Minimum Fruit Development

Gray chatted with Jora while eating breakfast, using the conversation to probe for harmless bits of information about the family members.

It was through Jora's chatter that Gray finally clarified the current timeline.

Marine Calendar year 1506.

Is this the year the Lead Amber Disease breaks out? Once he knew the situation, Gray didn't dwell on it further.

As a member of the Donquixote Family, the crisis of the Lead Amber Disease and Flevance could not harm him.

And knowing that was enough!

After finishing his meal and washing his bowl and chopsticks, Gray returned to the small courtyard and began developing his fruit powers once again.

This time, however, Gray did not try to sense his own force field. Instead, he picked up a stone, held it in his palm, and used his fruit ability to make it spin.

The Spin-Spin Fruit could only make objects spin; it lacked the ability to control the flight of the objects it set in motion. This was the biggest reason why Buffalo couldn't develop any other uses for it in the original story.

Another reason was that he was illiterate. In the Donquixote Family, only strength mattered, not education.

If he had a bit more knowledge, Buffalo would have understood the principles of a chainsaw. If he had forged a specialized chainsaw blade and used it to practice swordsmanship and Haki, it wouldn't have been impossible for him to contend with Diamante.

Unfortunately, none of that was meant for him!

Being able to read words and understand the newspaper was the highest level of education most people in this world ever achieved.

As a person from Blue Star in his past life, although he wasn't a genius, he had gone through the standard nine-year compulsory education that everyone else had.

Having transmigrated to this world without any strength to rely on, Gray felt very insecure. Therefore, before he could rotate his own force field, he wanted to develop a means of offense as quickly as possible.

His line of thought lay with the stone in his hand.

"If this stone were an iron shuriken like the one next door, thrown with arm strength, and then accelerated by the Spin-Spin Fruit to give it faster and sharper cutting power, would that be my greatest offensive means for now?"

Thinking of this, Gray searched the ground for flat stones suitable for skipping across water to test the feasibility of his idea.

He tossed the flat stone in his hand, aiming at a crack in the courtyard wall ahead. He stepped back until there was a distance of twenty meters between them.

He swung his arm hard, and his fruit ability activated instantly.

"Whoosh—thud!"

"Too slow!" The ability only activated after the stone had flown two meters, and there was a momentary pause that wasted much of the momentum from his throw.

"I should use the spinning force like skipping a stone, not just throw it straight."

"If I fly it with rotational force and activate the ability in the direction of the spin, not only will I not waste the flight momentum, but I can also strengthen the final attack power!" He acted on his thought, adjusted his technique, and began the test again.

Whoosh... thud!

"Too slow, again!"

He wasn't familiar with the fruit ability—that was the conclusion Gray reached immediately.

Whoosh—thud!

"Too slow, and my aim is off!"

"Again!"

Thud!

"The fruit ability activated too late!"

"Again..."

Over and over, Gray didn't stop until his right arm was sore and his stamina was exhausted.

"Huff... huff... not enough stamina, body strength isn't up to par. There are just too many things that need strengthening!" He plopped down on the threshold, rubbing his sore right-arm muscles with his left hand.

After eating the Devil Fruit yesterday, Gray had already discovered that his physical strength was slowly increasing.

This growth rate was much faster than what he got from working out. Gray guessed that even if Paramecia-type fruits didn't provide immediate physical enhancement like Zoan-types, they still provided some strengthening to help the host activate their abilities.

But even with that, just three hours of training combined with the consumption from activating the fruit had already exhausted his stamina and left his arm aching.

"The good thing is that through training, this small development of my ability has finally given me some means of attack." Although it wasn't very accurate, Gray was still quite pleased. At the very least, he now possessed offensive power.

The rest was just a matter of practicing more!

This also proved that his line of thought was correct!

"If I replace these with shurikens, the effect will definitely be even better!" While rubbing his sore arm, Gray began to consider asking the family to forge him a weapon.

"Sigh! Throwing darts and such are just minor tricks. If my development goes well, I should be able to upgrade my weapons soon!" In Gray's plan for developing his offensive means, the shuriken was only version 0.5.

The final 1.0 version would have to wait until his ability development improved and his body became stronger.

After resting for a while and regaining some stamina, Gray walked toward the nearby family compound.

"Since I've finished my active training, I'll use my rest time to practice meditation!" He had spent a long time last night trying to sense his own gravitational field, but no matter what he did, it didn't work. Gray guessed that his ability to calm his mind was lacking.

Therefore, Gray planned to find Diamante. As a swordsman, he would certainly know the techniques and key points of meditation.

Arriving next door, Gray headed toward the training ground. Generally, when there was nothing to do, the family executives were usually training in the training rooms.

The training ground at this compound was just a plot of land created by tearing down the buildings behind the small courtyard, leaving a wide, open space.

Aside from the training equipment purchased with money, the rest was just raw, primitive earth.

"Gray, what are you doing here?" Doflamingo had seen the rhythmic clashing of stones clearly through his Observation Haki while Gray was training.

Gray replied, "I came to find Diamante. I want him to teach me about meditation training!"

Hearing this, Diamante stopped swinging his sword. As the instructor for the family's new blood, he would naturally resolve any issues the recruits had as soon as they asked.

Therefore, he did not hesitate to agree to Gray's request: "That's no problem at all!"

"What, are you looking to practice swordsmanship?"

Gray thought for a moment and nodded: "That works too. Having a foundation in swordsmanship is good!"

"However, what I need most right now is meditation."

"Alright then, let's head to your courtyard! Beginners in meditation require a quiet environment."

As he spoke, Diamante took the lead and walked toward the courtyard.

While walking, Diamante explained to Gray: "So-called meditation is..."

The explanation along the way gave Gray a basic concept of meditation.

Then, under Diamante's guidance, he began his first attempt at meditation.

Meditation—it wasn't complicated, but it wasn't simple either!

It was the same principle as anything else: it's difficult for those who don't know how, but easy for those who do.

Meditation: simply imagine an object in your mind—naturally, it is best if it is something you are most familiar with.

Then, in the silence, keep imagining and outlining this object in your mind, and just make sure not to get distracted.

As long as you can remain completely undistracted for half an hour, you are considered to have mastered the basics of meditation.