The City of Gold, Shandora.
It was just as he expected. It had been here for centuries. The Roger Pirates had come here before, but they didn't take all the treasure. They probably took some, but they left the vast majority behind.
The allure of wealth was strong. The City of Gold was terrifyingly rich. After centuries of wind and rain, the entire city was caked in thick layers of mud, but whenever a piece was exposed, it was a gleaming gold.
A gold mine? Not quite. The entire city was built out of gold. It was a testament to how rich the Shandorians used to be. He wondered where they got all that gold and if there was any left on Jaya Island. He figured there wasn't; given the current state of Jaya Island, any gold would have been dug up long ago.
In the center of the city was a giant clock tower with a golden bell. At the base of the tower was a Poneglyph. Diarmuid squatted in front of it and touched its surface. In the bottom corner was a sentence that was clearly carved in later:
I have come here, and will lead this passage to the very end.
—Pirate Gol D. Roger
"So, Roger really came here," Diarmuid murmured.
He then looked at the Poneglyph itself. He couldn't read the ancient language, but he knew this one contained information about the Ancient Weapon Poseidon.
"This Poneglyph, which contains a secret about an Ancient Weapon, can't be left here. If some ambitious person finds it, it could cause a great disaster," Diarmuid said with a laugh.
Shiki the Golden Lion must have come to the sky islands often. His Float-Float Fruit power made it easy for him, and he even had a special type of dial from the sky islands. But there were many sky islands, and he probably didn't visit every single one. Otherwise, a guy like Enel wouldn't have been able to get his hands on the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
If Shiki, with his ambition of building a massive fleet and conquering the world, had found the wealth of the City of Gold, he wouldn't have left any of it behind. So, it was likely he never came to Birka or the City of Gold.
The Straw Hat Pirates would come here later and discover the secret of Poseidon. But now, that wouldn't be necessary.
He turned to look at Gion, who had just eaten the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. She was zapping with electricity and running rampant through the golden city. It would probably take her a while to get a handle on her new powers.
"A swordsman with the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit? Uchiha Gion? Hahahaha," Diarmuid chuckled.
He then turned to the Marine Major next to him, who was still stunned by the sheer amount of gold. "Get some men to dismantle this Poneglyph and put it in a separate room on the ship."
"Yes, Vice Admiral!" the Major snapped out of his trance. After a moment, he asked, "Vice Admiral, what should we do about the City of Gold? A single warship can't hold it all."
"No need to load it. I'm taking the whole island with us," Diarmuid said with a laugh, patting the Nagasone Kotetsu on his hip.
The Major's eyes lit up. "Of course."
That's right, the Vice Admiral was a Gravity-Gravity Fruit user. With his immense power, he could take the entire City of Gold with them.
Soon, the Major and his men began to dismantle the Poneglyph. Diarmuid left them to it and went back to the warship to rest. Gion was still gleefully trying to master her new Devil Fruit power.
Back in his cabin, Diarmuid took out his Devil Fruit encyclopedia and continued his search for the other two Devil Fruits. He had been comparing them on the way to the City of Gold, but since there were so many types, he hadn't found a match before they arrived. He leisurely drank tea as he flipped through the pages.
'Now that I have the City of Gold, G-7 won't have a money problem. Next up, it's time to start a recruitment drive…'
There were two ways to recruit Marines.
One was to submit a request to Headquarters. Headquarters would then gather all the requests for the year to determine a specific number and then launch a worldwide recruitment drive the following year, distributing the new recruits to different bases.
The second was for the bases to recruit their own troops. Headquarters wouldn't interfere. They could recruit as many as they could afford. If they could convince someone to work for free, that was their business.
Although it was the Great Pirate Era, the Marines' reputation was still solid. Recruitment wasn't a problem, as many people wanted to join. The pay was famously good.
The G-7's jurisdiction included three World Government-affiliated countries. Diarmuid planned to recruit forty thousand men to bring the G-7's total force to fifty thousand. A little over thirteen thousand per country would be enough.
The process was well-established and didn't require his personal attention. As long as he had the money, he could just assign his subordinates to handle it.
'With more troops, I'll need to organize training and mentorship. That's standard Marine procedure, so no need for me to manage it. The most important thing is buying a lot of warships, and that also costs money. Luckily, I have plenty now, hahaha,' Diarmuid laughed as he flipped through the encyclopedia.
The G-7 currently had twelve Headquarters-issued warships, many standard ships, and a few small warships. Headquarters' large warships each carried a thousand men. Twelve of them, plus the smaller ships, were enough for most fleet formations. But with a force of fifty thousand, they would need at least sixty large warships to be adequately equipped, as they had to keep some in reserve.
Headquarters' large warships cost two hundred million Berries each. Diarmuid would need to buy at least fifty large warships, plus other smaller ones, which would easily run into the tens of billions of Berries. The money wasn't the problem; it was whether Headquarters could supply that many ships on time.
'When I get back, I need to talk to Admiral Sengoku and ask for G-7 to get priority,' Diarmuid thought, stroking his chin.
Just then, his eyes lit up as he found a drawing in the encyclopedia. "Found it."
After a careful comparison, it was one of the two remaining fruits. But Diarmuid wasn't happy. The Devil Fruit was incredibly plain. It was the Horse-Horse Fruit. It was a very common Devil Fruit with no redeeming qualities.
As everyone knew, Zoan-type Devil Fruits had an enormous power gap between their upper and lower limits.
The top could reach Mythical Zoan, like Kaido's dragon or Admiral Sengoku's giant Buddha. Marco's Phoenix was also a great example.
The middle tier, like the Ancient Zoans (dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, etc.), were also very powerful. But the lower limit was incredibly average.
The worst were the standard herbivores. At least the carnivores were more aggressive. The herbivores just felt like… cannon fodder. Unless they were a flying type, they had no advantage.
The Horse-Horse Fruit was completely uninteresting. He doubted anyone would want to eat it. It probably left Birka and ended up with God Gan Fall on Angel Island. His pathetic bird ate it and became a Pegasus that could fly around freely. It sounded cool, but the Pegasus was ugly. Diarmuid wouldn't even ride it if he was given it for free.
He weighed the fruit in his hand and sighed. "You're useless. When I get back, I'll see if anyone wants to eat you. If not, I'll hand you over to Headquarters. You're trash." He was about to put it away when he paused and frowned.
"Wait. The reason Gan Fall's Pegasus was so ugly was because his bird was ugly to begin with… What if I find a cool-looking bird, tame it, and let it eat this fruit? Would there be a new result?" Diarmuid muttered.
What if he found a giant eagle, tamed it, and let it eat the Horse-Horse Fruit? Could it become a griffin? That would be so cool! Even though he could fly on his own, it would be fun to show off. He could ride a griffin and shit on Kuzan's head while he's riding his bike on the ocean…
That sounds kind of fun, doesn't it?
"No, that would require a Lion-Lion Fruit… not a Horse-Horse Fruit. It's a great idea, but this horse is completely useless. It's still trash," Diarmuid mumbled. He tossed the Devil Fruit onto the table. Forget it.
He continued flipping through the encyclopedia, comparing every page with the last fruit, but couldn't find a match. It seemed the Marines' encyclopedia didn't have a record of it.
"Maybe it's a surprise. I'll hold on to it for now and see if I can find a suitable person to experiment on… Or maybe get a new encyclopedia later?" Diarmuid murmured.
Just then, someone knocked on his door. He called out, and Gion, still sparking with electricity, walked in excitedly.
"Got your powers under control?" Diarmuid asked with a smile.
"More or less. At least I won't suddenly unleash a massive lightning bolt. I saw that Major is done loading the Poneglyph. Can we leave now?" Gion asked with a cheerful smile.
"Yeah, since we've done everything we needed to do, it's time to go," Diarmuid nodded. He stood up, put away the encyclopedia, and walked out onto the deck.
The Marines were all back on the warship. As for the Shandorians who were supposed to be guarding the island, Diarmuid hadn't seen a single one of them. They were probably still at war with the people of Angel Island.
That was fine. Diarmuid didn't want to interact with them anyway. Now that he was taking Shandora with him, he was essentially solving the conflict between the Shandorians and the people of Angel Island.
I guess this is what they call doing a good deed!
He channeled his power into his feet, and a faint purple aura quickly enveloped the entire island of Shandora. The City of Gold, which hadn't moved in centuries, began to tremble under Diarmuid's power.
"Set a course for home!" Diarmuid shouted.
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