What the old man said wasn't too much of an exaggeration. Although Vic has been practicing his resistance to Conqueror's Coating recently, they still need to practice Armament Haki and physical techniques before they start training to achieve a comprehensive training effect.
The old man's goal couldn't have been just to knock Vic unconscious with a few moves of his Conqueror's Coating. He only knocked Vic unconscious in a few moves on the first day to give him a surprise. After that, he focused on comprehensive cultivation.
Therefore, he had a fairly clear understanding of Vic's strength, which would only exceed what he had seen. After all, Vic liked to hold back, and the old man had recently beaten up Akainu, so he knew what level he was at. That's why he was able to make an objective judgment.
Vic himself has always been training with a sense of crisis, so he never slacks off on his domineering Haki for survival. After all, he hasn't encountered any opponents who require days and nights of fighting, and he has free time every day.
There's a priority to using this free time. Haki is definitely the first priority, followed by swordsmanship and the development of Devil Fruit abilities.
Because Vic knew that only Haki could quickly shorten the gap between him and the top powerhouses, and even the strongest Devil Fruit abilities could be immune to Haki.
In the later stages of swordsmanship, one also needs to rely on Haki for support. In addition, since Vic has already understood the essence of Haki, his improvement is twice as effective.
Therefore, the old man believed that what Vic lacked was military merit and prestige. As long as Vic seized this opportunity to become Marine Admiral, he would only become stronger and stronger after that, and it was only a matter of time before he surpassed Akainu and the others to become the strongest Marine Admiral.
"I'll do my best. Military merits also depend on luck. There's nothing I can do if I don't encounter any valuable pirates. I can't just go and fight Kaido and Big Mom head-on, can I? I can't beat them right now!"
There are quite a few great pirates in the New World, but very few of them actually have fixed territories. And those who do have fixed territories are the ones that Vic can't really mess with.
Some, even if they have a fixed territory, will constantly sail and patrol within that territory. Like Whitebeard, they don't have a fixed location and are usually on their ships, so it's difficult to encounter them without accurate intelligence.
"No problem. With me here, I'll let you know as soon as I get any news about those guys. With your speed and abilities, they can't escape! Hahaha!"
Given Garp's relationship with Sengoku, he could easily access information about New World pirates, so he wasn't too worried about Vick's military achievements. Although he couldn't defeat Whitebeard or Kaido, he could certainly defeat the next level up, who were also great pirates with considerable military merit.
With the old man's information channels, the issue of military merit is no longer a big problem; what needs to be improved then is his prestige within the navy.
Although his title of Thunder God had already spread within the Navy, and the story of his dazzling appearance that day had also become widely known, making him an idol for many.
However, it is not very famous in the entire sea, and it has no deterrent effect on pirates and therefore no prestige. Marine Admiral needs to be able to keep order in any situation.
Although it's already quite an achievement that Vic defeated the legendary pirate Golden Lion, the fact that Golden Lion lost both legs when he escaped Impel Down is known throughout the seas. He's practically crippled now, which diminishes his prestige.
Furthermore, Vic suffered a crushing defeat at Kaido's hands before, so if Vic wants to establish greater prestige, he doesn't necessarily need to defeat Kaido, but at least hold his own against Kaido, and perhaps even clash with the true Emperor of the Sea, Whitebeard?
Only in this way could his prestige surpass that of Akainu and be promoted exceptionally. Vic already had a plan in mind, just waiting to be separated from his current position.
Too many military achievements might damage the old man's reputation now. After all, conspiracy theorists are everywhere, and it's quite possible that his military achievements were given to him by the old man. One can't be too careful! The navy is also a place of fame and fortune, and not everyone's sense of justice is so pure!
Afterwards, Vic inquired about the great pirates of the New World from the old man, preparing for future military achievements. He learned about their strength, abilities, and deeds, which was quite good as a prequel story to the pirate world, allowing him to know himself and his enemy.
The great pirates of the New World aren't like Foxy. If they truly possessed Devil Fruit abilities, they wouldn't have developed them so poorly. If they had an abnormal ability on par with the Slow-Slow Fruit, who knows how far they would have developed it.
Only after the chefs had removed all the meat from the animals did the old man give the order, and the Dog-Head Warship broke through the waves and headed towards the next island Water 7.
All that remained was a pile of bones with some bits of meat and animal entrails. Not far away, a large, round hole in a reef emitted a continuous howling sound in the sea breeze. The lava at the bottom of the hole had long since cooled, turned black, and stopped flowing.
A dozen days later, a large naval warship was sailing at sea, moving at a speed three times faster than usual, with every sail billowing out.
Although it was still broad daylight, visibility on the sea was less than a hundred meters. The gloomy sky seemed to affect the huge dog head on the bow of the warship. Although it had a large bone in its mouth, the dog looked listless.
The atmosphere on the warship was somewhat somber, as if this kind of weather had been going on for a long time. This warship was the flagship of the Marine Garp the Hero, but the recent voyage had not been going smoothly, with the consistently bad weather affecting everyone's mood.
"What's wrong with this weather?! If you're going to rain, just rain! It's not snowing, it's not hailing, what kind of crazy thing is it planning?! I'm going to go crazy if this keeps up!"
Rebecca, after enduring this for many days, finally couldn't take it anymore and pointed at the sky, roaring. It seemed she really had been holding back for too long.
Rebecca's roar attracted everyone's attention, but many marines turned their heads to look and then turned back listlessly, seemingly frustrated. Only Vic and Garp ignored Rebecca.
" Rebecca! Why don't we go play cards? There's no point in you getting angry now!"
Wendy smiled wryly and advised them that although they were also feeling cooped up, it was a natural weather phenomenon and there was nothing they could do about it.
"I'm done fighting! I'm so tired of it! I really want to fight someone! This is so boring!"
Rebecca clung to the ship's railing, staring blankly into the darkness, and weakly shook her arms to indicate that she didn't want to play cards anymore, never again.
On the entire warship, only Vic and the old man could fight Rebecca. Wendy and the others could too, but their strength was far inferior to Rebecca's, so it wouldn't be very effective.