"Freezing... ti and space."
Sengoku repeated Zephyr's words in a murmur, then fell into deep thought. Indeed, aside from that, he couldn't think of any other explanation for what they had seen.
Zoan-type Mythical fruits were rarer even than Logia-types, and each one possessed bizarre, unique powers. The regenerative properties of Marco's "Phoenix," the shockwave characteristics of his own "Great Buddha" form—they were all anomalous. If that were the case, then Loya's Ice Dragon fruit possessing the ability to freeze ti and space shouldn't be so strange... Yeah, right!
This was freezing ti and space! Think of how terrifying a power that would be once fully developed!
Put simply: if Loya could freeze a Yonko-level powerhouse for even one second, Sengoku would dare to reclaim the lost territories in the New World tomorrow. Forget the Seven Warlords or the Revolutionary Army; if anyone resisted, he'd just drag Loya and Kizaru along. One second of total helplessness was enough to kill, or at least cripple, even the strongest pirate.
Sengoku excitedly shared his vision with his old friend, then suddenly sighed. "But, it looks like Loya is nowhere near that level. Hell, he probably doesn't even know he has this ability."
"Of course not..." Zephyr picked up the photos from the desk. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to get these. Given how slick that kid is, he'd hide a trump card like that deep in his pocket. Besides, if he weren't afraid of exposure and could use it at will, he would've just frozen the Silverback Great Ape's ti and ended it with one punch."
Zephyr reminded Sengoku, "However, looking at the photos, objects frozen by the Ice Dragon's ti-stop are immune to external influence. I doubt your plan would work."
"Ah! You're right." Sengoku sighed, stroking the head of the goat at his feet. "Anyway, it's too early to talk about this. Whether Loya can even reach that level remains to be seen... and before he does, heaven only knows how much trouble he'll cause ! Do you know how many anonymous complaints about Loya I received last month? And half of them were from the instructors themselves!"
"Heh..."
Facing his old friend's complaints, Zephyr thought back to Loya's antics over the past month and smiled, lost in thought.
Loya, anwhile, had no idea how many "legends" he had left behind on the island. As for freezing ti and space? He hadn't noticed a thing. In the heat of that intense battle, he didn't know Haki, so why would he waste ntal energy focusing on a random rock at his feet that posed no threat? He'd have to be a total idiot to do that. The Silverback Great Ape's fist wasn't exactly a joke.
His current headache was much more practical: What do I do if I don't know how to sew my broken uniform? Online now, urgent!
"Ah~ Forgot again. This is my last set of clothes!"
Just a mont ago, after the blue energy had flooded into his body, his dragon markings began to pulse uncontrollably. Pale blue dragon scales flickered in and out of existence on his skin, following a steady rhythm.
Loya froze for a split second, then realized what was happening. By the ti he went to strip off his shirt, the scales had already erupted through the skin. It was too late. His pants and T-shirt were shredded by the sharp, tallic scales. A large hole had torn open across his back, and a pair of bat-like wings were stubbornly forcing their way out into the air.
Distracted by his regret over wasted Berries and his training troubles, a dazed Loya had started the upgrade without taking his clothes off. When the Dragon Force boiled over and the scales grew out, Loya's first reaction was: "Holy sht!"*
Don't bla him for a limited vocabulary—when joy, sadness, excitent, and grief can all be expressed with a single exclamation, why bother with anything else?
He was in deep trouble. A Navy uniform was a matter of image and military discipline; it was the most solemn configuration in the force. The Navy had strict requirents for attire—even the Admirals, no matter how individualistic their suits, never went without their "Justice" capes. That alone proved how seriously the Navy took their uniforms.
For a normal soldier, Navy regulations dictated that if a uniform was damaged outside of combat, the soldier had to go collect a new one while shirtless, hugging the new clothes, running a lap around the fortress, and shouting, "I was wrong!" for all to hear as a warning to others.
Because he'd been stunned for a second, Loya's reaction had been slow. His schedule for tomorrow was already clear.
"Ah~ why is my luck so bad!" Loya sighed, picking up the shredded rags from the floor and putting them away.
He opened his interface again to check his upgraded stats.
Na: Christopher Loya
Energy Stage: Tier 2, Level 6
Energy Points: 0/1000
Magic Power: 9000/9000
Magic Recovery Rate: 850/min
His Magic Power continued to grow by 1000 points per level; this was essentially fixed. Loya guessed that unless he crossed from Tier 2 to Tier 3, his magic wouldn't see any explosive growth.
Looking past the stats, he checked his skills. Dragon Body and Dragon Force remained unchanged. However, next to Ice-Make Magic, a new icon had extended from the Dragon Force branch, softly glowing with a golden light, indicating it was ready for use.
"This is... a new skill!"
Loya looked at the icon in pleasant surprise. He was certain it hadn't been there before—it wasn't grayed out as "unusable," it simply hadn't existed! This was a genuine, brand-new skill!
He quickly clicked the icon to check the description:
Awakening · Pseudo-Dragon Force: Upon activation, Dragon Force enters a low-concentration awakened state. Temporarily raises Dragon Body compatibility by one stage, stopping before the second critical point. Magic recovery speed increased; Dragon Slayer magic intensity increased. Consus 0 magic power per second. After the state ends, increases Dragon Force awakening degree based on duration.
Loya grasped two key points from this description.
First, all along, he had assud that Dragon Body improved through his own training, allowing him to withstand more Dragon Force and increasing his percentage. But this description proved him wrong. His physical stats didn't improve because his body was getting stronger, allowing him to endure more Dragon Force; rather, it was because his body beca more compatible with Dragon Force that his physical stats soared. Dragon Body was about compatibility—and for compatibility to exist, there had to be a primary and a secondary.
He wasn't building a house from the ground up; he was climbing a staircase. This discovery pointed out the path forward for his training and would save him a massive amount of ti.
The second point was that Loya realized his own developed techniques could retroactively influence the system. "Awakening · Pseudo-Dragon Force" hadn't existed in the system before. But now, it had appeared and was usable. Loya thought back to his recent actions. There was only one answer: he had developed his ultimate move—"Shikai."
The effect of his Shikai transformation was obvious. While it wasn't quite at the level of Natsu's true awakening in the later stages of the original, it was far stronger than the state where he simply sprouted dragon scales during the Tower of Heaven arc. Because Loya had perfected and used the technique, the system had registered it once he leveled up.
Every ti he upgraded, it didn't just affect him; it affected the system—like a software update, adding new functionality after the patch.
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