Forging a Weapon of His Own

In the year 1510 of the Marine Calendar, Kizaru finally left North Blue after nearly five months of pursuing the Donquixote Family.

The Donquixote Family had returned to their base after a long absence.

After resting at the family base for two days, Gray and Shark Chili set out for the family's secret weapons workshop island, accompanied by baby-5, who would be studying there with them. Diamante led the way.

The rare ores Gray had ordered in advance had arrived.

The workshop's craftsmen were ready and waiting for Gray to finalize the blueprints and melt the materials for his weapon.

After sailing for a week, they reached a remote island near the Calm Belt. This was where the Donquixote Family's secret weapons workshop in North Blue was located.

"All right! We'll be staying here for a while." Diamante led the way off the ship, and the group began walking toward the island.

As they followed Diamante, Gray and baby-5 gazed at the workshops scattered across the island in the distance.

"How's the food on this island?" In an unfamiliar place, good food was what mattered most to Gray.

"Don't worry about that," Diamante said. "The craftsmen are important to the family, after all. Their meals aren't much worse than what the officers get."

"More importantly, this place is close to the Calm Belt, so it's much easier to catch Sea Kings."

"I see!" Gray nodded to show he understood, then stopped worrying about the food and asked, "Where are the ores and craftsmen the family prepared for me?"

"I'd like to see them first and discuss the blueprints."

"That's easy. Come with me!"

"Fuffuffuffu... I see. So Admiral Kizaru only left because he had to escort the Heavenly Tribute?" Thanks to his inside sources, Doflamingo had learned the route the Affiliated Nations' Heavenly Tribute would take this time.

But with Kizaru accompanying the escort along the way, Doflamingo had no choice but to lie low.

"Given the family's current situation, if we miss this chance, can we afford to wait for the next one?" Twice now, the Navy, led by Tsuru, had come straight for the Donquixote Family. Doflamingo understood the truth by now: the Navy had their family in its sights.

"We got away once or twice, but can we keep escaping the Navy's pursuit after the third or fourth time?" For the family's future, Doflamingo had to prepare for the worst.

If they couldn't become Shichibukai, then even if their businesses suffered and the family fell into decline, they would have to get to the New World as soon as possible to save their own lives.

"Fuffuffuffu... The Donquixote Family absolutely cannot fall here!"

"What's a little risk if it means we can keep moving forward?" Doflamingo decided to carry out the plan to hide in plain sight.

There were many Affiliated Nations in North Blue. Because of the distances involved, each country's Heavenly Tribute ship followed a different route and traveled at a different speed.

More importantly, not every country was wealthy. Most squeezed their people to the very limit, scraping together the Heavenly Tribute bit by bit.

That meant the ships carrying the Heavenly Tribute also set out at different times.

Kizaru had returned to headquarters. The ships he escorted were only the first group, carrying the Heavenly Tribute gathered by most of the Affiliated Nations.

The small remainder didn't need an Admiral to escort it, nor did it need CP0. Agents from CP1 through CP9 could handle the task.

And that was Doflamingo's target.

Even though only a small number of Affiliated Nations were involved, the Heavenly Tribute was still worth a fortune. Just from a rough estimate, Doflamingo figured it was worth no less than thirty billion Beli.

If he intercepted this shipment, he was confident that, with the information he already possessed, he could threaten the Five Elders and force them to give him a place among the Shichibukai.

"Looks like I'll have to use Vergo!" Vergo had spent over a year building up his career. With his overwhelming strength in North Blue, he had quickly risen through the ranks by capturing pirates, reaching the level of a branch lieutenant commander.

At their base, Doflamingo had secretly bribed the base commander. With that and Vergo's abilities, his career in the Navy had been smooth sailing.

With a Navy base commander feeding him information and the Donquixote Family's intelligence network, which had been cultivated in North Blue for years, Doflamingo was confident he could find the last group of ships carrying the Heavenly Tribute.

Buru buru!

After using a secret line to contact his people and having them tell Vergo to get in touch with him, Doflamingo began preparing to rob the transport ships.

They were going to steal from the World Government. It was an act of openly provoking the Celestial Dragons, and Doflamingo knew enough about their power to understand that he couldn't be too cautious.

"Wonderful!"

Watching Gray melt the ores with ease, the family's craftsmen cried out in amazement.

"The ores are melted. I'll leave the rest to you, masters!"

"No problem. Leave it to us!"

"Now that we've seen what you can do, we're confident we can forge a weapon that'll let you attack as recklessly as you like."

"That's right!" The others joined in.

In this world, most craftsmen dreamed of forging weapons like Skillful Grade Swords or Great Grade Swords, then making their names by giving those weapons to famous users.

That would fill them with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. And if people learned who had forged the weapon, their skills as craftsmen would be recognized. That was why they loved their craft so much.

When it came down to it, the ambitions of people in this world were all about four things: fame, power, authority, and beautiful women!

"I hope they can make a weapon I'm happy with this time. It doesn't have to be anything special. I just want it to be as durable as a Skillful Grade Sword." Watching the craftsmen at work, Gray looked forward to seeing the finished weapon.

This time, he'd abandoned his earlier idea of using ores with cold attributes. Instead, he was using ore that had been baked in a volcano over countless years.

He'd also added Adamant, a mineral as hard as Seastone.

Volcanic rock, Adamant, and a little Seastone—a combination of three exceedingly rare materials from around the world. He was determined to make a weapon he could use for the rest of his life.

With Gray's help, melting the ores was the easiest part. The real challenge was perfectly combining all three materials to create an effect greater than the sum of their parts.

That was where the craftsmen's skill would truly be tested!

A month had passed since Gray arrived.

They had spent all that time running simulated tests, all in preparation for this final step.

After all, the three types of ore alone had cost one hundred million Beli.

If the forging failed, the money would be a small concern. Gathering the ores again would take a long time.

That was the last thing Gray wanted!

The sooner the weapon was forged, the sooner he could temper it with Armament Haki and help it reach the Black Blade stage, putting it on par with a Supreme Grade Sword.