Marine Headquarters, Fleet Admiral's Office.
Admiral Sengoku was announcing the final matter:
"The meeting is now adjourned. Regarding the implementation of the Shichibukai system, there must be a suitable candidate to follow up..."
His serious gaze swept across the room.
Sakazuki raised his head and stared intently at him.
Sengoku paused for a moment, frowned, and continued to look around.
He didn't linger on Borsalino for even a second. Sengoku glanced at Kuzan, who raised his hand with a red face, looking like a good student in class scrambling to answer a question.
He sighed in his heart and finally turned his gaze to Daren.
"...This task is yours, Vice Admiral Daren."
Daren smiled, not surprised by the news, and raised his hand in salute:
"Yes, Admiral Sengoku, I will do my best to complete the mission."
Sengoku smiled with satisfaction and nodded:
"Well, that's all for today's meeting. Dismissed."
As the meeting ended, the officers in the audience slowly withdrew under the guidance of the guards.
"Vice Admiral Daren, thank you for your hard work."
"Vice Admiral Daren, you are truly the pillar of our Marines."
"With the power of one man, you attracted the hatred of all the Shichibukai... No, you suppressed all the Shichibukai..."
One after another, as the generals left the conference room, they brushed past Daren, expressing their heartfelt admiration with looks of respect in their eyes.
They knew very well how much Daren had sacrificed and how much pressure he had been under to establish the Shichibukai system.
Our Vice Admiral Daren is not the biggest scoundrel in the Marines... He is clearly a true hero of the Marines!
When everyone in the audience had left, Sengoku said in a deep voice to Daren and the others,
"The government insists on holding a grand ceremony to award these guys the title of 'Shichibukai' in public."
"In this way, on the one hand, it will show that the power and status of the Shichibukai are bestowed by the Marines, and on the other hand, it will send a message to the whole world..."
"...Even powerful pirates like Douglas Bullet and his crew will have to submit to the power of the Marines and the government!"
Sengoku stood up straight, clenched his fists, and looked somewhat spirited.
As the current Admiral of the Marine Headquarters, Sengoku was the main person responsible for establishing and promoting the Shichibukai system. As long as the Shichibukai system was ultimately successful and achieved its intended purpose, it would be a considerable achievement for him. Updates are released by novel·fire.net
This would further enhance his image and influence within the government, which would be a huge political boost for his future promotion to Fleet Admiral.
Hearing this, the others did not react much.
Only Sakazuki frowned, hesitated, and finally said nothing.
A smile appeared on Sengoku's lips as he said in a deep voice,
"Twenty days from now, all members of the Shichibukai will gather at Marine Headquarters for a collective ceremony to receive their titles."
"At that time, most of the world's news agencies will come to report on the ceremony, and it will also be broadcast live via Den Den Mushi."
"Don't screw this up..."
Sengoku glared fiercely at Borsalino, who was still picking his nails.
"I'm talking about you, Borsalino, do you hear me!?"
Borsalino immediately raised his hands in surrender and said slowly,
"No problem, Admiral Sengoku."
He walked out of the Fleet Admiral's residence.
Daren didn't care much about the Shichibukai appointment ceremony; his mind was still caught up in something else.
What he was more concerned about was Magellan's training progress—
Or rather, more precisely, his own.
Compared to the incredible gains from the first month of "poison resistance" training, the past month had seen him hit a bottleneck once again.
In that first month, his physique had improved by 3 full points, and thanks to the overflow effect of his constitution, all his other stats had also seen impressive growth.
But after this month, even though Magellan's Devil Fruit ability kept strengthening, Daren's physique had only improved by a mere 1 point.
As he walked out of the Fleet Admiral's residence, he activated his perception talent and checked his various physical "stats":
Physique: 96.017 (Indestructible Body)
Strength: 86.677 (Giant's Strength)
Speed: 86.747 (Soru's Godspeed)
Fruit Ability Development: 86.186 (Island-Wide Coverage)
Armament Haki: 74.792 (Internal Destruction, Devil Form)
Observation Haki: 76.521 (Magnetic Field Induction)
Conqueror's Haki: 81.469 (Affects Matter)
"Looks like I've pretty much developed immunity. Unless Magellan's Doku Doku no Mi ability undergoes a major leap, maybe even reaching 'awakening,' there's not much point in trying to boost my strength through this method any further..."
Daren thought to himself, frowning slightly.
He had already expected this, so he wasn't too disappointed.
Since his time in North Blue, physique had always been his strong suit. Even across the current world, the only ones who could compare to him in terms of physical strength were the naturally gifted Kaidou and Charlotte Linlin.
In terms of pure physical defense and resistance to abnormal conditions, Daren even had the edge over them.
Kaidou's "Indestructible Body" was more about monstrous regeneration and vitality, the result of his "oni" bloodline and his Mythical Zoan, the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu.
Big Mom, on the other hand, focused more on sheer physical explosiveness—by the time she was only eight, she could already topple adult giants. Her "steel balloon" body was just an outward sign of her monstrous strength.
Each of the three had their own strengths.
Daren understood very well that at his current level, further improving his physique would be incredibly difficult. It could be said that just about every conventional and unconventional method had already become ineffective.
"Maybe I should find Sakazuki and work on building resistance to magma?"
A crazy idea suddenly flashed through his mind.
Fire had long ceased to pose any threat to him. Even against a Mera Mera no Mi user, the only attack that might hurt him would be the strongest move, "Entei."
Other flashy moves like Kyokaen probably wouldn't even leave a mark on his skin—let alone have any real training effect.
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