Erza and the others rescued Riku Dold III from the underground scrap metal factory.
After Sugar was defeated, many of those turned into toys returned to normal, and others regained their memories of these people.
As a result, Doflamingo's actions in Dressrosa were fully exposed.
In an instant, the hero who saved the country and the wise king became a despicable usurper and tyrant.
King Riku, for the sake of the nation, once again took on the noble image of the king of Dressrosa.
In Drake's view, King Riku was not a qualified ruler.
It's undeniable that King Riku was a kind and merciful person, but for a king, kindness and mercy can be weaknesses.
Saying that King Riku was unqualified wasn't just because he blindly believed Doflamingo's lies, but also because of his actions.
After the theft of Dressrosa, the common people no longer trusted King Riku, but the kings of several surrounding countries believed in him and supported his restoration in the original storyline.
What was the reason? During his reign, King Riku spent large sums of money on neighboring countries, reducing conflicts in the surrounding seas and creating a peaceful situation.
So when Doflamingo proposed that King Riku spend money to buy back the country, he still had to raise funds from his people.
Does such an operation… really sound like something a king would do?
Drake couldn't even evaluate it, and if he were a king of a neighboring country, he might even welcome King Riku as a selfless saint to rule Dressrosa.
King Riku truly was a good person, but good people don't necessarily make good kings.
But the world is already ridiculous enough—at least a king like Riku wouldn't let the country suffer.
Anyway, this has nothing to do with Drake anymore.
To repay Fairy Tail, King Riku held a grand banquet for everyone.
Before that, Drake and the others raided Doflamingo's treasury.
Unlike Tesoro, Doflamingo's wealth was mostly in industries spread across the seas.
So, Drake only found some treasures, artworks, and a few Beli bills in his vault.
Most surprisingly, there were two Devil Fruits, but without a Devil Fruit catalog, he didn't know exactly what they were.
Drake only took the Devil Fruits and some valuable treasures, leaving the rest for Dressrosa.
King Riku was too honest—he even said he wanted to exchange those items for funds to hold the banquet.
Drake advised him against it. Cleaning up the mess left by Doflamingo would cost a lot of money, and Drake didn't want to see good people suffer unfairly.
At the banquet, Drake also met Cyrus.
Cyrus was King Riku's son-in-law and Rebecca's father. He was once a legendary gladiator undefeated in 3,000 matches in Dressrosa's arena.
He lost a leg after being turned into a toy soldier by Sugar, and although he recovered his human form, he was still disabled, but his aura remained formidable.
When he learned that Drake and his group were seeking to learn Haki, Cyrus offered to help.
Being able to achieve 3,000 consecutive wins in the arena in the New World meant he must have mastered Haki.
Although Drake doubted Cyrus's mastery of Haki, guiding him in beginner training was not a problem.
However, after listening to Cyrus's lecture, Drake was a bit overwhelmed.
As expected, there's no unified tutorial for Haki training across the seas. In short, it's about awakening the innate instincts hidden within the body through various methods.
Cyrus awakened his Haki during battles in the arena and kept refining it.
His guidance involved sharing his own experiences and techniques for mastering Haki.
In other words, even with guidance, awakening Haki still relies heavily on personal effort and talent.
To assist in training, Drake created a sealed magic tool to help everyone feel the power of their own life more directly.
After several days of intensive training, some successfully awakened their Haki. And unsurprisingly, Erza was one of them.
Haki is fundamentally a power of will, and Erza's talent in this area was naturally exceptional. During her fight with Trebol, Erza was already on the verge of awakening Haki, and after some training, she naturally succeeded.
While her Observation Haki was still somewhat unreliable, once awakened, mastery was only a matter of time. Her Armament Haki training was also progressing smoothly.
Erza's success inspired others, and they increased their training intensity. Even her companions didn't want to fall behind. After all, comrades fight side by side.
While training Haki, Drake also, out of curiosity, studied Devil Fruits.
The world's top scientist, Vegapunk, had a theory: Devil Fruit abilities actually represent the potential of humanity.
Because human potential is limitless, there are all kinds of Devil Fruits with different abilities.
And the Devil Fruits themselves are keys that allow the user to reach that potential.
Looking at it this way, Vegapunk's development of the Sui Sui Fruit was quite consistent with the essence of Devil Fruits.
This method of reaching potential is unnatural, so it's rejected by nature. As a result, users are often despised by the sea, which represents nature.
Drake used the two Devil Fruits he obtained from Doflamingo's treasury for research.
The results further confirmed Vegapunk's theory, but Drake increasingly felt that Devil Fruits are not natural products—they're more like results of genetic engineering.
They are probably related to that mysterious "Great Kingdom" and the Void Century. That is likely the biggest secret of this world, which naturally piqued Drake's curiosity!
But the problem is, although Devil Fruits seem magical, they are more like technological products. Drake, who studies magic, found that these two fields are on very different tracks.
Unwilling to give up, Drake tried to reverse-engineer "black technology" with magic, and the result was that his Nebelung Ring evolved!
He didn't quite understand how it happened, but now he has three stages of transformation with his Nebelung Ring.
The first stage is body dragonization, the second is transforming into a dragon-man, and the third is fully turning into a dragon.
This magic makes Drake feel like he's quite similar to the animal-type Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit users, especially the Fire Dragon Fruit.
Besides advancing his research on Devil Fruits, Drake's Haki finally awakened. Recently, he began learning techniques for Armament Haki's hardening and wrapping, as well as integrating Haki's power into his fighting system.
At this moment, King Riku's people informed Drake that the flagship of the Whitebeard Pirates, the Moby Dick, was approaching Dressrosa.
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