Chapter 11: Teacher Kaido's Top-Quality Lesson
"Physique +1"
Seeing the numbers automatically appear in his mind, Carlo could not suppress the smile spreading across his face.
A wave of wild joy surged uncontrollably into his heart.
"System! Show me my panel!"
Ding!
"Attribute panel activated."
Physique: 5-star 58.383 + 1 = 59.383
Haki
Observation: 6-star 65.275
Armament: 6-star 68.002 + 0.2 = 68.202
Conqueror's: 7-star 73.528
Devil Fruit: 2-star 20.212
Overall rating: 6-star
Comment: In the eyes of top-tier powerhouses, someone like you is, at best, a loli.
Staring at his attribute panel, where his physique had jumped directly from 58.383 by a full point to 59.383, Carlo felt happier right now than when he'd gotten ten billion beli and a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit from Kong.
He even ignored the system's venomous comment.
Because after tempering his body for so long—with several months of no major progress—he had finally broken through again under Kaido's single strike.
And it was an increase of a full point all at once.
Never underestimate that measly one point of attributes.
Physique was the hardest attribute to improve out of all of them, even harder than raising Conqueror's Haki.
Because it determined everything physical: Carlo's strength, speed, stamina, endurance—all bodily progress.
And it greatly influenced Haki quality and Devil Fruit development.
In Carlo's view, whether it was the belief Kaido would later hold—that Haki stands above all—or the manga's emphasis on Devil Fruit power being supreme, both were wrong.
Only physique, only the body, truly stood above everything else.
It was the foundation of everything.
Over these past years, Carlo had been carefully tempering and refining his body, wanting to break through his limits step by step and push his physique to higher seven-star, eight-star, even nine-star levels.
To develop the indestructible body Kaido would have in the future, or Charlotte Linlin's steel balloon.
But he was, after all, just a normal human, and humans have limits.
In the early stages, his training made his physique value grow rapidly, but after hitting the fifties, progress slowed noticeably.
About a year ago, his physique had reached fifty points, and now a year later, it had only risen by eight points to fifty-eight.
In recent months, it had only gone up by 0.3.
This painfully slow rate of improvement nearly made Carlo despair.
He had started to think that maybe this was his limit, that without a powerful physique, his future achievements would be limited—perhaps never reaching admiral level, let alone avenging himself on Rocks.
But now, Kaido's strike had given him hope.
It told him his physique had not reached its limit—there was still room to grow.
Before, Carlo had sparred with Garp, Sengoku, and Zephyr at Headquarters, but the training effects were disappointing.
Not because they were weaker than the current Kaido, but because they were allies who saw Carlo as a junior recruit and subconsciously held back.
Even Garp, the least restrained, would not strike with lethal intent against the son of a fallen admiral.
But Kaido was different.
He fought with full killing intent, determined to crush Carlo.
The killing intent radiating from that lightning-wrapped club made even Carlo feel bone-chilling cold.
Perhaps it was precisely this all-out murderous intent that stimulated Carlo's biological instinct and allowed his physique to break through again.
One strike equaled several months of tempering.
In comparison, the 0.2 increase in Armament Haki barely registered in Carlo's mind.
Right now he was thinking: how much could he raise his physique in this coming battle?
One point per strike—that was an incredible bargain.
Truly worthy of being the pirate world's number one teacher.
"Thank you, Teacher Kaido!"
With a grateful heart, Carlo grinned as he climbed out of the crater, beaming at the approaching Kaido.
Kaido was baffled by that smile, thinking Carlo was mocking him.
His anger immediately flared.
"Don't get cocky, you Marine brat!"
"Next strike, I'll pound you into paste!"
Without hesitation, the fuming Kaido charged at Carlo with his club.
His body, over seven meters tall and taller than the two-story buildings around him, thundered forward like a rampaging beast, smashing through every obstacle in his path.
The black spiked club came crashing down from overhead, straight toward Carlo's head.
"Soru!" Carlo's form flashed backward, dodging the strike like a teleport.
Then he stomped the ground, used Moonwalk to ascend, moved nimbly through the air with bouncing reflections, made a right-angle turn, dashed forward with a quick step, and appeared behind Kaido, throwing a punch at the back of his head.
Though eating that earlier strike had gained him a point of physique, Carlo had no intention of tanking a second one directly.
Gaining strength was important, but underestimating Kaido could get him killed.
Strength required staying alive first—dead people gained nothing.
Carlo's punch unleashed all fifty-nine points of his strength, nearly the ten-thousand-ton force of an adult giant.
Before it even landed, Kaido's head throbbed with pain.
He did not dare take it head-on.
The club he had swung out could not be pulled back in time, so he raised his left hand over his right shoulder, spread his palm, and opened his thick fingers, trying to catch Carlo's fist.
Seeing Kaido's large hand tearing through the air toward him, Carlo smirked.
"Who says big muscles can't reach your own back?"
Carlo's fist did not pull back—it accelerated forward.
Fist met palm.
Boom!
Both sides' terrifying physical power erupted.
Though Kaido's physical strength far exceeded Carlo's, his posture for blocking the punch was clearly inadequate.
Carlo's punch immediately forced Kaido's incoming left hand back, and he smoothly followed with a hook aimed at Kaido's temple.
At that moment, Kaido forcibly twisted his massive body, spinning the club in his right hand one hundred eighty degrees like a meteor hammer, smashing it toward Carlo behind him.
"Iron Body: Muscle Balloon!"
Carlo suddenly inhaled, every pore opening as he sucked in air, his entire body swelling like an inflated balloon.
His muscles bulged like spheres and actually deflected Kaido's incoming strike—inspired by Luffy's Gear Third from the manga.
Though Carlo's body could not stretch like rubber, a body trained to the level of Life Return could easily inflate muscles to this degree.
Having deflected Kaido's attack again with swollen muscles, Carlo inhaled once more, gathering the air toward his right hand.
The next moment, his right fist suddenly expanded three or four times, wrapped in Armament Haki, pitch-black—like a massive iron hammer swinging in a full arc toward Kaido's face.
"Muscle Armament: Battering Ram!"
Kaido tried to lean back and dodge.
But Carlo suddenly shouted, "A real man never dodges a frontal assault!"
"Kaido! You coward! You ball-less wimp!"
Kaido's nose nearly twisted with rage.
"Bastard! Who's ball-less?! I'm no wimp!"
Gritting his teeth, he stopped dodging and stood there stiffly, glaring with bull-like eyes as he watched Carlo's fist smash into his face.
"So what if I take this punch?!"
"Your soft punch doesn't even qualify to tickle me—"
Boom!