"Of course, not just children—adults too."
Robin nodded. Transporting some people was no issue.
She planned to send them all to Colon Island to be trained under Colleen from childhood.
After finalizing the arrangements, Sally led most of the children back to the village.
A small group remained—not just children, but five adults as well.
Five adults who would definitely survive the next ten days.
Like Guerrero, who had been captured earlier.
That night, everyone held a bonfire party on the beach.
The main dishes were half the bull they'd taken down earlier and leftover provisions from the ship.
Since they'd decided to stay for five days, there was no need to ration supplies.
While the Forest Village people couldn't hunt due to the virus, they were perfectly healthy—the woods behind them teemed with game.
The sailors were particularly excited because three of the female warriors weren't wearing tops at the party.
As the flames rose, they pulled them into dancing.
Those who knew the truth—Narcissa and the others—didn't join in, just watched with odd expressions.
Though their bodies were female, their minds were still male.
Narcissa glanced around and noticed someone missing.
"Wait, where's the boatswain?"
A sailor pointed:
"There, the one dancing the hardest."
The boatswain had his arms around Guerrero, swaying to some bizarre rhythm despite her obvious reluctance.
"Brother, you smell so good~"
...
Late at night, in Dier's room.
"Guerrero stays. The rest of you, out."
Three hours later, he began his ability declaration ritual:
"Kali Dier is immune to the Devil Fruit's curse—even falling into the sea won't affect him;
Kali Dier can breathe underwater..."
These were standard abilities—Flame Power, lightning, flight, Three-color Haki, enhanced physique, and so on.
"Kali Dier can locate anyone from thin air;
Kali Dier can communicate telepathically..."
These were functional abilities.
"Kali Dier can sever space;
Kali Dier can teleport through space;
Kali Dier can manipulate space..."
"Kali Dier can reverse time;
Kali Dier can accelerate time;
Kali Dier can control time..."
The supremely rare spacetime abilities required massive amounts of "belief" just for basic mastery.
To make them easier to acquire, he'd broken down broad spacetime control into smaller, specialized time and space abilities.
But progress had been minimal so far.
Aside from grinding slowly, the only alternative he could think of was to Hypnosis Morgans.
He didn't even know where the latter was now, and the ability to locate anyone remotely wasn't easy to obtain either.
After all, it was only two months ago that he could brainwash people into believing whatever he said.
Before that? Forget remote location—even getting someone to believe he could breathe fire was a struggle.
"Kali Dier has infinite stamina."
Infinite stamina was just a bonus—this ability had no growth curve; it was either peak performance from the start,
or it would require near-universal belief to attain.
Otherwise, it would get downgraded into conventional abilities like rapid stamina recovery or partial replenishment—things he'd been acquiring all along.
"Two final points,"
Dier took a sip of water and addressed Guerrero, who was kneeling on one knee before him:
"Kali Dier's ability proficiency will automatically increase."
"Kali Dier's abilities can grow infinitely, with no upper limit."
The first point was to ensure he could slack off completely in the future, never needing to exert effort in training.
The second was purely an attempt to exploit a cheat-like bug.
"Alright, that's all. Go call the next person in."
...
By noon the next day, Dier had five more warriors under his command.
Today, he still had tasks to handle—dealing with another white yak in the forest.
Whether male or female, these yaks became extremely aggressive during mating season.
Since there were no other yaks on the island for it to mate with, it was better to deal with it now rather than wait for it to go berserk in the next rutting season.
This yak was slightly larger than the previous one.
With no bystanders around to be caught in the crossfire, Dier didn't resort to the inelegant Spinal Extraction Battle.
Instead, he fought the yak head-on.
After an hour-long struggle, he ultimately had to resort to the Spinal Extraction after all.
He didn't feel ashamed about it—
Adult giants stood around twenty meters tall, and this yak was roughly twelve meters, already meeting the lower threshold of an adult giant's size.
Ten days ago, he had been weak as a chicken. Now, being able to fight this yak for an hour was nothing short of miraculous progress.
After calling for help to haul away the prey, Dier returned to his room for a bath and received the Favor of the Forest from Robin.
"What am I supposed to do with this? Perform gender reassignment surgeries?"
Dier rested his chin on his hand, pondering for a while before finally pocketing it.
Turning the three Admirals into women sounded kind of fun—maybe he'd try it if the opportunity arose.
"One more thing,"
Robin pulled out a newspaper from behind her, her expression slightly serious:
"Crocodile of the Royal Seven Warlords of the Sea challenged Whitebeard—and lost!"
"Oh."
"Oh?!"
Robin smacked the newspaper onto the table in frustration.
"This is a huge deal, you know? The seas could undergo massive changes because of this!"
"No matter how big the changes, they'll happen in the Grand Line. It's got nothing to do with our little West Blue."
Dier sprawled out carelessly. Two years ago, in 1500, the 24-year-old Crocodile had become one of the Royal Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Perhaps thinking he was strong enough, he had challenged Whitebeard this year, in 1502.
The result was obvious—defeat, and the loss of an arm.
In the future, the Desert Crocodile would likely focus on staying in Alabasta, playing the role of a hero who cracked down on Pirates.
A few years from now, he might even come looking for Dier and Robin, seeking cooperation to decipher the Poneglyphs.
"What are the Seven Warlords?"
Hina, who had been reading in the room, raised her hand to ask.
"After the Pirate King Roger's death, the World Government decided to select seven powerful Pirates to curb the increasingly rampant Pirate forces,"
Robin explained methodically.
"In short, they're legal Pirates, even granted the right to plunder lawfully."
"In short, they're a bunch of unruly ancestors,"
Dier interjected, recalling past Warlords. Aside from Kuma, hardly any of them actually did their jobs.
"Alright, stop worrying about all that. Let's go eat."
Dinner tonight was beef again, and there were five new faces around the bonfire gathering site.
Over the next few days, Dier's life fell into a steady routine.
The sailors took charge of hunting, as the forest was abundant with resources.
Food wasn't a concern—he only needed to hypnotize five people each day, then eat and sleep.
He didn't neglect the abilities he had already gained, putting on a show in front of the hundreds of people from Forest Village.
Hina joined the sailors in hunting to train herself;
Robin took on the role of a little teacher, mainly telling the children stories about the greatness of mothers.
Dier occasionally made guest appearances, boasting about the various abilities he possessed.
It wasn't just Hypnosis that could earn "belief"—bluffing worked just as well.
Several peaceful days passed like this, until finally, the ship loaded with apples arrived.