Chapter 3: Setting a Goal!
When speaking of the main theme of pirate training, the words "Haki" are always indispensable, because these two words represent the dividing line for experts in the pirate world.
Only those who understand and have mastered Haki are considered to have entered the ranks of experts. Those who don't, even if they obtain powerful Devil Fruit abilities, ultimately cannot become true overlords who dominate a region. As for roaming the world and such, save it. After all, everyone knows that only those strong enough to make their way in the New World are qualified to roam the world.
What is Haki? Before reincarnating, Buggy had read many One Piece fanfictions, which contained various speculations about Haki. Although each had its own understanding, Buggy always felt those speculations were somewhat off track.
In Buggy's view, Haki in the pirate world should be divided into two aspects. One is the spiritual energy inherent in the people of the pirate world, and the other is the energy absorbed by the body from the air through long-term training.
In this way, the three types of Haki can be divided into two parts: the first, reflecting spiritual power, are Observation Haki and Conqueror's Haki; the other, reflecting physical strength, is Armament Haki.
After separating the three types of Haki, it becomes clearer, and naturally, one can train them in a targeted manner.
Buggy had no special method to improve spiritual power, only able to work on it through meditation. Buggy had no idea what results he could achieve.
But for improving physical strength, Buggy had many methods.
Buggy, who had dreamed of being a martial arts hero liked of Bruce lee and Jackie chan since childhood, was very interested in things related to kung fu. During his university years, Buggy joined an Eight Extremities Fist club. Through two years of unremitting effort, he finally got the senior who taught the fist drunk at a party and then tricked him into revealing the secret of his family's method for circulating qi and blood.
This secret was the so-called true transmission. Eight Extremities Fist without the true transmission was generally okay for brawling, but things like shattering a wall with one punch were out of the question.
The true transmission was what determined its power. Unfortunately, Buggy's family didn't have much money, not enough to support the medicinal herbs and meat required for circulating qi and blood, which had been a long-standing regret for Buggy.
But now, the world was different. The meat of animals in the pirate world contained energy not found on Earth; let's just call it Haki for now. It was precisely because it contained Haki that the animals in the center could grow bigger and stronger than the last.
With the supplement of Haki-rich meat, Buggy dared to retrain in Eight Extremities Fist.
Buggy believed that as long as his guess was correct, using Armament Haki was only a matter of time.
After organizing his items, Buggy made a training schedule and then began to train step by step.
Wake up in the morning, make a simple breakfast, just wild vegetables and game meat, the requirement being to eat one's fill and for it to be easily absorbed and digested. After eating, first came comprehensive training, which meant climbing the Red Line. At the beginning, Buggy didn't set any super-high standards, only setting the climbing height at 30 meters. After one round trip, the second was to train leg strength, the training method – running. Of course, this training item also had another purpose: to explore the surrounding environment.
After completing these two, it was time for the third – Eight Extremities Fist!
As dull thudding sounds faintly echoed from the bottom of the Red Line, the pirate world entered the Great Pirate Era amidst blood and smoke.
Unofficial pirate history records the year 1498 as such: In this year, the Pirate King Gol D. Roger, known as the "Inciter," used his last moments of life to ignite the spark of dreams. Shiki the Golden Lion was tricked into the great underwater prison Impel Down by the legendary Marine Vice-Admiral Garp and then-Admiral Sengoku working together. Shanks, one of the future Four Emperors, began searching for companions in the East Blue. Mihawk "Hawk-Eyes" set foot on the irreversible path to becoming the world's greatest swordsman. The powerhouses of twenty years later each began their dream journeys from the East Blue.
And, unknown to anyone, in Distan of the East Blue, at the foot of the Red Line, the great pirate "Red Nose," viewed with mixed opinions by later generations, also took his first step in creating his legend.
Two years later, on the Red Line that the Distan Kingdom of the East Blue relied upon, a figure suddenly fell from the thick cloud layer, plummeting towards the bottom at a very exaggerated speed.
However, just as it was about to hit the bottom, the figure suddenly tapped its feet in the air several times, and the speed of its descent immediately slowed down.
A minute later, Buggy, who had landed on the ground, panted and muttered to himself, "Today is a day worth commemorating. I finally saw the top with a telescope. It really wasn't easy; this Red Line is much higher than I imagined. Hmm, next time I climb up, I'll have to wear more; the astral winds at the top are like knives. But it's also worth celebrating. At this rate, I should be able to barely reach the summit next year."
Originally, Buggy thought that with diligent training, he would need at least another two years to see the top of the Red Line. However, Buggy had overlooked the physical constitution of people in the pirate world. Admittedly, those who didn't train were indeed very weak, but once they started training, and with a supply of various Haki-rich ingredients, their strength also grew quite rapidly after passing the initial stage.
Among these, Buggy was most satisfied with unintentionally mastering "Moon Walk" from the Rokushiki (Six Powers) through the power generation techniques of Eight Extremities Fist. Unfortunately, his Eight Extremities Fist had yet to enter the Dark Strength stage.
But this still made Buggy quite satisfied. One must know that his senior back then had taken several years to reach the Clear Strength stage. If it weren't for the pirate world being full of various Haki-rich ingredients, Buggy estimated he definitely wouldn't have entered the Clear Strength stage in just a year and a half.
He was only 16 now, no need to rush, just proceed step by step.
After two years of training, the current Buggy was no longer the Buggy from two years ago who was less than 170cm tall. At this moment, Buggy's height had grown to 180cm, and his chest and arms had developed bulging muscles. Wearing a black tight-fitting T-shirt, his light blue long hair was tied into a ponytail behind him. If it weren't for that conspicuously red nose, Buggy would actually be quite satisfied with his appearance.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered finding an opportunity to get this red nose fixed in the future, but Buggy eventually gave up on the idea.
Turning around to check the reserves in the tent, Buggy found that not only was the salt almost gone, but he also needed to go out and gather some more edible medicinal herbs.
After thinking for a moment, Buggy suddenly realized. Yes, ever since he mastered Moon Walk some time ago, he had been engrossed in climbing the Red Line and hadn't gone out for supplies for quite a while. It was time to make a trip to town.
Thinking of this, Buggy walked out of the tent, then picked up a bundle of cured animal pelts from outside the tent, and walked into the forest.
(End of this chapter)