The Wind of Faith Goes Where the Wind Blows

Kael's plan was simple in some ways, yet rather complicated in others.

His intention was to use the connection between the believers and Nami to establish a church in the East Blue, one primarily dedicated to protecting ordinary civilians.

The church's purpose was not to preach truth, goodness, and beauty.

Instead, it would guide its followers into purchasing "power" from the church!

Based on the depth of their faith, he had tentatively divided believers into five ranks...

Casual believers, shallow believers, true believers, devout believers, and fanatics.

Casual believers were those who only knew the god's name but did not believe they needed divine assistance.

Shallow believers had a little faith, but cared more about what they could gain from it.

As for true believers and devout believers, they had deeper faith than shallow believers and less desire for rewards.

Fanatics, meanwhile, were believers willing to do anything for their faith, to the point of madness.

Believers of different ranks would need to pay the church a certain annual "protection fee," commonly known as membership dues.

The higher their rank, the more money they would need to pay.

In return, they would be able to borrow more power from Nami, borrow it more often, and retain that power for longer.

Of course.

The power bestowed was not without limits.

Depending on a believer's faith in Nami, there would be a certain loss of faith power during the transfer.

At its highest, the loss ratio was ten to one. At its lowest, it approached one to one, but would never truly reach it.

After power was bestowed, Nami's strength would also decline, leaving her unable to fight at full power.

How to balance granting power to believers against collecting Beli from them would be the greatest problem Nami and the others faced next.

Because the issue was too difficult...

Kael decided to leave the matter entirely to Nami and Nojiko.

He believed that, with Nami and Nojiko's intelligence, they could handle it properly.

"Then I'll leave everything to you two!"

"Please rest assured, Captain Kael."

A gust of wind swept past as Nami and Nojiko waved goodbye to Kael.

For the next period of time, Nami would temporarily leave the Tiga and accompany Nojiko to every village that had suffered under Arlong, performing miracles and harvesting faith.

The Tiga, meanwhile, would not waste time here.

Kael and the others would continue onward toward the G-16 Branch.

Although this might prevent Nami from gaining experience points for quite some time...

Compared to the profits the church would bring after its establishment, such a small sacrifice was worth it!

Kael also intended to arrest Colonel Nezumi before the G-16 Branch learned that the Arlong Pirates had been destroyed.

That way, he could obtain even more useful evidence from Nezumi.

After all...

The G-16 Branch was a double-digit Marine branch!

Its reserves of weapons and ammunition were far beyond anything the G-153 Branch, where Morgan had been stationed, could compare with.

Once they finished looting that place, they could head to various small towns and villages to sell weapons again.

The identity of an "arms dealer" was extremely useful, and Kael had no plans to discard that disguise anytime soon.

In fact...

After the Witch Cult was established, he even wanted to sell weapons through the church's channels to everyone in the East Blue who needed them.

With Nami's faith power serving as a means of screening, they could easily tell who truly needed weapons and who intended to use them for evil.

In this chaotic world of pirates,

weapons were always in short supply.

Pirates needed weapons to sail the seas, nations needed weapons for war, and civilians needed weapons even more for self-defense...

Recently, Kael had even been considering whether he should seize a few weapons factories.

With Krieg's complete surrender, he now had the locations of quite a few underground factories in the East Blue under his control.

Even pirates understood that one should not drain a pond dry to catch all its fish.

Almost no pirates wanted to provoke private factories willing to provide them with weapons.

Of course.

The greater reason was that powerful forces often stood behind those factories.

For instance, Kael knew of a large firearms and ammunition factory...

According to Krieg, a certain underworld king seemed to be backing that factory!

And that underworld king's codename was [Joker]!

"Joker? The clown... Doflamingo?"

"I didn't expect his business to have already reached the East Blue."

"It seems the Marines and the World Government's control over the Four Blues isn't nearly as strong as they imagine..."

At the bow of the Tiga.

Under Tiga's control, gentle breezes brushed against Kael's face, bringing a pleasant sensation of wind.

He looked up at the distant sky and murmured to himself.

"Now isn't the time to come into contact with those big shots."

"To truly powerful people, the Dusk Pirates are still far too weak!"

Knowing the full scope of the pirate world, he would not mistake his dominance in the East Blue for being someone important.

As for the monsters of the New World, there was no need to say more. Even a random officer under one of the Four Emperors could easily wipe out the Dusk Pirates as they were now.

"So this is what it means when they say the revolution has not yet succeeded?"

A glint flickered in Kael's eyes as he subconsciously glanced toward the cabin.

The Tiga had now returned to its former quiet days.

Coby was cleaning the cabin.

Tashigi was still training diligently in the training room.

Kael might have flipped some strange switch inside Tashigi.

Ever since she had obtained her character template and shed the innate disadvantage women faced in combat talent, she had become like a madwoman, constantly training in the training room.

And that was exactly what Kael wanted to see!

However...

"The level 2 training room seems unable to keep up with Tashigi's training anymore," Kael murmured.

With a thought, he abruptly opened the dock interface in the system.

[Tiga]

[Level: 2]

[Experience: 0/300]

[Facilities: 5/6]

[Available Facilities: Captain's Quarters (1), Training Room (2), Crew Quarters A (2), Crew Quarters B (2), Chart Room (1)]

Looking at the Tiga's detailed information on the interface, Kael fell into thought.

"I currently have 500 million Beli. If I use it on gacha pulls, I might get some decent character cards or items."

"However..."

With another thought, Kael opened Tashigi's status interface again.

[Companion: Tashigi (Rukia Kuchiki)]

[Potential: A]

[Level: 40]

[Experience: 50/5000]

[Combat Power: 32800]

[Total Potential: 400]

While Kael, Nami, and Nojiko, the two beautiful girls, had been plotting tomorrow's affairs in the captain's quarters...

Tashigi, who had nothing else to do, had not wasted her time. She returned to the training room and continued completing today's training tasks.

Hard work paid off!

Just moments ago, she had successfully risen from level 39 to level 40.

Her strength had also completely stabilized above the level of a hundred-million-Beli pirate.

Even at Marine Headquarters, ordinary Marine vice admirals would not be her match!

However, her status panel made one thing clear...

At her current level, Tashigi needed at least five days to gain a single level.

And as her level increased, her leveling speed would only become slower and slower.

Although Kael knew that trying to make Tashigi as powerful as a Shichibukai or one of the Four Emperors in a single leap was unrealistic.

The sooner the training room was upgraded, the greater the benefits would be!

A thought flashed through Kael's mind, and he immediately made his decision.

He suddenly shouted toward the lookout tower:

"Tiga, bring Tashigi and Coby to the deck..."

"Next, I'm giving you your third full-scale overhaul!"