Vic was speechless, but he still had to keep digging; that was his purpose for coming here.
The tunnel that Vic dug wasn't very large; he only moved the Island Cloud he had excavated out of the tunnel once. He dug through the entire inverted cone-shaped landmass along the boundary between the land and the Island Cloud.
But the Divine Staff continued to point downwards, making Vic begin to doubt whether it was truly pointing towards the Divine Staff Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
When Vic arrived at the tip of the land cone, he found that it was not filled with Island Cloud, and there was a circular opening directly below the tip of the cone.
Vic jumped down and landed safely without falling too far. He felt a numbness after landing, but the sensation disappeared after a second. He was not injured.
However, he soon felt a tingling sensation all over his body again, realizing that this was cyclical. Only then did Vic carefully examine the underground space.
Except for a hole at the top, the rest of the room is sealed off. Electric sparks will appear regularly under his feet, at which point he will feel a jolt of electricity.
Looking around, he found himself standing in a vessel about ten meters in diameter, shaped like a large bowl, which was placed at the center of this Island Cloud space.
The bowl was made of some kind of stone that Vic couldn't recognize; it wasn't smooth and round, nor did it resemble the material of the Poneglyph.
Looking down at his feet, he saw a white fruit covered in Inazuma symbols and spiral patterns. The fruit darted left and right within the large bowl, constantly moving under the occasional Inazuma emitted from a ring-shaped Thunder Drum marked with magatama. Seeing these two things, a smile finally appeared on Vic's lips.
" The Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the Thunder Drum appeared at the same time! Could this stone bowl be the legendary Thunder Pool? Does the Rumble-Rumble Fruit always appear here? How is this possible?"
Thinking about the journey he had taken digging along the way, Vic felt that the Rumble-Rumble Fruit hadn't been placed there by someone.
If it was indeed placed there intentionally, then this underground space must have been arranged first to form a huge funnel, and then someone placed a small landmass on the Island Cloud to block the funnel and hide this place!
However, this idea was too far-fetched, so Vic immediately ruled it out. Besides, it wasn't just the Thunder Drum that emitted electricity; the stone bowl also released lightning from time to time, which was quite obvious and not just Vic's wild speculation.
Vic put the Divine Staff, which was still trying to get closer to the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, into his Dimensional Space, then bent down and picked up the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
The Thunder Drum also floated up on its own, drifting in mid-air not far from the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. The Thunder Drum was like a byproduct of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, so Vic put the Thunder Drum back into his spatial storage, since he didn't need to eat it.
He hadn't figured out how to use the Thunder Drum yet. Vic was unwilling to stick it on his back like Enel did, but the Thunder Drum's ability boost was not to be underestimated, and Vic didn't want to give it up.
"What a rollercoaster ride! I finally got you. I didn't expect you to have a base of operations. Your treatment is completely different from those Devil Fruit who wander the world, hahaha!"
Looking at the Rumble-Rumble Fruit in his hand, Vic finally felt relieved after suppressing his emotions for so long. Although it took a bit more time, the result was still perfect. He could only blame Oda, that guy who digs holes, for not explaining anything clearly.
After muttering a few words, Vic put the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to his mouth and took a bite. Then, he ate the entire Rumble-Rumble Fruit without any expression. He didn't taste the unpleasant flavor, not because the fruit was fake, but because Vic used his Life Return ability to sever the neural pathways that transmit taste to the brain. There's only an emissary and no receiver, so you can't feel it.
Immediately after consuming the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Vic felt a change in his body. With a single command in his mind, his physical body could transform into an energy form of lightning.
Furthermore, he can transform his own power into lightning attacks, the intensity of which is naturally related to his own strength. Now that Vic is using the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's ability, even his most ordinary attacks surpass Enel's ultimate move; they're not even in the same league.
This reminded Vic of a famous saying from his past life: the Tremor-Tremor Fruit only had earth-shattering power in Whitebeard's hands; in the hands of ordinary people, it could only create aftershocks. Top-tier fruits and top-tier strength complement each other.
Of course! Some people can reach the top even without Devil Fruit abilities.
After getting used to the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit for a while, Vic didn't launch any attacks, but he could feel the terrifying power of the attack, which was completely different from Enel's seemingly invincible electric attack.
If Sanji still asks Vic to light his cigarette, Vic might light an incense stick for him, but he will most likely help him Awakening his physical potential ahead of time.
If the Magma-Magma Fruit's powerful attack relies on burning enemies with high temperatures, which can be considered physical damage, then the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's overwhelming power destroys the vitality of cells within the enemy's body, making it a life-destroying magical attack.
Both fruits are powerful, but they have different focuses. If you add Haki to the attack, it becomes even more powerful. The only way to know which one is stronger is to fight it!
After experiencing his new abilities, Vic transformed into a bolt of Inazuma and left the Thunder Pool space. Upon reaching the edge of the cave entrance, he transformed back into human form.
Looking up at the bottom of the cone-shaped landmass above, I noticed that the gap between the passage I had descended and the Island Cloud was rather large.
This is because the landmass is not perfectly conical. When viewed from a distance, it does appear conical, but upon closer inspection, it reveals a rugged, pitted landscape resembling burrs.
On the other side, a small, winding passage formed between the spiky protrusions. Vic used his Observation Haki to sense that the end of this passage was not far from the ground of Birka.
"Could it be that Enel came down from here? But how did he discover this passage? After all, the passage doesn't even reach the surface, otherwise it would have been discovered long ago. Or did Enel accidentally choose this place while trying to dig a tunnel to steal something from the temple? That's how he discovered the entrance at the bottom?"
Vic's guess was basically correct; Enel did indeed want to steal something from the temple to change his fate, because Urouge's displayed abilities had inspired him.
He hadn't dug very deep when his foot slipped and he fell into the narrow passage. If the passage hadn't been winding and stopped him, the 200-meter fall would have been fatal.
He then followed the passage to the cave entrance, and out of curiosity, he jumped down. The process of jumping down was similar to Vic's experience, except that because he was an ordinary person, he was shocked and suffered a lot of pain from the electric shock.
He didn't know what Devil Fruit and Thunder Drum were, but he knew they were treasures buried so deep. However, after putting these two items away, he realized he couldn't go any further.
The height of this space was far beyond what ordinary people like him could reach. Trapped inside and starving for three days, Enel finally mustered the courage to eat the strangely shaped, fruit-like fruit.
So Enel stood up, changed his destiny, destroyed Birka who was full of terrible memories, stole the blueprints of the Ark Maxim from the temple, and saw the carvings on the wall, which made him yearn for the moon.