Chapter 8 - Third Floor (2)

Opening his eyes to the unfamiliar ceiling, Lumen was half-expecting to wake up in his own apartment. The events from the previous day were so surreal that he was sure everything was only a dream.

Meeting a God-like being, receiving powers from him, and then being sent to a weird place filled with alien races. His mind was delusional throughout the whole day, blindly rushing ahead, hoping to achieve as much as he could, before the dream ended.

Now knowing that this is, in fact, his life, Lumen knew he had to prepare for the future. He was given three Devil Fruit Powers, but unlike the characters in One Piece, he had no experience in using them. And that simply won't do.

The scene of Anaak throwing a Regular 100m across the giant arena was eye-opening, to say the least. She looked like a small child, but her physical strength was through the roof.

There's also that mysterious power Shinsoo, that managed to harm him in his Logia form. That's something that he would have to look into and understand it better.

On Earth, he was always prepared for the worst situation, but here in the Tower that he knew nothing about, he wasn't. Lumen had to change that, but his top priority right now was to increase his personal strength and get used to his Devil Fruit Powers.

With that in mind, he left his room and made his way towards the Commercial District.

After ordering the most expensive meal, he started planning how he would spend his time in the upcoming days.

Once done with his meal, he quickly passed through a shop selling clothes and purchased a few black sweatpants and hoodies that resembled his. The clothes cost him a total of 150 Points.

His last stop was the market where he purchased 10 bottles of water for 20 Points. Everything was neatly stored in his Pocket.

With that out of the way, Lumen was ready to begin his training.

On Earth, he preferred to use guns and keep his distance away from other people. Since no matter how good you are at fighting, a single lucky hit to the back of the head, could leave you unconscious. He had taken a few fighting courses, but they were mostly as a last resort, in case he couldn't use his guns.

Lumen's physical strength was enhanced by the Zoan Fruit, but he planned to increase it even further.

Stepping outside of the small town, he began his training.

The first thing that he did is to use his Paramecia Devil Fruit, the Zushi Zushi no Mi.

The Zushi Zushi no Mi allows him to manipulate gravity around a chosen location at will by sending gravitational forces. Using the powers of the Fruit, he increased the gravity around him by 2x. He was planning to use the added pressure to further increase his physical strength.

The effects were immediate, and he felt himself becoming heavier and more sluggish. Lumen started running circles around the small town with the increased gravity.

After his first ŀȧp, he was already out of breath. Despite that, he pushed himself and continued running. Using what little breathing techniques he knew, he tried controlling his breaths to sustain his stamina for a longer time.

His legs were burning, and his muscles were throbbing, but he kept running until his legs refused to take another step.

In the end, Lumen managed to do 4 ŀȧps with the 2x gravity applied to him.

Despite being done with his running, he left the 2x gravity on himself and started doing more physical exercises.

The more he pushed himself, the more he started feeling the Shinsoo around him. Each time his muscles throbbed, he could feel it wash over them, cooling them down. With each breath that he took, he felt it enter his body, recovering just a little bit of his stamina.

The power was very mysterious, and it dawned on him how little he knew about it.

An hour later, Lumen was breathing heavily and laying on the ground, too exhausted to even move his body. He laid there for another hour, enjoying the feeling of Shinsoo washing over him.

Once he recovered a bit, he stood up and began practicing his close combat skills. He had taken a few courses on Kickboxing and Taekwondo on Earth, and using that as a reference, he started practicing his punches and kicks.

By the end of his training, Lumen bȧrėly had the strength to pass by the restaurant for his meal, and almost passed out before reaching his room. He initially wanted to practice his control over his Light powers, but that was quickly scrapped and rescheduled for the next day.

Lumen was so exhausted that he fell asleep while taking a shower. He woke up in the middle of the night and moved himself over to his bed.

The next day, he continued his training, but he wasn't as exhausted at the end of it. That allowed him to practice his control over his Devil Fruit.

So far, he has used the Pika Pika no Mi, to either fire light beams from his fingers or to enter his Logia form. He knew that the Fruit had a much higher potential than what he was currently doing with it.

Lumen racked his brain and tried to remember how Kizaru used the Pika Pika no Mi.

The Admiral was able to fire off lasers from any part of his body, and he was able to fire more than two at the same time. Kizaru would combine his fighting techniques with his Fruit, to attack at the speed of light. He also had a blinding technique where he would emit a powerful flash of light. And lastly, he remembered that he could create a sword made of light.

With that in mind, Lumen planned to try and imitate his techniques. Despite having a reference, things weren't going as smoothly as he would have liked.

He was easily able to get the hang of the blinding technique, but everything else wasn't as easy as it seemed. Watching someone do something, and doing that same action yourself, are two vastly different things.

Shooting laser from his feet was uncomfortable for Lumen, to say the least. It just didn't feel natural, but that didn't stop him from trying. He also practiced firing more than one laser from his fingers and had some minor progress with that.

Creating an armament out of his light was by far the hardest thing. Even with the Fruit granting him control over the light element, the best that he managed to do was a spear made of light, that dissipated the second he lost focus.

Lumen didn't even bother trying to combine his fighting techniques with his light speed, since not only were they lacking at the moment, moving at his maximum speed put an immense strain on his mind.

On the third day, since Lumen came to the third floor, he didn't feel as sluggish with the 2x gravity on him. That being the case, he decided to increase the gravity to 3x.

He felt even more pressure than the first day, but he pushed through. With the increased stress on his body, he felt the Shinsoo around him with even greater clarity.

In the next four days, he continued training like a madman and managed to increase the gravity on him up to 4x. He also progressed greatly with his Pika Pika no Mi.

Lumen was slowly turning into a training lunatic, but the feeling of improving every single day was novel to him, and he loved it.

His Points were quickly dwindling down since he didn't go hunting, and ate the most expensive and nutritious meal, two times a day.

After spending 70 Points to book a room for another week, he was left with 495 Points. His water ran out, so he had to buy another 10 bottles during the previous week.

Today he had decided to go into the Hunting Area and see how much he had improved. He figured he might hunt down a few creatures to replenish his Points as well.

It didn't take long for him to encounter a group of monkeys. Three Fruit Monkeys and six Iron ones.

Three of the bigger ones immediately rushed in his direction. Not letting them get the first move, he ran into them. With his increased speed and strength, he began his attacks.

Lumen landed a kick to the side of the head on one of the Iron Monkeys and staggered him for a moment.

He dodged a swipe attack from another and used a push kick to force his attacker away.

After evading another swipe from the last monkey, he got up close and personal with him.

With a hand behind the monkey's head, he elbowed him in the face. Not giving him a chance to recover, he immediately followed up with a knee to the face, caving his skull in.

By that time, the other two monkeys had already recovered. Their teamwork was surprisingly good, and they attacked him at the same time. One from the back, the other from the front.

Before, he would have to use his Logia form to dodge the attack, but now it was different. He leaped in the air like an eagle starting his flight and evaded both attacks.

Falling down, Lumen landed an axe kick on the monkey in front of him and pummelled it into the ground.

Just to be sure, he stomped on the head of the monkey he hit with the axe kick, squashing his head.

The gang of monkeys was terrified of Lumen's performance and started running away. Before they could reach anywhere, three beams of light accurately pierced the heads of the Fruit Monkeys.

Lumen continued deeper into the forest and continued fighting groups of monkeys, refining his fighting techniques in the process.

On the way, he encountered a few Red Scythes, but he had to use his light beams to take care of them. He wasn't confident to try and fight those monsters with his physical body alone. Their carapace was even tougher than the Iron Monkeys' fur.

He continued exploring the Hunting Area for the rest of the day until he started feeling hungry. A bit disappointed that he didn't meet any Elder Red Scythes, but he was happy with his haul for the day.

Lumen made his way towards the place he sold off the monster parts the first day. As he entered the building, he saw the cheerful black-haired girl at the counter.

"Heya, customer~! I haven't seen you in quite a while. How can I help you?~"

"I want to sell the monster parts that I've gathered."

"No problem~ Just place them on the counter like the previous time~"

Lumen took out 31 Peaches and 13 pairs of red scythes. Eli was surprised at the large number of monster parts, but she believed that this was his team's haul for the whole week. She didn't expect him to have gathered them all in just one day, alone at that.

After receiving 805 Points, he passed by the restaurant for a hearty meal and returned to his apartment for the night.

His Points had increased to 1200, but he planned to enter the Hunting Area each day from now on. Lumen was thinking of fighting with the Iron Monkeys with 2x gravity on him so that he could further refine his fighting techniques.

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A bit of a rant on how I picked his Devil Fruits.

For the Logia I picked the 3 that had something to do with light and in the end decided on the Pika Pika no Mi since it seemed the most interesting to me.

For the Paramecia I picked the Buki Buki no Mi since the MC was someone that uses guns. And since there are no gun fruits this was the closest thing to it. There's also the question since he is in the Tower, would he be able to make weapons like the needle and the hook? Would he be able to make an Ignition Weapon? What about Living Ignition Weapon? Or would he be considered a Living Ignition Weapon? I had a few fun ideas with this one.

The Kage Kage no Mi was picked since I couldn't give him both the Light and Darkness fruit since both are Logia. So I went with the Shadow fruit. Now this Fruit is very interesting since he could increase his strength by taking the shadows of others. He could even make a shadow doppelganger and double team people if you know what I mean. He would also be able to make zombies and since there is no actual sun in the Tower, wouldn't they be able to survive without a problem?

Lastly the Zushi Zushi no Mi was picked since I wanted something OP, but I didn't want to pick the Gura Gura no Mi. I also thought about picking Soru Soru no Mi or the Hobi Hobi no Mi, but I decided against that since they are in a way kinda similar to the Kage Kage no Mi.

I went to a random number generator and rolled a 3 which was the Zushi Zushi no Mi... At first, I didn't want to use it and planned to switch it since none of you would even know about it, but after writing *cough* copying *cough* Lero-Ro speech about luck, I said fuċk it that's my luck, I'm going with that.

That was a far longer rant than intended, sorry about that.