Chapter 21: Electrode Strengthening (Part 1)
It was now very late into the day, with the sun slowly easing towards the western shores of this unknown Island.
On the eastern side of this Island, a vast and boundless mangrove forest stretched as far as the eye could see, its branches standing lofty and vigorous.
Rayden was now leaning exhausted against a huge mangrove tree. After he delivered Cain and claimed the bounty on his head, he realised he was being tailed by three strangers. Upon confrontation he discovered them to be the three companions of Cain. After leading them out of town, he decided to finish them off because he was very confident in his newly acquired strength. But he received a huge rude awakening when the battle began. All three were very strong, possessing very strange abilities.
The weakest among them was slightly weaker than Cain having a paramecia devil fruit that the system called Seishin Seishin no Mi (plasma plasma devil fruit) which allowed him to create and control ectoplasm at will, turning him into a spectral man. Because he had developed this ability very well, he was a very tricky opponent.
The remaining two were all stronger than Cain and he could only fight on par with the strongest when he activated the [Thunder Mode] skill. But with them fighting as a team, he was completely suppressed. The second brother had an ape type Zoan devil fruit which gave him amazing physical strength almost on par with the current him, with the strongest big brother having the rare Numa Numa no Mi ( Swamp Swamp devil fruit).
When he saw this guy use his ability, he was very surprised since this was the very same devil fruit that Caribou would use in the future. Since this guy had it now, then that means he would be killed very soon and his devil fruit reborn into the world.
He currently had only 100 units of Thunder Internal Energy and each usage of the [Thunder Mode] skill consumes 20 units. [Thunder Mode]'s maximum time limit per usage is fifteen minutes. With his current physique, he could only be in thunder mode for 30 minutes before his body gave out.
The system had informed him that the reason this skill had such adverse effects on him was that his affinity to the thunder element was too low. To qualify for the Thunder God seeds' heritage techniques, he had to have a gene awakening degree of 50%. As his cultivation grew higher and his affinity to the thunder element climbed higher, the effects of this skill will become significantly lower. Elemental affinity is usually inborn, but his Chaotic Thunder Cultivation Skill can increase one's elemental affinity as one's cultivation climbs higher. That's why it is so precious.
After activating [Thunder Mode] and battling for about 20 minutes, he had no choice to escape because his body would soon no longer be able to handle the strain. He was only able to escape due to his superior speed at the expense of a light injury.
He had been laying low in this Island for about about a week. During this period, his father had somehow found about his capture of Cain and instructed him to make his way to Crowell Island to meet him. He also informed him that because of a warning given to him by a friend, he had decided to move his mother and sister to a safe location away from Rubeck Island.
Rayden was now hard pressed for time. There were only three months remaining for the deal between Doflamingo and Daz Barrels to happen. If he left now for Crowell Island where he was supposed to meet his father, he would definitely miss this deal. After thinking for a while, he steeled his heart and decided to find an excuse to delay his meeting with his father. All he had to do now was wait for some time on this deserted Island for his body to fully recover and then make his way to Minion Island were Daz Barrel's base was located.
With a thought, a holographic projection of his skill panel appeared in front of his eyes:
Skills
Awakened Skills: [Detect], [Shield] (Level 2), [Devour] (Level 1), [Thunder Mode] (Level 1).
Mental Cultivation Skill: Nine Heavens Mental Cultivation Skill (Level 3 - Initial Stage) [Energy Points required for middle stage - 800]
Qi Cultivation Skill: Chaotic Thunder Body Cultivation Skill [Energy Points required for Middle Stage of level 7 - 700]
Sword Skill: Illusionary Sword Tactics (2nd Level - 'One with the World' {Peak})
Other
Sword Realm: Middle Third Stage (Flying Slash Attack) [ 20% Attack power ]
Observation Haki: Level 2 (Initial stage) [Energy points required for middle stage - 450]
His previous breakthrough in cultivation had helped his Observation Haki to break into the second stage.
Also, during the life and death battle with the three brothers, he had broken into the peak stage of the second level of the [Illusionary Sword Tactics]. This aided him in advancing his Sword Realm to the middle Third Stage. He could now control his flying slash attack to turn in a spiraling fashion.
This battle had also made him aware that he had really underestimated the powerhouses of this world. He had become so self-satisfied with the system and strength that, he had totally neglected the fact that this One Piece world also had a lot of powerhouses as well as strange and very strong devil fruit abilities.
Even though his strength could be considered very strong even among the future "Worst Generation", considering the kind of opponents he was going to face in the future, this strength was far from enough. Recently, the Limit Body Training Method's rate of strength improvement had become very slow. A disadvantage of having high points in Physique is that it has become increasingly difficult to reach his limits and surpass it. That was why he was currently searching for a way to speed up his cultivation. He could continue hunting and killing pirates to accumulate Energy points but his recent killing speed cannot keep up with its usage speed of energy points.
In the future the system's requirements for energy points will be getting higher and higher. He can't just become a homicidal demon just to accumulate energy points. That's why recently, he has been searching for another means to increase his cultivation speed.
In his previous world, Lin Tin had read a lot of online novels and anime shows and had seen unique methods of increasing training speed of various characters. But not many of them could be applicable to him.
Looking at his current Thunder Internal Energy attribute which was now 100/100, an idea popped into his head.
"The lightning skill of the Hidden Cloud Village of the Naruto Universe, specifically the Third Raikage."
The third Raikage was famed for his strongest physique and defense which was so strong that he could suppress the Hachibi (Eight Tails ) with it. Rayden believed that the Third Raikage's physique and defense was strong enough to match the strongest physical strength users like Monkey D. Garp. Apart from his own talent, what helped him reach such heights was the Thunder Cultivation Skill of the Hidden Cloud Village.
As a Naruto Series fan and a regular Reader of light novels, Rayden understood the principle behind such techniques. He wanted to try to mimic the effects of that skill with his thunder element internal energy.
But then again, this skill was developed as a result of countess sacrifices of generations of geniuses from the Hidden Cloud Village. He couldn't just start to mimic it just because he knew the principles behind it.
So he decided to ask the system's A.I. Contacting the system A.I. in his mind, he asked,
"System, is there a skill in the Cultivation or Battle Skill System where I can use my thunder element internal energy to stimulate the muscles and skeletal cells, refining them, and make the body swiftly stronger?"
[Ding! Yes Host! In the Chaotic Thunder Body Cultivation Skill, there is a similar skill which is supposed to accelerate the improvement of your gene awakening degree as well as elemental affinity. This skill will be activated when you reach the 8th Level!]
Rayden was much exited when he heard the first part but very disappointed at the mention of the 8th Level. He couldn't wait that long.
"Is there a way to awaken it ahead of time?" He asked again in expectation.
[There is, but are you sure you want to practice it now? A single session of practice requires 100 units of internal energy. By your physical quality, after every session of practice, your body will enter a weakened period. By the time you reach the 8th Level, because you'll have abundant internal energy units as well as adequate physical quality, this skill will basically be risk free but now, there are so many things that could go wrong]
The system replied truthfully.
Listening to the system's explanation, Rayden became lost in his own thoughts. To advance to the middle stage of the 7th level body tempering stage, he had to slowly refine 900 more internal energy units achieving a total of 1000 units. By the late stage he would require 10000 energy units. As for the required 8th Level Body Tempering Stage, he would require 100000 energy units!
According to his current practice speed, it would take him more than seven years to achieve this requirement! He was not willing wait that long.
"System, I have made my decision. I want to activate it now!" After thinking about it for a while, Rayden said resolutely.
[Good! Host requires 120 energy points as well as 80 internal energy units to activate this skill. Does Host still wish to proceed?]
His current energy points was 150 because after getting to this Island, he had hunted and killed all dangerous ferocious beasts that might pose a threat to him in his weakened condition. By this time his internal energy had also fully recovered so he answered, "Yes!"
Immediately, his already very low energy points further reduced by 120 points. At the same time, felt the amount of internal energy in His Dantian also rapidly reducing.
After that, golden energy emerged from his heart and shot straight for his mind. Rayden now felt a huge amount of information immerge in his mind about this Skill.
The name of this skill is [Electrode Strengthening] secret art.