Chapter Ninety: This Cheat Is Way Too Strong

Even if Mod had not brought it up, Saul would have taught him, one by one, all the techniques he knew, including Moon Step.

But even a meal must be eaten one bite at a time.

Whether it was Haki or Moon Step, there was no skipping the steps.

“Don’t rush,” Saul said.

He glanced at Mod, whose eyes were practically glowing, and then held out a hand to Bailey.

Bailey immediately handed over the gilded pipe.

Saul took a drag from it and slowly said, “Neither Armament Haki nor Moon Step is something you can master in a short time.”

“So don’t think about running before you’ve learned to walk.”

“And besides, this place isn’t suitable for training Armament Haki. Once you understand the principles, I’ll take you to stay for a while at that little hideaway of ours.”

The “little hideaway” Saul spoke of was not a person, but the concealed island of wine storage Sunny had once told Mod about.

Mod and Sunny naturally had no objections to Saul’s arrangement.

In Mod’s eyes, Saul was like a rare treasure, capable of bringing him countless benefits.

Haki.

Moon Step.

Technique.

Even the most precious thing of all: experience.

These were all things he could learn from Saul.

He understood one thing very clearly.

Without sufficiently powerful strength, there was no point dreaming of traveling the world.

Cruel reality and a harsh environment would teach you what it meant to be unable to move even a single step.

And he was still young, with all the time in the world.

So even if it took one year, two years, or even longer, he did not mind. He would pry from Saul the priceless things that not even the Hunter’s Notebook could give him.

Suddenly, Mod remembered something Sunny had once mentioned to him in passing.

Or rather, a promise.

A promise that, by rights, existed between her and Saul.

Now, there would be no harm in including him in that promise as well.

At the thought, a faint smile flickered in Mod’s eyes.

He liked it here.

Smoking his pipe, Saul keenly caught the change in Mod’s mood.

Without a word, he glanced at Mod, then began explaining the principles of Armament Haki.

His first statement was the armor theory.

“Imagine yourself wearing an invisible suit of armor. That is Armament Haki.”

“The armor can protect your whole body, and naturally it can also increase your offensive power.”

“And that level, in truth, is nothing more than the most basic of the basic.”

At this point, Saul had Bailey, his capable assistant, fetch a flintlock pistol.

Bailey did as told and quickly brought back a flintlock handgun.

At Saul’s signal, the pistol was placed into Sunny’s hands.

“Sunny, shoot at my palm.”

Saul opened one hand and held it out toward her.

Sunny wasted no time and fired at his palm.

Bang.

The lead ball shot out and struck Saul’s hand in an instant.

Yet the bullet seemed to hit a sheet of steel, shattering to pieces in the blink of an eye.

“That is the effect of Armament Haki. And as I just said, that kind of level is merely the most basic of the basic.”

Saul then raised his other hand and held the gilded pipe horizontally before him.

Under Mod and Sunny’s gaze, the gleaming pipe was instantly covered in jet-black Haki.

“Once you’ve mastered the basics, you must learn how to control Haki freely, and how to direct it properly.”

“When you can do that, you’ll be able to do what I just did: channel Haki into a weapon to increase its lethality and hardness.”

“Like this.”

Saul suddenly released the pipe.

Though it had left his palm, it remained pitch-black.

Mod and Sunny’s eyes followed the falling pipe.

It struck the ground, yet as if carrying a thousand pounds of force, it hit with a dull boom and actually smashed a small, cracked pit into the earth.

Mod did not react much, but Sunny’s face was filled with surprise.

After demonstrating the effect once, Saul picked the pipe back up.

“This kind of technique applies not only to cold weapons, but also to firearms and bows and the like.”

“However, compared with blades and spears, coating a firearm with Haki is undoubtedly much more difficult.”

“But in return, it can greatly increase a firearm’s range and power. You know very well what that means.”

Mod and Sunny nodded lightly.

On this point, Saul had already demonstrated it for them when Mod dealt with the bandits.

After explaining the general ranks of Haki, Saul began to elaborate on the principles behind the movement of Armament Haki.

Drawing on his experience, he compared Armament Haki directly to a kind of energy hidden within the body.

At the beginning, this energy representing Armament Haki would be wrapped in a thick shell.

Only by continually improving physical condition could one gradually strike at that shell until it finally shattered.

By then, if one deliberately sensed the changes within the body, one could clearly perceive the existence of Armament Haki.

After that came contact, and then use.

This was exactly what Saul had said before: a sufficient physique was the prerequisite for cultivating Armament Haki.

If the shell could not be broken, then even meditation for a lifetime would never draw out its existence.

Listening to Saul’s detailed explanation, Mod gradually felt that something was off.

He realized that the methods for using Armament Haki were actually very similar to the aura techniques of the Hunter world.

For example, wrapping Haki around a weapon was essentially the same as the aura technique of En.

Freely moving Haki and letting it flow across the body surface was essentially the aura technique of Ryu.

These were all techniques he had long since mastered.

When he first arrived in this world, the very first thing he thought of was using his abilities.

But because he had crossed over in soul alone, at the time he could not sense the energy within his body at all. Fortunately, that did not affect his ability to summon the Hunter’s Notebook.

Later, when he learned that this world was the world of Pirate King, he naturally accepted the fact that there was no energy within his body.

From then on, he had never once quieted himself to sense the changes within, and instead had followed the power system of this world, focusing all his efforts on strengthening his physique.

And now, Saul’s unusual explanation of Armament Haki was like a morning bell ringing in Mod’s mind, reminding him of something important.

Whether it was aura or Haki, many of the underlying principles were the same.

The reason he had been unable to sense the energy within his body before was not because it did not exist.

It was because his body had been too weak to break the hard shell surrounding Haki.

But now things were different.

At that realization, Mod’s blood surged.

He already had technical experience in this area.

Did that mean he could master Armament Haki faster than others?

Thinking it, he acted at once.

Lowering his eyelids, Mod first steadied his thoughts and then sank into calm focus.

After many months, he once again deliberately probed the condition within his body.

This time, the answer was no longer silence.

He felt it.

That thread of energy like a tender sprout—the existence of Haki.

Clearly, this change matched Saul’s explanation.

His current physique had unknowingly shattered the shell encasing Haki, finally revealing it.

“It really is the same.”

Mod’s heartbeat quickened.

This cheat was getting absurdly strong.

A thought flashed through Mod’s mind, and he consciously tried to direct that budding, sprout-like Haki, only to feel a resistance as tangible as solid matter.

Although he had rich experience in technique, his body had no corresponding memory.

That was why such a phenomenon occurred.

But Mod was not anxious.

Drawing on his experience, he tried again and again.

After several attempts, that resistance gradually vanished.

Then Mod tried guiding the Haki into his right hand.

And he succeeded.

His right hand was covered in Armament Haki, turning black as pitch.

Saul was still explaining the principles of Haki when he suddenly caught sight of Mod’s right hand wrapped in Armament Haki.

His voice cut off at once.

What the hell was this?

It felt as though someone had slapped him hard across the face.

He stared blankly at Mod, his mouth gaping wide, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

At that moment, Sunny and Bailey also saw the Haki winding around Mod’s right hand.

Their reactions were immediate.

Sunny and Bailey fell into the same state as Saul at once.

Their mouths fell open, their eyeballs nearly bursting outward.

This was completely unscientific.