8 Chapter 8 : Swallowed Fruit Obtained

"Your Majesty!"

At the treasury, two guards clad in full armor saluted as they saw Youta, disguised as the king, approaching.

"Open the treasury; I want to inspect it!" Youta raised his head slightly and spoke.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The two guards didn't hesitate and directly took the key handed over by Youta, then opened the treasury door.

This seemed a bit sudden, but Youta had long understood that this king indeed had a hobby of inspecting his treasury. It was said that at times, he had counted his treasures more than a dozen times a day.

This was why Youta didn't wait until the next day to come to the treasury. After all, the night is long, and he didn't possess the memories of the old king. If someone asked him a question he didn't know the answer to and noticed something was off, he would be in trouble.

The treasury was magnificent, despite the Drum Magnetic Country being a small nation. However, being renowned for its medical prowess, wealthy individuals often sought medical treatment here, resulting in considerable national income.

Moreover, due to the small size of the country and its sparse population, the amount of celestial gold to be surrendered was not much. Therefore, the treasury housed quite a few treasures.

Fortunately, there was only one Devil Fruit in the treasury. Otherwise, Youta would have been at a loss. He had no idea what the Swallow-Swallow Fruit looked like.

Picking up the Devil Fruit with strange patterns in his hand, Youta hesitated for a moment but didn't directly swallow it. He remembered how Luffy had turned into a puddle of goo right after eating the Devil Fruit, unable to control himself.

Under the current circumstances, it was not the right time to eat the Devil Fruit.

So, Youta opened the sealing scroll again, put the Devil Fruit into it, then looted billions of berries and gold from the national treasury, along with a fine sword. He also discovered a surprise in the treasury: a manual for practicing Observation Haki.

After putting all these gains into the scroll, he swaggered out.

After he left, the guards were somewhat surprised. Why was the king's inspection of the treasury so short this time? But this wasn't a question for the guards to ask. They closed the treasury door, locked it, and handed the key to Youta.

Taking the key, Youta returned to the palace and brought out the old king's body again, placing it on the bed.

Then, following the same procedure, he subdued the two guards, and quietly left the castle.

He wasn't worried that the guards would say anything. After all, although the old king's death was somewhat related to his potion, in reality, he died of old age. Any competent doctor would ascertain that his time had come.

If the two guards remained tight-lipped, the old king would have just died of old age, which had little to do with them. But if they mentioned the strange unconsciousness among them, they might be blamed for negligence. The choice was clear.

Moreover, even if they did speak out, in the world of One Piece, it was unlikely that they would trace it back to Youta.

The next morning, back at the inn, Youta looked at the Devil Fruit in his hand, frowned, and swallowed it.

"Mmm... truly worthy of its reputation, the taste of the Devil Fruit."

After devouring the Devil Fruit, Youta felt some kind of strange change happening in his body.

He glanced at the sword on his waist, smelling a butter-like fragrance. At the same time, a strange sensation told him that he could devour the sword completely.

Opening his mouth, Youta's mouth widened more and more. Finally, reaching an incredible limit, he swallowed the sword in one gulp.

A peculiar taste flowed in his mouth, like a biscuit. Before he could savor the taste of the sword, he felt a strange change in his body. A cold energy flowed within him, and he could freely manifest this energy in any part of his body.

Youta extended his hand. Soon, his hand turned into a metallic shape, and his fingernails became sharp blades over ten centimeters long. With a light scratch, he left a mark on the table.

"So, this is the power of the Swallow-Swallow Fruit? It merges two completely different substances into one."

"But, it seems these energies haven't been digested by me... they've merely merged with me in an energy state, altering my form."

Thinking so, he then extracted that energy, opened his mouth wide, and spat out the sword again.

"Perhaps when I develop the Swallow-Swallow Fruit to a certain extent, I can permanently digest this energy, and then I may even have the possibility of permanently strengthening my physical strength!"

Of course, this was just a slight fantasy for Youta. With his current abilities, he was far from awakening the fruit's development.

What he obtained from the Drum Magnetic Country's palace was not just this Devil Fruit. There was also a fine sword and a manual for practicing Observation Haki.

However good the fine sword was, it was of no use to Youta now—it was about one meter and four centimeters long, slightly taller than Youta, and he only knew a little basic swordsmanship, so he couldn't use it at all.

If he were to force it, it would probably not increase his combat power but reveal more vulnerabilities.

However, this thing could at least serve as material for his Swallow-Swallow Fruit, so it wasn't completely useless.

What really caught Youta's attention now was naturally the manual for practicing Observation Haki. After all, the method to practice Haki, especially in the first half of the Grand Line, was extremely rare.

It wasn't until he opened it that he realized this manual for practicing Observation Haki was actually left behind by a doctor. No wonder it appeared in the treasury of the medical powerhouse Drum Magnetic Country.

And the Haki in this manual for practicing Observation Haki leaned more towards observing the human body, even including methods to perceive the internal organs, bone marrow, skull, and some subtle aspects using Observation Haki.

Obviously, the person who wrote this manual for practicing Observation Haki was probably a doctor, not a warrior.

But for Youta, it didn't matter. In the end, it was just a refined application of Observation Haki, which didn't affect his perception and combat abilities.

"But the key question is, can I awaken Observation Haki? I'm not from the world of pirates, after all."

It's worth knowing that there's a big difference between people from the world of pirates and people from the world of ninjas. Leaving aside other things, in the world of pirates, there are even those who naturally awaken Observation Haki, which has never been seen in the world of ninjas.