(Haha!)
Hearing this, Merlin couldn't help but laugh happily. Regardless of what she thought in her heart, these words were comfortable to hear. Finally, he smiled and shook his head at Teresa: "No need. Although I'm not some good person, I will still properly keep my promises to friends.
"Don't worry, I'm not interested in the Devil Fruit at this auction.
"I won't go back on what I promised you this time."
Teresa looked like she wanted to say something but stopped. However, it must be said that with Merlin's words, the stone hanging in her heart quietly fell.
She wasn't talking nonsense. If Merlin really wanted the Devil Fruit this time, it wasn't impossible for them to withdraw from the auction, but inevitably, some grudges would definitely arise in their hearts.
But now, they were completely gone.
Teresa looked at Merlin with sparkling eyes, "I seem to know you again!
"A handsome guy who can keep his promises is the most handsome type."
Merlin couldn't help laughing: "You even learned to flatter. Don't worry, as long as I promised my own people, I won't go back on it."
The corners of Teresa's mouth rose slightly. She first glanced at the head on the ground that had been simply processed, then smiled at Merlin: "Let's go up. I sent someone to buy some snacks to go with alcohol. Shall we go up for a drink?"
Merlin thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, let's go!"
Time passed.
On the deck, under the moonlight.
The two sat by a low table, eating snacks and drinking wine in big bowls.
Various bottles and jars were already filled beside their feet at this moment.
Teresa rested her left elbow on the table, her palm supporting her chin. At this moment, she was staring at Merlin unblinkingly and giggling: "I've felt this way for a long time. The food Yol eats every day must be good."
"Huh?"
Merlin looked somewhat blank, eating peanuts. Teresa laughed cheerfully and explained: "Look! Eating delicious food is inherently a very happy thing, but being able to see a handsome guy at close range at the dining table.
"Eww~ Just thinking about it makes me happy!"
Merlin looked at her, whose exquisite fair cheeks were already rosy and whose eyes were hazy. The corners of his mouth were hard to keep straight: "You're already drunk, Teresa."
"I'm not drunk!! Hehe, really not."
Teresa waved her right hand vigorously, then giggled and slapped the table with both hands to stand up directly.
But she stood up with too much force, lost her balance, and tilted backward. After taking two steps back, she tripped over the wine bottles at her feet and fell backward. Amidst the clanking sound of wine bottles falling to the ground, she suddenly exerted force with her waist muscles.
As a result, she exerted too much force and her feet slipped.
Bang! Her head hit directly on the corner of the low table.
As the dull sound appeared.
Merlin's mouth opened slightly. Looking at the woman lying limp on the ground with blood streaming from her forehead at this moment, the corners of his mouth twitched violently, and even his eyes showed some panic: "Holy crap, Teresa, don't die on me! If you die, I'll be in deep trouble!"
Merlin quickly got up and went over, reaching out to press on her carotid artery. Black flames rose in his eyes as he examined the calamities in her body.
Immediately after, Merlin breathed a sigh of relief: "Just a normal superficial wound."
Then wisps of black flame wound around her forehead, absorbing the injury calamity. Only then did Merlin breathe a sigh of relief: "Damn, really scared me to death."
If Teresa died here, he really wouldn't be able to explain it clearly. After all, he had just obtained Berries enough to buy almost a Devil Fruit, plus the three hundred million of the siblings on the ship.
Could God play such a joke?
Little did he know that a staircase could kill a swordsman in this world. Merlin was really startled just now.
Looking at this unlucky fellow beside him who only had bloodstains on her forehead and face, Merlin's expression instantly became difficult to maintain.
Watching her fall into a deep sleep due to the heavy blow to the head plus the drunken state, Merlin was utterly speechless: "This idiot."
Helplessly, Merlin pulled up her left arm, carried her on his shoulder, and returned to her room in a while. In the bathroom, he used the showerhead to wash away the bloodstains on her face.
Then he threw her onto the bed.
Merlin shook off the water on his hands. Only then did that pain in the ass feeling subside slightly.
At this moment, watching her twist around on the bed, Merlin was speechless. He pulled the quilt aside and covered her.
Then he left without looking back. On the deck, Merlin arrived here at this moment.
He had no mood to continue eating and drinking.
He cleaned up the place.
Subsequently, leaning on the railing, looking at the bright full moon in the sky, at this moment, Merlin experienced the brand-new power in his body.
The Equipment Slot unfolded before his eyes.
Thoughtfulness was in Merlin's gaze.
[...Synthesize?]
Recalling the information that appeared in his mind after equipping earlier.
Merlin looked at this unique patterned slot currently equipping the Calamity Fruit.
Ever since binding it before, a marvelous feeling had been surging in his body.
99% Synchro Value, like being just one step away. A feeling of anxiety was constantly surging in his heart.
Perceiving himself with Observation Haki, Merlin's gaze moved slightly, having an instinctive intuition: "Just one step away. Maybe a hard battle can break through, or in a dying state."
And when thinking of this, Merlin's gaze condensed, "Then let's try it!"
A while later, Merlin insured himself, first absorbing Teresa's drunken state calamity.
This state calamity was easy to understand and analyze. Merlin had already finished analyzing it after drinking those Monkey Wines back then.
Glancing at her sleeping soundly at this moment.
Not long after, in the bathroom of his own room, Merlin stood here wearing only a pair of shorts, looking at himself in the mirror on the washstand, gripping a dagger in his right hand.
The next moment.
Squelch!
A narrow and long blood line opened from his neck. Immediately after, the dagger in his right hand turned into a phantom, and penetrating wounds stabbed into the organs in his body one after another.
In this instant, blood spurted from Merlin's whole body.
Panting heavily.
This was a heavy injury sufficient to cause death.
Immediately after, pitch-black flames ignited all over his body, and the hideous and terrifying wounds on his body were healing constantly.
Perceiving the energy in his body flowing away like a tide, but recovering quickly under the boost of the current Oni Fruit.
But unfortunately, the current energy recovery speed couldn't catch up with the consumption speed.
But even so, this allowed Merlin's state to last longer.
Time passed minute by minute. Until half an hour later, Merlin sat paralyzed on the ground at this moment, his whole body covered in solidified blood scabs.
Gasping for breath, the taste of exhaustion was not pleasant, but the pain from the mental level was even more unbearable.
Only absorbing injury calamities without absorbing pain calamities—at this moment, Merlin felt his head was hurting as if it was about to explode.
Temples bulging.
Veins popping on his forehead.
Eyes tired, Merlin looked at the Synchro Value on the Equipment Slot which was still 99%, somewhat helpless, "It seems this won't work?
"Is it because I've already gotten used to this state of physical and mental limits?"
Thinking this way, Merlin slowly got up and turned on the showerhead to wash away the bloodstains on his body.
Drying his body, Merlin came to the bedside and lay down, covered himself with the quilt, and soon entered a deep sleep.
But not long after, Fulvio returned to the ship. When he found both Merlin and his sister asleep, there was some helplessness in his eyes: "Are these two so big-hearted?"
But fortunately, the sailors who could board this ship were all trustworthy people from his own family.
After all, their homes were all settled on Petrel Island, and their children were all studying in the Rock Heart Sword Dojo.
The next day.
9:00 AM.
Sunlight shone in from outside the window. Merlin's eyelids trembled, then he opened his eyes.
Hunger!
The instinct right after waking up was telling Merlin.
He was very hungry at this moment.
Extremely hungry.
————
But this wasn't the main point. Just because at this moment, as soon as Merlin woke up, he already had an instinctive feeling, that was a marvelous change had appeared in his body.
Stretching out his hands, looking at the still different colors on his ten fingers.
The Equipment Slot unfolded before his eyes.
The next moment.
[Calamity Fruit]: Synchro Value 100%
At this moment, perceiving that power capable of manipulating calamities in his body.
And the storage state of calamity effects had already undergone a transformation quietly.
A sudden flash of insight appeared instinctively.
"Assimilation. 100% Synchro Value, the fruit ability will step into the Awakening level."
Perceiving his own state at this moment, Merlin quickly figured out the change in ability.
"After the fruit ability awakens, it's not permanently anchoring the ten calamity effects stored in the fingers.
"Instead, it's an assimilation modification. I can do it like a plague, assimilating the specific calamity stored in the fingers outwards through the Calamity Black Flame as a medium.
"In other words, the calamity effect has changed from single-target attack to area-of-effect damage."
That is to say, the stored calamity effects would be similar to an infection source.
No longer a one-time consumption.
And no need to painstakingly recover it every time after use in the future. The ability effect became more convenient and...
Terrifying.
Black flame is the transmission route.
Quietly experiencing the changes in his own ability, Merlin looked thoughtful: "The ability to manipulate calamities can still only affect biological bodies. Inanimate objects still cannot be interfered with. Is this the limitation of the Calamity Fruit ability?"
Thinking of this, Merlin couldn't help sighing, but he couldn't be insatiable. This fruit ability was already convenient enough.
And at this time, the [Equipment Slot] changed. Merlin looked at the specialization column.
A brand-new special specialization appeared.
[Awakening]: Through accumulation over time and being entangled by myriad calamities, you have comprehended the essence of ability awakening. When you use your own abilities, that ability will simultaneously obtain the effect of awakening.
A special specialization with permanent buff of ability awakening state.
After Merlin finished understanding, this thought naturally appeared in his mind.
With a thought at this moment, pitch-black flames rose in his hand. Immediately after, they spread throughout the entire cabin at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Strange luster flashed in Merlin's eyes. He instinctively understood that as long as one was entangled by this black flame, he could [Assimilate] the stored calamity effects to them.
However, as the black flames continued to be released externally, the consumption of energy was indeed not small.
But it was okay. This consumption followed the conservation of energy.
And at this time, with a thought, the black flames burning in the cabin without the slightest burning damage disappeared instantly.
And looking at the two [Equipments] in the Equipment Slot before him, Merlin had already made up his mind at this moment: "Synthesize."