Everyone watched Jay eat the Devil Fruit.
Then they turned to the remaining Silverback Gorilla Fruit.
Anthony shook his head. "I want to be a swordsman. It would be a waste to give me this Zoan fruit."
Tomani, with his instant-noodle hair, waved it off as well. "I plan to follow in my father's footsteps. A Zoan fruit is far too inelegant."
"Big brother, you know me. As a sniper, there's no need for me to waste this Zoan Devil Fruit." Ray didn't want to eat it either.
Suddenly, Uncle Joseph, who had been silent all this time, picked up the fruit and said to everyone with a smile, "I'm old now. Let me eat this fruit!"
Noah looked at his uncle, whose eyes held a mixture of complicated feelings and concern. Clearly, his uncle had realized that the future could be very dangerous, and he didn't want to become a weakness for Noah and Joshua.
Joseph had actually trained with them, but at thirty-three, he had long since passed the best age for training. Over the past year or so, his strength had only increased four or five times, and for nearly half a year, the results of his training had been getting worse and worse.
An increase of four or five times seemed like a great improvement.
But compared with Noah, Joshua, and Vic, the gap was all too obvious.
After around a year and a half of training, Noah's strength had increased eighty-three times, Joshua's twenty-one times, and Vic's forty-nine times.
Even Mary, a girl, had increased her strength around eightfold.
Uncle Joseph had silently kept all of this in mind. When he saw the Silverback Gorilla Fruit today, he was tempted.
Noah nodded. "Uncle, we're all family. Go ahead and eat the fruit!"
Crunch. Although he already knew Devil Fruits tasted terrible, Joseph still found the revolting taste almost unbearable after taking a bite.
But when he thought of the dangers that might lie ahead, he steeled himself, closed his eyes, and devoured the rest of the flesh in big mouthfuls.
By the time he swallowed the last bite, Uncle Joseph wore an expression that said life was no longer worth living.
Lilith quickly picked up a glass of grape juice and poured it into Uncle Joseph's mouth.
After drinking a glass of grape juice, Uncle Joseph seemed to come back to life. "That taste was disgusting, but the power really is tremendous."
As soon as he finished speaking, Uncle Joseph's body suddenly swelled. He shot up to over three meters tall, and his muscles bulged as though being inflated.
Rip... His clothes suddenly burst apart. Fortunately, his pants were sturdy and had some stretch, so they didn't split completely.
"Heh heh heh..." Uncle Joseph scratched his head in embarrassment, then tried to return to his human form.
Once he had returned to human form, he promptly made himself scarce, hurrying back to change his clothes.
Noah smiled, then turned and instructed, "Lilith, go buy a batch of large, highly elastic clothes tomorrow."
"Hee hee, I understand." Lilith nodded.
Early the next morning.
Today's newspaper covered the whole story behind Flevance, the White Town.
Noah's expression didn't change at all after reading it.
Even if he had exposed what was happening in White Town several years in advance, its fate probably wouldn't have changed much. As long as the World Government, the greatest evil of all, existed, Flevance's future was sealed.
Still, he hadn't expected Morgans to actually dare report it.
Then he remembered that after their deal ended the day before yesterday, the World Economy News Paper's Loguetown branch had been deserted that very night. Clearly, Morgans had already anticipated what would happen next.
For the time being, Noah wasn't qualified to get involved in all this turmoil.
Using the information advantage from his previous life to make his first fortune was a transmigrator's best choice. But there weren't many more opportunities to get something for nothing like that.
Noah put down the newspaper and activated the cards in the soles of his shoes.
Two fierce jets of flame immediately erupted beneath his feet.
This type of flame card was a modified thruster that used hydrogen and oxygen stored in card space, released them in measured amounts, and ignited them with electric spark igniters built into the soles.
Where did the hydrogen and oxygen come from?
The answer was electrolyzing water using wind turbines. Starfish Island's electricity came from wind turbines and batteries.
Over the past year or so, Noah Manor had purchased more than a dozen sets of wind turbines and battery banks. Apart from the electricity used for everyday life, the rest went toward smelting steel in electric furnaces, electroplating, and electrolyzing water.
As the flames erupted, Noah rose into the air, shifting his body to adjust his direction.
Before long, he arrived above the training ground in the northwestern bay.
He had specifically cleared this training ground when he was training his Conqueror's Haki.
At that moment, Jay was trying out the Graphite-Graphite Fruit's powers on the training ground.
Noah landed in the middle of the field.
Jay had already stopped.
"Big brother Noah, do you need the training ground?"
Noah shook his head. "No, I came to see how you're developing your fruit's powers."
Noah had already come up with some preliminary ideas and plans for developing the Graphite-Graphite Fruit the previous night.
"Jay, try turning your shoes into graphite."
"Turn my shoes into graphite? I'll try..."
Jay concentrated, and in an instant, the shoes on his feet turned into black graphite.
"Deactivate your power."
Jay was baffled, but he deactivated his power anyway.
Noah continued, "Don't transform your shoes. Make a layer of graphite on the soles instead."
"Okay, big brother Noah. Done."
"Try taking a couple of steps."
As soon as Jay lifted his foot, he involuntarily fell backward. Startled, he tried to twist at the waist to steady himself, but the moment his other foot touched the stone paving, it slipped, and he crashed hard to the ground.
"Don't use brute force. Imagine your shoes are ice skates, then glide quickly along the ground."
Under Noah's guidance, Jay fell more than a dozen times before he could finally use the graphite skates to glide steadily across the stone-paved field.
"Hahaha, big brother, I did it!"
Noah smiled and shook his head. "Don't celebrate too early. Right now, you can only glide on stone paving or concrete. If you run into dirt or a swamp, this trick will be completely useless."
He continued, "The principle behind graphite skates is graphite's lubricating properties. You can use that property as a basis for further development."
"Big brother, you're amazing. You even know that."
"That's why I always tell you all to read more. Sometimes, knowledge is power."
Jay clenched his fists, his eyes full of admiration. "Knowledge is power? I have to write that down. That's our big brother for you."
"All right, next, let's try out graphite's other properties!"
Noah had Jay create some graphite shields, then attacked them with flame-type cards.
Sure enough, the results were just as he expected.
Ordinary flame attacks had little effect on the graphite shields. Even a flame card combining hydrogen and oxygen could only burn through a one-centimeter-thick graphite shield at close range.
The reason lay in graphite's properties.
In normal air, graphite's ignition point was between 850 and 1,000 degrees Celsius. On top of that, it conducted heat extremely well, making it difficult for ordinary flames to ignite it.
A graphite shield more than a centimeter thick, in particular, was difficult for flames to burn through in an instant. That gave a Graphite-Graphite Fruit user time to adapt to the situation.
Besides that, graphite was also an excellent conductor.
In battle, if he encountered an opponent who could use electricity-based powers, he could use the principle of grounding to direct the current into the earth.
Of course, as a Paramecia creation-type power, the Graphite-Graphite Fruit also had the skills common to creation-type powers: shaping material and creating puppets.
The Biscuit-Biscuit Fruit, for example, demonstrated this to the fullest. Its vast numbers of Biscuit Soldiers were a typical expression of that kind of power.
After giving Jay these ideas for development, Noah finally reminded him earnestly:
"Jay, what do you think is fundamental to a Devil Fruit User?"
Jay fell into thought.
"You must remember one vital principle: the body is the foundation of everything. As long as your body is strong enough, developing your powers will be easier, and awakening Haki will be easier too."
"Now that you've become a Devil Fruit User, I still sincerely hope you won't slack off on your physical training. Do you understand?"
Jay looked thoughtful, then nodded. "I'll remember that, big brother Noah."
After giving him those instructions, Noah left the training ground.
He actually had another idea for developing the Graphite-Graphite Fruit that he hadn't mentioned, but considering Jay's current level of development and physical strength, he abandoned the idea of cramming more into him. After all, biting off more than one could chew was no good.
Meanwhile.
Noah wasn't too worried about Uncle Joseph's situation.
That was because developing an ordinary Zoan Devil Fruit had only two key points: first, constantly train the body; second, forge an iron will. As long as one completed both aspects of training, the Zoan Devil Fruit would enter an awakened state.
Both key points were indispensable.
If one only trained the body, then once the fruit's power was developed to the point of awakening, the result would be something like Impel Down's Jailer Beasts.
If one only forged an iron will but lacked the required physical strength, the fruit would not awaken.