To Become Stronger

"Hey, what was he going to do?" Jelly, who had been watching the excitement from the rooftop, stood up, though he had to secure himself with vines.

The ground shook more and more violently. The earth kept splitting apart, cracks spreading without end. Before long, the entire town resembled a spiderweb, with Rogge at its center as fissures radiated outward in every direction.

"Ah!"

At last, the cracks widened, and a bounty hunter fell into one. Houses began to collapse as though an earthquake had struck. No one could keep their footing as the entire town shook.

"Boom!"

With a deafening crash, the ground finally split apart. Everyone fell in, and no one knew how deep it went. Only Rogge remained standing in the middle, supported by the sole remaining pillar.

"You had to be kidding me. He could do something like this?" Jelly stared wide-eyed at the scene before him in disbelief.

"It seemed we had underestimated the captain. To think he could reach this level... The Chop-Chop Fruit truly couldn't be underestimated. Even without touching anything, the power he released could shatter everything, and he controlled it so well," Ham said.

"So amazing. But wasn't he pushing himself too hard? Why hadn't he used his ability before?" Ares asked in admiration and curiosity.

"To test his own strength. Without using his Devil Fruit ability, he wanted to see how far he could go," Jelly said.

"Did you know how weak he was when he was with us before? At most, he was only a little stronger than an ordinary person. But we were willing to follow him not because of his strength, but because of his ambition. Don't let that carefree grin fool you. When it came to his desire to become stronger, he understood it better than anyone," Ham said.

"That was why he dared to make a move against the Heavenly Tribute in order to grow stronger. No one would have imagined someone like him would dare lay a hand on it. Still, he had gambled right," Jelly said with a smile.

Rogge was finished on his end. Looking at the bottomless pit, he kicked off hard from the only remaining pillar and leaped away. Under his strength, the pillar finally gave out and collapsed as well.

After burying several hundred bounty hunters, Rogge walked toward Jelly and the others beneath the terrified gazes of the town's people.

"Actually, you didn't need to do this."

The four walked side by side as Ham spoke with a smile.

"You didn't have to get yourself hurt just to become stronger," Jelly added.

"Pain deepened a person's memories. You should know that well. Only by getting beaten and injured would you avoid getting hurt the next time you fought desperately," Rogge said calmly.

"That was true, but I hated getting hurt and bleeding," Jelly said with a shrug.

"They were all superficial wounds. There was no need for medicine. Just wipe on some disinfectant later," Ares said as he examined Rogge's injuries.

"It still didn't hurt enough. Only more pain could make me stronger. Jelly, I needed your help with some training next," Rogge said.

"Still not enough? You'd already been training for over ten hours, and now you wanted to drag me into it too?" Jelly said irritably.

Rogge said nothing. He reached for a large sack Ares was carrying, which contained Streusen's bread. He grabbed a loaf, opened his mouth, and kept stuffing it in like a pulverizer.

Seeing Rogge like that, they had no idea what to say. The four returned to the ship.

When Cook saw Rogge's condition, he knew Rogge had probably gotten into a fight. Since he was neither dead nor seriously injured, there was no problem. Still, Cook was curious. How had Rogge gotten injured here?

Cook knew Rogge's abilities well. On land, Cook was basically no match for him. Anything that approached Rogge would be shattered, making him nearly invincible. Yet Rogge had actually been injured.

"What happened?" Cook asked Ham.

"He didn't use his ability in the fight," Ham explained. Cook immediately understood. That training maniac probably had nothing but training on his mind every day.

"Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!!!"

The husky ran over, wrapped itself around Rogge's legs, and licked the blood on his pants. Clearly, the genes inherited from its gray wolf ancestors had not changed its fondness for the smell of blood.

"This dog liked blood. I should find a chance to make it part of our fighting force someday," Rogge said.

"Hey, you weren't planning to find a Devil Fruit for a dog, were you?" Jelly said irritably.

"I had thought about it. But even if I found one, this guy would get priority." Rogge looked at Ares.

Ares said unhappily, "I'm not weak either, okay?" As he spoke, he patted the flintlock gun at his side.

"It wasn't a matter of you being weak. You had all that ability, yet it was completely useless," Rogge said irritably.

"I'm the ship's doctor." Ares showed no shame as he brought out his title.

The next island was three days away, so they temporarily stayed on Tavern Island for those three days. Because of Rogge's slaughter, the islanders looked at them as if they had seen ghosts. The moment they saw them, they fled for their lives.

The island did not only have bounty hunters. There were even more ordinary people, along with quite a few merchants. Many merchant ships risked entering the Grand Line, and as this was the first island, merchants often took this route and brought goods with them.

After drifting at sea for several days, they were more than happy to rest on solid ground. They found an inn, but the owner had already run away, so they moved in openly.

Jelly was dragged unwillingly by Rogge toward the forest, and the two entered it to begin their training.

Looking at Rogge with a black cloth over his eyes, Jelly was speechless. Vines had grown from all four of his limbs, and under his control, they continuously attacked Rogge from every direction. Rogge could do nothing but take the hits.

With his eyes covered, Rogge could see nothing. Even though he could use his ability, he could not focus it on a single point to destroy Jelly's vines. Getting beaten had therefore become perfectly normal.

Jelly had originally found it boring, but he discovered that this was actually quite fun. He even got something out of it himself.

The first benefit was that he could train his ability. He practiced controlling vines every day anyway, so working with Rogge killed two birds with one stone.

The second benefit was that it felt great. Training alone meant nothing but dull vine control, but this was different. He could whip someone—especially that bastard captain Rogge.

As the sun set, Rogge, swollen like a pig's head, dragged his battered body forward step by step. Dark bruises covered him in streaks, and anyone unaware of the truth might have thought they had done something unspeakable in the forest.

Especially with Jelly wearing such a satisfied expression, when they returned to the inn, Ham and the other two looked at them strangely.