April 12, 1511.
Sig returned to Dressrosa, only half a day later than Violet —although she had set off earlier and hadn't yet taken the detour to the Kingdom of Prodence, Sig's ship was faster!
Violet led the stranded King Riku back to their country on Whitey Bay's original ship. On their way back, they encountered a rescue ship. With the power of the "Glint-Glint Fruit," they didn't have to worry about missing each other. After reuniting, they returned to Dressrosa together.
King Riku appeased his King Riku and then highly praised Violet. Noticing that Violet was very tired, he told her to rest first and that the celebration would be held later that evening.
As for Violet's friend...
King Riku didn't even know his name, but he could guess that there might be other secrets behind why he hadn't come back with them, so he didn't ask about it in public.
Afterwards Violet only gave the pseudonym "Seven" and told King Riku that he was a Logia Wind-Wind Fruit user. Regarding the matter of Whitey Bay and Zephyr, she only said that "they did not get close," "they were both injured," and "afterwards, I think I saw some Fish-Man board the ship"—at least it sounded reasonable, and Sig had also told her the same thing before.
King Riku realized his daughter wasn't telling the truth, but he didn't investigate further; Dressrosa wasn't a country that had the energy to meddle in other people's business...
What he didn't know was that just half a day later, as dusk fell, "Seven" returned to Dressrosa with the Whitey Bay!
Sig returned to the Golden Mansion first; his residence—the source of the Artificial Devil Fruit he cultivated—was still there.
Sig guessed that Violet was probably resting, so he planned to see her again tomorrow morning...
As for "Whitey Bay," Sig had already taught him a lot on the way, letting him explore on his own first, while he himself was preparing to compete with this embryo of the "Devil Fruit"!
Having obtained some of Vegapunk's research data and some of the abilities of the "Shove-Shove Fruit," Sig has new ideas.
Why must Artificial Devil Fruit be grown in the ground?
Why must Artificial Devil Fruit be... a fruit?
After preparing a large quantity of alcohol, Sig cut off a piece of his own flesh and began to grow mushrooms...
Sig's flesh and blood regenerated rapidly, and he quickly absorbed the alcohol, using 30% of the Squeeze-Squeeze Devil Fruit ability to replenish himself with the alcohol. Furthermore, with the "Rose Bishop's" ability, he rapidly converted the absorbed alcohol into flesh and blood reserves...
As for why mushrooms?
Well, as everyone knows, the Rose Bishop and mushrooms are a perfect match...
Then Sig used the power of the "Shove-Shove Fruit"—although he could only imitate one-tenth of it, Sig was now using his own flesh and blood as a base!
Its method of operation is far more direct than Binz's original Shove-Shove Fruit.
The mushrooms grew rapidly—although normally mushrooms should be considered fungi, the Shove-Shove Fruit also had an effect on them, just like how the octopus in this world is also considered a fish...
Mushrooms, under suitable conditions, can grow very tall overnight and mature and reproduce completely in a few days. With the added benefit of Shove-Shove Fruit, this process is even faster. Moreover, the mushrooms grown by Sig are not ordinary mushrooms; they quickly exhibit carnivorous characteristics.
So Sig drank the wine to replenish his own flesh and blood, and used his own flesh and blood to "feed" the Demon Mushroom.
An hour later, the Demon Mushroom, which had already taken over most of the room, began to devour each other...
Three hours later, only one Demon Mushroom remained...
Five hours later, concentric circles began to appear on the caps of the last remaining Demon Mushroom that had been devouring each other...
By daybreak, the now much smaller, truly "Demon Mushroom" had been transplanted onto Sig's body—for now, it was parasitizing the back of his hand.
Not only was Sig confident, based on previous experiments, that this wouldn't harm him, but it also made cultivation easier, essentially meaning the Demon Mushroom was directly absorbing Sig's flesh and blood...
More importantly, Sig is also using the properties of the "Demon Mushroom" that are similar to "Devil Fruit" to completely overcome the problem of the difficulty in changing the mutation of Lineage Factor!
Soon, the third eye on Sig's forehead opened again—the third eye had always been there, it was already part of Sig's physiological structure, but this time, the third eye that opened began to gradually turn white, and... the surrounding blood vessels gradually bulged.
Just like when he listened to the Devil Fruit, Sig did not directly eat the "artificial Demon Mushroom," but indirectly used its properties to gradually stabilize the power of the "White Eye Fruit."
It's entirely self-produced and self-sold; the Demon Mushroom is just an intermediary.
Then Sig glanced at the Demon Mushroom in his hand that was constantly absorbing his flesh and blood, and began to infuse the power of the "White Eye Fruit" into the Demon Mushroom in reverse— Sig had already obtained research data related to Vegapunk, and since this thing was absorbing Sig's flesh and blood, it was naturally easy to "infuse" it successfully!
Meanwhile, Sig was also thinking to himself...
If I currently possessed the "Manipulator" ability of the Visionary Path Sequence 4, could I use "Virtual Personality" to transform a portion of my will into a near-independent personality, infusing it into the Demon Mushroom to exist as a "Devil"?
So, his own "Demon Mushroom" should be more effective and stable than Vegapunk's "Artificial Devil Fruit," right?
After all, while Vegapunk's research capabilities are strong, Sig's overwhelming advantage on the mystical side cannot overcome them.
Vegapunk's Artificial Devil Fruit were ultimately created by reconstructing Lineage Factor extracted from external sources. Sig, on the other hand, could transfer some of his abilities to Demon Mushroom by planting mushrooms on his own body, and could even split his personality to simulate the true state of Devil Fruit...
Of course, "Virtual Personality" is an ability that only Sequence 4 Manipulator possess. Even if it is simulated, it can only be attempted after completing the Sequence 5 role-playing. Sig is currently missing at least one whole Sequence.
Therefore, Sig's Demon Mushroom, like the Artificial Devil Fruit, is still clearly a defective product.
Since he wasn't planning to feed it to anyone, Sig didn't create a gradual adaptation process like he did with the "Artificial Pink Dragon Fruit."
However, by this time, Sig's Demon Mushroom had fully matured and detached itself from the back of his hand.
At the same time... the Promotion Ceremony for "Secret Art Master" was also completely completed at this moment!
Although the ritual condition is "creating a new Devil Fruit," the new Devil Fruit doesn't necessarily have to be a "fruit." The Demon Mushroom is the same, and it also satisfies the Promotion Ceremony.
Of the five major Promotion Ceremony, four have now been performed, and Sig has completed two of them...
However, for Sig right now, this is just something to facilitate his development of "secret techniques," which are similar to Devil Fruit ability; he's still a ways off from being a "mentor."
In theory, every time Sig develops a "secret technique" on himself, he must form a Demon Mushroom as a catalyst, mainly to utilize its effect of "breaking through Lineage Factor".
As for the Demon Mushroom's practicality, it wasn't very useful before it gained a "Virtual Personality," and Sig didn't intend to create more of it.
The fact that the absence of a "Devil" actually makes it easier to lose control remains unchanged. If someone were to eat a "White Eye Demon Mushroom," it would most likely create Monster covered in eyes with extremely low intelligence...
Sig then realized that his "Paths of the Divine" itself did not seem to be easy to lose control of, but if he spread it by developing "secret techniques", it would easily cause others to lose control!
It felt a little strange, but Sig hadn't thought about it too much yet. He simply tossed the incomplete "Demon Mushroom" into his shadow for safekeeping...
Dongdong: Chapter 3... to be updated this afternoon.