Just as Gusion was feeling curious, he heard another notification from the Endspace.
[Detected: The Pioneer has awakened Conqueror's Haki. Reward will be automatically converted into an upgrade for this skill.]
Immediately, Gusion felt a wave of dizziness and disorientation, as if something was forcibly being crammed into his soul.
After a brief moment of discomfort, Gusion stepped out from the ruined building, his eyes shining with delight.
He checked his Conqueror's Haki skill. The panel had changed significantly.
[Conqueror's Haki]
Skill Level: 6/40
Skill Effect: At the current level, the Pioneer can use Conqueror's Haki to intimidate targets, friend or foe. Any target whose Spirit stat is 30 points lower than the Explorer's will faint instantly; those 40 points lower may even be scared to death.
Targets whose Spirit stat is not higher than the Explorer's will suffer a significant intimidation effect, entering a confused state for 1-3 seconds and taking 30% more damage during that time.
Targets with Spirit only up to 5 points higher than the Explorer's will hesitate briefly after being intimidated.
At the current skill level, targets with Spirit more than 5 points higher than the Explorer are unaffected.
Skill Branch - Advance Conqueror: The Pioneer can consume a certain amount of soul energy, imbuing Conqueror's Haki into their attack, dealing an extra 150% magic damage, which can critically hit and is affected by other crit modifiers.
Skill Review: Unleash your kingly potential.
[]
With his Conqueror's Haki jumping up five levels, its once-mediocre control effects had become quite practical. Plus, the higher level allowed Gusion to use the Advance Conqueror skill.
He'd studied with Kaido for a long time—not for nothing. Even though he hadn't awakened this Haki back then, he'd already grasped the principles of Advance Conqueror, so getting the new skill now didn't surprise him.
Gusion's hand reached for the demon-sealing sword at his waist; he couldn't wait to try out his new powers. His offensive multiplier was now impressively high.
"Mr. Gusion?" Snow Wind called out, snapping Gusion out of his daydream.
"Coming," Gusion replied, quickly stepping forward to help the others carry the boat. This was the trouble with the Summit of High West route.
Not every path had the White Sea to sail on. When you hit a dead end, you had to carry the boat over. Without the strength, the Ballon Terminal would be your endpoint—just come up, take a look at Sky Island, and head back.
In the original story, it was rumored the Red Hair Pirates had a route to Sky Island, allowing fast travel between the New World and Grand Line, but Gusion didn't know that route.
In Endspace, Explorers watched anime together and left comments. Some theorized Red Hair used a giant vine connecting the islands, originating from Elbaf, the land of giants.
Gusion wasn't sure about that theory—he hadn't seen any giant vines on Sky Island, only White Sea, so they had to honestly sail and find their own way.
According to Gan Fall, the old god of Skypiea, nine out of ten people die on the Summit of High West route. But Gusion's group hadn't encountered much danger on their ascent.
They figured the real danger was lurking beneath the White Sea above. On the way to Sky Island Birka, there were likely threats hidden under the surface.
"Sister Snow Wind, shouldn't we explore a bit before leaving? It'd be a waste to miss out on exploration points," whispered Snow Cake. Sky Island was a special map with lots of hidden lore not even mentioned in the original. Solving puzzles here would net tons of exploration points.
"We'll explore, but not here. Let's move on first," Snow Wind replied, her beautiful eyes glancing at Gusion. "Don't you think he's in a hurry?"
"Oh, then let's go. I don't want him testing his sword on me," Snow Cake said earnestly. He was convinced Gusion was a dangerous powerhouse, and from the start Gusion had looked eager to try out his new abilities.
"Wow, Page One, look! There are huge fish in the clouds! They must taste amazing!" Ulti and Page One, excited by the new route, had never seen anything like Sky Island. If not for Gusion stopping them, the two Devil Fruit users would've jumped in to swim.
Gusion, sitting at the bow, checked his remaining time. He was indeed in a bit of a rush—not just to fight, but because he had only about a week left. He'd asked Snow Wind, and her team had completed a hidden quest for a month extension, just like him.
Whether he could reach Sky Island Birka in time was uncertain. He didn't have Red Hair's ability to cross the seas in a day; only Red Hair knew the secret routes.
There were fast travel methods on Sky Island, but the White Sea was vast and hard to navigate.
So all he could do was hurry the boat along.
"Brother Gusion, you're exploiting child labor!" Ulti complained. She and her brother hadn't even had fun on the boat before Gusion had them pedaling below deck, powering the Wano-made pedal-boat.
When the wind on the White Sea wasn't enough, this was their only means of travel.
"Nonsense! In Wano, I'm famous for being against child labor. We even made strict rules after the factory reforms," Gusion said with a smile. "Didn't you say you wanted to get stronger? This is training."
"Training?" Ulti paused. "You can get stronger by pedaling?"
Gusion handed her a lollipop. "Without basic fitness, how will you get stronger? I train every day too."
With the lollipop in her mouth, Ulti stopped complaining and started pedaling hard. As for Page One, Gusion left him to his sister—she'd naturally put him to work.
Honestly, Gusion could pedal himself, but it was boring. He'd rather leave it to the others and meditate up on deck.
He considered waiting for King to catch up, but couldn't be sure if it'd be King or Aramaki first. Safer to just move ahead—if neither could catch up, that was good news.
This Sky Island map was the best fit for their current strength; there weren't any unbeatable enemies for Gusion, unless the Pioneer on the other side played dirty.
…
For several days, they sailed through three sky islands, even passing a small one famous for meteorology, just as in the original. The science there was advanced.
Gusion stayed a while, trading rare materials for research data, and bought a high-tech motorboat. In an instant, they upgraded from manpower to advanced tech, so the siblings no longer had to pedal.
With this tech, their speed soared. At last, on the sixth day, they reached Sky Island Birka.
"What a huge sky island! There are so many people—it's just like the surface!" Ulti exclaimed, amazed.
Gusion and the other explorers were seeing legendary Birka for the first time. They knew it was a large, inhabited sky island, but hadn't expected this scale.
According to Enel in the original, Birka was his hometown before he destroyed it.
By his estimate, there were about six years left until Enel destroyed it.
On the bright side, Enel might not be as strong as he was when the story began; on the downside, after becoming God and being a shut-in, maybe Enel's power had even declined.
Regardless, Enel with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was not an easy opponent.
People are still biological creatures—electric shocks cause convulsions and paralysis, and high voltage means instant death.
Enel didn't even need to attack; just standing there, he could shock anyone who challenged him—totally unfair.
Gusion believed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was among the strongest Logia fruits, though Enel hadn't fully developed it.
Compared to destructive power, even the Magma Fruit was lacking. Magma was about 1,400°C, but natural lightning could reach over 100 million volts and 30,000°C, several times the surface temperature of the sun.
And in terms of speed and mobility, lightning was far superior to magma.
So why did Enel lose to Luffy?
Gusion saw two possibilities, assuming this world followed real physics:
The world revolves around Luffy, the protagonist, with plot armor so strong that even deus ex machina ensures Enel's defeat.
Enel… was just boasting.
Yes, maybe Enel had no idea how many volts he could actually produce and was just making up numbers.
That was very likely. Besides, it's common for powerful characters to name their moves with exaggerated terms—just like Kaido and Big Mom's "Conquest of the Sea" doesn't actually split the sea, and Gusion's "Mountain Collapse" can't literally bring down mountains.
So Enel probably just thought shouting out "random high volts" sounded cool—a move name, nothing more.
If he really had a billion volts, even Kaido couldn't hold up. After all, Kaido's fate after a magma bath was unknown, let alone facing a billion volts and thousands of degrees of heat...
As for Haki, Gusion had run some experiments: Ryou could insulate against electricity to a point, but not against super-high voltage.
So if Gusion wanted to hunt Enel, he'd need to proceed with caution and first figure out Enel's true limits.
Right now, though, his main target wasn't Enel, but the Pioneer from the Divine Space.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was strong, but not essential. However, one of the nine unique Origin Seeds was a must-have.