I don't own one piece, if I had everyone would be mad because I can't keep to a deadline.

I blinked forward for the tenth time since I started my run. 'I wonder how things are going for the others.' I thought. 'Since I'm not there, they shouldn't be recognized by Smoker.'

After another blink I finally arrived at my destination, the west side of Sandora river. I knew the giant catfish that the dugongs fought was along the river deeper into the country but since I didn't have a map I decided to follow the river and find where I'm supposed to meet up with the duck squad and the others.

Speaking of dugongs. 'Hey master, we have a new challenger!' The voices of the creatures entered my head telepathically, it was still a strange feeling but I didn't mind it as much as I used to.

[Kung fu dugong, Lv. 15

Strength: 15, Speed: 10

Small dugong-like creature with a turtle shell, though small it's known for its martial arts skill and strength.]

Behind the crowd of dugongs another stepped out, it was slightly bigger than the others and had a darker shell. It's level remained the same but his stats were more balanced. 'Are you here to challenge me for the title of master, land dweller?' It asked.

I smiled, deciding to play along. "So if I beat you, I get to become the master of all of you?"

'Yep that's right.' The dugong nodded before pausing. 'Wait, you can understand me?'

"Devil fruit." I lied.

'Those things really do grant strange abilities.' The surrounding dugongs looked at me in awe. 'That's awesome.'

"Yea but I can't swim so…" I added incase they were thinking about getting one for themselves.

'Um master.' One of the dugongs called. 'The battle, you forgot about the battle.'

The leader nodded before turning to me. 'You can call me Boss, the current master of the dugongs. I accept your challenge.'

My smile grew. "I'm Jay, the future master of the dugongs. I won't go easy on you." Another lie since I had to hold back so I could enjoy the fight.

'New quest!'

[Defeat the dugong master.

Reward: New title, x1 class skill]

'Wait a minute, this is the perfect opportunity to train my skill.' I realized. 'I'll win this fight without the use of my main abilities.' Boss jumped forward with a punch, I dodged to the side, grabbing his arm and slamming him into the floor before putting my foot to his stomach. "This means I win, first order of business, all of you come at me."

'Woah.' The dugongs voiced in awe. 'He beat our Master in one move.' One said.

'Doesn't that make him master now?' Another followed.

'So Boss is back to being Boss.'

'He ordered us to attack right?' A younger one asked.

"Yes you can attack." I answered. "I need the nine strongest, excluding Boss, to come at me."

The ones in question nodded, already knowing the ranking because of how important it was to them. They jumped forward three at a time, Boss standing off to the side.

The first group that jumped in all had impressive strength, all at least fifteen with one being at twenty. If it wasn't for how slow they were, they could've beaten Boss themselves. One attacked with a style of karate, he got a few hits in until he was eventually kicked in his underbelly knocking him unconscious, his name was Fish. The next was Chop, he attacked using his hard shell and head but a simple slam was enough to knock him out. Pound was up next, in terms of strength he was the strongest, the one with his strength stat at twenty. He had a decent defense but he was the slowest so far, dodging around while getting a few hits in made it easy. The main reason I was taking this slow, was to level up my hardening skill, it had already gone up 5 levels from those three alone.

The next group came at me much faster than the previous one, their speed at a much higher level than the others. The first two were guys who attacked in tandem attempting to knock me off my feet, Riken and Slash. They had strength and speed but even they were outclassed by the person that followed. Her name was River, I knew she was a girl by the way her voice rang in my head. She used her tail to attack and overall was probably just as strong as Boss. However, it seemed like she didn't like to fight, her attacks were hesitant and her movements were unrefined. One thing I noticed is that she paid great attention to detail, able to counter a few of my attacks from the twitch of a muscle. Her speed was about half that of my own, already at 30 despite her low level of fifteen. They were all dealt with rather quickly due to their low defensive stats.

The final group didn't even rush in, instead they hung back waiting for me to make a move. I smiled and gave them a small nod before dashing at them. One of the three, known as Splash, jumped back towards the water and grabbed some to hold in the palm of his hand. As I went in for a kick on the foremost one known as Claw another popped up in front of me facing backward forcing me to make contact with his shell. His shell was much harder than the others, even more so than Boss, however, he couldn't fully take one of my kicks so another quick blow knocked him out. Claw followed after using his hands? Flippers? Whatever you want to call it as swords, he attacked in a slashing motion and with how hard his hands were it could be made to work like blades with some training. He too was taken care of quickly. Finally from the back I noticed Splash gripping his hands tightly, he threw his arm back and launched the water in his palm at me, the attack actually piercing my skin which recently even bullets couldn't hurt. He kept throwing more but as I got closer to the ocean and the heat died down the water he threw began to freeze and fall before even reaching me thanks to the skill I got fighting the lapahns. Once in front of him I knocked him out and turned to Boss.

"Hey Boss, take these nine with you and leave this island. You should explore the world, skills like yours can't be wasted here. You can hone your martial arts and one day take the title of master back."

The dugong bowed. 'Alright master, we'll leave when they awake.'

I smiled. "As for the rest of you, I need you to guard the oceans of Alabasta. It'll be great training with all the sea creatures here, I'd allow you all to travel with me but unfortunately I can't bring too many people into my crew." With that I blinked away, off on my journey along the river. My hardening had already hit 25, and I obtained a new skill.

"Move!" I ordered.

'You keep copying me.' He replied. 'Look you go left, I'll go right.'

I nodded following his commands and realizing that we were still stuck. "Dumb ass, my left is the same as your right."

'Alright then we'll both go left.' He decided but as I went to move he stepped in front of me. 'I thought we were going for the other person's left.'

"Why the fuck would you go towards my left when we both said to go left?" I sighed. "Alright, go right." I told him as I went left and we ended up in front of each other again. "So now you listen?!"

'Why would you go left?!' He yelled.

"Because I thought your dumbass would do the opposite of what I said!" I yelled back.

I was stuck in front of a giant gecko who for some reason kept blocking my path forward, now I could've blinked past him but this was a matter of pride.

"Look, just go left." He told me. "I'll go left, both of us can go left and be done with it." We took the step and finally got past each other, I was relieved only to be stopped by another.

"Alright that's it!" I put my hand up to his face and let ice flow to my palm. "Arctic push!" I yelled, blowing the creature away.

The gecko stood up with anger in his eyes. "What the hell?! You didn't do that to him?!" He yelled.

"I don't have time for you mirror geckos, there's somewhere I need to be and I refuse to stand in line of a whole bunch of copycats!" I shouted as I glared at the geckos in the area. "Now all of you, get the fuck out my way."

The group of geckos cleared the way for me to walk past, I even got a little bit of Exp from that one gecko. Wasn't much, though I was close to hitting level 48.

I walked past and continued my dash through the desert when another voice entered my thoughts. 'Some delicious food has crossed our path. He doesn't know how dead he is, isn't that right guys.'

'Yea!' Two other voices yelled.

The ground began to shake as three giant scorpions rose from the sand. "This one looks tasty. Sting 'im boys!"

[Giant Scorpion, Lv. 50

A gigantic scorpion that only appears in the sandora desert. The poison in its stinger could kill a grown man in an instant, it's even capable of melting through rock.]

'The poison in Crocodile's hook, does it come from them?' I asked myself, more fascinated by the creatures than the fact that they were trying to kill and eat me.

As they got closer I jumped back slamming my foot into the ground as a wall of ice rose up. "Oh come on, is that all you guys got? I could never lose to such simple movements, even if y'all are higher level than me."

'Is he mocking us?' The leader asked.

'I think he's mocking us, boss.' The duo responded in tandem.

'Nobody mocks me and gets away with it!' Leader shouted. 'Boys, no need to hold back, this one's special, we'll have a good meal tonight.'

'Right!' The two shouted as they began stabbing at me in quick succession.

I dodged the stingers blinking into the air and letting ice encase my foot and molding the vibrations around it with hasshoken. "Frost rupture!" I yelled as my foot made contact with one of the scorpions back. The ice spread out across its body before shattering, breaking through the hard shell and killing it.

'Frost rupture has leveled up!'

'637 Exp gained.'

'You have reached level 48!'

'He killed Sco!' The second lackey shouted.

"You bastard!" The leader hissed. "How could you do that? He has a wife and kids."

"You guys are literally trying to eat me." I landed back on the ground "Besides why the hell would I give a fuck about the lives of some scorpion children?!"

"Hurry up and kill him!"

The second lackey stabbed at me but I dodged to the side and circled around his massive body, one of his legs rose as he attempted to crush me but was met with disappointment as I jumped back. While he was recovering from his attack I blinked forward and landed a couple kicks along his back, his stinger rose to meet me as my foot hit his back a seventh time. "Ice wall!" His stinger broke through the wall and caught my cheek. I kicked him twice more before leaping off.

[Warning: A powerful poison has entered your body, your health will drop by 10 every second.]

'Well that sucks, I'll be dead in a little over 30 seconds, well a minute thirty if we include endure.' I rushed forward landing the final kick on the scorpion, watching as it froze over before another kick landed and the ice shattered leaving the scorpion intact but unconscious.

"Two down, one to go." I said happily, surprised that I wasn't at all terrified of the fact that I'd be dead soon. I tossed that up to adrenaline, or the fact that the poison was starting to affect my mind.

I rushed forward at the final one letting the chains explode from my hands as it wrapped around its legs. His stinger flew at me but I slid underneath him and pulled the chains, his legs snapped off as he fell on top of me, I blinked upwards into the sky before coming down on his head with a hasshoken empowered kick.

'2x scorpions defeated! 1235 exp gained.'

'You have reached level 49! Exp till next level: 749'

Before laying down, I removed the scorpion's venom sacs, and placed them in my inventory. I was sure they'd come in handy later. If I manage to survive. 'This sucks!' I repeated again. I did have almost two minutes thanks to leach giving me a little more health but I kind of wanted to stay in this world a bit longer. 'Hey Asobu, isn't there anything you can do?'

"Nope, you're going to die, unless you get lucky it's over." She replied. "It really sucks too, I was almost starting to like you." She began crying though it was clear she was faking it. "I'm gonna miss you, if you happen to survive I promise I'll stop being such a pain in the ass.'

[The skill lucky break has been activated!]

'Lucky break has leveled up.'

I smiled. 'What was that, Asobu? Care to repeat what you just said?' Asobu went silent as the connection was cut off. 'That's what I thought.' I laughed inwardly as I heard a voice.

"Jay? I knew that was you."

"What the hell are you doing laying out here in the desert?" The voice asked.

I looked around trying to find the familiar voice but was met with confusion. I thought for a second it was from Voice of all things but the voice wasn't in my head.

"Down here idiot!" The voice mocked as the ground beneath me began to shift.

I stood up staring at the ground seeing the head of a snake with glowing green eyes pop out of the sand, it was immediately followed by several more as they started stacking on top of each other until eventually, it formed into a woman. The woman had short black hair with green ends. She wore what looked like a lab coat but instead of white it was all black and on her waist were what appeared to be several needles like the quill of a porcupine.

"Ira, glad to see you." I smiled. "You see, I'm in a whole lot of pain right now. My cheek got cut by a scorpion, do you have a way to cure the poison?"

"Well I could suck it out." She offered. "It doesn't work in reality but with my abilities I could do it."

I shook my head. "There are no physical cuts you could suck the poison out of, it's one of the downsides of having Gamer's body."

"Then I'll need to make an antidote, did you collect any poison from the fight with the scorpion?"

"Yea." I took one of the poison sacs out of my inventory and tossed it to her. "Could you hurry up?" I asked as politely as I could under the extreme amounts of pain. "I only have a minute left to live now that my skill has been activated."

"Alright, give me a moment." She said as she drank the poison. She then slit her arm and let her blood fall onto a couple of needles. "I would let you ingest my blood directly but I'd rather not be compared to Karin." She laughed as she threw a couple needles into my body.

I wiped myself off when I felt the pain ease away and noticed my health began to climb. "Thanks."

"It's fine, I expect a favor if I ever need it."

"Not a problem, I'll do it as long as it's within my power." I promised before changing the subject. "So what are you doing out here in the desert?"

"Dragon was forcing me to make stuff all day, I was forced to build a new barracks for more soldiers out in the south blue. Then he made me make a bunch of swords and guns, I lost it when he tried to make me build a ship." She sighed. "Now I'm just hiding from Sabo. I figured he wouldn't find me in Alabasta, and even if he did it would've been a good chance for him to meet up with Luffy and Ace before the execution. It'd help him remember. Speaking of, where is Luffy and the others?"

I laughed nervously, the mistake I made of leaving Luffy behind was just getting worse. I seriously needed to keep my arrogance in check. "Um well, you see… I decided to fight Crocodile myself. It seemed like it'd be a good way to level up. I wanted to catch up to Luffy and the others and so far I'm nearly at the level Luffy and Zoro were in east blue."

That was the first time I saw a look of disappointment on her face, a woman who was always playing around and not taking her job seriously. She seemed severely disappointed. "Are you stupid?" She asked calmly before her anger exploded. "Why would you put yourself in that much danger?! You don't seem to understand, this isn't a fucking game!" She yelled. "All of these people are real! They're not your playthings and you're not some god here! If what I heard about Arlong recently is true than you already fucked up in east blue, but all those times were fine since you were with Luffy, the MC who can't experience loss until Merry or Ace, the world would've protected you."

"It isn't that serious." I told her. "Yeah I can die, but so what, I've already done it once."

Her expression toned down a bit as she returned to her normal calmer voice. "What do you think will happen when you die? You think it's just going to be another fun adventure in a different world? If so, you're delusional, the system spirits need our help to take down a fugitive from their world, that is why we were given a second chance. If you die again, it's heaven or hell if we're lucky enough for those to actually exist. If we're unlucky it's nothing but a dark void for the rest of eternity until you lose your memories and maybe get reincarnated. You haven't even been here a year yet and you're already fucking shit up, you better hope you defeat Crocodile or this world might be destroyed."

As I processed what she said it only confirmed what I thought all along. My arrogance and pride hindered me, I wanted more excitement because for the first time in my life something exciting happened. I took a deep breath and exhaled, I accepted that this was all very fun but I had truly stopped seeing this world as just a game. I thought I had when I fucked up before, but the threat of death wasn't present. Now it's back, like it was in the real world, the fear of not knowing what comes next. "Alright, no matter what, I'll defeat Crocodile. Then, I'll start training in my spare time on the ship instead of using it to sleep. I may fuck up the path of the story from time to time but I'll try to avoid that out come from now on."

"Good." Ira sighed. "I guess I'll head back, some of that was directed at myself. To be honest, I needed to hear that as much as you did." Her body melted into a pile of snakes and fled into the sand, likely to go find Sabo and return and focus on her job."

I took a seat, building up ice walls around me. I needed to think for a while, I needed to come up with a plan to defeat Crocodile. I also needed a contingency plan for when the first one inevitably failed.

After thinking for a bit and depositing the 8 stats (6 into strength and 2 into vitality) I began moving again. I didn't know what time it was but I needed to make sure I was able to meet up with the others. I had been following the river and decided to cross when I saw the catfish, it must still be around the area where I need to be. I would have to be the one to defeat it.

Anyways as I was walking I heard a faint sound off in the distance and felt a rumbling in the ground. As I turned my head I saw what appeared to be a Camel running away from a sandora lizard as fast as it could. "Is that?" I asked myself. "Nah, there's probably dozens of camels out in this desert, there's no way that's him." That's what I thought but as he got closer I recognized the saddle on his back and the panicked expression, it was comedic and could only exist to a camel with real importance.

I blinked forward leaping into the air as the Lizard opened its mouth, I shot chains forward which wrapped around its teeth, I used the momentum to pull myself inside its mouth where I then used ice wall to make sure it's mouth didn't close and used the chains as an anchor as I slid down its throat.

On the inside of its stomach it was like a small cave, there were piles of sand to stand on but it was slowly melting away due to the acid. I felt the lizard stop, probably stuck trying to bite through the ice wall. I traveled around the small cave noticing dead mirror geckos and even one of those carnivorous plants. Now if this was one of those weird gamer stories, the MC would probably find something like the Excalibur or since it's one piece they might find a devil fruit or maybe even a special item. Unfortunately if that was the case, the writer must've not have been able to come up with any good ideas and decided that killing the lizard was the only reason for going inside of its stomach.

At that moment I decided to kick the lizard ten times so that my cryo walking freeze effect would activate and its stomach would freeze over. I then launched into the air delivering a frost rupture to the frozen walls before pulling myself out as the walls shattered. Once outside I saw the lizard fall to the ground and slowly but surely die.

'770 exp gained, you have reached level 50. Exp till next level: 1305.'

With that all my stats increased by one and I had four extra stat points which went into agility. "Yo Matsuge, where are you?"

'Who is Matsuge, he wouldn't be referring to me would he?' I heard a voice ask which led me straight to the Camel.

"Yep, your name is now officially Matsuge. Now let's get moving before another one shows u-" I paused as the ground shook and a lizard rose from the sand. "Of course, they do hunt in pairs after all." I prepared for another fight but was left feeling terror for the first time in a while when the ground shook again, the massive Lizard vanished as the ground seemingly rose up and swallowed it. In front of me was a massive sand colored worm with a sharp hide and thousands of teeth.

[Dune Splicer, Lv. 50]

Race: Evolved worm

Lore: The dune splicer is a massive worm called the devourer of deserts, it hides underground feeling the shift in the sand and uses it to find its prey. The field boss of the Sandora desert.

[Stats]

Vit: 200

Str: 100

End: 25

Agi: 50

Luk: 25

Int: 5

Cha: 5

[Skills]

Advanced Lineage(Any physical damage done to the splicer is reflected back to its attacker.)

Lineage(Able to travel through the ground effortlessly.)

Worm's appetite(Able to instantly shred and digest anything inside its mouth.)

I trembled at the sight, fear was something I rarely felt but with the talk of death from earlier, I wasn't feeling very confident. "Hey Matsuge, you should probably run, keep following the river, I'll try and lure this guy away." That fear was good for one thing, if this was twenty minutes ago I would've tried to fight it, now I could run and keep my pride intact. I blinked backwards pointing my hands at it in a gun-like fashion. "Frost bullet!" I voiced, as ten bullets made from ice shot forward piercing the creature's skin.

The splicer roared and turned on me, diving into the sand. As I ran all I could see when I looked back was a mountain of sand crashing towards me.

[Quest has been created!

Defeat the Dune Splicer!

Reward: Devil's ticket]

'Don't tempt me Asobu.' I growled inwardly.

"Aw come on, it'll let you choose your own devil fruit. You could eat it yourself or give it away." She coaxed.

'Are you trying to get me killed?!'

"You're more fun when you're fearless and stupid, I wouldn't let you die that easily. You're the most entertaining host I've had in awhile." She laughed. "Think about it this way, Crocodile could defeat this creature in one move. If you can't even beat this thing, how do you expect to beat him? It's true that you should be more careful but you can't let that stop you from having fun."

'Fine, how about this. If I can think of a plan I'll fight, I'm not running blindly anymore.' I told her.

"Yeah alright." She agreed.

'Alright good, I need a quick lesson on worms. The pros and cons.' The moment I asked, a screen popped up.

[Worms: It breathes in oxygen through its skin and it has five hearts so even if you find one you won't kill it. It can't swim and it senses the vibration in the ground to find its prey since it can't see or hear.]

I smiled. "It can't swim and breathes in oxygen through its skin." I repeated. "Meaning it can likely breathe underwater but at the very least my movements won't be hindered like his." I turned immediately, blinking past the wall of sand and running back towards the lake. Once there I ran out into the middle of the lake, the dune splicer chased after me breaching the surface of the sand and falling into the lake. It thrashed around before sinking, a couple seconds passed when I felt the waves begin to shake and the worm breached the surface with its jaws opened wide. I blinked backwards narrowly dodging the assault. I knew it was big enough to still be able to attack but with half of its body unoccupied at the bottom of the river, it gives other predators a chance to attack.

Swimming beneath the waves was a large dark figure. "At the end of the day, a worm in the sea is just bait." I grinned as I saw the massive catfish appear and take a bite into the much bigger splicer. I activated my title, smiling as I seen a swarm of black figures swimming through the water.

"Protect the master!" A dugong yelled as it breached the surface and dived back in. The battle lasted a good ten minutes before the dugongs had to back off due to injuries, now it was just the catfish and a heavily injured worm who had turned away from me.

I opened my inventory, throwing all the poison into the fish's mouth when it next breached the surface. The dune splicer turned on the fish opening its mouth as it swallowed the creature and a large portion of the water in the river. I kept my balance amongst the clashing waves as I watched the fish be shredded and devoured in one gulp, the bleeding worm sat still.

I dashed out of the water, the worm noticing immediately and following after me diving into the sand. I sent out a few frost bullets, hearing the creature roar in agony. All I had to do now was wait, the poison it digested will slowly tick down the creature's health. 30 minutes of running later and the creature fell, I dashed in jumping into the air putting all my strength into a hasshoken empowered kick which finally finished it off.

[Quest has been completed!

Defeat the Dune Splicer!

Reward: Devil's ticket]

As I grabbed the ticket from my inventory a book appeared, a picture of every devil fruit known to exist was cataloged with a brief explanation of its abilities. It was through that, that I found the best fruit. A fruit whose owner I already had in mind. As I picked the fruit I heard a voice through my skill.

'Found you!' The voice yelled, panting from exhaustion as Karue came to a stop in front of me. As I greeted him I spotted a giant crab in the distance as it ran across the water slowly falling as its passengers were forced to swim to shore most of which was carried by one person.

From there I finally met up with the others as well as the rest of the duck squadron, finally off to Alubarna in another attempt to stop Crocodile.

"Jay!" Kura growled as I got closer. "What kind of idiot decides to fight Crocodile without the MC?!"

"Yea I'm sorry but I heard this lecture earlier, can we get going?" I asked. Kura conceded but I noticed that the glares I was getting from Tashigi were still present. "Is there something wrong?"

"I've decided." Tashigi began. "I'm going to turn you over to the marines so Kura and I can become Captains."

"Right." I sighed, this was gonna be a pain in the ass to deal with.

New stats and skills

Lost demon Jay, Strawhat Pirate , Lv. 50

[Stats]

Vit: 40

Str: 50

End: 41

Agi: 80

Luk: 40

Int: 115

Cha: 50

Health is vit times 10.

Health: 390

Stats possessed:

Exp till next Level: 1305 till next level.

[Skills]

Lucky break Lv. 6(Chance of randomly encountering a beneficial situation is 6%) 10 is max

Hardening Lv. 25(25% Physical damage nullified)

Frost bullet(A Bullet made from ice. 1 second cooldown. Cooldown can be ignored for the first ten bullets and pushed to ten seconds upon fire.)

Frost rupture Lv. 3(Flip into the air before performing a powerful hasshoken empowered axe kick that causes slabs of ice to erupt and blow everyone back. Cooldown 3 seconds. Area grows larger with more levels.)

[Title]

Dugong Master(Grants complete control over all dugongs and can call on them at any time.)

Responding to comments

Gamelover41582: Nah Tashigi and Kura are still in the marines they just split from Smoker to work up the ranks on their own. Their ranks were taken because they defied an order but it was light hearted.

Final thoughts

No Exp was gained from the fight with the splicer, uploads will be changed to whenever the chapter is over but I will try to get it out as early as possible.