One Piece : Rise of Thunder King

You can read the advance chapters here : patreon.com/Vigilante04

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Time flies. As a brother, Ace has done his best.

It's been more than six months since the decision was made to teach Observation Haki and Armament Haki to all the members of the Straw Hat Pirates. A lot of time has passed, but despite the changes, nothing major has happened.

In the last six months, the winds of change have been blowing, but nothing too big has occurred.

Observation Haki requires a high level of talent, and some people only awaken it by chance, through a sudden opportunity. Among the Straw Hat Pirates, only Usopp has managed to awaken Observation Haki by accident. Even Luffy, despite his potential, hasn't awakened it yet.

One of the main reasons for this slow progress is Ace's limited understanding of Haki and his lack of strong teaching skills.

Although Usopp had natural talent and successfully awakened Observation Haki, he has struggled with Armament Haki. Among the group, Usopp is the weakest when it comes to mastering Armament Haki.

While others, like Luffy and Zoro, have already been able to harden their bodies to some extent, Usopp can only manage the very basics—Armament Haki's basic "Entanglement" technique. Even Robin has shown more progress than him.

The reason is simple: Usopp's physical fitness is poor, and his talent for Armament Haki is not as strong as others.

Over the past six months, Ace hasn't been the only one helping the Straw Hat crew improve. He's also occasionally invited other captains and elite members of the Whitebeard Pirates to spar with the crew.

These battles have helped them improve their combat instincts and get more comfortable with Haki. Though there haven't been many battles, the main members of the crew have grown significantly stronger—especially Luffy and Zoro!

Luffy is a natural genius who gets stronger quickly no matter the opponent, just from fighting. Zoro is the same way, but he grows even faster when facing other swordsmen. Perhaps it's because, like in any skill, there's a specialization in the art of sword fighting.

Sanji's progress, on the other hand, has been a bit slower. There are fewer masters in kicking techniques compared to fists or swords, so his improvement has been less noticeable. This has made Sanji feel frustrated and impatient.

After spending over half a year training on Merk Island, several members of the crew, especially Sanji, started to feel bored and restless. The lack of new challenges made it harder for them to improve.

Zoro, in particular, was uncomfortable with the situation. So, after discussing things, the crew decided to head into the New World, hoping to get stronger faster and expand their horizons.

After a long discussion, only Luffy remained on Merk Island. The others, including Robin, Chopper, and Usopp, left to continue their personal training.

Don't let Usopp's timid appearance fool you—his resolve to support his friends is just as strong as anyone's. Seeing himself falling behind, Usopp's desire to catch up was as intense as Sanji's.

Luffy also wanted to leave, but Ace stopped him. Luffy isn't just any pirate; he's the son of Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army, and his identity carries great significance.

Not many people know this, but there are enough who can piece it together from clues. After all, Garp's only grandson is Luffy.

Some people know Ace is the son of Gol D. Roger, and Luffy is the son of Dragon—this secret is out in some circles.

On the island, Ace's crew members occasionally leave for a while, but there's one person who has never left from the very beginning.

No one has noticed the strange, unreadable look in the eyes of this one man whenever he looks at Luffy.

This man is Marshall D. Teach, the person who would go on to change the world in the future, the one who gave Red-Haired Shanks a scar on his face—Blackbeard!

He is stunned. So stunned.

He had never encountered anyone with such incredible talent!

Every day, Luffy's progress is clear to see. Each day, it's obvious that his strength is growing, getting stronger than the day before!

Even Ace, who had shocked Blackbeard in the past, couldn't improve at this pace.

Luffy was like a sponge that never gets full, soaking up more strength every day. This made Blackbeard feel a deep sense of crisis and urgency in his heart.

It's been more than four years since Ace appeared, and not long after, another young king—King Arthur—shocked the world with his strength, surpassing even Whitebeard's. Now, it seems another extraordinary and captivating young man has emerged.

But what really made Blackbeard feel the threat and urgency was Luffy's inexplicable aura. Even Blackbeard himself had to admit that he liked Luffy a lot.

Luffy was simply the kind of person who would make a great partner. Anyone who truly understood him would be drawn to his unique personality.

Even Blackbeard hadn't thought about inviting Luffy into his crew when he first formed the Blackbeard Pirates, but after observing him for half a year, Blackbeard realized that would never happen.

This made him understand why Whitebeard, who always liked taking in young men as his sons, hadn't said that to Luffy.

Even though Blackbeard dismissed the idea of Luffy being his partner, for some reason, they had naturally become good friends.

However, that didn't mean Blackbeard had fallen in love with Luffy. Blackbeard was driven by ambition, and his personality wasn't the type to get attached like that.

"Damn it! Seeing these younger guys continue to grow while I have to hide my strength, I can't make any progress! How can this be?" Blackbeard thought, his eyes locked on Luffy, who was practicing seriously in the distance.

His brow furrowed deeply, and he lowered his head slightly, the shadow on his face making him look even darker.

"The Dark-Dark Fruit... where is it? The one I've dreamed of! I've been lurking for so many years, but I've never heard of it.

Do I really have no chance to get it?" Blackbeard thought back to his time spent in the Whitebeard Pirates, hiding his true nature and ambitions. The thought of not having the Dark-Dark Fruit made him feel even more desperate.

It had been so long. He had waited for years, but now he felt like time was running out. Originally, he had planned to wait just three more years, but even before half of that time had passed, he felt like he couldn't afford to wait any longer.

"Should I just give up?" Blackbeard thought, lost in his own mind.

Boom~

A loud noise interrupted his thoughts. Luffy's training caused another huge shock in the distance.

Blackbeard lifted his head, a confused look on his face, and glanced at Luffy and Ace in the distance.

"Forget it. It seems I won't be getting the Dark-Dark Fruit after all... So, what's my next move?" Blackbeard sighed, giving up on the idea of waiting for the fruit. He began to rethink his plan.

A powerful Devil Fruit was still essential to him. As an outsider, it would be a waste of his natural abilities if he didn't eat a Devil Fruit.

Now, there were two main problems. First, how could he find a powerful fruit that suited his needs? And second, how could he escape from the Whitebeard Pirates?

It was impossible for him to just leave the Whitebeard Pirates quietly. But if he wanted to start his own crew, he would need to find a way to break free, and perhaps even use some of his plans from before.

But the biggest question was: How could he escape from the Whitebeard Pirates?

Papa's fruit has always been one of his two favorite Devil Fruits.

Although Blackbeard had waited many years for the Dark-Dark Fruit with no results, there was still hope. If Whitebeard could be killed and the Shock-Force Fruit reappeared in the world, then Blackbeard might still have a chance!

Since Whitebeard first appeared, he had become an incredibly powerful man, using the Shock-Force Fruit to its fullest potential. This had greatly increased the value and reputation of the Shock-Force Fruit.

Therefore, as long as Whitebeard dies, the Shock-Force Fruit will naturally attract the world's attention. Once it reappears, it will be impossible to keep it quiet. And as soon as there's any news about the Shock-Force Fruit resurfacing, Blackbeard would have a real opportunity to claim it.

From Blackbeard's point of view, as long as Whitebeard dies and the Shock-Force Fruit comes back into the world, his strength gives him a high chance of obtaining it.

"It looks like I need to plan this carefully!" Blackbeard murmured, his eyes gleaming with cunning. "In this case, I can still use the original plan, I just need to adjust it slightly."

It's hard to imagine how terrifying a man is who would waste his youth and remain dormant for twenty years for the sake of his ambitions.

As Blackbeard began to rethink his strategy and prepare for his next move, far in the first half of the Grand Line's Calm Belt, Arthur had finally completed his grueling mountain training.

For two and a half years, Arthur had dedicated himself to mastering his Armament Haki.

Of course, the effort he put in directly reflected the rewards. In fact, his gains had far exceeded his expectations.

While Arthur couldn't yet claim to have the world's best Armament Haki, he was certainly among the top tier. At the moment, he believed his Armament Haki was still slightly weaker than the legendary Garp.

Garp was older than Whitebeard, but in terms of retaining strength, Garp had shown to be superior.

This wasn't to say that Garp was stronger than Whitebeard overall, but that Garp's physical condition and ability to maintain his strength outlasted Whitebeard's. It was difficult to even guess how powerful Garp's Armament Haki had become after all these years.

Arthur had reached the peak with his Armament Haki: Sakura Flow, and any further improvements were becoming harder to achieve. Even if he trained on ten more mountains, the progress would be minimal.

So, after completing this intense training, Arthur decided to take a short break. The reason wasn't just to recover physically and mentally, but also to plan his next steps.

The world was in disarray because Arthur had disrupted the original timeline: Whitebeard was still alive, Ace hadn't died, and Blackbeard was still hiding within the Whitebeard Pirates. This was causing a lot of problems for Arthur's long-term schemes.

In order to create more chaos and shift the world's power structure, Arthur planned to personally guide the reshuffling of the New World.

As part of this, he intended to give Blackbeard a powerful Devil Fruit that he had acquired long ago, hoping that it would push him into action.

Arthur believed that, after lying dormant for so long and watching younger, more powerful pirates rise, Blackbeard would no longer be able to stay in the shadows. He would surely want to make his move on the world stage soon.

And since Arthur had seen the Devil Fruit illustrations, he knew exactly what kind of fruit this was.

But... how could Arthur make this Devil Fruit appear in front of Blackbeard at the right time?

Arthur realized that this would require careful handling by the intelligence network stationed in the New World.

Moreover, it was essential that the Devil Fruit didn't just appear out of nowhere. He needed to evaluate Blackbeard's state of mind first.

What if Blackbeard was still planning to remain hidden for now?

If that were the case, Arthur didn't want to waste a rare and powerful Eudemons Devil Fruit. There had to be a plan in place.