Bang!
A dull boom rang out.
At the very bottom of Elbaf's underworld, a snow-white direwolf stood to one side. Before it stood a giant as tall as a mountain.
"Enough, enough."
Seeing the giant about to attack again, the direwolf waved a paw. Its snowy fur gradually receded, and its body shrank from nearly three meters to around two meters tall.
"I always feel like I'm the one getting the short end of the stick in sparring like this."
Magnus smacked his lips. Fighting a "young" giant like Harald did little to train an old man like him.
After all, their battles always stopped short of a decisive outcome. There was no winner or loser.
That naturally meant the younger side had more room to improve.
"This mission probably won't be completed anytime soon."
Magnus looked at the system panel.
Sea Circle Calendar, June 30, 1480. After a voyage lasting two full months, you had finally arrived at the giants' homeland, Elbaf, the Land of Giants. Mission One: Defeat a Giant race warrior. The Giant race warriors of Elbaf were renowned across the world. A certain emperor had once said that if she formed an alliance with the Giant race, she could become the ruler of the seas. Mission Reward: Giant race combat technique—Hero's Spear! (Completed) Mission Two: Recruit crew members. As the captain of a pirate crew, how could you lack loyal crew members? Mission Reward: For every crew member recruited, cell activity would increase slightly. (Current crew members: 2) Mission Three: Defeat Giant King Harald! Unbelievable! The king of Elbaf was actually willing to engage you in a fair one-on-one duel. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Mission Reward: Conqueror's Haki intensity increased, cell activity increased. (Incomplete)
That was why Magnus had kept challenging Harald to duels over the past half year.
Conqueror's Haki was a talent possessed by only a small number of people. For it to grow, one had to fight others who also possessed Conqueror's Haki.
Sparring was not enough. It had to be a fight to the death.
The confidence forged through battle after battle would become nourishment for the growth of Conqueror's Haki.
Magnus and Harald had sparred countless times, and their Conqueror's Haki had clashed on more than one occasion. But until the day they truly intended to determine a victor arrived, their sparring would not significantly strengthen their Conqueror's Haki.
Deceiving an enemy was easy.
The hard part was deceiving yourself.
"Kururururu, Magnus, I'm heading back. The Winter Solstice Festival is almost here. If I don't return soon, Mary will scold me again."
At the mention of his wife, a trace of tenderness appeared on the face of the fierce-looking giant.
"Get lost already!"
Magnus waved him off with a look of disgust. After living so many years, what he hated most was people flaunting their affection in front of him.
It was not as if Magnus had never met women he liked over the years, but as a pirate, he knew he could not stay in one place for long.
Unless he brought them aboard his ship.
Otherwise, every meeting might be their last farewell.
Deep down, Magnus was still a traditional man. He could not bring himself to sleep with someone and then turn coldly away.
Of course, mutual consent was a different matter.
"The Winter Solstice Festival, huh~"
In Elbaf, the Winter Solstice Festival was a festival of the sun, death, and rebirth.
Before the Winter Solstice Festival, the people living in Elbaf had to fast for twelve days. They could not eat anything and could only drink water.
Magnus remembered that the last time they had come to Elbaf, they had left before the Winter Solstice Festival arrived, so they had not experienced the giants' festival.
This time, however, Magnus would be staying in Elbaf for quite a while, so he would definitely experience several Winter Solstice Festivals.
Half a year passed.
Magnus's appearance and demeanor had undergone earth-shaking changes.
He could not exactly be called young.
But compared to half a year ago, Magnus had more or less recovered to the state he had been in at around sixty years old.
At sixty, Magnus could fight Giant King Harald for a full day and night before ending in a draw.
And Magnus, who had mastered Conqueror's Haki, would only be stronger than he had been ten years ago.
However, while Magnus had merely recovered his former condition, Harald had genuinely grown stronger.
After all, the one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old Harald was in the prime of his life. If he could draw with Magnus ten years ago, he could not possibly have made no progress at all during those ten years.
Magnus even suspected that Harald had already touched that threshold.
The realm that would later be said to be attainable only by Fleet Admirals, the Four Emperors, and the vice-captains of certain pirate crews.
In truth.
This fierce-looking giant king did not actually enjoy fighting all that much.
If Harald had truly devoted himself to training.
Perhaps he would have already stepped across that threshold.
Following close behind Harald.
Magnus headed toward the village.
"Go, Hajrudin!"
"Go, Rocks!"
"Take him down!"
"..."
Before the Orphanage of Lambs, Hajrudin and Rocks were sparring as usual.
But compared to half a year ago, Rocks had grown much stronger. He had once needed to rely on speed to narrowly defeat Hajrudin, but now, even in a head-on contest of strength, Rocks did not fall behind in the slightest.
"If this keeps up, won't Rocks really surpass me?"
While fighting two adult giants at once, Ripley glanced toward Rocks and felt an intense sense of crisis.
"Hey, Ripley, don't get distracted in a fight!"
"That's right, don't underestimate us!"
The fat and thin giants reminded Magnus of a pair of stout and lean monks. As former crew members of the Giant Soldier Pirates, they were quite formidable.
Even with Magnus giving her special instruction, it would still be difficult for Ripley to defeat these two veteran giants anytime soon.
In the village, quite a few giant women were kneading dough.
Because of the fasting for the Winter Solstice Festival, the giants would make large quantities of high-calorie sweets beforehand.
Everything was no different from usual.
But Magnus knew that for everyone else, the Winter Solstice Festival meant nothing more than going hungry for a while and gritting their teeth until it passed. For Charlotte Linlin, however, it was an insurmountable ordeal.
Gluttony Disorder!
It was an illness Charlotte Linlin had suffered from since birth. Whenever she went without food for too long, she would lose consciousness and begin to rampage.
It was precisely because of this illness that Charlotte Linlin's parents had no choice but to abandon her.
But since it was an illness, it had to be treated.
Over the past half year, Magnus had not been idle. He had written to doctors he knew from the past, asking them how Gluttony Disorder could be treated.
In the end, they all reached the same conclusion.
Willpower.
Only by using willpower to control the body could one break free from the effects of Gluttony Disorder.
Before you continue