10 Chapter 10: The "Goat Tavern" and Haki

(Moments before Ace's arrival)

Inside the inn "Goat Tavern" many adventures and citizens are enjoying some drinks having a good time. Suddenly the sound of someone yelling is heard and everyone else becomes silent hearing this interruption.

"YOU BETTER PAY FOR THIS SHIT YOU OLD DRUNK!"

A large well-built man easily over six feet is seen berating the "old drunk"

"ONE OF YOUR STUPID SERVERS GAVE ME MY MEAL WITH A BUG ON IT AND I WANT MY FUCKING COINS BACK AND MORE AS COMPENSATION!

The large man looks towards the "old drunk" for a response and when he sees him simply take a swig of a drink, he becomes even more furious. He stands up from his seat towering over the "drunk".

"EITHER I GET MY COINS BACK OR I'LL TAKE YOUR BEST BOOTLE OF BOOZE."

The large man smirks thinking he will be able to swindle this "drunk" out of some coins and liquor.

His smirk quickly disappears as he feels a sharp pain in his stomach. When he looks down to see the cause of the pain his lower jaw is quickly hit from below causing his head to jerk back. A larger impact hits his stomach in the same spot as before sending him rapidly flying towards the door.

Instead of hitting the door, it opens instead, and the man collides with a wall on the opposite side of the street. The people in the inn look towards the, now unconscious, rude customer and see a man walk into view wearing an elegant red coat worn as a cape. The new man quickly looks back at the scene before walking into the inn and closing the door. As soon as the door closes the light-hearted mood returns as though nothing happened.

(Present time)

Ace seeing the man flying towards him easily reacted as he side-stepping out of harm's way. He looks back towards the unconscious man noticing the large crater formed from the impact. He decides not to give the man second thought and walks into the inn while closing the door.

A cat beast folk wearing a typical maid uniform quickly arrives in front of Ace with a quill and notebook in hand.

"Good evening sir and welcome to the "Goat Tavern" will you be staying with us or are you here to enjoy a meal?"

"I wanted to rent a room here."

"Perfect! Then I will lead you to the owner of the inn who can help find a room for ya."

As Ace was being led cat maid, he ignored the curious looks he received from a few people and finally arrived in front of the owner. Looking at him Ace easily figured out the inspiration behind the inn's name.

The owner was an elderly goat beast folk standing on two hoofs only reaching up to Ace's chest. He had two long horns that circled near the sides of his head with the ends pointing forward. His grey fur helped show his age and he held a thin wooden cane that was taller than him. What caught Ace's eye the most was the row of gourd jugs strapped around his waist. Each gourd seemed to have a different colored cork on top and Ace could faintly smell alcohol coming from them.

"Hello young man, can I interest you in a drink? You seem like a mead sort of guy."

Before Ace could reply, the goat-man grabbed the gourd with the bright orange cork from his waist and began drinking from it.

"Boss this guest wishes to rent a room with us."

The cat maid who spoke up was calm seemingly unfazed by the goat's actions.

"Oh well, why didn't you say so? We charge two silver a night plus three bronze a meal. If that's to your liking, you'll have to pay for a week's stay upfront. If you end up staying longer payment will be collected at the end of each month after adding up your total. Oh, and please remember to pay on time."

As the owner said the last part, he let out a small amount of killing intent to warn Ace of what happens to those who can't pay.

Although the killing intent barely affected Ace, he could still tell the owner was stronger than he looked. Remembering the impact wounds on the large man from earlier, Ace figured that the owner was the one to take him out with the help of his cane.

"You don't have to worry about that."

As Ace said this, he took out a gold coin from his magic bag and gave it to the owner. When the owner noticed the shining coin, he smiled and said

"The names Jin. We have a complimentary bath downstairs for guests to use. If you want any meals to be delivered directly to your room let us know the day before. Your room will be on the second floor so just wait while I grab your keys. Otherwise, enjoy your stay here."

Ace headed straight to his room after receiving the keys from Jin. He locked the door after entering and sat down on the side of his bed.

[System?]

[How may I be of service young master?]

[First, I would like to get the rewards from the mission I completed]

[MISSION REWARDS RECEIVED:

20,000 SP

NEW SYSTEM FEATURE: MINI-MAP

5 SKILL UPGRADE CARDS]

[System what are 'skill upgrade cards'?]

[Skills purchased from the SHOP must be leveled up in order to master them. The two ways to master a skill is either by training said skill or by using an upgrade card. If you use an upgrade card, you will gain the experience of the skill one level higher. I must also inform you that upgrade cards can only be used on skills purchased in the SHOP and can only be attained as a reward from completing missions.]

After hearing the explanation, Ace opened up the SHOP to spend his points on some skills. After the mission rewards, he had a little over 40,000 system points and hoped he could buy some useful skills.

[SHOP:

SKILLS

LEGACY BOOKS

WEAPONS

OUTFITS]

Ace was curious about the other 'Legacy Books' he could get as he found the 'Legacy Book' of Z to be very helpful. However, he instead clicked on the skills section hoping to find three certain skills. It didn't take long as Ace found what he was looking for.

[OBSERVATION HAKI

10,000 SP

ARMAMENT HAKI

10,000 SP

CONQUEROR'S HAKI

15,000 SP]

Ace grinned seeing the skills and their affordable prices. He always thought it was cool how Observation Haki, when mastered, could let you see into the future and how Conqueror's Haki let you defeat dozens of enemies from just your sheer willpower. Ace wasn't too interested in Armament Haki as he knew it wouldn't be as useful in this world, but he still wanted it for the boost in physical attacks. He bought all three and felt information on how to use each at a basic level rush to his head. After he learned everything, he saw that he had 7,000 points left and decided to check the other sections in the SHOP out of pure curiosity.

The 'outfits' section was pretty straightforward as it featured clothing worn by different characters from the anime. What really interested Ace was the two other sections, and after looking through them he found two items he wanted to add to his arsenal.

[BOOK OF SWORD FIGHTING LEGACY OF DRACULE MIHAWK

250,000 SP

SWORD: YORU

100,000 SP]

Ace desperately wanted the powers and weapon of the strongest swordsman from One Piece, who wouldn't? Having set his mind on his future purchases, he decided to close the system and call it an early night.

'Tomorrow I'll try to find an adventurers guild to register under. That way I can earn a steady income while also gaining SP.'

Ace clapped his hands twice turning off the fire magic lighting his room and fell asleep moments later.