Chapter 35: Breakthrough

North Blue, Swallow Island.

It had now been two months since Rayden rescued Law from Minion Island. It was now dawn and golden rays of light were peeking through the horizon. The wind that was carrying the scent of wet morning dew gently blew by a sleepy village.

The village itself seemed unable to withstand the cold morning air and whimpered. Gradually, signs of life appeared as the morning sun rose from the east. Three figures could be seen training seriously on the training ground placed in the centre on this village.

Upon a steep cliff close to this village, a teenage boy was wearing a training robe and holding a steel sword. He jumped up and down and moved forward and back, making his sword shine with light that danced and weaved. This teenage boy was Rayden.

Perhaps it was just an illusion, perhaps it was the environment, but the scene of Rayden waving his sword gave one the sense that he was descending from the clouds, looking down over the mountains of the world, everything miniscule in comparison. Even though he was there right in front of you, but it felt like he was part his surroundings, a kind of unpredictable sense of distance that would make one feel like they were helplessly lost in the world.

One by one, he moved from stance to stance, starting from the first level and advancing to the peak of the second level stage, then started displaying the initial stances of the third stage. After moving through all the different stances, Rayden's gaze became sharp, as if it was cutting right through the air. He jumped high up into the air and dove down like he was jumping off a peak. Snap! A small spark appeared. The next second, half of the rock was scored with a horrifying nine-centimeter-deep sword mark. It was clean and neat, yet aggressive and cold-blooded. He never used any attributed energy or flying slash attack in this swing but yet created such a result.

Looking at the result of his over one month intensive training on this Island, he felt intense pride in his heart, "Finally, the 'Advanced' stage! This feeling is really marvelous." He felt that killing those weaker than him would only take an instant, and when facing those who are stronger than him, they will still fall under his sword unless the level gap was too big.

With a thought, a holographic projection of his complete attribute panels (both physical attribute and skill attribute panels) appeared in front of him.

Name: Gol D. Rayden

Race: Human (Gene Awakening - 44.90%)

Realm: Body Tempering Stage (7th level - Middle Stage)

Basic Attributes

Strength: 365

Agility: 407

Physique: 403

Soul (Spirit): 435

Thunder Internal energy: 2300 units

Internal Energy Recovery Rate: 1 unit every 3 seconds

Energy Points: 1412

Skills

Awakened Skills: [Detect], [Shield] (Level 2), [Devour] (Level 1), [Thunder Mode] (Level 2).

Mental Cultivation Skill: Nine Heavens Mental Cultivation Skill (Level 3 - Initial Stage) [Energy Points required for middle stage - 800]

Qi Cultivation Skill: Chaotic Thunder Body Cultivation Skill [Energy Points required for Late Stage of level 7 - 800]

Sword Skill: Illusionary Sword Tactics (3rd Level - Proficient/Advanced')

Other

Sword Realm: Peak Third Stage (Flying Slash Attack) [30% Attack power]

Observation Haki: Level 2 (Initial) [Energy points required for middle stage - 450]

Rayden smiled when he looked at the result of his persistent training over this period of time. After killing Vergo two months ago, he had destroyed his body and removed all traces of his presence as well as Corazon's battle with Vergo.

This would ensure that even though Doflamingo would eventually find out that Corazon had stolen the Ope Ope no Mi (Operation Operation Devil's fruit) from the Barrels Pirate Group, he would not know what happened to it. He wouldn't even know that Vergo was dead. After that, together with Law, he respectfully buried Corazon's body and fled Minion Island immediately.

It took him two weeks to sail from Minion Island to Swallow Island. He had been training here together with Law ever since. During this period, his training in the [Electrode Strengthening] had successfully reached the peak of the first level further increasing his attributes by five percent. His thunder element affinity as well as his thunder internal energy refining speed had also increased.

He now felt how amazing strength of the Heaven Ranked Skill [Illusionary Sword Tactics]. With the breakthrough into the 'Proficient/Advanced' stage of the third level, his sword realm has also increased to the peak of the third stage. Now he doesn't need to swing his sword to release a flying sword slash. He can launch the air projectile like a piercing blast via a sword thrust.

Since he killed Vergo two months ago and was rewarded with a thousand energy points he still had not used it until now because he wanted to accumulate more energy points through cultivation and breakthrough from the initial stage the peak of the third stage in one go. But just yesterday, his father called him on the Den Den mu Shi that he would arrive on Swallow Island in two days' time to send him to Crowell Island for his final training mission. So he had to use it now to increase his strength and odds of success in this mission since his father had told him that it would be very difficult.

So with a thought, his energy points decreased by 800 points and a special kind of energy spread from his heart spot and went straight towards his brain. Rayden's spirit energy started increasing rapidly until he felt a 'pop' go off in his head signalling his breakthrough.

He immediately felt that his soul strength and comprehension speed as well as his sensory abilities had increased tremendously. When he started to extend his observation Haki to test just how much his sensory abilities had increased, he felt two presences a few meters from him.

"What!" Rayden became completely shocked. With his Observation Haki at the second level, who could sneak up on him without noticing on this Island? He immediately unsheathed his sword and became alert.

….

About three miles away from where Rayden was practising, two men had arrived quite a while ago watching him train. One of them was about three meters in height with black hair and deep ocean blue eyes. The other was a silver haired middle aged man with an average height at about 1.91 meters.

These two men were Gol D. Richard and his friend Silvers Rayleigh who had just arrived on Swallow Island to pick up Rayden after settling Martha and Adley on Crowell Island. Since his travelling schedule was revealed to the World Government, Richard knew that there should be a World Government spy on Wano Country so he decided to keep on Crowell Island.

Even though that place was filled with dangerous beasts, with the measures he put in place, his wife and child should be safer there. He had swum all the way from the calm belts, together with Rayleigh to North Blue before joining a merchant ship heading towards Swallow Island. Since they had arrived about two days ahead of schedule, he decided together with Rayleigh to monitor Rayden's progress from afar and not alert him.

At this time, there was a proud smile on Richard's face as he felt the intense energy fluctuation emanating from his son's body.

"As expected from a member of 'his' family..." Rayleigh thought as he also felt the unique energy fluctuation in Rayden's body with his stronger Observation Haki. As they were both watching Rayden from a distance, they felt a sudden intense spiritual energy suddenly spill out from Rayden's body.

"Hmm? Breakthrough? Richard, it seems I still underestimated your sons potential. To reach this level of Observation Haki at this age is really amazing!" Rayleigh complemented with a surprised expression. Hearing this, Richard's smile grew even wider. But their surprise didn't end there.

They suddenly felt Rayden's spiritual energy spread out from him and cover over half of Swallow Island. They felt that they had been locked on by the energy when it passed over them.

"He discovered us? The purity of his spiritual strength is stronger than I imagined. With our stronger realms, he still discovered us." The shock on both men's faces couldn't be contained now. Even though Rayden's Observation Haki had just broken through, it was still far from theirs. So theoretically, it should be impossible for him to discover them.

"Ha ha ha ha! Richard, your son keeps pulling out surprises each and every minute!" Rayleigh begun to laugh happily.

"Well, that's what you would at least expect from a son of mine." Richard proudly replied with a wide grin on his face. His funny cocky attitude was as if the achievement was his in the first place. Both men noticed the anxious attitude of Rayden after discovering them so they decided to come out of their hiding places.

"Father?" Rayden was really surprised when he saw his father and Silvers Rayleigh come out of hiding and walk shoulder to shoulder towards him. "Didn't he say he would be arriving in two days' time, how come he is here together with Rayleigh" this thought run through his mind as he turned to look at the man next to his father.

Because he had secluded himself on this island for more than a month, he still didn't know about his father's new bounty and his recent achievements.

The first thing he did when he saw his father and Rayleigh was something he had wanted to do ever since he came to this world. He used his [Detect skill] to scan both men to find out their strengths but he was shocked when he discovered that he couldn't detect the strength of either is father or Rayleigh!