At the Marine Elite Training Camp, Hammer looked at the trainees currently training below and couldn't help but feel nostalgic.
A few years ago, when he had first arrived here, hadn't he also trained in this very place?
Strict Instructor Zephyr.
The hardworking Sakazuki.
The blockhead Dragon.
And Borsalino, who used to slack off alongside him.
The four of them had really gotten scolded plenty back then.
Zephyr scolded Sakazuki for his overly extreme views, scolded Dragon for being just like his father, and scolded him and Borsalino for being two little bastards.
Time really flew.
"What? Remembering your younger days?"
Zephyr smiled faintly as he looked at Hammer staring at the training grounds.
Hammer nodded.
"Yeah. The four of us got chased around and beaten by Teacher Zephyr plenty of times back then."
"You little brat Hammer! That was for your own good!"
"Out of the four of you, only Sakazuki was somewhat normal!"
"You, Dragon, and Borsalino were three salted fish, bunch of slackers!"
"Alright, alright, old man. Hurry up and hand over your arm guards."
As soon as Zephyr heard that, he stopped wasting words and quickly brought out the Fist of Tekko.
Hammer immediately stepped forward for a closer inspection.
At first glance it didn't seem like much.
But after looking carefully.
There were quite a lot of scratches.
"Don't underestimate your own strength."
"Especially that final punch of yours."
"It made me feel like I was facing Whitebeard himself."
"That destructive vibration power was absolutely the pinnacle of destruction."
Even Hammer himself hadn't expected his attack to deal such terrifying damage.
After all, the Fist of Tekko had the property of reducing Armament Haki consumption.
For Zephyr, that was an absolutely perfect attribute.
His overwhelming Armament Haki was the foundation of his peak strength.
And despite being coated in such dense Armament Haki, Hammer had still managed to damage the Fist of Tekko to this extent?
"I'm still far inferior to Whitebeard."
"I trigger vibrations through the collision of hammer strikes."
"But Whitebeard creates those vibrations casually with a single swing."
"One's heaven, the other's earth. There's no comparison."
"What I treat as an ultimate move is just one of his casual attacks."
"Terrifying stuff."
The veins on Zephyr's forehead instantly bulged.
'This damn brat.'
'Whitebeard could do it because he had the Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit!'
'You're just a guy swinging a giant hammer!'
'Being able to develop vibration attacks through pure ability usage already made you a genius, alright?!'
'Forget it.'
'Can't get angry.'
It was his own kid after all.
What else could he do?
"Enough already."
"Can you fix it or not?"
"Of course."
"Not only can I repair it, I can make these arm guards even stronger!"
Hammer guaranteed it confidently.
If this had been before, he might not have had a solution.
But now he possessed materials like Iron Cloud.
Repairing the Fist of Tekko would be easy.
"I'll take these arm guards for now."
"Come to the arsenal in three days."
As soon as he finished speaking, Hammer picked up the Fist of Tekko, opened the window, and flew off toward the arsenal using Moonwalk.
Leaving Zephyr's mouth twitching violently.
After arriving at the arsenal, Hammer didn't immediately begin forging.
Instead, he called Lance and the others over.
"Hammer, you recovered?"
Looking at Hammer, Lance couldn't help recalling his crazed appearance back then.
'Good lord.'
'He'd been terrifying.'
'A Fleet Admiral, an Admiral, a former Admiral, plus all of them together, and they still hadn't managed to suppress him immediately.'
"Yeah. My brain was just a little muddled before."
"Lance, for the next few days I'll be repairing Teacher Zephyr's arm guards."
"You guys are helping too."
"After all, each of your abilities is very suitable for forging."
"I'm going to teach you forging techniques."
"Especially you, Lance."
"Don't underestimate the Rumble-Rumble."
"The strength of that fruit is beyond your imagination."
"And in my opinion, it's absolutely perfect for blacksmithing!"
The more Hammer spoke, the more excited he became.
His head was filled entirely with thoughts of electrometallurgy.
That kind of high-temperature reshaping was simply born for forging.
Meanwhile Lance wore a completely bewildered expression.
He had a perfectly fine Logia-type lightning fruit.
How had it suddenly become a blacksmith-exclusive ability?
Shirley and Hina were equally confused.
Neither understood what Hammer meant.
After all, their fruits were creation-based types.
One created shields, the other black iron.
It made sense for them to be related to forging.
But Lance had the Lightning Fruit!
"What are those expressions for?"
"You don't believe me?"
"Hmph. Once Lance's lightning intensity reaches a certain level, you'll understand."
"Ever heard of electrometallurgy?"
"Forget it. Explaining this to a bunch of academically hopeless idiots is pointless."
"You'll understand eventually."
Hammer shook his head speechlessly at the three of them, completely ignoring the veins bulging on their foreheads.
Then he led them into the forge room.
Aside from Hina, who had already followed Hammer in forging for quite some time, Lance and Shirley were complete beginners.
"Stop standing there blankly."
"I know you two don't understand forging."
"It's fine. I've already thought of a way for you to enter the field."
"Shirley, create an iron shield."
Shirley nodded and casually used her ability to create a shield.
"Lance, use your electricity to melt this shield."
Lance: "!!??"
"Why are you still standing there?"
"I said use your electricity to melt the shield!"
"But Hammer… are you serious?"
"Of course I'm serious!"
"Hurry up!"
"Increase the voltage!"
"If the current gets hot enough, steel will melt. Just do it!"
Hammer casually tossed the shield toward Lance before turning to Shirley.
"Shirley, your Shield- Shield Fruit creates shields."
"Shields themselves are forged creations."
"I can forge them too."
"So my requirement for you is to start learning how to deconstruct and reshape shields."
"For the first stage, I want you to engrave patterns onto them. Understand?"
"Hmm… let's use Lance's face."
"Put his head on the shield."
Shirley: "!!??"
"What does that have to do with my ability, brother Hammer?"
"How does it not?"
"Haven't you heard the phrase 'strive for perfection'?"
"If you can refine every single shield to the highest degree of detail, your ability will definitely improve dramatically!"
Ignoring the deeply conflicted expressions on Lance and Shirley's faces, Hammer walked toward Hina.
"Hina, you've already forged alongside me for quite a while."
"I think you're ready to start forging independently."
"There's a forge over there. Use whichever one you want."
"Use your Black Iron ability and forge whatever you like."
"I'll imbue it with attributes afterward."
"Alright then, everyone!"
"Hammer's Special Forging Class is officially formed!"
Following Hammer's loud declaration, all four people began their respective tasks.
Lance held the shield with hands turned blue from electricity.
Shirley gripped her shield tightly with a deeply furrowed brow.
Hina stood by the forge holding a black hammer in one hand and black iron in the other.
Meanwhile Hammer took out Cloud Shells and began repairing the Fist of Tekko.