14. Returning.

Zoro's words stupified Stone, he had wasted thousands of words and many promises trying to take him as his student but nothing worked.

But as soon as he gave the brat a decent weapon he immediately agreed.

' If I had known he was such a lunatic for swords I would have said

' If you become my disciple you can make weapons better than the one you are carrying '

then I wouldn't had to waste all these days blabbing my mouth!! Damn Kid!! '

He was cursing inside but a gentle smile was shown outside.

" Do you really want to be my disciple? "

Zoro nodded and asked.

" If I do become your disciple, can I make swords better than this one? "

He raised the sword Elder Stone gave him.

' Like I thought, he is a Sword maniac to the core.'

Elder Stone confirmed Zoro's character and replied

" Yes. The one I gave you is something I made hastily without any preparation. Honestly speaking that's a sub par weapon, if I really put my mind into it I can make swords hundred times better than that."

Zoro heart raced when he heard Elder Stone's words. There is a reason Zoro suddenly decided to become Old man Stone's disciple.

In his world swords were most commonly used weapon. Easy to carry and plenty of masters around.

Even the major powers used swords as a standard weapon. As years passed swords became the norm and swordsman became the strongest weapon users.

Among the fifty Skilled grade swords, twenty one Great grade swords and twelve Supreme grade swords eighty percent of them were swords. So for Zoro finding a strong sword isn't hard not impossible.

But that was not the case in this world. Here weapons were mixed, people did use swords but he won't know how long it would take him to find ones suitable for him.

Take Waning Moon for example, it was a great sword among all the ones he saw but compared to the ones he used in his world... they were inferior.

Zoro may be directionally challenged and sometimes he seemed stupid but he was by no means an utter idiot. On the contrary he was quite astute when it comes to combat.

He figured out it would take him decades to find swords suitable for him, if even that's possible. So when he saw old man Stone just throw out a sword three times better than the one he was using an idea popped up.

' If I become his disciple, wouldn't I be able to make weapons as strong as my previous swords or even better!? '

Like a wild fire it consumed Zoro's thoughts.

Elder Stone didn't care why he choose to become his disciple, he was over the moon to take a disciple as talented as Zoro. A smirk ran across his face as he said to himself.

' Just you wait you old bags. You better not die of heart attack seeing his talent.'

Elder Stone laughed out loud and came down. He patted Zoro's shoulder.

" Good Good!! From now on you are my disciple!! Call me master from now on! "

" Eh.... ah no."

" Huh? What? Why!? "

Zoro scratched his head and laughed awkwardly

" I got so comfortable calling you old man Stone, so I kind of feel awkward to call you master."

Elder Stone nearly puked out blood, his old heart couldn't take these many blows.

' Comfortable!? Comfortable my ass!! '

He looked at Zoro's awkward face and laughed bitterly.

' What kind of disciple call their master Old man? '

His lips twitched upon thinking this.

" Fine, call me that."

Zoro nodded. He suddenly remembered something and asked

" Hey, where did you take the sword from? "

" Hahaha, from this of course!! "

Elder Stone raised his right hand and showed him a ring. Zoro looked at the ring and didn't have a clue what it was.

" This is a space ring, it's an artifact. This is also something I made, this ring holds a separate space which can be used to store items."

Zoro was startled but as someone who has experienced many things he regained his calm in a split second. He has seen people with space abilities, they can take things out from mid air so an artifact like this was surprising but reasonable.

" I have a few spare if you want one. I will make a better one when we leave."

Zoro's eyes brightened, Elder Stone laughed and gave him one.

The ring was smooth, it was quite big for his finger but as he put it on it shrunk to a perfect fit for him. Zoro sent some of his Haki into the ring.

He felt a pull, a blank dark space appeared in his mind. The space wasn't that big just about ten cubic meters.

Zoro stopped looking inside. Elder Stone told him how take in items, he placed his hand over the sack containing beast cores and they disappeared.

He looked inside his space ring and found them floating inside. He thought again and now the sack was outside, in his hands. He was quite happy to get a space ring, now he can store everything inside.

" Now, we should be going. It would take some time to get to the Association headquarters."

Zoro suddenly spoke up.

" Old man, can you wait for a few days? "

" Oh, what for? "

" I want to say goodbye to my mother."

Zoro may have said these words with a straight face but Elder Stone saw grief in his eyes. He didn't ask further and nodded.

" Let's head back."