By the moonlight, Merlin saw his face clearly.
And right now, the man was aiming a snub-nosed revolver directly at him with his right hand. Merlin looked at him warily.
"Viscount Mela, it's you!"
Mela's eyes darted uncertainly toward Merlin. He gritted his teeth and hissed, "Who are you? Are you the bastard who was throwing bombs around my house just now?
"Do you know that will attract those foreign soldier bastards?"
Merlin's gaze remained steady. "Laplace. My father was Lance; you should know him. You two seemed to have partnered in mining Amber Lead back in the day."
Mela's expression twisted instantly. Lance? That stray dog from another country who got lucky and married Lucia?
At that moment, by the moonlight, Merlin saw the jealousy and hatred in Mela's eyes. Without a word, he yanked a grenade from his waist with his right hand, dove to the side, and pulled the pin.
Bang! Bang! Two gunshots rang out instantly.
Merlin darted left and right to dodge the bullets. Three seconds later, he hurled the grenade toward the window. A crisp clink was heard as it landed, followed by a booming explosion.
Amidst the explosion, a scream of agony rang out. Merlin hid behind a sofa, panting heavily, looking at the blood seeping from his upper right arm.
Biting his lip, a fierce light in his eyes, he took another grenade from his waist.
His right hand gripped the safety lever, his left hand holding the pin. He listened quietly to the movement outside. A suppressed groan came from out there.
Without hesitation, Merlin pulled the pin and sprinted forward. In the first second, he covered two meters. In the second, he saw Mela rolling on the ground outside. In the third, he threw the grenade with all his might.
In the fourth second, he turned and dove to the ground. BOOM! An explosion roared.
A shockwave mixed with fire washed over him.
He yanked off another grenade, rolled backward to his feet, and looked outside. In that instant, his eyes widened abruptly.
Mela had transformed into a half-beast, wolf-like creature. He struggled to his feet, his eyes glowing an eerie green as he stared deathly at Merlin.
He was an ability user?
Click! Merlin pulled the pin, eyes locked on him. Seeing Merlin's action, Mela let out a roar, stumbled up, and ran away.
At the second second, Merlin threw the grenade hard. It landed precisely at Mela's right foot. BOOM!
Merlin lay flat on the ground, covering his head with his hands, squinting as he stared intently in that direction.
The grenade blast flipped Mela directly off his feet, sending him rolling away.
A few seconds later, seeing Mela lying motionless on the ground, Merlin gritted his teeth. He pulled another grenade, pulled the pin, counted silently for two seconds, and threw it at him.
Just as the grenade hit his body, Mela suddenly sprang up and rolled to the side.
BOOM!
This explosion sent him flying. Mela let out a shrill scream; his right calf had been blown clean off.
Merlin pulled another grenade, pulled the pin, counted two seconds again, and threw it.
BOOM! Mela was blasted to the ground once more. A few seconds later, flames ignited on his body. Merlin hesitated for two seconds, then took another grenade. Holding it in his left hand, he bit the pin with his teeth, drew his dagger from his leg with his right hand, and walked slowly toward him.
Arriving beside Mela, who had reverted from his half-beast form, Merlin stepped on the bloody stump of his leg. Mela's body only twitched; there was no other movement.
Merlin breathed a slight sigh of relief. He squatted down slowly, placing the back of his right hand against Mela's severed leg. With a thought, an unconscious gray rat appeared in the real world, and Mela's body vanished.
At that moment, Merlin sat down on the ground, a wave of lingering fear washing over him.
"He was actually an ability user. I've never heard of that before."
However, just then, as Mela was equipped, the [Equipment Slot] interface transmitted a very peculiar piece of information into Merlin's consciousness.
Merlin understood the message instantly.
[Detected a complete Source Power. Extract it?]
His eyes widened gradually, his heart pounding. A hypothesis formed in his mind. He focused his thought:
"Extract."
Then, Mela's image in the [Equipment Slot] blurred. More than ten seconds later, Merlin saw a misty, wolf-shaped energy appear in the slot.
Immediately after, another message appeared in his consciousness.
[Each Equipment Slot can only equip one "Item." Please select the "Item" to equip now.]
Without hesitation, in the next instant, Mela's miserable body appeared in the outside world.
At the same time, the image in the [Equipment Slot] changed. A ferocious wolf image made of mysterious energy appeared.
Then, yet another message appeared.
[Detected a complete Source Power. Consume it to generate a new "Equipment Slot" frame?]
Merlin's mouth opened slightly. After processing this information, his heart stirred.
"Meaning, the essence of a Devil Fruit can be used to expand the number of my equipment slots?"
He didn't agree immediately. Merlin looked at Mela in front of him. His chest was still rising and falling faintly. "He's not dead even after the Devil Fruit power was extracted?"
Could this be a special ability of his [Equipment Slot]?
Merlin wasn't sure, but that didn't stop him from finishing the job. Gripping the dagger, he stabbed it violently into Mela's neck. Squelch! A spray of blood splattered across Merlin's cheek.
He looked incredibly ferocious at that moment.
Unknowingly, killing didn't seem so disgusting anymore.
Merlin didn't know if this was good or bad, but he knew that getting used to this might help him live longer in the future.
He exhaled a turbid breath.
Merlin looked at his current equipment.
[Name: Unknown Source Power]
[Effect: When equipped, grants the ability to transform into a Jungle Wolf and freely switch between human, beast, and hybrid forms. Grants biological characteristics of a Jungle Wolf. However, it also imposes a restriction from nature (PS: This restriction is integral to this source power; it can be "weakened" but not erased).]
[Synchronization Rate: 1%]
[Evaluation: A supernatural creation formed by the ingenious combination of pure wish power and the world's source.]
"Is this the true origin of Devil Fruits?"
Shock flashed in Merlin's eyes. The internet in his past life had various theories about the origin of Devil Fruits, but he never expected...
He stopped dwelling on it. Existence is reasonable.
Merlin could sense a strange power suddenly appearing in his body. At the same time, information about the fruit's ability was instinctively understood.
"Zoan-type... Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Jungle Wolf?"
Feeling the boost from the Zoan fruit ability, a sensation of immense power filled him. Simultaneously, he felt an itch from the wounds on his thigh and right arm.
The wounds were healing at an accelerated rate.
Joy flashed in his eyes. It seemed fine to keep it [Equipped] for now. He looked at the [Equipment Slot] interface.
The name of the equipped item had changed under the influence of his subconscious.
[Name: Zoan-type: Jungle Wolf Form]
With a thought, the equipment slot vanished from his vision. Merlin looked around, reattaching the grenade in his left hand to his waist. He only had four grenades left.
He pondered, 'Should I go kill more soldiers to stock up on grenades?'
But in the next moment, he shook his head vigorously.
"The injuries on Mela were likely caused by those soldiers.
"I can't get cocky!"
Looking around, Merlin recalled where Mela had appeared from. He stomped the previously equipped rat to death, then walked in a specific direction.
A wolf's nose was very sensitive. Even with the smell of gunpowder everywhere, scents weren't easily dispersed.
Circling around the broken window of the main building to the left, a minute later, Merlin found a secret passage leading downwards in a hidden cave within the rockery by the wall.
Merlin looked at the large rock that had been moved aside, revealing a circular hole about a meter in diameter.
At that moment, Merlin raised an eyebrow at a suitcase sitting beside the cave entrance.
His nose twitched. He sniffed the air inside the cave and found no other scents. Recalling that Viscount Mela had never been rumored to have a wife or children...
Understanding dawned in Merlin's eyes. The suitcase must contain his belongings.
Thinking this, Merlin opened the suitcase. The first thing he saw were stacks of 10,000-Berry notes emitting the smell of ink.
To Merlin's eye, each stack looked like about a hundred bills. Flipping through them casually, there were about thirty stacks. Thirty million Berries.
Continuing to rummage through the suitcase, he felt a hard object wrapped in cloth. Merlin grabbed it, took it out, and unwrapped it. His expression turned silent.
In his hand was a fruit with peculiar patterns.
Covered in swirling arabesque patterns.
Half the size of a palm, shaped like a plum.
It was a strange Devil Fruit.