As Ken and Damien arrived in front of Josh's secluded house. They saw Josh at the entrance looking at them. 'How did he know that we would be coming here?, does he know observation haki?'.
Ever since they first met Damien had the feeling that Josh is not an ordinary person. "What brings you back here?" Josh asked Damien as he looked up and down at Ken. "I wanted to see you one last time before I set sail" Damien replied as he and Ken entered Josh's house and sat down on the sofa.
"You look oddly familiar" Ken said as he looked deeply into Josh's eyes. "Have you already forgotten me you brat, I'm the one who took care of you when you were lost in the forest several years ago" Josh said as he punched Ken in the back of his head.
"FAHAHAHA!, It's really you old man" Ken said with a large smile plastered on his face. "Indeed It's me you little brat" Josh said while drinking water.
They reminisced for some hours and talked about Damien's experience on this Island and other random stuff. After talking for a while they proceeded to go and hunt for some meat to eat.
'It's much easier now to kill wild animals than it was before' Damien was in thought as he just killed his third wild boar. Damien felt the need to become even stronger than he is know because he knows that there exists people who can destroy this island with one punch.
"You said that you're going to sail right?" Josh asked Damien while eating the newly grilled boars. "I need to sail if I want to achieve my dream" Damien said with a serious face. "You're still too wet behind the ears to sail these seas" Josh said while looking at Ken and Damien.
"Well what do you suggest then?" Damien said trying to ask for some advice because he knew as he was now he would barely be cannon fodder in new world. "Train, train so hard that you wish you were dead" Josh only said that simple sentence before continuing to eat his food.
(Ding..)
(Mission for the host: Train and become powerful enough to sail the grand line unrestrained)
(Rewards: Unique skill Dragon eye and random devil fruit token)
(Time limit: 8 months)
"Perfect timing" Damien muttered as he thought about ways to train. Damien had a feeling that he should ask Josh to train him and Ken. As he asked Josh to train them while they ate dinner he for some reason immediately agreed to train them.
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The first week was like hell on earth for Damien and Ken as Josh forced them to run around the island wearing clothes weighing 20 kg each. After they finished running they ate sea king meat and continued to train by doing push ups with boulders on their back and some other rigorous exercise.
Damien didn't go one day without honing his devil fruit and swordsmanship. After a couple weeks of constantly training and sparring with Ken, he felt that his strength took a huge leap compared to before. Damien with his newfound powers wanted to challenge one of the rulers of the forest.
Just as Damien entered the territory of one of the rulers of the forest he sensed it looking at him. He calmly looked in it's direction while walking towards it with a feral grin plastered on his face. He stopped when he was 100 meters away from the beast.
"Finally an opponent to test my new moves on" Damien said loudly before uttering "Void Steps" just as he finished saying that he appeared in front of the large Brown bear and punched it with all his strength on it's face. The move void steps that Damien created works by deleting the concept of distance between himself and the bear, it's basically teleportation.
The bear went flying and smashed it's back on a huge rock before getting back up and looking furious.
"RAAWWRR!!"
It started sprinting towards Damien wanting to tear him to pieces. Damien decided that he wanted to see his strength without the devil fruit so he ran and met up with the bear halfway and proceeded to have a fistfight with it.
After some dodging the bear finally slashed Damien on his arm causing him to bleed a little. "Finally a little challenge" Damien uttered as he dodged the bears paw. Damien proceeded to retrieve his sword his aura changed from a wild battle maniac to a sharp swordsman.
As soon as the bear came close Damien took a step back and leaning forward before slashing his sword as quickly as possible trying to sever it's arm. Due to luck or skill the bear's arm was severed as it started to bleed profusely.
Damien trying to exploit the huge bear's time of weakness immediately sprinted towards it concentrating on pulling all his energy in the sword.
"Try this slash" Damien screamed before slashing the sword at it's neck and severing the bear's neck. 'This was hardly a challenge' Damien thought to himself before storing the bear's carcass in the inventory.
Damien was thinking of opponents to fight as he walked back to Josh's home. 'How about me and Ken go bounty hunting as a form of training and collect the money to buy a ship for our future crew.'
Damien came up with a feasible idea that he wanted to try. He went back and told Josh and ken about his victory while they ate the barbecued bear meat explaining that it was too easy and told the idea he had on the way back. "That's pretty smart of you" Ken said while nodding with a small smile.
After Josh confirmed that it was a pretty good idea. Damien and Ken went and stole a pretty good and hid it near Josh's house. "So when are we going?" Ken asked Damien while they were doing push ups with huge boulders tied to their backs. "We'll go tomorrow at noon. Damien replied while finishing his last push ups.