The sand beneath the sailboat slowly pushed it forward, gradually approaching the water surface.
When the sailboat touched the water, the sand continued to push it slowly, but the speed was obviously faster.
After all, once the boat was in the water, the resistance dropped significantly.
Once the sailboat completely left the shallow zone, the sand could no longer push the bottom of the boat.
Of course, the sailboat no longer needed the sand's push.
Lucifer raised the sails, and the sea breeze set the sailboat in motion.
He turned around and looked at the island where he had lived and trained for eleven years.
Although no one came to see him off, he couldn't help but wave goodbye to the land.
"Goodbye!" Lucifer murmured.
With that, Lucifer bid farewell to the place he had lived for eleven years.
...
"What the... Luckily I prepared a lot of grilled meat, or this trip would've been really troublesome!"
Lucifer sat in the cabin, eating grilled meat while mumbling.
It had been seven days since leaving Buna Island.
During these seven days, he experienced all the horrors of the sea: storms, thunderstorms, tides, Sea Kings...
This week had almost overwhelmed Lucifer, and for the first time, he realized how important it was to have a navigator on board.
But Lucifer knew this was impossible.
Because he wanted to join the Marines, only pirates thought about having a navigator on their ship.
The Marines had professional navigators, so no worries at all.
"Damn it, from now on I'll never sail alone again!"
Lucifer swayed back and forth with the rocking boat—he had already weathered three storms in seven days and was getting used to it.
Luckily, the Earth Fruit made him less vulnerable to water.
Otherwise, with daily storms and water seeping into the ship, he would either drown or go crazy from the headaches.
"Judging from the map, Log Town should be close!"
After eating his fill, Lucifer took out the sea chart and started figuring things out.
To be honest, it was only now, really getting the hang of it, that he realized sailing truly wasn't simple.
After barely surviving the storm, Lucifer emerged from the cabin.
The sea storms came and went quickly.
After the storm disappeared, it was immediately sunny and bright.
"Ugh, such a hassle! Is the direction right or not?"
Lucifer frowned and took out his monocular telescope to check the direction.
Putting the telescope to his right eye, he looked towards what he believed was the right direction.
However, he saw nothing.
Suddenly, a black dot appeared in the telescope's view.
As it grew closer, Lucifer realized it was a ship—a vessel much larger than his sailboat.
At least five or six times bigger.
Lucifer observed carefully.
Though large, the ship bore no flags or identifying marks.
Lucifer relaxed a little.
His strength was not weak, but naval combat was still his biggest weakness.
The Earth Fruit was powerful, but air and sea battle were his weak points.
His attacks were not fierce.
He knew very well the Earth Fruit was terrifying only when standing firmly on land.
Frankly, when on the earth, Lucifer was "Senju Hashirama," beating anyone who dared oppose him.
But once off land, many Earth Fruit functions nearly vanished.
Except for passive boosts, all active abilities were greatly weakened.
Encountering a large ship at sea would require much effort.
If it was pirates, Lucifer would need to use swordsmanship and martial arts.
His swordsmanship was still in private practice.
Thanks to his powerful soul and subtle energy control experience, he could barely emit sword energy, a flying cutting strike.
His sword skills covered basic attacks such as slashing, stabbing, chopping, flicking, and parrying.
Though basic, practiced well it was formidable.
With his strong body strength, defeating ordinary pirates was easy.
Ordinary meant bounties under 50 million berries.
As the two ships drew closer, Lucifer did not lower his guard.
Though having lived eleven years again, his past life's warfare experience was kept intact.
The ships neared until Lucifer prepared to ask the people aboard for directions to Log Town in East Blue.
He suspected his navigation was off.
After all, during storms, ships drifted with waves uncontrollably.
"Hey! Anyone on board? If so, someone speak up!"
As the two ships got closer, Lucifer shouted at the top of his lungs.
He was confident that if anyone was there, they would hear him.
After shouting, he activated his Observation Haki to sense people aboard.
He detected a strong aura approaching the bow of the big ship.
Then a figure appeared in Lucifer's sight.
Squinting, Lucifer looked at the person at the bow and was suddenly shocked.
"Isn't this a coincidence... Could it be my lucky mouth?"
The figure before Lucifer was wearing a yellow straw hat, with strands of red hair visible beneath!
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T/N:
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