Escort

After clearing away the pirates' corpses, the crew tore down the original flag from the pirate ship and hoisted the emblem of the Donquixote Family.

On this vast sea, aside from pirate treasure and bounties, ships were the most expensive commodity of all.

Need one be reminded that the Going Merry, the first ship of Luffy and his crew in the original story, cost thirty million berries?

Whenever the conditions allowed, a pirate ship was the finest trophy one could claim.

Take the Black Hair Pirates, for instance; their total treasure and the captain's bounty combined only amounted to twenty million berries.

Yet, according to the underlings' market valuation, their pirate ship was worth at least fifty million berries.

The entire Black Hair Pirates crew combined wasn't worth as much as their own ship.

Once the underlings had cleared the corpses from the deck and performed minor repairs on the damage Gray had caused, they tethered the ship to their own and set sail toward the family's weapons factory.

For the next month, Gray followed Gladius, drifting back and forth across the sea.

The arms trade for a single kingdom could not be completed in one or two trips. A single round trip took roughly a week.

After three or four trips, the arms deal for the kingdom assigned to Gray and his two companions was finally concluded.

During this month, aside from escorting the shipments, Gray was responsible for engaging any pirates they encountered.

They say combat is a catalyst for a reason!

Although the fighting wasn't particularly frequent, it allowed Gray to get accustomed to the rhythm of battle and, more importantly, to figure out his own fighting style.

In all likelihood, he would be fighting by controlling flying wheels from now on.

In this world filled with warriors, he could consider himself the only mage.

The reason for this decision was that Gray knew the human body had its limits.

Since he couldn't stop being human, he had to think of other ways.

And the power of a Devil Fruit was the best tool for transcending one's station.

The Spin-Spin Fruit Gray had consumed allowed him to manipulate magnetic fields in battle. If he could truly control hundreds of thousands of units of magnetic force later on, the body of this world would simply be unable to withstand it.

There was no helping it; if he wanted to reach the peak "Big Boss" level of a million units of force, he would have to rely on external weapons.

Gray also believed that he didn't need a million units of magnetic force; with five hundred thousand, he could punch his way through the entire pirate world.

Of course, these were just his thoughts.

He didn't know if the Spin-Spin Fruit's power could support him until he reached that realm.

After all, even fruit powers had their limits.

Take the String-String Fruit, for example!

In the original story, Doflamingo developed it to the point of awakening, and the guys on Blue Star all said it should be developed toward conceptual directions, like timelines and fate lines.

But could it really be developed that far?

These were all things that worried Gray.

However, even though he styled himself a mage and fought like one, if the mage approach didn't work, Gray would also say, "This humble one also knows a thing or two about fisticuffs."

In this world rampant with "blood-tank" physiques, one could choose not to engage in melee, but one could not afford to be incapable of it.

Gray was still thinking about honing his martial arts and learning the Life Return skill!

As long as he had this skill, the rotation of cells could also be considered within the scope of the Spin-Spin Fruit.

In Gray's estimation, only by mastering Life Return would he have the minimum physical requirements, and it was also his best means of preventing his cells from suffering severe damage when he rotated them.

After all, cellular wear and tear was a matter of lifespan.

The way the protagonist Luffy accelerated his blood flow and kept his entire body in a high-temperature mode—the wear on his body's cells was something outsiders couldn't even imagine.

This was a point many had confirmed: Luffy was fighting by burning his lifespan.

Having lived a second life, Gray didn't want to die young. As for things like Pure Gold, once he had the strength, he would turn the Calm Belt upside down to find that Lantern Fish if he had to.

Not worrying about his lifespan, standing at the pinnacle of the world's strength, and bringing his harem along to enjoy the show everywhere in this world—that was Gray's dream, carrying on the traditions of his countrymen from his previous life.

As for liberating the world or whatever, that was too tiring; he would leave that to the protagonist of this world.

"Whew, finally finished!" After receiving the final payment for the goods, the three of them finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Over the past month, the entire ship's worth of family members had grown weary of life drifting on the sea.

"Hang in there a little longer, we're heading back immediately!" Gladius patted Gray on the shoulder. Regarding this junior, he had clearly gauged Gray's strength over the past month.

To be honest, if Gray were to fly into the air to fight him, he would be completely unable to do anything against him.

And Gray's attacks were quite threatening to him. Although he was unwilling to admit it, in his heart, he had already concluded that Gray was a powerhouse equal to himself.

And powerhouses... always earn the friendship of other powerhouses. Not to mention they were from the same family and might one day have to entrust their backs to each other; investing in Gray while he was still weak was a guaranteed win.

"Hai, hai!" Gray just grumbled, though his body remained honest, acting according to their usual routine.

He flew onto the ship, waiting for his underlings to replenish supplies, including essential fresh water and food.

"Field Rotation~ Activate!" The moment he had some free time, Gray engaged his gravity field.

Since they were on a ship and might encounter combat situations at any time, Gray didn't dare exhaust his stamina completely.

Over the past month, he had remained within a triple-gravity space, and he was almost being caught up to by Baby-5.

Although his training had been slightly delayed, Gray believed that by the time he returned to their base, he would quickly adapt to quadruple gravity and then enter a quintuple-gravity state.

After that, it was just a matter of waiting for his body to develop; his young frame simply couldn't support endless, upward-scaling training.

Whenever he thought about this, Gray felt quite troubled, often sighing, "Why don't I have talent like Big Mom's!"

"If I had a Steel Balloon or the bloodline of the Oni Race, I wouldn't be held back by my age."

Though his daydreams were pleasant, reality was harsh.

"Fufufu..."

"Welcome home!"

"Gladius, Baby-5, Gray!"

"Young Master!" ×3

Regardless of whether it was a performance, Doflamingo, accompanied by Trebol and Corazon, had come to welcome the three who had returned from their hard work, successfully winning over their hearts.

As for Gray~ he was a natural rebel who always thought about heading out on his own. It was only because he was weak right now that he needed the protection of the Donquixote Family.

However, Gray had already made up his mind!

He would repay this debt of protection by sparing them from a lifetime of free room and board in Impel Down.

"Let's go! We've been waiting for you!"

"Let's head back and start the banquet!"

"Oh~ I love banquets!"

After disembarking, the group headed straight toward the family's base.

"Have they already surrounded it?" Walking along the road, Gray suddenly noticed that in the deepest part of the island, at the edge of his vision, an endless circle of iron fencing had already enclosed the land of Flevance.

"The World Government's usual nature; they don't treat human lives as anything at all." Thinking of the destroyed God Valley, the hometown of Ace's mother in the South Blue, Ohara in the West Blue, and then thinking of Flevance, which was destined to be completely annihilated, Gray felt...