At noon, Vic ate at the dojo, then hurried to the cabin in the woods to learn blacksmithing. If he came across suitable game on the way, he would kill it and take it to the cabin.
"Heat control, the temperatures at which metals deform, timing, quenching, annealing, tempering..." Vic had a photographic memory, so he remembered everything Kozaburo taught him after hearing it once. From then on, he only needed practice and experience.
These were all basics. Different metals, alloys, ores, and so on all behaved differently, and Vic still had plenty to learn. But he was in no hurry; learning a little each day was enough.
As he learned, he also had to swing a sledgehammer. Kozaburo would tell him where to strike, how hard, how long to hammer, and so on. It was not something he could master overnight.
Toward evening, Vic would head deep into the forest to hunt and bring back plenty of meat. The next day, he would take a large portion to the Isshin Dojo and have lunch with Koshiro and Kuina. Koshiro did not eat much, and Vic would urge Kuina to eat more.
Vic's daily routine became regular again.
In the morning, after eating in the forest, he would run to the dojo with a large rock on his back. Sometimes he discussed swordsmanship with Koshiro, occasionally he told Kuina stories, sometimes he simply practiced his sword moves, and at other times he meditated and contemplated.
After lunch at the dojo, he would run back to the forest cabin with the rock on his back to learn swordsmithing. Later, he would go deeper into the forest to hunt and test his sword moves. Time flowed slowly onward.
A month later, in Koshiro's private room.
"Teacher, do you know anywhere with lots of powerful beasts? They need to be stronger than me, at least. I want to go there and train," Vic said to Koshiro.
Vic had fully familiarized himself with Yubashiri half a month ago, but his Observation Haki still had not awakened. It was not that his talent for Haki was too poor; it was simply that his current strength was too great. He had not faced a life-threatening crisis so far, so the chances of a sudden Awakening were too slim. Although Koshiro was stronger than him, Koshiro would not try to kill Vic.
Perhaps his body's protective mechanisms felt there was no danger and no need to awaken Haki. This might have been one drawback of having too much talent. After all, he had not crossed that threshold; even with a body possessing proficiency, he had no way to apply it to something that had yet to appear. So Vic planned to seek out beasts for special training like King Luffy, awakening his Haki amid life-and-death struggles.
Hearing this, Koshiro understood what Vic meant and greatly admired his determination. When Vic found he could not solve a problem quickly, he immediately turned to another way of solving it, though that way was somewhat dangerous.
What Koshiro did not know was that Vic was not someone who liked taking risks. He liked control-control over his own life, his very survival.
But time would not wait. In another twenty years, earth-shaking changes would take place in this world. He did not know what kind of person Imu was or how those changes would unfold, so he could only use his limited time to work hard at improving his strength. He would not place his fate in someone else's hands, so Vic felt it was necessary to take a few risks now.
"I know one place. It's in the Calm Belt between the East Blue and the Grand Line. It isn't very far into the Calm Belt from the East Blue side." Koshiro paused, seemingly recalling the past.
"Years ago, when I was traveling the world, I was sailing in the East Blue. A storm raged all night, and there wasn't a speck of light on the sea. Our ship was blown into the Calm Belt, and its momentum carried us deeper in. We weren't very far from the East Blue at first, but the Sea Kings beneath the Calm Belt sensed something on the surface and surged out. To save our lives, we rowed for all we were worth, and that was how we came to that island," Koshiro continued.
Vic marveled at their luck. They had avoided being eaten by Sea Kings and even managed to find a small island in the Calm Belt.
If Koshiro knew what Vic was thinking, he would surely slash him a few times to vent.
"By the time we reached the island, our ship was badly damaged, and there was no way we could set sail again anytime soon. We didn't have much food left aboard, either. There were more than ten of us, and I was the strongest among us, so the task of hunting fell to me. Only when I ventured deeper inland did I discover how powerful the beasts there were. I saw a Sea King come ashore from the sea and fight one of the island's beasts to a standstill. Both were far stronger than I was back then. Even now, I couldn't defeat the strongest creatures on that island," Koshiro said ruefully.
"For food, I had no choice but to risk my life. In the end, I broke through to the next realm when my life was in danger, and that was how I survived on that island. I never dared approach its depths; the presences inside were far too dangerous. We stayed on the outskirts, hunting, cutting trees, repairing the ship, and making camp. We spent more than twenty days on the island before we finally repaired the ship completely and left."
"Teacher, do you have a sea chart of that place? I'd like to go and see it," Vic asked, his expression somewhat grave.
"No, I don't. Even if I did, you wouldn't be able to use a compass to navigate once you entered the Calm Belt. Back then, we used the blank Log Poses aboard the ship to make several Eternal Poses. I'll get one for you in a moment," Koshiro said, seeing that Vic was determined to go.
"I'll make it back alive," Vic said firmly.
Koshiro rose and went to his room. Vic remained seated, thinking about how to get there. The Calm Belt itself was no problem, but the Sea Kings were a little tricky. Their senses were keen, and the slightest disturbance would bring them to the surface.
Vic thought of Geppo. If he learned it, he could avoid the Sea Kings, and it would be an excellent supporting skill later on, too. Geppo probably was not very difficult. Sanji had learned it just by running, which meant that as long as his speed was high enough, he could learn Geppo naturally. With talent as great as his, there was no reason he could not learn it.
Just because Sanji had looked slow when he learned Geppo in the anime did not mean he had actually been slow. If his speed had truly been shown in the anime, viewers would not even have been able to see him, making it impossible to watch. That was why its depiction of speed had fallen a little short.
By kicking the air at high speed, one could generate an upward reactive force. That was the principle behind walking through the air. It was a little more plausible than stepping on one's right foot with one's left in the martial arts stories of his previous life; at least the reactive force did not come from nowhere. Now he just needed to figure out how to use that small amount of force to walk through the air.
Vic remembered that when he watched the anime in his previous life, people using Geppo always made a loud noise. He guessed the noise was a sonic boom. If it was, that would explain things: they used the reactive force of the sonic boom to propel themselves upward.
Vic did some calculations. To produce a sonic boom, one had to exceed the speed of sound, which was approximately 340 meters per second. Soru, one of the Six Powers, involved kicking off the ground more than ten times in 0.36 seconds, producing an explosive reactive force to move instantaneously. As for the number of kicks, that probably depended on the individual's strength. Vic guessed that the more kicks there were, the faster the user moved, the farther they traveled in the same amount of time, and the greater their mobility. Assuming Soru required thirty kicks, each one would take 0.012 seconds. Counting each kick as one step and estimating each step at one meter, a person who had just learned Soru would need to reach a speed of 83 meters per second. That was already very fast-too fast for the human eye to see.
According to his rough calculations, using Geppo required reaching four times the speed of Soru.
These were only Vic's rough calculations, and there were bound to be discrepancies, but the general direction was sound.
That means I can learn Soru first, then train it to an advanced level before learning Geppo. That'll make things easier. My speed is already beyond what the human eye can see, but I still haven't reached the beginner level of Soru. I never really focused on training my speed before. With my body's talent, training it should be quick. I'd better learn Geppo before setting sail. Sigh. Vic sighed inwardly. His training had been too evenly balanced before, and he had never singled out speed for special attention. He felt a trace of regret; now he would have to spend more time on it.