After taking Edward Newgate aboard, the number of crew members on Magnus's ship officially reached four. From now on, Rocks would no longer have to scrub the deck alone every day—Edward Newgate would keep him company.
That's right.
Although they had gained another crew member, Rocks's status as an intern had not changed. Now, not only was he an intern, Edward Newgate was one too.
Two future legends of the seas working as interns?
Magnus smacked his lips.
Life was starting to look more and more promising.
After taking Whitebeard in, the system that had barely made its presence known before displayed several more lines before his eyes.
In February of Sea Circle Calendar 1481, you encountered the future Emperor of the Seas, Whitebeard Edward Newgate. He greatly admired your crew member Rocks#*=&*... and solemnly invited you. "Become my son!" Accept/Reject? Ding~, congratulations on becoming the father of Whitebeard Edward Newgate!?
The characters popping up on the system panel seemed to freeze. After quite a while, they continued appearing as though nothing had happened.
You have achieved an impossible accomplishment. You have awakened the advanced application of Observation Haki: Future Sight, 1s. Confirmed that you have already mastered the advanced application of Observation Haki. Rewards have stacked. You have mastered Observation Haki: Future Sight, 3s.
System rewards could stack too!?
Thinking back to the reward he had received after "defeating" Rocks—the mastery of the Marine Six Powers—his proficiency in all six techniques had long since been maxed out. Even if that system reward stacked, it would not improve him much.
Observation Haki was different.
Although Magnus's Observation Haki had already reached the peak level where he could foresee the future, seeing one second ahead was still Future Sight, and seeing ten seconds ahead was also Future Sight.
Magnus could only see two seconds into the future.
Now that the system reward had stacked, he could see three seconds into the future. It had directly increased the duration of his Observation Haki's Future Sight by half.
What about Armament Haki?
Magnus thought of the favor mission involving Charlotte Linlin, which rewarded the advanced application of Armament Haki. He had not paid much attention to it before, because he already knew the advanced application of Armament Haki.
But if it could further increase the strength of his Armament Haki, then even if he still could not use Conqueror's Haki infusion, the next time he encountered Rona or Harald, winning would definitely be much easier.
At his level, improvements in either Armament Haki or Observation Haki had become extremely difficult. Devil Fruit abilities, physique, swordsmanship, and Haki had all been developed nearly to their limits. Even the slightest improvement could bring about a qualitative leap in his strength.
And the system's rewards were not over yet.
Besides the reward that enhanced his Haki, there was the usual reward that increased cellular activity, as well as a Devil Fruit covered in strange patterns.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit!
This was far more generous than the reward he had received when he first defeated Rocks.
"I was just wondering where I could find a Tremor-Tremor Fruit for that kid. Now this is perfect—the system gave me one directly."
Magnus was in an excellent mood.
Although Whitebeard without the Tremor-Tremor Fruit still possessed top-tier three-color Haki, having it and not having it were obviously two different things.
However, Magnus did not intend to hand the Tremor-Tremor Fruit directly to Edward Newgate. Instead, he planned to train him first, just as he had trained Rocks.
Besides, he had to consider Rocks's feelings to some extent.
Magnus knew what Rocks would achieve in the future.
But Rocks did not!
No matter how much he boasted that Haki had a higher future ceiling than Devil Fruit abilities, the boost in strength that Devil Fruit abilities provided early on was undeniably real.
Magnus drafted a training plan.
From now on, Magnus would regularly teach Ripley, Rocks, and Newgate. After the lessons, he would train Ripley, Ripley would train Rocks, and Rocks would train Newgate.
They would also hold ranking matches from time to time.
The gap between the three might be huge right now, but the further they progressed, the harder it would become to improve. The gap between them would gradually shrink as well.
Ripley and Rocks's goal was to further master Armament Haki and Observation Haki.
Newgate's goal was to learn the Six Powers.
For now, the deadline would be set at one year.
Meanwhile, another piece of news was spreading through Sphinx.
The White Wolf Pirates had robbed the Celestial Gold!
News like this could not be concealed, especially since many workers had been accompanying the cargo ships when Magnus and the others drove off the Marines guarding them.
With so many people involved, how could the news possibly stay hidden?
The only reason word had taken this long to spread was that the World Government and the Marines had exerted pressure, because this was a blow to the prestige of both the World Government and the Celestial Dragons.
But a month had long since passed. No matter how many times the World Government ordered the Marines to find Magnus's White Wolf Pirates as quickly as possible,
the sea was too vast. If they could not find them, they could not find them!
So the news finally reached Sphinx.
"My god, the White Wolf Pirates truly live up to their name. They even dared to rob the Celestial Gold that the Affiliated Nations contributed to the Celestial Dragons!"
"That was Celestial Gold! No wonder the black market has been flooded with treasures you normally never see lately. So they were all stolen from the Celestial Dragons."
"Hahaha, good! They robbed them well! Those damned Celestial Dragons finally got what was coming to them!"
"..."
A group of pirates were all shocked by the White Wolf Pirates' audacity. What the White Wolf Pirates had done was practically a slap in the World Government's face.
If this had happened before, they might have entertained thoughts about that treasure. No matter how strong White Wolf Magnus was, could he stop them if they swarmed him together?
Then the facts proved that he truly could!
The three Great Pirate crews that had once dominated Sphinx had all fallen. Even if these small pirate crews gathered together, they still would not be enough for Magnus to beat with one hand.
A legendary Great Pirate!
In the eyes of some pirates, Magnus already possessed the bearing of those legendary pirates who had once ruled the seas. All he lacked was a battle that would make his name known.
Defeating two or three ordinary Great Pirates proved nothing.
There was only one thing that could prove one's strength—
A Fleet Admiral!
"Ah-choo!"
Jiang Ma, one of the Marines' three Fleet Admirals, lay in a beach chair aboard a warship. Half a month of nonstop exertion had nearly drained him dry. Even the two beautiful female slaves beside him no longer interested him.
"Fleet Admiral Jiang Ma, please restrain yourself. What if we run into the White Wolf Pirates—"
"Don't we still have you?"
Fleet Admiral Seabas Jiang Ma curled his lip and said indifferently, "I know that old man White Wolf Magnus's strength better than anyone. Without resorting to some petty tricks, he was weaker than you. Even if he has improved somewhat, there's no way he can defeat the two of us working together."
"Poor old me. I'm practically retired already, yet I'm still being dragged out to work overtime."
Before you continue