After Smoker and Ryan fought, their relationship became much more harmonious.
These past few days, Smoker would occasionally invite Ryan to eliminate Pirates together, but Ryan was not interested.
After the actions in Loguetown a few days ago, the Pirates passing through Loguetown now were all low-level Pirates, completely failing to attract his attention.
The experience points provided by these Pirates were simply too little. For example, last time, the remnants of the Lone Wolf Pirates and other Loguetown Pirates he eliminated only added 15% to his overall experience points. After upgrading to Level 10, the experience needed for the next upgrade increased significantly, and at the same time, the experience gained from low-strength Pirates also decreased significantly.
Ryan now had no interest in managing those Pirates at all. For the past few days, Smoker, the 'tool man,' had been eliminating the Pirates.
Smoker, this 'tool man,' was very dedicated, constantly eliminating Pirates within the territory and maintaining the peace of Loguetown. These past few days, Ryan would go back to his dormitory at the Branch to sleep whenever he had nothing to do. Although Smoker had some complaints, he no longer asked Ryan to capture Pirates with him.
However, Tashigi kept coming to him, constantly asking for guidance on sword fighting problems.
Everyone at the Branch had witnessed the battle between Smoker and Ryan a few days ago, and had seen his terrifying strength. Even Colonel Smoker, the strongest in the Branch, was defeated by him. Everyone respected and revered them, and ordinary Pirates would not think of making them take action.
Besides sleeping, Ryan's most important activity these past few days was training Antun. Antun's strength was still too weak, and going to the Grand Line with him this time still carried some risks. These past few days, Ryan asked Smoker about the Marineford's physical training methods and gave Antun special training.
What he didn't expect was that Antun had a great talent for physical training. The Marineford's soldier training methods brought by Smoker greatly enhanced Antun's strength. After a few days of training, his stamina and speed continuously increased. The difference between his talent in physical training and his talent in sword fighting was like the moon and a firefly.
Ryan also completely realized that his own teaching had led Antun down the wrong path. Unlike himself, Antun's talent in physical training was that of a genius. It was just that he had always been taught sword fighting by Ryan before, and had not carefully trained in physical training, so his talent had not been stimulated.
During this time, Smoker directly told him the steps for Marineford's soldier training and would occasionally come to guide Antun. Ryan initially thought the Marineford's training method was too strict and wanted to lighten the load for Antun, but he didn't expect Antun to take it all on. Antun had always compared himself to Ryan, and facing Ryan's formidable strength, he always felt a bit inferior. But this time, his talent in physical training allowed him to see a glimmer of hope in catching up to Ryan.
So he desperately persevered through the entire training regimen. After completing the training, he found that his stamina and speed had both significantly improved.
The personnel who trained him were all very surprised.
Smoker also heard about it and specifically came to observe. After observing, he criticized Ryan, saying that he had completely wasted Antun's talent by always leading him to learn sword fighting, thus burying his talent in physical training.
Ryan also didn't expect his partner Antun to have such a talent for physical training. In the 153rd Branch, there were no complete training methods, and general physical training had almost no effect. Ryan thought his friend Antun had no talent for physical training, so he taught him sword fighting. He didn't expect that under the complete training of Marineford, Antun completely activated his talent.
But the most crucial factor was Antun's perseverance; he completed all the training, which is why his talent was revealed.
One must know that many Colonel-level officers in other Branches could not persevere through such training, and there were almost no individuals like Antun, who were not strong but had strong willpower and persevered through all the training, even in Marineford.
Why could Antun persevere?
A few days ago, during the battle between Ryan and Smoker, he witnessed the strength of his childhood playmate and swore in his heart that he would never be a sheep protected by others. He wanted to become strong enough to help Ryan, so he constantly persevered and completed all the training this time.
When all the training was completed, he had already fainted on the training ground, and it was the patrolling soldiers nearby who sent him to the infirmary.
Smoker was also shocked by his willpower. He believed that a person with such strong willpower would definitely make a name for himself in the future.
In the following days, Ryan and Smoker began to continuously teach him combat knowledge and offensive methods, and Antun's strength advanced by leaps and bounds.
His talent in physical training also gave his instructors a great sense of accomplishment, and they were always willing to teach him.
In these few days, Antun had undergone a complete transformation. As his strength continuously increased, he had already started adding weights to himself and training.
The visible progress from these days of training completely ignited Antun's passion, and he began to continuously train using Marineford's methods.
Although his current strength in physical training still lagged behind his sword fighting, the speed of this strength growth far exceeded that of his consistently trained sword fighting. In sword fighting, he trained continuously with very little gain, but in physical training, his progress was very obvious.
Furthermore, Colonel Smoker also said that there were stronger training methods and stronger physical training at Marineford, which completely excited Antun.
Antun's talent in physical training was completely displayed with the systematic training methods.
While Smoker and the others were somewhat surprised, they weren't overly shocked.
There were many such people in Marineford. The most famous, of course, was the Navy Hero 'Vice Admiral Garp.' Garp had no Devil Fruit, but his stamina and Haki were enough to allow him to fight someone for three days and three nights, always maintaining his peak. Garp and Sengoku fought the Pirate Admiral Golden Lion, and their legendary experience of battling for three days and three nights at Marineford was deeply imprinted in the minds of every Marine who heard about it.
Seeing Antun's strength continuously increase these past few days, Smoker knew that after training at Marineford, his strength would not be weak.
Smoker walked out of his office and went to Ryan, who was lying on a chair sunbathing.
"Oh, you're here, Smoker."
Ryan said lazily to Smoker. With his Observation Haki, the moment Smoker appeared, Ryan knew who it was.
When Smoker saw Ryan's lazy posture, his forehead instantly creased with many wrinkles, especially when he saw the cigar next to Ryan, and his heart immediately ached.
A few days ago, Ryan had told him to spread the news at Marineford that he had been given a black eye and his clothes had been torn to shreds.
To save face, Smoker agreed to give all his collection of high-quality cigars to Ryan, asking him not to spread the word about this at Marineford. Ryan immediately agreed, which resulted in Smoker smoking inferior cigars these past few days. The unfamiliar taste in his mouth made him gnash his teeth in anger whenever he saw Ryan.
"The ship heading to Marineford is about to arrive. I came to notify you in advance."
After saying that, Smoker left. If he stayed next to Ryan, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to control the urge to punch the guy.
"Oh! Is it finally coming? Good, I'm starting to get moldy. I hope I can quickly hunt down those high-bounty Pirates when I get to Marineford." At this moment, a hint of bloodthirsty red light flashed in his eyes.