Leaving the canteen, Loya didn't rush to sprint. His speed was more than enough if he really wanted to cover ground, and he'd easily outpace Aldo the clumsy brown bear. But there was a catch: even though he was virtually guaranteed a spot in the Elite Camp and was confident he could pass the sparring trials, he wasn't officially a mber yet. What if the canteen staff didn't recognize him?
He stared at Aldo, making the big guy feel uneasy.
"W-what?"
"I'm thinking it's safer to go with you. If they refuse to serve , I can drag you out to vouch for ."
Ignoring Aldo's blank stare, Loya slamd his hands together, condensing his magic.
"Ice-Make: Ice Wolf!"
Awooo!
Two canine creatures made of solid ice appeared before them. Their two-ter-long bodies shimred brilliantly under the sunlight, as srizing as diamonds.
Aldo looked at the lifelike ice wolves in shock. He watched as one of them sat down and scratched its neck with a hind paw, taking a long mont before asking, "Your ice can move freely? That's not scientific!"
He knew that while Logia users could shape their elents, they could never make them move with such organic fluid grace! These weren't just simple blocks of ice; they were a new species that grew ice instead of flesh!
"You're talking to about science in a world where Devil Fruits exist?" Loya looked at him with disdain before swinging onto one of the ice wolves. "Get on. Hurry up. It's definitely faster than you running."
Ice wolves, of course, had no life. But as Aldo noted, the fact that blocks of ice could move with such intent was indeed "unscientific." This was one of the limitations of the One Piece world—it lacked a complete, systemic martial arts foundation. The combat power was high, but the application of energy was rough and simplistic, much like the Saiyans before they learned to harness Ki. Even with protagonist luck, once Kakarot learned to control his energy, he quickly surpassed the high-class warriors.
Furthermore, the power scaling in the OP world was notoriously murky. Take swordsn, for example: soone who mastered the "Slicing Technique" was called a Kengo (Master Swordsman). It wasn't a rank, just a title, with no terminology to define the stages before or after it. Then, if a Kengo beca famous enough and stronger than the rest, they got a "Great" slapped in front—Daikengo (Great Master Swordsman). It always left Loya, accustod to level-based progression, feeling speechless.
This limitation ant the natives of the One Piece world couldn't grasp the concept of "Magic." Loya was too lazy to explain it, so he simply dismissed it as a "special Devil Fruit property" to get Aldo off his back.
Loya had spent ti pondering the motion and stillness of Ice-Make. However, after repeated testing, he found that at his current stage, static magic—like making an Ice Bomb to smash into soone's face—was far more efficient than making an ice wolf to go out and bite people.
The main issue was the intensity. His magic was Dragon Slayer magic, which made his ice harder than normal ice, but it didn't reach the level of "steel-like" hardness required to be shoved into a cannon and blast through a ship's deck. So, Loya didn't waste magic on useless flair. The only ti he'd been satisfied with a dynamic spell was when he'd "Ice-Frozen" Kuzan by manipulating ice that looked discarded on the floor. But even then, because the structural integrity wasn't high enough, Kuzan had shrugged it off with his sheer physical prowess, let alone his elental capabilities.
Urged by Loya, Aldo climbed onto his wolf with a mix of awe and skepticism.
But the next second, Loya fell off his wolf, rolling on the ground in laughter.
An ice wolf two ters long wasn't small! But Loya had forgotten one thing: Aldo was four ters tall!
What does four ters an? It's enough to make soone with a fear of heights pass out just by looking down. And wolves, unlike horses or oxen, aren't evolved to be mounts—when they crouch, their legs are short.
Aldo sat on the wolf, the wolf stood up, and Aldo's soles were still dragging on the ground!
Looking at Loya rolling on the floor, Aldo's face darkened. His wooden sandals tapped against the ground—clack, clack, clack.
After waiting a mont and seeing Loya couldn't stop, Aldo roared, "Enough! What's so funny? Is it my fault I'm big? ...No, wait, being big is an advantage! What do you know!"
Seeing this, Loya knew better than to keep laughing. If Aldo got angry enough, he'd initiate a physical spar—and despite the guy looking rough, his ego was paper-thin. Puffing out his cheeks to hold back his laughter, Loya signaled Aldo to get up, then placed his hand on the ice wolf and activated his magic.
The wolf began to swell, its limbs and head transforming as it grew. Soon, a three-ter-tall ice horse stood before Aldo.
Relieved, Aldo climbed onto the ice horse, pulled the ice-made reins, and whistled. "Let's go!"
Clip-clop, clip-clop~
The ice horse galloped, leaving a trail of frost behind. Loya scrambled onto his wolf to follow. "Wait for ! I don't know the way!"
The Garrison Canteen was much larger than the recruit one, three stories high with a luxurious yet solemn decor. Even from a distance, Loya slled the food. Well-fed Marines strolled out of the main gate, chatting with friends before heading off in different directions.
A wolf and a horse made of ice galloping down the main avenue certainly attracted a lot of attention. Aldo's signature physique was unmistakable, and many people knew him, but who was the shrimp beside him?
Word quickly spread among the insiders who the little guy was.
Damn! The jerk who's been ruining our sleep at night is this kid?
You guys go ahead and beat him up! But anyone who said that was imdiately shad by their peers and shrank back into the crowd. There was no helping it; this kid was trained personally by Admiral Kuzan, and rumor had it he'd killed a Silverback Great Ape during the exams. Forget the lieutenants and captains—even so of the weaker commanders probably couldn't take him down.
So, the crowd just stood there, staring as Loya stopped at the canteen entrance, chatting happily with Aldo as they walked in.
Loya darted to the service window, scanned the options, and made his decision.
"That one, and that one, just give the whole pot! And the rice, give the pot too. Also, that fruit over there hasn't been cut, right? Just bring the whole basket."
The man serving the food stared at Loya, then suddenly seed to rember sothing and shouted: "You must be Loya! I know you, the biggest bottomless pit in the Recruit Camp!"
Loya, who had been full of anticipation, turned dark. A cross-shaped vein throbbed on his forehead.
He grabbed the man's collar and roared: "Who the hell are you calling a bottomless pit! You want a beating?! This is called being a foodie, you understand? Being able to eat is a blessing!"
Aldo quickly stepped in to break it up, using a massive hand to separate them, nodding awkwardly at the veterans watching. "Sorry, sorry, he hasn't eaten all day, he's in a bad mood."
With Aldo's persuasion, Loya finally let the cook go and happily carried his food to a table. Aldo felt awkward, but didn't hesitate to grab a serving no smaller than Loya's.
They left the cook stunned, staring at a counter that was as clean as if it had been wiped by a vacuum.
The two sat opposite each other at a giant table, just the two of them, shoveling food into their mouths with giant ladles. As he ate, Loya slapped Aldo's hand away, pointing at the large pot nearby. "That one's yours!"
The veterans nearby wiped sweat from their foreheads, watching the two devour everything in sight.
Just then, the noisy canteen went dead silent in unison. Several voices, filled with excitent, rged into a single word:
"VICE ADMIRAL GARP!"
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