After asking around and exploring a bit, Dud found a somewhat private clearing with a stream at one corner.
"Right," said Dud as he sat on the soft grass, taking out his book and pencil, writing down his {abilities} and {traits}. He had a mental list that seemed like he couldn't forget them no matter what, but writing them down would probably make things easier for him.
ABILITIES
Wheel of Mahoraga: The adaptation wheel never take of.
Momentum: Awesome for long-distance land travel but useless at sea.
Sprout: Useless unless I am hunting?
Hustle: Useless. I have better ways to fight and SC.
Blood Manipulation: Synergies well with Blood Pack and Blood Sword; needs testing. Water Manipulation: Could be OP.
Shade Cloak: Could save my life.
TRAITS
Nothing wrong here: Ninja!
Allowance: Free money.
Blood Pack: More blood than what my body knows what to do with. Increased stamina noticed.
Iron Mind: Useful. Got to make sure I don't get cocky and ignore red flags.
Flexible: Awesome in bed; got to test in a fight.
Esper: Awesome instincts to make use of abilities.
Inventory DLC: Subspace inventory with the capacity of 550 kg, my max deadlift capacity.
Dud thought a bit and started writing down his {items} (not to be confused with items that he purchased, but maybe he should write them down as well at some point, but it is not important right now) and {familiars}.
ITEMS
Cat-tail butt plug: I don't want to know.
Evil ring (not to be confused with Ring of Evil): Find a way to destroy it.
Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch: Super grenade capable of sinking all ships. Got to test it in the sea.
One Day Blinding Stew: It definitely smells like it could blind me. Make a pirate drink it?
Demon Blood Blade: A cool sword. Maybe SC can teach me how to wield it?
Escape Ticket: Ticket of Escape.
Holy Antidote: Life-saving instrument DO NOT REMOVE FROM INV UNLESS EMERGENCY.
Droid Factory: This is awesome, but what am I going to use it for?
FAMILIARS
Silver Chariot: Best Buddy.
Herbie: ...I don't know what to do with him. Could I find an island in the Grand Line where he could be happy? Or get a custom boat he could control somehow.
Golden Goose: Not summoning a menace until I have a bigger ship and maybe a crew.
Orochi: A giant snake the size of a sea king.
And {skills} can't forget {skills}.
SKILLS
Novice Charisma: makes me less awkward and gives me a confidence boost.
Adept Leadership: I don't know what this does.
Dud chewed on the pencil as he thought about what to test. The most obvious and safe one would be water manipulation, and he needed someone to attack him to test the shade cloak. Dud narrowed his eyes; yeah, he was testing water manipulation.
Dud equipped [Water Manipulation] in his second slot and activated the [Wheel of Mahoraga] at the same time; between it and [Esper], he was getting a rapid understanding of his new ability.
It had two absolute conditions:
1. He had to be touching the water he needed to control; it did not matter what part of him was touching it, but it had to be skin contact.
2. The water must be continuous; if a part of it gets disconnected, it goes out of his control.
Dud currently had his bare feet in the stream as the water rose and took on various shapes and was a massive drain on his stamina. The cost scaling with the quantity of water he could control.
Dud had a massive grin on his face as he found that he had near-perfect control over water; he could easily redirect the current of the stream, even making it flow unnaturally for very little cost, which delighted him and fed into the illusion of being invincible in the ocean. He attacked a rock with high-pressure water; at first it did not do anything, so Dud concentrated, putting more of his stamina and putting more pressure, and finally the water dug a hole in the rock but left Dud winded.
Dud wrapped up his fun when he started feeling very sleepy. He wore his boots, brought out his sleeping bag, and lay on it sleeping and recovering his stamina, not worried for his safety, as he believed SC would protect him.
Dud woke up after a few hours, hungry, thirsty, and sunburnt. He cooled off in the stream and drank the freshwater, satiating his thirst, and ate a hearty lunch from Mace's.
"Let's get this over with," Dud said to himself, preparing himself as he exchanged [Water Manipulation] for [Blood Manipulation]; he instantly became aware of the unnatural amount of blood in his body. He brought out a small blade and made a small cut on his finger; blood started oozing. Dud concentrated, and the drops floated in the air, clumping together as more and more of his blood flowed out of his wound under his control until the glob of blood was the size of a baseball.
Dud stared at it morbidly fascinated; he shaped it to become a blade, needles, a cute little dog, and many other amusing and terrifying shapes. He finally shaped the glob into a chakram and hurled it at a rock; it easily cut through it, leaving Dud in awe at his power.
He summoned the blood back and decided to test his range and found he could only control his blood within 5 meters of himself, and any blood that ended up outside of range was lost to his control forever.
After a few more minutes spent testing the effectiveness of using his blood, Dud summoned the Demon Blood Sword. The moment he did, he could feel the sword the same way he could feel his blood. Dud smiled and simply willed the sword to float, and it did. Dud's smile turned into a face-splitting grin.
"THIS IS SO COOL!" Dud yelled as the sword zipped around him in a deadly dance. Dud brought the sword back and held it in his hand, trying to change its shape, but he wasn't able to. Dud shrugged and willed blood to flow out of his wound again; the instant his blood met the sword, something changed.
The sword began to forcefully draw his blood and began drinking it, much to Dud's horror, while simultaneously emitting a baleful, demonic aura (which disappeared into the omniverse, returning to its original owner). Dud was paralyzed, the aura locking him in place with instinctual fear, as his mind calmed down a bit and was about to summon SC to destroy the blade; the aura disappeared, and the sword stopped emitting the awful aura and draining him and simply floated there.
Visually there was no difference between now and how it was before, but Dud felt a deeper connection with the sword now and knew instinctively it could no longer be called the Demon Blood Sword; it was now just a Blood Sword.
It was still as powerful as it was before, or at least that was the hope, but because Dud did not know what the sword was capable of, he did not know how it stacked up against the original.
Dud placed the sword back into his inventory and sighed. "That's enough excitement for today; I am going to sleep for the rest of the day," Dud said to himself and left the clearing, returning to his room and crashing out, not noticing a notification.
{Achievement: Modify an {Item} without compromising its power
1X Platinum Ticket}