Elite Camp (Third Update! Please Bookmark and Recommend!)

(No text to translate)

Below the stands, Tony's vision went dark. His steps turned unsteady, and he hurriedly planted his sword against the ground to keep himself from collapsing.

In a complete swordsmanship school, ultimate techniques were often the strongest skills, requiring exceptional swordsmanship and a resilient physique as their foundation.

Tony's own temperament did not align with the doctrines of Asura Swordsmanship, making it even harder for him to use an ultimate technique.

In the end, Tony had misjudged the hardness of Loa's Ice Armor. Forget leaving a souvenir behind—he had not even broken through its defense.

Tony had yet to master Thousand Corpses Pagoda. He had risked sudden death to force it out, yet he could not even leave a mark on Loa.

He raised his head with a bitter smile and looked at Loa, his breathing weak. "You really are strong. Please teach me more in the future."

"No, I refuse." Loa said, then rushed forward and knocked him unconscious with one punch. He caught Tony, who had fallen face-first, with one arm and said flatly, "A dangerous guy like you should spar with Arudo more often from now on. He's tough and thick-skinned, so he isn't afraid of getting hit."

Arudo, the giant hopping bug who was struggling with all his might, opened his mouth and cursed, "Loa, you bastard! Let me go if you've got the guts! I'll fight you for three hundred rounds!"

"Ha! Talk after you manage to break free. A guy I one-shot every time has no right to say that."

Loa wore an expression of French disdain as he turned to look at the recruits, who could not move. "So, who else wants a beating?"

The recruits exchanged helpless looks with their companions, then tossed aside their weapons and surrendered.

At that point, nobody knew what to say anymore. Loa had always been strong, and everyone knew that well. Especially during the Combat Assessment, when he had killed the Silverback Great Ape head-on, sending his reputation in the Recruit Camp to its peak.

They had never expected to truly defeat Loa.

But no matter what, they had never imagined that even if the entire camp attacked together, they would not be able to leave a single wound on him.

And that was with Loa holding back and not using any large-scale attacks.

Those few dozen Ice Wolves alone had thrown hundreds of people into disarray. And when they faced Loa directly, had they not seen how the three from the Elite Camp were taken down in a single exchange?

The recruits' mouths went dry. The gap in strength was simply too great.

Seeing this, Zephyr rose from his seat.

"I now announce that Christopher Loa has won this assessment!"

"That didn't even count as a warm-up!"

As he walked toward the cafeteria, Loa spoke with a sigh.

Whether it was Arudo or the Jerome Brothers, they could now put far too little pressure on him.

They had come from the Elite Camp, known as the "gathering place of monsters"!

Loa could not help feeling stifled. Kuzan had gone on a mission and would not return for several months. There were no opponents in the Elite Camp either. Where was he supposed to find opponents to level up during this time?

Should he go back to the Recruit Camp and provoke the instructors when he had nothing better to do? Or maybe see whether Vice Admiral Momonga was still reading dirty books?

His energy points would definitely rise quickly that way, though it did seem a little suicidal.

Zephyr would definitely hang him up and beat him, because Loa, having passed the assessment, was now his student. If Loa embarrassed himself, Zephyr would lose face too.

Thinking of this, Loa opened the system panel.

Name: Christopher Loa

Energy Stage: Second Tier, Sixth Level

Energy Points: 40/1000

Magic Power: 9000/9000

Magic Power Recovery Speed: 850/

As his Energy Stage rose, Loa gained fewer and fewer energy points from training and battle. Today's huge fight had only increased his energy by 50 points, and a full 0 of those had been provided by the Jerome Brothers and Arudo. Most of the defeated recruits had not contributed even a single point.

"Only 40? At this rate, when will I ever reach the Third Tier?" Loa put away the panel and sighed.

As his mastery of Maker Magic deepened, Loa could not find any better way to improve his strength in the short term aside from leveling up through the system.

The Ice Wolves representing "motion" and the Ice Armor representing "stillness" had both become tools he could skillfully use in actual combat after today's battle. He could wield them as naturally as his own limbs, so there was little point in continuing to figure things out by himself.

As for Dragon Slayer Magic, although he had developed a transformation technique like Awakening: Pseudo-Dragonification, it had not made much of an impact on Dragon Slayer Magic as a whole.

It was like a swordsman whose physique had grown stronger. The slashes he swung would naturally become faster and fiercer, but that did not mean his swordsmanship had improved.

Even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice. Since he had not been raised by a dragon girl, Loa was still completely in the dark when it came to Dragon Slayer Magic.

Still, he had gained something from today's battle. Although it was only 40 energy points, even a mosquito was meat, however small. More importantly, it had made Loa more familiar with the power he had gained after breaking through in Maker Magic.

After lunch, Loa met up with Tony and the others in the square before the massive fortress of Marine Headquarters.

This place was the site of the Paramount War, a gigantic square large enough to hold a battle involving a hundred thousand people.

Standing before the majestic main body of the fortress, with the towering stronghold before him, an endless straight horizon behind him, and the sea and sky meeting in the distance, a sense of insignificance naturally arose within him.

Well, except for Loa.

You could not expect someone who was still gnawing on roast suckling pig to be that solemn.

Once Loa swallowed his final bite, Zephyr appeared before them at the "perfect" moment.

Zephyr glanced at Loa, who was still licking his fingers, and the corner of his eye twitched imperceptibly.

But he quickly composed himself and said in a deep voice.

"Follow me!"

Although both were recruit training institutions, the Recruit Camp and the Elite Camp were located far apart.

One stood at the edge of Marineford beside the sea, while the other was inside the fortress, at its very core.

This was also one of the reasons Loa had looked down on Arudo and the others that morning.

He could let it slide that they were only nominally attached to the Recruit Camp. Zephyr was the chief instructor, and his fists were big—whatever he said went.

But!

Even their training grounds were worlds apart, and they still had the nerve to call themselves part of the Recruit Camp?

Beyond that, their treatment was also like the difference between two worlds.

Because there were so few of them, Zephyr could provide one-on-one, tailored guidance to every person. The results were far beyond what those rear admirals could achieve while teaching many people at once.

This was Loa's first time entering the fortress. Recruits had their own designated areas, and no matter how unreliable the Marines of the One Piece world were, they would not allow a bunch of rookie recruits to wander around freely.

As they walked, Loa curiously looked around. Both the decor and layout of the fortress carried a grim, martial air. Lush potted plants sat along the corridors, and sunlight streamed through the windows onto their green leaves, bringing the only hint of warmth.

Zephyr led Loa and the others through a long corridor and into a passage on the right. When the two soldiers at the entrance saw Zephyr, they respectfully raised their hands, straightened their backs, and saluted.

"Chief Instructor Zephyr!"

Zephyr nodded in acknowledgment.

After passing through the corridor, the group arrived in a spacious courtyard. At the center of the bluestone-paved yard, several Marines dressed as recruits were training.

Among them was someone Loa knew: Arudo.

He was laughing wildly as he fought someone—or rather, got beaten up.

He let his opponent punch and kick him all over, yet his face did not so much as twitch.

Aside from Arudo, that landmark of a man—literally—the most eye-catching figures in the courtyard were three swordsmen.

The Jerome Brothers, whom Loa had met once before, gripped Rain Cutter and Spring Severer as they took turns in an orderly assault against the skinny swordsman standing within the combat circle.

Loa had experienced the Jerome Brothers' swordsmanship before. It was powerful. To be honest, he currently had no good way of dealing with that kind of attack and could only break finesse with brute force.

Yet against opponents like that, the skinny swordsman in the center did not move his feet even once. With his eyes closed, he raised his wooden sword and accurately blocked every slash.

"So strong!" Tony's eyes gleamed as he tightly gripped the longsword at his waist.

"He's training Observation Haki, isn't he?" Simon came from a military family, and his knowledge and experience far exceeded that of ordinary people. He reached that conclusion after only one glance.

Zephyr nodded approvingly and introduced him. "That is the current leader of the Elite Camp, Bibi Hansa. A pure swordsman."

Loa looked at him in surprise. "A pure swordsman?" That phrasing was rather subtle.

At that moment, the members of the Elite Camp noticed them approaching and all turned to look. After a brief pause, they saluted Zephyr in unison.

"Teacher Zephyr!"

Among the crowd, Arudo fixed his gaze on Loa and grinned at the person beside him. "He's finally here. Now this is going to get interesting! Oh, right, that shorty is Loa!"

Loa's hearing was incredibly sharp, and Arudo had made no effort whatsoever to hide his words. He heard every last one clearly.

"Sh-shorty!"

In an instant, a fierce chill burst from Loa's body. Before Zephyr could understand what had happened, he only saw a black shadow flash past him. The next second, the huge Arudo vanished from before his eyes.

Boom!

The bluestone floor exploded, and countless fragments shot outward like bullets. Faced with the chaos, the Elite Camp members were startled at first, then each displayed their own abilities and easily blocked the flying stones.

To answer a reader's question: Loa will not fall out with the system. After all, it is what he relies on to survive. Even I could not stand such an obvious poison point.

It is just that the situation is abnormal and far too different from the Dragon Slayers of legend, so Loa has to figure out why.

Everyone has curiosity, right?

Forgive me for not making that clear earlier.

I have read many system novels where the origin of the system is only briefly explained before the ending, and then that is it. It leaves me completely confused. They might as well not explain it, since it does not affect the reading experience.

But mine is different. The origin of the Dragon Slayer system is connected to the dragonification issue you all expect from Loa, so I have to fill in this plot hole.

So I am planting some foreshadowing here first. That way, when Loa researches the system later, it will not seem so abrupt. Think about it: is this system not different from the others? It has no mind control, must be opened by silently reciting the words "cheat finger," requires manually clicking to level up, and even allows self-developed skills to be added to it.

So, no spoilers.