"*Yawn*…" I slowly got up from bed and washed my face before I made my way to the training room in the crew's quarters. It's a spacious room that I made specifically for training, it has all sorts of training equipment, from weights to all different types of weapons that we got from plundering other pirate ships, a sparring ground, and a lot more.
I just stood in the middle of the sparring ground and slowly breathed in and out before I hardened both my arms to the elbows, and my legs from the feet to the knees with Haki. It was my limit for now since I just started to use it recently.
My goal was to train two things, first is to increase my stamina and spiritual energy by constantly using Haki without a rest, and the second thing is to improve my control over it by trying to harden more body parts until I eventually become able to imbue my whole body.
After that, I started shadow boxing for a few hours before I changed the exercise. I picked up one of my two swords and started training my swordsmanship while trying to imbue my sword with Haki at the same time. It's an advanced technique than just normal hardening, since you are channeling your Haki outside your body, and I can only do that for a few minutes before I break the hardening.
"*Gulp*-*Gulp*…Phew!...I still need more time until I can become confident with my Haki " I drank some water and rested for about half an hour after that, before I resumed my training again.
…
After I finished my training, I took a quick shower and went out.
Just as I walked out of the ship and was going to leave, I saw Franky walking back with another person, a muscular merman with long, curly fair hair reaching down below his shoulders while wearing a wide-brimmed hat on his head. They approached me slowly before Franky stepped forward.
"Captain, this Den-chan, brother of Tom my shipwright master…He's doing the recoating for us" Franky introduced him to me.
"Oh! This is the guy you were talking about…Nice to meet you, I'm Ashen" I casually introduced myself.
"Nice to meet you too" he said with friendly smile.
"Franky said you're pretty skilled, I get that you can do the job quickly"
"Ah, it normally takes several days to coat the ship but with Den-chan skills, it can be done in half of that time" Franky stated.
"You're praising me too much" Den said while scratching the back of his head.
"Well, to be expected of Tom's little brother…I'll leave this matter to you Franky" I said while walking away.
"Rest assured!"
…
Four days later,
Nothing major happened during our stay here, I also didn't want to meddle in other people's business and just calmly enjoyed the place.
Now that the ship's recoating is done and the log pose captured the magnetic fields of the next three island, all is left is to choose our next destination and we can leave after that.
"There are three islands at the start of the New World" Everyone was gathered in the captain's quarters around a map "Raijin Island, Risky Red Island and Mystoria Island" I stated before I looked at the Log Pose. Two of the needles where jiggling erratically, while one was stable.
"…The needles are jiggling" Ken looked perplexed at the log pose.
"It means that the magnetic fields of those two islands are instable" I stated, then added "It also means that there is something dangerous on that island, most likely some crazy whether conditions"
"Dangerous means fun, let's go there!" Ian said loudly.
"Keep it down brat!" Diana yelled at him angrily.
"You're chickening out?...Don't start pissing your pants yet" He replied to her in a provocative way.
"The hell did you say?!"
"What? Do you want to fight?"
"I also think it would be fun" Yamamoto exclaimed while raising his hand.
"Hey kid, don't start taking after this block head" Diana said to him.
"All of you keep it down!" Calvin shouted at them before he got up smacked them both in the head "These little shits…Stop behaving like children!"
"Aghh!!!" x2
He turned back to me after that "What do you want to do?" He asked me.
'I got to agree with Ian this time, I don't want to go on a boring adventure after all' I though, while cracking a smile as I made up my mind.
"Alright let's wrapped this up. Ken, follow the middle one" I said as I handed him the log pose. He looked at it hesitantly before he changed his gaze to me again.
"Are you sure about that?" He asked me nervously.
"Yeah, let's get going!" As I gave order, everyone moved to their positions, we lowered the sails and loaded the canons in case we had to fight sea monsters, and Franky proceeded to give the signal to Den and the later started draining the air bubble underneath the ship, while we gradually dropped Kuuigosu wood chips outside the ship, before we started ascending slowly.
The Kuuigosu is a very buoyant wood, used by coated ships to ascend rapidly from the depths of Fish-Man Island. We bought many blocks from it to increase the speed of our ascension.
"Take care Den-chan! " Franky said his goodbyes while waving at him.
"Take care of yourself and be careful!" he also did the same.
…
The journey was shorter than before as we manage to reach the surface in less than an hour.
*Splash* as we reached sea surface, the bubble that was surrounding the ship popped off immediately.
"Finally, the blue sky…" Enel said as he closed his eyes while slowly breathing in and out.
"Don't drop your guards yet…something is coming" I informed everyone as I looked at the sea with a serious facial expression.
"Something?" Urouge looked confused as he didn't spot any incoming ships before he closed his eyes and tried to use Mantra to sense the surroundings.
"Something big" Calvin added, before the water underneath the ship started splashing everywhere and the waves became more aggressive.
"…"
*SPLASH!!!* Immediately after that, a gigantic green, sea serpent appeared Infront of us revealing his sharp teeth at us while slowly moving his mouth to swallow us. He was yet to reveal his whole body, but his head only was big enough to tower over the ship.
Everyone looked at it in shock, as he would probably be at least ten times bigger than the ship.
"Save your cries…The great Ian is here to save your asses" he said with a smirk while taking off his coat and revealing his ripped body before he jumped out of the ship.
"Should I stop him?" Calvin asked me.
"Nah, just let him go wild" I said as I observed him in interest.
Ian used the ship's prow as a launching ground, hopping in the air before coming down again.
"HOOORAAA!!!" He shouted his lungs out as he was falling towards the sea monster's head.
"ROOOOAAAARRR!!!" The sea monster proceeded to let out a loud roar before Ian landed between his eyes while delivering a strong punch emitting a shockwave.
Without wasting anytime, he kept raining the monster down with punches before he moved to his right eye and tried to blind him. He launched himself up before kicking him down with his heel while emitting another shockwave.
"ROOOAAAAARR!!!" The monster roared loudly and started moving aggressively causing the sea around us to generate strong waves. After that he proceeded to reveal his whole body, which was gigantic and swung his tail at Ian who was midair.
*SWOOOSH* Luckily for him, the attack went right past him, but the shock wave that created sent him flying into the sea.
When I saw that, quickly jumped out of the ship, and flew on top of him then I proceeded to unsheathe one of my two swords and imbued it with Haki making it pitch black.
As I came down, I thrusted my sword at the top of his head, managing to stab his thick skin. After that I channeled all my fire towards the tip of my sword, burning him at the same time before I started moving down towards his forehead while my sword was still thrusted at him, which managed to create huge cut.
"ROOAAARRR!!" The monster roared in pain as blood splashed everywhere, painting the sea red.
After that I gather my flames into both my palms and shot them as a beam towards his eyes, managing to blind him before I dealt the last attack "Dai Enkai!".
"Fallen Stars!" I started amassing my flames around, then I merged them together to create several gigantic fireballs, then I hurled them at him one after the other burning him off. He immediately fell after that.
I quickly flew back to the ship after that.
"These guys are pretty tough" Ian stated while draining his clothes as he was soaked in water.
"Let's be careful from now on!" I warned everyone, so they won't let their guard down and we kept sailing towards our destination.
…
Just a few minutes after that, we got trapped inside a huge storm while we were getting soaked by a giant whirlpool.
"Give me a break!...What's wrong with this New World!" Ken shouted while nervously trying to steer the ship away and escape the storm.
"Enel, Yamamoto, don't let go of the mast! If you fall into the sea, it would be your end!" I said as I was firmly holding into the ship.
"Boss, we are screwed!" Ken stated looking at the strong whirlpool pulling us down in horror. But he quickly regained his composure and started rotating the ship in the opposite direction to where the whirlpool is spinning.
I quickly understood what he was trying to do, and I flew out to the back of the ship, before I started pushing it while releasing intense flames from the lower part of my body to create something similar to a turbo and give a little push to the ship.
There was no way we could escape that easily since the storm was very strong, but we were just trying to buy some time hoping that it would toss us out or disappear. Which is what happened a few minutes later.
"That was close" Ken looked mentally exhausted from that.
"The quick weather change can be convenient sometimes" I said as I got back into the ship again.
"This sea is way more dangerous than I have expected" Calvin stated while lighting a cigarette to calm himself down.
…
After that we sailed for a few more hours before we finally reached our first destination in the New Word. It was also nighttime when we arrived.
"Hoi Ken, are you sure this the right place? Is the Log Pose really pointing toward that island?" Urouge looked at the Island getting struck with endless lightning.
*Thunder*-*Thunder*-*Thunder*-*Thunder*
"The lightning bolts are raining down!" Diana exclaimed.
"Well, Enel won't have a problem with that" I said as I looked at him, he didn't seem to be concerned about the situation.
"I'm a lightning human after all" he said proudly.
"This is ridiculous!" Urouge said anxiously before a lightning bolt struck the ship's mast. Though it didn't manage to cause any damage since the ship was built using Adam Wood, so something like that wasn't enough to damage it "How are we supposed to land on this island?!".
*Thunder*-*Thunder*-*Thunder*-*Thunder*
"Captain! Someone is coming toward us!" Franky said while pointing at small boat sailing towards us, before a short, wrinkled, elderly woman in a cloak revealed her face. She was accompanied with around a dozen men behind her.
'Hm?...This women' I knew her since something like this happened, when Urouge and his crew visited this island.
"Young'uns up there"
"Who's this old lady?"
"You want an umbrella?"