Spell Power and Armor

Yang Yunzhi walked slowly along the edge of the training ground, his military boots crunching softly over the gravel. The night breeze carried away the lingering heat from the banquet, while the Spirit Wind Pendant at his neck sent threads of coolness through him, leaving his mind exceptionally clear.

He had just tested the new changes brought by Intermediate Martial Arts—a full set of Eight Trigrams Palm's "Wandering Body Chain." When he finished and drew back his stance, the furrows his toes had carved into the sand were three inches deeper than expected.

It was not that his strength had increased, but that the way he exerted force had become more cunning, allowing his power to penetrate deeper.

"Looks like I need to recalibrate my control..." he thought, then summoned his personal status panel.

It was normally hidden and would only appear when he called for it or when his data changed.

[Dao Power: 640]

[Portable Space: 64m³]

[Map Radius: 6400m]

[Justice Value: 2099/6400]

[Spell Power: 64.5]

[Armor: 64.5]

Yang Yunzhi stopped walking.

Spell Power? Armor?

He stared at those two identical numbers for three seconds, and it felt as though someone had struck his brain with a hammer—Hell's Curse!

The passive skill he had gained from his first draw could collect the souls of nearby enemies who died, with each soul providing 0.75 Spell Power and Armor.

Such a powerful passive, and I almost forgot about it!

The Blood Knife Pirates had eighty-six people. Sixty-four point five matched perfectly.

"So this thing can really be stacked..." he muttered, then frowned. "But what's it for?"

Spell Power obviously enhanced spells, but I don't know any spells!

Could it enhance Devil Fruit abilities?

He activated the Door-Door Fruit and raised a hand, slicing open a Spark Portal in front of himself. Golden arcs crackled through the night. The portal's size, stability, activation speed... none of it seemed any different from before.

Maybe there was a difference, but I couldn't feel it.

He tried his Byakugan again. The limit of his vision was still around a sixty-four-kilometer radius. Was it a little farther? He did not know, because he had no tools to measure it.

"So Spell Power doesn't boost Devil Fruit abilities, and it doesn't boost Bloodline Limits either?" Yang Yunzhi scratched his head. "Then what does it boost? I can't even cast a fireball..."

Irritated, he kicked a pebble away.

That was the most annoying thing about the system—it never gave instructions for anything. He had to figure everything out himself.

Just like when he had drawn Zephyr last time. He had only discovered after wearing it for half an hour that its "Tenacity" effect could also increase alcohol resistance.

"Little Bean," he said directly, "scan my entire body and see if there are any abnormal readings."

"Scanning..." the AI's voice sounded in his mind. After a two-second pause, it said, "Host, abnormal parameters detected."

"Talk."

"The actual effective radius of your portable map is not the 6,400 meters indicated by the system, but 6,441.28 meters. The discrepancy exceeds normal measurement fluctuations."

Yang Yunzhi's eyelid twitched. "An extra 41.28 meters? What's the ratio?"

"Exact value: an increase of 6.45‰, approximately six point five per thousand." Little Bean's voice carried the excitement of a researcher discovering a new continent. "The Portable Space has also been detected to have an actual volume of 64.41 cubic meters, likewise increased by six point five per thousand. Dao Power readings are subject to interference, but extrapolating from the kinetic energy of your punch just now, the actual value should be between 643 and 645. The enhancement trend is consistent."

The air fell silent for a moment.

Yang Yunzhi slowly raised his head. The stars in the night sky were sparse, but his eyes shone frighteningly bright.

"So Spell Power is a coefficient-based boost... every ten points increase things by one per thousand?" He calculated quickly. "Sixty-four point five Spell Power means an increase of six point four five per thousand. Rounded off, that's six point five per thousand. It checks out."

He paced back and forth, gravel crunching beneath his feet. "It can only enhance system-related abilities? No... Little Bean, check my basal metabolic rate, neural transmission speed, cellular activity, and compare them with data from two hours ago."

"Historical data retrieved. Basal metabolic rate increased by 0.64%, neural transmission speed increased by 0.65%, and muscle cell ATP synthesis efficiency increased by 0.66%... all physiological indicators have been enhanced by approximately six point five per thousand."

Yang Yunzhi stopped and let out a long breath.

White mist scattered into the night breeze.

He understood.

Spell Power—this game-derived concept had been modified by the system into an "all-attribute enhancement coefficient" in this world.

It did not merely increase magical damage. It increased all of his innate abilities by a percentage.

The Dao Power, space, and map granted by the system, as well as his own metabolism, reactions, and recovery speed—all of them received the boost.

"Then what about Armor?" He looked at the other identical number on the panel.

This time, there was no need for Little Bean to check.

Yang Yunzhi drew the standard-issue short sword he carried—not Quick Blade Yunliu, just an ordinary steel blade issued by the Marines.

He rolled up the sleeve on his left arm, hesitated for a moment, then lightly cut across his arm.

The instant the blade touched his skin, he felt resistance.

It was not the hardened sensation of Iron Body. It felt more like an invisible, elastic membrane covered the surface of his skin.

The blade pressed down, denting his skin, but it was much harder to cut through than he had expected.

In the end, it left only a faint white mark without even breaking the outer layer of skin.

"Defense coefficient increased..." Yang Yunzhi sheathed the blade, his eyes shining even brighter. "Also six point five per thousand."

He suddenly laughed, the sound somewhat abrupt in the empty training ground.

"So that's how it is," he said softly. "This is the proper way to use Hell's Curse."

Kill enemies, collect souls, and accumulate Spell Power and Armor. Spell Power enhanced everything—physical ability, system abilities, perhaps even the growth rate of Devil Fruits and Haki. Armor provided permanent damage reduction, and if it stacked high enough...

He recalled those famous scenes from the manga.

Garp had been cut bloody by Morgan's axe—this showed that even a Marine Hero's physical defense was merely decent when he did not use Armament Haki or Iron Body. It was not as absurd as people imagined. If caught off guard, he might even be chopped to death.

And my defense is permanent!

"If I had ten thousand Spell Power and Armor..." Yang Yunzhi did the math.

Ten thousand points would mean a 100% increase, or a doubling. Dao Power would directly become 1,280, Portable Space would become 128 cubic meters, and the map radius would reach 12.8 kilometers.

All bodily functions would double—what kind of concept was that? With the same training time, his growth rate would be twice that of others. With the same injuries, his recovery speed would be twice as fast.

Ten thousand Armor meant 100% damage reduction? No, it probably would not mean complete immunity. It should be a percentage-based reduction in damage.

But even if the actual reduction were only 50%, it would already be absurdly overpowered.

It meant attacks from opponents of the same level would have half their normal effect on him.

"And is ten thousand points really that difficult?" he asked himself.

Kill pirates, and each soul gave 0.75.

Ten thousand points required more than thirteen thousand souls.

He would need to kill one hundred and fifty pirate crews the size of the Blood Knife Pirates—at a pace of one crew eradicated per month, it would take over a decade.

Too slow.

And then Uchiha Yuan suddenly thought of something: in the game, every minion death spawned one to three souls. Why did those pirates only drop one each?

"Because... I didn't collect them all? Or can every dead person only drop one soul?"

An image flashed through his mind—the pirates whose throats had been silently slit during the night raid, their corpses collapsing into pools of blood. What about their souls? At the time, he had been on the command ship, several nautical miles from the battlefield.

Hell's Curse was described as affecting "every living being you kill." If "kill" meant directly or indirectly causing a death, then killing enemies through tactical command should count as well.

But what about soul drops? Did he need to be within a certain range to absorb them?

"I need to test it." He memorized the question.

Later, he would go near the battlefield and see whether he could obtain more souls.

But what mattered more right now was this—if killing enemies was too inefficient, was there another way?

Hospitals.

The instant that word popped into his mind, Yang Yunzhi himself froze.

When he had played games in his previous life, some guides for farming passive stacks suggested "going to low-level dungeons to farm weak mobs."

But reality was not a game. He could not massacre civilians just to stack attributes. Hospitals, however, were different—people died naturally there every day.

The medical standards of the One Piece World... put nicely, it was a blend of Chinese and Western medicine with some mysticism thrown in. Put bluntly, it was all up to fate.

There were miracle doctors like Dr. Kureha on the Grand Line, but in most towns across the Four Seas, there was only so much doctors could do.

Infections, traumatic complications, difficult illnesses—the mortality rate was definitely not low.

What if he built a hospital and centralized the treatment of severely ill patients in the region?

No, not just one hospital.

He could build a chain of hospitals and establish a tiered medical system.

Common illnesses could be handled by town clinics, while severe cases would be transferred to central hospitals.

And he would only need to remain stationed at the central hospital...

He could even spread hospitals throughout the Four Seas, then build a Four Seas-level critical care hospital and use portals to gather seriously ill patients from all over into one hospital.

"Every time a patient dies, I can automatically absorb a soul," Yang Yunzhi muttered. "I don't need to do it myself, and I don't even need to be present—as long as the hospital belongs to my sphere of influence, the system should judge it as 'a death occurring within my territory.'"

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

And there were extra benefits: improving the health of the people in his jurisdiction would increase public support, hospitals themselves could train medical personnel, and they could serve as cover for an intelligence network—valuable information was often hidden in the casual conversations of patients and their families.

"But I have to watch the moral line." He reminded himself, "I can't deliberately let people die just to collect souls. Treat them normally, and leave life and death to fate. Besides..."

He suddenly smiled.

"I can invest in medical technology. Bring over modern medical knowledge from Earth—sterile procedures, antibiotics, standardized surgical practices. The mortality rate would actually drop, but with a large enough population base, the absolute number of deaths would still be considerable."

"And if the mortality rate drops, the total population will grow. Once the population gets high enough, the total number of deaths will also increase!"

"And if West Blue's medical standards become famous enough for the entire world to know about them, severely ill patients from other seas will gather here too. With hospitals in one sea, I can gather seriously ill patients from all over the world!"

This was an open strategy.

I'm building hospitals to save people. If I can't save them, I did my best. The souls naturally acquired in the process are merely... byproducts.

"Add the chain hospital plan to the priority list," he noted to himself.

"Host." Little Bean's voice sounded, carrying a trace of confusion. "Your adrenaline level has risen by 23%, your heart rate has accelerated, and your pupils have slightly dilated—did you think of something exciting?"

Yang Yunzhi coughed. "Of course. I was thinking about how to serve the people better."

He walked back toward the barracks.

The windows were already dark. The soldiers had been tired all day and should have been asleep by now. Only Hina's office was still lit—she was probably dealing with commendation lists and filing battle reports.

When he reached the door to his room, Yang Yunzhi looked at the status panel again.

[Spell Power: 64.5]

[Armor: 64.5]

Two unremarkable numbers rested at the very bottom of the panel.

But he knew that aside from promotion rewards, this might be the system's most promising path for growth.

Spell Power and Armor had no upper limit. They could be stacked infinitely.

And as long as he found an efficient method of collection...

"Ten thousand points doubles it. A hundred thousand points would make it ten times stronger." He pushed open his door, a subtle curve appearing on his lips. "What if I accumulate a million points?"

Wouldn't I be able to permanently maintain Iron Balloon too?

The room was simple: a bed, a table, and a chair.

Moonlight slanted in through the window, cutting a square patch of light across the floor.

Yang Yunzhi took off his coat. The Spirit Wind Pendant slipped from his collar, giving off a gentle green glow in the moonlight. He held the pendant in his palm, feeling the cool current flow beneath his skin.

Attack speed, movement speed, cooldown reduction, Tenacity—everything Zephyr provided was a "coefficient enhancement."

It worked on the same principle as the boosts from Spell Power and Armor: multiplication. The later it went, the more terrifying it became.

"So my growth curve is exponential." He lay on the bed with his hands behind his head. "In the early stages, I rely on system promotions for base attributes. In the middle stages, I stack coefficients through Hell's Curse. In the late stages..."

He closed his eyes.

An image appeared in his mind: Marine Headquarters several years later. He wore a star-adorned cape and stood on the review platform. Below him were soldiers stretching like mountains and seas, guns standing like forests and cannon muzzles gleaming like stars. And he himself would not need to act at all. He would only need to stand there—because his Spell Power and Armor would have stacked so high that even taking Conqueror's Haki Infusion head-on with his flesh would feel like a breeze brushing past him.

Of course, that was a little exaggerated.

But the direction was right.

Outside the window came the footsteps of patrolling soldiers, steady and rhythmic. The distant tide could faintly be heard, like the calm pulse of this world.

Yang Yunzhi turned over, and sleepiness gradually overcame him.

His final thought before falling asleep was, "Tomorrow, I need to contact Bezos. For the sake of building hospitals, Ghost Mulberry Island has one more reason it must be taken!"

Moonlight slowly moved past the window lattice, illuminating an unfolded sea chart on the table—a map of all West Blue.

Ghost Mulberry Island had been circled in red ink, with a line of small words written beside it: "Fallen Leaf Plan · Phase One."

And across the wider waters of West Blue, there were still many blank places waiting to be filled with new colors.