"Young Master!" Bartholomew Kuma rushed into the great hall as soon as he saw that Valthior had finished his business, calling out loudly.
Valthior looked at Bartholomew Kuma's huge body and felt dazed for a moment.
Back when they parted in the West Blue, Kuma had not even been taller than him. Now, the young boy had truly become a giant figure. Standing there, he looked like a wall.
At first, Valthior thought he would have many things to say to Bartholomew Kuma.
But when he truly saw him, all those words finally turned into one soft sentence.
"You have grown up, Kuma."
Those words made Bartholomew Kuma break down in tears on the spot.
Before long, the two of them began talking about interesting things that had happened over the years. Valthior also learned that Kuma had lived well in the Sorbet Kingdom, that his parents were still alive, and that he had met Dragon and some others.
For the most part, Bartholomew Kuma talked while Valthior listened.
After Kuma had spoken for a long while, Bullet, who was standing nearby, smoothly joined the conversation.
"Young Master, Kuma said he wants to become a ship's doctor. He said his ability has great potential in that area, and he himself is very interested in it!" Bullet said happily.
"Is that so?" Valthior looked at Bartholomew Kuma in surprise.
"That's right. My ability can push injuries out of a person's body…" Bartholomew Kuma quickly began explaining how he had developed his power.
Fatigue, pain, injuries, and things like that could all be pushed out of a person's body by him. As for memories, he still could not do that yet.
However, the negative things he pushed out still needed someone to take them in. Otherwise, after some time, they would return to the original body and might even make the injury or illness worse.
Kuma was a kind person. Back in the Sorbet Kingdom, after treating elderly people, he would take those pains onto himself.
But there was no need for that here. Frost Island had plenty of troublesome locals from Wano, so someone could always bear the pain.
He could even collect this pain and negative energy during normal times. Then, when he met an enemy, he could strike it into the enemy's body and let them taste that feeling properly.
"Good, good, good. Since you want to become a ship's doctor, then from now on, you will be the Valthior Pirates' second ship's doctor!" Valthior agreed at once.
Bartholomew Kuma immediately became happy, while Bullet froze for a moment and hurriedly said, "Second ship's doctor? Can't he just take over my position? I can give him the ship's doctor position, Young Master!"
"Come on." Valthior waved his hand. "A person has to look forward, Bullet. The Valthior Pirates are not like the Roger Pirates used to be, with only a few elite members who could sail across the seas even without a ship's doctor. The number of people on our ship is increasing every day now. How can one ship's doctor be enough? In the future, I still plan to turn us into a great fleet, so you still have to continue carrying the responsibility of being a ship's doctor."
"Huh?" Bullet looked completely lost.
However, Valthior no longer continued that topic. Instead, he asked whether Bartholomew Kuma's strength had improved.
"I mastered all the Six Powers techniques a long time ago. Not long ago, on the way here, I successfully developed Life Return. Back then, you said that only after mastering Life Return could someone be considered to have fully mastered the Six Powers…" Bartholomew Kuma said.
The Six Powers were a basic system used to build a strong foundation, and Valthior himself had started with this set of skills. It might look funny at times, especially Iron Body, which often made people seem like they were just waiting to be knocked down, but in truth, these were superhuman body techniques created through countless years of experience by CP and the Marines.
There were many basic fighting methods on the sea, but when it came to a solid foundation, if the Six Powers were ranked second, no other style would dare claim first.
Valthior was also skilled in the Six Powers. Long ago, he had already mastered Life Return and other related techniques.
In Marine Headquarters, it could be said that as long as someone fully mastered the Six Powers and also learned two types of Haki, even without any Devil Fruit ability, the door to becoming a high-ranking officer would already be open. After that, as long as their achievements and experience were enough, and no one made things hard for them, they would be qualified to become a Commodore.
That was the value of the Six Powers.
Of course, being qualified was one thing. Whether someone could truly rise still depended on them.
Many powerful field officers had mastered those skills and had enough strength, yet they remained unable to break into the top ranks of the Marines. After all, there were only so many positions at the top, and every one of them was already occupied.
"I have also become skilled in Armament Haki and Observation Haki, but in the book you gave me, it said I should make Armament Haki flow. I still have not figured that out. As for seeing the future, I also cannot find the right path…" Bartholomew Kuma said.
"Bullet is an expert in that area. He learned how to make Armament Haki flow a long time ago, so you can ask him for guidance later," Valthior said with a smile.
Valthior had already learned the flowing form of Armament Haki a long time ago. After all, he spent so much time forging iron, and that work had not been for nothing.
As for seeing the future, it was not that Valthior could not do it, but he was not very skilled at it.
The area where he was truly strong was Conqueror's Haki.
During this period after arriving on Frost Island, there had been no outside conflicts or powerful enemies, but Valthior had not stopped training.
Recently, he had been studying how to store Conqueror's Haki.
One of the abilities of his Mangekyō Sharingan, Besshi Hachiman, could convert spiritual energy, life force, and physical strength into one another.
Conqueror's Haki was an extremely pure form of spiritual power. Because of that, as long as Valthior was willing to spend his physical strength, he could release a terrifying amount of Conqueror's Haki far beyond normal levels.
In the later part of his time with the Roger Pirates, neither Rayleigh nor Gaban could match Valthior in this area. Only Roger, that monster, could stand against him and still come out slightly ahead.
However, Roger had also said plainly that in five or six years at most, even his Conqueror's Haki would no longer be able to match Valthior's burst.
Valthior had once discussed storing Conqueror's Haki with Roger and the others. But whether it was Roger, Gaban, or Rayleigh, none of them knew how to store it. They had not even heard of Conqueror's Haki being used that way.
Wasn't Conqueror's Haki just used to overpower others?
A higher-level method was Conqueror's coating, which allowed someone to use Conqueror's Haki like Armament Haki.
But storing it?
They had never heard of that.
Valthior, however, knew that it was real.
Joy Boy, the man Roger hated so much that his teeth itched whenever he was mentioned, had mastered this technique more than eight hundred years ago, and had even sealed his Conqueror's Haki inside a giant robot.
In the original story, that Conqueror's Haki had even startled Imu and directly led to Saint Saturn's death.
What did that prove? It proved that Conqueror's Haki could truly leave the user, be stored, and then be used like a battery.
Valthior believed that if he could figure out this technique, then when he did not need to fight, he could compress and store his Conqueror's Haki inside himself. When he met a powerful enemy, that stored Haki could become the foundation that allowed him to fight a long battle, or even use a life-for-life style of combat.
With Besshi Hachiman, as long as he had enough Conqueror's Haki, he would basically be impossible to kill.
How could this not be considered an ability worthy of the Holy Knights?
However, during his recent research, Valthior still had not found any clear direction. He planned to ask Professor Clover when he had time and see whether the many ancient texts Clover had collected contained any related records.
Valthior always felt that this technique had likely been hidden on purpose in the dust of history.
Perhaps Imu was the one who had done it.
That night, the Valthior Pirates held a great banquet. All the main members joined in to welcome Bartholomew Kuma's arrival.
At the same time, Spencer began looking into who in the New World had been living rather richly recently.
And once he searched, he really did find someone.
John, known as Captain John, had returned to the New World from the first half of the Grand Line not long ago. It was said that he held quite a lot of wealth.
At the same time, the Happo Navy of the Kano Country in the West Blue had also entered the New World under Chinjao's lead. Not long ago, the Marines had placed a bounty of five hundred million Berries on Chinjao.
According to some people, Garp was searching for him everywhere, planning to test his iron fist against Chinjao's iron head.
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