One piece: Evolving Towards a New Race

The old man looked confused at first, but then laughed and nodded, "So since me and my granddaughter will follow you, what should we call you?".

"You can call me by my name, Ars for now, and what are your names?"

"My granddaughter's name is Lily and mine is Oak. "

Ars nodded and with Oak help quickly completed his preparations to go back to his journey towards GAIA.

But Ars, seeing that he could increase his Body by a decent margin, decided to depart three days later. He went off, found a hidden corner and entered his pocket dimension and then entered his tube so he could enhance himself, inside he confirmed the intended alterations and then the laboratory activated itself, finally Ars fell asleep.

Three days later he got out and slowly went to the pc to examine his new parameters.

His body values had risen from 1.2 to 1.8 it wasn't just an increase in the physical aspect, more importantly it increased his bloodline potential and since he was being reforged from his DNA or whatever he could call it, these changes would also be inherited by his descendants. 

His body didn't change appearance but his strength had increased by a decent amount.

He left his pocket dimension, and went to meet the old man. When he arrived the old man was fishing using an old rod, Ars found it a little bit strange after all he had bought a few so they could fish while at sea. Confused, he asked " Good morning! Why are you using that old rod instead of the new ones? "

"I'm more used to this one." Oak answered without turning.

Ars looked around and didn't see Lily so he inquired about her "Where is Lily?" 

"Still asleep." Oak gave simple and concise answers, almost avoiding unnecessary conversations.

Ars nodded and went to get something to eat before leaving on the journey, Ars looked at the old man and asked "Do you want some? It could be a while until we get to eat meat, at least until we reach the next island." Oak thought about it, then nodded " Can Lily eat with us?" Ars smiled and nodded, Oak answered while he was turning towards the ship's interior, "Okay I will go wake her up then!".

During the meal Lily was super happy, she was eating meat for the first time in forever, she didn't remember the last time she ate meat, so she was enjoying each and every bite. 

After the meal they finally set sail. The ship was usable with just one person but with 2 and a half it was slightly easier, you could see that it was Lily's first trip at the sea by how excited she was, always running around giggling, trying to see the fishes in the ocean, the birds in the sky and any land mass. Oak simply had a smile on his face while he looked at his granddaughter while he kept fishing.

After a few days on the sea they finally reached a small inhabited island, they disembarked and started searching for possible foods they could use for provisions, at first everything was going well, they managed to gather food and were preparing for the night, but Lily, while her grandpa wasn't paying close attention to her, entered the jungle chasing fireflies.

When they realized she was missing they instantly went to search for her, after a few hours they found her, she was throwing up and crying, at first they didn't know what happened, and were quite worried but after looking around, Ars spotted a strange looking fruit, when Ars saw it he broke of laughing, at first Oak was angry and didn't understand why Ars was laughing, but then Ars simply pointed at the fruit, and Oak finally understood and laughed himself too. After all, the horrible taste was famous, and that would also serve as a lesson to never eat something she found randomly, also it would make her more cautious of getting lost while running around.

Ars didn't recognize the fruit and neither did Oak, so they asked Lily what the fruit could do. After a while of not going anywhere, they finally decided to leave the fruit abilities for a later time, they went back to the camp and prepared some food to eat, and when they were done with their meals, they went to sleep.

Ars in the morning remembered Lily's difficulties in explaining the fruit's powers and asked "What is Lily's age?" Oak looked at him and put 5 fingers up "But she never had anyone other than me to talk to, so she's not that good at communicating, especially near strangers". 

Ars got the message, after a while before departing once more they tried to understand once more what Lily Akuma no mi was or what it did… She couldn't explain properly. The only message she managed to get across was with "And it goes shaaa" while waving her arms up from the ground they managed to conclude that something should appear from below. Apparently she could use it but it was not noticeable because she wasn't strong enough to use it properly or maybe they just weren't looking in the right direction, it wasn't until a few hours later in the boat that she managed to use her ability, one apple she had eaten and from the seed a few leaves quickly appeared sprouted. They reached the conclusion she could manipulate the growth of plants. Now they were just the akuma no mi type, a logia or a paramecia, they didn't even think about it being a zoan, after all it did not transform her into an animal.

They proceeded with their trip, it took a week to see their next stop, the trip had been smooth, the only problem was that the ship had basically no entertainment other than fishing and cards, but Ars couldn't fish or play with cards because he was controlling the ship most of the time, so this new stop would be especially appreciated by him and Lily.

They spent 2 days on the island, he checked his compass that pointed towards GAIA, while it had changed directions a bit, according to his calculations the route would remain the same, at least for a few more islands.

While resting on the island Lily approached him and asked, "Can we play together? Grandpa said I can't go off alone or might get lost."

This surprised Ars, she almost always stayed away from him, like she was terrified of him, and he understood why… their first meeting could have gone better… and yet now she approached him on her own.

"Sure, where do you want to go?"Ars responded with a smile, he was happy that the little baby was starting to warm up to him. 

She quickly and excitedly pointed to the forest "There, I saw a pretty bird there!!". Ars got up, grabbed her tiny hand and let her lead the way. After a while they got close to a waterfall, where they saw several different animals, from the previous bird type, to deer and a boar with piglets to a big bear hunting. 

After that they played around for a while, Ars let her decide what she wanted to do, and while she kept going at it for a while "I want to pick those flowers…", "I want to catch those butterflies…", "I want to take that branch", and a lot of " I want to do that, but also that…", in reality she wanted to try everything she could see at the same time.

A few hours later from when they first started, they started going back to the camp, on the way Lily started to get sleepy, so Ars picked her up and varied her back, by the time they came back she was fast asleep.

When they approached the camp, Oak was waiting for them "It seems like she played until she was exhausted " the old man smiled and picked her up from Ars arms. "Thank you for playing with her." Ars smiled back and answered back, "It was my pleasure."

By the time they arrived back at the place where they lit the fire the old man had finished preparing the provisions to keep going until the next island and the next meal. They spent the night anchored on the island and by morning they resumed their trip.

"So what is our next stop?" The old man asked, Ars was surprised but answered with "Blue honey Village." Oak and Lily looked a little conflicted, Oak understood that, in that place they wouldn't be mistreated but at the same time, he still had conflicted feelings about this. Lily on the other hand was conflicted, she still remembered how people treated her where she used to live with her grandfather, and she didn't understand why they did it and was afraid of having the same experience on the next island, but at the same time she wanted to try to meet more people, after all even the scary guy that she thought was going to hurt her grandpa was actually nice to her.

During the trip they spotted a pirate ship in the distance but the pirates didn't pay too much attention to them since Ars didn't get close, they kept going without bothering to attack Ars. 

A few hours later they reached the village, but there, they realized that the village had been pillaged. There were a few survivors that explained what happened.

"We were attacked by a group of pirates, and the marines that were allocated here started running off when they saw the pirates coming… Protect my ass…" After a brief pause from frustration about the situation, he looked sadder but then kept going "Luckily the majority of the children, young men and women were evacuated on time, but sadly the ones that were too slow either got caught or got killed. "