So far, Brian has four Beast Girls under his command, all of the Common Type.
A Beast Girl transformed from a Zoan-type Devil Fruit of the Common Type can steadily reach the level of a Rear Admiral.
Although there are variations in strength within the Rear Admiral stage, it firmly places them in a realm ordinary people could never hope to achieve in their lifetime.
For example, among the current Beast Girls, Tiger Girl and Leopard Girl are both at the late Rear Admiral stage and can reach the peak of Rear Admiral level when entering Berserk Mode.
Bat Girl is at the mid Rear Admiral stage, while Dog Girl is the weakest, only at the early Rear Admiral stage.
Theoretically, every Common Type Beast Girl can reach the peak Rear Admiral level with sufficient training.
However, the duration of this process varies—some may take decades to achieve it.
By extension, a Beast Girl transformed from an Ancient Type Devil Fruit would possess at least Vice Admiral-level combat power from the start.
Beyond that is the highest tier, the Mythical Zoan. Brian feels somewhat uncertain about Beast Girls at this stage.
Setting aside the Yonko-level powerhouses, Admirals are already the pinnacle combat forces in this world, extremely few in number and immensely difficult to attain.
It's clearly unrealistic to expect a single Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit to yield an Admiral-level combatant.
Brian speculates that Mythical Zoan Beast Girls are stronger than Vice Admirals but weaker than Admirals, capable of reaching the level of Admiral Candidates, equivalent to Yonko Commander combat power.
Admiral Candidates, such as the Navy's Gion and Tokikake in the original story, or the four Yonko Commanders in the Yonko crews.
They can confront Admirals head-on, engage in direct combat, and fight fiercely.
However, in a true life-or-death battle, the Admiral Candidate would undoubtedly be the one to perish.
"Currently, all that's left is to transform one Ancient Type and one Mythical Zoan into Beast Girls to verify my theory."
"I hope the next openings will yield greater rewards."
Brian looked up at the remaining five boxes with anticipation.
"Number One, open the second box."
"Understood."
Number One brought over the second box, opened it, and promptly stored the first box away.
"Is it a banana this time? Judging by the white patterns, it probably isn't a Zoan Type."
Brian once again consulted the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia in his hand and found the corresponding illustration on the third page.
"Paramecia Type, Wax-Wax Fruit? A mediocre ability."
Recalling the abilities of Mr. 3 under Crocodile's command in the original story, Brian gave his assessment.
Although Mr. 3 had considerable screen time in the original story, even delivering a game-changing assist during the Summit War, it's undeniable that the Wax-Wax Fruit's overall strength is average to weak, not outstanding.
"Let's keep it for now. It can be sold on the black market later or traded with other officers."
"Old-timers like Whitebeard and Shiki must have plenty of valuable items, especially Zoan-type Devil Fruits."
Currently, the only combat-capable forces under Brian's command are the Beast Girl corps.
Even as he expands and strengthens in the future, the Beast Girl corps will remain his most crucial combat force, bar none.
Thus, he doesn't need too many Devil Fruits of other types; specializing in Zoan Types is sufficient.
Unless they were truly top-tier Devil Fruits from the other two categories, such as the Tremor-Tremor Fruit or Dark-Dark Fruit tier, all others could be traded or exchanged as long as the price was sufficient.
Thinking this, he signaled Number One to set the Wax-Wax Fruit aside separately and open another new box.
Number One quickly retrieved the third box from the shelf and opened it, revealing its contents.
This blind box brought Brian an overwhelming surprise.
Inside the box lay an exquisitely crafted melon-shaped fruit, its scale-like patterns radiating an aura of dominance.
"Let me see your true information," Brian murmured.
Flipping through the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, his joy was unmistakable.
"Found it—Zoan Type, Ancient Type: Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Two-Headed Flying Dragon Form."
"An ancient dragon form that never appeared in the original work? What an enormous and unexpected delight."
"As expected of the Frank Family's centuries of accumulated treasures—this is truly a fine item.This was the third Devil Fruit, one of the four treasures from the Frank Family.
The previous two Devil Fruits had been obtained from the Celestial Tribute .
This showed that even while submitting to the Celestial Dragons, the Frank Family still had their own secret schemes.
At the very least, they kept high-end goods like the Ancient Type firmly in their grasp, never offering them as tribute to the Celestial Dragons.
Unfortunately, the Frank Family's scheming ultimately didn't benefit the Celestial Dragons—nor did it benefit themselves.
In the end, Brian was the one who profited.
Truly, life is as unpredictable as intestines wrapping around each other.
The late Frank V, if aware underground, would complain: "Damn it, I'm already dead and you're still pissing me off? There's no justice!"
"Number One, store it with the Sheep-Sheep Fruit. We'll send them all back for modification after everything is confirmed."
"Right away, Master."
"Continue."
Next, the fourth Devil Fruit turned out to be an unexpected one.
"Logia Type: Smoke-Smoke Fruit?"
Reading the introduction of the fourth Devil Fruit in the encyclopedia, Brian felt slightly surprised.
Another Devil Fruit that had appeared in the original work, with more screen time than even "Third Brother."
"Smoker's ability... I never expected it was in the Frank Family's hands decades ago."
"One has to admit, fate is quite marvelous, occasionally letting me encounter elements from the original work."
"This sense of impact spanning time—when you think about it, it's not bad at all."
Brian enjoyed this feeling, especially the sense that he was continuously altering the future.
Having crossed into this world, he never intended to follow the original plot rigidly.
If he were to completely adhere to the original, he might as well go lick Monkey D. Luffy's ass.
Since he was in this world, it was only right to turn it upside down for fun.
"It's just a pity that the Smoke-Smoke Fruit isn't much more useful to me than the Wax-Wax Fruit."
"Let's keep it as a trading option too. After all, it's a Logia Type—they'll surely be tempted."
The Smoke-Smoke Fruit was, after all, a Logia Type. Though it couldn't compare to the top-tier Logia Fruits, its strength was still remarkable.
On the black market, you wouldn't even catch a glimpse of the Smoke-Smoke Fruit for less than 500 million Berries.
And with the right auction house and a bit of price inflation, it could even fetch up to 1 billion Berries.
This is precisely how sought-after Logia Type Devil Fruits are in the black market—extremely valuable but nearly impossible to obtain.
Unfortunately, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit was only slightly better than the Wax-Wax Fruit for Brian.
He had no use for it!
Brian then proceeded to appraise the fifth Devil Fruit.
"Paramecia Type, Rust-Rust Fruit... Am I destined to clash with the Marines?"
Yet another Devil Fruit that originally belonged to the Marines in the source material.
He placed the Rust-Rust Fruit together with the Wax-Wax Fruit, awaiting their trade.
Brian looked at the final box on the table and rubbed his hands together.
"Last blind box—hope it ends with a pleasant surprise."