One Piece Dragon King - Chapter 24
For the past few days, Hals has been focusing on training while Luffy, Ace, and Sabo go out to play. In the evenings, they bring back food. Even though they have plenty of crocodile meat, they still bring other types of food.
Sabo brought some fruits and vegetables, Ace caught a wild boar, and Luffy managed to catch a few rabbits.
Hals: “…”
These guys.
Sigh… I’ll just ignore them.
Hals planned to go out for more food once they had eaten most of what they had. Meanwhile, he contemplated whether to mess with the others like in those comedic novels, but he decided against it for now. There was no need.
Hals had been pondering a problem lately: how to maintain the timeline. Sabo was supposed to be knocked out by a Celestial Dragon’s cannonball and then meet Dragon. This event had to happen to keep the timeline intact. As for the Bluejam Pirates’ captain, he didn’t matter much. Hals could easily eliminate him.
Things originally went as Sabo encountered the Celestial Dragons first, followed by Ace and Luffy fighting the Bluejam Pirates. But now, with Hals in the picture, maintaining the original timeline was tricky.
Oh well, I won’t think too much about it.
Hals had grown significantly stronger. He opened his status panel.
– Body: 18
– Soul: 26
– Blood: Magic Dragon (can master all kinds of magic) [Dragon Meditation Technique: Beginner] [Dragon Body Technique: Beginner]
– Negative Emotion Points: 296,790
– Magic: Water Element Level 1+ (1/10)
Oh, and thanks to Whitebeard for his generous contributions. Without him, the expenses for Healing Elixirs and Energy Elixirs would have been too high.
Meanwhile, on the Whitebeard Pirates’ ship:
Marco: “Cough, cough. Pops’ health is declining. He’s even started sneezing recently.”
Saatchi: “He even sneezed into his drink once.”
Teach: “He also sneezed on me once. I was covered in snot.”
Saatchi: “Oh, Teach, no wonder you asked me for another cherry pie.”
Jozu: “I saw Pops sneeze on his [Murakumogiri] once.”
Bista: “Is Pops sick?”
Marco: “It doesn’t seem like it. I’ve checked Pops’ health, and he doesn’t have a cold. I’m more worried it’s something else.”
Perona: “What are you all talking about?”
Izo: “You scared me.”
Everyone: “Nothing.”
It seemed they didn’t want to worry anyone else about Whitebeard’s health, to avoid causing panic.
—
Hals thought for a moment and decided to max out his water magic. A wave of soul-wrenching pain shot through his head, and he quickly drank a Healing Elixir. The effect wasn’t great, as Healing Elixirs only healed the body, not the soul. After a while, the pain subsided.
“Phew.”
Hals wiped the sweat from his forehead. His mind was now filled with water magic spells. He could use water magic, but to master it, his soul needed to reach a value of 20. He was currently at 17.9. Just a bit more training would help him reach it.
It would take 21 hours of training, but Hals couldn’t train all day without raising suspicion. Although time flew by quickly while meditating, it would seem strange to others.
So, Hals trained for 20 hours a day and spent the nights sleeping with his three brothers. He didn’t want to seem too different or distant. At night, he would lie down to meditate and drink an Energy Elixir when he got hungry.
However, Luffy once smelled the elixir.
“Hals, do you smell something? It’s a nice smell, but I can’t describe it.”
What’s that smell?
All beneficial elixirs had a bit of fragrance, and Energy Elixirs, meant as food replacements, had a strong aroma. Hals felt awkward.
“No, you probably had a weird dream.”
“Really? Then why are you awake? Are you sneaking food?”
“I-I… Don’t wake the others, you idiot.”
Hals changed the subject, putting the blame on Luffy.
“Oh, okay.”
Luffy covered his mouth.
“Go back to sleep.”
Hals covered himself with a thin blanket. It was summer, so a thick blanket wasn’t needed. The wooden floor was hard, but Hals was meditating, so he didn’t have trouble sleeping. Since that incident, Hals no longer drank Energy Elixirs while sleeping but instead used them directly. Unfortunately, he couldn’t enjoy their taste this way.
—
“Hals, I need to ask you something serious.”
“What’s up, Sabo?”
“Aren’t you eating enough at night?”
“Huh?”
“I keep hearing your stomach growling at night.”
Hals: “…”
How embarrassing.
Looks like I need to drink the elixirs before meditating.
“I’ll pay attention to that.”
Hals scratched his head.
“By the way, you haven’t been training with us. Are you really getting stronger?” Ace asked. He wanted to reclaim the title of the strongest among the brothers. Ace used to be the strongest until Hals came along.
Ace was confident he had improved significantly with training and believed he could beat Hals now.
Hals: “I’ve mainly been developing my Devil Fruit abilities, but my physical strength has improved a lot too.”
Ace: “…”
That sounds off. Your fruit is a Zoan-type. Developing its abilities also means improving your physical strength, right?
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