New World, Clifford Kingdom.
Palace Entertainment City, Combat Arena #1.
Aeridar stood in the center of the arena, his eyes closed.
Hum…
A faint, almost inaudible sound filled the air. If one had exceptional vision, one would have noticed that the "faint white light" radiating from Aeridar's body was actually a massive amount of compressed air, similar to what a powerful shockwave would produce. This white light encased Aeridar for some reason.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Aeridar vanished from his spot, leaving behind only a few fine cracks on the marble floor. In what seemed like the same instant, Aeridar reappeared in the far right corner of the arena. But a moment later, he vanished again, reappearing almost at the same time in the center of the arena where he had been before.
"So this is Instantaneous Movement… a truly strange feeling," Aeridar murmured to himself, slowly opening his eyes and looking at his body.
"It seems you have succeeded!"
Suddenly, a deep, magnetic voice spoke up. It turned out there was a second person in the arena. It was a giant, towering figure sitting in a gazebo on the edge of the arena. He was a massive man, built like a bear, at least six or seven meters tall. He wore a bear-eared hat and carried a bible-like book.
"I have you to thank, Kuma. This has greatly enhanced my power," Aeridar said, glancing at the giant man.
The man was none other than the Great Pirate, Bartholomew Kuma, a man with a bounty of 296,000,000 Berries, known as 'The Tyrant.' He was also a Warlord of the Sea, just like Aeridar.
"You are a terrifying man, and the Impact-Impact Fruit is a truly frightening ability," Kuma said, his usually indifferent eyes showing a flicker of emotion as he looked at Aeridar.
He had witnessed Aeridar's fight with Moria, the battle that earned Aeridar the title of Warlord. His ability to use the Impact-Impact Fruit to mimic the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit was shocking enough. But now, to successfully mimic his own Devil Fruit ability was simply astounding. And this man was only 25 years old. In the future, he would likely become another Shanks.
"No, Kuma, I'm the one who's impressed. The Paw-Paw Fruit is a useless ability in most hands, but you've developed it to this extent. It makes me realize there are no useless Devil Fruits, only useless users," Aeridar said, looking at Bartholomew Kuma with a hint of regret in his eyes.
"Alright. Since you've successfully mimicked my ability, our transaction is over," Kuma said, as if he hadn't noticed the regret in Aeridar's eyes. He slowly stood up.
"Don't you want to stay for a drink? I'd like to thank you. And say hello to Dragon-san for me," Aeridar said, walking toward Kuma with a teasing tone.
"Until next time!"
Kuma showed no expression as his body instantly disappeared from the spot.
"Ugh…" Aeridar twitched his eye, shrugged, and spread his hands, sighing. "Ugh, what a boring guy."
However, after Kuma left, Aeridar couldn't suppress his grin. The corners of his mouth stretched into a wide smile.
"I never thought… I always thought I was only talented in martial arts and Haki, but it seems I'm also a genius at developing Devil Fruits!" Aeridar said to himself, stroking his chin with a hint of narcissism.
Again, a faint white light emanated from Aeridar's body. A second later, he instantly moved from the gazebo to the center of the arena.
"What a useful ability. But I still need to practice more," Aeridar said, looking at the white light emanating from his body. He knew it was because he wasn't skilled enough yet.
Step, step, step… Step, step, step…
Suddenly, a series of crisp footsteps echoed as Mina, in a black business suit and black high-heeled shoes, entered the arena.
"Did that man leave, Captain?" Mina asked, looking around in confusion.
"Yeah, he just left. If you'd come a minute earlier, you would have seen him," Aeridar said, still standing in the center of the arena with his eyes closed.
"Oh… well, was the transaction successful?" Mina asked.
"Not bad. Now all I need is someone to test it on," Aeridar said, his grin widening even further.
"That's good," Mina said, her face beaming. "The 200 SS drugs for the Revolutionaries have been prepared. We can inform them to pick them up."
"The Den Den Mushi is in the gazebo. It's your responsibility," Aeridar said, without opening his eyes.
"Alright, no problem," Mina said, smiling as she agreed.
The transaction with the Revolutionaries had begun a month earlier when Kuma approached Aeridar. He revealed his identity as a Revolutionary and expressed a desire to buy SS drugs from Aeridar on a long-term basis.
Ever since the World Government bought hundreds of SS drugs from Aeridar this year, the power of its CP agencies had grown significantly. Many of their low-level agents now had a Doriki of over 100, which was a major blow to the Revolutionary Army's intelligence network.
Kuma, who was a double agent for the Revolutionaries, got wind of this news at the secret Marine research base and passed it on to the Revolutionary Army. That's when Dragon decided to send Kuma to contact Aeridar.
As a pirate merchant, Aeridar would sell anything as long as the buyer had money and something he needed. With the addition of Dr. Vade, who designed automated production lines and engineering robots for single tasks, the production speed of SS drugs had tripled.
Aeridar had more than enough to sell to the Revolutionary Army.
However, Aeridar had conditions. He didn't want the Revolutionary Army to be completely defeated by the World Government, but he also didn't want them to get too powerful.
So, he would only provide the Revolutionaries with 200 SS drugs every six months for 2 million Berries each. In exchange, they also had to provide some of the raw materials for the SS drugs. He also demanded that the Revolutionaries withdraw all their spies from the Clifford Kingdom and that Kuma stay for a while to explain the principles behind his techniques.
Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit uses repulsion to repel everything. This repulsion is a very subtle force, but Kuma has developed it to the point where he can continuously repel things at the speed of light, allowing him to skillfully use the power of the air to fire powerful shockwaves, even perform Instantaneous Movement, and repel damage from his body.
He had developed a subtle repulsive force to its absolute peak.
Aeridar's Impact-Impact Fruit is similar. He can control the force of his impacts, and he can easily use the power of the air. So Aeridar wondered if he could precisely control the impact to create a similar repulsive force, just as he had mimicked Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit ability.
Over the past month, by precisely controlling the impact force, Aeridar successfully mimicked the repulsive force of the Paw-Paw Fruit, simulating many of Kuma's techniques. Now all he needed was to master them.
In just one month, Aeridar's strength had undergone a complete transformation.
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