Chapter 61: Mother Flame? Pluton Alloy!
Deep into the night, outside Water Seven, at Franky House.
"Snore—" "Snore—"
Snoring sounds rose and fell, and the members of the Franky Family were sound asleep.
Having just seized and dismantled a large pirate ship today, they had earned a hefty sum, so tonight's banquet was exceptionally lively.
Deep within Franky House, a heavily drunk Franky, clad only in his underwear, was slumped on the sofa, drooling.
"Ugh, this drink isn't good, give me cola..."
He mumbled incoherently, turned over, and lay prone on the sofa.
But at this moment, a hand silently appeared on his back.
Then, as that hand gently pulled, a small door on his back suddenly opened.
As a cyborg, Franky's physical sensations had become less acute, and he remained oblivious.
Then,
Inside his body, two eyes appeared out of thin air, seemingly searching for something.
Within his body, where circuits and machinery had replaced flesh and blood, those eyes quickly found their target.
A document carefully hidden inside Franky's body.
It was the blueprint for Pluton.
This was originally a secret known only to Franky — or rather, Cutty Flam, and Iceburg.
But now, this secret clearly had an additional sharer.
"I apologize—though it's an enjoyable pastime, I truly have something I need to confirm."
Inside the alternate dimension, Rat mumbled in a low voice.
Meanwhile, beneath the mask, Loy, with his eyes closed, was secretly sifting through the Pluton blueprints using his Flower-Flower Fruit abilities.
Of course, he had no interest in complex warship structures and such, so he simply skipped past them.
He still felt the same way: he knew where the real Pluton existed, and had no interest in building another one.
On the 'Pluton blueprints,' there was only one thing that interested him.
"Found it!"
Soon, he saw the contents written on a certain page of the Pluton blueprints.
[The materials for the hull, armor, and weapons are 'Pluton Alloy'. It possesses extremely powerful effects in terms of toughness, stability, vibration transmission, impact absorption, heat resistance, and cold resistance. It can maintain stability in almost any environment, and merely adding a small piece of it can greatly enhance a weapon's power. Furthermore, it is almost indestructible, making it the perfect 'war metal' for manufacturing weapons and warships.
[The smelting materials for the alloy consist of nineteen precious metals in total, including Akatshya Fine Iron, Huali Stone, and Serand Gold.
[Smelting must be carried out in the 'Eternal Flame'.
"As expected."
After seeing the contents of this page, Loy muttered 'as expected'.
"'Pluton Alloy' — just like what Vegapunk recorded — did he research some clues about Pluton's creation in that shipyard?"
Not long ago, he also explored that shipyard.
But unfortunately, he found nothing useful — or rather, all the useful things seemed to have been taken away.
But even so, he could now basically guess what had happened to Vegapunk more than a decade ago.
This genius scientist somehow learned the secret of Water Seven's 'ebb tide period' and knew about the ancient small island in the southern sea of Water Seven.
According to Loy's current guess — that special ancient island was very likely an island built by the shipwrights of ancient Water Seven, and its true nature was a 'seabed elevator'.
The shipwrights would utilize the power of the Seven Gods of Water to proceed to the seabed via that island, and inside the seabed shipyard, they would construct 'Pluton'.
As for how they did it, and why they needed to do it this way, Loy still didn't know.
But that wasn't important.
What was important was that Vegapunk, during the 'ebb tide period,' traveled to that island and built a temporary research facility there, then submerged to the shipyard to explore.
And he must have discovered something very important in that shipyard.
This should have included some technology related to lineage factors, allowing him to achieve a breakthrough in his 'Devil Fruit Weapon' experiments there.
But more importantly,
"Those few words mentioned 'infinite energy,' so the discoveries in that shipyard might even be the source of inspiration for his future creation of the 'Mother Flame'?"
Loy mused inwardly.
Mother Flame, a special energy source created by Vegapunk — it possesses infinite power, is known as the Undying Flame, and is the fuel that can drive ancient weapons.
But now it seemed that this energy source might not have been entirely invented by Vegapunk.
Because the Pluton blueprints mentioned the 'Eternal Flame' — although not the Mother Flame, it sounded like a similar energy source.
Vegapunk very likely saw some information about this energy source in the shipyard, and only then successfully created the Mother Flame.
This might also be why Vegapunk wanted to take away the core research materials from that research facility — both 'Pluton' and 'Mother Flame' were things capable of destroying the world!
However, what Loy was focused on was clearly not this.
"'Pluton Alloy,' the ancient lost 'war metal'?"
"If this stuff were to be sold, it should be worth a lot of money, right?"
What he cared about was the alloy itself — he didn't even need to guess how sought-after this stuff would be.
Even though the alloy itself couldn't create a complete 'Pluton,' after all, Pluton's true power should come from the 'Mother Flame' that drives it.
But even so, this war metal was absolutely a top-tier strategic resource.
Even a tiny bit would be enough to drive ambitious people mad!
"'Akatshya Fine Iron, I remember, is a specialty of North Blue. Huali Stone is a famous rare mineral from the Land of Flowers. I haven't heard of Serand Gold Alloy, but judging by the name, it's very likely from the Serandir Kingdom of South Blue.'"
Loy recorded the nineteen metals needed to create the alloy.
And it had to be said that among these metals, just the ones he had heard of already spanned almost all Four Seas and the Grand Line, and they were all extremely rare minerals.
However, Loy was very clear.
Although these nineteen metals were rare, they were not the most difficult part of creating 'Pluton Alloy'.
The truly most difficult part of creating this alloy was the Mother Flame needed for smelting — even Vegapunk might not have succeeded in creating this thing yet.
And Loy naturally had no ability to create this energy source either.
But,
"If it's just about smelting and fusing these metals together... then there's no need for the Mother Flame."
This was the real reason Loy was here at this moment.
He knew that a certain Devil Fruit could accomplish this.
And coincidentally...
"The thing that controls the transformation amplitude of the 'Giant Soldier's Hand' is also conveniently near that Devil Fruit."
With a self-assured anticipation, he slowly turned and left.
"Huh? Who's there?"
It was only then that Franky, groggy with sleep, opened his eyes.
He looked at his body with some confusion — he had just felt an itch inside his stomach.
But after patting around and confirming that the Pluton blueprints were still inside him, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Must have been a mistaken impression."
He mumbled, then fell back down.
(end of chapter)