Time to Train! Part 2

John waited for the power to answer him. Suddenly, he felt a feeling of joy and elation, but also stress and sadness. It was a complicated feeling, and John had to take a second to connect the feeling to an experience. After a while, he equated the feeling of opening a pack of trading cards and looking for a rare card.

"…is it because it is a rare object? Or made from something rare?"

A half hearted feeling returned to John, so he went to clarify.

"Just to make sure, does the price of something change if is made of rare or unique material? Like if I buy a basic sword but use steel instead of iron, it costs more right?" John knew this was most likely the case and received a positive feeling from the power.

John had to think for a minute about the Clima-Tact, and where it came from. Usopp made it for Nami, but it was early in their Grand Line adventure, so it could not have been made from particularly expensive material.

"Is it expensive because there was only one ever made?"

There was an affirmative answer. So, it seems rarity increased the amount something cost to some extent.

John started to nod his head, continuing to think ahead about what to ask. "Is it a flat cost, or does it depend on the item?" A half-hearted feeling, so John assumed it depended on the item. This worried John a little bit since he had no idea how this could be gauged item to item.

Then, John had a thought pop into his head, namely the Drum Island villain Wapol.

"Can I buy Wapometal?" An affirmative response was felt. This made sense, if John could buy the Clima-Tact which Nami most likely did not have yet, then he saw no reason why Wapometal would not be available either.

But the follow-up was what Jon was truly curious about. "Once Wapometal becomes more mainstream once Wapol starts manufacturing it, would the price go down?"

A few seconds passed, and then John felt a hesitant, but positive feeling within himself. It seems that if the rarity of something changes, the price should naturally go down.

Conversely, John assumed, if something became rare again, than the price would go up if he were to purchase it through the fruit. If this were the case, John wondered if there was a way to manipulate the market somehow, like if he created a bunch of steel factories would the price plummet?

Suddenly, there was what sounded like a 'ding' go off in John's mind, as if a thought, followed by a message.

{Status Update}

"Status update? What status update?"

John, confused at the sudden interruption, willed his status screen to appear.

{John Capet [Amateur Schemer]}

{Attributes}

Strength- 20

Constitution- 20

Dexterity- 30

Intelligence- 36

Wisdom- 50

Charisma- 50

{Skills}

{Abilities}

(Devil Fruit [Bāta-Bāta no Mi])

{Traits}

His Intelligence went up! Is this because he was thinking so much about his powers and how they worked? Or maybe because he was thinking so far ahead? Or was he just always close to levelling up, and he just crossed some invisible line?

John did not know what to think of this update, being the first time, the system did anything proactive since he got it. Still, if it was just going to show him when he was getting better, than that wasn't too intrusive.

Though he was only in this world a few days and everything was new and exciting, John would sometimes forget he even had the system at all, like it was just a piece of clothing. Sure, he was wearing it, but rarely do people consciously think about their socks they wear after a while.

John was not sure whether to be worried or not about this. It was a part of him now, right?

…

…right?

…

Still, that notification from the system was a perfect indication that it was time to move on to the next test, which was buying things that were similar, but not the same.

"I want to buy Zoro's Wado Ichimonji." John stated again, going back to an earlier example he used. The feeling came back negative, he was unable to buy it.

John was unsurprised by this answer since he asked it before, though he had the slightest hope the answer might have changed. Still, the actual test was next. "I want to buy a sword that is exactly the same as Zoro's Wado Ichimonji in every single way, from materials to craftsmanship."

A few seconds passed. Then a positive feeling was felt, though John noted that the price was astronomical, at least compared to what money John currently had.

Still, this would not hamper John's excitement. "…a positive feeling!" John smiled maniacally to himself. "Yes! My dream of being a collector of all the cool stuff is real!"

Then John asked the fruit about all the things he could potentially buy from the system.

A copy of Luffy's hat? Doable.

A full model replica of the Thousand Sunny? Absurdly expensive, but possible.

A copy of one of Sanji's cigarettes? It was just a normal cigarette at the end of the day, but John sure could get it!

Then John had to stop for a moment from his excitement and got serious for a second.

It was time to quiet down and get ready. John's next series of questions were a big deal and could have major implications of what he could do going forward.

"Can I buy the Ushi-Ushi no Mi, Model: Giraffe?" John asked, tension now lacing his voice and demeaner.

A positive feeling came to him. This made sense to him, this fruit was Kaku's fruit and would not be consumed until the Enies Lobby Arc later. John knew that he could buy Devil Fruits, he had asked earlier, but knowing he could buy specific fruits was great news, and he sighed in relief.

On a side note, while the Ushi-Ushi no Mi, Model: Giraffe was incredibly expensive, it did not seem to be as expensive as the Thousand Sunny when he asked for its price, though it was still more than the Wado Ichimonji by a lot. Was it because Devil Fruits in generally were easier to come by then the extremely specific ship the Thousand Sunny? That would require more testing later.

Also, John decided that he would need to train how to accurately gauge how much things cost with raw Belly. Having a vague feeling was not going to cut it if he were to use his power efficiently in the future. Still, he still had time to get it down to a science over time, he wasn't expecting to immediately master his power after a handful of days.

"Can I buy Ace's Mera-Mera no Mi?"

This request was met with a negative. This also made sense, Ace consumed the fruit and it was a part of him, so it was 'owned' by Ace, and John could not buy 'owned' things.

"Can I buy a SMILE fruit?"

It turned out John could buy a SMILE fruit, and it was much cheaper than the Ushi-Ushi no Mi, Model: Giraffe. It probably had to do with the fact that they were a specific fruit, and more plentiful. This was good to know for the future, maybe he could steal Doflamingo and Caesar's business in the future, assuming he wants to go into the crime world.

"Can I buy a fruit that looks exactly like the Mera-Mera no Mi down to the most minute detail, but does absolutely nothing when eaten?"

This came back positive and was so cheap that John could buy It right now with his own limited funds, which John at first found funny. Then, however, he got a very naughty idea. Couldn't he just sell fake fruits on the market? He was aware that there was a book or something about Devil Fruits that had pictures, so if he bought one of those and sold it, wouldn't he make a fortune? The Ope-Ope no Mi could supposedly go for five billion Belly, so that could be a great scam!

Of course, doing this had some high risks. Not only would he need to find a way to sell the fake fruit without people trying to rob or kill him for it, but anyone wealthy enough to buy it would do everything in their power to kill him once they found out they were duped. John supposed he could sell the fake fruits at a low level shop or something for small amounts of money, then leave it on whoever tried to auction it off to take the fall. Still risky, but less so.

However, this was in the end a small distraction for John, and the big tests regarding Devil Fruits was here.

John made sure to phrase his words very carefully. "Can I buy anything, fruit or otherwise, that would give me the exact same powers the Mera-Mera no Mi confers? It can't just be another Devil Fruit with similar abilities, and it has to be able to be safely consumed without causing one's death, especially if they have a Devil Fruit themselves."

And here it was, John asking if you could gain another person's Devil Fruit powers. If he could not, then John would ultimately not be too surprised since it would probably kill the person like eating two devil fruits supposedly could. But if he could get more than one power, then, well.

He would have the ability he theorized about on the day he received the boon.

John had to wait for some time for a response from his power, almost a full minute. And after all that waiting…

"…a negative feeling, huh? How about minus the death to other Devil Fruit user's clause, could you just sell an item that mimics the Mera-Mera no Mi?"

Another negative felling.

John let out a big sigh. He had a feeling this might be the case, though he was really hoping that he would be able to break the rules of the world in half by having multiple powers like Blackbeard.

That's right, Blackbeard!

"Can I buy the ability to be able to wield multiple Devil Fruits?"

A few seconds pass, then a negative.

"Can I buy the ability to change my power?"

Negative.

"Create earthquakes?"

Nada.

John had to think for a bit about what he was asking to buy and realized that this was the first time he was asking to buy something intangible from his fruit. Everything so far has been physical, but now it was more conceptual.

John was honestly starting to get a bit worn out by trying to find the limits of his fruit for one day, but the sooner he knew what he was working with, the better.

John started small. "Can I buy an increase in any of my attributes, like Strength or Intelligence?"

A negative feeling was suddenly felt.

"How about how to use certain abilities? Can I buy Haki or any of the Rokushiki techniques for example?"

Another negative feeling. John was started to get a bit annoyed by how many of these he was feeling in the last few minutes.

"Can I buy knowledge on how to use those techniques?"

A half-hearted answer. Finally, something new! Then appeared in John's mind a feeling of curiosity and understanding. It felt like he was at his school's library when he was a child.

"So, I cannot buy the raw knowledge of the techniques, but I can buy books or something to teach me how to learn and supposedly train them?" A positive feeling, finally John was getting somewhere!

"So, let's test this out. I want to buy a book describing how to learn Armament Haki." A price appeared in his mind, if was incredibly expensive, he felt like it was around the Wado Ichimonji in price. He wondered for a bit why it was so expensive and concluded that while a lot of people had Haki, it was probably taught by instructors and had few written directions. At least, that was his current theory.

"I also want it to have explanations on how to further train it once learned." The original price increased, almost twofold. John expected this would happen, more content equaled more money, and a full Haki training manual of any sort was probably incredibly rare.

"Can it have pictures too?" The price further increased.

John was tired of sitting down, and so he stood up and started pacing around the room again. This was ultimately a good thing, though not ideal. The best outcome would just be getting the information implanted into John's brain, but he supposed getting a book or something on how to do things was useful in its own way.

This made John question his power once more, something he has been doing a lot today. He can do crazy things with his power, buy Devil Fruits, make copies of items that never existed, even make things from the future that aren't made yet.

But he couldn't buy conceptual things. Why was that?

Then John thought about the tree and rocks he could not sell because they belonged to 'nature', and how he could not buy things that other people owned. His Devil Fruit relied on this idea of ownership of things, who owned what. It even penalized John for stealing stolen things that he did not own!

Did his fruit just have some weir limitation to it? Did he need to 'awaken' it like some other characters in the stories do, or was such a thing as conceptual ideas outside of the fruits power?

What was he missing?

It was at that moment when John noticed that the light in the mine was starting to dim a bit from the lantern. He supposed he was not specific enough when he bought it with how much fuel was in it.

And with that pulling him out of his deep thoughts, John decided to call it a day from all his deep thoughts and purchasing experiments.

It was time to get started on his 3 weeks attempt to make as much money as possible.

Heading over to the lantern, John sold it and re-purchased a new one with more fuel, picked up the pickaxe that was laying on the ground nearby, and headed towards a wall nearby. There, he lifted the pick and struck the wall, dislodging a piece of rock.

From there, John picked it up and sold it. It wasn't worth much.

"Well, I didn't think I would get lucky on my first swing anyway."

With that out of the way, John picked up the lantern with his other hand, and shone the light towards the center of the cave, towards some of the pre-dug paths.

"Let's see where they lead and find a good spot to start, it's rude to dig near the entrance after all."

And so, John walked deeper into the cave, hoping to calm his troubled mine and start on his path to riches.