บท 37: Chapter thirty seven- Explanation and future goals

When Gabriel opened his eyes once more, he blinked rapidly as he looked up at the clear sky above him, that wasn't right, he specifically remembered laying down on his bunk below deck before he went into his mind palace, why was he now on the main deck.

"Hey you guys he's awake" Gabriel heard Zoro call from a crate that had been sat next to him.

Almost suddenly Gabriel found himself swamped with everyone on board as they came rushing to him all looking rather worried as they began to ask him if he was okay in one way or another.

Gabriel was confused by what was going on, but as he sat up he blinked as he looked at his hands and found blood on them, he looked at the part of the deck he was lying on and found it stained with blood.

"What?" Gabriel asked blinking, not realising where the blood had come from.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Nami said as she crossed her arms, "I came down to talk with you and found you laying on your bunk coughing up blood and not responding, we brought you up on deck after and then all of a sudden you started to get cut up and covered in bruises"

Hearing that explanation Gabriel's mind caught up and he realised what had happened both those time, his body had responded to his getting injured in his mind palace, and it must have healed the same way after he upped his battle endurance.

"You had us all worried," Vivi spoke up still looking a little shaken from having seen him that way.

Gabriel sighed as he stood up, "Sorry, I was doing some special training and took on a bit more than I had expected" he explained not really seeing any way around this.

"Special training?" Zoro asked arching an eyebrow.

"what kind of training has you unresponsive while your body is getting battered like that." Nami all but demanded as she looked at him, it had all been him training, he had them worried sick about him.

Gabriel rubbed the back of his head trying to think how to explain it without giving up his system, "it's a sort of mental training that I developed, I don't fully understand it myself but it allows me envision anyone I come in contact with so that I can fight them for training to grow stronger," he explained, "the only down side as you can see is that it has its risks that if I'm hurt during the training in my mind my body replicates the injuries in real life"

"that sounds insane!" Nami yelled, "so you're telling us you were in a middle of a fight in your mind and that's where all your injuries came from?"

"What enemies were you fighting who did that to you?" Zoro asked as he tried to think about it, and how such a technique could be used to help himself train.

Gabriel nodded before sighing, "I was fighting both Dorry and Brogy in my mind." He stated getting shocked looks from everyone,

"What! You were fighting Giants in your mind, and you knew that you could get hurt for it!" Nami yelled at him and went to punch him for his stupidity but Gabriel phased letting the punch go through him.

"what is your problem!" Gabriel snapped at her, he was not going to be her punching bag like others were, "I knew the risks, I just underestimated my opponent's strength, I still won and came out fine"

"that's not the point!" Nami snapped back at him, "we all saw you get hurt, we all saw you laying on the deck covered in blood, bruises, cuts and injuries, none of us could wake you or help you! You were risking your life and for what, to grow stronger!"

"And I have already apologised for worrying you all, it wasn't my intentions" Gabriel said frowning, "That's why I go below deck any time I go into my mind to train…" he explained but Sanji cut him off.

"So that was why," Sanji exhaled with a frown, "when I came down to get you up after we docked at the twin capes, you were bleeding from your mouth then, you had just come out of a fight then?"

Gabriel nodded in confirmation but that only seemed to piss Nami off even more, "But why, why do you keep doing it if you know you can get hurt from it, are you trying to kill yourself!"

Gabriel looked to her with a frown, "I do it to get stronger, fighting strong enemies constantly pushes me to my limit time and time again and lets me push past them, so that I can keep getting stronger to achieve my dream"

"is your dream more important than your life, what happens if you die in your mind hm, what happens then, do you die in real life as well!" Nami snapped and suddenly the deck of the ship was quiet as everyone put it together for themselves, everyone looked at Gabriel.

Gabriel simply nodded, "I suspect so, though obviously I haven't ever tested that idea."

"Then why! Why do it if you know you could die? Why put your life at risk like that every time you use this method!" Nami all but screamed at him.

Gabriel looked at her with a deep frown on his face, "Because I will not live my life with regrets" he said cutting her off before she could continue to scream, "I have a dream and I will reach it, one way or another, and I will use every method at my disposal to do so. I put my life on the line every day when I strive for my dream in real life, that is how much my dream means to me. I will risk my life fighting every day of my life if that is what it takes, I will fight every enemy, overcome every obstacle, break through every wall and crush any opposition in my way. If that is what it takes to become the strongest I will do so, this is my life, I will live it how I want to live it, no one will tell me otherwise!" he said with his voice getting louder and more full of passion as he spoke until he was all but yelling at the end.

Nami looked taken aback by his yelling, she could feel the passion and drive in his words, as could the rest of them. But she couldn't bring herself to reply, so clenching her fists she turned and walked away heading for the back of the ship.

Everyone else had varying responses, Luffy looked conflicted but had an understanding look in his eyes, it was the same with Zoro and Sanji. Gem looked pensive and thoughtful on his words, Mikita frowned slightly before sighing and shaking her head having apparently come to some sort of decision, of what he was unaware. Keren had a hard look on her face but one of understanding for his drive and Mira just gave him what could only be described as a monotone stare as she ate her cookies. Vivi looked to be conflicted as well as she bit the inside of her lip slightly before tilting her head to let her bangs shade her eyes.

Gabriel sighed himself before shaking his head, "I need some air," he said before walking to the front of the ship to think.

Seeing everything was over the others all dispersed about the ship as well to do their own things, putting recent events to the backs of their minds, Gabriel was alright now so there was no need to worry any more.

Leaning on the front railing of the ship Gabriel looked out to the ocean a frown on his face as he did so, once again he had spoken his mind and couldn't help but think back on his words, he had meant everything he said.

Images of his past life flashed across his eyes and he found himself regretting many things that he had done in his past life, opportunities missed because he was too anxious to take them, friends who could have been more had he just had the courage to ask a simple question. He had spend his whole past life as a shut in never doing anything that mattered, yes he had enjoyed his life at the time, anime, gaming, creating things, attending classes with what few people he called friends. But looking back on it, his life didn't have meaning or purpose. He lacked everything that was truly important, but that would not happen in this life, he would make sure of that.

Shaking his thoughts from his mind Gabriel brought up the screens listing his defeat of Dorry and Brogy in his mind and his successfully completed mission.

'One TP point and a hundred and fifty AP points, rather small change after the huge boost from the raffles' Gabriel mused before looking to the complete quest screen

Quest Completed: warrior of legend

Goals:

Defeat both Dorry and Brogy in 2 on 1 combat in your mind palace

Reward: 500AP, 3TP, Skill book

Gabriel nodded to himself, that would be a nice little boost to his points, and he was interested in seeing what the skill book was, the last skill book that he had gotten had been the skill on the Mind palace technique, he hoped whatever this taught him it would be just as good.

Going into his inventory on a whim he looked for the book and found it after a few minutes and opened the details of it and his eyes bulged comically wide when he saw what it was.

Skill book: Hakoku Skill creation

The Hakoku technique of the giant nation is thought to be one of the most destructive and powerful attacks that a single person can utilise, destroying all in its path of destruction. This skill book will allow the user to utilise the methods behind the Hakoku technique to create one of their own.

User currently does not meet required criteria to learn this skill:

Affinity required:

Expert Swordsmanship- 25000AP required or higher

Combat strength- current AP limit insufficient- 10000AP required or higher

Armament Haki- 2000AP

Weapon:

Ō Wazamono grade weapon or higher

Gabriel didn't know how to react when he read over the screen, firstly he was ecstatic because with this skill book he would be able to get create an attack skill that would be of the same weight class as the Hakoku attack of Dorry and Brogy that pierced the island eater, or Big moms Ikoku Sovereignty which could split an island a part.

But he was also extremely disappointed that he couldn't use the book because of the restrictions for the skill, 'Expert swordsmen… so I guess there are skill upgrades after I max out certain skills, that could take a while, perhaps I should only focus one or the other' Gabriel thought to himself before looking to the rest, 'crap, my AP limit in Combat strength is only five thousand, it's going to take ages to get it up to the point where I can actually have ten thousand AP in it, and that's not even including armament Haki, but the biggest pain will be the last one, just where the hell am I meant to get a Ō Wazamono grade weapon, buy one from the shop or something, the money for something like that would be more than buying a whole ship' Gabriel thought cursing his luck on that part before closing down the screen to look ahead, that was going to be annoying him for the rest of the voyage.