Chapter 36: Plenty of Points—Back to the Village to Grow Stronger!
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In the afternoon, a passenger ship departed from the harbor.
At the bow, Shano leaned against the railing, gazing at the capital of the Goa Kingdom as it gradually faded from view.
From this angle, the city truly was magnificent and resplendent, like a heavenly kingdom blessed by the gods. It was no wonder the country was known as the most beautiful in the East Blue.
And yet...
Shano shook his head.
He turned and walked toward his cabin, his right hand spinning a delicate, compact dagger up and down in an idle flourish.
This was the dagger Ace had used to attack him, only to have it kicked away.
He had picked it up from the grass while the two hot-blooded brothers were not paying attention.
He had never expected it to be worth many points, but even a mosquito's leg was still meat. Just as, on the night before leaving Shimotsuki Village, he had not forgotten to quietly take Koushirou's glasses.
It was not that he had forgotten to disable automatic collection. Primarily, he had done it for Kuina's sake.
That way, Koushirou would finally be able to truly understand the pain of having a daughter who could not see clearly. Getting her a new pair of glasses would become his highest priority, leaving no room for further delay.
Whoosh—
The dagger spun around him, then suddenly vanished without a trace.
Shano looked toward the system notification that had just appeared.
The glasses and this dagger had provided a total of seven hundred points. By that calculation, his remaining points should have amounted to 10,825.
Yet the balance displayed on the panel was far greater than that.
The reason, naturally, was—
[Offering: Luffy's Straw Hat]
[Quality: Legendary]
[Value: 30,000 points]
[Appraisal: The straw hat of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. He personally gave it to Red-Haired Shanks, who later passed it on to Luffy. It has borne witness to countless legendary adventures across three generations, and from it came the nickname “Straw Hat” Luffy. Meanwhile, in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, Imu still keeps Joy Boy's enormous straw hat. The continuation of the will of D may perhaps always inspire fear in certain people.]
[Remaining Points: 41,025]
A full thirty thousand points!
Twice as much as the value of Red-Haired's severed arm!
His remaining points had broken through the 40,000 mark, filling Shano with indescribable comfort and an unprecedented sense of security.
With so many points, even if he spent them freely from here on, he would have enough to last him a long time.
He would not even need to replenish them before growing up and officially setting out to sea.
Of course, no one ever complained about having too many points.
Shano planned to wait until the cooldown period ended next year, after Arlong's threat had been resolved and he no longer had any worries weighing on him, before temporarily setting out to sea and seeking out Luffy.
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He wanted to see how much the fake straw hat, after being worn for an entire year, would be worth.
He glanced at the trading section beside it.
It was now the twentieth day since he had set sail, and the market had not yet reached its refresh time.
Shano had previously asked the captain of this passenger ship. The voyage from the Goa Kingdom to Cocoyasi Village would take roughly ten days.
In other words, by the time he arrived home, the next batch of market items should also be available for purchase.
“I hope something useful turns up.”
Shano's gaze shifted slightly, and anticipation filled his heart.
After closing the system panel, he washed up briefly, then lay comfortably on the bed, intending to get a good night's sleep first.
He had spent the previous few days causing a commotion in the Colubo Mountains, and before departing that day, he had also needed to withdraw money from the bank and find a ship. His body and mind had long since been exhausted.
Before long, he fell into a deep sleep.
...
Time passed in a flash.
In the blink of an eye, twelve days had gone by.
On the second floor of the ship, inside a spacious training room that had been specially converted for him, Shano was practicing one of the Six Powers techniques, Shave.
The Shano of today was no longer the impoverished boy who had boarded Old Gatte's merchant ship twenty days earlier.
He had reserved half the passenger berths on this merchant ship, and he had spared no expense in the dining hall. Naturally, he enjoyed the highest level of VIP treatment.
Asking for a training room was a trivial request. The captain had readily agreed and set the sailors to work, completing the conversion in half a day.
On the southern side of the training room, three short wooden posts stood in a row, just as Shano had requested.
Three more stood in the same arrangement on the northern side.
In the corner rested a statue of Heracles, silently providing a threefold boost to the efficiency of his physical training.
Shano stood atop the middle post on the southern side, his eyes fixed intently on the corresponding post ten meters away to the north.
The next instant, he drew a deep breath. His right leg lifted slightly, and the arch of his foot tensed.
“Shave!”
Whish!
The sound of tearing air rang out. The instant the words left his mouth, Shano's figure vanished completely from where he stood.
When he reappeared, he was already standing atop the middle post on the northern side. However, he failed to land steadily and stumbled off it.
“I'm almost there!”
Shano rose to his feet. There was no disappointment or dejection in his eyes—only delight.
After all, it had been only a little over ten days since he began practicing the Six Powers, yet his progress could already be described as astonishingly rapid.
At first, he had spent several days completely mastering the technique used to generate force for Shave. Then he had spent several more days narrowing the possible error in his reappearance point to a relatively small range.
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And today...
That range of error had finally been reduced, step by step, to a point that could almost be ignored.
In actual combat, this meant he would be able to teleport to any precise landing point he chose while facing an enemy.
That was of vital importance.
If he failed to master the technique properly, he might teleport in battle and land directly on his opponent's head. That would be awkward enough.
If he overshot in the other direction and drove his own chest onto the enemy's sword, the consequences would be even worse.
“Has it already been judged as having reached the entry level?”
Shano glanced at the skill section of the system panel and nodded in satisfaction.
After reaching the entry level, he no longer needed to devote all his training time each day to this one physical technique.
He could begin practicing the other techniques. As for Shave, he only needed to spend part of each day consolidating it. Within a month at most, he would be able to raise it to the minor mastery stage and become thoroughly proficient.
“Even with the statue's enhancement, this is still much faster than I expected.”
After trying several more times and landing precisely on his chosen wooden post every time, Shano's mood grew increasingly cheerful.
It seemed that the bodily transformation brought about by mastering the Breathing Fist had an additional benefit.
It was like having the governing and conception vessels opened in a martial arts novel—once one channel flowed freely, everything else followed. As a result, his progress in practicing the other physical techniques was considerably faster than before.
Speaking of which, the specific principle behind Shave appeared quite simple.
It was nothing more than rapidly stomping the ground dozens of times in an instant, generating an explosive counterforce.
That allowed the user to move at high speed, even vanishing directly before an enemy's eyes as though teleporting.
However, it placed certain demands on one's physical foundation and one's ability to exercise microscopic control over the muscles. If one failed to meet the necessary threshold, even extraordinary insight and talent would not be enough to make up for it.
Shano happened to possess considerable advantages in both areas.
Combined with the talent he already possessed for physical training, the two factors had made his progress terrifyingly fast.
“It took me a little over ten days to gain an initial grasp of Shave. If I spend another ten-odd days on Iron Body, I wonder whether I can master that as well.”
After wiping away his sweat with a towel, Shano opened the backpack menu and was just about to read through the Iron Body training method when a knock sounded from outside the door.
“Who is it? If you're bringing food, just leave it outside.”
He called out casually. Over the past several days, he had spent more than ten hours here every day, with the restaurant's attendants delivering all three meals to him by cart.
“It's me, Lord Shano!”
Manba pushed open the door and pointed out through the porthole, his face filled with delight.
“It is time to disembark, my lord. Cocoyasi Village has arrived!”
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