Five-Star Platinum Trophy!
Storm looked at the incredibly ornate Big Trophy floating in midair, his eyes lighting up with excitement.
As expected of Impel Down's strongest jailers.
"I approve of the Prison Beast trophy quality!"
Storm put away the Platinum Trophy and controlled the Clay Giants as they moved away from the unconscious Mino Zebra.
Defeating a Prison Beast earned him one five-star Big Trophy.
Based on Storm's previous experience fighting the Blue Water Monkeys,
Mino Zebra could still provide at least one four-star Golden Trophy!
All he had to do was beat it up one more time!
Storm would say it again: he absolutely wasn't using this as an excuse for personal revenge.
It was all for a higher-grade Big Trophy!
Not long afterward,
Mino Zebra slowly regained consciousness.
The greatest advantage of Zoan Devil Fruits was how tough their users were.
The Prison Beasts were Devil Fruit Users whose Zoan Awakening had failed.
Although they had lost the intelligence they'd possessed as humans,
they had gained even greater stamina and recuperative powers.
Sit-ups were no problem for them.
Mino Zebra shook its still-fuzzy head.
It looked around, but didn't see the group of white giants that had been impossible to kill no matter how hard it hit them.
All it saw was the unfamiliar human it had easily knocked away earlier.
A mere human!
Mino Zebra snorted and regained its confidence.
It picked up the Spiked Club lying on the ground, scraped its hooves against the dirt, and charged at Storm once more.
Storm, who'd rested for a full half hour, had also recovered to peak condition by now.
With the previous battle's experience under his belt,
Storm no longer used Haki recklessly.
He relied mainly on Rokushiki to contend with Mino Zebra, using the power of Haki only when necessary.
With the tireless Prison Beast Mino Zebra to help him,
Storm continued honing his Armament Haki and Observation Haki.
The roar of battle rang out without pause.
In the Warden's Office on the fourth floor, Scorching Hell,
Magellan sat on the toilet, his face flushed purple. Suddenly, a subtle wave of pleasure washed over him.
He'd just felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and was about to relieve himself in one satisfying go.
But a deafening explosion abruptly rang out beside him.
Boom!
Magellan felt his backside clench, and his urge to go vanished in an instant.
Who was it? Did they have no sense of decency?
Making all that noise in the middle of the day! Couldn't they just sit quietly in their cells?
Was he ever going to be allowed to take a dump in peace?
Fuming, Magellan pulled up his pants and rushed out of the washroom in three quick strides.
"Who was it?!"
Magellan charged into the Surveillance Room in Scorching Hell, hoping to find the culprit who'd interrupted his bathroom business.
"Who's causing trouble in the prison?!"
If the troublemaker was one of Impel Down's prisoners,
Magellan swore he'd shove the bastard up the Poison Giant Soldier's ass!
The jailers in the Surveillance Room hadn't noticed the Warden's arrival. Every one of them was watching the surveillance footage.
"Amazing! The Jailer Chief is incredible!"
"Neither the Deputy Warden nor the Prison Beasts are any match for him!"
"The Giant Army! The invincible Giant Army has appeared again!"
They were watching surveillance footage, but the jailers suddenly burst into enthusiastic cheers, as if they were watching an exciting action movie.
The Jailer Chief? The Prison Beasts?
Magellan's eyes widened. He'd more or less figured out who the suspect was!
But what did the jailers mean by "the Giant Army"?
Magellan stared at the live footage being relayed by a Monitoring Den Den Mushi.
He happened to see Storm, running low on stamina, summon a group of Clay Giants to brutally gang up on Mino Zebra.
Was that Storm?
Magellan rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
How could Mino Zebra look so weak in his hands, like a stuffed zebra?
Storm had no idea what was happening in the Surveillance Room.
All he knew was that Mino Zebra soon gave him another Golden Trophy.
"Defeating the same target repeatedly in a short time lowers the quality of its trophy."
Storm sat cross-legged on the ground, recovering his stamina as he waited for Mino Zebra to wake up again.
"Does this mean Big Trophies have a cooldown period, too?
"And there's one more thing... Just how low will Mino Zebra's trophy quality drop?"
It wasn't long before
Storm got his answer.
[Silver Trophy: Mino Zebra] [Trophy Star Rating: ★★★]
"That's enough. There's no need to keep beating it."
Storm put away the Silver Trophy and decided to look for his next victim—no, his next Prison Beast.
"One Prison Beast can provide one five-star trophy and one four-star trophy.
"Mino Zebra, Mino Cow, Mino Koala, Mino Rhinoceros—that's four five-star trophies!
"I can't let this opportunity pass me by!"
Before heading off to find his next Prison Beast,
Storm tossed the Silver Trophy he'd just earned into Swordsmanship.
[Swordsmanship: ★★★]
"Now the only one-star ability I have is Marksmanship. It looks a little out of place..."
Storm thought it over and decided he'd find a chance later to raise both Swordsmanship and Marksmanship to four stars.
It wouldn't take too much effort, anyway.
"The real priority is the Golden and Platinum Trophies!"
Storm's gaze settled on the Clay Fruit.
After all his previous upgrades, the Clay Fruit's level had reached "★★★★☆."
Storm immediately put a Golden Trophy into it.
The Clay Fruit became the first five-star ability he possessed!
Next,
he put his only five-star Platinum Trophy into the Clay Fruit, too.
[Clay Fruit: ★★★★★☆]
"I'm just one step away from six stars!"
"Second Prison Beast, get in my bowl!"
A sharp red glint flashed in Storm's eyes as he activated his Observation Haki.
His Observation Haki picked up the "sounds" coming from the outside world, one by one.
Just then, Storm sensed an exceptionally powerful target approaching him.
The aura it gave off was even stronger than Mino Zebra's!
"The Warden?"
Storm used Shave to speed over and saw Magellan slowly walking toward him.
"Ah, Storm—"
As he greeted Storm, Magellan's expression twisted strangely. A sudden pain stabbed through his abdomen.
"What were you doing just now?"
"Managing the jailers," Storm replied calmly.
"The Blue Gorillas, the Sphinxes, and the Prison Beasts are all creatures with low intelligence.
"Managing them well takes a lot of effort."
"I kno—ow~"
Magellan nodded and was about to say something.
But the last word came out with a sudden upward lilt, and his legs clamped together despite himself.
Storm could faintly see wisps of pale purple poisonous mist drifting from the corner of Magellan's mouth.
"Warden."
Storm instinctively took a step back, avoiding the poisonous gas.
"You... don't have a habit of relieving yourself wherever you happen to be, do you?
"Although it's a normal biological function for animals, I'd still recommend seeing a doctor."
"Ha! Ha!"
Magellan laughed awkwardly and reminded him, word by word:
"Managing the jailers is fine! Don't make too much noise!
"Absolutely! Don't! Become! Shiryu!"
After leaving him with those words, Magellan hurried off, cheeks clenched.
Perhaps it was just his imagination,
but Storm thought he saw purple smoke billowing from behind the Warden.
"Absolutely don't become Shiryu?"
Storm watched Magellan's retreating figure and shook his head.
"Who'd want to become a born loser?"
Storm tossed Magellan's advice aside.
His Observation Haki hadn't picked up the presence of a second Prison Beast.
But that was all right. There were plenty of Surveillance Den Den Mushi in Impel Down!
Storm went to the Surveillance Room in Scorching Hell and used the powerful surveillance system to locate the second Prison Beast in an instant.
The Platinum Trophy hunt was on...
Over the next few days,
Storm kept looking for Prison Beasts to spar with, honing his skills.
With the help of several Prison Beasts,
Storm trained his Armament Haki in the morning, his Observation Haki in the afternoon, and practiced Life Return at all three meals.
He mastered every one of these high-level, four-star abilities.
Storm could now use both types of Haki with ease in battle, without wasting even a little of it.
His combat endurance increased dramatically.
Aside from improving his own abilities,
Storm's greatest gains came from the Big Trophies provided by the four Prison Beasts.
Leaving Mino Zebra's Big Trophies aside,
Mino Cow, Mino Koala, and Mino Rhinoceros had given Storm three Platinum Trophies and three Golden Trophies in total.
Storm hadn't used the three Platinum Trophies yet.
He'd only spent all three Golden Trophies.
Storm invested two Golden Trophies in his Stamina attribute and one in Speed.
The two attributes became—
[Stamina: ★★★★★] [Speed: ★★★★☆]
Once Storm had fully mastered his greatly increased Physique and Clay Fruit abilities,
the day came for Shiryu to finish his confinement and leave Extreme Cold Hell.
Scorching Hell, Warden's Office.
Several of Impel Down's "big shots" had gathered there.
They had all come at the Warden's request.
Magellan's plan was simple: he wanted to take the opportunity to ease the tension between Storm and Shiryu.
No matter how the two of them had come to blows before...
Now everyone had put their differences aside and was working together to run Impel Down!
Bam!
Someone shoved open the door to the Warden's Office from outside.
Shiryu, who still seemed to carry a trace of cold with him, stepped into the office.
At Magellan's signal,
Storm walked over to Shiryu.
"Deputy Warden."
Storm looked at Shiryu, who stood within arm's reach, and smiled brightly.
"The Warden wants us to put our differences aside, but I think..."
In the blink of an eye,
Storm suddenly raised his right fist, gathering all his strength into it, and slammed it into Shiryu of the Rain's face.
Deep, inky-black Armament Haki covered his fist, adding even more force to the blow.
Shiryu had never expected Storm to attack him right in front of Magellan!
Caught completely off guard, Shiryu took the punch squarely to his left cheek.
Workplace—Face Breaking Fist!
Storm's Armament Haki-coated fist slammed into Shiryu's face.
The latter's jaw jolted violently, contorting into a horrifying shape.
Viscous blood mixed with several white teeth, tracing a graceful arc through the air in the Warden's Office.
The force sent Shiryu flying backward, and he crashed straight into the office wall.
The entire room fell deathly silent.
"An eye for an eye, blood for blood!
"That's my style!"
Storm shook out his fist, then turned to look at Magellan, who was frozen in shock.
"Warden, get me a ticket to Extreme Cold Hell!"
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