A new fruit

Late at night, a week later.

The [Giant Tooth] lay at anchor on the boundless sea.

Oh, right-it should have been called the [Black Pearl] now. The first policy Dunn had announced after becoming captain was to rename the ship.

"So you really have connections on Greenleaf Island who can handle this cargo?"

On the deck of the [Black Pearl], Dunn leisurely enjoyed the sea breeze as he casually asked Annie beside him.

"Of course. My family has some influence, and we happen to have connections on Greenleaf Island. Getting rid of this cargo won't be a problem."

After a week together, the two had established some basic trust, so as they approached Greenleaf Island, Annie had volunteered to help Dunn dispose of the remaining cargo aboard the [Black Pearl].

And he had appointed Annie first mate and chief navigator, with Green as helmsman.

After all, Dunn was unfamiliar with the people and the place. Not only would handling it himself be difficult, but he could easily get swindled.

"Still, we're several months' voyage from the New World here, so there's basically no chance of getting a particularly high price." Annie paused, then continued, "Especially for the Career Cards. They'll sell for two or three gold coins at most."

"I got them for free anyway. Whatever they sell for is fine. As for the Career Cards, I'm not planning to sell them." What Annie had said came as no surprise to Dunn.

After all, even after crossing the Storm Sea, they were still within the Old World's sphere of influence.

"You're keeping the Career Cards?" Annie frowned slightly. "Are you planning to train these sailors?"

"Mm." Dunn hummed in affirmation.

"What are you thinking? Apart from the two who died, not one of these crewmen is worth wasting resources on." Annie immediately questioned him with some displeasure. "And leaving aside the fact that second-tier crewmen cost several gold coins a month in wages, how will you guarantee their loyalty?"

Yes, even pirates had to pay their crews. After all, people became pirates to make money. In a sense, pirates were essentially wage workers too.

Since the Age of Exploration began, countless pirate captains had been killed by their subordinates for failing to pay their wages.

At present, all authority aboard the [Black Pearl] lay in the hands of Dunn, Annie, and Green, the three second-tier professionals. The other crewmen, who were not even professionals, could only serve as unfeeling work machines.

But if the crewmen became second-tier professionals, more than twenty of them-even the weakest kind-would challenge the authority the three held aboard the ship.

Dunn's stats after advancing to the second tier were impressive. It was even possible that he was the strongest in the second tier. But however strong he was, he was still only second-tier, not third-tier.

No second-tier professional could take on more than twenty second-tier professionals alone.

As for the crewmen behaving themselves after advancing, that was impossible. With a deadly weapon in hand, murderous intent arose of its own accord. Once they possessed power, how could the crewmen be content to remain ordinary work machines?

Just like Dunn when he had first transmigrated here.

"It doesn't matter whether they're loyal. The three of us are level 10 professionals at the peak of the second tier. Suppressing twenty weak second-tier professionals won't be a problem," Dunn answered Annie lazily.

That was right. Annie and Green were also level 10 professionals at the peak of the second tier. Annie was a second-tier [Navigator], while Green was a second-tier [Warrior].

In fact, Dunn could have done it alone, as long as he was aboard the [Black Pearl].

After changing careers a week earlier, Dunn had used Ship Animation on the [Black Pearl]. The ability had given the [Black Pearl] some characteristics of a living being, and its combat strength could now be considered comparable to that of a level 10 professional.

In a sense, its combat strength was even greater than Dunn's.

However, since the trust between Dunn and Annie had yet to reach a deeper level, Dunn had not told her.

"But we have absolutely no need to take that risk!" Annie bit her lip slightly, trying to dissuade Dunn. "And if it really comes to suppressing them by force, everything we invested in training the crew will go down the drain."

"I still think we should play it safer."

There was another point Annie did not mention. The second-tier [Navigator] career focused on perception, with intelligence and agility as secondary attributes. Even at a creature level of 10, her strength in direct combat was only about equal to that of a level 6 combat professional. If things came to violence, she would be the one in the most danger.

Dunn turned to look straight into Annie's eyes and said slowly, "We're pirates now. Risking our lives is our business."

"More than twenty second-tier professionals-if we bring them completely under our control, the benefits to us go without saying."

"Even if something goes wrong, the risk isn't entirely fatal to us. At most, we'll lose these gold coins that fell into our laps."

"A situation like this is well worth taking a gamble on."

"Your main reason for going to sea was to advance, wasn't it?"

"There's no such thing as playing it safe on the path of career advancement. If you want to keep climbing, change that complacent way of thinking."

"If you don't have the courage to risk your life, go home and be a pampered young lady."

After Dunn finished speaking, the two remained silent for a long time.

Until Green arrived some time later.

"Miss, it's time to rest."

Green was a second-tier [Warrior].

[Warrior] was a traditional career. Depending on the path an individual chose, strength, constitution, or agility could all serve as its primary attribute.

Green was a [Warrior] focused on agility, with strength and constitution as his secondary attributes.

Even so, Green had 15 points of constitution.

He possessed considerable recuperative ability.

By now, after a week of rest and recovery, Green's injuries had almost completely healed.

Hearing Green's words, Annie nodded gently and headed into the cabin with him.

Dunn was left alone on the empty deck.

The Sleepless specialty meant Dunn could essentially go without sleep, so he had volunteered to keep watch every night that week. For one thing, he still could not fully trust anyone else at this stage; for another, he simply had nothing else to do.

After a long while, Dunn took out a Career Card.

[Based on your personal traits, you have gained one draw.]

[Draws available: 1.]

[Would you like to draw?]

Confirm draw.

[Drawing...]

[Congratulations, you have drawn a Devil Fruit-the Float-Float Fruit.]

[Would you like to extract it?]

Do not extract.

[Devil Fruits currently available for extraction: 1. Flame-Flame Fruit. 2. Float-Float Fruit.]

[Note: Extracted Devil Fruits will assimilate into fruit within 10 meters of you.]

Good. Another Devil Fruit I can throw away.

Keep this up. At least for the first three-no, the first five-don't give me any top-tier Devil Fruits.

That way, at least it won't hurt so much to throw them away.

At this stage, increasing his strength was not particularly urgent. First, he would find a way to let Devil Fruits make an impact across the seas.

Then eating a Devil Fruit would not make him stand out so much, keeping the danger to a minimum.

Put plainly, he would first give the Legendary Wizards some experimental subjects, minimizing the chances of them turning their attention to him.

He would buy himself more time to grow.

At the same time, over the past week, Dunn had come up with several possible combinations for his own three Devil Fruits.

Without a doubt, every one of them would be a top-tier Devil Fruit.

Although there was a saying in the pirate world that there were no useless Devil Fruits, only useless people.

But no matter how one looked at it, Devil Fruits still fell into different tiers of strength. Judging by the storyline of the pirate world before Dunn transmigrated, the strongest were undoubtedly the Zoan-type Mythical Zoans.

Now it was just a matter of which Devil Fruit he drew first.

Dunn was very much looking forward to that.