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CHAPTER 70

Smoker was standing on the deck, and the ship left Cocoyasi Village behind. He turned back and looked in the direction of the village. The weakling he was messing with one year ago now fought him on equal footing. He gripped his fist really hard until blood started to ooze out of his hand. He was slaking off too much and wasted his time here.

The first thing he was going to do when he reached Logue Town was to ask for a transfer to Grand Line. He was too arrogant in his abilities, and he thought he was some shit thanks to his logia devil fruit, but Kreegan opened his eyes to the fact that the world was vast and he was a nobody.

...

After Smoker left, Kreegan got up and slowly walked to the village. He needed more training. He needed to work harder at everything. He didn't have time to waste. He was becoming arrogant as of late since he was able to beat his opponents all the time. This was an excellent wake-up slap to him. In the story, moku-moku no mi could be strong, but Smoker wasn't; he always lost his fights because he charged at his enemies without thinking, and when he was at the Grand Line, he didn't even learn Rokushiki.

This fight might look like a draw, but to Kreegan, it was a defeat because he had an unfair advantage. He knew all of Smoker's moves, but he couldn't overcome the wall called logia. When he talked to Smoker, he acted like they were equals, but in his mind, Kreegan thought he could beat him thanks to his wind abilities and arcane weapon enchantments, but they were not enough. Like most people on this planet, he had too much resilience. He was like a zombie. He beat him to the ground three times, and he kept rising.

When he reached the village, he passed out from exhaustion. When Kreegan came to himself, one day had passed, and he had slept more than 24 hours. Dr. Nako saw that he had awakened and said,

"That marine really did a number on you. You have three cracked ribs and a fracture on your right arm. I have put it in a cast, and you can't take it off for a month."

On Earth, it would take three months to heal such an injury, and even then, you would need to do physical therapy for a year to reach 100%, but here only took one month. Kreegan said,

"You should have seen the other guy. Hahaha! aargh!"

Even laughing hurt Kreegan, and Dr. Nako said while laughing at him,

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"I did. He looked like shit too."

After Dr. Nako left, Kreegan started to meditate since Doc. told him that he needed one more day of rest before they could leave. He was neglecting the mental aspect of his training, so since becoming level 6, he had been meditating regularly after sparring or fighting, and haki was also connected to the mind. When he became level 6, he realized one more thing too. As his Perception level raised, he became more aware of the things happening around him. His senses were sharper too. The Perception skill might help awaken his haki.

...

They were at last at the open sea; Kuina was training in the training room, Eagle was at the crow's nest, Lex was at the helm, and Kreegan was sitting on top of the figurehead. He closed his eyes and felt the wind on his face. It was a tranquil feeling, and Lex's shout broke this tranquility.

"Oh, Great Captain of ours, where should we go now."

Kreegan got up, came next to Lex, and gave him a wanted poster. The man in the poster had crab-like armor on him, and he was standing on top of a Plesiosaur.

"Isn't he a bit weak for us?"

"What are we?"

Lex stayed silent, and Kreegan repeated himself

"What are we?"

"Pirate Hunters"

"What is he?"

"A pirate."

"Do we need more reason to hunt him?"

"Don't be an obnoxious asshole and tell me the real reason you want to hunt this weakling. Even the East Blue Marines can take care of him."

"Didn't you say you wanted a bag of holding?"

Kreegan pointed to the Plesiosaur in the wanted poster and said,

"I don't know if we can hunt a Sea King, but we can try if this things leather would work."

"Do you even know where they are? The wanted poster doesn't even specify their expected territory."

"We can try our chance with the information brokers."

Kreegan had a guess as to who was behind these information brokers. They always had pieces of information that even the Marines didn't have, and there was only one man that had his hand on the beating heart of information, or should he say there was only one pigeon that had his wing on the beating heart of information.

...

They reached the closes town, and Kreegan entered the information broker's shop. The Marines must know those shops are front, but there must be a secret agreement between the World Government and The Brokers. When Kreegan entered the shop, two bouncers recognized Kreegan right away. He said in a whispering tone,

"The Shinigami!"

Another bouncer got up and greeted Kreegan,

"Sir Wucrane, welcome to our shop. We will call The Clerk right away. Please come inside, Sir; you can wait in the back room."

Kreegan sat down at the head of the table, and a few seconds later, The Clerk arrived with tea.

"I am sorry to make you wait. Would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you. Let's get back to business."

"Certainly. How may I help you sir?"

"I am looking for Ganzack Pirates. Do you have any current info about them?"

"I am sorry, sir, but we don't have anything other than a general location."

"That will do."

"It will cost you 1 million belles."

Kreegan reached into his coat and pulled 1 million belles.

"They are somewhere between Gecko and Organ Islands."

"That is a really big area. That is why it was so cheap."

"I am sorry we couldn't help you more. Next time we will give you a discount, sir."

...

When Kreegan boarded the ship, Lex asked,

"Did you learn anything?"

"Not much, but it will be a start."

He opened a map and marked the archipelago between Gecko and Organ Islands. There were around 50 islands, big and tiny. Kreegan said,

"They cannot be on a big island, or they would have more info."

So, he crossed all the big islands.

"For the same reason, they cannot be on any trade route or passenger route."

He crossed more islands, and Lex said,

"They won't be close to Gecko or Organ either."

So, they crossed more islands. There were only 12 islands left. For the next two months, they scouted 10 of the islands with no luck, but on the 11th, their luck turned around. This was a tiny nameless island with a small village. They had sneaked into the island thanks to their small submarine. On the shore, Kreegan could see a child in full plate armor training with a spear.