Year 1510 of the Maritime Calendar, May.
East Blue, City of Lide.
In a secluded corner, where silence reigned, the stillness was broken by a sound.
Thud
A stone, about the size of a chicken egg, struck precisely at the center of a wooden target nailed to the wall—and there was no pause. Another stone flew, then another, and another.
All of them hit with the same pinpoint accuracy, as if the thrower's hand were programmed never to miss.
The one responsible was a young man with jet-black hair and red eyes, standing well over two meters tall. His slender build hid a strength honed by routine.
He wore worn-out black trousers and a simple long-sleeved white shirt, faded and dull, yet no cheap clothing could conceal the magnetic aura he exuded.
Half an hour later, with the ground littered with scattered stones, the young man finally stopped.
He let out a long sigh, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
A blue flash lit the air in front of him: a floating screen.
[Host: Xeno]
[Age: 20]
[Constitution: Basic Level]
[Stone Throwing (E): Expert (90/100)]
[Swimming (E): Competent (27/100)]
[Pending Mission: Bounty Hunters]
[Items: None]
"Finally reached 90 experience!" Xeno murmured, a smile forming on his face.
He sat down on a nearby rock, relishing the cool surface against his skin as he caught his breath.
His gaze wandered to the stones strewn across the ground, and for an instant, his expression grew distant, captured by thoughts that didn't belong to the present.
Twenty years… It's been twenty years since I arrived in this world.
Xeno was a Transmigrator.
A soul torn from his previous life and thrown into a world that, strangely enough, wasn't entirely unfamiliar to him. His memories of that other existence had stayed buried until just a few days ago, when a brush with death dragged them all back to the surface.
He was working on a merchant ship, caught in the midst of a wild storm that swallowed the vessel. He clung to life amid the furious waves until darkness overtook him.
He didn't know how long he'd drifted, but he got lucky. He never lost consciousness completely, and in the end, someone rescued him.
When he opened his eyes, he glimpsed the silhouette of his savior: a young woman with long black hair, her beauty forever etched into his memory. He barely managed to see her before passing out again.
He awoke in an inn in Lide, alone, with 100,000 Berries by his pillow. He never learned what happened during that interval, nor did he see that mysterious woman again.
Today, at last, his memories slid into place like pieces of a puzzle.
It was Robin!
He recognized her without a doubt. Nico Robin, who at that time must have been wandering the East Blue in search of the Historical Poneglyphs while eluding her pursuers.
Although her wanted posters hung in some corners of the city, her notoriety as the "Devil's Daughter" didn't echo as strongly here as it did in the West Blue.
"How ironic… I don't even know where she went."
He owed her his life. And he hadn't even been able to thank her.
But the regret soon melted away amid his racing thoughts. The sea was vast—a cruel place for the weak and a playground for the strong.
As long as he kept breathing, sooner or later, they would meet again.
With the return of his memories, something else awakened alongside them: a skill-enhancement system.
It became his greatest advantage, one that could turn even a mediocre talent into a formidable ability.
The principle was simple:
Whenever he mastered a skill recognized by the system, he could gain experience by practicing it continuously, accelerating his growth exponentially.
However, not every skill could be registered.
It had to meet certain criteria: it had to be a real, structured technique with solid fundamentals. Waving a sword around randomly wouldn't make anyone a swordsman, no matter how much they tried.
The first skills he registered were simpler than he ever would have imagined: swimming and stone throwing.
He had learned both as a child in this life, though he wasn't particularly outstanding in either. He could swim decently—enough not to drown—but his stone-throwing accuracy was nothing special; he couldn't even hit a moving target.
Once he was older, he kept swimming regularly, driven more by necessity than passion. Jobs on ships paid better, and at sea, knowing how to swim was an absolute must.
Stone throwing, on the other hand, had been relegated to an occasional pastime—something he did for fun when he spotted birds during his shifts on deck.
He never imagined that these trivial skills would be acknowledged by the system. Despite being classified at E level, the lowest tier, they could still be improved.
The system organized abilities into eight ranks, from lowest to highest: E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS. Each jump in rank not only increased a skill's effectiveness but transformed it entirely in terms of power.
Additionally, the system sometimes issued missions.
Completing those tasks granted rewards, such as skill-improvement cards capable of raising an entire ability to a new rank.
And every skill was further divided into four stages of mastery: Beginner, Competent, Expert, and Absolute Mastery.
Since waking up in the inn, he had devoted almost all his time to perfecting his stone-throwing skill.
Not only had he reached Expert level, but his experience was hovering just shy of the final threshold, at an impressive 90/100.
"Time to keep training! Today, I'm going to achieve Absolute Mastery in stone throwing!"
Resolutely, he stood up and began gathering the stones scattered on the ground.
…
The following morning, Xeno opened his eyes and, almost by habit, accessed the system.
[Host: Xeno]
[Age: 20]
[Constitution: Basic Level]
[Stone Throwing (E): Absolute Mastery (13/100)]
[Swimming (E): Competent (27/100)]
[Pending Mission: Bounty Hunters]
[Items: None]
Reaching Absolute Mastery in stone throwing had been a massive breakthrough. The stones he threw now were every bit as powerful as bullets from a common musket.
The wooden target he'd built himself didn't last long; it ended up in splinters when, on one throw, he miscalculated his strength.
However, it wasn't just his accuracy and power that had improved. His physical condition had also grown significantly stronger.
That was the true magic of the system: it not only made you better at something, it also fine-tuned your body so it could keep up. After all, what good is having an incredible technique if your body can't handle it? Without sufficient strength and speed, his throwing would never have reached that level.
Although his constitution was still labeled as "Basic Level," the difference compared to before the system activated was colossal.
It was like comparing someone who's just started learning a skill (1/100) to someone who's been perfecting it for a while (50/100). Theoretically, both are in the same rank, but in practice… the gap is huge.
He would have loved to keep throwing stones until he filled the experience bar back up, but he had a pressing problem: money.
He only had 2,000 Berries left, and if he didn't get more soon, he wouldn't even be able to afford his next meal.
Ever since he fell into the sea, he'd lost everything he had on him. Any savings he might have had sank to the bottom of the ocean along with the merchant ship.
If Robin hadn't left him those 100,000 Berries before disappearing, he wouldn't have been able to rent this small courtyard—let alone train for days without worrying about anything else. But that money was now running out.
The good news was that, with his memories back and the system on his side, Xeno had no intention of returning to an ordinary life.
This was an era dominated by pirates, where power was everything. And money… money was the easiest thing to come by if you knew how.
He decided that, at least for a while, he would work as a bounty hunter. Not only was it a quick way to earn cash, but it also happened to match one of the system's missions.
The mission "Bounty Hunters" required him to eliminate three criminals with bounties on their heads.
Completing it would earn him a Skill Upgrade Card (D) as a reward, which would allow him to advance his stone-throwing skill to the next rank.
"Time to go hunting."