Before he knew it, an entire year had passed.
Every morning, Will practiced swordsmanship.
In the afternoons and evenings, he trained his physical abilities.
Occasionally, he would visit Master Niss at night to ask questions about swordsmanship.
Every day, apart from the seven hours he spent sleeping and the time required for meals, he devoted practically every waking moment to swordsmanship and physical training.
During that time, he and Master Niss and Roy sold intelligence several times, earning more than a million Beli in total.
As for the development of the Thunder Core, Will had been studying it constantly.
Aside from the original Lightning Stimulation Method, Will had developed another ability.
Though calling it “developed” wasn’t quite accurate.
It was actually the accidental result of a series of failed experiments.
After his body had fully adapted to the low intensity of the Lightning Stimulation Method, Will gradually increased the lightning’s intensity.
The results were immediately apparent.
His training efficiency went from three times normal to four times normal.
That evening, after returning to the dojo, Will decided to see whether he could increase the intensity even further.
The moment he did, it felt as though countless insects were crawling through his body, biting and writhing beneath his skin.
Then Will happily passed out.
When he woke up, the sky was already bright.
He was lying in his own bed, with an IV still attached to his right arm.
Roy was talking with a middle-aged man who looked like a doctor.
When they noticed Will had awakened, they walked over.
“You little maniac, do you really have to push yourself this hard?”
Roy gave him a mocking grin.
“You actually trained yourself into full-body muscle spasms.
I honestly don’t know how you managed that.
Even the doctor said he’d never seen symptoms quite like yours before.”
“He said you passed out from the pain.
Is that really what happened?”
Looking at Roy’s wicked grin, Will really wanted to punch him.
After becoming familiar with this guy, Roy was nothing like the composed and reliable man he’d seemed to be when they first met.
His mouth had become just as foul as his perpetually lecherous-looking grin suggested.
“Hehehehe…
You actually dare make fun of me?”
Will gave his distinctive laugh.
“I’ll tell Second Senior Sister.”
Roy’s expression instantly changed.
When Will had first met Roy and Master Niss, neither of them had ever heard him laugh like this.
After they became familiar with each other, Will gradually stopped holding himself back.
He still remembered the first time he had laughed like that in front of them.
The two men had stared at him as though wondering whether something was wrong with him.
“Hey, hey!
Are you kidding me?”
Roy immediately became nervous.
“Do you want your Senior Brother to die?
You absolutely cannot joke like that in front of An!”
Roy spoke with unusual seriousness.
Will ignored him.
“Ah, I’m hungry.
What should I do?
I really want some of that seafood fried noodles from town.”
Will looked toward Niss with an expression that clearly said:
If you don’t buy it for me, I’ll tell Second Senior Sister all about how you’ve been treating me.
Roy laughed.
“You little brat.”
Then he left to buy Will some seafood fried noodles.
Will smiled as well, remembering the first time he had met his Second Senior Sister.
At the time, he had been training with Senior Brother Roy in the back mountain.
From a distance, he had seen a tall, strikingly beautiful woman approaching.
She had long black hair and wore a tight purple top with a plunging neckline, along with black trousers and black high-heeled boots.
A dark-red sword hung from her waist.
She was a tall, alluring, mature woman whose beauty was almost intimidating.
Will had been puzzled.
Why would a woman this beautiful come all the way to this desolate back mountain?
And she’s carrying a sword.
Then the woman said something that nearly made Will’s jaw drop.
“Husband, is this the new Junior Brother?
He’s really young.”
Her voice was husky and seductive.
Will immediately felt an immense sense of admiration for Senior Brother Roy.
How did a guy with your looks manage to marry a woman this beautiful and alluring?
Please, Senior Brother, teach me your secrets.
Roy was just about to respond when he noticed Will muttering something under his breath.
He could vaguely make out words like flowers and cow dung.
“What kind of disrespectful nonsense are you thinking about?
Don’t you dare say it out loud!”
He then angrily took several breaths.
The woman couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh softly.
Roy straightened his expression and introduced her.
“This is my wife, Olivia An.
She’s a swordswoman as well.
You can call her Second Senior Sister or Senior Sister An.”
“Hello, Senior Sister An.
My name is Will.
It’s nice to meet you.
Please forgive me if I’m lacking in etiquette.”
Will politely greeted An.
He could joke around with Roy because they had already spent half a year together.
But An was someone he had just met, so basic courtesy was still necessary.
An nodded.
“Hello, Junior Brother.”
She asked him a few brief questions about his training before falling silent again.
She didn’t seem like someone who enjoyed talking much.
“Wife, why did you suddenly come back without telling me beforehand?
Have you finished dealing with everything outside?”
Roy looked at An.
“Not yet.”
An answered calmly.
“I mainly came back because Master has something to discuss with me.
I also wanted to see the new Junior Brother.”
“Since there’s nothing else, I’ll leave first.”
With that, she turned and walked toward the dojo.
Remembering the encounter, Will smiled.
He took a sip of water and began thinking.
Why had increasing the lightning’s intensity caused such an extreme reaction?
When he had first awakened his lightning ability, the lightning’s intensity had definitely been much higher than this.
Yet back then, he had only experienced some prickling pain.
It hadn’t been anything like this—painful enough to knock him unconscious.
Will slowly sensed the lightning energy inside his body.
He seemed to have found the answer.
When he had first awakened the lightning, he hadn’t known how to control it.
Therefore, the lightning had probably circulated primarily through his muscles and bones.
The Lightning Stimulation Method, however, had been based on the Third and Fourth Raikage’s techniques, using lightning to stimulate the body’s cells.
The two methods couldn’t be treated as the same thing.
One stimulated the muscles and bones.
The other stimulated microscopic cells.
Naturally, the body’s tolerance was completely different.
With this realization, Will slowly began circulating the lightning again.
This time, he didn’t stimulate his cells.
Instead, he directed the lightning toward his muscles and bones.
He started at an extremely low intensity and gradually increased the output.
When he once again began to feel a slight prickling sensation, Will stopped increasing the intensity.
He maintained the maximum level that his body could withstand without causing pain.
The sensation was completely different from the Lightning Stimulation Method.
His entire body now emitted a faint blue glow.
Will examined himself.
He immediately noticed that his movement speed and reaction speed had increased dramatically.
They were roughly twice his normal level.
His strength and stamina, however, had only increased by around half.
This…
This was an excellent technique.
He had accidentally developed something incredibly useful.
Just as Will was celebrating, another idea suddenly occurred to him.
He got out of bed and opened the cabinet.
Inside were two swords.
Will had spent a fortune having them forged by what was said to be the finest swordsmith in Loguetown.
These two swords were unlike the swords commonly used in the One Piece world.
They were straight blades.
But they weren’t quite traditional swords either.
Each sword was 103 centimeters long in total, with an 80-centimeter blade and a 23-centimeter hilt.
At first glance, they looked more like rapiers.
However, compared with a traditional rapier, their blades were considerably wider, approximately 3.8 centimeters across—slightly less than three fingers’ width.
They didn’t use the traditional four-sided blade construction.
Instead, they used an eight-sided design, inspired by the eight-sided construction of traditional Chinese Han swords.
Even under tremendous force, the blades wouldn’t bend in the slightest.
Near the hilt, the blade was 3.8 centimeters wide.
The farther it extended toward the tip, the narrower it became, eventually forming a perfectly streamlined straight blade.
At the bottom of the hilt was a black, circular pommel.
It could serve as a last-resort weapon when an opponent closed into grappling range.
The pommel was made from the same extremely expensive metal as the blade.
The two swords had cost Will so much that even after earning more than a million Beli, he had nearly gone broke.
The grip was wrapped in processed skin from a massive Sea King.
After treatment, the leather had become black and was tightly wound around the hilt.
It was soft to the touch, non-slip, and had a slightly textured feel.
The small crossguard was also different from that of a traditional rapier.
It wasn’t particularly long, with both ends slightly thicker and the center somewhat narrower.
It provided protection for the hands while also looking elegant.
Together with their matching black scabbards, the swords appeared completely black when sheathed.
The blade itself had been treated along the spine to reduce glare.
There were no other colors.
The exposed blade was a clean silver color, with a cold gleam that gave it an exceptionally sharp appearance.
The two swords were ultimately the product of Will combining the design concepts of an eight-sided Chinese Han sword with those of a rapier.
As for their black appearance, that had been Master Niss’s specific request.
When Will had told his master that he wanted to commission two swords, Niss had insisted that he choose a dark color such as black, red, or purple.
He specifically told Will not to choose conspicuous colors such as silver or gold.
Niss never explained why.
He only said:
“You’ll understand someday.”
Will respected his master’s request.
After all, during his time at the dojo, Niss had taken good care of him.
Will took the two identical swords from the cabinet and placed them on the left and right sides of his waist.
He crossed his hands and drew both swords simultaneously.
Although Will was now around 1.3 meters tall, wielding two one-meter-long swords was still somewhat difficult.
He had no idea whether his idea would work.
But if it did…
He would be set.
Will closed his eyes and once again activated the lightning circulation method that stimulated only his muscles and bones.
This time, after spreading the lightning throughout his body, he didn’t stop.
He extended it into the two swords in his hands.
The lightning continued spreading until both blades were covered in a faint blue glow.
Will didn’t stop there.
He gradually increased the intensity of the lightning flowing through the swords.
A faint crackling sound filled the room.
The swords were no longer simply light blue.
A silvery radiance now shimmered within the blue light.
Will gently brought one sword toward the corner of the table.
He slowly lowered the blade.
He barely felt any resistance.
A corner of the table had already been cleanly severed and fallen to the floor.
“Hehehehe…
I knew it!”
Will’s eyes lit up.
“Lightning infused into a weapon really can increase its sharpness.”
“If that strikes someone’s body, unless they’re overwhelmingly stronger than me, I’ll practically be able to cut through whatever part I hit.”
“What an incredible ability.”
“I need to give it a name.
Something easy to remember.”
Will dismissed the lightning and returned the swords to the cabinet.
With his current stamina, he estimated that he could maintain this ability for around two hours.
What should I call it?
The Low-Intensity Lightning Stimulation Method for Muscles and Bones?
Lightning Muscle Method?
“That name is unbearably awful.”
He immediately rejected it.
“I’ll just call it Lightning Mode.”
Simple.
Easy to understand.
And, most importantly, easy to remember.
What if he named all his techniques today and forgot their names tomorrow?
Imagine getting into a fight with an enemy, striking a dramatic pose and shouting,
“Take this!”
Only to completely forget the technique’s name afterward.
That would be unbearably embarrassing.
And if that moment of distraction got him killed…
That would be an absolute tragedy.