Apayaado, Skypiea. A massive clearing on the outskirts of God's Shrine.
This used to be the edge of the White-White Sea. But now, several barren rocky islands jutted out of the cloud ocean. Leonora had used her Float-Float Fruit to haul them up from the Blue Sea below, expanding everyone's training grounds. For her now, relocating a few small islands was barely an effort.
On one of those islands.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Thunderous pounding echoed from the island's heart.
Urouge, stripped to the waist, hadn't activated his Devil Fruit. His fists were coated in pitch-black Armament Haki as he swung wildly at a massive deep-blue stone slab.
This was Skypiea's Poneglyph. No weapon on the sea could damage it. It made the perfect punching bag.
"Ha... Armament Haki. The invisible armor you wear."
Urouge gasped for breath, every punch accompanied by the shudder of bone. "Training my fists until they can shatter mountains like old man Garp... this humble monk has a long way to go."
"Big guy, your method is stupid."
Jeno sat on a nearby rock, pumping two dumbbells.
On the surface, he looked like a normal man. Inside, after swallowing the Poneglyph, his organs and subcutaneous tissues had completely fused with that indestructible material. Now, he could withstand attacks from an Emperor or an Admiral. He was a qualified shield.
"What do you know about it, you firepower-reliant cyborg?"
Urouge laughed savagely and slammed another fist into the slab. "If I don't push my body to the absolute limit, how can I endure the backlash of my karma retribution? What about you? The captain told you to get Armament Haki down so you can hit Logia types."
"So I'm training too." Jeno lifted his dumbbells helplessly. An extremely faint wisp of black flickered over his arms. "For a guy with gears and alloys for guts, mastering Haki is way harder than building a mech."
On another floating island in the distance, violent blue lightning and blazing orange plasma flames intertwined.
"Yahahaha! Sabo, why has your fire dragon slowed down today? Didn't eat enough?"
Enel transformed into a bolt of lightning, narrowly dodging the scorching breath erupting from the Flame Dragon Staff in mid-air. His Observation Haki was working overtime under the extreme pressure, his eyes locked onto Sabo's movements.
"Don't rush me, Enel. Pinky is still adapting to the wind and lightning attributes."
Sabo walked on the air, gripping the Flame Dragon Staff, his blue eyes burning with fighting spirit. "Left!"
Bang.
Sabo swung his staff to the left without warning. There had been nothing there a moment ago, but the instant the staff struck, Enel's figure materialized right in that spot. Forced to block with his Gold Staff, they both reeled from the impact.
"Your intuition is getting more annoying by the day." Enel shook his numb wrist.
While these monsters tortured each other.
The scene down in the Eclipse's medical bay was completely different.
"Crank the gene-replacement solution's concentration a little higher, Indigo."
Chopper watched Bonnie sleeping peacefully in the life-support pod, diligently recording the data on the screen. The past two weeks of Bonnie's treatment had gone very smoothly.
"Leave it to me, Dr. Chopper! Fos fos fos!" Dr. Indigo operated the instruments with deft hands.
"Hey, antlered idiot."
Buggy had slipped in at some point. He sat cross-legged on a metal crate, toying with a few miniature throwing knives.
"I've been thinking the past few days. That poison gas monster you made before, the Slime. It's still locked up in a glass jar, right? Are you just keeping it as a pet?"
"What about it, red nose?" Caesar looked up from a test tube where he was purifying herbs, annoyed.
"I was thinking, since that thing is a living Zoan Devil Fruit user and its base form is gas, it should be able to split and reform like a slime, right?"
A sneaky mastermind's expression spread across Buggy's face. "So why not turn it into a living support weapon?"
"Living support?" Caesar pushed up his glasses.
"Exactly!"
Buggy jumped down from the crate, gesturing with his hands. "Give it to me! If I split apart with it using my Bara Bara no Mi, the two of us can surround a group of enemies. Then let it explode with a bang! Not only does it create a poisonous cloud, but it can actively tangle up enemies. Isn't that way better than a simple gas bomb?"
Caesar's eyes lit up.
"Using Slime in a split formation? Shi lo lo lo! Red nose, your brain isn't cut out for pure research, but this kind of devious tactical concept is right up my alley!"
"Right? I'm a tactical genius!" Buggy patted his chest proudly.
"Shi lo lo lo! You really are a sneaky piece of work."
...
Ace was just wrapping up an hours-long training session of slashing with Conqueror's Haki coating.
Wiping off sweat, he walked back onto the Eclipse's deck, collapsed into a beach chair, closed his eyes, and sank his consciousness into the group chat channel Carina had built.
The channel was buzzing.
"I saw that punch just now. Urouge, did you leave a dent in that stone?" Sabo's laughter came through the channel.
"Don't even mention it, First Mate. That cursed rock is harder than a demon's skull. This humble monk's hands are about to break." Urouge complained.
"That's a Poneglyph. You'd have to be a ghost to dent it." Carina snarked.
"Kishishishi! Boss, are you watching?"
Gecko Moria, all the way in the Florian Triangle, sensed Ace logging into the channel and shouted excitedly.
"Yeah. How's the shadow training coming along?" Ace replied mentally.
"Kishishishi! See for yourself!"
Moria eagerly requested a visual link.
The next second, an image of ancient castle ruins bloomed in everyone's minds.
Moria stood in place. Suddenly, the shadow beneath his feet rose like a black python. Then, a deep, pitch-black sheen slowly coated the surface of that shadow.
Armament Haki hardening.
"Shadow Spear: Tyrant's Break."
Moria let out a roar. The shadow, coiled in Haki, shot forward like an unstoppable lance, instantly piercing a zombie ahead.
"Wow! Uncle Moria is amazing!"
Shirahoshi, deep within Fish-Man Island, watched the scene through the channel and let out an involuntary gasp.
"Kishishishi, little princess, that was just the beginning." Moria laughed smugly.
"Not bad. Looks like you've figured out how to combine your shadow and Haki."
Ace watched the feed and gave an approving assessment. "Keep building up your physical strength and Haki. Don't forget, those two things are what keep you standing on these seas. As for deeper Devil Fruit development, just train however feels right to you."
"Got it, Boss!" Moria's motivation shot through the roof.
30+ chapters are available now and daily updates! @patreon.com/Authorzero