More time passed as most things were moved towards Rica Island from Baldimore.
Ness was busy fighting other sea creatures along with the Kungfu Dugong and other fighting sea creatures while escorting the merchant ships around many places so she was kept busy.
After most of the main changes were completed and the land was secure, many returned to their original duties while most of the builders and scientists remained within the lands of Rica where they continued to work on the land or on the docks.
Many ships made from metal were covered with an outer shell made from wood on the parts that remained out of the water to disguise them as they were moved from Water Seven and each of them were transported to Rica Island along with Alyssia's ship where a new ship yard was being constructed by the ship docking area.
While many had returned to their life of a mercenary, bodyguard, manager, diva or dancer, there were those that remained so that they could add an extra layer of protection to the Sunken Castle.
Medea, Clifford, Archie, Alyssia, Yvie, Ghost, Li and Carrot remained on Rica island along with Ashwin, Nica and Ein while Tristan was sent on her own mission during that time.
While most people remained to help defend the castle, build or work on a science project, Medea had been asked to remain so that the location on her body that contained the power source could be modified further.
After many breakthroughs with thunder or electric power and creating a power source or storage unit like the Electro power core, a thunder power core was built to suit Medea and her cyborg enhancements but several changes needed to be made to allow it to properly be installed so she quickly underwent further enhancements as it was installed to her body.
Once it was installed, her overall management of her power had improved along with the regulation and power of her thunder attacks.
Under Dr Tsukimi's supervision, the Creation Union scientists that remained on Baldimore continued to uphold their deal with White Storm as they continued building many types of gadgets to be sold around the Grand Line while the remaining cultivation chambers continued to remain there for the time being.
A little while later, the Arc Maxim was moved closer to Rica Island as it remained hidden within an unoccupied sky island.
Alyssia visited one of the lands where the Revolutionary Army had recently received a mission and she watched as Sabo singlehandedly destroyed the enemy forces stronghold after she had hitched a ride with Kuma after nagging him to witness the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army in person.
While she watched from far away, she absorbed the surrounding skills from each of the fighters including Hack and Koala's Fishmen karate to supplement what she had already gained from Monera and purchased enough of the Dragon Claw technique belonging to Sabo to help Yvie in her training.
Since Kuma was keenly aware of Alyssia's interests and pursuits, he was able to quickly figure out that most of her actions were towards further expanding her knowledge and experiences as either a martial artist or as a scientist.
Outside of those aspects, she did not interfere with the world unless it benefitted her in some way and towards the operations of the Revolutionary Army, she would remain silent about it all since she had expressed her approval of what they were doing many times.
Since Alyssia had kept silent on many things related to himself and the Revolutionary Army along with not interfering in their actions and providing rain tools to his homeland, Kuma had started to trust her more deeply.
She had even halted the White Storm mercenaries from taking any conflicting missions that put them on the other side of the Revolutionary Army or other major forces so her overall relationship with them was not hostile and could either be considered as friendly or neutral so Kuma did not fear her turning on his companions.
After arriving back at Rica Island, Yvie was put through very harsh training to further improve her finger strength and durability along with improving her overall body in a balanced way as she continued to work on her animal claw style of combat that was suited to the Six Powers and the Dragon Claw technique which improved her stabbing, tearing, grabbing and crushing abilities even further when used with her Wolverine Zoan Devil Fruit.
Nica and others had begun to work hard to put together an arm attachment which works as a Pop Green launcher for Yvie so that she could increase her battle potential even further.
Meanwhile within Water Seven, the Straw Hats had run into many difficulties whether it be the Going Merry being unrepairable, the loss of their berries, one crew mate leaving while the other going missing, being named as criminals and many other problems that came later.
The second attempted assassination of Iceberg took place along with Cypher Pol gaining the location of the blueprints before going to find and capture Franky.
The Straw Hats were thrown into further disarray as Nico Robin sacrificed herself for them and left on the Sea Train which prompter the full blown rescue mission.
During that time, Alyssia had travelled to a certain island to meet up with Tristan who had set up a small place to treat people as she waited for the estimated time that it would take.
Thanks to gaining some of the crew members blood from Jaya or Skypiea, she had been able to create a Vivre Card and track their movements but to be absolutely sure, she had some people sitting in some key locations ready to inform her upon the arrival of certain up and coming pirate crews.
Tracking the Straw Hat Pirates was not too difficult even if she did not know the time taken to travel the first half of the Grand Line since she knew the route they would take and some islands that they may stop at in between.
Once they had first arrived at Water Seven, she jumped onto the back of Ness who she had tracked down with the help of Ghost and then she headed to her next location.
Meanwhile within Rica Island, a specific training plan was being put to use for the new addition to the inner circle of the crew.
By a strong waterfall, Zhihaojin stood on top of a rock and his lower legs were partly submerged in the water as he steadied himself and remained firmly in place with two ordinary but heavy blacksmithing hammers in his hands.
He thought back to Alyssia's advice a while ago. "You are used to striking metal which is held in place, each strike will follow a certain rhythm or pattern as your body will adjust to the metal with each strike followed by many stronger strikes until you have fully tempered it with a certain amount of strikes. However you are less familiar with striking moving objects or people so this practice will help you adjust to various changes but also better grasp the rhythm and control of your hammer techniques. Start with nine swings of your hammers and build it without stopping in front of a strong waterfall where you will have a strong resistance. Slowly you will be able to improve your technique to make each blow much stronger and reach up to eighty one arm swings if you can build up your mastery of the technique further while increasing your overall stamina and strength. As for the final outcome… it depends on your own insights, it could produce a strong force of wind or a shockwave type of effect or something entirely different. Just follow what I have shown you and slowly practice while keeping your lower half firm and steady in front of the waterfall."
His first attack hit the waterfall and scattered the heavily falling water which followed with his arm being pushed back and as he did, his other arm followed up with another blow as he used the force behind his first strike and being pushed back to his advantage as he turned it into more force as he hit the same position again as the new water had begun to fall in place of the scattered water.
"Hu…" He continued to control his breathing as his hammer was pushed back as he hit the waterfall again and had used to force to redirect the force into the swing of his other hammer and struck at the waterfall again creating a stronger attack than before followed by six more strikes which had continued to grow in strength and out further of a burden on his body as he continued.
Due to his already strong physique and long experience as a blacksmith, he was able to persist for some time as his body became sweaty and tired but after achieving thirty blows, his foot slipped on the rock and he lost his stable footing.
He quickly adjusted his fall to himself to prevent any serious damage to his body and he rested as he lay back in the water around him. "Man this is tough.. I have been doing this ever since she told me to and with every strike, the burden on the body is much bigger and it burns more energy the more I continue. My body heat has risen too during the later swings as I enter a deeper state of concentration so it can be quite taxing on both the mind and body. It is good that I have cold water to rest in. Aaah.."
Alyssia had adjusted his hammer techniques a little a taught him a little about some methods of training based on some concepts from a novel or manhua called Soul Land in which there is a blacksmithing technique called Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer which allows the user to swing a hammer eighty one times, each blow being stronger than the previous.
When used by the specific clans hammer spirit in the series, it can produce a gravitational effect but in the world of One Piece, special types of spirit tools, weapons or forms do not exist so she had to reform the idea to suit the knowledge that she had gathered with the system to come up with Zhihaojin's future path and training plan which resulted in him training at the waterfall everyday since as he slowly gained more familiarity with his techniques.
In his spare time, he sparred with Archie to test how he had grown but there was still quite a large gap between them because Archie had continued to improve himself through many harsher experiences and increased his training over the past year while Zhihaojin had not gained too much real combat experience in life and death battles while he was improving himself.
However that did not mean that Zhihaojin's fighting strength and potential was low, it was just that he needed some time to adjust to his changes and to gain more real combat experience.
While he lay in the water, he rested up and then got out to eat some food before continuing his training with a couple of pairs of eyes watching over him to lookout for any intruders in the area from people of the capital or lawless zone.