Back at Elegia Castle, Luffy found himself in a strange situation.
"Where is everyone?"
The castle was completely empty—no trace of a single person anywhere.
It didn't take long for him to figure out why there were no men around.
Bartolomeo had expelled every single man from the castle.
Even Gordon, the castle's owner, had been kicked out by him.
The reason? In Bartolomeo's eyes, the castle—just like the Sunny—was already the home of Luffy's harem. And men were strictly forbidden from entering such a sacred place.
Luffy didn't even know how to respond to that.
A castle this massive—covering an area of over a hundred thousand square meters—was now home to only a handful of people.
The only time men were allowed back inside was during mealtime.
So, yes, there were no men in the castle… but what about the women?
Nami stuck out her tongue playfully and clung to Luffy's arm. "No one's allowed back inside unless it's to sleep or eat. Most of them are out training. Since you weren't around, some of them got lazy—especially Perona."
Perona was as lazy as a person could possibly be.
That girl didn't even like walking. She spent most of her days using her ghost body to move around, leaving her real body lying on the bed.
I'll have to talk to her about the punishment game later... There are still ten levels left to clear, Luffy thought.
After walking to the living room and sitting down, he ordered, "Nami, go call Vivi and Robin. Uta, make me some coffee."
The three women moved at once to do as he said.
Luffy opened the System Shop again. For the past few days, he had been buying Haki Fruits every day—he'd already purchased eighteen of them.
He immediately grabbed ten and ate them one by one.
When the tenth fruit was gone, his Armament Haki level rose.
[Armament Haki]: lv5 → lv6
Just like with the other two Haki types, the new level granted him an additional ability.
"Artillery?"
Luffy extended his right hand, and his Armament Haki condensed into a glowing sphere in his palm.
It was semi-transparent, but anyone using Observation Haki could see that it was actually a dense mass of dark energy.
"It's like an advanced version of emission…"
Luffy instantly understood.
As the name implied, he could compress his Armament Haki into a sphere and launch it like a projectile. Upon impact, it would explode.
Of course, he could also wrap it around his fist so that every punch detonated on contact.
If he combined it with internal destruction, his opponent's body could be completely annihilated.
"What comes after level six, I wonder?"
He had the feeling that level six wasn't the limit yet.
"I still have eight more, right?"
After a moment of thought, Luffy took another Haki Fruit and ate it—but something felt off.
The improvement was minuscule, less than a tenth of what he'd gained before.
He suspected it might take a hundred—or even more—Haki Fruits to advance from level six to level seven.
Shaking his head, he gave up for now.
"I should prepare some Awakening Fruits first…"
He opened the system again and purchased six Awakening Fruits.
A few minutes later, he had everything he needed.
[Adventure Coins]: 263,825
[Fruit Storage]: Haki Fruit ×7; Awakening Fruit ×6; Blank Fruit ×1; Healing Fruit ×1; Life Fruit ×3; Cleansing Fruit ×1
The Custom Update feature was truly convenient, but it seemed to have a major flaw: only the items he selected appeared. No new products ever showed up.
It had been more than two weeks since he unlocked that feature, and after dozens—maybe hundreds—of updates, not a single new item had appeared.
For example, right now he really wanted a fruit that could make someone's body smaller—obviously, for Shirahoshi to eat.
As he was thinking that, Uta returned with his coffee.
"Luffy!"
Nodding, Luffy took a sip and asked, "Uta, have you awakened your Devil Fruit yet?"
"Awakened? No," she said, blinking. Sitting down beside him, she wrapped her arms around his and smiled.
"Can my Devil Fruit even awaken? Will my hair turn white like yours?"
"I don't think so. My fruit is a Zoan type. Yours is a Paramecia."
He briefly explained the three types of Devil Fruits.
Paramecia were the most common of the three categories.
They granted superhuman abilities that didn't involve animal transformations or elemental control.
The second type was Logia—the most powerful and rare.
Logia Fruits allowed their users to create, control, and transform their bodies into natural elements such as ice, mud, smoke, fire, or darkness.
This elemental transformation made the user effectively intangible, and they could still control their body even when it was broken into pieces.
The third type was Zoan. Zoan Fruits granted the ability to transform into an animal or a hybrid form between the animal and the user's original species.
Zoans were further divided into subcategories: Ancient, Mythical, and Artificial.
"So... I'm a Paramecia?" Uta asked suddenly.
"You can teleport people's consciousness into a virtual space through your singing," Luffy replied.
He paused, thoughtful. "I have no idea what your Awakening would look like, though…"
At that moment, Luffy took out an Awakening Fruit and placed it in Uta's hand.
"You can awaken your fruit after eating this. Go on—eat it," he explained.
"Eh?! Luffy, why do you even have this?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"Just eat it," Luffy said casually.
"Mmm~" Uta opened her mouth and swallowed it all in one go. Her eyes immediately widened in surprise.
"Delicious!!" she exclaimed joyfully.
"I want more, Luffy!"
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(End of Chapter)