"The Snow-Snow Fruit, huh? Doflamingo sure has a knack for gathering powerful Devil Fruits among his subordinates," Daniel Davis thought, recalling that the Snow-Snow Fruit could be considered a weaker version of Aokiji's Ice-Ice Fruit. Doflamingo's crew boasted other remarkable fruits, including the immensely powerful Hobby-Hobby Fruit.
Not to mention the lost Devil Fruits that had once been under Doflamingo's control, such as the Flame-Flame Fruit. Including the lost Gold-Gold and Ope Ope Fruits, he had lost three highly valuable Devil Fruits.
Unfortunately, Monet's Snow-Snow Fruit had hardly shown its potential before she met her end in this very laboratory, making her exit as swift as her introduction.
The Snow-Snow Fruit is one of the rare cold-based Devil Fruits, contrasting with the more common fire-based fruits like the Flame-Flame, Magma-Magma, Heat-Heat, and Hot-Hot Fruits.
"Shurorororo, Vegapunk, I will surpass you!" Caesar Clown's distinctive laugh echoed as his fingers danced across the controls, his eyes focused on the screen displaying a corner of the lab. The screen showed several children of varying heights and builds, subjects of Caesar's human gigantification experiments, funded by Charlotte Linlin.
It's ironic; while Caesar conducted these experiments, he had little faith in their success. The children were part of a half-hearted attempt by Caesar to see if the process might work. However, he presented himself as confident to secure funding.
The fate of these children and their families meant nothing to Caesar, nor to Doflamingo, and even less to Trafalgar Law.
Despite sympathizing with the children, Daniel Davis had no intention of rescuing them. At this stage, exposing the lab would only force Caesar and his allies to relocate, creating more work for Davis to track them down again.
Due to the World Government and Celestial Dragons' protection, the navy couldn't take action against Doflamingo, similar to their inaction against Wapol's tyrannical rule.
"Finally found it." In a hidden section of the underground tunnels of Punk Hazard's research facility, Daniel Davis discovered what he had been looking for: a pink Devil Fruit, an artificial Zoan Devil Fruit created by Vegapunk, modeled after Kaido's Azure Dragon form.
This fruit, consumed by Momonosuke, granted the ability to summon clouds to fly on. Though weak, it demonstrated the potential of Vegapunk's advanced technology. The fruit's perceived weakness could be due to its artificial nature or Momonosuke's lack of strength.
"This must be the artificial Devil Fruit Vegapunk made using Kaido's genes," Daniel Davis mused. Kaido, known as the "Strongest Creature," derived much of his power from his Dragon-Dragon Fruit, which allowed him to manipulate weather and breathe fire and lightning.
The true strength of the Zoan Devil Fruits lies in their mythical and ancient varieties, often surpassing the power of Logia types.
"I wonder if a stronger individual consuming this artificial Devil Fruit could unlock more of its potential. Even a fraction of Kaido's power would be formidable."
The difference between artificial Devil Fruits created by Caesar and those by Vegapunk was stark. Even so, Vegapunk considered these fruits incomplete and left them behind, highlighting his genius.
"I wonder if Vegapunk could create artificial Paramecia-type Devil Fruits, similar to Judge's work with the Vinsmoke siblings," Daniel Davis pondered.
The Vinsmoke siblings were essentially experimental subjects for creating artificial Paramecia-type Devil Fruit abilities, though their transformations relied on specialized equipment.
"Caesar truly is a failure. Despite having access to Vegapunk's lineage factor technology, his artificial Zoan Devil Fruits are still underwhelming."
Having spent several days exploring the research facility, Daniel Davis was disappointed with the artificial Zoan Devil Fruits. They fell short of his expectations, particularly in comparison to the original Zoan fruits.
The first major issue was the low success rate. Despite years of production, Doflamingo and Caesar had only managed to create a few hundred artificial Zoan Devil Fruit users for Kaido's Beast Pirates.
The second issue was the difficulty in controlling these artificial fruits. Unlike natural fruits, which granted abilities almost immediately, these required extensive training to master.
The third issue was the cost. While natural Zoan fruits enhanced strength, defense, and stamina, the artificial ones increased power and defense at the cost of stamina.
These were just the main problems; there were many more, including the inability to awaken, potential for conflicting consciousness, and various other side effects.
Daniel Davis's enthusiasm for artificial Devil Fruits waned considerably. However, he remained intrigued by Vegapunk's work, which seemed to promise more.
Even without lineage factors, Daniel Davis believed he could replicate Caesar's achievements using alchemy and the Ope Ope no Mi to create Zoan-type abilities with fewer side effects.
For example, Davis's methods wouldn't involve environmental pollution, unlike Caesar's.
After learning that Caesar's research had made no significant progress over the years, Daniel Davis doubted his claim of being the second-best scientist after Vegapunk, much like his skepticism towards Vegapunk's claim of being 500 years ahead in technology and Rob Lucci's title as the strongest CP9 member in 800 years.
However, Daniel Davis did gain something valuable from this visit: knowledge of the lineage factor. Though likely basic, it was a worthwhile discovery.
According to Vegapunk's research, the miraculous effects of Devil Fruits were primarily due to the lineage factor. With this knowledge, combined with Davis's alchemy and the Ope Ope no Mi, creating a weaker version of Zoan fruits wouldn't be difficult.
Part of the lineage factor's creation involved a substance found in seastone, which had various uses, including neutralizing Devil Fruit abilities.
On Skypiea, this substance was used in everyday life for building structures and tools.
"Unfortunately, there are no techniques here for feeding Devil Fruits to objects, though there is an example of such a thing."
One disappointment at Punk Hazard was the lack of technology for infusing objects with Devil Fruits. There was only one such example: a gas bomb infused with the Axolotl Fruit, granting it partial Logia-like intangibility.
Truly, the world is full of wonders.
After acquiring the lineage factor technology and realizing there was nothing else of interest, Daniel Davis left Punk Hazard.
He continued onward, following the route Luffy took in the original story. There were seven routes in the first half of the Grand Line, but only three in the New World, each controlled by one of the Four Emperors.
Luffy's route led to Dressrosa, followed by Wano Country. If not for the incident with Sanji, Luffy wouldn't have gone to Whole Cake Island.
Dressrosa was a passionate island nation, famous for its women and known as the Kingdom of Love, Passion, and Toys.
Its bullfighting arena was renowned throughout the New World, attracting many bounty hunters and pirates due to the large cash prizes.
Currently, the arena champion was Doflamingo's subordinate, Diamante, a Hira Hira no Mi user whose seemingly flimsy cape was made of incredibly dense and defensive metal. This powerful armor made him nearly invincible.
In some ways, Diamante resembled Daniel Davis, capable of making any object, no matter how heavy, flutter like a flag.
Before Diamante, the arena's greatest fighter was Kyros, who remained undefeated in 3,000 battles and married into the royal family. Unfortunately, he was now a toy, the only one not under a contract with Sugar.
The Hobby-Hobby Fruit was incredibly potent, capable of altering people's subconscious, making the existence of toys seem normal.
"Ladies and gentlemen, today is the day our champion Diamante fights again!" The announcer at the bullfighting arena excitedly riled up the crowd.
Since Diamante was the reigning champion, his battles were four-on-one against the winners of the four tournament blocks.
Watching Diamante effortlessly fling his cape, sending opponents flying as if struck by a truck, Daniel Davis smiled and shook his head. The opponents had no idea what they were up against.
The bullfighting arena struggled to attract top contenders unless the prize was something extraordinary, like the Flame-Flame Fruit. Doflamingo had once offered the Gold-Gold Fruit as a prize, only for a group to steal it and thrive using its powers, much to Doflamingo's frustration.
Not everyone followed rules as strictly as Luffy and Sabo.
Aside from human trafficking, Doflamingo wasn't entirely bad. He was devoted to his family and kept his promises, unlike others who wouldn't have genuinely offered the Flame-Flame Fruit as a prize.
As for the bloodshed in the arena, it predated Doflamingo, having been established by the Riku family.
"This place truly lives up to its reputation as the Kingdom of Love and Passion," Daniel Davis mused, politely declining the advances of a couple of local women before leaving.
He had come to Dressrosa to scout the area, preparing for future use of his Gate of Secrets.
"The Tontatta Tribe, huh?" Daniel Davis occasionally spotted members of this diminutive race in Dressrosa.
Wano Country
"This place is something else. Orochi is truly ruthless, the first ruler I've seen who only seeks to destroy," Daniel Davis thought as he arrived in Wano Country after leaving Dressrosa.
On his way, Daniel Davis had considered searching for Zou Island, home to a red Poneglyph, a crucial piece for reaching Raftel.
While Davis had no interest in finding Raftel himself, possessing the Poneglyph would give him valuable bargaining power, potentially trading it for one or two powerful Paramecia-type Devil Fruits.
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