9 Chapter 8

Time passed for all, and once again one could find Omar practicing.

SWOSH

"Young master, it is time to work! Come on, we have paperwork to take care of." Brian shouted as Omar continued his practice.

Or, as he likes to call it, 'figuring out how bullshit his powers were'.

"Just ten more minutes Brian, I am still in the middle of practice." Omar said as Brian yelled back.

"You shouldn't practice by having thirty soldiers shooting arrows and magic at you!"

The soldiers who were forced to help nodded their heads, not liking this job at all.

It was an interesting sight, they were slaves that were given express permission to shoot at their lord during this training. They all were well trained and each and every one of them was a top-notch fighter with a level of over forty, all of them classing up as Forest Hunters who were experts in hunting and shooting with a bow.

And yet, it could only be said that they simply did not want to harm Omar at all. They were part of the first batch of slaves Omar had bought, they had seen with their own eyes the effort Omar put in them as well as all he did for this land.

In the end, even if they were not willing, they were ordered to help Omar with his training. As such they moved as one and kept shooting Omar... only to fail each and every time.

"Young master, you are just being unreasonable now." Brian said as the soldiers kept shooting, only for the arrows to slow down and fall before they even hit Omar.

"How so?" Omar questioned as he kept using Earth Flames to allow for standing in the air while also using Rain flames to shoot and incapacitate every arrow that tried to reach him, all arrows being slowed down by the tranquility effect of the rain flames, and the flames being sent accurately thanks to Omar's observation haki.

The soldiers that were working hard and saw that Omar wasn't even looking anymore wanted to cry injustice since they worked so hard, and they couldn't even hit Omar at all. It was unfair for the soldiers, but not an unfounded situation.

After training for these two years, added to the talent for Haki of Luffy and the greater will granted by the Dying Will Flames, Omar's current Haki all reached an intermediary level. By this point, only by really fighting could Omar grow further in any Haki field as he reached a bottleneck in those areas and go further, but he lacked the time to go find enemies to face so he had to content himself with what he had.

Not only that, after these two years Omar's flame mastery improved by leaps and bounds. He now had Advanced Sky, Earth, and Rain flame mastery as well as intermediary Sun, Desert, and Mountain flames.

By this point, Omar was confident that, as long as it was a frontal confrontation, he could at least survive anyone under level 80 as long as the other side isn't a hero since they are cheats.

Don't think that this was a small accomplishment. After all, Omar himself was still level 1.

Yes, he has not raised in level even once over the years. To increase in level one must kill an opponent or defeat them in a pure combat, but he only ever spared and practiced by himself as well as trained his body. The reason for such was simple, he figured that there was no need to go raise his levels just yet.

Raising levels would increase his stats faster than training, but the increase granted is static and to increase by training afterward becomes harder since increasing one point in strength when you only had 10 in it would be much simpler than if you had 800.

Right now, these were Omar's stats:

Name - Omar Centurion;

Race - Human;

Level - 1;

HP - 800/800

MP - 10000/10000

Str - 800

Int - 500

Spd - 650

Stamina - Infinite

Charisma - 900

Skills:

- Observation Haki mutated (Intermediary)

- Conqueror's haki mutated (Intermediary)

- Armor Haki (Intermediary)

- Hashoken (Beginner)

- Rokushiki: Soru (Intermediary)

- Sky Flame (Advanced)

- Storm Flame (beginner)

- Rain Flame (Advanced)

- Sun Flame (Intermediary)

- Lightning Flame (beginner)

- Mist Flame (beginner)

- Cloud Flame (beginner)

- Earth Flame (Advanced)

- Glacier Flame (beginner)

- Swamp Flame (beginner)

- Forest Flame (beginner)

- Mountain Flame (Intermediary)

- Desert Mirage (Intermediary)

- Canyon Flame (beginner)

- Flame of Night (beginner)

With this, Omar's stats were comparable with those of normal (non-boosted) humans who had levels between 60 or 70 depending on their jobs. And that was without considering his skills, his fighting ability, or even his mastery of magic that has advanced nicely over the years, with a larger emphasis on earth magic that he mixed with his Intermediary Mountain Flames to make his attacks be much stronger than they should be.

Truly, he was already quite the powerhouse.

And yet...

"Come here this instant, young man. The paperwork can't wait much longer if you intend to keep your schedule." Brian said, causing Omar to sigh and vanish as he appeared a distance above the spot everyone had seen him at.

With his intermediary mastery of Desert flames, seeing through Omar's illusions was not so easy from a distance as the Desert flames could deceive the sense of individuals quite well so that the position Omar was at was different from the one they were seeing. Desert and Mist flames being similar, but while Mist flames had higher mortality with their solid illusions being quite deadly, the desert flame had a much tougher to crack regular illusion that makes seeing through it much harder by comparison. The soldiers all cursed a bit on the inside but did not say anything directly as Omar turned to them.

"That will be enough for today, return to your usual duties."

With this order, those soldiers left one after the other to get back to their other jobs or to rest.

Meanwhile, Omar began walking to his study but as he was about to step into the mansion Brian coughed in his hand, giving Omar a glance which just made the young lord roll his eyes and deactivate the gravity he had placed on himself.

It was something Omar did almost subconsciously at this point since increasing gravity would make his stat growth be much easier. However, after he accidentally broke the floor of his study due to the weight he was putting himself over, and after calculating the money spent in broken floors where Omar walked by, Brian had no choice but to request his lord to not use his gravity while walking around in the mansion.

As they walked through the mansion Omar could see the happy expressions of the workers and he felt good about it. After these two years he has already obtained several slaves from Zeltbul and other places, the fact that Omar would buy any 'thing' they wanted to sell, as long as it still breathed, made sure that many slave dealers rushed over to get rid of useless merchandise.

That was more than fine with Omar. With more people, he helped educate them in farming and other areas depending on their individual talents, with those with exceptional abilities being taught by him when he knew about what to teach.

It was only the start of farming in a more developed form than the usual, but it was a good and firm start.

"Brian, where are our mercenary friends located now?" Omar questioned in slight doubt.

"They are in the mountain region to the west, they apparently decided to set up a more permanent base thereafter you gave them permission to do so in the territory. Business in Melromark that lacks in the military currently is seemingly quite nice." Brian said with a smile.

The Black Dog Mercenary band was truly a great find. Having 500 people it was a well-organized and well-trained force and, most importantly, they were trustworthy. Count Wackenheim has truly done a great job finding them, and after coming to the Dukedom they did an exemplary job.

The bandit issue was almost entirely dealt with, just some small bands scattered around could still be found by this point and even the spoils from the bandit extermination were properly turned over for the Dukedom. Sure, Omar gave them around 40% of everything taken, but it was a price well paid and that they did not try and steal was clearly a sign of how they were a good investment.

Omar was not overly friendly with all of them, of course, but they were a good enough bunch for mercenaries. As long as they didn't cause trouble Omar wouldn't do anything against them and having mercenaries around was practical as temporary meat shields when needed.

Reaching his study Omar took the documents in front of him. Thanks to the much-improved bureaucracy implemented now, thanks in no small part obtained with the help of the students taught by Brian replacing much of the previous staff, Omar now only had to deal with the most general outlines and confirming the progress of the projects at hand.

"... It seems like the Ethys project is advancing properly." Omar said with satisfaction.

"Yes, I am still quite surprised by your choice of building ship parts so far from the cost and using the river to transport them to the docs to finish them properly." Brian said as normally the whole process was done at the docs.

Omar shook his head and said.

"I know that what you said is how it is usually done, but we want to build ships in large amounts. Building them in the traditional way, as you said, would mean that everyone involved would need to know EVERYTHING about how to make a ship. Using a more industrial model and making the parts closer to the sources of raw materials like wood and steel is simpler, cheaper, and much easier." Omar said.

In fact, what he was using was the model of shipbuilding from the navy from the Grand Line Essence. All their ships were built in an industrial manner so that they are all the same inside and are all of very high quality. Don't look at Luffy and others able to blow them away easily, that is just because some pirates, like Luffy's group, are too strong.

The ships Omar had drawn were not as potent as Marine Ships, those are simply too expensive to build and impractical for commerce as well as being far too large. Omar instead built simpler ships that were quite fast and, most importantly, could carry a lot of cargo.

Those were commerce ships, the type that could sail through the waters of New World no less. Traveling in this world would be way easier by comparison and Omar was sure that his shipbuilding would soon be famous since his unities were better than anything that other nations could possibly have, and that is while he hasn't yet started his warships!

Brian nodded his head at the words of his lord and said.

"With the models finished the factories already started production. The first dozen ships had set off to start trading of spices from the southern Fabley to resell at the eastern markets of Shieldfrieden as instructed, we also prepared the sailors and sent a part of the trained soldiers to hunt sea monsters as ordered." Brian said and Omar nodded.

"Good, tell them to keep up the good work. The next bath of ships can begin working in buying some rarer materials from other places. Remember, the most important thing is-"

"Show off our new ships so that others want to come and buy them, I understand." Brian said, causing Omar to smile.

In truth, Omar had no problems with selling his surplus ships, as long as the price was right. It took about 170 golden pieces in the production of each such ship now that the line of production was complete, so if others came to buy them for a full 3000 golden pieces Omar would take the deal. His largest advantage, after all, wasn't these ships but the intelligence network Omar had started all over with them.

Omar has started this little 'project' since a year ago, sending some people to several ports and other locations, all carrying phone snails that he managed to produce thanks to having made a Mushi Mushi no Mi - phone snail mode and given said fruit to one of his slaves. With the ability to create new phone snails, it was all too simple to create an intelligence network greater than any out there! While he hasn't yet started using this advantage for war, these little snails would help inform Omar about what was needed where, what was in surplus where, and where things were cheaper as well as special demands like medicine and whatnot.

With this information that could be updated so easily, it was simply too easy to get the best deals everywhere, or so Omar hoped as he would start testing his theory now with this trade. If he was right then even if others had ships like his, they wouldn't be able to produce as much money as him and Omar could use the funds from selling these simpler ships to start the production line for the Marine Ships.

After finishing checking that document, Omar signed it before taking the next one.

"*SIGH*, why is this here again?" Omar questioned and Brian sighed.

"I am sorry, but it must have your signature otherwise the other side won't listen to logic."

"As expected of religious fanatics, they don't seem to understand that I am NOT into their ideals." Omar shook his head at the letter of the pope of the Three Heroes Church requesting a meeting about opening a chapel in the Dukedom's territory.

Omar has never met the man, but, from what little correspondence he traded with the vermin, Omar had the distinct impression that the man was a self-centered asshole that was power-hungry to the extreme as well as racist to the point one must wonder if he was cucked by a demihuman in the past or something. That sort of hatred is simply not natural.

The Pope's demands this time, not requests but DEMANDS, were that Omar allowed his crazy religion to become the main one in the Dukedom's lands was bad enough, and he then proclaimed that his ancestors were sinners for not following 'gods will' and that Omar's soul might still be saved if he professed to his sins and begged for mercy on his knees, well...

Omar gladly spit at the letter that was to be sent as an answer to the request as well as, in a noble fashion, told the pope to go suck a dick as that would be a better use for his useless mouth instead of spouting nonsense.

After sealing the letter Omar gave it back to Brian who looked completely unconcerned about the spit in the letter. This was far from the first letter, after all, and Omar's reactions to them were getting more and more entertaining as time passes.

Going to the third document Omar looked over it and frowned before sighing.

"It seems like those guys are causing trouble again."

Brian only coughed in his hand to try and hide his reaction, not wanting to say that this was his master's own fault.

The Guardians was an up-and-coming adventurer team that has started making a name in Melromark and Siltvelt. Having been the fastest group to reach B rank without having a hero in their party, one could only sigh at their performance being exceptional. Many a noble wanted to permanently hire them, however, they never accepted such proposals as they already had someone they served.

The members of the Guardians were Nine, Pitou, and Gyslaine the once feral girl, with their leader being Nine. The three went out to train by becoming adventurers, wanting to grow stronger and better master what was given to them, namely the Devil fruits, the dying will rings, and the first few experimental box weapons.

No, those were not Guardian rings. They were merely the first few rings Omar has managed to produce himself just like he did for the box weapons. They were well made, however, with both the box weapons and rings being comparable to those used by B-Rank soldiers of milfiore. Omar did not yet make them Guardians since the Guardian rings were far too strong and useful, having them would accelerate the growth mastery of the flames by a lot but also make its user be limited to only able to show their skills with those boxes and rings as equipment.

For maximum mastery, Omar intended to have rings of different levels, and only upon truly being mastered could they become Guardians properly.

Despite the rings and box weapons not being truly top-notch, they still showed a great effect in combat.

As for the Devil Fruits, the effect was even more clear.

Pitou, after some consideration, was granted the Heal Heal fruit, becoming a 'heal human'. She could quickly heal from most injuries and could also heal others quickly, as proven by her healing of Nine's tongue and fangs (also, with those back Nine truly proven he had BS talent, he was a monster through and through as far as Omar was concerned).

Ghyslaine, meanwhile, took the Moa Moa no mi making her a 'More human'. With this fruit she could increase her speed, strength, defense, or stamina by 10 or even 100 times whenever she wanted. Combined with her also being able to increase the size of objects, she was a force to be reckoned with and Omar was quite confident that he'd likely lose to her if not for his Haki and knowing her fighting style well.

As for Nine, he took the Gum Gum no Mi. Yes, Nine has eaten the same fruit as Monkey D. Luffy, mostly because Omar had a good idea how this fruit worked and Nine's own skills tended towards hand-to-hand combat. Omar thought of a strong Zoan fruit, but Omar's race already had a therianthrope form that was similar to Zoan transformation in terms of boost, so giving Nine the rubber fruit would be a better option.

The problem with those three was that, well, they tended to cause trouble whenever they went. Pitou would challenge mostly anyone she thought as strong, even if it was a client or someone she really shouldn't fight. Ghyslaine had no control or care for collateral damage when she increased the size of her weapons and caused more damage than it was worth it. And Nine, he didn't stop those two from causing trouble as he was more worried about his studies and training instead, wanting to become capable as soon as possible to return to his lord's side.

Omar could only sigh all collateral damage had to be paid by someone and, as their sponsor and owner, that responsibility fell to Omar himself. Thankfully his maritime trade was already starting to create positive revenue.

"... at least their training seems to be working out." Omar sighed as he saw the report of how much damage they managed to create this time around when executing a job. "Is this what Makarov had to deal with in Fairy Tail?" Omar muttered to himself.

"What?" Brian questioned and Omar waved him off.

"Nothing, just thinking to myself here." Omar said as he signed for another bill. Thankfully those three at least were improving quickly and Omar hoped they would be able to show the results needed to become his guardians soon. "How is teacher Astrid, by the way?"

"She is doing well, she has gone to the villages up north to check the talks of a new iron ore vein and should be returning in a week's time."

"Good, having her around truly was a blessing." Omar said with some emotion.

Over these two years, the relationship between Omar and Astrid got quite close, becoming good friends and relatively close confidants at this point. Not only that, Astrid was truly a blessing in disguise not only for Omar personally (who greatly enjoyed their banter) but for the Dukedom as a whole as her Earth magic was great in identifying mineral veins, their size, and other such details.

She has already helped find two ore veins by now of considerable size, a large one of copper and a small one of silver. She was a highly valued member of the household by now and Omar even considered making her one of his Guardians, but he was not yet sure she would want the position so he could only let it be for now.

He then looked at a document that showed the military academy he had set up in a model similar to that of the Navy from One Piece, he intended to help soldiers and create a solid foundation and structure of the army instead of the usual one with just a lord commanding a mob to fight. A well-structured, strong, and united force with a firm and stable chain of command based on merit instead of connections, with such an army Omar was confident he could defeat the waves and perhaps even expand the territory!

Of course, any thoughts of expansion were a long way to go, but there were many small nations and island nations in this world and who knows what the future might hold.

Omar then finished the rest of the documents, they were mostly talks of immigration from other lands across Melromark to the Dukedom. This did not surprise Omar, his lower tax rates and offers of land were extremely attractive to the common folk.

Not only that, the king's desire to restart the war as to keep killing Demi-humans, combined with his status as the only hero of Melromark, allowed him to start a political party of sorts in the kingdom with the more militant sect of the nobles that wanted to reignite the war for either bloodlust, revenge, or to obtain more cheap slaves for labor. With the Queen trying to counter this movement the political tensions in the kingdom were rising so the commoners who did not want to get in the middle of it, especially second sons and war orphans who had little to lose, started to migrate more and more to the Dukedom.

This was great news for Omar, but he was still a bit fearful of the war orphans that might want revenge and cause some form of an incident with Siltvelt. Omar could only strengthen the borders for now though and hope things did not escalate beyond his control.

As Omar was about to complete his duties he felt a presence above and spoke up.

"Is this another test, Kohaku-sensei?"

"You could say that, young master." Kohaku, the leader of the mirage foxes, said as she dispelled her illusion technique and jumped down from the ceiling.

These two years were quite generous for Kohaku. The young spymaster and tribe leader no longer looked like a child with promises of beauty, instead, she already was a great beauty with long blond hair, cute tails, a pretty face, and her figure was already quite excellent and still growing. Wearing her small yellow kimono she showed off in a way that was extremely sexy, even if nothing was shown.

Since half a year ago she has started training Omar, not in the specific stealth abilities of her race but instead trained him in how to COUNTER those. Identifying hidden presences, seeing through illusions, detecting and countering poisons and sneak attacks. It was a complicated process, but rewarding to be sure as these abilities would be much more useful for Omar overall as he could counter spies and assassins much easier in such a fashion.

Just the thought of surviving the waves only to die with a dagger on his back or poisoned by some power-hungry asshole, it would be far too ironic and something Omar did not want to see whatsoever.

Looking at Kohaku, he couldn't help but comment.

"Do I really have to call you 'sensei'? It somehow doesn't sound right."

Kohaku could only shrug.

"It is the costume of my tribe since we arrived in the mainland from Q'Ten Lo, any student should call their teacher 'sensei'."

Rolling his eyes Omar decided to just roll with it, he was her student anyway so if she wanted such a small thing he might as well do it.

"So, did you come only to test me or was there something else?"

"I have received a letter from one of the Queen's shadows requesting for you to come to the capital. The Queen calls you to the court to introduce yourself since you never went to court until today and also to have some talks about other matters." Kohaku said and Omar instantly started to look like he has eaten a particularly sour lemon. He had no desire to go to the capital, but needs must and he was not yet strong enough to ignore a Royal Decree.

"Very well, if I am being called I must go. Brian, call count Wackenheim and inform him I want fifty of our best to accompany us in this endeavor." Omar said, if he had to go to that vile nest of snakes he would go with a strong escort to show his position and power, that he was not to be trifled with.

Sure, it was more appearances than anything else since his army was still pitifully small according to Omar himself, but what he had was all elites under the strict training they would constantly go through so by now. Besides, with the capital being the center of power of the church of the three heroes it would not be a bad idea to have a few extra guards as a precaution.

Thinking for a moment he looked at Kohaku and spoke.

"Teacher Kohaku, accompany me this time around. With your capabilities, I am confident you'd be of help there." Omar said, knowing that Kohaku was most likely an agent of the Queen but also understanding that the Queen was not friendly with the church either. As long as Omar didn't act against the Queen Kohaku was sure to at least provide some form of assistance against any assassins and shadows of the Church.

Then there is the King, who wanted him dead for trying to reach out to Sitvelt, the nobles, who want him dead for greed over his territory as the last of his line, the merchants, who wanted him dead before he could take over their businesses thanks to his maritime trade, the other nations, that would likely want him dead before he could grow into a threat, the normal citizens, who wanted him dead because he was trying to give a home for the demihumans they hated.

"... Brian, increase the guard to a hundred guards." Omar decided, just to make sure since maayyybbeeee he made some enemies over the years.

///---///

AN:

Hey there, sorry for the slight delays. College and my family getting sick and leaving me to administer and take care of EVERYTHING regarding my family's club (yes, my family owns a club) makes for little time to write. I can only ever do two chapters at most per week, if that. I barely managed this chapter, but it is done now and, with some luck, it is a decent job.

Tell me your thoughts on it and what should happen next. Follow and Review, I get energy from those ;)