The Five Great Paths

The Freedom Star was a three-masted sailing ship, with square sails on the forward two masts and a lateen sail on the mast behind the captain's quarters at the stern—that is, the sail used in coordination with the helm to turn the vessel.

The helm connected to the rudder below the hull, changing direction by swinging the rudder blade. However, steering required the helmsman to have an almost instinctive judgment of the wind, currents, and the delay between the rudder blade and the helm—it wasn't just a matter of being strong enough to turn the wheel.

Moreover, Raitol wasn't a "helmsman" but a "steersman"—also responsible for directing the sailors to pull the lateen sail's lines, not simply following the captain's orders to turn the rudder.

Because it was a merchant ship, there were only two gun ports at the bow, plus four deck cannons, with no dedicated gun deck below.

Compared to the navy's professional warships—four or five masts, armored hulls, two dense rows of broadside cannons in the lower decks, large-caliber bow and stern guns—there was naturally no comparison.

"Leave the artillery command to me! I love these big fellows," said a middle-aged man with rotten teeth and puffy eyes.

"Good! From now on, you're the ship's Gunner Chief." D'Artagnan patted his shoulder with the flat of his sword.

He'd done the same to Raitol just now—no idea what custom that was.

"Anyone who knows how to use these big bastards, get over here! And you little brats who can barely stand, come lend a hand!" the Gunner Chief immediately shouted.

The crew of the Freedom Star were fairly "versatile." After D'Artagnan called out, several sailors who knew how to handle cannons quickly took their positions at the guns, loading smoothly and hanging the fuses over the touch holes, waiting only for the order to fire.

Among the ragtag "crew," some lacked combat ability and couldn't understand sailing commands, so they were all classified as "gunners" as well.

Sig felt he'd become more capable of fighting, so he kept holding his sword, signaling that he wanted to be a combatant.

Boom—

Boom—

The navy had already opened fire. Most of the cannonballs splashed into the water with little accuracy, though some were heading for the deck.

At this moment, the limitations of "strong ships and powerful guns" became apparent—D'Artagnan's figure flickered as he leaped onto the bow, swinging his sword in wild slashes, his sword qi deflecting the cannonballs that were about to land on the deck...

In comparison, the merchant ship's cannons clearly had a much shorter range. Even as someone urged him, the newly appointed Gunner Chief stared expressionlessly at the enemy, delaying the order to fire.

Fortunately, in the age of the Great Pirates, strong ships and powerful guns were only part of naval combat—boarding actions were the more decisive point of victory!

Sig had already joined the combatants in lashing together barrels...

There were clearly not enough "grappling hooks" to be found on the merchant ship—that is, the combination of iron hooks and ropes used to hook onto the enemy's deck. A sufficient number of grappling hooks could pull two ships close together, and when they were near enough, boarding planks could be laid directly.

Bold combatants would even ride the grappling hook ropes to forcefully board the enemy's deck—generally pirate-specific equipment.

Without grappling hooks, boarding became more difficult, but for sailors of the Great Pirate era, there were other ways.

For instance, someone had already explained to Sig—no grappling hooks? Then tie heavy objects with ropes, and when you get close enough, just swing them at the enemy's mast!

Fortunately, there were plenty of ropes on the ship, probably left over from securing cargo.

As long as they could wrap around the mast, it would work the same as grappling hooks, only... it required much more strength. Like the barrel Sig was lashing together, filled with over a hundred jin of seawater—he'd have to swing that thing over later.

"Hey, kid! Don't throw your back out," a big-mouthed man nearby said with a grin at Sig.

Sig just patted his biceps to show he was fine.

Having advanced to Sequence 8 as a whole, the five "classes" were: Reasoning Trainee, Mind Reader, People of Fury, Listener, and Light Pray-er.

Among them, "Reasoning Trainee" was the advancement from "Reader," and it was the ability Sig found easiest to understand among the five Sequence 8 classes.

It greatly enhanced one's observational and logical reasoning abilities, with the former being a prototype of Observation Haki.

The requirements of the "Acting Method" were also simple—investigate more things, do some detective work, and it should improve.

The other class related to Observation Haki was "Mind Reader"—the advancement from "Spectator." As the name suggested, the observational ability had moved from the surface to deeper within, gaining new understanding of expressions, eyes, and demeanor. In this world, Sig speculated this was a special prototype of Observation Haki.

Although he hadn't systematically trained, while in Mary Geoise, when interacting with other slaves, Sig had absorbed quite a bit of this world's power system through osmosis.

After all, among the slaves in Mary Geoise, many could be called "experts" outside.

Speaking of this world's power system, "Haki" was unavoidable. For ordinary people, the only types they could hope for were "Armament Haki" and "Observation Haki." There was also a third type, "Conqueror's Haki," said to require a talent found in only one in millions to possess...

Of course, given this world's population, with such a large base, having a hundred or so people with Conqueror's Haki talent wasn't surprising.

Armament Haki could be simply understood as attack and defense, while Observation Haki could be understood as insight and perception.

Additionally, there were individual-specific traits. For example, Sig knew that in the original work, Roger and Luffy's Observation Haki could hear the voices of all things; Katakuri's Observation Haki could briefly foresee the future; Usopp had displayed abilities similar to super-long-range vision...

Some of these "traits" emerged after training to the extreme, while others seemed like innate talents, appearing even when only a prototype.

Sig had long suspected that his abilities weren't a true Divine Path, but could only manifest aspects adapted to this world.

That is, his Observation Haki prototype, due to the "Mind Reader" series of the Divine Path, had a tendency toward observing people's hearts.

When executing the "Acting Method," it should lean toward "observing others' psychological activities."

As for these two Divine Paths at Sequence 8, their enhancement to combat power wasn't obvious. In comparison, the "People of Fury," the advancement from "Sailor," was much more violent—physical enhancement brought strength, speed, and better naval combat abilities...

And as the name suggested, in an angry state, physical ability would increase even more!

As for acting it out, Sig was a bit confused—probably... he was supposed to act like someone easily angered? Did that mean pretending to be angry, or actually getting angry often?

As for the remaining two, "Listener" and "Light Pray-er," Sig had no clue at all.

"Listener" in Lord of the Mysteries was considered "either a madman or a hidden madman," because they could hear the whispers of hidden existences, gaining powerful but twisted knowledge that made it hard to maintain rationality—and it was passive, impossible to avoid...

However, in this world, Sig speculated that because there were no other high-sequence existences, he was completely in the dark about the "Listener" aspect, hearing no whispers. The benefit was safety, but the drawback was that Sig didn't know how to "act."

Could listening to ordinary people's confessions count as being a "Listener"?

It seemed possible from the name, but Sig felt it couldn't be that simple.

However, from the fact that its lower Sequence 9, "Secret Prayer-er," can advance by praying to the Devil Fruit, perhaps "Listener" should also explore in this direction.

"Light Pray-er" similarly left Sig completely baffled; its Sequence 9 is "Praise the Sun," which indeed gave Sig's singing some inspiring abilities beyond mere beauty and melody.

In truth, Sig's progress as "Praise the Sun" had been extremely slow before, and he could roughly guess the reason—the essence of a Praiser is not "singing," but "praising the sun."

Merely performing as a singer for those swine did not align well with its core, hence the slow progress, taking two years to succeed.

Moreover, Sig had actually tried privately praising the sun, but it yielded no effect—which was inevitable, considering that the "Sun" in Lord of the Mysteries is a Sequence 0 existence, not merely a star, whereas the sun in this world clearly lacked such symbolism and function.

Thus, Sig was equally clueless about the acting and ability development for this Sequence.

With no time to think further, as Sig finished tying the barrel, the hull suddenly shook violently—clearly, the lower cabin had been hit!

He could already see the navy soldiers on the warship's deck, their faces full of anticipation for meritorious deeds!

The Gunner Chief then gave the order: "Fire!"