"Just what I was waiting for! Heh heh~~" Ryu chuckled wickedly, choosing to take the hit from Dalmatian's Finger Gun head-on while aiming a punch at his opponent's abdomen, planning to trade blows.
"Boom~~"
Blood trickled down Ryu's shoulder, but seeing Dalmatian blasted away, he laughed, saying, "I'm not that weak kid with poor stamina anymore!"
"Brat, this is just a sparring session. Did you have to go that hard?" Dalmatian wiped the blood from his mouth and emerged from the rubble.
Ryu glanced at the experience points displayed on his system interface and grinned. "Didn't Vice Admiral Gion mention that my recovery ability has improved a lot?"
"Life Return?" Dalmatian frowned.
Ryu shook his head, smiling. "No, I had a bit of a lucky encounter during my last voyage, which boosted my stamina."
"Whatever, I'll let it slide this time. I lost today, but you won't be so lucky next time!" Though he hadn't even used his Devil Fruit abilities, Dalmatian knew Ryu hadn't used his signature Dragon Wave technique either, so he wasn't too disappointed.
"Sir, you're incredible! Even a Vice Admiral is no match for you!" Two small figures hurried over, excitedly handing Ryu his coat and showering him with compliments.
"You two! Besides watching battles, you should be focusing on stamina training. Your endurance is still far from where it needs to be. You probably couldn't even fully process what just happened in that fight, so keep working hard!" Ryu laughed as he took his coat from Coby and laughed heartily.
Indeed, these two little guys were Ryu's new juniors, Coby and Helmeppo, whom Garp had brought back from the East Blue.
Garp had no time to personally train the two, so he left them under Ryu's care. Technically, this responsibility belonged to his high-ranking, stoic swordsman adjutant, but it had now fallen on Ryu. Luckily, the two had already undergone training from that cool-headed swordsman and had their own drive to become stronger. Ryu allowed them to observe battles up close as part of their learning experience.
"Lena, any big events lately?" Back in his office, Ryu took a big swig of alcohol and asked his beautiful adjutant.
"Reporting, sir: does Lord Aokiji leaving headquarters without permission count as a major event?" Lena responded with a blank expression.
"That hardly counts," Ryu shrugged. "If you're free, you should go train in swordsmanship with Sister Gion. No need to stick around here every day. Or, you could help the old man toughen up his two new disciples."
Lena hesitated for a moment but, knowing that Ryu had little else to do lately besides sparring with the Vice Admirals, nodded. "I'll go find Sister Gion, then."
Clearly, she wasn't particularly motivated to "toughen up" the newcomers.
Once Lena left, Ryu opened his system and eyed the diamond count displayed: 53,299 diamonds. He appeared hesitant once again.
With the lightweight footwork skill Traceless Steps, his speed was currently sufficient, and the Blood Dragon Pearl had significantly boosted his stamina. The only area that remained lacking was his internal power.
Since he hadn't been practicing internal cultivation for long, his Purple Mist Divine Art, though powerful, was still limited in capacity. Combined with the energy-intensive Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, he had gained a reputation for lacking endurance.
Yet, upgrading the Purple Mist Divine Art to level 2 required a whopping 15,000 proficiency points—a daunting prospect. His current proficiency was barely over halfway, and he still had eight skill points left. Faced with this decision, Ryu hesitated.
"Fine, sometimes you have to take a risk to get what you want!" Gritting his teeth, Ryu decided to invest 7 of his 8 skill points into the Purple Mist Divine Art, successfully leveling it up.
"Congratulations, Host, on achieving a breakthrough with the Purple Mist Manual. Please keep up the good work!" The synthetic voice of the system congratulated him, utterly devoid of emotion.
"System, you're not even human!"
Ryu opened the skills page to find that even at level 3, Purple Mist Divine Art wasn't maxed out and still had room for further upgrades. However, the proficiency needed for the next level was an outrageous 30,000 points.
"In hindsight, I should've upgraded the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms instead. Maybe that would've reduced the energy consumption!" he regretted, musing aloud.
Despite the regret, the upgraded Purple Mist Divine Art had significantly increased the internal energy within him, speeding up his energy flow and recovery rate. With a full reserve of energy, Ryu figured he could probably execute the sixth move of the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, Unexpected Strike.
Taking a moment to calm his mind, Ryu resumed his training. Meeting several of the world's top figures had sparked a change in his mindset.
Previously, Ryu believed that if his strength reached an invincible level, no one could stop him from doing as he pleased. But after witnessing Whitebeard and his crew, and contrasting that with the currently isolated Silvers Rayleigh, he realized that, aside from personal power, a group of supportive companions was also essential.
Back at headquarters, Ryu began building connections with Marines who shared his ideals and vision of justice—relationships he hoped would serve as a foundation for his future ambitions.
Old Garp likely understood Ryu's intentions, which was why he'd remarked that he was an old man who couldn't help much anymore.
What no one knew, though, was that Ryu didn't aim to split the Marines. Instead, he wanted to reshape it into a true force for justice. Currently, the Marines were too controlled by the World Government, practically its lapdog.
The reason, of course, was funding. No matter how powerful the Marines appeared, that strength was built on a mountain of military funds. Without the World Government's financial support, the Marines would be forced to scrape by, let alone conduct future large-scale recruitments—retaining the current personnel would become a struggle.
"It's about time I pay a visit to the Okama King. In the end, I'll need to talk to Dragon about this," Ryu said, rising from his training. Looking out at the dimming sky, he stood up and made his way out.
"Ah~ I knew it! You never come to me unless it's trouble—either testing out some new technique or involving something insanely difficult. Why don't you ask your teacher? Wouldn't it be easier if Garp took you to Impel Down?" Tokikake groaned, exasperated, as Ryu approached.
"Relax, I'm not going to the sixth level. That place is crawling with monsters. I'm just heading to the fifth level to meet someone!" Ryu said, grinning.
"Just so you know, don't go causing chaos, or—" Tokikake didn't even finish before Ryu hoisted him up, dragging him away from headquarters.