Holy crap!
There really was a way!
"Uncle Broggy! Can you tell me how to train it?" Reiner hurriedly asked, the burning eagerness in his eyes utterly undisguised—and there was no need to hide it.
Broggy looked a little troubled. Scratching his head, he said, "We've mastered it, but we're not very proficient. If you want us to teach you, the method might be a little stupid."
"Not proficient?" Reiner was somewhat surprised.
Elbaf was a land of giants renowned even in the New World. How could Dorry and Broggy, the leaders of the Giant Warrior Pirates, be unskilled in Haki?
Dorry explained, "There are all sorts of strange ability users on the sea, so we learned Haki for that. But in every other fight, we rely mainly on our own bodies and skills."
"That's right. We warriors of Elbaf only believe in up-close, fist-to-fist combat. Gahahaha!" Broggy chimed in.
What kind of brain-dead nonsense was that? Did knowing Haki mean they couldn't fight fist-to-fist?! Reiner fumed inwardly.
Then he looked up at the two rugged men again. Fine, that was very giant-like.
"What are you guys talking about?" Luffy tilted his head with a troubled frown.
The others looked just as confused. Reiner merely gave them a simple explanation.
"But what's this stupid method you mentioned?" Reiner turned back to press the giant uncles for an answer.
Dorry and Broggy exchanged a glance, then suddenly threw back their heads and laughed. "Gahahaha! Getting beaten up!"
"..."
Fine, fine, fine. Rayleigh taught you two, didn't he? Black lines formed across Reiner's forehead.
"Of course, not just stupidly taking hits. Haki is—"
Broggy then began explaining it to them as well. Knowing Luffy and the others had no real concept of Haki, he deliberately went into greater detail.
"Invisible armor?" Luffy rubbed his chin and thought for a moment before tilting his head. "Emmm, so Haki is just armor that isn't cool at all?"
Duang!
"Idiot! That's obviously not what he meant!"
Nami gave Luffy his usual education.
"I think I get it now."
Reiner understood, but before that, there was something else he wanted to try. "Uncle, let's continue what we were doing earlier."
"Ohh~, that thing? Go ahead." Broggy immediately held out his hand.
Reiner began transforming into his hybrid form. Azure Flame gradually seeped from all over his body, floating over his skin before covering him completely and flickering in the wind.
Two short red horns emerged from his forehead, while a blood-red marking spread from the bridge of his nose toward both ears. His body exuded the decayed, deathly air of withered wood and cold ashes.
Reiner's physical appearance had not changed much. Yet the dancing azure flames and the aura of death lent him a heavy, oppressive presence of mortality.
"Wahaha, Reiner transformed again! So cool!" Luffy was inexplicably fascinated by anything that could transform.
"Hey, Luffy, what's going on with Reiner?"
Other than Luffy, no one present had seen Reiner transform before. Even Nami and the others barely understood Devil Fruit types or abilities.
"Ah, Reiner's ability lets him transform. Damn it, I want one too!" Luffy looked utterly jealous.
Yeah, don't worry. You'll get one too, Reiner thought.
Yet Dorry and Broggy were even more shocked. Both stared at Reiner in alarm.
They were not surprised by Reiner's ability. They had long seen all kinds of bizarre Devil Fruits. What startled them was the familiar yet unfamiliar aura they sensed from him.
"Why do you have—"
"There's nothing strange about it, Dorry."
Broggy cut Dorry off, pressing a hand to his shoulder in warning. "It's not like we haven't seen something similar before. Young people have their own paths to walk. We shouldn't meddle too much."
"Ah, that's true. Gahahaha!"
"What the hell?" Reiner looked strangely at the two men, who were acting inexplicably weird.
Did the kingly aura of my Necromancer Lord form leak out?
Forget it.
He placed his hand over Broggy again. This time, it went smoothly without any obstruction. Reiner guessed his initial failure had been because of the Haki in Broggy's body.
Even if it was not actively resisting, could Haki still affect abilities to some extent? Reiner guessed.
It took more than twenty minutes before Reiner withdrew the Azure Flame. "That was exhausting~"
"What is that thing? Your ability?" Dorry asked, looking at the azure flame dancing in Reiner's hand.
Reiner had no reason to hide it. He briefly explained that he could create undead, hoping they would help him out.
Dorry was straightforward as well and immediately said it was no big deal. Reiner did not stand on ceremony and directly covered him in Azure Flame.
This time took a little less time than before. It was not because Dorry was weaker than Broggy, but because further development of his fruit had increased the Devil Fruit's boost to his physical attributes.
That was right. This was where Reiner's Devil Fruit development method needed to be explained.
He did not know about Paramecia or Logia types, but the way to develop his Zoan Mythical Beast Type was to continuously use his abilities and make himself more closely resemble the corresponding form.
There was nothing complicated about developing Reiner's Devil Fruit. He simply kept collecting stronger templates and creating stronger undead.
Simple and brutal, but effective!
There were plenty of people in this world who had defied fate with a single Devil Fruit. One more would not make a difference, especially with certain bizarre Paramecia.
But his advantage was that Mythical Zoans belonged to the Zoan category. The deeper the fruit was developed, the greater its boost to physical attributes became.
Unfortunately, aside from the enormous improvement when he had first eaten the fruit, the later boosts were all relatively minor. So he still maintained his habit of training his body.
Only hard work would never betray you—
—Run. Marine Hero Koby!
But that was not what he wanted to test. Reiner had long had an idea regarding these two Azure Flames.
Returning to human form, he moved his mind, and a rift in space opened out of thin air.
Two human-sized undead dressed like Spartan warriors stepped out. But before they had even taken two steps—
Crack! Crack!
"So they still burst apart after all?" Reiner held his chin, as if he had expected this all along.
He had wanted to compress the undead's size in exchange for greater agility.
But with his current strength, he could not compress the two giants down to the size of ordinary people. Their terrifying physical attributes directly caused the undead to burst apart.
"That also proves just how ridiculously strong these two templates are."
Reiner did not mind. He summoned two undead again, and this time, the undead that emerged looked vastly different.
They were slender and nearly five meters tall, holding round shields in one hand and spears in the other, with greatswords at their waists. At a casual glance, they looked like Spartan warriors.
Except—
"Ahhh!!!"
A scream came from behind him. Vivi covered her mouth, staring at the two undead in terror. She was badly frightened.
She had only seen Reiner's Fish-man Undead before, and those had looked fairly friendly.
Even Nami could not adapt to this. Baring her teeth, she cursed irritably, "Bastard! Why do you always make such creepy things?"
The two Spartan warriors did not have even a scrap of skin on them, and their skeletal heads were terrifyingly grotesque.
"I can't help it." Reiner helplessly spread his hands. "I was thinking of removing unnecessary flesh to increase their agility."
If he could compress them any further, he would not have made them like this either. He looked at the long red and green strips of cloth tied around the waists of the two undead.
"Blue Ogre and Red Ogre. From now on, I'll use the uncles' nicknames for these two." Reiner removed the cigarette from his mouth and ground it beneath his foot.
At last, he could test it. Let's see whether you can inherit Haki.
Before you continue