Daily Life II

"Armament Haki!" The many family officers in the Training Room all exclaimed inwardly.

"Fufufu... Has he gotten even stronger?" Doflamingo watched Gray swing his fists with abandon, lost in thought.

"This brat is putting a lot of pressure on me!" Even Doflamingo hadn't been able to gain much of an advantage when fighting Gray in the air, back before Gray awakened Armament Haki.

Gray's steadily growing strength was putting him under a lot of pressure, too.

Now that Gray had just awakened Armament Haki, he was sure to enter a period of explosive growth.

Doflamingo had already hit a bottleneck, with little room left to improve. He couldn't help feeling that his position as the strongest fighter in the family was in danger.

"His Armament Haki has only just awakened. Once its strength and depth improve, will I still be able to keep him in check?"

As Doflamingo mulled it over, the only thing he could be grateful for was that Gray didn't have Conqueror's Haki.

"No! The North Blue is still too peaceful. Training alone won't do much to improve my strength."

"I have to head to the New World as soon as possible!" There were no suitable opponents in the North Blue, so there was no way for his Armament Haki to grow quickly.

And in this little place called the North Blue, competition was nowhere near as fierce as it was in the New World. That had limited the Donquixote Family's horizons, too.

They had no idea what the world of the strong was really like, or what it took to become strong.

Doflamingo had spent ages pondering the Emission technique Tsuru used last time, but he still couldn't make heads or tails of it.

He was a genius, but his genius lay in his mind. Unlike Luffy and Yamato, he couldn't grasp an enemy's techniques through physical intuition.

Clang!

"Huff." After steadying his ragged breathing, Gray said to Diamante, who stood opposite him, "That's enough sparring for today!"

"Sure!" Diamante's Observation Haki was badly depleted, so he had no choice but to stop, too.

If they kept sparring, he'd have to use his full strength. If the two of them damaged the ship, they'd be in deep trouble out on the open sea.

After they stopped sparring, Gray's frequent use of his spatial abilities and his still-unfamiliar Armament Haki rapidly drained his stamina.

His stamina was almost gone. It was the perfect time for gravity training.

"Gravity Field: Rotation!"

Instantly, ten times the normal gravity enveloped Gray. In this environment, no matter what activity he did, his already meager stamina would drain rapidly.

He ran, lifted weights, and practiced basic punches in the gravity field, quickly exhausting all his stamina.

This was the moment that tested Gray's resolve. He squeezed every last bit of potential from his body, doing his best to keep his ability running even when he no longer had the strength to move.

But every second he held on made him stronger than he'd been the second before. Little by little, he'd become a strong fighter.

Gray had always known that, in his previous life, he'd been an ordinary, lazy person with no real willpower. But the pain of pushing his body to its limits was the best way to train his resolve.

If he hadn't had the will of a strong fighter in his previous life, then the harsh conditions and constant threat to his life in the world of pirates would force him to develop one.

And that willpower would help Gray grow.

Whether it was Haki or anything else.

"Huff... Finally, I've hit my limit!" Lying on the ground, Gray could no longer sustain his ability. He panted heavily, trying to calm the violent rise and fall of his chest.

After resting a little and recovering some stamina, Gray returned to his room, washed up, then sat cross-legged on his yoga mat for his daily meditation training.

Even though he'd developed his ability this far, Gray hadn't given up meditation. It not only relaxed and calmed his mind, but also gave him a chance to plant suggestions in his own mind.

For example, he could tell himself that all the suffering of training was just so he could show off in style later.

After enduring such grueling trials, he could tell himself that he would reach the pinnacle of the world, making his conviction purer.

Whenever he felt unsure of himself, he could plant a suggestion during meditation. The more he repeated it to himself, the more he could fool himself into believing it.

Gray had never imagined he'd have such a dramatic turn of events—eating the pie he'd baked himself and even giving himself a pep talk!

After an hour of meditation, the morning had passed, and it was time to eat.

After lunch, he replenished the energy his body had used up, and his stamina returned to its peak. That meant Gray's afternoon training didn't need to be so intense.

Sitting in his own special chair, Gray began soaking his feet.

Of course, there was a method to this foot soak.

As a Devil Fruit User, Seastone Factor was his greatest weakness in this world.

Since he knew about this weakness, how could Gray not train his resistance?

He put his feet in a basin of seawater, submerging them up to his calves. That was enough to suppress him as much as possible without completely suppressing him.

In this state, his entire body—including his stamina and Devil Fruit abilities—was suppressed by roughly ninety-nine percent. The remaining one percent let Gray keep Magnetic Field Rotation going.

At this point, apart from maintaining his gravity ability, he had no spare stamina for any other activity.

Seastone Factor suppressed a Devil Fruit User by trapping their ability within their body. It didn't seal their ability and make it impossible to use.

And while a Devil Fruit User was being suppressed, their stamina was as good as sealed away, with ninety-nine percent unusable. That was why they became powerless when they came into contact with seawater.

With his feet soaking in the water and weakness coursing through his body, Gray slumped into a complete couch-potato sprawl.

For a moment, a peaceful, pastoral feeling filled his heart.

But Gray knew it was an illusion.

In the world of pirates, without strength to protect you, every beautiful thing was a fleeting dream.

"All this hard work now is so I can enjoy myself even more later!"

"Don't even think about slacking off. Get moving!" Having finished pumping himself up, Gray could only use his mind while his body was unable to move.

He considered how to develop his Devil Fruit, train his Haki, and design new equipment that would be practical and convenient.

Now that he had Armament Haki, he could start thinking about updating and tempering his equipment.

Once Gray's Magnetic Field Rotation had truly advanced, the Sky Crystal Flying Wheel could no longer keep up. Just one fierce battle had been enough to melt and damage it with the heat.

He needed a sturdier weapon.

And this time, Gray would take part in forging it himself.

The heat of Magnetic Field Rotation could melt any known mineral in the world of pirates.

As long as he could melt it, the rest was up to the craftsmen.

The reason the master craftsmen of this world couldn't forge weapons of the Great Grade Sword caliber was, first, that the ore was too hard. The outdated technology on the islands couldn't melt it.

The second reason was that good ore was too hard to find.

Who wouldn't want good ore?

Poor craftsmen couldn't afford to buy good ore to practice with. Add the difficulties of transportation, and professional craftsmen faced even more limitations.

With those two obstacles in the way, even people with the talent to become master craftsmen could only fade into obscurity.

Oden's father had been able to forge a Great Grade Sword because Wano Country had abundant minerals and the convenience of a dormant volcano. On top of that, he was a shogun with money to spare. Those were what gave him the ability to forge Great Grade Swords.

Without those three conditions, just try asking Kozuki Sukiyaki to do it.

Even with the greatest forging legacy in the world, you couldn't make something out of nothing. He'd be stumped, too.