Second-floor laboratory.
Kureha had created a controlled temperature and humidity environment in one corner, where the captured salamanders were kept.
They were frequently dissected for research—sometimes limbs, sometimes organs, but the primary focus was the brain region.
When the salamanders regenerated, useful regenerative cell material was extracted from the regrown areas. These were cultivated in culture fluid, injected with drugs, and observed throughout their growth cycle.
By influencing the salamanders' brain development through drugs, Kureha conducted research on Brain Domain-enhancing pharmaceuticals.
Days passed one after another.
Bear Cub molded the gold into ingots.
During this time, Garp visited once, though Moses didn't accompany him to the East Blue.
Instead, he remained focused on his own work.
Garp took half of the gold with him this time, along with the gold obtained from the Slave Hunter Ship, to purchase experimental drugs and equipment.
Kureha had entrusted these "mundane" tasks to Garp.
Of course, a service fee was inevitable.
It was also a form of social interaction.
A month later, Garp delivered the procured supplies.
As a result, Kureha's daily routine became even busier, often disappearing from morning till night.
Bear Cub handled all three daily meals. As for Moses, he remained immersed in forging more "named blades."
Bear Cub shuttled back and forth every day—refining metal ore in the cave, delivering supplies to Moses, then returning home to cook.
By mealtime, Moses would return with the occasional hunted prey.
After eating, he would head back to the forging cave in Drum Peak to continue his work.
Not every attempt at crafting a named blade was successful.
Yet even the failures resulted in weapons that would be considered refined by outside standards.
Due to time and efficiency constraints, Moses focused on smaller weapons—daggers, short swords, short blades, arm shields—minimizing time investment.
Every mealtime, Moses would bring Bear Cub one or two refined weapons or scraps as rations.
These coveted, high-quality arms, sought after by many, were being devoured as snacks by a bear in an unknown corner.
Any sword enthusiast or weapon aficionado who found out would surely tremble with rage.
Time flowed on.
As Moses crafted more and more, his techniques grew increasingly refined, and the success rate of producing Swift Blades rose steadily.
His understanding of metal grain alignment and the spiritual essence of forging materials deepened.
Both Moses' and Kureha's equipment had been upgraded.
Even the surgical knives were now of Swift Blade quality.
Even the kitchen knives at home had reached Swift Blade standards—though their edges weren't honed to weapon sharpness.
They only needed to cut vegetables, meat, and bones.
…
May 1505, in the Sea Circle Calendar.
Time flew, and another year passed.
Moses turned five.
"We're out of iron ore."
Apart from the veins controlled by the king, nearly all the mineable iron on this island had been extracted by Bear Cub.
"Even the cleverest housewife can't cook without rice."
Shh! Shh! Shh!
Sweat dripped as Moses sharpened a forearm-length silver-white shortsword on a whetstone.
Once polished, he secured the hilt.
The finished scabbard fit perfectly.
「Appraisal」
[C-grade Shortsword (Swift Blade): A high-quality shortsword forged from a special cold-attributed alloy, with the unique property of condensing moisture from the air into dewdrops along its blade.]
"V-Village Rain?"
Moses blinked in surprise. This Swift Blade shortsword, the first of its kind he had ever forged after a week's effort, had truly given him an unexpected delight.
"Two months ago, Bear Cub stumbled upon a cold-attributed meteorite iron in the cave mines. After refining and fusing it with his Bestowed Ability, we obtained the only piece of C-grade alloy—fortunately, it wasn't wasted."
At the same time, Moses opened his interface panel to check the Bestowed Ability section.
As expected, his D-grade "Forging" ability had naturally progressed to D+ over the past year as the success rate of crafting "Swift Blades" steadily increased. With the creation of this Swift Blade shortsword, it had officially leveled up in quality.
[C- grade Blessing: Forging]
Moses toyed with the shortsword, deep in thought. "Forging a fine weapon is time-consuming and labor-intensive. The smelting and forging of metal alone is a challenge, requiring an excessive amount of time. But with Bear Cub's Munch-Munch Fruit ability, this prerequisite step is bypassed entirely, saving me a great deal of time."
"What I need to do is focus on forging with the refined alloy. For Swift Blades, the grain of ordinary alloys is easy to handle, but gathering the material's spiritual essence is troublesome. However, once that's successfully done, as long as the subsequent steps go smoothly, the forging can be completed."
"But Swift Blades are different. The grain of rare alloys is harder to integrate, and gathering the material's spiritual essence is even more mentally taxing. Every step of the forging process must be flawless. Thankfully, I can enter the State of Oneness, achieving absolute tranquility and focus—otherwise, this Swift Blade would never have come to be."
Moses reflected on his forging journey over the past year, from crafting Swift Blades to now successfully forging a Swift Blade shortsword. His understanding of forging had undergone a revolutionary transformation.
For the current him, forging a "Swift Blade"-grade weapon no longer posed any challenge. The only limiting factor was the quality of the materials.
This year's harvest had been exceptionally bountiful.
Swift Blades were weapons with legendary traits. Under the concept of "Weapons," Moses discovered that when a weapon's form was smaller than a dagger, the extraction of Merit Points would plummet drastically.
A standard Swift Blade dagger could yield him the standard 1,000 Merit Points upon extraction. But for a Swift Blade-grade scalpel, the extracted Merit Points dropped to just 100. As for a Swift Blade-grade silver needle? A mere 1 Merit Point.
Moreover...
"Forging silver needles and scalpels to Swift Blade quality is downright torturous. The gathering of material spiritual essence is nothing short of insane."
After crafting his first silver needle and extracting the Merit Points, Moses silently vowed never to make another one in his life unless absolutely necessary. The effort was immense, and the payoff was pitifully low.
Over the year, Moses had taken the time to forge a well-fitted suit of armor and weapons for Bear Cub—a reward for the hardworking miner bear. Or perhaps, his wages.
Aside from personal-use "Swift Blades," Moses had managed to accumulate 60 Swift Blade weapons over the year, accounting for failures. After extracting all of them...
Moses obtained 60,101 Merit Points.
This was equivalent to refining an A-grade Devil Fruit.
With the year's summary complete, a smile curled at the corners of Moses' lips—it was also the season for harvest.
Gazing at the several Blessings in the Bestowed Ability column that had not yet been fully manifested, he decided to spend his Merit Points.
Investing 50,000 Merit Points, he materialized the Blessing he had long yearned for.
In the next moment, a peculiar sensation blossomed within Moses, as if a gentle breeze had swept through every fiber of his being.
At first, it was pleasant.
But then, an all-encompassing pain surged through him—unbearable agony.
Moses clenched his teeth, struggling to enter a state of controlled Breath.
He emptied his mind, letting go of all thought.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally exhaled in relief.
Simultaneously, an instinctual awareness arose within him. Moses looked at the short sword in his hand, then fixed his gaze on a tiny white dot on the rock wall ten meters away. A primal intuition surged in his heart.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he threw the short sword—just a careless toss. Yet, the moment it left his hand, guided by the subconscious desire to hit the mark, his fingers instinctively adjusted the trajectory.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world.
In the next instant, the casually thrown short sword struck the sesame-sized white dot with uncanny precision—embedding itself into the rock wall.
Moses fell into deep contemplation.
"Instinct?"
"So, the Blessing of Precision grants me an innate talent—an instinct. It's not about manipulating probability conceptually, but rather using my own abilities to observe, predict, and correct the outcome."
He turned his attention to the Bestowed Ability column.
[A-rank Blessing: Precision] (Capable of autonomous growth)
[Effect: Through self-correction, gain influence over outcomes related to accuracy in vision, technique, Physique, and cognition.]
[Evaluation: Precision is the difference between surgery and slaughter.]
A smirk tugged at his lips—Moses was quite satisfied with the Blessing's effect.
"Rather than leaving everything to elusive chance, I prefer using my own hands to create the results I desire."
"And what a pleasant surprise—I didn't expect 'Precision' to be a Blessing capable of autonomous growth. I must have underestimated it before."
Merit Points: 11,078
Factoring in the daily "check-ins" over the years and the remaining points from previous refining, this was all he had left.
"Merit Points are incredibly useful—and incredibly hard to obtain."
"Of course, that was before I forged a 'Named Blade.'"
Looking at his remaining points, Moses felt an urge to splurge.
As for how to spend them?
[Lottery]
This was a feature he had never used since acquiring Merit Points. But now that he had "money," it was time to spend it.
[Lottery:] Spend Merit Points to draw treasures from across the myriad dimensions, including but not limited to Bestowed Abilities, items, characters, etc. (The quality range of each draw fluctuates based on the amount of Merit Points spent.)
"Since I can forge Swift Blades, why not spend 1,000 points first? A little taste, a warm-up."
No sooner thought than done. Guided by the instinctive pull of the "Lottery," Moses "paid" 1,000 Merit Points, blinking in anticipation to see just what kind of lottery system this was.
The next moment, Moses's consciousness was drawn into the sea of his mind, appearing before that indescribable "orb of light."
A "vortex" emerged on the surface of the orb, spinning faster and faster.
Then, at a certain moment.
An indescribable 「speck of light」 suddenly appeared.
It shot out from the vortex.
Immediately after, Moses opened his eyes.
At the same time, he saw an object enveloped in a palm-sized "orb of light" materialize before him.
Moses reached out to touch it, and as the orb dissipated, a small booklet appeared in his hand. A piece of "information" was instantly comprehended by him.
After a quick flip-through, Moses realized he could read it—the text inside was displayed in this world's script.
Was this some kind of rule adjustment?
The answer was: yes.
Moses turned his attention to the item's description.
[D-grade Item: Kasugai Crow Breeding Manual]
[Contents: Through selection, breeding, and pharmaceutical adjustments, cultivate high-quality avian species capable of understanding human speech, speaking human language, or both.]
[Evaluation: Crows are humanity's friends. Please treat them with kindness.]
Moses blinked. "Is this suggesting my next manifested Blessing should be 「Taming」?"
It wasn't particularly useful, but it wasn't useless either.
Just a pleasant little surprise.
The Nine Snakes have their 「snakes.」
Alabasta has its 「Running Ducks.」
Morgans has his 「News Coos.」
So why shouldn't I raise an army of talking 「crows」?
Speaking of which, can Pandas talk?
Their vocal systems are quite developed too, aren't they?
"Never mind that for now. While my luck's holding, let's try another pull."
This time, Moses steeled himself, gritted his teeth, and spent 10,000 Merit Points.
A few seconds later, another 「speck of light」 emerged from the vortex within the "orb of light" in his mind.
Once again, an "orb of light" appeared before Moses.
「Contact」
A bottle of unlabeled, standard red-and-white capsules materialized in his hand.
Moses blinked as the item's information naturally flowed into his understanding.
[B-grade Item: APTX 4869]
[Effect: APOPTOXIN-4869 is a potent chemical toxin that leaves no traceable cause of death. In extremely rare cases, its side effects can revert a person's physiological functions to a developmental stage.]
[Evaluation: "A mysterious drug that fantastically revives the dead"—except its actual function is to kill. The real joke is that if it doesn't kill you, the lingering side effects can indeed grant a form of "youth."]
Moses stared blankly, rereading the description of 「APTX 4869」 three times. "This thing actually qualifies as B-grade? So its high rating comes entirely from its side effects?"
You live and learn.
Moses opened the bottle, poured the capsules into his palm, and counted them carefully, his expression twisting into a wry smile.
"There are a hundred of them. So it's a bulk product."
Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Moses recalled the side effects of 「APTX 4869.」 "In a way, this really is a miraculous drug that can reverse aging."
"Could we refine this 'side effect' into an actual pharmaceutical effect by combining it with 「Lineage Factor」 adjustments and further development?"
"To be honest, judging by results rather than intentions, this is a groundbreaking drug that successfully intervenes in human genetic reverse-aging.
While its primary function is to induce programmed cell death, it also enhances the activity of human telomerase, thereby increasing cell proliferation capacity.
Due to an accidental yet inevitable side effect, it regresses the human body to an early childhood developmental stage without affecting mental faculties."
"Maybe I should take it back for Doctorine to examine later? See if she can develop it further with her skills?"
"Hmm, explaining its origin might be tricky." Moses scratched his head in frustration.
"If I lie about it, I'll just have to keep patching the story with more lies. Forget it, I'll deal with this when I get back."
"I should take a break from forging weapons too. Sigh, why is iron ore so scarce around here?"
Moses tucked the Kasugai Crow Training Manual and a bottle of "APTX 4869" into his pocket, tidied up the forge, extinguished the flames, and retrieved the short sword from the rock wall.
After changing out of his work clothes and sealing the cave entrance, Moses cheerfully descended the mountain.
Walking through the snowy forest.
As Moses read through the Kasugai Crow Training Manual, he found its contents about taming highly intelligent crows refreshingly innovative.
"Especially this section on drug development—it actually includes substances that affect the 'Brain Domain' of creatures. Tsk tsk, who would've thought today's greatest find would turn out to be this?"
"I remember there being crows on the island too—the white-necked variety, I think. Maybe I'll try collecting some eggs tomorrow."