"This power... this feeling."
Bellamy held out his hand, only to see that his once thick, powerful arm had become like Luffy's—thin, weak, and incredibly small. Not only that, but the skin had become fair and smooth. His arms, his thighs, his torso, even his face had become fair, smooth, and incredibly youthful. At a glance, he looked like an ordinary teenager with no strength to speak of.
Bellamy slowly clenched his fist. The power in his Life Essence Apertures circulated rapidly through his body, and countless scorching sparks flew from his palm.
He had simply clenched his fist.
Bellamy could feel that in this state, his power had undergone a qualitative change. It wasn't just a surge in physical strength. At this moment, each of the seventy-seven apertures in his body stored enough of the four types of energy to sustain him in fierce combat for about twenty minutes. This energy was compressed into a ball, slowly rotating like a coiled spring. With just a thought from Bellamy, it could be rapidly released.
And these apertures were far from reaching their maximum energy storage capacity. As a spring-man, he inherently possessed the trait of absorbing and storing energy. Because of this, the upper limit of energy his apertures could store far exceeded that of an ordinary person.
Bellamy did a quick calculation. A single one of his apertures could store enough life force, stamina, vitality, and elasticity to sustain him in intense battle for about twenty-four hours. This meant that at their limit, each individual aperture could cover Bellamy's combat expenditure for an entire day. And with all seventy-seven apertures filled, it would be enough for him to fight continuously for seventy-seven days without any rest.
The power this secret art unleashed in Bellamy's hands was simply monstrous.
Of course, the time and effort required for Bellamy to fill all seventy-seven apertures would be a terrifyingly large figure. The time and energy needed to fill just one aperture would be enough to keep Bellamy busy for an entire day, unable to do anything else, with all his focus spent on the task.
But the significance of this skill to Bellamy was still immense. Imagine, knowing in advance that a major battle was coming, Bellamy could take a long period of time to fill dozens of his apertures. He would have enough life force, stamina, vitality, and elasticity to fight for dozens of days on end. And on top of that, he knew Life Return, allowing him to mobilize his life force for self-healing.
As long as he couldn't be killed in a single blow, Bellamy could fight, recover, fight, recover... continuously, without sleep, until his opponent fell. It was practically an invincibility cheat.
If it weren't for the fact that this world was full of so many overpowered freaks, Bellamy would have been tempted to shout, "I'm invincible!" Fortunately, he was still self-aware enough to know that with just the seventy-seven apertures, he was still far from invincible.
"I'm missing Armament Haki!"
If he could also store Armament Haki, and then stock up for seventy-seven days... then he would truly be close to invincible. But Armament Haki was currently his biggest weakness. Forget seventy-seven days, he couldn't even manage seventy-seven minutes. Bellamy urgently needed intensive training to refine his Armament Haki, for a period of at least a year, the kind where he wouldn't come out of seclusion until he had mastered it.
And the Boin Archipelago was his best option for that right now. This was why having a plan for the future was so important. Now, Bellamy just needed to sail to the next island, and he could immediately begin his journey to the Boin Archipelago.
"I can hardly wait."
"Gyahahahaha!" Bellamy couldn't help but let out a roaring laugh.
Mia, who was outside moving supplies, heard the familiar laugh and peeked in to have a look.
"Huh? Where's the captain?"
Bellamy's current appearance was completely different from his condensed state in Gear Third. He was now in his adolescent form. His face was incredibly youthful, full of collagen, just short of having a bit of fuzz on his upper lip. It was perfectly normal that Mia didn't recognize him at first glance.
But while Bellamy's appearance had changed, his voice hadn't altered much. Soon, Mia realized with shock that this incredibly young boy was, in fact, the captain.
"Oh my god, Captain!" she exclaimed. "What happened to you!"
Mia trotted over to Bellamy and couldn't resist reaching out to pinch his smooth cheeks.
Bellamy shot her a fierce glare, but in his current form, he had lost all his menacing aura. With his energy and power completely retracted, there was no trace of killing intent or malice about him. His glare, far from frightening Mia, only made her feel that he was even more harmless.
"Captain, are you planning a career change to become a pop star?"
Seeing Mia's curious expression, Bellamy sighed helplessly and flicked a finger, sending a gust of wind at her forehead.
"Ouch!" The force of the finger flick was so strong it almost sent Mia flying. Wincing in pain, she quickly let go of his face and frantically rubbed her forehead.
"It really is the captain," she murmured. Only now was she truly certain that the young boy before her was, in fact, her captain.
"Don't just go touching me whenever you feel like it," he grumbled. "I'll explain to you all later. Get back to work."
Explaining to everyone one by one was too much trouble. His crewmates were surely all curious about his new form. Bellamy decided to tell them all at dinner.
Yes, Bellamy had already decided to make this form permanent. That is, his normal state would be this harmless-looking appearance—like Luffy, short with skinny arms and legs.
Maintaining this form had many benefits.
First, in this state, he could seal the naturally dissipating energies within his body, maximizing the efficiency of energy absorption.
Second, once the energy in the apertures was released, it had to be stored again, which was very time-consuming.
Third, this form could be considered an advanced version of Gear Third: Iron Body. While maintaining this form, Bellamy's combat power would not decrease; on the contrary, it would be greatly enhanced. His strength, speed, physique, and, most importantly, his defense would all be strengthened in various ways.
Bellamy named this form Gear Third: Immortal Body.
As for the development of Gear Fourth, he had temporarily put it on hold.
Finally, there was one unexpected benefit to this form: Bellamy's charisma stat had received a massive boost. Before, a simple glare from Bellamy, with the savage aura he radiated, was comparable to that of the fiercest beast in the world. But now, when he glared at people, he somehow gave off a harmless impression. The change was absurdly huge.
On a side note, Bellamy himself wasn't particularly fond of this change. Given his personality, a more intimidating build would have been more to his liking.
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