Set sail!

"Just a little bit left."

Holding the Hunter's Notes, Xie Wen looked at the almost fully illuminated map and murmured under his breath.

After mastering Armament Haki, he could roam the entire island as easily as his own backyard. With Sanji Meow, who had long since learned the lay of the land, leading the way, they finished the remaining map progress-less than thirty percent-in just a few days.

As Xie Wen stepped onto an unremarkable little rise, the map's progress bar finally jumped to 100%. Then came the familiar flash of white light, and another fragment of a Palico Summoning Ticket appeared between the pages...

"Hm? Something seems... a little off?"

Xie Wen picked up the fragment and noticed that its colors were different again. Its background was ocean blue, with dark blue patterns. Most importantly, the two characters printed on it still read "Palico."

So... the ticket fragments from the monster guide and the ones from exploring the map belonged to different pools?

Having seen every kind of gacha gimmick before his transmigration, Xie Wen figured out what was going on almost immediately.

He glanced at the Hunter's Notes in his hand again. Sure enough, their island had shrunk to the size of a fingernail, black fog once again surrounded it, and the progress bar below the map had changed to 0.1%...

Who knew how much territory he would have to explore to reach 100% this time? Judging by the looks of things, there was no hope of doing it anytime soon.

There was some good news, though. When their island lit up, a large stretch of the surrounding sea lit up along with it. It seemed they probably only needed to visit every island, rather than comb through the entire ocean.

"Uh..." Now that he understood the situation, Xie Wen turned to the two expectant cats at his feet and shrugged helplessly. "Looks like our new companion won't be joining us quite so soon."

"Mew..."

Klee Meow's ears drooped in disappointment, but she soon perked up again and scampered onto Xie Wen's back. "Then when are we heading out to sea, meow? Klee can't wait anymore, meow!"

As for Sanji Meow, the blow hit him considerably harder...

"No-!" The little yellow cat dropped to his knees with a thud and let out a heart-wrenching wail. "My beautiful big-sister Palico-! She's gone, meow-!"

Xie Wen rolled his eyes helplessly and nudged him with his foot. "Watch yourself. Klee's right here."

Sanji Meow, who was still doing his Yuan Hua impression, instantly stopped wailing. He looked up to find Klee Meow perched on Xie Wen's shoulder, watching him with her head tilted, her big ruby-like eyes full of confusion.

Sanji Meow scrambled to his feet and quickly put on a perfectly serious expression. Before Klee Meow could ask anything, he changed the subject. "Oh, right, little Klee, what would you like for lunch today, meow?"

"Klee wants fish, meow!" The innocent little ragdoll instantly forgot her questions and answered cheerfully, "All the fish you make tastes great, Sanji, but today Klee would really like some catnip fish soup... can I, meow?"

"Of course, meow! I'll go make you some fish soup right now, meow!" Suddenly bursting with energy, Sanji Meow started to run off to cook for Klee Meow.

Then Xie Wen grabbed him.

"It's still ages until lunch!" he reminded him irritably. "We've got important work to do!"

The important work Xie Wen meant was, of course, building the raft they needed to set out to sea...

Well, with their current skills, a raft was the best they could manage.

He had hoped they might summon a Palico who knew how to build ships, only for these damned Hunter's Notes to turn out to have several separate pools.

But by that logic, the weapon-unlock page probably had its own pool too... and most likely a rate-up pool for severing-type combat Palicoes.

Xie Wen rubbed his chin, rather looking forward to the cats from that pool.

After all, there were plenty of master swordsmen across all sorts of anime. If he could summon cats like that, they could spar and improve together, and he might even learn sword techniques from other anime through them.

But all that was for the future. Their immediate priority was to build a raft sturdy enough to take out to sea.

Building the raft was not difficult. A raft was hardly a complicated thing to begin with, and now that Xie Wen's strength had increased so much, many tasks had become considerably easier.

He found a dozen or so trees of roughly equal thickness on the island, chopped them down, and lashed them together with sturdy vines. As an extra precaution, he bored several holes crosswise through them and inserted thinner wooden poles for reinforcement. Then he mounted a simple sail made from Bullfango King hide in the middle of the raft, and their seagoing "ship" was complete.

Once the raft was finished, Xie Wen and the others did not rush to set sail. First, they put it in the island's lake for a few days of basic testing. Meanwhile, they sorted through their Pocket Dimension Bags, clearing out things they would not need for a while and replacing them with fresh water, food, and other necessities for the voyage.

Incidentally, Klee Meow's bag was the backpack she wore, and hers actually had the most storage space...

Seriously, which one of us actually had the cheat ability?!

"Sanji, could you give Klee a little catnip, meow?"

While sorting through her "treasures," Klee Meow suddenly raised her head and sniffed. Then she darted over to Sanji Meow and gazed longingly at the little jar in his paws, which was filled with dried catnip.

Sanji Meow had painstakingly gathered it all over the island during their explorations. To avoid exhausting his supply at the source, he had only picked about two-thirds of the leaves each time, and even when he occasionally used them in his cooking, he could hardly bear to add much.

Only now, with their departure approaching, had Sanji Meow brought himself to harvest all the remaining catnip.

"N-no problem, meow..."

With a pained expression, Sanji Meow took two catnip leaves from the jar and handed them to Klee Meow.

"Thank you, Sanji, meow!" Klee Meow cheered, snatched up the catnip, and promptly popped it into her mouth, chewing blissfully.

Such a "wasteful" use made Sanji Meow's eye twitch, but he could not bear to scold the adorable Klee Meow. All he could do was turn away. Out of sight, out of mind.

Xie Wen saw everything but did not intervene. Palicoes were different from ordinary cats, after all. They did not get "high" on catnip and mostly treated it as a tasty snack.

Also, just like ordinary cats, different Palicoes had different levels of interest in catnip.

For Klee Meow, catnip was not even as appealing as her two great loves: fried fish and bomb-making. Sanji Meow, on the other hand, was rather hooked on it. Xie Wen often saw him take out his catnip jar, open the lid, and take a couple of deep sniffs without eating any, just to satisfy his craving.

Xie Wen had always felt that Sanji Meow was missing something. After seeing that, he immediately realized what it was... the original Sanji was a chain-smoker!

But on this island, they could not find a single sheet of ordinary paper, let alone proper rolling papers.

Besides, Xie Wen had no intention of giving Sanji Meow any ideas. He was just a kid-what business did he have smoking?

A few days later, Xie Wen pushed the raft, which had passed its tests, into the sea. Fully prepared, he boarded it with the two cats. Carried by the sea breeze and waves, the raft gradually drifted away from the island where they had lived for so long.

As the island grew smaller and smaller, Sanji Meow, the only one with any knowledge of navigation, turned to Xie Wen. "Where are we going next, meow?"

In theory, the East Blue ought to be to the east. But the seas of the Pirate King's world, especially the waters of the Grand Line, were full of bizarre weather and currents. Besides, without knowing their current location, simply heading east was not necessarily the right choice.

So...

"Why don't we ask the amazing Klee?"

Xie Wen scooped up the bewildered little ragdoll and, under Sanji Meow's incredulous gaze, said, "Klee, whichever direction you think we should go, that's where we'll sail!"

Xie Wen had not lost his mind. Little Klee's constellation was the Clover Constellation, which represented good luck. Besides, Xie Wen had been utterly unable to find any Sea Kings, yet Klee Meow had encountered one just by heading down to the shore to blast some fish. All of that showed that Klee Meow had extraordinary luck, so with no other leads, relying on her good fortune was only natural.

"Klee doesn't really understand what you mean, Xie Wen... but Klee can help, right, meow?" Klee Meow twitched her ears, raised a little paw, and casually pointed in a direction on instinct. "Then let's go that way, meow!"

"Sanji?" Xie Wen looked at Sanji Meow, who was in charge of steering.

"Whatever you two want, meow..."

Sanji Meow weakly covered his face with a little paw, then resigned himself to his fate and turned the raft in the direction Klee Meow had pointed.