Taking form of a certain character, apart from their physical strength and abilities, came with another bonus. Namely, their equipment.

It wasn’t just their appearance that was replicated, but also their attire; their outfit and accessories. But most importantly, it also included the weapons and any other items they carried. There was a condition, of course. The Roulette wouldn’t conjure something that a character had picked up once. Rather, the items must be associated with the version of the character in the arc that the rolling pool accounted for, to be considered part of them. Morgan’s axe and Alvida’s club, or even Higuma’s sword and jewelry could be considered such examples.

That said, there was an important distinction between a character and the item they carried. That being, the item wouldn’t disappear alongside the transformation. And unlike with maintaining a character’s form, it didn’t need a constant influx of energy to continue to exist, only the initial expenditure of aura to conjure the item. Probably since they were inanimate, and didn’t have a biological mechanism.

Of course, I could choose to not have transformation accompanied by certain items associated to the character, and save my aura reserves instead. Missing out on the equipment would be a shame, but sometimes I might not be in a situation where I could afford that cost.

But most important thing, at the end of the day, was that it worked. And I was holding a rifle in my hands.

Ripper was a navy man under Morgan’s command, and the one that replaced him as the head of the Shell’s Town after his abolishment. And while his strength wasn’t anything outstanding, standard marine loadout did include a rifle. The one I was aiming at Morgan right now.

Morgan himself wasn’t smartest of the bunch, clearly taking his time before finally locating the exact spot that he needed to strike. After he did though, the titans began to fall after one another. Bringing the titans down hadn’t been a problem for Morgan, who simply slashed their leg off of them, and when their napes came within his reach, a swift strike was all it took for the enemy numbers to dwindle.

Eleven, ten, nine… four titans remaining.

I exhaled, steading my aim and sharpening my focus as the calmness overcame me. Before he could kill the last three titans, I pulled the trigger.

I wasn’t much of a marksmen. Times I had held and shot a rifle weren’t many. Not to mention, I was firing from an awkward position. Therefore, armed with an unfamiliar firearm that looked to be more suited for a prop in a history museum rather than modern day combat, it was not hard to conclude that my chances of hitting the bull’s-eye was not looking great. However, same couldn’t be said about the body I was controlling right now. I didn’t gain any memories nor experience from Ripper, but with Character Roulette replicating a character’s physique, along came the muscle memory, instinctively guiding me into more refined form.

It didn’t turn me into a master in the field, nor perfectly replicated skill and style of the character, but it made handling the new body and the abilities the character possess more natural.

So when Morgan paused momentarily, in order to meet the charging titan head on and bring it down, I went for the shot.

Had the distance between us been more than dozen meters, I would have missed. But since the target was not far away, Ripper’s talent as a marksmen was more than enough to guarantee success.

The bullet hit Morgan in the back of his head, going through his eye. A chunk was blown off from his head. Blood, flesh and bones, and part of his brain splattered in the air. His body froze, the axe-hand he was readying for a slash slumped.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Morgan died without realizing how. And next second, his body was swallowed up by a titan.

[“Axe-Hand” Morgan is dead.]

[Updating the Rolling Pool.]

“Welp, he’s dead.” Merry said. “There’s no coming back from that.”

“He was stronger than I thought. I expected him to loose.”

“Well, he’s a One Piece character.” Merry shrugged.

“Yeah, makes sense.”

The titans didn’t leave after that. Once one of them swallowed Morgan, they started moving toward us.

At the same time, a notification popped up that the pool of the Roulette got automatically updated.

“Guess that’s our cue.” I said. “Can’t have all of those bodies evaporate.”

First, I dispelled Ripper’s form, tossed Merry the gun I was holding, and started to climb down. Half of the corpses had already turned charred, while there was no trace of the first titan that die by Morgan’s hands. Rest were to soon follow.

Aura flowed through my body, and despite my lack of skill in its applications, I could use it to enhance my body enough that I didn’t have to worry about falling. My hand dig into the bark, and I quickly reached the ground before the first titan was upon me.

It tried to grab me, but I dodged the giant hand writhing hairs breath and rolled. Finding myself between the titan’s feet, I quickly made contact with its flesh, flowing aura into its body and activating the Roulette. I selected one of the triplets.

Merry also rushed forward, his hand holding Higuma’s blade.

In his regular form, Merry wasn’t designed for combat. His main role was more of a guide, explaining ins and outs of the ability as well as giving me suggestions. Normally, he wasn’t even strong enough to lift Alvida’s body. We tried. It was funny. But it made clear that he wasn’t strong in his base form.

That said, there could be something done to somewhat remedy the issue. That being, obscene amount of aura.

Since Merry was a nen beast originating from my aura, we were also connected through it. And when I went into Zetsu, he would dematerialize. On the other hand, I could also flow my aura through that link and temporarily enhance his strength. That said, there needed to be large quantity of it for it to matter.

Sizeable chunk of my aura reserves were depleted as I used it to strengthen Merry. Around 10%, if I had to put a finger on it. And he rushed towards a titan, the one that had eaten Morgan earlier, and slashed across its stomach.

The titan roared as blood, stomach fluid, and a corpse separated form its body. Meanwhile, I had neutralize the second titan. The third one managed to grab me, and for a moment I watched in horror as the giant opened its mouth to reveal massive teeth all eager to bite through me. Fortunately, there wasn’t much needed to be done as titan was already within my reach. It froze as I activated the ability. Its body began to shrink, and I jumped down to meet the fourth titan.

As the final one began to transform, I absorbed Morgan’s body and used it to roll the roulette.

“Hell yeah, it works.” I said. Merry wasn’t sure it would. There were gaps in his knowledge that left certain aspects vague. So I had to make do with fucking around and finding out. “Merry, you lucky bastard!”

[Rolling Pool: East Blue Saga ^ Orange Town]

Merry was next to me in an instant, gazing at the slots rolling until it stopped.

=====

[Richie]

Grade: E-

_

Stats:

Strength: E+

Agility: F+

Constitution: E-

Perception: F+

=====

Richie? Oh, the giant lion in the Buggy’s crew? Not bad. Not as good as Morgan though. Was this an unlucky roll, relatively speaking? At least it was physically stronger. For it, dealing with titans wouldn’t be a problem anyway. Morgan was already tearing through their flesh like butter.

I went through the remaining corpses, absorbing them and exchanging them for rolls.

[Tightrope Walking Funan Bro #1 (F-)]

[Tightrope Walking Funan Bro #2 (F-)]

[Tightrope Walking Funan Bro #3 (F-)]

[Superhuman Domingo #1 (F)]

[Superhuman Domingo #2 (F)]

Bunch of extras. I meant no offense. That’s just what they were. They didn’t even have names.

Anyway. With that out of the way, I shifted my attention towards the titans that I had transformed back into humans. It was about time for them to wake up.

“Where… where am I?” one of them, the one with Helmeppo’s form, asked while looking around in confusion. He seemed utterly lost. His eyes were wide open, and tears of relief flowed from his eyes like a tiny stream.

Rest of then weren’t better either. One of them stood frozen and hadn’t moved from the spot. He seemed dazed, not entirely awake from the state of mind that being a titan caused. It was understandable. Who knows how long they had spent roaming around the earth as titans.

“My name is David Moore.” I stepped forward, introducing myself and grabbing their attention. “I know this must be incredibly confusing. You all went through hell, after all. I will explain everything. But first, we need to reach safety.”