Reiner's Life as Quartermaster

Reiner stood on the deck and looked around, then stomped his foot. The wooden planks let out a creak.

"Looks like my life as quartermaster is about to begin too."

He climbed up the rope ladder to the lookout post and looked down. Zoro had already sat down by the railing on one side of the deck and begun dozing off.

When he raised his head, the vast blue sea filled his view.

He turned to look back at the island. Through the forest, he could vaguely make out scattered houses in the village.

"This place has a pretty great view!" Leaning over the railing with both hands, he smiled down at the deck.

"I'll take this spot, then. Leave lookout duty to me from now on!"

"Yeah, sure." Luffy replied with a grin.

Reiner jumped down from the lookout post and opened a huge blue backpack.

These were supplies Kaya had given them. Aside from food, there were daily necessities and a small amount of medicine.

"They even included shampoo and body wash? Merry was pretty thoughtful."

After sorting through and taking stock of everything, Reiner began exploring the Going Merry.

A hidden hatch beneath the deck and mast opened up to reveal the men's quarters, which contained two sofas and several hammocks in the corner.

"It's all visible at a glance."

Reiner sighed as he looked at the simple dormitory.

The cabin at the bow was where the cannons and cannonballs were stored.

Two levels of cabins stood on the deck. The first floor was a storage room, with several cannons installed along both sides. Reiner put away some of the supplies there.

The women's quarters were beneath the storage room. Reiner took a brief look and found them far more luxurious than the men's quarters, with sofas, tables, bookshelves, wardrobes, and even a bar counter!

Outside on the deck, staircases on both sides led to the second floor. It was a multipurpose living area with a kitchen, dining room, meeting room, and more.

After exploring for a while, Reiner directly summoned several skeletons and had them sort and store the supplies.

"Not bad, Reiner."

Nami came aboard and smiled at Reiner, who was leaning against the railing outside the second floor. "Your ability can actually be used for this kind of work too. Looks like things will be a lot easier from now on."

"Easy enough. I'll have them clean the whole ship inside and out later." Reiner waved with a smile.

Although the only undead he currently used in battle were molded from the templates of Luffy, Zoro, and Kuro, he still had plenty of fodder under his command, Morgan included.

All of them could be used for chores, and he did not feel the slightest bit bad about it.

He had molded Kuro's template in the image of Wolverine. Since it was undead, it still looked somewhat creepy, but at least it vaguely resembled a person.

It was fine for dealing with minor fry in ordinary battles, but when facing somewhat famous enemies, he would not personally step in.

He wanted to keep himself separate from the undead in the eyes of the outside world. Before obtaining undead with top-tier combat power, he needed to hide himself as much as possible.

It was not as though he had no combat ability at all. With the boost from his Devil Fruit Ability, his physical condition was already fairly decent.

But his strength could only be called average. Let alone compared to Luffy and Zoro, he was not even stronger than his own undead.

He had only been transported here for a year. No matter how hard he trained, there was a limit to how much his strength could improve.

It was not like he had some Effort-Effort Fruit that let him defy the heavens through hard work alone.

Unless he entered his transformed state and became the Necromancer Lord, but that would attract far too much attention and was not good for lying low during the early stages.

While transformed, every aspect of his physical abilities depended on whichever of his undead had the highest corresponding attribute.

For example, he could currently obtain Kuro's speed, Zoro's arm strength, while his other attributes depended on the more well-rounded Luffy.

To put it bluntly, his strength ultimately depended on the undead under his command. He had not come here with any other advantages, so becoming invincible through hard work alone...

That was just a dream.

Still, his "golden finger," his Devil Fruit, already had an extremely high ceiling. All he lacked was time.

As for Teacher Kaido's claim that only Haki transcended all things.

He could just take that as a joke. Teacher Kaido himself was an ability user; whoever was stronger got to decide such things.

Enel had even claimed he was a god, yet Luffy still knocked him flat.

By that logic, did only fate transcend all things?

In any case, man could conquer destiny.

When he came back to himself, the cigarette had already burned down to the end.

Once Usopp had moved everything aboard, they raised the anchor and prepared to set sail.

"Goodbye, everyone. Goodbye, Usopp."

"Goodbye, Kaya. When I come back, I'll tell you adventure stories even more exciting than my lies."

Usopp waved goodbye to Kaya. Today, he had finally taken the first step toward becoming a brave warrior of the sea.

Kaya and Merry stood quietly on the shore, watching until the small ship vanished over the sea.

"Miss Kaya, a few days ago, I heard something about Usopp from the villagers."

Merry smiled and slowly said, "Before his mother passed away, Usopp would constantly run through the village shouting, 'Pirates are coming!' before rushing home."

"He would shout to tell his mother that his father had come back for them and would take them out to sea."

"Perhaps it was because he was lonely. After his mother died, he continued shouting that pirates were coming through the village every day."

"The villagers said that his lies carried a powerful wish. He hoped that one day, his father would return to take them away."

Kaya quietly listened to Merry, looking out at the sea as though she were thinking about something.

"Merry, I want to study medicine."

"Is that so? You've suddenly made a very big decision."

On the Going Merry, everyone was celebrating.

"Let's toast to the Going Merry and Usopp!"

"Cheers—!"

"I see you don't have a pirate flag yet."

Usopp looked up at the bare mast. "A flag is the soul of a pirate crew. Just tell me whatever you have in mind! My painting skills are first-rate!"

"Really?!"

Luffy's face lit up with excitement. "I didn't know you could do that too."

"I often painted on the village walls. I've been practicing since I was little." Usopp said proudly.

Before long, Reiner brought out a piece of black cloth, several cans of paint, and several brushes from the storage room.

Usopp began painting across the black cloth with sweeping strokes, and soon completed a pirate flag.

A white skull wore a yellow straw hat, with a pair of crossed bones behind it.

"Not bad, Usopp."

Reiner took the flag and could not help praising him. "I'll hang it up there. Sketch out the outline on the sail, and I'll control the skeletons to apply the paint."

"Leave it to me!"

Soon, with Usopp and Reiner working together, the same enormous design had been painted onto their sail.

They could not help smiling as they looked at it.

The Straw Hat Crew had officially been formed.

"Nami, how long will it take us to reach Cocoyasi Village?"

Reiner suddenly asked.

Nami answered without hesitation, "Two days. But..."

"I still have to ask: are you really sure? Arlong's bounty may only be twenty million, but I suspect his strength far exceeds that."

"Many Marines have come to take down Arlong before, and every single one failed. He has been colluding with a certain branch in secret and covered up many of his crimes, so his bounty has never increased."

Zoro could not help frowning at that. He had once made a living by hunting bounty criminals, so he knew something about the Marines' bounty system.

To a certain extent, a bounty could reflect someone's strength. In the East Blue, a bounty of twenty million was absolutely very high.

From what Nami said, the enemy was likely far stronger than they had imagined.