3 Chapter 03

Chapter 03

Six months passed in a blink of an eye. Luffy had improved a lot in these last few months, sure he wasn't strong like how Luffy was when he started his journey but he was getting there.

"498… 499… 500" Luffy said there was a huge rock ten times his size on his back. And after the last push-up, he was lying down on the running water. "Uh… I feel so damn weak." He was on a small waterfall inside the forest. A place where he could relatively train his non-devil fruit powers.

This was also the reason why he was gaining strength quickly. He took a page out of Original Luffy's Wano training, and surprisingly it worked well. As a previous power-lifter, he was well acquainted with monitoring his strength gain, even if it was small.

And doing water training was turning out great for him. However, he didn't know if this training would make him gain some form of resistance. In general, a devil fruit user couldn't swim underwater, but was there a way to make yourself resistant enough to gain back the swimming ability?

It seemed farfetched, but he was willing to try. And it wasn't like he had to give extra effort.

Gritting his teeth, he stood up, removing the rock from his back. Gaining back his usual strength felt incredible. And it was also good that he was getting used to his devil fruit abilities.

Training this way was a hassle. It was a good thing that he had a waterfall on the island.

A devil fruit user usually had to immerse one-third of his body in water to start getting weak. At the same time, his or her devil fruit powers wouldn't work. And that would be an issue when he would start his voyage, he wouldn't be able to train that way.

And he wasn't stupid enough to try and dump himself in the ocean for some small gains. That would be reckless and stupid. Luckily he didn't inherit those quirky habits from the original Luffy.

So he had to look for a way to gain sea stones. He should look around the kingdom. And if that doesn't work, he could always try to sneak up to Garp's ship and try his luck there.

Though getting caught would be too much of a pain.

Six months have passed, and training kind of got a bit boring. Sure fighting giant beasts that could give old-age dinosaurs a run for their money was fun. But it got boring nonetheless.

He barely knew anyone in the village. Sure Luffy knew the others in the village. But he didn't.

And it felt just awkward mingling with them. Though Makino was cool and she wouldn't constantly pester him like the bandits. And yet the bandits and Makino were the only social life he had, outside of the sudden visits by Garp.

Maybe he should get a pet. It might help him get rid of some of his boredom.

Even though he didn't want to admit it, he felt bored when the mount bandits weren't around. So he had gained the hobby of pranking them here and there, just for the sake of it.

Having all the free time in the world meant more time for training. It did nothing for his social life, but it did make him strong.

But even if he constantly pushed himself harder, without any challenge his strength gain would have diminishing returns. He was following the power route approach to things, but he knew for this world's standards it wasn't the optimal way. He should ask the old man for some training advice next time.

The adrenalin you get from wrestling a giant bear is no joke. It was almost addictive, sometimes. And he concluded that it was a better way to gain strength. But there weren't that many challenges in the island anymore.

Still, he would have loved to have someone teach him some actual combat. Luffy's fighting style was pure chaos, his fighting style fully revolved around his devil fruit abilities.

And he was a powerlifter back on earth, not a kickboxer. He really regretted not picking up some martial arts in his last life.

Today Garp or grandpa was going to return to the village. And it would be lying that wasn't excited. He was eagerly waiting for Garp's gift. But then again he doubted that he would give him something amazing.

But who knows I might be in for a surprise... 

But Luffy shook his head, "There's no way I will be getting a named sword, but it would at least be better than these junks." He said looking down on the rusted and almost broken spear he was using.

He had gone to Goa kingdom and searched every shop, but he couldn't find any decent weapons. The current spear he was using was stolen from a Marine base in the Goa Kingdom.

It wasn't much, but it had to do. And he wasn't going to be a sword user, that was more of a Zoro thing.

He was using a spear, by the looks of it, it wouldn't hold much longer. It was a weapon that he could use like his pipe, with the added benefit of a blade on the end.

Luffy took his spear and started walking down to the village. It was already noon, maybe Grandpa was already there.

He needed to be strong and that meant needed to take every opportunity that he could take.

"I found you, brat." A voice called out, and Luffy looked up and from the sky he saw a giant man descending.