Improvement

Straw Hat Crew trained that night while the next morning, Liam started training with Valentine. Since this training had no limits, Liam decided to let Valentine beat him up from morning to dawn.

He managed to block her attack but this time, she not only had control over her movement but also can stand while having that much weight on her body. Surprisingly, it wasn't just Liam who improved.

Her body was getting stronger as well. Her devil fruit allows her to increase the weight of her body. The reason why she doesn't fight hand to hand is that she can't stand her body weight increasing by thousands of kilograms.

But, this time, Liam's cards were enabling her to stand without facing any pressure while still having that much weight on her body. She kept punching from different making it harder for Liam to deflect.

So, at the end of the dawn, they finally stopped and those cards returned to Liam's body. Three large purple bumps appeared on his face, his body was covered with bruises and he was barely standing.

While it seemed like Valentine wasn't exhausted just a few minutes ago, as soon as the cards entered Liam's body, she suddenly lost her consciousness and fell down.

Liam although feeling weakness all over his body stood up and took her to the bed. He collapsed next to her and Nami entered the room. Seeing his condition, she couldn't help but sigh.

Her world was truly cruel. She has seen Liam getting beaten from the moment they came together. And until now, he was still getting beaten to get stronger.

She walked closer to him and rubbed his cheek with a smile on her face. At this moment, a certain someone also saw this from outside but didn't enter the room.

Nami tried to pull Liam back to the bed. At this moment, she suddenly lifted Liam so much that she almost threw him up.

'What? What is going on? His body should've been heavy, right? Why is it light now? This feels, even more, lighter than before.'

Suddenly, her eyes shrunk as she thought.

'Don't tell me he failed the last training and lost his strength?'

At this moment, she started panicking. She thought of waking him up but after thinking for a while, she decided not to. She walked out of the room and let them sleep.

...….

Somewhere on the Alabasta,

"So, these are the brats coming for my head. Bounty doesn't seem bad for newbies but..." A man wearing a black furry coat with a cigar on his mouth and his one hand that had a metal hook instead of an actual hand.

"If you can't even get through those losers, you don't deserve to fight me."

"Miss Sunday, have you notified them?"

A lady standing behind him wearing a white hat nodded her head.

"Yes! They said that not only they will kill straw hats but also bring back Valentine."

"There is no need to. Baroque works don't require losers. Tell Mr.3 to kill her as well." Mr.0, Crocodile, one of the seven warlords of the sea spoke with a cruel tone.

"Yes, boss!" Nico Robin nodded her head and left.

Crocodile looked at the table where Luffy's and Liam's bounty poster were placed. The window was barely passing some light but a glint appeared in his eyes as he muttered.

"Just a few more days. Once I get my hands on that beast, I will be invincible in the seas. And…."

His eyes shifted at those bounty posters as he sneered "Nobody is going to stop me."

...…

At this moment, Straw Hats were sitting in the cabin with a bit heavy atmosphere. Except for Luffy who was completely unaware of anything, everyone seem quite serious.

Creek!

Suddenly, the door opened and Liam walked in.

"Sanji, do we have something to eat? I am really hungry."

He didn't even need to get a reply. Sanji stood up and started cooking some fried rice. In the meantime, Liam sat with other Straw Hats. He wasn't an idiot like Luffy.

He quickly noticed the atmosphere and asked "What happened? Is something wrong?"

Hearing his questions, Zoro, and Usopp turned their heads at Nami. In the crew, Liam only hears from Nami. So, they wanted Nami to tell this news to him.

"Liam, the next time, can you not use your devil fruit to practice?" Nami asked.

Hearing their words, Liam was startled and he quickly bowed his head.

"I am sorry for making things difficult. I won't train with my devil fruits unless I gather enough luck. Don't worry!"

Hearing his words, they sighed a breath of relief as Zoro spoke.

"Then, it is good. Unlike Luffy's devil fruit, yours seem quite extraordinary. You can bet on anything but if you lose the bet, it will devastating. Right now, you only lost your strength when we are still way early in the Grandline. If you hadn't lost your strength later, we wouldn't even know what kind of situation you would've faced."

At this moment, Liam stared at Zoro with confusion as he asked "What do you mean by losing strength? When did I lose my strength? I don't feel like I've lost my strength. Is something wrong?"

When they heard Liam, everyone looked at him with confusion and turned their eyes to Nami.

Nami coughed out and looked at Liam.

"Didn't you fail the last test and lost your strength? Previously, you seemed truly heavy but this last night, you were quite light just like your previous weight."

Liam smiled and shook his head.

"I haven't lost my strength other I would've felt it. If you guys don't believe it, we can check it. If I remember correctly, there is a strength measuring unit known as Doriki."

"It is only used by World Government. Doriki can't measure one's strength when it comes to power fruits so it is quite irrelevant in the seas but some special people from World Government train their body to the superhuman level without devil fruit and their strength is measured by Doriki."

"If I have to assume your current Doriki, Zoro's doriki should be around 2000 right now. Of course, putting aside the power of your swordsman. And Luffy's Doriki should be around 3500."

"While we can't put devil fruit abilities to measure doriki, if it is related to the physical changes, we can't ignore it. Luffy's whole body has the advantage of the rubber which means as long as it is not a sharp object, his endurance can be quite high and alongside his strength."

"Sanji's Doriki should be around 2000 of that's excluding the fact that he has learned Soru now. And, my Doriki before three days of training was around 1500. Zoro, how about we spar? I want to know my strength."

"Food is ready!"

Sanji suddenly puts the food in front of Liam and said.

"First eat and then spar. I also want to compare my speed with you."

Liam gleefully smiled when he saw the food but suddenly saw a hand stretching to it. Before he could do anything, Sanji's foot smashed Luffy's head. At this moment, Liam was quite surprised.

Sanji moved his foot so fast that he couldn't even see the shadows properly.

"You… Did you use merge Soru into your normal movements?" Liam asked. This was only his thought but if it was true, he didn't know what to say.

Just mastering Soru is already hard, changing it to use it for normal movements was even harder.

Sanji brightly smiled and said, "You aren't the only way who improved in three days."

"Liam! Liam, can I also spar with you?" Luffy raised his hands excitedly when he found that he could no longer eat that.

"Captain, I don't want to fall into the sea once again." Liam speechlessly stared at Luffy. He knew Luffy was a Battle Genius. He might be an idiot to others but when it comes to creativity and improving his strength, Luffy was absolutely a master at that.

He couldn't believe Luffy managed to use the Gear Third Technique to increase the potential of Tekkai. Normally, when you use Tekkai, your muscles turn stiff.

But for Luffy, it was no different than contraction. So, instead of training Tekkai in his normal muscle, he put air into his muscles and then use Tekkai to increase the muscle mass.

(One Piece logic)

"I won't use that move. I just want to test a new move." Luffy's excitement washed away as he pouted.

Liam almost fell down.

'New move? He created another move. Damn it! Won't he beat down Crocodile in a single punch? Haaaaa! What did I expect? The only reason why Luffy didn't improve a lot during the first arc was that nobody guided him.'

'But this time, I gave him both Soru and Tekkai. He must have used his imagination to do whatever he wanted.'

'Damn it! I feel like no matter how good my devil fruit might be, compared to his, it still feels nothing.'