The strange creature continued to hover in the air, gazing at ne expectantly. I couldn’t detect any hostile intent from it.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Hey, relax. I’m here to help. I don’t bite.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Sheesh, how impatient. Well, I’m not exactly sure who I am either.” the creature said. “But I know what I am. Pretty sure you figured it out already. I’m a nen beast. Brought into this world from your aura. If you focus, you should be able to see the nen link.”
Now that he mentioned it… after focusing, I could sense that this guy was connected to me through nen. I remembered some of the nen beasts. They weren’t really that talkative from what I remembered. Though, there was Kite’s crazy slots. So, he was part of the Roulette ability. Then there was no reason to doubt him now. His life was literally linked to me. My death would spell doom for him as well.
“You got a name?” I asked as I approached the corpse of the human.
“Not really. I was just born, after all.” He answered. “I guess I’ll go with Merry. Seems fitting.”
“You know about the Going Merry, then?”
“Yep. I inherited your memories. And it seems I was modeled after the ship’s symbol. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know.”
I squatted down, placing my hand on the dead man. I willed the ability to activate, and the body got absorbed into the main mark. I noticed that it glowed red for a second.
“Interesting. So, do you know anything I don’t? Got any tips?”
It took me simply focusing on it for the slots to began rolling. Merry floated down next to my shoulder.
“Let’s finish the roll first. I got all the rules stuffed into my head. It’ll take a while to go through everything. Give me a second.”
[Draw Pool: East Blue Saga/Romance Down Arc.]
Semi-transparent screen appeared again. I could hear the generic sound that usually accompanied the rolls. Once again, dark slots replaced each other with rapidly as the rolling continued.
It gradually slowed down, landing on the slot that, after the veil shattered, revealed a face I unfortunately knew all to well.
=====
[Helmeppo]
Grade: F-
_
Stats:
Strength: F-
Agility: F-
Constitution: F-
Perception: F-
_
Equipment:
[Hammer Gun (4th Grade)]
=====
Damn. This would be useless against pretty much anything. Morgan’s son would reach greater heights in the future, but this version if him was simply unlucky roll.
“Bad luck. But you can’t really expect much with a normal human.” Merry explained. “Several things affect the outcome. But generally, stronger the sacrifice, more likely that the strong character will come out.”
“Figured. But there's quite a difference between this one and Morgan, despite sacrifices being pretty much same.”
Speaking of Morgan, I looked down at the small tattoo on my arm, depicting his Jolly Roger beneath the straw hat’s. Not that he even had one in the story, being a navy man before encountering Luffy, getting arrested and then sailing off from the story. But it was clear who the mark represented from the metallic implant of the skull’s jaw, as well as axes on top of the bones behind the skull.
Earlier, I didn’t have time to pay attention to it, but the stats seemed interesting.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Focusing on the mark was all it took to pull up the status screen.
=====
[Morgan]
Grade: E-
_
Stats
Strength: E
Agility: F+
Constitution: E
Perception: F+
_
Equipment:
[Steel Axe (3rd Grade)]
=====
Not that strength gap between the two needed be stated, but it would prove useful for the future reference. I would need more characters to make comparison between them to see how much gap between each grade or sub-grade was.
“I’m not really sure. You just got lucky first time. Or maybe luck wasn’t all that it was. You could make an argument that the imminent death affected the outcome, your aura resonating with your will, nudging the outcome in your favor while still within the rules. Oh, and that’s why I didn’t show up immediately. That chimera ant seeing me could alarm her beforehand.”
With the third and last human corpse as a sacrifice, I rolled for it again.
=====
[Alvida]
Grade: F+
_
Strength: F+
Agility: F
Constitution: F+
Perception: F
_
Equipment:
[Iron Mace (3rd Grade)]
[Flintlock Pistol (4th Grade)]
=====
Not a great one. Weaker than Morgan. Not to mention, this was her without a devil fruit.
“Death seems pretty imminent right now too.” I replied to Merry. “But Alvida won’t be pulling me out of this mess.”
“Yeah, she won’t. But it’s not that simple. Mindset affects nen. And your mindset right now is different than it was against the mosquito. I mean, where do you think the ability got created from?”
“They’re quite personal, from what I remember.”
“Yes, they are. Nen responds to desire, after all. Nen abilities don’t represent an individual wielding them as a whole, but they do say something about them as a person. I can’t give you a proper answer though. I know how it works, not why.”
“Got it. We’ll figure that out as we go, then.”
Finally, I stood before the chimera ant. And after pushing away the crumbled desk, my hand came in contact with her remains.
The slots started rolling.
=====
[Ronora Zoro]
Grade: D-
_
Stats:
Strength: E+
Agility: D-
Constitution: D
Perception: D-
_
Skills and Abilities:
[Swordsmanship (D-)]
_
Equipment:
[Wado Ichimonji (1st Grade)]
[Katana (3rd Grade)]
[Katana (3rd Grade)]
=====
Lucky strike!
“This should be enough to bring down the squadron leader, don’t you think?”
“Maybe. The difference in the strength of the squadron leader and regular chimera ants is not much different than what we’re working with, here.” Merry said thoughtfully. He seemed to be analyzing the outcome.
“Well, do I have any other choice?” I asked.
“You do, actually.” Merry said, still deep in the thoughts if his furrowed brows were any indication.
“I do?”
“Yes. But there’s a problem. You’re running low on aura. You can probably maintain that form another hour or so with the reserves you got right now. But Zoro’s form would last less than ten minutes. We’ll be on a strict time limit. And the squadron leader isn’t only problem we’ll be facing. We’re in NGL. This place is swarming with chimera ants right now.”
“Yeah, I noticed. The awakening took a quite the toll on my reserves.” I said. Lot of aura was wasted into the literal thin air before I took control of it. Not to mention the constant drain that maintaining this form required. I had kept it up as a precaution, but now that something good had come out, it might be better be a bit frugal with my reserves. With how numerous the chimera ants were, endurance posed a great issue. “I should probably dispel the Morgan’s form. I can do that right?”
“Wait, don’t.” Merry hurriedly said. “Once you cancel, that’ll be it. You can no longer get the same character again unless we advance an Arc. Morgan’s one of the better choices for the Romance Down. Don’t waste him just yet, we might need that form.”
“You sure? He’s not going to be useful against the big guy. Not with how his form fared against the mosquito.” I said, wondering what Merry might be getting at. “What’s the other option you mentioned?”
“Alright. So, here’s the thing. You remember when the mark, the big one, showed the ability’s description?” Merry explained. “Do that again, and then make it go to the main screen.”
At first, the same semi-transparent screen appeared like it did before, but when I tried what Merry suggested, it got replaced by the one I hadn’t seen before.
=====
David Moore
Grade: F+
_
Stats:
Strength: F
Agility: F
Constitution: F+
Perception: F
Aura: C-
_
Nen Abilities:
[Character Inventory], [Stranger in the Strange Land]
=====
“Oh, I have my own stat sheet.” I said, reading over the screen. “And I have a second ability. Is than what you had in mind?”
Focusing on the ability, its description revealed itself.
=====
[Stranger in the Strange World]
A teleportation ability that can lead to the various worlds through the pocket dimension.
Cooldown: 24:00:00/24:00:00
=====
“The ability seems interesting. Teleportation’s going to be useful and what we need right now. But,” I said. “That’s it? The description doesn’t really explain how it works.”
“Usage of most nen abilities are instinctive. Probably why it has the brief description.” Merry explained. “Also, that’s why I’m here. And c’mon. You want to read those dry descriptions instead of having someone amazing like me explain it? Don’t be such a bore.”
“You’ve got quite the ego. Doesn’t really much that face.” I said. “But I better get out of here before… oh fuck.”
Two chimera ants stepped into the cave, alongside two humans, if they could be considered as such any longer. Of the two chimera ants, one was short, bald and green skinned humanoid centipede with a goatee. This one was a weak match-up against Morgan. Unlike Mosquito that specialized in speed, Centipede was more of a brawler. He would be easier to deal with than the Mosquito.
Same couldn’t be said about the chimera ant resembling a centaur. He couldn’t control nen, yet I could feel the killing intent radiating from him. He was dangerous. Morgan would stood no chance against this monster.
“Who the hell are you?” the centaur asked with a tome full of arrogance. “You are trespassing my turf.”
I concentrated one the second ability. And a dark portal appeared in the air. I entered it, teleporting the hell out of here.