"Punch the test sponge with all your strength, let me see how much power you've got."
Rhett obediently threw his hardest punch, completely piercing through the sponge.
The one-armed old man seemed to have expected this and pulled out an even larger one.
Boom—another hole.
Rhett wanted to apologize—after all, punching through someone's stuff wasn't great—but the old man immediately turned hostile.
"Out! All of you, get out!" The one-armed elder waved a hammer around, shooing them away like flies. "You're just wasting my time in here!"
He scooped them all up and tossed them outside, his eyes burning with passion for weapon forging.
Rhett stumbled from the push. "Hey! That's my sword!"
"Now it's mine!" The old man slammed the heavy iron door shut, the sound of a lock clicking into place echoing from inside. "Come back in three days!"
Outside, the entire Crimson Dawn crew exchanged bewildered looks.
Enel's forehead vein bulged. "Is that old man asking for death? A single bolt from this god—"
"No, no, no!" Rhett quickly stopped him. He was used to this—it wasn't his first time getting thrown out.
"Relax~" Perona floated in the air, leisurely licking her lollipop. "The way that uncle looked at the sword was the same way Uncle Tom looks at ships."
Rhett and the others were stunned as the one-armed elder's apprentice wheeled in cart after cart of seastone.
Rhett turned stiffly to Tesoro. "We brought enough money, right?"
Tesoro didn't answer immediately—he wasn't sure either. A place that could stockpile this much seastone couldn't be ordinary. Seastone wasn't cheap, after all.
"I'll have them bring more."
---
"It's done!"
The moment the one-armed elder pushed open the door, everyone was stunned—
His pose, the way he held his arm, the gleam in his eyes—every cell in his body screamed, Ask me about it!
Rhett swallowed hard and asked, "Uh, Master, how's my sword?"
The one-armed elder didn't answer. Instead, he presented the sword in his arms, tilting it at a 45-degree angle toward the sky.
The Black Tide Greatsword in his arms had completely transformed:
The blade was now a deep crimson, like congealed blood. The seastone inlays formed a ferocious dragon-scale pattern, and the sheer amount of seastone used was staggering.
Holy hell, this is too cool. If the original Black Tide was plain black, this was now a razor-sharp blood-red.
"Here." The elder tossed the sword to Rhett. "Test it out."
Rhett caught it—and immediately felt like he could channel his stamina into the blade—
BOOM!
The ground beneath his feet collapsed, and the muscles in his right arm bulged violently.
"What the hell?!" Rhett stared at the sword in shock. "How heavy is this thing?!"
"Base weight: eight tons." The elder stroked his beard smugly. "But if you pour Haki into it..."
Rhett focused, flooding the blade with Armament Haki.
Crack... crack...
The patterns on the sword began glowing faintly red, the seastone veins lighting up one by one—its weight skyrocketing!
Fifteen tons... twenty tons...!
"Stop, stop, STOP!" the elder yelled in panic. "My forge is gonna collapse! You trying to wreck this place, you bastard?!"
Rhett couldn't stop admiring the new sword. "Old man, this can't just be called Black Tide anymore, right?"
"Of course not." The elder grinned mysteriously. "Its new name is—"
"*Black Tide: Blood Dragon Calamity.*"
The last time Rhett had been this excited was when Uncle Tom built the Bruma Jackson. His eyes practically sparkled—So cool, so edgy, I love it.
"Tesoro, quick, bring the money!"
Tesoro shook his head and motioned for everyone to follow him outside.
A merchant ship flying the Crimson Dawn Pirates' flag was already docked at the forge island's port.
Before Rhett could figure out what was happening, Tesoro spoke up. "I can tell this is a masterpiece. Please see if the Berries on this ship are enough. If not, I can call two more."
The master was stunned. He had originally planned to charge just enough for a meal—after all, he had emptied his reserves for this sword. But the thought that this blade might one day surpass even the Twelve Supreme Grade swords made him care even less.
He hadn't expected this pirate crew to be this loaded. Without hesitation, the master waved his hand and took both the ship and the money, immediately shooing Rhett and the others away.
Standing at the bow of the Bruma Jackson, Rhett scratched his head and grinned at the forge island. "Welp, another huge favor owed."
This wasn't just a simple purchase—seastone was priceless on the open market. If it weren't, Kaido wouldn't have been able to grow so powerful so quickly by dealing in it. The master had provided all the materials, saving Rhett a ton of time and effort.
Rhett stood on the deck, fingers constantly tracing the hilt of Black Tide: Blood Dragon Calamity. An eight-ton base weight would be a terrifying burden to anyone else, but to him, it felt as natural as breathing.
"Hehehehe, mine, mine~ Ahh, this feel, this weight—"
"Captain, you've been grinning at that sword like an idiot for half an hour," Tesoro couldn't help but comment.
"You don't get it!" Rhett spun around, eyes blazing with fervor. "This grip, this weight, this killing intent—it'd be a crime not to cut something with it! I'm suffering here!"
It was like—hmm—shattering a backboard with a monster dunk, only for the school to say, No hard feelings, when you demanded a public reprimand.
Enel floated over and glanced at it. "This god can spar with you anytime."
"You?" Rhett scoffed. "How many hits could you even take? Wouldn't even be satisfying."
Lina quietly suggested, "What about Kaido?"
"Even the captain might not be satisfied!" Tesoro immediately objected. "Even if Kaido's strong, he's still no match for our captain!"
Rhett paced restlessly. It was true—the number of opponents who could push him to go all-out could be counted on one hand. That bastard Newgate was always MIA, the old fox Sengoku would never humor him, and Garp... well, he might actually lose to Garp. Damn it, is no one gonna regulate Garp? He's broken!
Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Got it!"
"Who?"
"Rayleigh!" Rhett smacked the ship's railing excitedly. "That old man's definitely still lazing around on Sabaody!"
Tesoro facepalmed. "You're not seriously..."
"Men! Change course!" Rhett raised the greatsword high, blood-red mist swirling around him. "We're heading to Sabaody to catch up with the vice-captain!"
Vice-captain—can't blame me for that one. You're basically a fixed NPC spawn on Sabaody.