The Boat! [Seeking Collection]

Yes, you read that correctly.

Although this snake had no physical form and wasn't even a living creature, it was somewhat "picky."

Or rather, this ability had requirements for absorbing "attribute points"—in essence, it was a matter of conversion efficiency.

For those Sea Kings that had eaten themselves into bloated balls, completely losing their combat capability, the snake absorbed plenty of energy but few "attribute points." Yet all that energy went into its own belly without feeding back to Dawn.

This left Dawn in despair. If things had gone according to his earlier assumptions, even with the "weakening" from experience and the gradual inability to collect "attribute points," it would still have been far better than the current situation.

But thankfully, after killing them, the feedback still went to the ability itself, making Dawn feel that the snake had grown somewhat more solid. At the same time, when he used this ability, he occasionally managed to gain a little "attribute" now.

This made Dawn realize that it wasn't that he couldn't seize anything—it was that his own ability was too weak. The snake first fed itself, then fed back to him only the clearly superior quality energy from the slain target.

And this superior energy corresponded to what the target excelled at or had a natural talent for.

As for those fat, ball-shaped creatures...

emmmmmm...

They all had "the three highs." They provided plenty of energy, but they were all crippled, and the energy quality they offered was low. So if he wanted to gain "attribute points," he still had to go after the sea beasts that could still move.

And so Dawn's escape journey began.

But being hunted wasn't without its benefits. Constantly provoking these plump, vicious sea beasts also allowed Dawn's combat ability to grow steadily.

Mm, his dodge talent was maxed out.

On the other hand, during the process of dodging, his use of the various abilities he had developed became increasingly proficient.

"Boom."

At this moment, Dawn stood atop a three-to-four-meter amphibious sea beast. The creature's head could be seen oozing blood, with a gruesome, sunken wound on it.

Clearly, the head wound was the cause of this beast's death.

This was Dawn's achievement, and also the strongest enemy he could face after growing stronger through familiarizing himself with his abilities.

At that moment, the Ouroboros coiled around Dawn on its own, strands of cyan light merging into his body.

"Hmm, speed this time? It's really troublesome that I can't choose the direction of the increase. Is it determined by the target's specialty?" Dawn scratched his head in frustration.

After many experiments, Dawn had figured out the details of this skill. The Ouroboros would randomly extract a trace of "attribute point" from the prey based on its strength and feed it back to him.

These were divided into: Crimson: Strength. Cyan: Speed. Brown: Constitution.

And a white, unknown attribute. But Dawn only noticed that he seemed a bit more alert at the time, so he guessed it increased spirit.

The change was minimal, and it had only appeared once.

If it weren't for the fact that Dawn, having transmigrated, already possessed an adult's mental fortitude, and that constant tempering had made his will even stronger, he might not have even noticed it.

So without more "white attribute points" to test, he couldn't confirm what attribute it represented.

And this only made Dawn more convinced that he might have developed an incredible skill.

He even suspected that he might have created the ability most suited to this Devil Fruit's nature: Snatch-Snatch Fruit + Aura Fruit = Devour Fruit.

Rather than calling it an aura, Dawn preferred to think of it as the prototype of a domain. The outermost Ouroboros within this aura seemed like the manifestation of the demon inside the fruit. As Dawn continued hunting sea beasts, it slowly changed, to the point where it now felt almost alive.

Shaking his head, although he knew this Devil Fruit was like cheating, everything still came from physical training. Even with "attribute points," he couldn't give up training—only then could he perfectly control himself.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"...

Stomach Baron had begun feeding again.

Feeling the ground tremble, Dawn showed no panic. Instead, he calmly tied himself to a tree.

Then he lay on the tree, yawning, and watched the scene of those panicked "exploding meatballs" roaring and struggling desperately with utter boredom.

But having seen it so many times, Dawn felt nothing inside—he was even a little happy.

After all, once Stomach Baron finished eating, it would attract new sea beasts or Sea Kings to the island to feed.

And Dawn only needed to wait a while until the food corrupted their bodies and weakened them. Then he could pick suitable prey and kill them to "grind experience."

Of course, that was all a few days away.

Right now, what Dawn had to do was take advantage of the time when the island had finished feeding and there was no danger, and continue to the outermost edge of the island to see if there were any items washed ashore or ships passing by.

Even some random debris floating over from the sea would be fine. Who knew when such things might come in handy or bring Dawn some unexpected gains.

For example, last time, Dawn found a small pouch on a drifting corpse, filled to the brim with gold coins.

Although gold coins were useless on this island, Dawn still kept them as starting capital for the future. After all, he couldn't stay on this island forever.

Of course, making a raft or stuffing himself into a barrel to drift away—Dawn swore he would never do that in this life. Not everyone had the protagonist's plot armor like Luffy.

As the gravity on his body gradually weakened, Stomach Baron had already begun to open its petals. But the surrounding silence spoke of the terror brought by the "Stomach Baron."

As usual, Dawn arrived at the island's edge. The sunlight reflecting off the sea surface was almost blinding.

Out of habit, he first checked the situation on the land nearby. As expected, there was nothing.

After that, Dawn climbed a tree in a few quick moves and began scanning the surrounding sea.

But just as he wasn't expecting anything, he suddenly spotted a black dot on the horizon.

Ignoring the glaring sunlight, Dawn stared fixedly at that black dot, facing the sun.

Although the sunlight made it hard to see clearly, as the black dot slowly drew closer, its true form gradually revealed itself in Dawn's eyes—it was a ship.

"It's actually a ship! But what kind of ship? If it's the Navy, that's fine, but what if it's a pirate ship? Reveal my ability, pretend to join, then escape when we get close to an island with a city?

But if it's a pirate ship, the uncertainty is too great, and it's easy to run into danger... still, this is the only chance to leave the island..."

Just as Dawn was still lost in wild thoughts, hypothesizing what he would do if it turned out to be a pirate ship, the vessel had already closed in rapidly.

And at that moment, Dawn also clearly saw a white flag hanging from the approaching ship.

On that flag, a seagull holding a set of scales—the symbol of the Navy, which upholds peace and order in the world—slowly came into Dawn's view.

"Whew, at least it's not a pirate ship. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have known what to do."

Seeing that the approaching vessel was actually the Navy, Dawn couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart.

At least now Dawn didn't have to worry about the other party seeing him and choosing to kill him without any reason.

That was far from impossible, after all, the upper and lower limits of pirate conscience in this world were far too vast.