Chapter 34: Chapter 34: It’s Time For A Timeskip Training Arc!
The man who voiced the system was walking down a long hallway down to two massive doors which opened as he stood in front of them. Behind them has an ornate throne with a man wearing a hooded robe sitting on it. The system man then bowed to a knee in front of the hooded man.
"Master, my apologies, our attempts to defeat Gaileo, as he's come to call himself now, has so far been unfruitful." The system man said.
"The man was a blatant disregard for the rules of isekai. He was supposed to be punished by the hard difficulty setting, but he has yet to be discouraged by any of our interference. He was supposed to face humiliating defeat time and time again until he came groveling back to ask for our help. But that hasn't happened, even after we put an anomaly like Charlemagne in his way. Not only did he beat him, but he somehow persuaded him to join his crew. If this continues then we will lose face. If hard mode can be navigated so easily how could we face the other Isekai administrators? It would be so embarrassing." The hooded man said. "No, we must continue our efforts. I'll think I'll prepare THAT method. For now we will bide our time until it's ready."
"Yes sir!"
Meanwhile, I had finally made landfall on Amazon Lily. I knew that Rayleigh had swam there but I didn't think that we would be swimming there nonstop. I had hoped that we'd take a break every now and then. I collapsed of exhaustion as soon as I drug myself onto the beach. I don't know how much time it took or how far we traveled but we had finally made it. To make the trip more difficult I had to drag a boat behind me with Isabella in it. I wasn't going to make her swim the whole way here after all.
"I have to say I'm surprised you managed to make it here. I half expected you to drown halfway through." Rayleigh said as he stood over me.
"Whoa, bandanna guy you came here too?" Luffy asked. Rayleigh had made it there a lot quicker than I had so I guess he had already had his training talk with Luffy and the others.
"Ah, gesh usopp gawain Lucy?" I was too exhausted to speak so what I managed to get out was basically gibberish.
"I think he's trying to say, 'I guess what's up Luffy?'" Isabella interpreted for me. She a really nice lady.
"Luffy and Rayleigh are one thing, but I won't just allow a random man to stay on this island." Boa Hancock declared as see out her hands in the shape of a heart. "Mero! Mero! Mero!"
She used her ability to try to turn me into stone but after it hit me nothing happened.
"Huh? My ability doesn't work on him either?" She asked confused.
"Of course it not working, you just attacked me for no reason as soon as I got here. All I feel right now is seriously annoyed! I really dislike belligerent women." I said before I finally passed out from exhaustion.
When I woke up Rayleigh told me it was time to go to our training ground. Apparently Hancock had allowed me to train there as well because Luffy told her we were friends.
"Alright it's time we prepare to start our training in earnest. That means no more food and no more women. I can't have you two getting distracted out there." Rayleigh said.
"Ah! No food? But I like to eat while I train! That's too much Rayleigh!" Luffy complained.
"Luffy, you need to get your priorities straight. We're here for serious training there's no room for distractions." I said as I put Isabella over my shoulder like a piece of luggage. "Alright Old Man Rayleigh, show us the way to our training grounds."
"Hey, I just said no women. You can't take her with you." Rayleigh said.
"Ah! No Bell? But I like to listen to tunes while I work out! That's too much Rayleigh!" I complained. "Eh, if I can't listen to her sing then bringing her all this way seems pointless now."
"Um, I guess I'll just go then." Isabella said. She seemed kind of disappointed about something but I had no idea what it was.
"No wait Bell. There's still something you can do while you're here." I said. "I want you to go back to Amazon Lily and train there."
"You want them to teach me how to fight?" She asked.
"No of course not. I just want you to sing for them. You see, the average human person would be completely blown away by your singing. But Amazon Lily is full of just savage gorilla women. They don't have the sense or manners or culture of a regular person, if you can learn how to captivate a crowd in Amazon Lily then your singing skills will definitely improve."
"I suppose that makes sense, but why is that important? Wouldn't it be better if I learned how to fight?"
"Nah, that's not really in your wheelhouse." I said nonchalantly. "Listen, you don't have to try to be something you're not on our crew. If you're not a fighter then that's fine, we have plenty of other people that can do that. I don't need you to do that, I need you to be you. That's all your job is, so just focus on doing the best job of that as you can."
"Alright. I understand, I won't let you down Leo!" She said enthusiastically.
"You can't let me down anyway." I said as I patted her on her head. "Anyway I gotta do my job now, and right now that's getting strong enough to protect every one of my friends."
Me and Luffy then went on to train with Rayleigh on Rumina Island. The training was brutally harsh, but by the end of it I had undoubtedly grown exponentially stronger.
A year later….