Lena came again after half a month. This time, the pirates Vane had captured numbered over a hundred, and there were also two pirate ships to be sold. This was a big deal, so the gang sent out quite a lot of manpower, mainly out of concern that such a major transaction might be disrupted by pirates.
This time, Vane only kept five capable people: the ship's doctor, navigator, and shipwright from Calder's ship, as well as two local hotheaded youths who had just joined the Calder fleet.
As long as you can afford to keep them and don't have some deep-seated blood feud, professions like ship doctor, shipwright, and navigator all have to be kept. In this day and age, such specialized talents are far too important.
Lena also brought him a very important item—a Devil Fruit encyclopedia.
The Devil Fruit encyclopedia he had asked Princess Martha of Thorn Rose for had finally been delivered into his hands.
"Why does this Devil Fruit encyclopedia look so old?"
Devil Fruit encyclopedias are continuously updated. If this one is too old, it might be missing records of many fruits.
"This is the only Devil Fruit encyclopedia Martha could get her hands on recently."
Devil Fruit encyclopedias aren't something you can find everywhere. Martha hadn't managed to find a ready-made one outside, and she always felt she had seen one somewhere before. So she kept searching through the royal library and finally dug this antique out.
"This encyclopedia is at least a hundred and fifty years old. Hopefully it's not too different from the current ones."
A hundred and fifty years ago, the Thorn Rose Kingdom had probably just been established.
As soon as he got the encyclopedia, Vane took out the banana-shaped Devil Fruit in his hand and began comparing it.
He went straight to the Zoan section. Given its shape, it was very unlikely to be a Logia or Paramecia.
His luck wasn't bad. This encyclopedia recorded information about this fruit.
"Zoan — Cat-Cat Fruit — Lion Form."
Unfortunately, it wasn't a valuable Ancient type, nor was it the Mythical type Vane had once imagined.
Mythical Zoans are truly powerful—often even stronger than Logias.
Sadly, his luck wasn't that good. This was just an ordinary Zoan Devil Fruit.
"Well, it's not too bad. Among ordinary Zoans, a lion is considered strong."
Compared to moles, wolves, or leopards, lions are naturally stronger animals.
Of course, how much a Devil Fruit can be developed still largely depends on one's physical talent. That guy Kaku ate a scam-level Ox-Ox Fruit — Giraffe Form, and through sheer personal effort… plus version updates, he somehow managed to reach Zoan awakening.
If your strength isn't up to par, like the Tobiroppo under Kaido, their fruits are all top-tier—every one of them Ancient types, many even Dragon-Dragon Fruits—yet their combat performance is abstract at best. Their main highlight is basically how well they can take a beating. Looking at it overall, only the saber-toothed tiger was somewhat capable in a fight.
Yet that saber-toothed tiger just happened to run into one of the three strongest under Luffy—Knight of the Sea Jinbe—and got thoroughly taught a lesson.
Since it was a Lion Form fruit, Vane himself had no intention of eating it.
Last time, he had obtained an Articuno feather and made it into a pendant, which he had been wearing these days, slowly absorbing the energy within the Articuno feather.
He already had his own path to growing stronger. There was absolutely no need for him to eat this lower-tier Devil Fruit. Eating it would only add the weakness of being afraid of seawater.
Vane could eat a fruit, but it had to be the right kind.
Secondly, timing also mattered. Even if he had a suitable fruit in hand, he still had to see whether the timing was right. If his strength continued to increase, eating a fruit could be postponed.
After all, being unable to swim and being vulnerable to Seastone are pretty serious threats in a world filled with seawater.
After putting away the Devil Fruit encyclopedia, Vane carried the fruit and headed to the training ground.
Most people were undergoing firearms training, while a small portion were experiencing Electabuzz's electrotherapy.
Bonez was one of them.
When Vane arrived, he happened to see this scene. At the same time, he turned his gaze to Electabuzz. On Electabuzz's chest hung a pendant, carrying a stone marked with Electabuzz's insignia, filled with electric-type energy.
Right—Electabuzz had been summoned using the Cat-Cat Fruit, Lion Form. The Devil Fruit ability user who dropped this stone had been a Cat-Cat Fruit, Black Panther Form user.
In other words, the Cat-Cat Fruit was very likely already bound to Electabuzz. In the future, if they encountered another Cat-Cat Fruit, it would most likely drop items related to Electabuzz.
If they wanted new Pokémon, they would need to obtain other Zoan Devil Fruits or defeat related Devil Fruit users.
For example, the Ox-Ox Fruit, Dog-Dog Fruit, Bird-Bird Fruit, Bug-Bug Fruit, Dragon-Dragon Fruit… and so on.
"Tant, come over here for a moment."
As the boss here, Vane naturally drew the attention of everyone and every Pokémon the moment he appeared.
Although he only called Tant over, in reality, in this small training ground everyone began to gather closer. Creatures like Meowth, who could be relatively uninhibited in front of Vane, even stuck close to observe what Vane was about to do.
"Boss, is there something you need?"
Aside from Vane himself, Tant was the only one whose physique had grown during this period. If Vane didn't train him, and if he had no luck in obtaining a Devil Fruit, then his future ceiling would probably be around Big Blade Buri or Axe Potter's level.
"This is a Devil Fruit. Eat it, and you'll gain power as strong as Calder's."
To Vane, this fruit was somewhat chicken-rib, but to ordinary people, it was still a treasure of the sea—one of the fastest ways to increase strength.
"A Devil… Fruit!"
Tant's breathing grew hot, his heart pounding violently. He had never imagined that Vane would actually let him eat a treasure of the sea worth at least a hundred million Belly.
"It's really a Devil Fruit. After eating it, you get powerful strength."
"The boss is really amazing, letting a subordinate like me eat the fruit."
The others were filled with envy. Everyone wanted to eat this Devil Fruit. Although Calder had died rather unceremoniously at Vane's hands, his strength was undeniable to them.
Eating a Devil Fruit meant officially saying goodbye to being an ordinary person.
"After eating it, you can become a powerful animal, meow."
"If you want to eat one, I'll find a suitable one for you later. Zoans aren't suitable for you, meow meow."
Meowth could eat any fruit, but eating a Zoan had the lowest cost-performance—especially something like Chopper's Human-Human Fruit — Ordinary Human Form.
Chopper gained human intelligence and the ability to walk upright from it, but Meowth could already stand, talk, and wasn't lacking in intelligence. Eating the Human-Human Fruit — Ordinary Human Form would truly be the most disastrous of disasters.
"If I eat one, I won't be able to swim, but I'll gain powerful strength… it's so hard to choose, meow."
In Vane's plans, the Munch-Munch Fruit was the most suitable for Meowth. But obtaining that really depended on luck. If they encountered a suitable fruit, there was no need to be overly picky about letting Meowth eat it.
"Tant, hurry up and eat it. If you're unwilling, I'll give it to someone else."
Of course, that wasn't actually possible. Aside from Tant, in Vane's eyes everyone else present would be wasting this fruit. Even though ordinary Zoans were average, they weren't suitable for just anyone.
"I'll eat it, I'll eat it."
Hearing Vane say this, how could Tant hesitate any longer? He immediately took the Devil Fruit and, under the envious gazes of those around him, swallowed it.
Tant's expression twisted as he squatted on the ground, covering his mouth and forcing himself not to throw up.
Devil Fruits all share one characteristic—no matter what ability they grant, they taste absolutely awful. It's said they taste even worse than mixed garbage.