A few days later.
Cocoyasi Village, inside Nami's home.
Exhausted, Hiroto lay on the soft, fragrant bed, quietly waiting for another settlement of [Effort King] and [Genius Trader].
Scene after scene suddenly surfaced in his mind, merging into Hiroto in an instant, turning into another layer of accumulated foundation. Finally, it pushed him to break through his final limits.
Crack... Crack...
The strange sounds of bones growing and grinding against each other echoed continuously, and the muscle lines beneath his clothes underwent a visible transformation.
Looking from a distance, one would see Hiroto's height steadily increasing until he reached one meter ninety, and he looked extremely well-proportioned, unlike common powerful pirates, who had a robust upper body but awkwardly small lower limbs.
Instead, he was very coordinated, possessing a physique that gave off a sense of fluid beauty. He looked lean, yet extremely powerful.
"This feeling... so coordinated..."
Hiroto stood up in surprise and sat cross-legged on the bed, quietly feeling his incredibly balanced power.
This, of course, didn't happen without reason. His previously uneven attributes had been steadily improving and progressing under his hard work during this period. Finally, they formed such a status panel.
[Name: Hiroto]
[Age: 21]
[Strength: C+ (Level of a 100 million+ bounty)]
[Agility: C (Level of a 100 million bounty)]
[Constitution: C (Without entry buffs, level of a 100 million bounty)]
[Perception: C (Level of a 100 million bounty)]
[Held Entries: Transmigrator (Rainbow), Gluttony (Orange), Incoming Chaos (Purple)...]
[Remark: You're getting there.]
With all attributes at Grade C, except for the Strength attribute which was twice as high, the other attributes were quite balanced. This was the reason for the sense of coordination. Though it didn't bring any extra benefits, the feeling itself was comfortable.
Hiroto didn't care too much and focused his gaze on the remark. After so long, he had finally grown step by step from being a small fry to the current level.
This didn't even count the buffs from other entries, this was his strength in a naked state.
"Not bad, I really am a genius."
Hiroto nodded with satisfaction, then opened the [Fusion] option among the three choices.
In addition to feeling that he was about to break through these past few days, he had also been thinking about how to use the Distortion energy gains brought by Issho while training.
In the end, he settled on the [Fusion] option to perform a secondary streamlining and integration of himself.
[Brute Force] + [Monstrous Strength] + [Hypnosis] + [Fish-Man Strength].
He pressed [Fusion].
Crystal-clear blue light gathered inward around a point of purple light, and a rich shade of purple suddenly surged forth.
A new entry was born!
[Entry: Fearless]
[Quality: Purple]
[Type: Passive]
[Effect: Upon entering a combat state, forget pain and combat will receives a buff.
All attributes will increase by 1.2 to 2 times depending on the intensity of the battle. After the battle ends, healing of injuries sustained during combat is accelerated.
The final growth limit is Grade B-.]
[Consumption: Stamina]
[Note: Born fearless, fight until the end!]
Whoa! I hit the jackpot.
That was Hiroto's first reaction.
At first glance, the newly fused entry didn't have the words 'tenfold increase'. But looking closely, it applied to all attributes.
The original [Fish-Man Strength] had a 10X multiplier, but that was an increase in arm strength. When he cleaved the sea with one strike, it only allowed his strength to rise to Grade C, to the point where it had now lost its effect.
But [Fearless] applied to all attributes, with a minimum multiplier of 1.2 and a maximum of 2, which meant doubling.
1 C was equivalent to six Ds. The gap between each '+' increased as the overall grade rose.
The most crucial part was that this entry could be used up to Grade B-.
According to Hiroto's estimation, B grade roughly corresponded to a starting bounty of 500 million berries.
For example, Ace's bounty when he joined Whitebeard was 550 million berries.
Regardless of Ace's actual performance, he did indeed serve as the 2nd Division Commander of the main fleet under Whitebeard.
Which meant the status of a core member within a Four Emperors' crew.
Grades 2B and 3B above 1B should correspond to the level of Donquixote Doflamingo in his prime.
Grade B- was already a very high upper limit. At least Hiroto wasn't dissatisfied. After all, what he had paid was just enough Distortion energy for a low-tier purple entry and some entries that couldn't keep up with his progress.
Closing the panel, Hiroto fell into a peaceful sleep.
...
Under the thick darkness of the night, near the ruins of the tangerine grove not far away.
Zoro was training with absolute focus. When Hiroto worked hard, he worked hard. When Hiroto slept, he still worked hard.
The words 'Effort King' could be said to be engraved on his forehead.
—
East Blue, the sea region next to the Calm Belt.
A ship as massive as an island had been entering the East Blue from the Calm Belt for about half a day.
Not far away, a Marine Warship was observing from a distance.
This massive island-ship, having lost the concealment of the sea mist, had its entire form revealed under the sunlight.
It looked like a giant 'bucket,' with the high, circular walls serving as the ship's hull.
Inside, there was a large area or rather, a ring of seawater, with a circular piece of land like a small island in the center.
The gloomy forest, the cold castle, the towering and incredibly massive main mast, and the various buildings standing there had all shed their original gloom, looking somewhat reborn as they bathed in the sunlight.
However, Moria, as the Captain, paid no attention to these things, instead staring fixedly at a photograph in his hand.
In the photograph, a man floating in the sky was drawing a section of a Cane Sword, with many Marine Warships and Marine soldiers floating in the air beneath his feet.