5 Body strength

Mark was shaking his head while sitting in his personal bedroom.

He whispered to himself indifferently.

"My range isn't increasing at all."

It's been more than 5 months since Mark's last visit to Charlos's house, Mark didn't leave his villa anymore after that and was foucused on only one thing now.

He was training his observation Haki non stop all this time, but the range didn't increase in the slightest.

"This is my limit, at least the current limit, my body is what holds me back."

"I am turning four in a few months, and I am no big mom to punch legendary giants at five."

"My body is that of a normal human, but that's totally not enough."

Mark wanted strength and observation haki was a dead end.

Now he had few options before him, all of which can solve his current problem.

"I can eat a devil fruit, but I don't want to eat one yet."

"With how secretive it's orgins are, there is a good chance these things are realated to the ancient kingdom in some way."

"I can't just eat something which might have been made by my enemies."

Even if devil fruits were an extension of human imagination, Mark didn't know if were they brought to life naturally or artificially.

He wasn't even sure what the curse associated with devil fruits was all about.

Was that some sort of twisted natural phenomenon too or a built in defence mechanism of some sort.

"Water being a weakness is fine, but it's too big of a weakness, bordering on poison."

"A devil fruit user loses command over their powers, their energy is drained and they becomes so helpless that they can't even move."

"All this might somehow be natural but it screams of an emergency shutdown mechanism."

Mark being a celestial dragon was wary of devil fruits in general.

You can't tell him whatever phenomenon created devil fruits, something which can change the concepts of reality, can't get rid of a stupid weakness.

Mark frankly wasn't willing to eat one to check if this was some sort of an ancient trap.

"When Luffy starts his journey, I'll be 23, so within my lifetime he is going to become king of the pirates."

"If there is anything wrong with devil fruits, it will surface during that time, I will be affected as well if I eat one now, so no, that way is out."

Mark decided to let devil fruits be for now, he was still interested in their powers and wanted to consult Vegapunk to get actual data on it's nature.

But as of now he wasn't going to eat a devil fruit, natural or artificial.

Either way he had powers of his very own, powers he hadn't even touched yet.

That power was Haki.

Observation, armament and conqueror, all three of them were amazing in their own right.

"So now that devil fruit is out of the question, I have two more ways remaining."

"Haki and Rokushiki, which one do I choose?"

Mark wondered, but he didn't want to waste time wondering something he doesn't need to.

Now that Mark was almost four, he had his own section in the house.

With his very own maid servants, so he simply clapped his hands.

*Clap calp*

Immediately the door opened and a woman of considerable grace bowed to him.

"Please command Saint Mark."

Mark nodded to her and said his words.

"I am interested in methods of promoting strength."

"Bring me a copy of all such methods available in the sea."

A hardcore request for many, but to the celestial dragons who ruled the world for eight hundred years and still going strong, this was as easy as it got.

"I'll be right back Saint Mark."

Nodding his head he waved his hand at her.

"You are dismissed."

Swiftly leaving Mark's room the maid got to work, meanwhile Mark kept on practicing his Observation Haki.

This time around he was sensing the maid while she did her job in the most efficient way possible.

Not only her, even the librarian was rushing to collect everything he could find on the topic.

"An efficient bunch, mother and father have selected the best of the best."

Understanding this, Mark stopped observing the library and began to now observe his mother and father.

They were currently discussing about economical state of Rose family.

Mark knew that because he could read their lips, not because he has activated the ability to listen to voices.

Coby had something like that but it was very random and was traumatizing him when he kept hearing people dying.

"Hmm, well everything is going well."

Mark was relieved seeing they were in no financial crisis, sure it was basically impossible because they were celestial dragons, but didn't hurt to check.

"Now let's see if I can activate listening to voices effect of Observation Haki."

"I don't need the voice of all things, just give me voice of somethings like Coby."

Mark didn't want to unlock something like that abruptly, so he decided to keep slowly practicing.

He was attempting to awaken abilities by controlled training, not randomly in the middle of a fight.

Unless you have a thick plot armour named destiny, it is very difficult to go from getting bodied by a yanko to the yanko getting bodied by you in a matter of weeks.

"I am a regular man, I have no awesome fate helping me around."

"I swear this fate thing of D's almost feels like a conceptual weapon's effects, the fate fate fruit maybe."

Mark decided to not care about that anymore, in law's words, he will use Haki to overpower it, if this fate thing was indeed the effects of a devil fruit in this world.

If not, then also strong haki will help regardless, not having it and having it makes a big difference in higher tire fights.

Kaido can certainly confirm that.