The group sailed through the east blue and besides occasionally meeting some foolish pirates visited various place such as goat island , and the island of rare animals. once they felt they had grown bored of this part of the sea alastair navigated to the nearest reverse mountain. the towering red mountain was quite the site to behold especially the upwards flowing river that defied all sorts of sense. alastair positioned the ship to enter the entrance of the river and had the girls take up position around the ship to force it into a different direction if it gets out of hand.
Truthfully alastair could have just flown the ship over the mountain but that would have ruined the experience so he decided against it. at first the ship moved slowly as it went up the mountain but quickly picked up speed. alastair was thankful for his navigator perk that let him control the ship deftly to avoid most of the dangerous parts of the river. after an hour of near misses and adrenalin pounding sailing the ship reached a lake at the top of the mountain. the signs next to each of the rivers said where they went but the largest was the one that read , grand line.
From the river labeled north blue broken planks of wood entered the lake showing the group the cost of failure. with that as a harsh lesson the ship sailed down the mountain and officially entered the grand line. the first island they came to was not one of the ones shown in the show called grell and was filled with giant insects. more than once the group was attacked by insects the size of cars with the spiders being the worst in alastairs experience.
The group walked carefully through the dense overgrowth with wary expressions when a black blur shot out at them. alastair slashed the blur with metalbane causing green liquid to splatter on the group and plants nearby. it was revealed that this was a giant cricket the size of a cat as it was split in half on the ground nearby. the group didn't move and watched the still twitching body as a huge black head with featherlike antennae creeped out of the weeds near the body. this centipede grabbed the body of the cricket with its mandibles before slinking back while staring down the group cautiously.
"Hate this place so much" erisa said seriously. jade and marina agreed with this whole heartedly but didn't want to ruin the fun alastair was having. "I'll let you choose the next place we stop." alastair said trying appease his wife. "deal!" erisa said excitedly. the group tensed up as the bushes ahead of them shook and surprisingly a man with no hair and tan skin along with three eyes walked out. the man looked just as surprised to see the group as they are to see him making both sides freeze up. "who are you?" alastair asked seriously.
The man frowned and looked like he was thinking for a moment before pointing at himself and saying "spider" in a scratchy voice like he was unfamiliar with speaking. this was an unusual name and made alastair have an idea that he wanted to verify. "did you happen to eat a strange disgusting tasting fruit in the past?" he asked curiously. spider's face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically before trying to say that he turned into this after eating the fruit. alastair lowered metal bane and explained what a devil fruit was and saw the look of understanding appear on spiders face.
As it turned out spider was in fact a huge dappled brown spider called a rust leaf spider that had eaten the hito hito no mi: model three eyed human. alastair had offered spider a place on the ship once he learned his circumstances. spider was thrilled to join the crew since as he said once he ate that fruit doing the same thing over and over again bored him. thanks to what he was before eating the fruit spider was quite strong from the get go , if a bit awkward at using his strength.
The ship left the island with an extra member that was a perfect fit for the crew with how unusual he was. spider took a few days to get comfortable in his new room since he threw out the basic bed and strung up a web hammock. alastair who had the deepest understanding of devil fruits gave spider advice on how to train his abilities. things like covering his human form with his exoskeleton as well as turning his extra limbs into human arms for extra advantages.