Wapol scooped up the blueprint. He couldn't understand any of the technical parameters or engineering jargon written on it, but the simple, visual drawing of a staff with two caps on the ends was easy enough to grasp. Without complaining, he opened his massive mouth and began shoveling the pile of royal armory weapons into his gullet.
Bardock stood completely still, watching him. He was actually secretly hoping Wapol would try to resist or pull a fast one. After all, Wapol was currently eating several high-powered bazookas and cannons; if he wanted to, he could easily transform his arms into cannons and try to blast Bardock in the face.
However, Wapol's survival instincts were truly exceptional. He didn't make a single suspicious movement. He simply ate the weapons, used his Devil Fruit power to synthesize them in his stomach, and regurgitated a massive, solid metal staff.
Bardock reached out and picked up the staff.
He had intentionally designed its dimensions based on his projected height as a fully grown human adult. Currently, holding it in his massive Great Ape hand, the staff looked more like a heavy metal chopstick.
Wapol stared up at that colossal, castle-door-sized hand, incredibly thankful he hadn't tried to pull any stupid tricks. Even if he managed to successfully blast the monkey in the face with a cannon, the resulting counterattack would have instantly flattened him into a bloody pancake.
Bardock bounced the staff in his palm. 'The weight is perfect.'
He gripped the staff with both hands and applied a terrifying amount of physical pressure, forcing the metal to bend slightly. 'The tensile strength is satisfactory.'
He released the pressure, and the Shape Memory alloy immediately snapped back into a perfectly straight line. He flicked the side of the staff with his massive fingernail.
Ping!
The clear, resonant sound confirmed the metal was completely solid and uniform throughout, with no structural flaws or hollow pockets.
"The structural integrity is acceptable," Bardock nodded, his booming voice echoing in the courtyard. "However, the aesthetic design needs some work. I want you to change the color of the two cap-ends to a bright gold. And engrave these specific swirling patterns along the shaft..."
Bardock forced Wapol to eat and re-synthesize the staff three more times until the final product matched his exact specifications.
Finally satisfied, Bardock reached into his pocket and flicked a single, 50-Berry coin into the snow in front of Wapol. 'That's exactly one Chopper worth of money. He should be grateful.'
"A fair transaction! I paid the fee, you provided the service," Bardock announced cheerfully. "I suggest you behave yourself from now on. You wouldn't want me coming back to visit you, would you?"
With that final, thinly veiled threat, Bardock's leg muscles bulged. He leaped into the sky with such explosive force that the entire courtyard shook, instantly landing on the Flying Nimbus and rocketing back toward the port.
Wapol stayed perfectly still until he was absolutely certain Bardock was gone. The moment the coast was clear, his face flushed bright red with pure, unadulterated fury. He snatched the 50-Berry coin out of the snow, intending to hurl it into the ocean in a fit of rage.
But at the last second, he stopped. He glared at the cheap coin, threw it into his mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it. When he regurgitated it, the 50 Berries had been synthesized into a small, plain ring. He slid the ring onto his finger, deciding to wear it as a permanent reminder of today's absolute humiliation.
Looking down, Wapol saw his two elite bodyguards, Chess and Kuromarimo, still lying unconscious in the snow. His anger flared up again.
"Chess! Kuromarimo! You useless, incompetent pieces of trash!" Wapol roared, violently kicking them. "From today onward, you are going to train until you bleed! And Dalton, that absolute moron! If he wasn't still marginally useful, I'd throw him in the dungeon right now!"
As Wapol violently beat his unconscious subordinates, he began to mentally rewrite the events of the day in his head. In this new fantasy, his loyal bodyguards had bravely protected him while he confidently negotiated with the terrifying monster, exchanging witty banter and mutual respect. Deluding himself, his anger slowly subsided.
As for officially reporting the incident to the World Government and requesting Marine intervention? He absolutely didn't dare. First of all, he hadn't even looked up to see the intruder's face. Secondly, that final sentence was a very clear, direct threat: If you cause trouble, I'll come back and kill you.
When it came to bullying the weak and cowering before the strong, Wapol was a seasoned professional. Unconsciously, he puffed his chest out slightly.
Far away from Wapol's castle, Bardock had reverted to his normal human form and was sitting cross-legged on the Flying Nimbus, happily stroking his new weapon.
His Ruyi Jingu Bang (As-You-Will Staff) wasn't particularly thick or bulky, but because it was synthesized from a highly compressed mountain of cannons and armor, it was incredibly dense and deceptively heavy. Bardock stood up on the cloud, playfully twirling the staff. It felt fantastic, and he definitely looked like a badass martial arts master while wielding it.
Unfortunately, since he was currently in his normal human form (standing just under two meters tall), the staff was noticeably a bit too long to wield perfectly. He estimated he would need to grow to around three meters tall before it fit him perfectly in his base form.
He shifted into his Beast-Human form. This time, the proportions were absolutely flawless. The Jingu Bang hummed with terrifying power as he swung it, generating sharp gusts of wind.
Upon returning to the White Dragon, Bardock proudly showed off his new weapon to the crew.
Daz Bonez immediately requested to test its durability. He launched several high-powered Atomic Slashes directly at the staff. The incredibly sharp, steel-cutting flying slashes barely managed to leave a few shallow scratches on the metal.
However, thanks to the Shape Memory properties Wapol had infused into it, the scratches completely vanished in a matter of seconds, restoring the staff to its pristine condition.
The only question that remained was: If the staff completely snaps in half, can it still regenerate?
Bardock thought about it for a moment and decided against testing it. If he met an opponent capable of completely snapping this hyper-dense staff in half while he was coating it in his Armament Haki... well, whether the staff could regenerate or not would be the least of his worries. He'd probably be dead before he could find out.
With their new doctor aboard, the White Dragon set sail, navigating the treacherous Grand Line weather toward their next destination: Alabasta, the legendary 'Kingdom of Sand'.
Alabasta was one of the undisputed superpowers of the Grand Line's Paradise half, boasting a massive landmass exceeding ten million square kilometers.
If it were on Earth, a country of that size would easily rank second in the world. Yet, in this world, it was merely one of the many island nations dotting the Grand Line. And considering the Grand Line was canonically much narrower than the four Blues... was this planet significantly larger than Earth?
"Bardock, is it true? Is there really a Poneglyph hidden in Alabasta?" Robin asked, her voice a mix of intense anticipation and deep anxiety.
She desperately wanted to read it, but she was terrified that lingering in a major Kingdom for too long would attract the World Government's attention, endangering her new family. But the legacy of Ohara was a burden she could never abandon.
"There is," Bardock confirmed. "But it's one of the ones detailing an Ancient Weapon, so it's honestly pretty boring. It just tells you the location of the weapon, but it's physically impossible to go retrieve it..."
The Ancient Weapon Pluton was currently buried deep beneath Wano Country, actively guarded by Kaido of the Beasts. Who in their right mind could possibly sneak into Wano and steal the world's most devastating battleship right out from under Kaido's nose? In the original timeline, Crocodile spent two decades plotting to steal Pluton. If he had actually succeeded in reading the Poneglyph, only to discover he had to go fight Kaido to get his prize, he probably would have spat blood in sheer rage.
"Stop right there! Say absolutely nothing more! I refuse to be spoiled!" Robin demanded, quickly covering her ears. If he kept talking, she would lose all motivation to actually go read the ancient texts herself!
"Alright, alright," Bardock chuckled. "You can read it for yourself when we get there. Anyway, Alabasta itself isn't a major threat to us. They have a massive standing army of 600,000 soldiers, but they completely lack top-tier fighters. The only genuine threat is the local Warlord of the Sea: 'Desert King' Crocodile. The man's combat power is incredibly erratic. If possible, we'll try to avoid crossing paths with him."
Bardock wasn't afraid of fighting Crocodile, but Logia users were notoriously destructive. A battle between them would completely level whatever city they fought in.
Besides, Crocodile's power scaling was completely baffling. At age 20, he fought Douglas Bullet to a complete standstill. Yet, in Paradise, he somehow lost to a rookie Luffy who couldn't even use Haki. Then, after sitting in an Impel Down cell for a few months, he somehow instantly regained all his prime strength, strutting into the Marineford War and completely stunting on everyone. He clashed with Doflamingo, blocked an attack from Mihawk, and even sneak-attacked Akainu—completely fearless. Crocodile was clearly infected with a severe case of 'Movie Villain Plot Armor' syndrome.
Fighting someone with power scaling that completely divorced from logic offered absolutely no benefits, and would only invite a massive headache.
Since Chopper's arrival, the atmosphere on the White Dragon had become incredibly lively. The ship practically radiated joy.
Chopper was an incredibly easy crewmate to satisfy. Give him delicious food? He was overjoyed. Play games with him? He was ecstatic. Even when Robin sat him down for intense academic tutoring, he was incredibly happy to be learning. In just a few days, his grasp of mathematics had already surpassed Leo's.
Feeling the competitive pressure, Leo was forcefully drafted back into studying multiplication and division. He had originally planned to just learn addition and subtraction and call it a day.
After four days of sailing, the island of Sandy finally appeared on the horizon.
They docked at Nanohana, a major port city of Alabasta famous for its perfume production. Because it was a wealthy port, it was frequently targeted by pirate raids.
However, ever since Crocodile set up shop in Alabasta, the pirate raids had dropped significantly. Unless they were completely brain-dead, no pirate wanted to challenge a Warlord in his own desert territory.
The White Dragon smoothly entered the harbor. As expected of a country with a 600,000-strong army, the port security was incredibly tight and well-organized. It was a shame they lacked elite officers. If Alabasta actually possessed a few Vice-Admiral-tier fighters, they could easily deter pirates without needing to rely on a Warlord's 'protection'.