Pirates: I Rely Only on Myself

Sea Calendar, June 22, 1506

The Nautilus, soaring ten thousand meters above the ground, moved like a ghost, undetectable.

They had already reached the northern part of the South Blue.

Raki, acting as the temporary navigator, was carefully flipping through charts of the South Blue seas. Meanwhile, Ari occasionally opened portals, transporting documents from the Dawn Kingdom's various departments and controlled territories to Noah for his review and decisions.

At present, the Dawn Kingdom's controlled zones included:

The Mackerel Port Governor's Mansion in the Rum Kingdom (population: 240,000)Lion Island Governor's Mansion on Sky Island (population: 12,000)The Ant Nest Governor's Mansion on Sixis Island in the East Blue (population: 11,000)

In addition to these, there were outposts such as the Swallow Island Eavesdropping Station in the North Blue, the Tide Sea Base in the East Blue, and the Coral Sea Base in the North Blue.

The population on Sixis Island was nearing its limit. The majority of its inhabitants were refugees from the fallen country of Flevance, people whom Law had gradually healed.

Sky Island's population limit was around 30,000. Currently, it housed over 3,000 residents from Angel Island, 2,000 from the Feathered Tribe, and over 1,000 from Birkans. Additionally, 4,000 more people had been transferred from the Flevance refugees, bringing the current population to 11,000.

To further expand Sky Island's population capacity, they would need to transport more islands up into the sky. However, the Imperial Cloud near Angel Island could only support a few smaller islands at most.

The Imperial Cloud's load-bearing capacity wasn't infinite. Its natural growth required special conditions, particularly the presence of seastone components.

The reason Angel Island had such a vast Imperial Cloud layer was due to the volcanic eruptions in the seabed below, which brought seastone components to the surface.

In other words, the magma from underground carried the seastone up.

If they were to rely solely on natural volcanic eruptions to bring seastone to the surface, forming an Imperial Cloud would be an incredibly slow process.

Noah had already become aware of this issue.

For example, the plan to create an Imperial Cloud over the Sea of Gluttony (the area previously discovered near Baron of the Stomach) could only be achieved by cutting off sections of the Imperial Cloud from either Angel Island or Birka.

This approach, however, was akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Noah had already come up with an idea regarding the seastone components...

…

Back in the Rum Kingdom, Lilian hadn't even had two days of rest before Noah assigned her to Black Rock Island, where the underwater volcanic eruptions had previously occurred.

Black Rock Island hadn't changed much; the volcanic crater still oozed dark red lava constantly.

After over a year of intense training, Lilian had finally mastered the extreme temperature simulation of compounds, pushing her flame's burning temperature to 4,990°C.

But this time, she wasn't there to test her temperature limits; she was there to complete a task assigned by Noah.

Lilian's arm transformed into a liquid combustible substance:

"Blazing Dragon Wave!"

Her arm, infused with Haki, shot upward like a flaming liquid spear, crashing directly into the volcanic crater.

Boom!

The attack, which consumed a third of Lilian's energy, pierced through the magma, delving thousands of meters deep into the earth.

"Earth Fire Surge!"

Moments later, the energy in the underground magma chamber was triggered, and the volcano erupted violently.

"Blazing Vapor Wave!" Lilian raised both hands, manipulating the surrounding seawater's steam, and directed it into the volcano's crater.

The clash of scorching steam and volcanic ash created an explosive reaction, sending ash and steam blasting high into the sky, darkening the atmosphere within a radius of dozens of kilometers.

Ari arrived with Noah to collect a portion of the volcanic ash cloud, sealing it for transport back to the cloud processing workshop on Sky Island to test whether it could serve as raw material for the Imperial Clouds.

The experiment was a resounding success. The volcanic ash indeed contained seastone components, and with some refinement, it could be used to create Imperial Clouds.

This breakthrough provided the Noah family with the ability to mass-produce the materials necessary for expanding Sky Island, laying the foundation for its future growth.

The experiment also confirmed that seastone components originated from underground magma.

Using this discovery, Noah ordered Ari's science division to establish a Seastone Synthesis Laboratory to experiment with synthesizing large blocks of seastone from volcanic ash.

Currently, all large seastone blocks on the market came from Wano Country and were monopolized by Kaido and the World Government.

Conquering Wano within a short timeframe was impossible for the Noah family. Even if they somehow managed to take Kaido down through trickery and seize control of Wano, they would still struggle to fend off the World Government's greed.

Thus, the best way to obtain high-quality seastone products at affordable prices was to synthesize large blocks of seastone themselves.

In Noah's mind, the reason Wano had such vast seastone mines was due to the unique underground magma chambers that created rock formations similar to basalt.

In short, seastone components in magma, when exposed to high pressure in sealed environments, crystallized into seastone blocks.

The reason no one had discovered this before was complex.

For one, Wano, the primary seastone mining area, was a closed-off nation, making it difficult for outsiders to study its geological formations.

Moreover, the world had experienced a major technological gap, causing much scientific knowledge to be lost. Scientists were now scarce, and the World Government deliberately suppressed scientific progress. Researchers were either recruited, eliminated, or imprisoned in Impel Down, leaving only a few rogue scientists working in secret.

Even Vegapunk, widely regarded as the world's smartest man, was, in Noah's eyes, nothing more than a human hard drive storing ancient technology.

The method for synthesizing seastone crystals was simple for anyone familiar with the One Piece world's plot and armed with scientific methods.

The fact that seastone components existed both in the sea and in Sky Island's Imperial Clouds indicated that these components were widespread.

By observing the sky-high currents around Jaya Island and the volcanic nature of Wano's islands, one could deduce that seastone components were transported to the surface via volcanic eruptions.

Since seastone components were so widespread, why not gather dispersed volcanic ash to synthesize large blocks of seastone?

The people of the One Piece world couldn't figure this out because they were too immersed in their world. But Noah was different. He was a transmigrator who had once "observed" the One Piece world from a distance.

Many secrets revealed themselves when you took the time to think about them.

After Noah completed these arrangements, the Nautilus arrived near the first inhabited island in the South Blue.

Disguised, Noah and his crew disembarked at the small island's port, preparing to gather information on recent events in the South Blue.

In the original timeline, the South Blue remained largely unexplored, with only two notable locations.

One was the island where the Pirate King's son was born.

The other was the homeland of Bartholomew Kuma, the world's biggest tragic figure—the Sorbet Kingdom.

Most other islands had no significant information.

This piqued Noah's curiosity, and he decided to explore the South Blue further.

At the port bar on Whitewood Island, Noah and his crew were discreetly gathering the information they needed. 

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𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙮 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙟𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙮. 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚!

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 shoutouts 𝘁𝗼:

•Leroy

• Jonathan Bailey

𝗔𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸:

• 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: 𝙂𝙚𝙩 50+ chapters 𝙖𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚.

• 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁-𝗢𝘂𝘁: 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩!

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝗺𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗲𝘁, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀!

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