The Straw Hat crew's adventure on Skypiea came to an end. And naturally, that meant it was time to celebrate.
They threw a massive bonfire party that lasted three whole days.
During those three days of nonstop eating, drinking, and chaos, the Log Pose quietly finished recording Skypiea's magnetic field. And Marcus' EMC converter finally finished processing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
He checked the selling price and nearly did a double-take.
3,000,000 EMC.
The value was way lower than he'd expected for such a powerful Logia-type fruit. But it did confirm something he'd been suspecting about the EMC system's valuation method.
Standard Zoan-type fruits: 1,000,000 EMC.
Standard Paramecia-type fruits: 2,000,000 EMC.
Standard Logia-type fruits: 3,000,000 EMC.
Ancient Zoan variants: 2,000,000 EMC.
Following that pattern, Mythical Zoan fruits probably clocked in at 3,000,000 as well.
Right now, Marcus had accumulated enough Devil Fruits that just keeping track of them was getting annoying.
One Logia: Rumble-Rumble.
Four Zoans: Mantis, Giraffe, Tortoise, Velociraptor.
Six Paramecia: Bomb-Bomb, Munch-Munch, Shroom-Shroom, Whisper-Whisper, Bubble-Bubble, Sickle-Sickle.
Ever since Clucky had eaten the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, Marcus had been paranoid about leaving Devil Fruits lying around. With so many ability users already on the ship, all it would take was one moment of carelessness, like Luffy getting hungry and eating a random fruit without thinking, and someone could end up consuming two Devil Fruits.
The result would be instant death from their body literally exploding.
After that realization, Marcus stopped keeping Devil Fruits anywhere visible. They stayed locked in his inventory at all times.
That night on the Going Merry, he called for a full crew meeting in the dining room.
"Alright, listen up. I've got these Devil Fruits available. Anyone want one?"
His eyes swept across the members who still didn't have powers.
At this point, only three Straw Hats remained without abilities: Zoro, Sanji, and Nami.
Zoro immediately shook his head. "I don't need one."
Sanji glanced at the selection Marcus laid out on the table and also declined. "None of these are what I'm looking for."
That left everyone's attention focused on Nami.
She looked conflicted, clearly uncomfortable with being put on the spot.
As the crew's navigator, her role had become less critical to their survival now that everyone else's combat abilities had skyrocketed. Before, at least Vivi had been in the same boat as her, another non-combatant in a crew of fighters.
But ever since Vivi ate the Whisper-Whisper Fruit, everything changed. The fruit hadn't given her explosive combat power or anything, but its unique properties meant she could now hold her own even against someone like Alvida through pure evasion.
The Whisper-Whisper Fruit didn't directly increase physical strength, but when combined with Observation Haki, its effectiveness in predicting attacks was insane. Even with Vivi's barely-awakened, inconsistent Haki, she could already dodge attacks that would've hit her before. If she kept developing both abilities, she might eventually reach future sight.
Watching Vivi's progress made Nami feel like she was falling behind.
Everyone was getting stronger while she stayed the same.
Marcus noticed her hesitation and pushed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit toward her across the table.
"I'd recommend this one. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit pairs perfectly with your Clima-Tact, and it's a Logia-type, which means instant power boost without much training needed."
He gestured to the other fruits. "Of course, you could also take the Bubble-Bubble Fruit. That one suits your style too, it creates tons of bubbles that can wash away an opponent's strength. Combined with your weather manipulation, you might discover some pretty creative techniques. And lastly, there's the Sickle-Sickle Fruit. It lets you launch ranged cutting attacks. The ability is straightforward, but like the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, its power scales with your physical strength."
Nami stared at the three fruits.
Her hesitation wasn't really about comparing abilities. The moment she'd seen the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, she'd known which one Marcus wanted her to take. It was obviously the best fit for her.
But that was exactly the problem.
Her entire fighting style revolved around the Clima-Tact, using it to create small-scale weather phenomena. Her most powerful attacks had always been lightning-based.
But if she ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit... the Clima-Tact would become almost irrelevant. As long as she had stamina, she could just spam large-scale lightning attacks directly. Way more efficient than spending half the battle generating thunder clouds manually.
Thinking about that made her feel like all her training and research into weather manipulation had been wasted. Like she was abandoning everything she'd worked for halfway through.
She sighed heavily.
"What's wrong?" Marcus asked, genuinely confused by her reluctance.
Nami explained her concerns, how eating the fruit felt like throwing away all the effort she'd put into developing her current fighting style.
The crew fell silent, considering her perspective.
Vivi nodded sympathetically. "I understand completely. I'm still struggling with the same thing."
Everyone looked at her questioningly.
"My Peacock Slashers fighting style is completely different from using Kashu now," Vivi explained. "Even though the sword is incredible, adapting to a totally new weapon and technique made me feel like I'd wasted all my previous training."
Marcus scratched his head, then grinned. "You're both overthinking this. Let me put it simply, if you're fighting during a thunderstorm and you have the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, couldn't you just manipulate the natural lightning directly? Precise targeting with minimal effort?"
He pointed at Nami's Clima-Tact. "Or think about it this way. What if you use your Clima-Tact to generate massive thunderclouds like you normally do, but then use the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to control and direct all that lightning with perfect accuracy? Wouldn't that save a ton of stamina compared to manually steering each bolt?"
Nami started nodding as she processed his logic.
"Devil Fruit development isn't rigid. Using external tools to amplify your natural abilities is even better than relying on the fruit alone. You're not replacing your skills, you're upgrading them."
"Huh... that makes sense," Nami admitted.
The rest of the crew murmured in agreement.
Convinced by Marcus' reasoning, she picked up the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and examined it. Everyone leaned forward.
She took a deep breath and bit into it.
The texture was surprisingly crisp, almost pleasant at first.
Then the taste hit her.
Nami's face contorted in disgust as she covered her mouth, desperately fighting the urge to spit it out. Somehow, she managed to force herself to swallow.
"Oh god... that's horrible..."
"You need to eat the whole thing," Marcus said cheerfully, clearly enjoying her suffering.
The rest of the crew wore matching expressions.
"What? One bite should be enough to get the power, right?" Nami protested, staring at the remaining fruit in horror.
Marcus wagged his finger. "Technically yes, but there's a theory that eating the entire fruit grants 100% of its power and makes awakening easier later on."
Nami's expression turned skeptical. "That's just a rumor."
"Maybe. But what if it's true?" Marcus shrugged. "Your choice."
Nami glared at the fruit, tears already forming in her eyes just from remembering the taste. She'd already suffered through one bite. Giving up now would mean that suffering was for nothing.
"Fine! I'll eat it!"
She took another bite.
The disgusting flavor assaulted her taste buds once again. Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably as she forced herself to chew and swallow. Her hands were shaking.
Looking at the half-eaten fruit still remaining, she put on what could only be described as a mask of suffering. But she'd already committed. There was no backing down now.
Bite after agonizing bite, she worked her way through the entire Rumble-Rumble Fruit. By the time she finished, she looked like she'd been through hell.
"I feel like I'm dying," she gasped, slumping forward onto the table. "How come when Usopp, Goliath, and Shira ate theirs, they didn't look this miserable? Why do I feel like death?"
She held up her hands, examining them suspiciously. "And I don't even feel any different. Where's the power?"
Then something changed.
A strange tingling sensation spread from deep within her body, radiating outward through her limbs.
"Wait... this is...!"
Suddenly, electric arcs began crackling and dancing across Nami's entire body, sparking and snapping in the air around her.
The dining room looked like it had been hit by a miniature lightning storm.
Everyone except Luffy had gotten shocked to varying degrees when Nami lost control of her new powers. The rubber captain just sat there grinning, completely unaffected by the electrical chaos.
Marcus examined the faint sparks still dancing across his diamond armor. The protective enchantment was way more effective than he'd expected, even elemental attacks like lightning were getting heavily reduced. Electric arcs were still crawling over the surface of his armor, but he didn't feel numb or uncomfortable at all.
The same couldn't be said for everyone else.
"Sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" Nami kept apologizing, but her panic was making things worse. The more flustered she got, the more lightning scattered from her body in random directions.
"Don't come any closer!" Usopp screamed from behind an overturned chair.
Twenty minutes later, after Nami had finally calmed down enough to stop accidentally electrocuting people, she stood there scratching her head awkwardly.
Everyone else sported varying degrees of burn marks and singed clothing. Sanji's normally stylish golden hair had been transformed into a blown-out afro.
"Ah, your lightning went straight through my heart..." he swooned dramatically, hearts still in his eyes despite the electrical burns. "So hot... so full of love..."
"You got shocked, stupid cook," Zoro muttered.
"Hah?! What'd you say, moss-head?!"
And just like that, they were back to their usual squabbling.
Robin wiped sweat from her forehead, looking both impressed and slightly concerned. "The power of a Logia Fruit is intense."
She'd been thinking about the Marine Admirals, Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji. All of them were peak Logia users with devastating abilities.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was easily on par with any of theirs, maybe even stronger in raw destructive potential. And Nami had just obtained it.
This was before she'd even learned proper control. Once she mastered the fruit's abilities...
Robin didn't want to imagine being on the receiving end of that power.
The entire crew had just gotten a very practical demonstration of exactly how dangerous the Rumble-Rumble Fruit could be.
"Hey Marcus," Usopp said. "Your ability can copy Devil Fruits, right? So when can you extract a Devil Fruit power and give it to someone else? Because I really want lightning powers now."
Everyone's eyes lit up at once.
Oh yeah, if Marcus could copy fruits, theoretically he should be able to remove them too, right?
Marcus waved his hand dismissively. "You're confusing two completely different concepts. Copying a Devil Fruit and extracting one are not the same thing at all."
In the Minecraft mods he had access to, there actually was a method to remove Devil Fruit abilities, milk. In the game, Devil Fruits functioned like status buffs, and drinking milk would cleanse those buffs completely.
But everyone on this ship had consumed milk at some point, and nobody had ever lost their Devil Fruit powers from it.
"So it's not possible?" Nami asked, looking disappointed.
"Not with my current abilities, no."
The crew's expressions turned sheepish. When Marcus explained the situation, they realized how ridiculous they were being. Normal people struggled their entire lives just to find a single Devil Fruit, and here they were acting like they could just swap powers whenever they felt like it.
"Alright, we're done with the fruit discussion," he said, steering the conversation back on track since everyone had apparently forgotten why they'd called this meeting in the first place. "Next topic, when are we leaving?"
That snapped everyone back to attention.
"The Log Pose is already fully charged?" Usopp looked surprised. "That was fast. Doesn't even feel like two days have passed."
He had a point. Even though he couldn't show his face openly on Skypiea because he'd accidentally become worshipped as a god, he'd been having the time of his life secretly watching people pray to him. Plus, Skypiea had incredible dial technology and unique cuisine that he'd been obsessively studying.
He'd spent the past few days working with Goliath to experiment with different dial applications, and they'd even managed to upgrade Nami's Clima-Tact significantly. The old version had required blowing into it to activate attacks. Now, she could just press a button for continuous high-powered output of heat bubbles or cool bubbles.
A one-button upgrade that increased efficiency by at least ten times.
No wonder the three days felt so short.
The others nodded in agreement, time had flown by way too fast.
"Could we delay another two days?" Robin asked hesitantly. "I still need to fully explore the City of Gold and several ruins I discovered."
She'd spent the past three days exploring as much as possible while also participating in the crew's bonfire celebrations. She hadn't expected her time to run out so quickly.
Sanji immediately backed her up. "I haven't finished researching Skypiean cuisine either. There are still techniques I want to learn."
One by one, the Straw Hats mentioned things they hadn't finished on Skypiea yet.
After a quick group vote, they decided their departure would be postponed by two more days.
Marcus had no objections. After all, the Skypieans still hadn't given him any experience points yet, which was bizarre. Had he really changed the storyline so much that the world wasn't recognizing his impact?
After lunch, everyone dispersed to handle their own business.
The women immediately organized a shopping expedition to buy souvenirs and local goods before they left.
The men had different priorities.
Usopp and Goliath were both interested in research, but they didn't have enough time for proper experiments. Instead, they planned to trade for rare Skypiean materials and continue their work aboard the Going Merry later.
Sanji went to stock up on ingredients and spices unique to the Skypiea.
Zoro, having no particular plans, chose to stay behind and guard the ship while training. After all, Nami now had the incredibly powerful Rumble-Rumble Fruit and her future potential was unlimited. He needed to work even harder to keep up.
Bon Kurei naturally followed the women's shopping group, excited about the fashion possibilities.
Chopper also went shopping, but specifically to look for bookstores on Skypiea. He wanted medical texts and any unique Skypiean knowledge he could find.
That left Marcus.
He sought out Gan Fall and the Shandia Chief.
"Follow me. I want to show you both something."
The three of them headed to a location he had prepared in advance, a secret chamber he'd carved inside one of the massive vines that grew throughout Skypiea.
Inside the four-by-four meter space sat a Nether Portal, already activated and waiting.
"What is this?" Gan Fall asked, approaching the dark purple gateway cautiously.
"A doorway. Step through and you'll see."
The two exchanged uncertain glances but ultimately trusted Marcus enough to follow him through.
The familiar spinning, disorienting sensation of portal travel hit them, and moments later they stumbled out into a completely different space.
They found themselves in a large reception hall built entirely from bedrock blocks. Multiple doorways lined the walls, each one leading somewhere different.
"This is a shelter I created using my abilities," Marcus explained, gesturing around the space. "Each door leads to a different island. From here, you can travel anywhere I've established a connection."
Both men stood frozen, trying to process what they were seeing.
"You mean..." Gan Fall's voice shook slightly. "We can reach the Blue Sea from here?"
"That's right. Instant travel between Skypiea and any island in the Blue Sea that I've connected to this network."
"This is unimaginable!"
Gan Fall's expression shifted from shock to understanding. As a former God of Skypiea, he understood exactly what connecting Skypiea directly to the Blue Sea meant for his people.
Skypiea had always maintained some contact with the outside world through the High-Speed Sky Route, but it was a one-way connection. Skypieans couldn't access the main trade routes themselves, they were stuck receiving whatever merchants brought to them, with no ability to seek out better deals or new markets.
This limitation had caused serious economic problems over the years.
Originally, Skypiea's currency, the Extol, had been roughly equivalent in value to the Berry used in the Blue Sea. But because of the one-way trade situation, their products were constantly undervalued by visiting merchants. To survive the economic pressure, Skypiea had been forced to print more money.
Excessive currency issuance had led to severe devaluation, creating the bizarre exchange rate that existed today where 10,000 Extols equaled just 1 Berry.
But if Skypiea could conduct normal, two-way trade with the Blue Sea...
They could sell their dial technology at fair prices. Import goods they desperately needed. Establish proper economic relationships. The prosperity this could bring to Skypiea was almost beyond calculation.
As Gan Fall processed these thoughts, something happened that Marcus had been waiting for.
Experience points suddenly exploded from both Gan Fall and the Shandia Chief like golden fireworks.
Marcus' level shot up rapidly.
... Level 68... 69...
It stopped right at the threshold of Level 70.