Cultivation in One Piece

Cultivation in One Piece

A few days passed, and the Going Merry was currently sailing toward the entrance of the Grand Line, which, apparently, was a mountain.

On the ship's deck, Usopp was tinkering with his balls... his slingshot's balls he uses as ammunition. He was currently in the process of filling them with Tabasco.

At the same time, Luffy was sitting in his favorite spot, the figurehead of the Going Merry, enjoying the wind, while Zoro was sitting cross-legged on the ground, napping.

Finally, Nami and Sanji were below deck, and Yuna was sitting cross-legged on the ground, with her back resting against the ship's mast.

After carefully looking around, a smirk appeared on Yuna's face as she secretly took a large conch out of her pocket and pressed its tip.

"Usopp is an idiot."

Hearing Luffy calling him an idiot, Usopp twitched, almost causing some Tabasco to spill, before he started glaring at Luffy.

"Luffy! Why did you call me an idiot out of nowhere?"

"Eh? What are you talking about, Usopp?"

Luffy, who was out of the hearing range of the Tone Dial, looked at Usopp and tilted his head in confusion.

"I'm talking about you calling me an idiot, you idiot."

"Ah! Did you just call me an idiot?"

"That's right! Iiiiidiot~"

"Stupid!"

"Bastard!"

"Long-Nose!"

"So what if my nose is long!?"

"..."

"..."

"Short-Nose."

"HOW IS THAT EVEN AN INSULT!?"

While Luffy and Usopp were yelling at each other with their foreheads pressed together and with gritted teeth, Yuna chuckled in amusement as she stealthily stowed away the Tone Dial with the "Usopp is an idiot" line recorded on it.

'Well, that was a fun little play~'

[Do you want to cause a rift in this crew or something like that?]

'Nah, the bond between those two idiots isn't broken so easily.

""Iiidiot~ Iiidiot~""

As if they wanted to confirm Yuna's words, Luffy and Usopp were suddenly dancing around the deck, repeatedly chanting the word "idiot", to which Yuna could only smile wryly.

'See?'

[That wasn't even five seconds. How do they even reconcile so fast?]

'The power of two idiots bonding together.'

Being done with her little conversation, Yuna closed her eyes and leaned her head back, allowing it to rest against the ship's mast.

'However, I have to say, this ship is quite interesting. It's just a sliver, but there is a good chance this ship will awaken its Spiritual Consciousness soon.'

[Oh? From what I have heard, the crew got the ship only recently. Isn't that really fast.]

'Yup, it's incredibly fast. Well, it hasn't happened yet, so let's see how this works out.'

While Yuna was contemplating the situation of the ship's consciousness with closed eyes, she heard footsteps approaching her. After briefly listening to how they sounded, Yuna quickly found out who the owner of these footsteps was.

"Nami, what can I do for you? Have you finally decided to join my harem?"

Nami was startled that Yuna noticed her approaching without opening her eyes, but when Yuna yet again mentioned her harem, Nami could only roll her eyes at Yuna.

"Again, I have no interest in joining your harem, and besides that, how did you even know it was me approaching?"

"The sound of your footsteps. You are the lightest person on the ship, so as long as you aren't paying attention to it, your footsteps are the quietest."

Hearing Yuna's explanation, Nami couldn't help but be slightly surprised. Although, as a former thief, she could easily discern if someone was walking toward her or away from her through footsteps, pinpointing who it was was not something she could do.

Nami didn't answer Yuna but did just as she said. Frankly, whatever Yuna was trying to do, Nami felt that it was a rather weird matter, but considering she had seen that there was no doubt about Yuna's strength, she decided to trust her for now.

However, what Nami didn't know was that Yuna's current strength actually had very little to do with the method she was showing to Nami. After all, she was currently teaching her the first step toward cultivation, but considering Yuna only arrived here a while ago, she hadn't much of that either.

Luckily, the little energy she managed to accumulate since she arrived in this world was enough to guide someone through the first steps of cultivation.

Unfortunately, unlike Yuna's previous two worlds, cultivating in this one was rather weird, as the Spiritual or Natural Energy, or whatever one wanted to call it, acted rather unusual here.

During her first and second life, this energy was usually emitted by nature itself, resulting in places with higher grades of natural influences creating corresponding amounts of energy; however, this world was a little weird in that regard.

Although trees and stuff like that were still producing Natural Energy, it was in much lower quantities than Yuna was used to, and after scouting around for a while and getting a feel for her surroundings, she realized why that was the case.

A lot of the energy produced was actually reabsorbed by the environment it was produced by, resulting in everything being significantly tougher than it should have been.

For example, the Red Line, which was a huge stone wall separating the world into two parts, going from north to south all around the planet, supposedly was only made of normal rock, but despite that, it was almost impossible to even leave a dent on it.

Obviously, the same was true for living beings as well, which should lead to outrageously strong bodies depending on how much energy a person had managed to absorb over the course of their life. For example, despite having never cultivated before, Yuna could feel some Natural energy within Nami's body, strengthening it beyond what a normal human was capable of.

Meanwhile, Nami felt something warm flow into her from the place Yuna's hand rested on. Initially, the warm current felt weird inside her body, but she quickly realized that it was a rather comfortable experience.

She felt the current wander through her whole body, seemingly following a predetermined path, before finally coming to a rest at the place above her belly button Yuna previously mentioned. There, the little ball of energy stopped moving, while the warm feeling it initially produced briefly became warmer before settling down.

"Did you feel something, Nami?"

Nami, who still had her eyes closed, nodded her head before she began to describe what she had felt.

"I could feel some kind of strange energy enter my body from the palm of your hand. It circulated through my body for a while before coming to a rest at the place you previously told me about."

After Nami finished her explanation, silence reigned the ship, confusing her a little, but before she could open her eyes and ask what the problem was, Yuna resumed talking.

"You felt all of it? Everything, from the point of me sending the energy into you, from it settling down."

"Mhh? Yes? Is that weird?"

"Sorry, Nami, but I'll be needing a drop of your blood after all."

"YOU ARE NOT GETTING ANY OF MY BLO..."

The moment Nami heard that Yuna yet again wanted her blood, she turned around and yelled at Yuna, but before she could finish speaking, her words got stuck in her throat, as Yuna actually wore a serious expression.

Seeing that kind of expression on Yuna's face, Nami's anger quickly dissipated as a feeling of slight fear overcame her.

"I-Is it something bad."

"Not at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's something good. I just showed you a technique that allows you to absorb the energy in the air around you: Natural Energy. However, the technique I showed you was a generic one that works for almost everyone.

Considering you could follow the energy on the first try, there is a high chance that you have some kind of special constitution. In case you do, only using a generic method would be a shame. So, I need a drop of your blood and analyze it to find out more."

Nami pondered Yuna's explanation for a brief moment before she nodded her head in understanding. Now that Yuna was actually serious for once, Nami felt that she gave off quite a trustworthy image.

However, before Nami could agree to Yuna's request, the duo's conversation was interrupted.

""Energy!? WILL NAMI BE ABLE TO SHOOT A BEAM!?""

Luffy and Usopp, who had listened in on Yuna and Nami's conversation, couldn't contain themselves any longer and were now looking at Yuna with stars in their eyes.

They didn't really get much of what Yuna had just explained, but since Yuna said something about energy, surely she was talking about energy beams, right? What else could she have meant?

While Yuna only chuckled, Nami sighed deeply while facepalming. She loved the whole crew; she really did, but sometimes she seriously wondered what made her think joining this gang of goofballs was a good idea.

"Well, that beams thing aside, I heard you have a training technique that can make someone stronger. If possible, can you teach me as well?"

""WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH 'THE BEAM THING ASIDE', ZORO!? THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!""

"YOU BASTARD!!! YOU ONLY WANT IT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO FEEL YUNA-CHWAN'S HAND ON YOUR BACK, RIGHT, MOSSHEAD!? Well... On a side note... hehehe, can you teach me as well?"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING MOSSHEAD, SHITTY COOK!?"

"PIPE DOWN, YOU IDIOTS!!!"

While everyone suddenly started yelling at each other, Yuna only leaned back against the mast and enjoyed the chaos.

'Yup, this will be a fun ride~'

[As expected of you. Literally, the first people you meet in this world are the embodiments of chaos. This group really fits you well.]

'Hehe, I know, right.'

After another brief conversation with Kurama, Yuna closed her eyes again and started meditating, attempting to find the best method to absorb this world's Natural Energy while simultaneously trying to send her consciousness into the Going Merry, attempting to awaken her Spiritual Consciousness.