Bang!
Krieg slammed his fist into the table, his eyes burning with rage.
He swore he had known absolutely nothing about any of this.
Stripping Marines naked?
Carving “Marine Nemesis” into Morgan’s body?
Displaying them in public?
None of it had been his idea.
He had only learned what those idiots under his command had done after reading the newspaper.
And apparently, they’d done all of it to avenge Bates.
Krieg had originally planned to contact a middleman within the next couple of days, return the captured warship, and settle the entire incident before it escalated any further.
That option was gone now.
After such a humiliating story had spread across the East Blue, even if the Marines of Branch 153 were incompetent or cowardly, there was no chance they could simply ignore the Krieg Pirates.
If they did, Marine Headquarters itself would probably come down on them first.
In other words, a confrontation between the Krieg Pirates and Branch 153 had become unavoidable.
And once it started, there was a good chance neither side would be willing to stop until the other was crushed.
If it were only Branch 153, Krieg wasn’t particularly worried.
What troubled him was the possibility of the situation escalating further.
If the Krieg Pirates became a priority target for every Marine base in the East Blue, then he wouldn’t be facing a single branch anymore.
Several Marine bases might coordinate against him.
Krieg’s fleet was large.
Thirty ships and thousands of men gave him tremendous influence among East Blue pirates.
But fighting the entire Marine presence in the East Blue head-on?
That was another matter entirely.
There was no realistic chance of winning.
The thought made Krieg want to personally kill every idiot responsible for this disaster.
Unfortunately, doing that now wouldn’t solve anything.
Better to keep them alive.
At least they could serve as cannon fodder when the fighting began.
If Krieg survived the coming crisis, he could settle accounts afterward.
…
Clang!
An iron rod slammed into Bane’s body.
Clang!
Another followed.
Several pirates stood around him, taking turns striking him as hard as they could.
Each blow landed against the protection of Armament Haki, producing sharp metallic sounds that echoed across the deck.
The men helping him train stared at Bane as though he were some kind of monster.
They had no idea what Armament Haki was.
As far as they could tell, they were beating a sixteen-year-old with iron rods, yet his body sounded like steel.
Bane, meanwhile, couldn’t have been happier.
Every strike meant more training.
More proficiency.
More progress.
Then a familiar System notification appeared.
[Quest: Overlord of the East Blue — Completed]
[Reward: 3 Attribute Points]
[Reward: Trust Value +5]
[Reward: Firearm Shooting Skill EXP Orb (Small)]
Bane’s eyes lit up.
Finally.
With Krieg’s reputation now spreading rapidly throughout the East Blue, the objective had clearly been fulfilled.
The rewards were secured.
As usual, Bane immediately tried to pour all three Attribute Points into Physique.
The first point worked normally.
[Physique: 20]
Then he tried adding another.
A new notification appeared.
[Current Physique has reached 20.]
[From this point onward, 2 Attribute Points are required to increase Physique by 1.]
Bane frowned.
Until now, one Attribute Point had always increased Physique by one.
But after reaching twenty, the cost doubled.
That was definitely not good news.
If the requirement increased again at thirty, forty, or higher thresholds, then improving his attributes would become progressively more expensive.
Still, after thinking about it, the system made sense.
Going from one to two and going from ninety-nine to one hundred might both be increases of “one,” but the actual difficulty of reaching those levels obviously shouldn’t be equal.
That also explained why quests sometimes rewarded several Attribute Points at once.
Bane accepted the new rule and spent the remaining two points.
[Physique +1]
[Current Physique: 21]
He still preferred investing in Physique.
The stronger his body became, the safer he felt.
Another notification appeared almost immediately afterward.
[Trust Value with Big Brother Krieg -10]
[Current Trust Value: 18]
Bane raised an eyebrow.
He had just earned five Trust Value from the quest, only to lose ten.
A net loss of five.
Still, he wasn’t particularly concerned.
As long as he possessed [Bane of Existence], Krieg’s Trust Value would naturally rise again over time.
What interested Bane more was why it had suddenly dropped.
He thought about it for a moment.
The answer wasn’t difficult to guess.
His actions had deliberately provoked the Marines and dragged Krieg into a much larger problem.
Apparently, Krieg wasn’t pleased.
Bane shrugged.
If Krieg was angry, that was his problem.
The rewards were already in Bane’s hands.
He turned his attention to the final quest reward.
[Firearm Shooting Skill EXP Orb (Small)]
Bane used it immediately.
A flood of knowledge and practical experience entered his mind.
Grip.
Aim.
Recoil control.
Timing.
Trigger discipline.
The lessons settled into place as though he’d personally practiced them countless times.
[Firearm Shooting has advanced to LV2.]
[Current Proficiency: 3%]
Bane smiled.
At this rate, maybe he’d eventually become a decent marksman.
After finishing his Armament Haki training for the day, he took a short rest.
Then he moved on to Observation Haki.
Bane tied a strip of cloth around his eyes.
Several pirates gathered around him with wooden sticks.
“Start.”
The attacks came immediately.
Bane didn’t block.
He didn’t counterattack.
He only dodged.
At first, the results weren’t pretty.
Whack!
A stick struck his shoulder.
Thump!
Another caught him in the side.
The pirates helping him train became increasingly nervous.
Every time one of them landed a hit, they looked as though they expected Bane to remember their face and punish them later for doing exactly what he’d asked.
Their fears were unnecessary.
Bane understood exactly why this training mattered.
Every blow he took here was one less mistake he might make in a real fight.
And as the sessions continued, he was getting hit less and less.
Soon, wooden sticks alone were no longer enough.
Bane added another group to the training.
Their job was simple.
Throw stones at him.
Now he had to avoid attacks from both close range and a distance while blindfolded.
The results were excellent.
After several days—
[Observation Haki has advanced to LV3!]
[Physique +1]
[Spirit +2]
[Current Physique: 22]
[Current Spirit: 12]
Then came the notification Bane had been expecting.
[Derivative Ability Unlocked: Vengeful Counterattack]
Bane immediately opened the description.
[Vengeful Counterattack]
[Effect: Lock onto one target.]
[Each successfully dodged attack from the target applies 1 Vengeance Mark.]
[When the Host launches a counterattack, each Vengeance Mark reduces the target’s Defense by 10%.]
[Maximum Vengeance Marks: Observation Haki Level]
[Cooldown: 1 hour]
Bane’s eyes brightened.
Interesting.
If he could avoid every attack cleanly and ignore all other variables, [Vengeful Counterattack] had serious potential.
At Observation Haki LV3, he could apply up to three marks.
That meant a maximum defense reduction of thirty percent before his counterattack.
Thirty percent was already useful.
But if Observation Haki eventually reached LV9…
Ninety percent.
Even someone with monstrous defenses would become dramatically easier to hurt.
Of course, the ability had clear limitations.
Bane first had to successfully dodge the target’s attacks.
And the defense reduction only mattered for the counterattack that followed.
Powerful?
Absolutely.
Invincible?
Not even close.
Still, Bane finally felt as though he possessed a small amount of genuine self-preservation ability.
And the timing couldn’t have been better.
War with the East Blue Marines was approaching.
Once the fighting began, cannonballs, blades, and bullets wouldn’t care who they hit.
Improving Observation Haki before the conflict started was exactly what Bane needed.
Over the next two days, the atmosphere throughout the Krieg Pirates became increasingly tense.
Ships were being prepared.
Weapons were checked.
Supplies were moved.
Crews remained on alert.
Krieg hadn’t openly announced that war was coming, but almost everyone understood the situation.
The confrontation had become difficult to avoid.
The only real question was who they would be fighting.
If it was only one Marine branch, the Krieg Pirates still had a fighting chance.
But if several East Blue Marine bases came after them together…
Some pirates had already begun reconsidering whether staying with Krieg was worth the risk.