New active sub-skills

"You are eating all my food again old man! Slow down or I won't have any left!!" Eragon's voice was filled with frustration while his hands blurred as he did his best to keep up with Garp's eating speed, unsuccessfully.

*Burp*

"Hahaha It's not my fault you eat so slow, If you want to be a marine you must eat every meal like it's your last! You still have a long way to go if you want to compete with me, little brat… And stop calling me old man all the time!!" Sitting cross-legged on the deck, Garp patted his swollen belly in satisfaction while he continued to steal food from Eragon's plates.

"I'll stop calling you old man when you stop saying brat all the time… I told you to stop eating my food damn it! stop now or I swear to God I will cut your little beard!!" Changing his strategy, Eragon tried to eat with one hand while using his other hand to block Garp from stealing his food. To his dismay, the maneuver proved to be too difficult as Garp's hands were too fast for him to catch.

Garp seemed to really enjoyed the new game as he increased his eating speed even faster. But even while his mouth was full to the brim, it didn't stop him from snorting in disdain at Eragon's words "Snore, just try touching my beard and I'll throw you into the sea to swim with the sea kings. Ah, I just remembered you can't swim, I guess you will just have to drown then hahah"

A few meters next to them was a table filled with all sorts of foods and drinks, such as meat, vegetables, juice, and so on. But even though the food was enough to easily feed four grown men, only three beautiful women were sitting next to the table to eat. Two of the women were eating very fast while the third one was eating at a more moderate speed, and it didn't take long before she stopped after feeling full and just watched Eragon and Garp fighting.

"Sigh, Don't they ever get tired or bored of doing this? Every time it's the same, always fighting and cursing at one another while eating… can't they at least tune it down a little?" Shooting a glance filled with dissatisfaction to the side, Nojiko couldn't stop herself from complaining.

She continued watching them competing over their food in disinterest for a few more minutes until they finished eating all the food and there was finally quiet. With all the food gone, Garp released a burp and simply stood up with a satisfied smile on his face before he left for his room. It seems he only enjoyed stealing food from Eragon as he didn't even glance once at the girl's table before he left.

Dejected, Eragon stood up from the battleship's deck and went to sit with the girls, but by that time they were also done eating. Looking at the already empty table, he felt like crying but had no tears.

His misery started on the first day of their journey, as Garp somehow found out Eragon was cooking food for himself and the girls and decided to join them without even asking for permission, stealing Eragon's portion of the food, which in turn forced him to make more if he didn't want to stay hungry. And as you could expect from Eragon's superb cooking skills, Garp was completely hooked! Ever since that day, Garp showed up every time when they started eating to steal Eragon's food, and what drove Eragon mad was the fact Garp never touched the women's food, only his.

At first, Eragon tried to change the place they were eating or the time of their meals, but nothing worked as Garp simply used his dog-like nose to sniff their place every time. With no other option, Eragon gave in and simply cooked for one more person at each meal, believing his troubles were finally over. Only to still have some of his food stolen from him every time!

It has been a week and a half since they started sailing towards the island Marineford, and they have another week left before they arrive. It was thanks to Eragon as he made the ship sail faster so his torture would end a little sooner. Of course, he only made the ship slightly faster than normal so people won't notice and suspect something's weird, and simply believe it was good sea currents or something.

"Don't be depressed Eragon, we will arrive at Marineford in less than a week and this will all end, so hang in there and don't do anything stupid again, ok?… How about me and Caroline will shower with you today? I will help wash your back" Nami held his hand and said softly as she tried to comfort him, not forgetting to warn him not to do anything he might regret later. Like the time he tried to poison Garp's food only to be discovered, almost starting another big battle again.

"You don't have to worry, I won't do anything for now… I'll have my revenge when we reach Marineford!" Squeezing Nami's hand back, Eragon gave her a reassuring smile and continued "Even though I really want to, I'm afraid I can't shower with you two tonight, I'm on the verge of mastering one of my sword skills so I want to stay awake and try to breakthrough. So don't stay awake and wait for me" While talking, Eragon secretly hinted at Nojiko with his eyes, hoping Nami will get the message.

They received 2 rooms to sleep on the ship, one for him and one for the women. But in fact, Nojiko slept in one of the rooms alone while Eragon, Caroline and Nami slept in the other room together. Since he wanted to stay awake and train tonight, then his 30 shadow clones will obviously stay to train with him in their room, so if Caroline and Nami will also stay in the room to try to sleep, he will obviously get in their way.

Fortunately, Nami understood what he meant as she turned her head to her sister and asked expectantly "Since Eragon's staying to train, how about we sleep together tonight? it's been a long time since we had a girls night only"

Listening to Nami's suggestion, Nojiko's eyes seem to lit up immediately "Sure!"

Following that the two sisters stood up and left to their room, leaving Caroline and Eragon alone.

It was late at night, the full moon hung high in the sky and the stars twinkled. The only thing that could be heard was the calming sound of the waves around the ship. It didn't take long before the two of them entered into a smooth and relaxing state while they just sat there without saying anything, watching the stars together.

Only when she started to get sleepy, Caroline turned her head to look at Eragon with her beautiful eyes and reminded him "Eragon, don't forget it's you who told me working too hard is sometimes also bad. Don't overexert yourself, ok?"

Not waiting for him to answer, Caroline stood up to give him a kiss before she left as well.

Looking at Caroline's departing back, Eragon felt a wave of warmth wash over his heart as his eyes glowed with determination 'I must protect them… I won't let anything bad happen to them'

Returning to his room, Eragon didn't start to train immediately. Instead, he opened the system interface instead to see how far he was from getting his [Sword Mastery] skill to level 10.

Age: 15 (39)

Experience points: 598

Passive-Skills :

[Chakra level 10 (415,808/900,000)

As the skill level progress, relevant Sub-Skills such as 'Chakra Control', 'Ninjutsu' and more will be awarded.

+300% Increase to all bodly physical abilities such as strength, speed, endurance, vitality and the five senses]

[Ninjutsu - level 8 (74,890/300,000)

Allows the host to instantly learn Ninjutsus techniques per the skill level.

+40% speed increase when doing hand seals]

[Chakra Control level 8 (6,985/200,000)

Allows the user to mould chakra more efficiently. The higher the user's chakra capacity reserves, the harder it is to use various techniques.

Please take notice: if the user's Chakra capacity increase while the Skill [Chakra Control] stay the same, then the chakra control percentage may drop nonetheless.

Current Chakra Control: 70%

+50% increased strength to all Ninjutsu techniques

-8% reduced cost of chakra used in Ninjutsu techniques]

[Sword Mastery level 9 (428,568/430,000)

Allows the user to freely handle swords.

+45% Increase in attack damage with swords]

[Running level 11 (143,518/1,000,000)

+110 passive increase to your normal running speed and stamina]

[Cooking level 10 (3,523/100,000)

+100% taste increase to all and any food you make]

[Pleasure level 10 (10,896/150,000)

Works only with direct contact to the target.

+100% increase to the target pleasure sensation when activating the skill]

[Knife Mastery level 7 (38,518/60,000)

Allows the user to freely handle knives.

+35% Increase in attack damage with knives.

+35% Increased accuracy against a stationary target.

+17.5% Increased accuracy against a moving target]

[Massage Proficiency level 6 (3,853/9,000)

Allows the user to freely manipulate the target's body soft tissues and mussels. Relaxing the mussels, reducing the blood pressure, heart rate, and state of anxiety. additional effects may include pain relief and sexual stimulation.

Works only with direct contact to the target.

+30% Increased effectiveness when massaging someone]

[Swimming level 5 (1,589/5,000)

+25% Increase to your natural swimming speed in water

[Boxing level 5 (5,986/6,500)

Increases the expertise of the user in fist combat according to skill level.

+25% Increase in attack damage using your fists]

Active sub-skills:

[Hyper-speed] (Running), [Overflow] (Chakra), [Awakening] (Pleasure), [Ambrosia] (Cooking)

Moving his eyes on the skills progress during the last two weeks, Eragon was very satisfied. Everything happened just as he expected, his training speed increased immensely after he started training with 30 shadow clones. He even found the extra time to train in another combat skill, [Boxing], which advanced through several levels fairly fast.

The reason why Eragon decided to train in another combat skill, was because he knew it was too dangerous if he didn't train a hand-to-hand skill with no weapons! And the reason why he chose to train the skill [Boxing] was actually because of Garp. In their fight more than a week ago, he was completely overwhelmed not only by Garp's strength but also because of his skills using his fists! That battle also opened his eyes to the fact he didn't have any combat-type active sub-skills, which caused him to reach the conclusion he must train one of his combat skills to level 10 and get its active sub-skills as soon as possible.

Although not really related to his shadow clones, his [Cooking] skill also advanced to level 10 and he got himself another active sub-skill.

[Ambrosia]

[Effects: Injecting your chakra into ingredients while you are in the midst of cooking, allows your food to have healing and regenerating properties!]

His skills were not the only things that progressed fast, his physical body also experienced rapid improvement using the jutsu 'Earth Release: Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique'. He could already endure 7 times the earth's gravity for a whole day with no problems. He planned to move on to 8 times the earth's gravity starting tomorrow.

Concentrating on his sword skill, Eragon believed he would need to train for approximately a little more than 3 hours before the [Sword] skill advanced to level 10 and get its active sub-skill.

Not wasting any more time, he made the hand sign of the 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' to create his 30 Shadow clones and started to train by swinging his sword through the air.

[Sword Mastery + 3 exp]

[Sword Mastery + 5 exp]

The sound of the airflow being sliced continuously was heard in the room, and soon enough a kind of rhythm was made.

Three hours soon flashed by and Eragon finally heard the ding sound of the system in his head, informing him his [Sword Mastery] skill was ready to advance to level 10.

[Ding, the skill Sword Mastery has reached the requirements to level up. Do you wish to proceed? Y/N]

Moving through the usual confirmation, his skill finally reached level 10.

[Ding, Sword Mastery level 10]

[Sword Mastery level 10 (193/900,000)

Allows the user to freely handle swords.

+100% Increase in attack damage with swords]

[Ding, a new Sub-Skill has been learned]

[Heavenly Particle Slash]

[Effects: Activating the skill allows you to release a terrifyingly powerful divine slash that can cut through almost anything in existence. The skill has 10 minutes cooldown between each activation]

'Finally!! Now I have a powerful attack skill! I really want to fight with Garp again to check this skill's power, the skill's description sounds too powerful for it to be true though….' Reading through the new skill description, Eragon released a sigh of relief, knowing that now he has a powerful active sub-skill in his arsenal that he could use in battle. He couldn't help but imagine fighting with Garp again, finally cutting through his Armament Haki and injuring him with his sword. He could almost see in his own mind the shocked look on Garp's face when he notices his own blood. Eragon had to strenuously stop himself from running outside that very instant to search for Garp!

When he finally calmed down, he suddenly noticed that he felt little to no pain from the advancement this time. He believed it's because his body was getting stronger over time.

Satisfied with the new skill and his gains for the day, he decided it was time to go and rest. Dispersing his shadow clones he took his clothes off and entered the bathroom to take a long cold shower.

Halfway through his shower he suddenly heard the faint sound of his room door opening, releasing his consciousness to scan who it was, a trace of suspicion appeared on his face as the identity of the intruder was revealed to him 'What is she doing, entering my room? Don't tell me…' After giving it some more thought, the reason became immediately crystal clear to him.