Quetzalcoatlus!
11: Chapter 11: Where is the Heavenly Tribute?
Quetzalcoatlus!
*Thud!* Captain Ast’s lifeless body crashed heavily to the floor.
Roy slowly lowered his right leg and adjusted his mask.
“It’s been a while since I used that, but thankfully, I’m not rusty.” Indeed—as mentioned before, the Six Powers were not a closely guarded secret among the Marines.
Any officer of Lieutenant rank or higher who had spent a few years at Headquarters had opportunities to learn them, whether through other officers or the training grounds.
The only true bottleneck was the sheer physical strength required to learn them.
Once a person’s physical capabilities met the threshold, they could often comprehend one of the techniques on their own.
Clearly, this physical limitation did not apply to Roy.
Although both of his Zoan Devil Fruits were only at Level 1, the physical enhancements they granted were more than enough for him to train in the Six Powers.
Thus, Roy had actually mastered four of the Six Powers: Moonwalk, Tempest Kick, Shave, and Iron Body.
While not a master of them, he was highly proficient in their application.
“Shave is a staple for high-level combat, Iron Body is defensive, Moonwalk provides rare flight capabilities, and Tempest Kick gives me ranged offensive options.
They’re all indispensable.” Mumbling to himself, Roy walked over to Steward Mantal’s corpse.
Looking down at the folded body, Roy reached out and began rifling through the man’s pockets.
Sure enough, he pulled out several items.
A few exquisite gems and several stacks of high-denomination Berries weren’t enough to distract him.
“Wait…
what is this?” What truly caught his attention were two items kept separate from the gold.
First was a ring of numbered keys.
Second was a neatly folded piece of paper.
“The keys are obviously for the treasure chests—but why would this paper be kept with them?” Roy curiously unfolded the paper.
“This is…” His expression froze.
Then, his breathing turned shallow and rapid.
The paper in his hand was a sea chart, marked with a clear, precise route.
Specifically, it was a navigation map.
The route originated from the Sabaody Archipelago.
It wasn’t hard to guess that this was the return route Steward Mantal plotted after selling the slaves.
But therein lay the anomaly.
As the steward of a royal merchant ship, Mantal’s return destination should have been the capital of the Kingdom of Nismail.
Yet, the endpoint of this route was not the capital, but an island named Arasheet Island.
That island was a considerable distance from the capital, nearly bordering the Calm Belt.
Why go there?
Almost instinctively, Roy recalled a piece of information he had overheard from Steward Mantal—this batch of treasure was part of Nismail’s Heavenly Tribute for the year, and the deadline for the offering was fast approaching.
Thus, the answer was obvious.
“Arasheet Island…
is the port where they collect and ship the Heavenly Tribute!” Even as Roy felt a surge of excitement, his sharp hearing caught movements from the Marine branch above.
Evidently, the drunken Marines were beginning to wake up.
Thus, he stuffed the paper back into Steward Mantal’s pocket, took the ring of keys, and quickly turned to unlock the chests.
As he unlocked the chest after chest stacked in the vault, each one proved to be filled with glittering gold, jewels, or thick stacks of Berries.
Without hesitation, Roy placed his hands on them.
As the system processed the loot, the treasures and Berries vanished one after another, replaced by a stream of notifications ringing in his ears.
[Current Berries: 45.23M → 75.3M] [Current Berries: 75.3M → 110M] [Current…] “As expected, all the best ways to make money are forbidden in the World Government’s laws,” Roy muttered as he watched the numbers skyrocket.
“No wonder everyone wants to become a pirate—why bother working a regular job?” While Roy lamented the plight of the working class, his hands suddenly froze.
He had noticed a specific chest before him.
“Seastone?” Looking at the dull, greyish stone container, Roy immediately recognized it.
Within this vault, only one item would warrant being locked inside a Seastone container.
“The Devil Fruit those two were talking about must be in here!” He remembered Steward Mantal and Captain Ast mentioning earlier that they had acquired a rare Devil Fruit from the Sabaody Archipelago.
Roy quickly approached the chest, found the matching key, and unlocked it.
Inside lay a dark blue fruit.
Its surface was covered in the distinct, swirling patterns unique to the treasures of the sea.
In his mind, the prompt from the Fruit Encyclopedia rang out right on cue.
[Unowned Devil Fruit detected] [Confirmed Devil Fruit: Zoan Ancient Type – Dragon-Dragon Fruit: Quetzalcoatlus Form.
Analyzing and storing in the Fruit Encyclopedia] [Please touch the fruit to begin analysis.
Current progress: 0%] Hearing the system prompt, Roy was stunned.
Not just because this was the first real Devil Fruit he had ever laid hands on.
But more importantly…
“An Ancient Type?” Roy had never expected that the fruit he obtained this time would be a rare and coveted Ancient Zoan.
It was said that Ancient Zoan fruits granted their users physical enhancements and vitality far superior to ordinary Zoan fruits.
Across the seas, though they might not compare to Mythical Zoans or Logia fruits, they were still incredibly rare.
Obtaining such a fruit was an absolute windfall for Roy.
Without a second thought, he placed his hand on the fruit.
The fruit immediately began to dissolve beneath his touch.
Simultaneously, the progress bar on his interface began to tick upward rapidly.
Within a few breaths, the physical fruit vanished entirely.
In its place: [Devil Fruit analysis complete.
Current ability level: Lv.
3] [Lv.
3: All basic fruit abilities acquired.
User can transform into the ancient beast ‘Quetzalcoatlus.’ Vitality and recovery speed are massively boosted.
User can freely shift between Human, Beast, and Hybrid forms, and flap wings to generate powerful gusts of wind.] [Lv.
4: Deep fruit development.
User can compress wind gusts into slicing attacks and utilize high-speed winds for ultra-fast movement.
Vitality and recovery speed are further enhanced.
Requires 2.5 billion Berries for permanent unlock / 800 million Berries for temporary unlock.] [Lv.
5: Fruit Awakening: Ancient Return.
Grants the unique Zoan Awakening transformation.
User is enveloped in Flame Clouds; vitality and recovery speed reach their absolute peak.
Capable of summoning disaster-level tempests.
Requires 9 billion Berries for permanent unlock / 3 billion Berries for temporary unlock.]