The Marine Admiral had been driven off, so next came dealing with the several CP0 agents who had kidnapped the children.
"Your Majesty Harald, leave this matter to me!" Carmel stepped forward and said in a deep voice. "I will definitely bring them back safely."
The giants still were not clear on who had kidnapped the two giant children, but when she woke up and saw the letter left at the door, Carmel realized that this operation was not targeting the giants or Silas, but her specifically.
"No!" But Giant King Harald refused without even thinking. "Resisting invaders is originally our duty. Having our friends help us was already our shame, and now we need to wash away that disgrace!"
The Marine Admiral had left without attacking Elbaf in the end, showing that the Marines' target was not Elbaf itself. But someone had taken advantage of the Marine Admiral's invasion to kidnap their giant children. That was an undeniable fact.
To the giant warriors of Elbaf, this was undoubtedly a direct provocation.
"If we do not kill those little people, I have no right to give thanks to the sun!" one giant roared.
"This is Elbaf's shame!" another declared.
"It is time to make those little people remember the fear of being dominated by us giants!"
The giants were stirred up with righteous anger. At this point, even if Carmel stood up and revealed that the kidnappers were the World Government's CP agents, the giants would not care. They did not know who their enemies were; they only knew that someone had dared to kidnap their giant children.
"Those foolish people think they can escape our pursuit, but do not forget this is Elbaf, the homeland of giants!" Harald proclaimed.
"Battian!" Following Giant King Harald's commanding voice, a giant with a lowered head and hoarse voice appeared before everyone.
The moment he appeared, feathers began growing on his hands and cheeks. Finally, he leaped down from the broken edge of the Sunlit Realm, and when he reappeared, he was a magnificent white eagle with a wingspan exceeding fifty meters and a surprisingly kind-looking face.
"A Zoan Devil Fruit user…" Rocks murmured to himself.
This past half year has not just been about training. He had also been catching up on a lot of maritime knowledge he had not known before, including detailed information about Devil Fruits. The white eagle before him should have been transformed by eating one of the three types of Devil Fruits, specifically a Zoan fruit. Originally, Rocks had thought giants like Ripley could not use Devil Fruits effectively.
But now it seemed his thinking was completely wrong.
"Your Majesty, I found them." The giant, now transformed into a white eagle, flew a small semicircle around Elbaf and spotted a small ship that had just sailed away from their island.
On the small ship, Gertz and Hajrudin were too large to fit in the cabin, so they lay bound on the deck, making them particularly conspicuous from above.
"Good, then we—"
"Harald, how about listening to a suggestion from me?"
Hearing Silas's voice, Harald looked up. While the giants were still discussing their plans, Silas had already returned from the Underworld to the Sunlit Realm using Moonwalk. Though covered in wounds, none of the surrounding giants dared to look down on the old man.
"Silas, this is giant business!" Harald declared firmly.
Having Silas help drive off the Marine Admiral was already embarrassing enough. If they had to rely on Silas to help rescue the children too, where would the giants put their faces?
"Haha, I never said I would take direct action," Silas replied, sitting shirtless on the ground and laughing heartily. "But Harald, you cannot deny the possibility that if you pursue too fiercely, those 'thieves' might become desperate and harm the children, right?"
"So you have a solution?" Harald asked cautiously.
"Of course." Silas smiled as he pulled out a strange fruit from behind him. Seeing this fruit, Harald's expression tensed and he blurted out, "A Devil Fruit?"
"Exactly, and it is the Paramecia-type Mini-Mini Fruit. Not only can it make you giants the same size as ordinary people, it can even make you smaller. How about it? Perfect for you giants, right?"
This was the system reward Silas had discovered after his battle with Rona. Not from fighting Rona herself, but from dealing with the CP0 agents.
Sea Calendar 1460, December 7th. Having stayed in the Giant Kingdom for half a year, you have gradually mastered the use of Haki. However, the good times do not last long. You accidentally discover several CP organization members who have snuck into Elbaf and find they are CP0, who serve as the Celestial Dragons' shield.
As the world's strongest intelligence agency, every CP0 member has the strength to face a thousand enemies and easily defeat an adult giant.
Having just mastered Haki, you have absolutely no chance of victory.
Mission: Alert the giants and assist them in repelling the CP organization members. (Completed)
Mission Reward: Paramecia-type Mini-Mini Fruit.
Silas had not expected that just by killing one CP0 agent and not participating in the subsequent battle, with the remaining CP0 agents escaping, the system would still count it as mission complete.
Meanwhile, the obviously more dangerous Marine Admiral not only did not trigger a mission, but after he drove off Rona, the system actually mocked him extensively.
Sea Calendar 1480, December 7th. You, who commit all manner of evil, beat up a retired old granny. The old granny made harsh threats, saying she would definitely have someone get back at you.
Now Silas understood why the system had not triggered a mission. In the system's view, Rona was not a threat at all.
However, after spending over half a year with the system, Silas had gotten used to its level of apparent stupidity. What if he just considered the reward for driving off CP0 as actually being for driving off the Marine Admiral? Would that not be reasonable?
Silas felt somewhat regretful. If, instead of only killing one CP0 agent, he had kept all those CP0 agents here permanently, the system's reward might have changed from a Paramecia fruit to a Logia fruit or Mythical Zoan fruit. At least it would definitely be rarer.
After all, Paramecia fruits all had the problem of being difficult to develop, and most Paramecia fruits did not have particularly high upper limits. Logia and Mythical Zoan fruits were different.
Logia fruits were notably stable. Unless using Haki or Seastone, there was no way to harm Logia fruit users except by finding ways to counter their natural attributes. You could say they had extremely high lower limits.
As for Mythical Zoan fruits, using Silas as a reference, they could elevate a person's growth ceiling and even touch that legendary threshold.
But this was only for ordinary people. For the giant race, the Paramecia Mini-Mini Fruit was definitely one of the most practical fruits available. Aside from the drawback of not being able to swim, the Mini-Mini Fruit could perfectly utilize the giants' advantage of great strength while avoiding their disadvantage of large size.
Seeing the Devil Fruit in Silas's hand, Harald was silent for a long moment before reaching out his massive hand.
"Thanks, we giants will remember—"
"Wait!" Seeing Harald reach out, Silas quickly pulled back the hand holding the fruit. "Who said this fruit was for you?"
"Then you…"
"This fruit is naturally for my most important crewmate!" Silas glared at Harald, then placed the Mini-Mini Fruit in Ripley's hands.
"Although Ripley is my crewmate, she is also part of Elbaf. Having Ripley help rescue those two little ones should be fine, right?"
The three CP0 agents who had infiltrated the giant village were not weak, but after continuously running and then fleeing from the giants' pursuit for half a day while also fighting several giants, they had sustained considerable injuries. Now they could not even display half their usual strength.
If Ripley, having eaten the Mini-Mini Fruit, secretly infiltrated and caught them off guard, she would have a complete opportunity to eliminate the three CP0 agents without harming the two children.
And this was also the training opportunity Silas had secured for Ripley. Having always lived in Elbaf, although Ripley had received training from the giants, she lacked real combat experience.
What Silas wanted were companions who could fight alongside him, not hothouse flowers that needed his constant attention.
"Ripley, can you do it?"
Looking at the fruit in Silas's hand and feeling his complete trust in her abilities, Ripley nodded firmly.
"Yes! I will definitely bring Gertz and Hajrudin back safely!"
[Chapter Complete]
***
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