On the pirate ship heading toward Hachinosu.
Carlo was checking his current status panel.
[Physique: 7-Star (71.236)] [Haki] [Observation Haki: 6-Star (68.354)] [Armament Haki: 7-Star (76.444)] [Conqueror’s Haki: 7-Star (74.028)] [Devil Fruit: 3-Star (32.002)] [Overall Evaluation: 7-Star] [Commentary: Pull the ship alongside!!]
After his battle with Kaido, his attribute values had taken a massive leap!
The most significant jump was obviously his Physique.
From a 5-Star Physique stuck at 58 points for months without budging, it had now surged to a 7-Star Physique at 71 points.
A massive increase of thirteen full points!
On paper, a numerical increase of thirteen points didn’t look huge, but when reflected in real flesh and blood, it represented a two- to three-fold improvement across all physical metrics!
Stamina, endurance, physical toughness, flexibility, and explosive muscle power had all undergone a comprehensive leap.
The most obvious manifestation was his strength!
If at 58 points his physical limit was comparable to an adult giant, possessing ten thousand tons of force, then at 71 points, his physical limit was equivalent to an Ancient Giant!
He possessed ten times the power of a normal adult giant—a terrifying physical force of no less than one hundred thousand tons!
What did one hundred thousand tons mean?
A modern aircraft carrier, over three hundred meters long and built entirely of steel, weighed roughly that much.
In other words, Carlo could now lift a modern aircraft carrier with his bare arms!
If placed in his past life’s real world, a level of strength like this would make him a godlike superhero.
However, in the fantasy world of One Piece, one hundred thousand tons of raw physical strength was still far from the pinnacle of top-tier powerhouses.
Setting aside the endless variety of Devil Fruits capable of exerting anti-physical forces far beyond mere muscle…
Take Pica’s Stone-Stone Fruit, for instance.
It could merge into the earth and manipulate the entire capital district of Dressrosa, forming a stone giant hundreds of meters tall.
Its weight was easily in the tens or hundreds of millions of tons.
Pizarro’s Island-Island Fruit could manipulate an entire mountain peak into a giant hand.
Shiki’s Float-Float Fruit could send islands over ten kilometers wide straight into the sky ten thousand meters high—and not just one island, either.
The weight of those islands could only be measured in hundreds of millions of tons!
Even setting aside those physics-defying Devil Fruit abilities and looking strictly at physical force…
During the Paramount War in the story, the massive block of ice thrown by Jozu was seventy to eighty meters across, weighing well over a million tons.
The giant iron ball thrown by Garp was similarly absurd in weight.
Thus, Carlo felt no complacency whatsoever.
Because during his fight with Kaido, he realized that even a 7-Star Physique was far from his limit.
He could grow even stronger!
Aside from Physique, the second largest attribute boost was his Devil Fruit development.
However, in these early stages, even an increase of twelve full points—rising from 2-Star to 3-Star—yielded negligible combat power gains for Carlo at his current level.
It was merely a slight increase in ability proficiency.
Compared to that, Carlo cared much more about his Armament Haki.
His Armament Haki attribute had increased by over eight points!
This brought a noticeable bump in both the intensity and volume of his Armament Haki.
Leaning back in a corner of the deck, Carlo stared at his open palm.
As he channeled his inner strength, a surge of potent energy instantly surfaced from deep within his body, flowing onto his skin.
His palm turned pitch-black, as if dipped in ink.
This black energy was none other than his Armament Haki.
What Carlo was displaying now was the most fundamental application of Armament Haki—Hardening.
Out of all Armament Haki techniques, this was the only one that required no special comprehension; as long as the Haki was awakened, it could be used directly.
The function of Hardening was to harden the user’s skin like iron, allowing one to clash with weapons barehanded.
The second tier of Armament Haki was Imbuement.
Carlo channeled his Armament Haki once more.
The pitch-black sheen on his palm deepened, transforming from simply turning his skin black to acquiring visible depth.
A dark flow of light continuously welled up from beneath his skin, protruding about a centimeter above his palm to form a fluid coating.
This layered flow of black light was Armament Haki in its Imbuement form.
It could be coated over the body to enhance strike power, or wrapped around weapons, bullets, arrows, and even cannonballs to drastically amplify their destructive force.
Garp had a famous trick of throwing cannonballs barehanded—he simply wrapped his dense Armament Haki around a cannonball and hurled it with immense arm strength, triggering an explosion far exceeding a normal cannon’s power.
Reaching this stage wasn’t difficult either; it merely required dedicated training to expand one’s internal pool of Haki to a certain threshold.
And the third application of Armament Haki…
Was Emission!
Carlo suddenly thrust his open palm forward.
The flowing layer of black light on his palm instantly spurted forward like a fountain, detaching from his hand at his movement. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
At the same time, it expanded rapidly like an inflating balloon.
The air on the deck in front of Carlo distorted visually under the impact of the expanding black shockwave.
Air currents surged, whipping up a gust that rattled the ship’s ropes and sails violently.
Kaido, who was sitting cross-legged a short distance ahead, tearing up cloth strips he had salvaged from Rocky Port to fashion a simple outfit for his bare body, was caught completely off guard as the sudden mass of black light slammed directly into his back.
*Bang!*
Caught unprepared, Kaido face-planted hard into the deck.
His bewildered face crashed violently against the gunwale ahead.
The timber railing, reinforced with thin iron plating, shattered into pieces under his impact.
Kaido was stunned.
He wiped the wood chips from his face and stiffly turned his head around, catching Carlo red-handed as the latter nonchalantly drew back his hand.
Kaido’s face darkened instantly.
“Carlo!
You motherfucker!”
“Heh, sorry.
My hand slipped.
Don’t be so stingy.”
Carlo voiced an apology, but his face held no remorse whatsoever.
In fact, he looked like he was struggling to hold back a laugh.
Truth be told, from a transmigrator’s perspective, bullying the future “World’s Strongest Creature,” Emperor Kaido, felt downright amazing!
Seeing the grin on Carlo’s face, Kaido was so furious he reached for his kanabo.
But with a glance at Whitebeard sitting at the bow, he forced himself to hold back.
“Hmph!
Just wait till we get to Hachinosu—I’ll make you pay!”
He glared venomously at Carlo before turning back to work on his clothes.
Carlo didn’t care about Kaido’s threat in the slightest.
After personally experiencing a lesson from Kaido, he actually wished Kaido would get stronger faster.
That way, he could harvest another batch of experience points from “Teacher Kaido” when the time came.
He just wondered if Kaido could keep up with his pace of improvement.