Chapter 11: Celestial Tribute? Model: Quetzalcoatlus!
"Thud!"
As Captain Astor's corpse fell heavily to the ground, Roy's clone slowly retracted his right leg and adjusted his mask. "It's been a while since I used that, but... I'm not rusty."
It was true—as mentioned before, the Rokushiki (Six Powers) weren't really a secret among Marines.
Any officer at the Lieutenant rank or higher who had spent a few years at Headquarters could learn them, either through a high-ranking officer or at the training grounds.
The only real restriction was the extremely high physical strength required.
Once that standard was met, many could even figure out one of the six styles on their own. And for Roy, "physical strength" was clearly not a limitation.
Although his two Zoan-type Devil Fruits were only LV1, the physical enhancement they provided was more than enough for him to train in the Rokushiki.
In fact, Roy had already learned four of the six styles: Geppo (Moonwalk), Rankyaku (Storm Leg), Soru (Shave), and Tekkai (Iron Body).
While he couldn't be called a master, he was proficient in their use.
"Soru is standard for any strong fighter, Tekkai is for defense, Geppo is a rare flight-type ability, and Rankyaku is for ranged attacks. They're all essential."
Muttering to himself, Roy's clone slowly walked over to Steward Mantal's corpse. Looking at the body, which was now folded in three, he began to rifle through the man's pockets.
As expected, he pulled out a few items.
A few high-quality gems and several wads of 10,000-Berry notes were nice, but not what made Roy's clone pause.
What he truly cared about were the two other items.
The first was a ring of keys, each one tagged with a number.
The second was a carefully folded piece of paper.
"The keys are obviously for these treasure chests... but this paper, stored right with them..."
Roy's clone curiously unfolded the paper, and...
"This is..."
His expression froze. His breathing quickened.
The unfolded paper was clearly a sea chart—more accurately, a route map.
The starting point of the route was the Sabaody Archipelago. It wasn't hard to guess this was Mantal's return route after selling the slaves.
But that was the problem.
As the steward of a royal merchant ship, Mantal's destination should have been the capital of the Nice-Mayer Kingdom.
But the end point of this route was not the capital. It was another island named 'Araheet Island.'
That island was a considerable distance from the capital, and it was suspiciously close to the Calm Belt.
Why?
Roy's mind instantly flashed back to what he'd overheard. This treasure was part of this year's 'Celestial Tribute,' and the time for its collection was near.
The answer was obvious.
"Araheet Island... this is the port where the Celestial Tribute is stored and transported!"
But just as Roy was processing this, his sharp hearing picked up movement from the Marine branch above. The drunken Marines were waking up.
He quickly stuffed the map back into Mantal's pocket, grabbed the keys, and turned to the chests.
As he opened the treasure chests one by one, he found them all, as expected, overflowing with glittering gold or stacks of Berries.
Roy's clone didn't hesitate, placing his hand on them.
The treasure began to vanish, and the system notifications began to ring.
[Current Berries: 45,230,000 → 75,300,000]
[Current Berries: 75,300,000 → 110,000,000]
[Current...]
"It's true what they say: all the best ways to get rich are the ones forbidden by the World Government," Roy's clone sighed. "No wonder everyone wants to be a pirate—what's the point of this 9-to-5 grind!?"
But as Roy's clone sighed for all the poor wage slaves out there...
His movements suddenly froze.
His attention was fixed on one particular chest.
"Seastone?"
It was a dull, gray chest that looked to be made of stone. Roy immediately identified it. Among all this treasure, there was only one thing that would need to be stored in a Seastone chest.
"The Devil Fruit those two were talking about... it's in here!"
Roy immediately realized it. He'd overheard Mantal and Astor mention that Mantal had acquired a "precious Devil Fruit" at Sabaody.
He rushed to the chest, found the matching key, and opened it.
Inside, just as he'd thought, was a dark blue fruit. It was covered in the spiral patterns unique to the treasures of the sea.
And in his ear, the Fruit Encyclopedia's voice sounded.
[Unclaimed Devil Fruit discovered]
[Confirmed Devil Fruit: 'Zoan, Ancient-Type, Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Quetzalcoatlus'. Analyzing and saving to 'Fruit Encyclopedia']
[Please touch the fruit to begin analysis. Current Analysis: 0%]
Roy's clone was stunned.
It wasn't just because this was the first actual Devil Fruit he had ever obtained.
It was because...
"An Ancient Zoan?"
Roy had never imagined that the fruit he'd find here would be a rare 'Ancient Zoan' type.
It was said that Ancient Zoan fruits gave their users far greater vitality and physical toughness than even normal Zoans.
Across the entire sea, while they might not be on par with Mythical Zoans or Logias, they were still exceptionally rare.
This was an incredible, unexpected prize.
Roy's clone immediately placed his hand on the fruit.
The next moment, the fruit began to dissolve into particles of light. At the same time, the 'Analysis Progress' on his screen began to jump rapidly.
In just a few breaths, the fruit had vanished completely.
In its place...
[Fruit analysis complete. Current ability level is LV.3]
[LV3: Full fruit effect acquired. Can transform into the ancient creature 'Quetzalcoatlus.' Recovery and vitality are massively enhanced. Can freely switch between 'Human,' 'Beast,' and 'Hybrid' forms. Can beat wings to create strong gales.]
[LV4: Fruit Deep-Dive Development. Can turn gales into slicing attacks. Can use gales to move at super-high speeds. Recovery and vitality are further enhanced. Requires 1.5 Billion / 500 Million Berries for Permanent / Temporary Unlock.]
[LV5: Fruit Awakening · Primal Regression. Undergoes the unique awakened transformation of a Zoan user. Body will be wreathed in 'flame clouds.' Vitality and recovery reach their peak. Can cause catastrophe-level gales. Requires 7.5 Billion / 2.5 Billion Berries for Permanent / Temporary Unlock.]