It seemed that what Garp had been fiddling with earlier was precisely this sword.
The blade had not even been drawn yet, and already a sharp, cutting aura was spreading out from it—clearly no ordinary weapon.
Roya looked at the sword in Garp's hand with mild surprise.
"This is…?"
"One of the 21 Great Grade Blades—Flame Moon!"
Garp grinned at Roya as he handed the katana over, continuing as he spoke, "I heard earlier that you wanted a famous sword. I wiped out a pirate crew recently and just happened to find this blade, so I brought it back."
In this world, there was no strict distinction between sabers and swords; a katana could also be called a sword.
Among them, the most famous were the 12 Supreme Grade Blades, followed by the 21 Great Grade Blades, and lastly the 50 Skillful Grade Blades.
The world's greatest swordsman, Hawkeye Mihawk, wielded one of the 12 Supreme Grade Blades—the black blade Yoru.
Obtaining a Supreme Grade Blade was unimaginably difficult. Even the slightly inferior 21 Great Grade Blades were far from easy to come by.
Garp had not returned for a whole week… was it because he went to get this sword?
As for "just happening to find it after eliminating a pirate crew," that was probably an excuse. More likely, he had gone through quite some trouble gathering information and deliberately set out to sea for this blade.
No wonder Garp had been appearing and disappearing throughout the past month… so that was the reason.
In an instant, Roya pieced together most of Garp's actions. Looking at the Great Grade Blade Flame Moon being handed to him, he reached out and accepted it with great seriousness.
"Thank you."
"Bwahahaha! You little brat, why are you suddenly acting like a different person? Why are you being polite with me?"
Garp chuckled at Roya. A trace of gentle warmth seemed to flash through his eyes, but in the very next moment, a fierce aura suddenly erupted from him.
"Oh right—now that I think about it, it's already been a month, and you still seem to be at the bottom of the recruit camp, huh?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Garp abruptly stood up and rapped Roya on the head with his fist.
Hiss!!
Roya, who had been on the verge of being deeply moved, instantly wanted to draw Flame Moon and fight Garp to the death.
Rubbing the swelling lump on his forehead, Roya glared at Garp through clenched teeth.
"Uncle Garp, you didn't hurt your hand, did you?"
"No!"
Garp snorted, folding his arms across his chest. Thinking about how he had often been left with internal injuries by Roya's sharp remarks in the past, he felt irritated. He shot Roya an annoyed look and continued,
"Oh, right. I got you a month's leave. For the next month, I'll personally guide your training. You'd better take it seriously—otherwise, hmph!"
"What?"
Roya looked completely stunned.
Garp immediately glared, clearly ready to throw another punch.
"What? You're not willing?!"
"No—it's just… we start tomorrow?"
How could Roya possibly refuse? He had long wanted Garp's guidance, but Garp had been so elusive that Roya could only ask him a few training-related questions whenever they met.
Who was Garp? With Garp personally guiding him, Roya's next stage of training would be far more than just twice as effective!
"Of course! Training officially starts tomorrow. You can go get some proper rest today."
Seeing Roya agree, Garp finally showed a satisfied smile.
Roya nodded, then took the famed sword Flame Moon and returned to his room.
After entering his room, Roya lay straight down on the bed. He had originally planned to rest in preparation for tomorrow's training, but out of habit, he activated his consciousness, and the familiar status panel popped up before his eyes.
[Stage One: Damaged Soul Sword +10
(Enhancement Conditions Met)
Attributes: Attack Power +30
Enhancement Energy: 10/10]
Seeing that nothing seemed different, Roya yawned and prepared to go to sleep.
But almost in the very next instant, Roya's eyes flew wide open. His mind buzzed, and all sleepiness vanished.
"This is… 'Enhancement Conditions Met'?!"
The words Enhancement Conditions Not Met had, at some point, turned into Enhancement Conditions Met!
As joy surged through him, Roya couldn't help but think back.
After returning home, he hadn't really done anything—except receive a famed sword from Garp, the 21 Great Grade Blade Flame Moon…
His thoughts abruptly stopped.
That was it!
Aside from this, there was nothing else that could reasonably explain the change.
After returning home, the only thing that could have affected the Soul Sword and caused the enhancement conditions to be fulfilled was obtaining the famous blade Flame Moon.
"So meeting the enhancement condition requires obtaining a famous sword?"
A look of realization appeared in Roya's eyes. He just didn't know whether a Skillful Grade Blade would suffice, or whether it had to be a Great Grade Blade or higher.
But that no longer mattered.
What mattered was—
The Soul Sword could continue to be enhanced!
In the next moment, Roya activated his consciousness again. The hazy, illusory Soul Sword space appeared once more before him. At the center of the space, the crystal-clear Soul Sword—still covered in cracks—floated quietly in midair.
Taking a deep breath, Roya did not hesitate and directly chose Enhance.
Buzz!!
At that instant, astonishing changes erupted within the hazy space. Streams of golden energy spilled out from the void and surged toward the cracked Soul Sword at the center.
Brilliant golden light instantly enveloped it.
This was not the first time Roya had enhanced the Soul Sword, but without question, the disturbance this time was far greater than before.
As the golden light poured in, the crystalline blade suddenly began to emit a soft, shimmering glow—speckled and hazy, beautiful to behold.
Within that glow, the countless cracks along the blade began to heal!
"As expected—this enhancement is a qualitative transformation. Even the cracks on the blade are healing!"
Watching the scene unfold, Roya could not calm his heart, and his expression grew visibly excited.
Buzz!!
Finally, under Roya's eager gaze, all the cracks on the blade fully healed. The glow gradually faded, leaving behind a semi-transparent, ancient-looking longsword, still floating in midair.
Once everything had completely settled, Roya activated his consciousness again, and the status panel popped up.
[Stage Two: Ancient Soul Sword +0
Attributes: Attack Power +40, Strength +10
(One additional attribute can be drawn)
Enhancement Energy: 0/20]
At a glance, compared to before enhancement, not only had attack power increased by another 10 points, but there was also an additional attribute—Strength +10. Moreover, the color of this attribute was not white, but green.
Clearly, this was a higher-tier attribute.
Roya felt no direct sensation from the increase in attack power—it simply meant greater destructive force when attacking. However, the increase in strength was something he could clearly feel!
Those 10 points of strength might not seem like much, but after carefully sensing his body, Roya could distinctly feel that his physical strength had increased by at least thirty percent!
"So that means my previous physical strength was only 30 points?" Roya pondered. "I wonder how much strength Garp has…"
Ten thousand? Twenty thousand?
The corner of his mouth twitched. Without hesitation, Roya tossed that extremely discouraging thought aside and looked back at the status panel.
Enhancement energy had become 0/20, which clearly meant that the next enhancement would require 20 points—significantly increasing the difficulty.
Roya had already learned within the first month that each enhancement required more energy than the last. Previously, the increase had only been by one point each time; this time, it had jumped by ten.
This didn't particularly surprise him.
What truly caught Roya's attention was the line that appeared after Attack Power +40 and Strength +10—
"One additional attribute can be drawn."
"An extra draw… that's interesting. Let's try it."
There was no need to think about how to draw it. With a single thought from Roya, several words appeared above the status panel.
Begin Drawing.
Whoosh!
As the words Begin Drawing flashed past, all the text and numbers on the panel vanished instantly. In their place, attributes of various colors began flashing and changing rapidly before Roya's eyes.
In addition to green, blue, and purple attributes, Roya even saw a golden attribute—though it flashed by so quickly that he couldn't make out what it was.
Green and blue attributes appeared most frequently, purple far less so, and gold seemed to appear only once.
"Even if I can't see clearly, gold is probably the strongest attribute, and purple should also be a rare one…"
Watching the multicolored attributes flash endlessly, Roya formed a rough conclusion in his mind.
Now the only question was—
What attribute would he draw?