Chapter 11: The Location of Heavenly Gold? Wind-Winged Dragon!
"Thud!"
Accompanying it, Colonel Aste's corpse fell heavily to the ground.
Loy slowly retracted his right leg, adjusting the mask on his face: "It's been a while since I last used it, but it's still fine. Not rusty yet."
Indeed—just as he had said before, the Six Powers aren't exactly a secret to the Marines.
Any Marine officer above the rank of Captain who has served several years at Headquarters has a chance to learn them, either through other Marine officers or by training at the training grounds.
The only real restriction to learning the Six Powers is the extremely high demand they place on one's physical strength.
Once their physical strength meets the requirements, many can even comprehend one of the Six Powers on their own.
And clearly, this restriction of physical strength is not a restriction for Loy.
Although the Level of the two Zoan Type Devil Fruits on him are both Level 1, the physical enhancement they grant is already sufficient for him to practice the Six Powers.
Therefore, in fact, Loy had already learned four of the Six Powers: 'Moonwalk,' 'Rankyaku,' 'Soru,' and 'Iron Body.'
Although he couldn't be called proficient, he could still use them skillfully.
"Soru is a standard for strong fighters, Iron Body is a defensive maneuver, Moonwalk is a rare flight ability, and Rankyaku is a long-range attack. All are worth experiencing."
Muttering to himself, Loy slowly approached Manager Mantel's corpse.
Looking at the opponent's mangled corpse, Loy reached out and searched their pockets.
As expected, he then pulled some things out of their pockets.
A few extremely high-quality gemstones and tens of millions of Beli certainly weren't enough to make Loy ecstatic.
"Cough, cough, what's this?"
What truly interested him were the two remaining items besides the treasure.
The first was a string of keys, each with a serial number.
The second was a finely folded piece of paper.
"No need to say, the keys are definitely for these treasures—but this paper was actually stored with the keys..."
Loy curiously opened the paper, and then...
"This is..."
His expression abruptly changed.
Afterward, his breathing became a little hurried.
Because at this moment, the paper in front of him, once unfolded, was clearly a sea chart with a distinct route marked on it.
To be precise, this was a 'shipping route map'.
The starting point of the route was the Sabaody Archipelago.
So it wasn't hard to guess that this was Manager Mantel's return route map after selling those slaves at the Sabaody Archipelago.
But the problem lay precisely here.
Because as the manager of a royal merchant ship, Mantel's destination for his return voyage should logically be the capital of the Nismal Kingdom.
However, the endpoint of this shipping route map was not the capital of the Nismal Kingdom, but another island named 'Arashit Island'.
That island was quite a distance from the capital, even very close to the Calm Belt.
So why was this?
Loy instinctively recalled a piece of information he had heard Manager Mantel mention earlier—that this batch of financial reports would be part of the Nismal Kingdom's 'Heavenly Gold' for this year, and the time for its delivery was already very close.
Therefore, the answer was obvious.
"Arashit Island, this island... is the port for storing and transporting 'Heavenly Gold'!"
But just as Loy was shocked internally,
his keen hearing also caught movements coming from the Marine branch above—evidently, those drunken Marines were gradually waking up.
So, he stuffed the paper back into Manager Mantel's pocket, then, taking the string of keys, he swiftly turned around and began opening the chests.
As the pile of treasure chests in the storage room were continuously opened, each one, as expected, was filled with glittering treasures or piled-up Beli.
Thus, Loy unhesitatingly placed his hand on them.
As the System operated, the treasures and Beli continuously disappeared, replaced by the sounds constantly ringing in Loy's ears.
[Current Beli held: 45.23 million → 75.30 million]
[Current Beli held: 75.30 million → 111 million]
[Current...]
"As expected, all the methods for making money are written in the World Government's laws."
Looking at the wildly growing numbers, Loy couldn't help but sigh.
"No wonder everyone is willing to go out and become pirates—what's the point of this existence!?"
And it was precisely at the same time Loy was lamenting the absurdity of the system,
His movements, however, suddenly paused.
Because at this moment, he had noticed a treasure chest in front of him.
"Seastone?"
Looking at the drab-looking, seemingly stone-made treasure chest, Loy immediately realized—this thing must have been made of Seastone.
And among the treasures here, something that needed to be conspicuously stored in a Seastone treasure chest...
"The Devil Fruit those two guys mentioned earlier is in there!"
Thus, Loy immediately realized this—he had previously heard Manager Mantel and Colonel Aste mention that the former had obtained a precious Devil Fruit at the Sabaody Archipelago.
So Loy immediately went to that treasure chest, took out the key with the corresponding number, and opened it.
Then, as expected, Loy saw a dark blue Devil Fruit.
The unique swirling patterns characteristic of Devil Fruits were clearly coiling on its surface.
And by Loy's ear, the voice of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia also rang out at the opportune moment.
[Detected an ownerless Devil Fruit.]
[Confirmed the Devil Fruit to be a 'Zoan Type Ancient Species: Dragon-Dragon Devil Fruit, Wind-Winged Dragon Model'. Analyzing and storing it in the 'Devil Fruit Encyclopedia'.]
[Please touch the Devil Fruit to proceed with Devil Fruit analysis. Current Analysis Progress: 0%.]
Accompanying the System's voice, Loy's expression was stunned.
Not only because this was his first time obtaining a real Devil Fruit,
More importantly...
"Ancient Species?"
Loy hadn't expected that the Devil Fruit he obtained this time would actually be a precious 'Zoan Type Ancient Species' Devil Fruit.
It's said that Zoan Type Ancient Species Devil Fruits grant Ability Users far greater vitality and physical strength than regular Zoan Type Devil Fruits.
Looking across the entire sea, although they can't compare to Mythical Zoan Types or Logia Type Devil Fruits, they are absolutely a rare type of Devil Fruit.
To obtain such a Devil Fruit was naturally an unexpected joy for Loy.
Thus, Loy unhesitatingly placed his hand on that Devil Fruit.
The next moment, he saw the Devil Fruit continuously dissolving.
At the same time, the 'Analysis Progress' on the screen in front of him also began to continuously update.
In just a few breaths, he saw the Devil Fruit vanish into thin air.
Replaced by...
[Devil Fruit Analysis Complete. Current Ability Level: Level 3.]
[Level 3: All Devil Fruit effects obtained. Can transform into the ancient creature 'Wind-Winged Dragon'. Recovery ability and vitality greatly enhanced. Can freely switch between 'Human Form', 'Beast Form', and 'Human-Beast Form'. Can flap both wings to create strong wind.]
[Level 4: Devil Fruit deeply developed. Can flap wings to create gale-force wind for slicing attacks. Can use the stirred-up gales to move at super high speeds. Recovery ability and vitality further enhanced. Requires consumption of 2.5 billion / 800 million Beli for permanent / temporary unlock.]
[Level 5: Devil Fruit Awakening: Primordial Regression. Undergo the unique awakened transformation of a Zoan Type Devil Fruit Ability User. Body will be wreathed in flame clouds. Vitality and recovery ability reach their peak. Can unleash disaster-level gales. Requires consumption of 9 billion / 3 billion Beli for permanent / temporary unlock.]
(End of Chapter)