Standing to one side of the courtyard, Roya's eyes were focused and steady. After gripping Engetsu, he suddenly swung his sword, unleashing two strikes in midair at an extremely fast speed—so fast that they were almost impossible to follow with the naked eye.
Although Roya had only completed the preparatory training of the first stage, the sword pressure generated by his swings had already begun to take shape. When exerting himself fully, he could now release a faint yet clearly visible sword energy.
The range of sword energy is decisively linked to its strength.
For great master swordsman like Hawkeye, the reach of their sword energy is enough to span an entire island—at that level, sword energy has practically condensed into a tangible substance.
As for Roya now, although a single swing could also release sword energy, due to insufficient strength and refinement, the sword energy would dissipate into the air after extending less than one meter.
Chi! Chi!!
As Roya swung his sword, two weak strands of sword energy suddenly shot out from the blade's tip, carving two cracks of roughly one meter in length into the ground before him.
"Failed? Then again!"
A faint glint flashed in Roya's eyes as he attempted another swing.
If the two slashes fully merged, then the emitted sword energy should also merge into a single strand, and its range would far exceed one meter—at the very least, it should reach two meters.
All beginnings are difficult.
Roya never expected to succeed on the first try. After all, this kind of slash-merging training was genuine physical training, not something that could be completed in one step through mere insight.
Chi! Chi!!
Two more strands of sword energy flew out. This time, they showed a slight fusion in midair, ultimately carving a crack slightly longer than one meter.
"A little bit of fusion? Again!"
Chi! Chi!!
"Still not enough. Again."
Roya continued swinging his sword in the courtyard. Very soon, the ground was covered in gashes, and even a deep trench began to form.
Only then did Roya change the direction of his strikes and continue training.
As this went on, the entire courtyard gradually transformed into something resembling plowed farmland. Trenches crisscrossed everywhere, dirt splashing with every strike as sword energy left visible scars in its wake.
Garp knew that Roya was training seriously, so he did not stop him from once again destroying the courtyard. Instead, he allowed Roya to train freely.
In the blink of an eye, more than half a month passed, and only a few days remained before the recruit assessment of the new elite training camp.
---
In the courtyard.
Roya was still training.
The current Roya was already somewhat different from before. Although his appearance showed no obvious changes, his presence carried an added sense of sharpness compared to the past.
"Hah!!"
Standing still, Roya suddenly let out a low shout and swung Engetsu.
Weng!!
As the blade cut through the air, it was as if the air had turned into a pool of water, rippling violently. A silver-white, slightly dim sword energy suddenly burst forth.
Chi!!
The ground in front of Roya exploded outward as soil flew to both sides, instantly forming a trench that extended nearly five meters.
"Three-slash fusion is already easy. Four-slash fusion has a few minor flaws, but it can be considered complete."
Roya nodded slightly as he looked at the result—a single sword swing that now produced a silver-white sword energy nearly one meter long, with a range of about five meters.
In truth, this visible result was only superficial.
Roya's real purpose in training was not swordsmanship itself, but strengthening his Soul Sword. His true achievement was that his Soul Sword had already been enhanced to the third stage!
That's right.
During this period, Roya's Soul Sword had crossed beyond the second stage and reached the third stage.
When Roya strengthened the Soul Sword to Second Stage +10, and its enhancement energy once again reached full capacity, he encountered no obstacles at all. He was able to enhance it directly. Naturally, Roya did not hesitate and immediately chose to do so.
His current status panel:
[Third Stage: Agile Soul Sword +0
Attributes: Attack Power +135, Strength +40, Agility +40
Special Attribute: All Things in the Universe, turn to ashes: Sword techniques may freely add flame damage (Evolution conditions not met)
Special Attribute: Getsuga Tenshō: Sword techniques can release crescent-shaped sword energy slashes
Enhancement Energy: 34/120]
After advancing to the third stage, compared to the second-stage Soul Sword, not only did the base attributes increase, but an additional green agility attribute appeared. More strikingly, a blue special attribute had been added—Getsuga Tenshō!
As expected, strengthening to the third stage once again granted an opportunity to draw a special attribute.
When Roya first saw that the draw resulted in a blue attribute, he felt a slight disappointment. He never expected, however, that this blue attribute would turn out to be Getsuga Tenshō, the signature and sole ability of Ichigo Kurosaki, the protagonist of Bleach.
Seeing this attribute, Roya was somewhat surprised that it was blue rather than purple. After thinking about it, he concluded that this was likely because the ability lacked complex transformations—no Shikai or Bankai—and was simply a single, standalone skill.
After all, the actual power of this attribute was beyond question.
Roya had quietly tested it. When using Getsuga Tenshō, the sword pressure he unleashed surged to three times its normal level. In other words, the strength of the sword energy he released increased by nearly threefold!
Moreover, this increase was not fixed—it scaled alongside Roya's own growth, consistently maintaining roughly three times the power of his normal attacks.
The only limitation was that Getsuga Tenshō consumed a relatively large amount of stamina and mental energy. Using it repeatedly in a short span could cause sudden overconsumption, leading to physical and mental fatigue.
Aside from that, there were no restrictions at all—it could be freely released.
Additionally, after the Soul Sword was strengthened to the third stage, Roya's ability to add flame damage could now extend to a range of ten meters, another significant improvement.
Roya's current strength, compared to when he participated in the combat assessment, was not merely doubled.
This was a comprehensive enhancement.
"Next, I'll polish four-slash fusion until it's flawless, then move on to five-slash fusion… Wait. At my current level, I should already be qualified to train Haki, shouldn't I?"
After glancing at the status panel, Roya dismissed it with a thought. Just as he was about to continue training, he suddenly showed a contemplative expression.
At that moment, the sound of a door opening came from behind him.
Roya turned around and saw Garp pushing open the courtyard gate and stepping inside.
"Roya, you've been training freely for almost a month now. How does it feel?"
Garp spoke while casually picking his nose with his little finger, his gaze unconsciously sweeping over the trenches carved into the ground. Without anyone noticing, he gave a slight nod.
After letting Roya train freely, Garp naturally did not keep a constant watch over him. He had even left Marine Headquarters for a while. He had only just returned.
"It feels like… if sword energy were used for farming, the efficiency would be extremely high."
Roya stroked his chin and spoke with an unusually serious expression.
Cough! Cough!
Even though Garp was already used to Roya's manner of speaking, he was nearly choked by that remark. Using sword energy to plow fields—what kind of nonsense was that?
"Be serious, Roya!"
"This month of free training seems to have produced decent results, but don't get complacent. In the upcoming all-camp strongest assessment, it's very possible you'll encounter Devil Fruit users. When you fight, you'd better stay sharp!"
For this entire month, Garp had not deliberately supervised Roya, instead allowing him to train freely.
Looking at the sword marks covering the ground, Garp could roughly estimate how much Roya's swordsmanship had improved. With this level of swordsmanship combined with flame sword aura, Roya should already have a place even in the elite camp.
However—
The strongest recruits in the elite camp were also promoted from the regular camp. From this alone, it was difficult to determine just how strong the truly powerful recruits among the regular camp actually were.
The purpose of this all-camp battle assessment was not to establish some authoritative overall ranking. Rather, it was to allow Zephyr to more clearly observe the strongest recruits—those qualified to enter the elite camp—so that after entering the elite camp, they could each receive the most suitable guidance.