Marine Headquarters.
A warship slowly docked at the shore. From the ship, a figure flashed, leaping directly from the deck onto the pier, then familiarly heading off in a certain direction.
That figure was naturally Roya, who had just finished the second-stage assessment and returned to Marine Headquarters.
As he walked through Marine Headquarters, he saw people everywhere wearing the Justice cloak. Any Marine officer of ensign rank or above possessed this distinctive Justice cloak.
After completing the third-stage assessment, Roya would become an official Marine officer—at the very least, a captain. Naturally, there would be a Justice cloak prepared for him as well. However, Roya felt that the Marine admiral's cloak looked far more impressive.
Of course, the fleet admiral's was even better.
As a light breeze passed by, Roya smiled, withdrew his gaze, and returned home.
During the time he spent at sea, although he had barely trained aboard the warship, the single battle he fought had significantly increased his enhancement energy—no less than what he would have gained from training hard for half a month.
Half a day after returning home, Roya received new orders.
"The third-stage assessment is scheduled for two and a half months from now?"
Looking at the directive issued by the Marines, Roya stroked his chin and showed a thoughtful expression. Those two and a half months, plus the half month he had already spent at sea, added up to exactly three months.
The time limit for the second-stage assessment was three months. Failing to complete it within that period meant failure and a need to start over.
"It seems the third-stage assessment being set two and a half months from now is meant to wait out the full three-month limit. If that's the case, then when the assessment comes, I might be grouped together with Smoker and the others again?"
After muttering to himself, Roya shook his head slightly and didn't bother thinking further. Whatever the arrangement, it didn't matter. What he cared about now was how to continue improving his strength.
Having reached his current level, further improving his physical strength through pure training had become extremely difficult. Usually, even training for a long time would not result in much improvement.
On these seas, there were countless people whose physical strength could rival Roya's current level, but those who could reach Garp's tier were extremely rare—few enough to count on one hand.
The further one progressed in strength, the harder improvement became.
For Roya at this point, his strength firmly placed him at the level of a Marine branch vice admiral. In fact, even ordinary branch vice admirals were no match for him.
Continuing to train physical strength and Armament and Observation Haki would no longer lead to rapid improvements. That left only two avenues for quick growth.
Improving swordsmanship.
Strengthening the Soul Sword to the fourth stage.
"With two and a half months until the third-stage assessment, strengthening to the fourth stage will probably be quite difficult. As for swordsmanship… that can still be pushed further."
Roya summoned his status panel mentally, looked it over, pondered briefly, and then decided on his training direction for the next two and a half months.
"Before the third-stage assessment begins, I need to raise my overall strength to the best level I can currently reach."
"The final round of training before officially going to sea."
"And then… it will be time to truly set sail."
---
Marine Headquarters fortress.
Roya once again came to the second-floor training grounds. With his current strength, training at home was no longer feasible—one swing of his sword could split the house in half.
"Hm? Roya, weren't you taking part in the second-stage graduation assessment?"
Seeing Roya suddenly appear, Hina, who was training in the large second-floor training ground, showed a surprised expression and asked him.
"It's already over."
Roya smiled at her and walked straight toward the innermost small training room.
Over already? That fast?!
Not only Hina, but Ain and the others were also stunned. Around the same time last year, another group had taken the graduation assessment, and even the fastest completion of the second stage had taken nearly a month and a half.
Roya had finished it in just half a month?!
If they didn't already know that Roya's strength far surpassed that of ordinary elite-camp recruits, they almost wouldn't have believed it.
---
Second-floor training area, the innermost small training room.
This training room was the smallest of all the small rooms, and also the least visited. Even for Roya, this was his first time here. The reason so few people came was simple—
This training room was built from Seastone!
Seastone!
A special material tougher than steel, possessing power equivalent to the sea itself. It exerted absolute suppression on Devil Fruit users, preventing them from using their abilities and leaving their bodies weak and limp.
The handcuffs and shackles commonly used to restrain ability users were all made of Seastone.
Because this room was constructed from Seastone, it was practically forbidden territory for ability users. Naturally, very few people trained here. Roya came precisely because his current destructive power was already too great for ordinary small training rooms to handle at full force.
"Ten tons of weight… hmm, there's also twenty tons here. This should be the maximum, right?"
Roya walked into the room, examined the equipment, and found it satisfactory.
Previously, the heaviest weights he had found elsewhere were only ten tons. It seemed ordinary rooms couldn't withstand training at that level. Only this Seastone room could handle heavier loads.
"Still, this twenty-ton weight really is something."
Roya walked up to the massive twenty-ton weight, curled his lips, then extended both hands and heaved it up onto his back.
Although the weight was made from special materials and mechanisms, it was still enormous—much larger than the ten-ton version.
Roya had always trained with ten tons before and had never used twenty tons, but with his current physical capacity—hundreds or even thousands of times beyond that of an ordinary person—he could still lift this level of weight with ease.
To reach Garp's level, however, ordinary training methods were no longer sufficient. Even training with a hundred tons would likely be unable to produce someone who could flatten eight mountains with his fists, or hurl an iron ball larger than a warship.
"This level of weight is already strange enough. If it were another level heavier, the size alone would make it unsuitable for training—unless there were a gravity device unaffected by size…"
Thinking of this, Roya smiled and said, "I wonder if the world's strongest scientist, Vegapunk—said to be five hundred years ahead of the world—could develop something like that. Otherwise, only a gravity-type Devil Fruit would do."
"Let's warm up first."
Carrying the twenty-ton weight as he began to warm up, Roya suddenly felt a sense of emotion. Nearly a year ago, when he had just arrived in this world, let alone twenty tons—even the basic two-hundred-kilogram load in the Marine recruit camp had been difficult for him to bear.
Now the load had increased by a hundredfold, yet he felt almost no pressure at all.