Seeing the Heracles-model Devil Fruit get thrown away by Illya, Heracles fell silent.
He was actually quite satisfied with his muscles. After all, he had earned every bit of them through harsh training.
Back in the age of Greek myth, what woman didn't like seeing them? What hero didn't envy them?
They were a symbol of strength.
Even the gods marveled at them.
He had not expected times to change so much that his muscles would be disliked.
But after thinking about it carefully, if Illya turned into someone who looked like him while still having that pretty little face…
He couldn't help shuddering.
That really did feel wrong.
Even he couldn't accept it right away, let alone Illya herself.
If she wanted to throw it away, then so be it.
In the end, Heracles chose to forgive Illya.
Who told Illya to be so cute?
He looked up at Nico Robin.
"Are there any other Devil Fruits?"
Since Illya wasn't willing to accept the Heracles-model Devil Fruit, then he could just change it for another one.
Heracles believed the other side definitely had other Devil Fruits.
"Yes."
Robin thought for a moment and said, "At the moment, we've created the Snake-Snake Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Yamata no Orochi, which can give the user eight lives."
"There's also the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Black Dragon, Model: Purple Dragon, Model: Red Dragon, and so on."
"And the Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami."
Heracles frowned slightly and couldn't help asking, "Are there no Devil Fruits suitable for girls?"
Robin said, "At the moment, we don't have one specifically suitable for girls, but with our ability, we can create one. The Whitebeard Pirates have a user of the Bird-Bird Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Phoenix."
"And inside Impel Down, there's a user of the Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Nine-Tailed Fox."
"Both of these Devil Fruits are very suitable for girls."
"Especially the Nine-Tailed Fox form."
Heracles was not interested in the Nine-Tailed Fox form, especially after learning what it did.
On the other hand, he was very interested in the Phoenix form.
Especially when he learned that the Phoenix form possessed powerful self-healing and regenerative abilities, he felt this fruit could protect Illya well.
"How do we obtain that fruit?"
Robin smiled and said, "We've already mastered the ability to manufacture Zoan Devil Fruits. As long as we get the blood of the Phoenix-form ability user, we can create the fruit."
"And we also want to recruit Whitebeard."
"Our next target is the Whitebeard Pirates."
Heracles said calmly, "Count me in."
For Illya's sake, he didn't mind taking action against the Whitebeard Pirates, especially since the other side was a group of pirates.
"Oh? There's a Black Dragon-form fruit? Give me one."
At the same time, Rowan became interested when he heard that the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan line had a Black Dragon form.
Earlier, Robin had given him the pink dragon version, but Rowan had refused it because he thought it was too girly.
He had not expected them to create a Black Dragon-form Devil Fruit so quickly.
That was something he had to try.
After all, he was a descendant of the dragon. Since he had the chance to turn into a dragon, he naturally didn't want to miss it.
Robin nodded and handed him an artificial Devil Fruit: the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Black Dragon.
Rowan took one bite, and his facial features almost twisted together.
Disgusting.
It was truly disgusting.
No wonder Medusa had spat it out without hesitation earlier. This thing really wasn't fit for human consumption.
Rowan forced down the nausea and swallowed the bite. His body immediately underwent an earth-shaking transformation.
He opened his mouth and let out a clear dragon roar. In an instant, he transformed into a massive black dragon hundreds of meters long and began flying over Wano's Flower Capital.
Dragon breath, slicing winds, flame clouds, and other abilities were unleashed by Rowan one after another as he bombarded a mountain outside the Flower Capital.
Rowan discovered that chakra was not the only thing that could replace stamina to activate Devil Fruit powers.
Mana could do the same.
And its effect was even better than pure physical stamina.
That was very interesting.
After a long round of bombardment, Rowan felt no obvious physical exhaustion. Instead, he had consumed quite a bit of mana.
But in the next second, Rowan used the golden gate to draw mana from the Frieren world, rapidly replenishing his depleted reserves and beginning a new round of bombardment.
See that?
This was what you called a perpetual motion machine.
Rowan leaned back tactically.
As long as the golden gate existed, his mana would never run dry.
Anyone who dared fight a war of attrition with him would get blasted in the face within minutes.
After venting for several rounds, Rowan, fully satisfied, transformed back into human form and returned to the banquet.
The atmosphere at the venue grew even more lively.
Rowan's bombardment had opened everyone's eyes. Quite a few people began to feel that Devil Fruits did have their merits. Even Heroic Spirit EMIYA started wondering whether he should eat one to increase his strength.
After all, the improvement in strength was immediate and obvious.
So he began asking Nico Robin whether there was a Devil Fruit suitable for him.
Robin said, "How about the Warp-Warp Fruit?"
That fruit allowed the user to teleport to wherever they wanted and could also transport others. For EMIYA, it was extremely suitable. It would allow him to create distance from enemies in the shortest time possible.
Then he could kite them to death.
Besides that, there was also the More-More Fruit.
That fruit allowed the user to increase the speed, size, volume, and other properties of objects they touched.
At most, it could multiply them by one hundred.
EMIYA was originally an Archer. If the swords he fired could be accelerated one hundred times, the power would be unimaginable.
Also worth mentioning was that EMIYA had a technique called Broken Phantasm.
It destroyed Noble Phantasms that contained enormous magical energy, using the Noble Phantasm itself as a container of mana and detonating the mana inside like explosives to heavily injure the enemy.
If EMIYA ate the Bomb-Bomb Fruit or the Explosion Fruit, he could use it to increase the power of Broken Phantasm.
So whether it was the Warp-Warp Fruit, the More-More Fruit, or the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, they were all suitable for EMIYA.
If he ate all three at once—
Then EMIYA felt that even if he had to duel King Hassan one-on-one, he might not necessarily lose.
Hearing this, Heracles suddenly felt that he might have underestimated the power of Devil Fruits.
Perhaps this thing could be useful even to him, at least allowing his strength to rise another step.
Seeing that Heracles was also tempted, Robin recommended the Strong-Strong Fruit to him.
That fruit gave the user monstrous strength throughout the body, allowing them to easily lift mountains and attack with them.
Heracles was already the God of Strength. If he ate the Strong-Strong Fruit, then just how far his strength would reach was simply unimaginable.
Moreover, Robin had already investigated the whereabouts of these fruits.
If they wanted them, they could obtain them in the shortest possible time.
For example, the user of the More-More Fruit was currently imprisoned in Impel Down.
To other people, Impel Down was an impenetrable fortress. But to Rowan, who had farsight magic and the Door-Door Fruit, it was no different from his own backyard.
He could come and go whenever he wanted.
And there were quite a few people in Impel Down worth recruiting as well. For example, Demon Heir Douglas Bullet was a decent combat force.
In addition, Red Count, Patrick Redfield, was also worth recruiting.
The Nine-Tailed Fox Fruit and the More-More Fruit were also worth recovering.
So after some discussion, everyone decided to recruit Whitebeard first, then go to Impel Down to recover fruits.
After making the decision, Rowan first went to Onigashima and called Kaido.
Then he went to Totto Land and called Charlotte Linlin.
Finally, he went to Egghead to find one more person.
Golden Lion Shiki.
Ever since Rowan had packed up Egghead and taken it away, Shiki had remained on Egghead.
However, Rowan had already released the mental control magic.
Golden Lion Shiki had long since regained his sense of self, but he had not left Egghead.
One reason was that Rowan had left too much pressure on him. After being controlled by mental control magic, he had not lost his memories.
On the contrary, he remembered everything that happened while he was controlled.
But he had been completely unable to break free of that control, held firmly in Rowan's grasp.
So Golden Lion Shiki understood very clearly that even if he ran away today, he would be caught and brought back tomorrow.
Running would be pointless.
The other reason was that Rowan had promised to find someone to remove the ship's wheel from his head, even help regenerate his severed limbs and restore him to his prime.
After weighing the pros and cons, Golden Lion Shiki ultimately stayed on Egghead and became one of Orochimaru and the others' test subjects.
What experiment?
Naturally, limb regeneration.
With Orochimaru, Tsunade, Kabuto, Tobirama, and Vegapunk working together, overcoming the problem of limb regeneration really wasn't difficult.
So when Rowan came to Egghead to find Shiki, not only had the ship's wheel been removed from his head, but his two lost legs had regrown.
He no longer looked muddled or neurotic like before.
The wild, arrogant legendary pirate Golden Lion seemed to have returned.
When he heard that Rowan had come to get him because they were going to recruit Whitebeard, Golden Lion Shiki agreed without hesitation.
"Newgate is indeed a stubborn man, but don't worry. With us here, he absolutely won't dare refuse your recruitment."
After spending these days on Egghead, Golden Lion had gained some understanding of Rowan's strength.
Not only had Rowan subdued Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, but he could also freely mass-produce Zoan Devil Fruits.
Rare Mythical Zoans were available in whatever quantity he wanted.
On top of that, he had somehow recruited a group of terrifyingly powerful monsters from who-knew-where. That level of strength was almost beyond imagination.
Even the Rocks Pirates at their peak had not possessed such terrifying combat power.
Golden Lion felt that unless Whitebeard had lost his mind, there was no way he would dare refuse Rowan.