Devil Fruit users are not uncommon in the Grand Line, especially in the New World, where the chances of Devil Fruits appearing at auction are also much higher.
Devil Fruits are not a prerequisite for being strong, but the right Devil Fruit can rapidly boost a person's combat power.
Among the currently known powerhouses, the number of Devil Fruit users has already surpassed that of pure physical fighters. Powerful Mythical Zoans, unique Paramecia-types, formidable Logia-types—each type has its own arena to shine.
Devil Fruits do not discriminate between races. Whether it's ordinary humans, the Longarm Tribe or the Longleg Tribe, Minks, Fish-Men, or Dwarves, all can gain the power of Devil Fruits.
Zoan-types, which inherently carry their own will, can even grant abilities to inanimate objects.
But among all the races, Giants are an exception. Giants almost never become Devil Fruit users. In Hajrudin's memory, whether it was the people living in Elbaf or the legendary Blue Ogre and Red Ogre, they all relied on their giant bodies to fight.
With their physique, if combined with the right fruit, they could unleash tremendous power. Though Giants with abilities are rare, those few Devil Fruit users have left great reputations.
Sanjuan Wolf was one of them. Already a Giant, after eating the Huge-Huge Fruit, his body size became even more outrageous, eventually earning the epithet of "Colossal Battleship." He was a notorious villain the World Government wanted erased from existence.
Another was Morley, commander of the Revolutionary Army's West Army.
Physiologically male, but an okama, and also a Giant, he was a walking stack of buffs.
He is the Devil Fruit user of the Paramecia-type Push-Push Fruit and had once been imprisoned at Impel Down.
But his captors were careless. They hadn't realized Morley was a Devil Fruit user, so they hadn't used Seastone handcuffs. Morley seized the chance to use his devil fruit powers to secretly dig a tunnel and escape, leaving behind Level 5.5 as a secret area inside Impel Down.
As the Revolutionary Army's activities intensified, Morley, the okama Giant, also began to become well-known.
Hajrudin also wanted to gain an ability, ideally a Logia-type, so that he could be one step closer to his goal of becoming King of the Giants.
For Giants, the biggest concern about becoming Devil Fruit users was their inability to swim. Their massive bodies could not be accommodated by ordinary ships, and the Giants' shipbuilding skills were not advanced. If their ship capsized, it was essentially a death sentence.
But Nereus was an exception. If Hajrudin wasn't mistaken, she had just transformed from a special Sea King into this form.
"You must have seen wrong. There's no such thing as a Devil Fruit user who can swim."
Devil Fruit users of the Beasts Pirates rarely dove into water in front of outsiders. Only Mandrell had shown it a few times, and beyond that there were almost no examples.
That was why he was thought to be a Devil Fruit user of Lineage Factor technology, which is also a relatively difficult burden (scapegoat mark) for the Queen to remove.
"It shouldn't be… Look!"
Nereus once again transformed into her Gyarados form and dove into the water, swimming toward Mandrell's territory. This was her habit. Her true body was that of a Gyarados, and she had long since grown accustomed to that form.
Fighting in human form was certainly convenient, but swimming was a different matter. Using that form to swim was an uncomfortable experience for Nereus.
She didn't try to hide it. Incidentally, Nereus was one of those rare exceptions.
Same species and same appearance, only differing in color, which further welded the scapegoat mark.
The Giants weren't closed-off, but their information was somewhat outdated. They had no idea about news that wasn't widely publicized.
"Brothers! We've docked! Looks like there are plenty more surprises waiting for us in the future!"
You couldn't figure things out just by sitting around at sea. It was better to go ashore and ask. Most Giants were straightforward, and very few of them were scheming.
Once they had an idea, naturally they would act on it. As for why Hajrudin instinctively took Nereus as a Giant Devil Fruit user, it was simply a gut reaction.
The most basic way Giants judged whether someone was a Giant was by height. As long as the body proportions weren't too exaggerated, an adult over twelve meters tall was either a Giant or of Giant bloodline.
Otherwise, they were just oversized humans.
Also, while Devil Fruits were more common in the Grand Line than in the Four Seas, they weren't so common as to be everywhere. They were still precious things.
Anyone who obtained a Devil Fruit would either eat it themselves or exchange it for money. Giving it to non-human creatures was almost unheard of.
It was the same as with weapons that had eaten Devil Fruits. People's first assumption was always that an animal had eaten a weapon fruit, not that a weapon had eaten an animal fruit.
In Hajrudin's view, Nereus was more like a person who had eaten a Fish-Fish Fruit than a Gyarados that had eaten the Human-Human Fruit.
This discovery excited Hajrudin. If his New Giant Warrior Pirates could all become Devil Fruit users unafraid of water, then his dream of reviving the glory of the Giant Warrior Pirates and uniting all the kingdoms of giants would be much easier to achieve.
From the looks of it, joining another force mid-journey seems to have been a clear choice. Buggy's Delivery couldn't possibly do something like this.
With their vigorous rowing, they reached the shore in no time.
Nereus often visited this place. The Fish-Men also had quite a few large individuals, so Mandrell had no difficulty hosting Giants.
These Giant mercenaries had brought in no small amount of profits recently, so Mandrell welcomed them warmly.
But Nereus was different. She wasn't used to talking with strangers. So even after Hajrudin spoke for a long time, her only replies were two short "hmms."
In the end, it was Mandrell who made him two promises. As a former top hardcore workaholic, Mandrell knew how to sell dreams: work hard, earn enough contributions, and if you are willing to join us, everything would be negotiable.
Hajrudin and his companions were only making a temporary resupply. After a short rest, they left the island. Nereus, however, stayed behind for the time being, planning to rest for a while.
Mandrell was also busy dealing with his own matters, planning to finish them as soon as possible so he could take his family on vacation back to Wano Country.
But not everyone had it so easy.
In the first half of the Grand Line, on a nameless deserted island in the Calm Belt, a certain fake teacher of basics was still training Luffy. [TN: The reason some fans jokingly call Rayleigh a "fake teacher of basics" is because, in the manga and anime, he is the master who teaches Luffy the basics of Haki during the time skip. However, fans point out that Rayleigh's explanations or lessons are often intentionally vague, incredibly concise, or gloss over the actual difficulty, leaving Luffy (and the audience) to figure out much of Haki's nuance on their own. This leads to the joke that Rayleigh only pretends to do proper foundational teaching, hence being called a "fake teacher/master of basics" in Chinese fan slang.]
"Not enough! The time of your promise is getting closer and closer. Do you really think you can enter the New World like this?"
With a swing of his wooden stick, Rayleigh smacked Luffy on the head, leaving him dizzy. Watching this scene from the side, Hercules sighed and picked up the object in front of him.
After fiddling with it for a bit, a simple stone pickaxe appeared in his hand.
Holding the pickaxe up next to Luffy for comparison, Hercules felt that the size was just right.
It was only a beetle; it didn't understand many things. It just thought that sooner or later, Luffy would have a use for this.
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