Chapter 6: Celestial Fragrance Scramble (Part 1)
Feeling the pure chill that made his skin tingle, Buggy secretly shook his head, then immediately executed an emergency escape, his body instantly splitting apart.
His two feet hurriedly retreated a few steps. After his body reassembled, Buggy, his face contorted, immediately fumbled for the purple medicine bottle. Opening it, he tilted his head back and dripped two drops into his mouth.
When a cool sensation spread, dispelling the intense pain that had permeated his entire body, Buggy's completely contorted expression finally eased considerably.
Pulling open his clothes and looking at the fading purple-red spots on his body, Buggy knew he had failed again. It seemed he still couldn't overcome that hurdle; he always used his ability prematurely. But without that fatal threat, Haki wasn't something that could be easily awakened.
However, he couldn't give up. Buggy understood awakening very well; relying on extreme emotions to stimulate it was the fastest method.
Of course, his training wouldn't stop. After all, Haki awakening also required a certain degree of accumulation.
And the path of stimulation had to be followed through. Everyone knew that the earlier one mastered Haki, the greater the advantage. Buggy naturally couldn't let such an opportunity pass, even if it meant risking his life; Buggy felt it was worth it.
Of course, Buggy was also finding the pain inflicted by the killer bees a bit unbearable.
Speaking of which, Buggy hadn't originally planned to use such a dangerous method for awakening. Previously, Buggy had merely intended to use that compass to help him find some wild Celestial Fragrance, stock up on it early, so that when he crossed the Red Line to the North Blue, he would have more than enough startup capital.
It wasn't that Buggy hadn't thought of raising funds the pirate way; it was just that Buggy didn't want to expose himself to the Marines' attention too early.
Of course, before searching for wild Celestial Fragrance, Buggy had also made many preparations. For example, the purple medicinal liquid was the juice from the roots of the Celestial Fragrance plant, which Buggy had collected through the fur shop owner.
The Celestial Fragrance of Distan was a very special plant, growing in dark, damp crevices. Both its petals and pollen were highly toxic. The killer bees themselves were not poisonous, belonging to ordinary honeybees, and only became highly toxic after collecting Celestial Fragrance pollen. Only the root juice was the antidote. It was an annual plant; after the fruit ripened, the roots would rapidly wither. Collecting the juice could only be done right after picking the fruit. Untrained hands basically couldn't collect much juice. Buggy had used up all his savings from selling furs over the previous two years to obtain this one bottle of juice.
After obtaining the juice, Buggy relied on the compass he got from the lottery to find his current location.
Having never encountered Celestial Fragrance before, Buggy hadn't been clear about it. The first time he came here, he rashly entered the crevice area during the daytime. The result was singular: he was stung until he swelled up by two sizes. If he hadn't prepared the antidote juice from the start, Buggy might have died then and there.
And in the process of dodging the stings, Buggy discovered that the mutated killer bees, when chasing him, generally wouldn't exceed a certain range. After several trials, Buggy determined this range. Then, after another period of observation and probing, he figured out how to slightly anger these killer bees to use these incredibly fast insects to help him awaken.
Looking at the small half-bottle of purple juice remaining, Buggy rested for a bit, then once again began the same thing he had been doing.
A few minutes later, Buggy, gasping for breath, retreated again. Twice. Although he hadn't reached his body's limit of endurance, that would be it for tonight. There was no progress in his Haki awakening, but Buggy wasn't disappointed at all.
Buggy knew the reason very well. Although he had died once and knew about things like reincarnation, he currently lacked the courage to face death directly. Only when he overcame this mental barrier would Haki awakening be possible.
I'll come back when I've adjusted my mood. There's still time; being too hasty is useless. The top priority now is to first study the Chop-Chop Fruit power that I've just grasped.
Early the next morning, Buggy sat at the entrance of his tent, thinking. He had already managed to use the Chop-Chop Fruit ability, but that was it. It was far from complete control, let alone further development. How to achieve fine control over the fruit's power was the immediate priority. He would complete this goal first and then make plans for the next step.
Thinking of this, Buggy once again threw himself into training.
Half a year passed in a flash. Standing at the foot of the Red Line mountain, Buggy looked at the mountain wall with a slight frown.
Half a year ago, when Buggy shifted the focus of his training to controlling the Chop-Chop Fruit ability, he had truly put in a tremendous effort.
Unfortunately, Devil Fruit abilities were not as easy to control as imagined. Moreover, Buggy was a perfectionist. He had set the goal of achieving fine control and wouldn't give up until he reached it.
Of course, this didn't mean he had made no progress in half a year. On the contrary, his progress was significant. He could already control the Chop-Chop ability to split a stone into the number of pieces he envisioned.
But he was still quite a distance from his planned goal of splitting stones into pieces of equal size, let alone reaching the level Buggy envisioned of directly creating stone sculptures using his ability.
One must eat rice mouthful by mouthful, and walk the road step by step. As long as there was progress every day, Buggy could accept it.
Seeing that the wild Celestial Fragrance was approaching its maturation period, Buggy temporarily halted his training, preparing to collect the Celestial Fragrance first.
Following the familiar route, Buggy soon reached the vicinity of the ditch. However, before Buggy got close, he heard a loud "boom," followed by the sound of cursing.
Needless to say, Buggy knew his harvesting spot had been discovered by someone else. As for the sounds he heard, they were naturally the prelude to a battle between harvesters and killer bees.
Stopping in his tracks and thinking for a moment, Buggy then slowly crept towards the ditch.
In a tree that offered a panoramic view of the ditch, Buggy hid his body among the dense leaves and then looked towards the distant ditch.
At this moment, a man and a woman were battling a large number of killer bees at the entrance of the ditch.
Glancing over, Buggy wasn't interested in the man in front who was sweeping away killer bees with a spiked club. What interested him was the woman behind the man, who had a long sword slung diagonally at her waist.
How should he put it? It was very familiar. Not that Buggy knew this woman, but the ability she displayed was very familiar to Buggy. It would be strange if it wasn't familiar.
The killer bees, originally incredibly fast and powerful in their attacks, now seemed as if a spell had been cast on them in mid-air, each one moving incredibly sluggishly. Otherwise, how could they possibly be swept away by a completely unremarkable brute with a spiked club?
(End of this chapter)