Ouroboros-Devour Fruit!

No living thing wanted to die.

Under the threat of pain and death, anyone would struggle desperately for survival.

Even ants clung to life, let alone a creature that ruled part of the sea and possessed a degree of intelligence.

But no matter how fiercely the savage beast struggled, Dawn's hand remained steady.

Standing atop the bucking beast, Dawn showed no sign of panic. He merely gripped the longsword in his hand tightly and repeatedly used Power Snatch.

Although the extraction and feedback were nearly negligible, for this dying giant beast, Dawn's draining of its stamina was the final fatal straw!

"Boom!"

With the sound of the struggling beast collapsing, the enormous creature finally died completely.

Within the aura, the not-so-large serpent shape instantly returned to Dawn's body.

As that illusory, not-so-large serpent returned, threads of red gradually merged into his body.

At that instant, a warm energy flowed continuously through his body, steadily reshaping his muscle fibers. The slight pain and itch made Dawn grunt twice.

It was not that he feared pain. It was simply that the itchy sensation of a healing wound made people involuntarily want to make a sound.

A moment later, the energy vanished. Dawn clenched his fist and could feel that his strength had increased by a slight amount.

"It worked." Dawn could not help pumping his fist, a delighted smile appearing on his face.

After all, he had spent an entire month continuously testing and developing his ability for this very purpose: to develop the ability he wanted from the unknown fruit he had gambled everything to eat!

And today, his bold idea had finally succeeded!

Only now had the gamble Dawn had staked the rest of his life on finally hit the jackpot!

After developing this skill, the outermost edge of the aura took the form of an Ouroboros biting its own tail.

It was somewhat strange, and this ability did not quite match the meaning represented by the Ouroboros. But since it had taken on this characteristic, Dawn was spared the trouble of thinking up a new name.

"I'll call it Gluttonous Snake... ah, damn it!! Ouroboros!" Dawn said with a smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

If the meanings represented by the Ouroboros—"infinity," "cycle," and so on—were stripped away,

then on the surface, it looked like a greedy snake, a self-devourer swallowing itself for the sake of its desires.

And this was the ability Dawn had envisioned developing through the fusion of the two fruits!

From this moment onward, that special fruit was no longer a peculiar mutated fruit formed by the accidental combination of the Aura Fruit and the Snatch-Snatch Fruit.

Once Dawn had developed the ability "Ouroboros," the two fruits were no longer separate entities, but an existence fused into one.

This ability combined the powers of both fruits and completely merged them together.

And its ability was devouring!

First, using the Aura Fruit as the foundation, it manifested the concept of "attributes," which took the form of Dawn's enhancement aura.

Then, using the Snatch-Snatch Fruit's power as the fruit's upper limit, it made those manifested "attributes" capable of being seized.

Finally, the characteristics of the two fused together, ultimately becoming energy that Dawn could absorb!

"I'll call you the Devour Fruit!" Dawn looked at the illusory, even somewhat crude serpent shape before him and could not help smiling.

Looking at the Ouroboros shape before him, Dawn understood that he had gambled correctly. The Snatch-Snatch Fruit and Aura Fruit had fused together, allowing him to develop the power of devouring and plundering.

But this secret would remain buried in Dawn's heart forever. And Gluttonous Snake... no, Ouroboros, would only truly reveal its sharp fangs on the day Dawn could roam freely across the seas!

For now, what Dawn needed to do was keep getting stronger and stronger!

Because this move had only established the most basic concept. As Dawn grew stronger in the future, he would need to continuously refine it until he had fully developed the move and could use it flexibly.

After his excitement faded, Dawn calmed down and wiped away the sweat on his forehead from all the exertion earlier.

"Then next comes hunting time. Hunting sea beasts on this island is a good choice.

"Besides, I can't neglect developing the Aura Fruit either. It's the best cover."

Having made up his mind, Dawn began his next course of action!

As for every ability of the Devour Fruit, Dawn had decided to keep them hidden at all times!

After all, this ability was simply too terrifying.

In gaming terms, it was basically killing monsters to level up.

But in reality, the concept of gaining "attribute points" to strengthen himself by killing enemies was practically like the demonic arts of martial artists, killing people to take their blood and cultivate their power.

If word of this got out, who knew how much trouble it would cause!

And this was only the most basic ability. As for further abilities, they still awaited Dawn's development.

Shaking his head and casting aside those thoughts, Dawn was already impatient to go "grind monsters and level up."

Getting stronger was the most urgent priority now!

As for everything else, it was all insignificant!

With that in mind, Dawn began wandering around the island, continuously searching for prey.

In the days that followed, aside from constantly developing the Aura Fruit, Dawn spent the rest of his time repeatedly provoking newly landed savage beasts that had not yet eaten themselves into balls, or smaller Sea Kings.

During the constant chases, although Dawn had yet to master Shave, he had already fulfilled the prerequisites for it. He was only one final step away from mastering Shave.

There was no helping it. If savage beasts chased you desperately every day, you would run that fast too.

It was basically the same idea as Sanji being chased around the Kamabakka Kingdom until he awakened Geppo on his own...

Dawn was utterly despairing over this as well.

It was not that he did not want to kill those plump, round sea beasts that had eaten themselves fat, had no strength left, and even looked somewhat adorable.

When he developed this "Gluttonous Snake" skill, he had truly thought that developing a devouring aura would be good enough.

But now, he realized that this ability had not turned out entirely as he had imagined.

In certain ways, it differed from what he had envisioned.

First, an illusory Ouroboros appeared at the outermost edge of the aura. Dawn had not expected that.

What he had envisioned was using the powers of both to apply the Snatch-Snatch Fruit's seizing ability to himself when the aura was withdrawn.

But he had not expected a serpent shape to appear. For a time, Dawn suspected that it was the image of the devil residing within his Devil Fruit.

Still, it was not without benefits. At the very least, he no longer needed to control the seizure of "attribute points" himself. It seemed that Ouroboros handled that step for him.

But the most obvious difference from what he had imagined was that this damned snake was a picky eater!!