Extracting Devil Fruit Lineage Factors

Lucas casually tossed the last shriveled human trafficker corpse into the ocean, and it sank rapidly like a heavy weight.

He turned and walked into the cabin, collapsing heavily onto Airey's large, wide bed.

He searched every memory in his mind regarding Devil Fruits, yet not a single record showed that the Bat-Bat Fruit, Model: Vampire possessed the ability to plunder others' abilities.

Could it be...

Lucas sat up abruptly, a bold guess forming in his mind.

Did my special constitution merge with the Vampire Fruit to produce a new ability—plundering Lineage Factors?

Once this thought arose, it could no longer be dismissed.

The source of a Devil Fruit's power was the Lineage Factor.

That man known as "five hundred years ahead of human intelligence" had extracted Kaido's Lineage Factor to manufacture the Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit.

Later on, he developed the Green Blood technology based on this, allowing the Seraphim to briefly use Paramecia abilities.

The Lineage Factor was the key to what this world called the "Realm of Gods".

His own special constitution was essentially the ultimate absorption and conversion of life energy.

Now, combined with the vampiric ability of the Vampire Fruit, being able to absorb the target's Lineage Factor along the way seemed to make sense.

Thinking of this, far from being overjoyed, Lucas felt a layer of cold sweat break out across his back.

In those webnovels from his past life, there were at least eighty or a hundred villains who exploded and died because their internal powers were too chaotic and exceeded their load limits.

No one knew how many different Lineage Factors his body could actually hold.

If he was too greedy and chewed off more than he could bite, blowing himself up would be the ultimate joke.

He certainly did not want to self-destruct from drinking too much blood.

My plan needs to change.

Lucas rubbed the space between his brows and made his decision.

Companions and things like that can wait. The top priority is to find a reliable doctor and thoroughly check my body.

According to his original plan, the first thing to do upon reaching the next island would be to recruit companions and build his own force.

Wanting revenge against Golden Lion was far from enough with just one person's strength.

However, plans could never keep up with changes.

In the face of one's own little life, everything else had to take a back seat.

Having made up his mind, Lucas's tensed nerves finally relaxed.

The fatigue of recent days and the drowsiness following battle washed over him, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.

Early the next morning.

Golden sunlight spilled through the porthole into the cabin, casting mottled light and shadows on the floor.

After Lucas got up and finished washing up, he finally remembered that yesterday he had been so shocked by the changes in his body that he had forgotten to check this ship's spoils.

He left the cabin and searched the entire ship from top to bottom thoroughly. Aside from enough food, fresh water, and a large amount of ammunition to last three months, he found no gold or jewels at all.

It seemed that this woman Airey had spent all her money on greasing palms and expanding her forces.

Finally, in the captain's safe, he found only two things: a Log Pose and a stack of wax-sealed envelopes.

On the base of the pose, a line of crooked text was carved with a knife: Dearena Kingdom.

Lucas set the pose aside, picked up the topmost letter, and broke the wax seal.

The handwriting was neat and graceful—it was precisely Airey's handwriting.

He read it word for word, and the expression on his face gradually turned playful.

Most of the letter's contents were about cargo handovers and fund distributions, and at the signature of every letter, the exact same name was signed—Karma.

Karma...

So it was this guy.

Lucas was hardly unfamiliar with this name. This Karma was a notorious human trafficker back then, and had even attempted to kidnap Kozuki Toki once before.

Later on, he defected to Whitebeard, transformed overnight into an affiliated captain of the Whitebeard Pirates, and even proclaimed to the outside world that he had "turned over a new leaf" and would never again do such heinous deeds.

The Navy's intelligence files were written in clear black and white: on Whitebeard's territory, human trafficking, contraband drug trade, and all other gray industries were strictly forbidden.

Anyone wishing to join the Whitebeard Pirates had to voluntarily abandon these industries.

Now it seemed it was nothing more than self-deception.

A dog can't stop eating shit. He plays the game of outward compliance while defying orders quite smoothly.

Lucas sneered, crumpled the letter paper into a ball, and tossed it casually into the trash can.

It appeared Whitebeard was no discerning perfectionist either. Who knew how many wolves in sheep's clothing like Karma were hidden across his territory.

He picked up the Log Pose for Dearena Kingdom once again, studying it carefully in the sunlight.

The needle of the pose pointed steadily in one direction, showing no trace of tampering.

I hope this piece of junk is real.

The pointing direction of a Log Pose could be artificially altered; that was common knowledge. But if this pose was genuine, things would be much easier to handle.

He had a deep impression of Dearena Kingdom as well.

In the original timeline, the nobles of this country had publicly insulted Luffy in Dressrosa, only to be taught a lesson by Bartolomeo (Manga Chapter 720).

Later, when Koala was investigating the underground arms trade, she also discovered ships hailing from this country (Manga Chapter 747).

This showed that Dearena Kingdom was a country that looked glamorous on the surface while secretly colluding with the underworld.

Without exception, countries like this were member states of the World Government.

Only member states needed to covertly engage in such unspeakable business.

Those non-member states long ago openly treated human trafficking and the arms trade as pillar national industries.

A member state capable of conducting large-scale arms trade with the underworld definitely had a substantial scale.

A country like this was bound to have regular passenger liners.

As long as he could get there, he could use a passenger liner to travel to a country where he could seek medical treatment.