Heavy Armored Lancer! The Inedible Stone Drum Bull

"You'll only have it easy for the next few days. What kind of Admiral loafs around all day? Sengoku won't allow you to keep this up forever!"

Zephyr snorted and stopped looking at him.

The other officers around the conference table pretended not to hear, each raising their heads and looking elsewhere in different poses.

Kuzan shrugged. He had learned that gesture from Loa. Back when Loa defeated Arudo in the plaza, that lazy, punchable expression combined with the gesture had been enough to drive people mad.

"Yes, yes. I get it. Honestly, Teacher is lecturing people again."

After a pause, Kuzan pulled down his eye mask and rested his hands behind his head. "Still, I'm heading to East Blue tomorrow for a mission. I'll happen to be going your way."

"To East Blue? What could possibly happen there that requires an Admiral?"

"Nothing. I just don't like the look of the place, so I want to find something to do."

Zephyr: "..."

I must be looking at a fake Kuzan. That lazy bastard was actually taking the initiative to find something to do? Did the sun rise in the west?

As Loa led his group into the primeval forest, all manner of towering trees came into view. Roots as thick as arms stretched from the trunks, reaching down into the earth and burrowing into the mud. Tangled vines and all sorts of plants crawling across the ground made walking even more difficult. On top of that, the forest was unbearably hot and humid, and anyone trapped within it would soon be drenched in sweat.

After Loa led the group into the forest, several recruits chose to leave the team. They believed that even if they could not join the Elite Camp, this was still training. Following Loa might be safe, but it would not accomplish the purpose of the assessment.

All Loa could do was praise them for having ambition and wish them good luck.

When they arrived at a valley, Loa suddenly stopped.

A stream flowed down over jagged rocks, splashing against the surface in scattered droplets and forming ripples.

The recruits behind him stopped in unison. They looked at him nervously, gripping their rifles as they scanned the surroundings. "What's wrong, Loa?"

Loa surveyed the area gravely. "This place..."

"What about it?"

"The scenery's pretty nice! Let's take a leak and leave a souvenir!"

Clang~

The recruits nearly threw out their backs from that abrupt turn. Climbing back up, they bared their teeth and roared, "What the hell is wrong with you?! You scared us half to death!"

In truth, they had simply overthought it. Loa just needed to pee. He had been holding it since last night and could not take it anymore.

Ignoring his overly startled companions, Loa ran over to a large rock more than two meters tall, loosened his pants, and got to work.

"Wooo~~~ That feels so good. Holding it in for a while really makes peeing more satisfying."

"Satisfying my ass!"

The recruits lined up beside him to pee all complained at once.

Suddenly, one recruit said quietly, "Hey, don't you think this rock is moving?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? A rock—holy shit! Back up! The rock really is moving!"

Loa had been about to mock him, only to discover in shock that the rock really was moving!

The group hurriedly backed away, pulling up their pants with one hand while grabbing the rifles from their backs with the other.

Moo!

A deafening roar echoed through the valley. The massive rock finished rolling over, glaring with bloodshot eyes at the little pests that had interrupted its nap.

One bookish recruit shouted, "It's a fifty-point Stone Drum Bull! Its points are low, but its destructive power ranks among the top ten on the island! Watch out for its horns—they're harder than ordinary steel!"

"Fifty points?"

Loa faced the aggressively hostile Stone Drum Bull, clenching his right fist as intense frost gathered around him.

"Back off. I'll deal with it!"

Moo!

The Stone Drum Bull seemed provoked by Loa's stance. It swung its head and let out a roar, then lowered its head and charged at Loa like mad. Its pair of horns tore through the air with a whining gust.

The gravel in its path was crushed beneath its hooves, ground into powder as it barreled forward like a fully powered heavy tank.

"Watch out! Get out of the way!"

Seeing that Loa was about to be struck, the recruits raised their rifles and fired. Bullets rained down on the Stone Drum Bull, but those tiny pellets could not stop its charge. They could not even leave a scratch on its hide.

Seeing this, the bookish recruit from earlier cried anxiously, "Move, Loa! The Stone Drum Bull has to stop before it can turn! It won't be able to catch you!"

The Stone Drum Bull moved incredibly fast and reached Loa in an instant. It seemed as though it could already see Loa being impaled by its horns. Those horns were its invincible treasures; even the island's dominant beasts did not dare provoke it lightly.

"Move? No, no, there's no need for that."

Buzz!

Magic power began to tremble. The grass and pebbles beneath Loa's feet were blasted away in an instant. He casually raised his left hand and placed it against the incoming horn.

Yes, placed it against it!

Other than that, the watching recruits had no idea how else to describe Loa's action.

"It's over! Loa can't dodge it!"

Just as the recruits turned their heads away, unable to bear watching any further, Loa's voice broke through the noisy surroundings and somehow reached their ears.

Ice Make: Heavy Armored Lancer!

Squelch~

The sound of something being torn apart reached their ears.

The next second, a heart-wrenching scream rang out, startling them. The recruits hurriedly looked up, only to be stunned by the sight before them.

The Stone Drum Bull, which had been so imposing just moments ago, was now rolling frantically on the ground. Blood sprayed everywhere with its twisting body, staining the grass, leaves, and stream red.

A pillar of ice roughly the diameter of a fist had stabbed viciously into the Stone Drum Bull's forehead. Following the bulging hide upward, they found that it had actually drilled straight through and emerged from the bull's rear! The conical drill bit exposed to the air was covered in the Stone Drum Bull's steaming blood, while wisps of white mist rose from the ice.

"Even Arudo doesn't dare clash with me head-on. What the hell are you supposed to be?"

Loa clapped his hands and dispersed the hard ice armor around them. Then, without even looking at the Stone Drum Bull howling on the ground, he pointed at the bookish recruit who had explained it earlier. "Hey, buddy, can this thing be eaten?"

He had skipped breakfast and lunch. With such a perfectly good meal right in front of him, Loa was already starving.

When Loa pierced through the Stone Drum Bull with one strike, a Marine in the monitoring center swallowed hard, looked away from the screen, and lowered his head to record Loa's achievement.

"Christopher Loa, one Stone Drum Bull."

Because his fellow recruits had also fired, it was not an independent kill. The Stone Drum Bull's fifty points were divided among them.

Seeing Loa take down the Stone Drum Bull, famed for its tough hide and thick flesh, with a single blow, the officers in their seats all cast astonished looks toward Kuzan.

"So this Loa really can use ice-based abilities! And he's already this strong. Is that natural talent, or did Admiral Aokiji teach him well?"

Although Loa's abilities were no longer a secret in the Recruit Camp, most Marines had no reason to care what a bunch of recruits were doing. If not for Marine Admiral Aokiji, the officers present probably would not even have heard Loa's name.

Feeling everyone's stares, Kuzan pushed up his eye mask. "Huh? Did something happen?"

Talking about someone behind his back was impolite, especially when that person was an Admiral with a higher rank than them. For a moment, the vice admirals all raised their heads to look at the ceiling. "The weather is really nice today."

Unlike the vice admirals, Zephyr carefully observed the Stone Drum Bull's movements when Loa attacked. Seeing that the bull had stopped moving before being pierced by the ice spear, he nodded in satisfaction.

"Now that's more like it. No matter how powerful a Devil Fruit ability is, you still need a strong body to unleash its true power!"

Deep in the valley, Loa had no idea what was happening aboard the warship. He was troubled by something else entirely.

Grabbing the bookish recruit by the collar, Loa sprayed saliva everywhere as he roared, "What?! You're saying this thing can't be eaten?! Then what the hell did I work so hard for?!"

Faced with Loa's raging temper, the bookish recruit was nearly in tears. "It really can't be eaten! The Stone Drum Bull's outer layer is all stone, and its muscles and organs are poisonous too!"

Seeing that he did not seem to be lying, Loa reluctantly let him go.

Grrr~

His stomach rumbled like thunder at just the right moment, joining in his performance. "Ahh~ I'm starving to death! I want food!"

"L-let's keep looking. On such a huge island, there must be animals we can eat." The bookish recruit comforted Loa through tears. Why did he have to keep picking on me? Is it my fault the Stone Drum Bull can't be eaten?

At that moment, Loa remembered something.

That's not right. Why am I searching on the ground? The bushes here are so dense that we can't spot animals even a few hundred meters away.

With that thought, Loa pushed aside the bookish recruit's hand and leaped into the air.

Since he could not find anything on the ground, he would search from above.

The recruits could only stare at him in confusion.

Suddenly, Loa dropped back down excitedly and grabbed the bookish recruit by the collar again. "Hey, hey, let me ask you something! There's a gorilla with its forelimbs on the ground, about five meters tall, with a red belly and silver-white fur. Can that thing be eaten?"

The bookish recruit thought carefully after hearing the description. "It sounds like a Silverback Great Ape. It can be eaten. I remember a restaurant in my hometown, the Sabaody Archipelago, that specializes in Silverback Great Ape dishes. One serving costs 000 Beli."

"That's the one!" Loa turned and shot into the sky, stepping on blocks of ice as he departed without looking back.

Loa was incredibly fast, vanishing almost in the blink of an eye. Only then did the bookish recruit suddenly realize, "Wait... does that mean Loa found a Silverback Great Ape?"

As he said this, he swallowed hard and exchanged looks with the others. Their faces instantly darkened.

"Loa! Come back! Even vice admirals don't want to mess with that thing!"

The Silverback Great Ape was a type of Land Beast. Land Beasts were terrifying monsters on par with Sea Kings.

Although the Silverback Great Ape was an ingredient, that did not mean it would let people slaughter it! On the contrary, it was immensely powerful, and every successful hunt was enough to make newspaper headlines.

19. Thank you to readers Yiren Cuili, Reader 957***, Gu Hua Jianghu, Shi Sha Yeyu, g6u4, Reader 187***, Qi Wa A, Xingxing Anye, Xue Fuli, ZAF001, Black Wool Sweater, Wanwu Wuyu P, Point~Point~Point~Point, Reader 151***, Yu Qing, and Reader 10*** for your recommendation support.

Also, to answer a comment from the review section: an Ice Dragon Slayer can of course eat ice, but Loa is only at the second tier right now, so I set it that he can only swallow ice to restore magic power. He cannot yet directly consume elemental attacks and go berserk like in the original work. After all, I can't write the scene from the synopsis within a few dozen chapters, right? It would fall apart.