at the Welcome Banquet had been thoroughly ruined, and it soon came to an abrupt end.
After the banquet,
Storm said goodbye to everyone and returned to his Private Room. As Jailer Chief, he was entitled to a Single Room.
Inside, Storm thought back to the clash he'd just witnessed.
"When did Magellan throw Shiryu of the Rain into Infinite Hell?"
Storm thought it over, but couldn't recall anything useful.
He only remembered that when Luffy rampaged through Impel Down, Shiryu of the Rain was already a prisoner in Infinite Hell.
And back then, Hannyabal wasn't the Chief Jailer, but the Deputy Warden.
That meant Shiryu had been locked up in Infinite Hell sometime in the past few years!
"I want to go to Infinite Hell too..."
Storm shook his head, pushing the thought aside.
He summoned the Silver Trophy he'd obtained earlier.
Since he had to attend the Welcome Banquet,
Storm hadn't rushed to use the Three-Star Trophy he'd obtained by defeating the Blue Gorilla.
But now that the banquet was over, he wasn't about to pass up this Silver Great Trophy.
Storm already knew how the Big Trophy's Ability Enhancement worked.
He hadn't yet tried out its Wish Function.
But Storm didn't want to use the Big Trophy to make a wish right now.
Zephyr's teachings surfaced in his mind.
Physique was the foundation.
Then Storm thought of Beasts Kaido's words.
Haki was supreme above all.
At this stage,
Storm didn't have much need for Haki.
Besides, he reasonably suspected that Haki required sufficient physical strength to support it before it could produce its full effect.
"Better keep adding points! Physique enhancement!"
Storm summoned his own Big Trophy.
[Strength: ★★☆] [Speed: ★★☆] [Stamina: ★★★]
A Three-Star Silver Trophy
could raise Storm's Strength or Speed to Three-Star.
Alternatively, it could help his Stamina break through its current bottleneck!
Storm thought for a moment, then made his decision.
He slammed the Silver Trophy straight into his Stamina.
As Storm watched,
the stars beside Stamina flickered and shifted. Then they changed to—
[Stamina: ★★★☆]
It had gone from Three-Star to Three-and-a-Half-Star.
"One more Silver Trophy, and I can raise my Stamina to Four-Star!"
Storm clenched his fist, a thought flashing through his mind.
"I need more Blue Gorillas!"
The next moment,
Storm suddenly felt an overwhelmingly powerful hunger.
It was as if every cell in his body was sending out a hunger signal.
Hungry!
So hungry!
Storm stood up, his eyes glowing green.
He quickly searched the room from top to bottom.
But he'd only just moved in. How could there be any food stored there?
Unable to bear the intense hunger any longer,
he rushed out of his room and ran back the way he'd come, heading for Impel Down's Jailers' Cafeteria.
The Welcome Banquet had ended abruptly, and plenty of food remained in the cafeteria.
Storm immediately grabbed a plate of roast meat.
Then a second plate, a third, a fourth...
After devouring everything in sight,
Storm let out a loud burp.
Only then did he realize he'd just eaten several times more than usual in one sitting!
"Was this the effect of enhancing Stamina? The effect of enhancing Physique?"
Storm rubbed his bulging belly.
"Did it turn me into a glutton first?"
The next day,
Storm confirmed his suspicions.
He found another Blue Gorilla and earned a Silver Trophy.
Then he slammed it into his Strength.
The familiar hunger returned.
Storm charged into the Jailer's Mess Hall and frantically swept up every bit of food in sight.
After enhancing his Physique,
Storm's body would immediately grow stronger.
But for a while afterward, his appetite would become bigger than ever.
It seemed he had to make up for the sudden "growth" by eating food from outside his body.
It was like using a Big Trophy to increase an ability's level.
The Big Trophy's "enhancement" raised the limits of his Physique and abilities.
But Storm still had to train to improve their actual strength.
There was a faint beauty to this "fantasy-style science."
A week passed in the blink of an eye.
Storm's days in Impel Down were incredibly fulfilling.
Every day, he allocated points, ate, slept, and beat up Blue Gorillas.
His daily routine had become a highly beneficial cycle.
Under the nourishment of the Blue Gorillas' blood and tears,
Storm quickly harvested a large number of Silver Trophies.
Through these Silver Trophies,
Storm not only directly raised his [Physique] attribute to ★★★★,
but also raised the level of the [Clay Fruit] to four stars!
It was no exaggeration to say
that Storm felt he could beat ten versions of himself from a week ago!
On this day,
Storm had just intended to continue summoning the Blue Gorilla army for his daily training.
However, just as he knocked out a Blue Gorilla, he unexpectedly discovered that the quality of its [Big Trophy] had actually dropped!
[Bronze Trophy: Burger] [Trophy Star Rating: ★★]
How did it change like this?
Storm was a little puzzled, so he found another Blue Gorilla.
But the [Big Trophy] this one provided also had only two stars.
Storm initiated communication with the true [Big Trophy] and received a response—
Repeatedly farming the [Big Trophy] of the same target within a short period would produce the negative effect of declining quality.
Only then did Storm realize where the problem lay.
Every member of the Blue Gorilla army had been beaten up by him!
Some had even been beaten more than once!
It was time to find a new source of [Big Trophies]!
Before you continue