During their journey, the other crew members were able to undergo extreme wilderness training on Little Garden and fight against ancient beasts.
The next stop they were able to undergo the extreme cold and had to endure training on the mountains resulting in recruiting some additional followers.
After taking the ship to the next island they found themselves stopping at Alabasta.
After gaining some experience in a wild environment and gaining a little resistance to the extreme cold, they found themselves at an island that was of the opposite extreme nature.
The Minks had a difficult time enduring the scorching heat of the deserts but had to endure it and adapt a little at a time.
Each environment helped to increase the crews teamwork, preservation of supplies, planning and their overall ability to adapt to new or strange environments.
Whether it was fighting ancient beasts, snow beasts or desert beasts, they all were able to adapt to many tricky enemies.
However it was still a huge problem for the Minks, although they were trained to have much stronger bodies and higher stamina they still struggled to endure the harsh training along with the others.
Upon coming back to the ship, Carrot heard many growls and warning noises coming from onboard the ship.
Everyone rushed back only to find a large group of creatures near the ship.
One of the men from the crew approached them and lowered their body to eye level. "How cute! Hey guys, these creatures seem to be no threat."
Suddenly a fist came into contact with his face knocking him to the ground.
Many of the creatures began to cheer for the creature that threw the punch.
It began to flex its arm muscles to show off its strength and boast of its abilities.
Suddenly a fist came towards its face and was knocked out right away.
The creatures panicked and began to put up a fighting stance and began to fight the new challenger but the other party was able to bob, weave and guard against their punches and return many punches sometimes clashing against their incoming fists or their body and face.
Tristan looked down at many of them and said mockingly. "That is how you are supposed to punch! Do not be too proud of your skills."
Many kungfu dugongs bowed upon being defeated and began to crowd around Tristan.
Carrot looked over and laughed. "Hehe! It looks like you have gained some followers!"
Tristan suddenly was filled with regret. "Why didn't I just let it go.. sigh!"
The kungfu dugongs have a strict rule, upon being defeated they will become the pupil of those that defeat them.
During the stories timeline, they briefly come to follow Luffy after being defeated but he ends up leaving them behind.
They are once again introduced in a side arc where they reappear with the leader among the group being able to learn Armament Haki and during the time away from each other, the leader had formed their own pirate crew made up of various sea creatures.
However during their journey, they encounter someone that has the devil fruit power to tame them and begins using them for his own twisted goal to establish a country full of animals that are under his control.
Since Tristan had been placed in this same situation, she decided to give them a chance. "Follow my movements and keep practicing, if you can improve before we leave then I will consider bringing you. You can come aboard the ship but to avoid overcrowding and reducing the food storage, I suggest that you go spend some time in the sea and follow the ship while hunting for your own food. Your job will also be to protect underneath the ship from attacks."
Unknown attacks from below was always a possibility whether it was from a Sea King or one of the many sea creatures.
The slightest hole below that goes unnoticed can be made worse upon other creatures targeting it, resulting in many water damages or even the ship sinking below the sea.
If the sea creature is big and strong enough then the ship would have to be strongly fortified to be able to survive on the seas but thanks to the dugongs, the ship had gained an additional defence against these things.
Since they could swim in the sea and keep up with the ship as it is sailing at a normal speed, the crew did not need to worry about overcrowding.
Over twenty kungfu dugongs had joined along with fifteen beasts from Drum Island so a lot of space and food supplies would be taken up by them but since they could hunt and travel in the sea, some of those problems were no longer an issue.
Upon leaving the deserted parts of Alabasta and the place they had stayed docked for around a week, many supplies were running low so they either had to journey further in or leave for another island.
The next best place to resupply and rest but also take on some additional challenges was the island called Jaya which was the island closest to the place where the Log Pose was pointing towards.
Many have come upon this point in the journey and given up upon reaching this stage because they could not figure out how to journey upwards into the sky to follow the pointer.
On Jaya, there are many rookie pirates and explorers who have halted on their journey and settled there causing many territorial disputes.
While staying on Jaya, the crew began exploring the island and taking on the wildlife there including the various dangerous bugs like the giant beetles, centipedes and the mantis.
Following Alyssia's instructions, they remained there for a while and then went in search of the only people who could help them get there safely.
Cricket and the two brothers who had been scavenging underneath the sea were well versed on the activity of the knock up stream and could modify the ship to manage the journey.
Seeing that a crew of explorers were crazy enough to take the risk and were willing to pay for their assistance, they agreed since they hoped that if the crew survived their own suspicions would be confirmed.
Cricket has always been searching for the lost island that his ancestor had discovered but because it had disappeared completely, his ancestor or distant relative was was named Noland 'the liar' and executed by the king.
The city of gold was never found so Cricket wished to find it or confirm its existence.
Either the island was destroyed, sunk into the sea or the last but even less likely option would be that it had somehow flew up into the sky and never came back down.
If a Sky Island is confirmed to be real then he would be able to guess where the city of gold is.
After Archie and his shipbuilding group had assisted them, the ship had been refitted and the various beasts within the group had been secured within the lower parts of the ship away from each other and safely confined and put to sleep so that they will not get injured during the trip up the knock up stream.
Following the tips and instructions left behind by Alyssia before they split up, they made it up on Sky Island safely and were attacked by the Shandorians.
Even having to adjust to the thinner air and the much more different environment, Carrot, Tristan, Archie and Clifford were easily able to handle a small group of attackers even if they had been equipped with bazookas and other types of sky island technology like the dials.
Upon entering the checkpoint, Carrot followed the currency converter Alyssia had left so she was able to pay the toll and get some of the berries exchanged for extol so that they could afford things they wished to purchase even if they did end up using up most of their berries.