"Captain, do you think my bounty will increase?"
As a Pirate Captain with some influence, Miya had a bounty, and it was only ten million berries.
In East Blue, this would've been quite amazing, especially since this was at least fourteen years before the start of the storyline.
The inflation would definitely affect her bounty to a certain extent, not much, but enough to make her a powerhouse in East Blue.
But even with such bounty, she was at the bottom of the West Blue.
This was a sea full of criminals and gangsters.
"Let's see!"
Tyler unfolded the newspaper and found several bounty posters. He ignored most of them, but his eyes fell on two specific bounty posters.
These were his and Miya's bounty posters.
[Tyler
Dead Or Alive
B 40, 000, 000]
[Miya
Dead or Alive
B 15, 000, 000]
"Wait, where is my bounty?"
Frank couldn't help but shout when he didn't see his bounty poster. Although he didn't love being a pirate like Miya.
He didn't want to lose to her in terms of bounty.
"Of course, they only post bounties for real threats. Do you understand, Vibrational Boy?"
Just as expected, Miya didn't hold back in making fun of Frank's lack of bounty.
"Damn it, Lustful Girl! I don't believe it. My bounty must be here somewhere."
Miya's words only worsened his mood as he snatched the bounty posters from Tyler and started looking for his.
Seeing their antics, Tyler couldn't help but feel strange. He realized their grudge was quite deep, but he didn't interfere with it.
After all, having them harmlessly settle their grudge like this was a blessing for his crew.
But he didn't want them to misunderstand the situation, so he quickly explained the reason behind Frank's lack of a new bounty.
"Frank, did you forget the threat about the Marine Admiral?"
Frank raised his eyes and stared at him with disbelief.
"You don't mean they will send a Marine Admiral to hunt us down, do you?"
Tyler quickly shook his head.
"No, no, if Marine Admirals aren't that cheap. They will only send Vice Admiral at best."
"But this is the reason why you don't have a new bounty. If that Female Celestial Dragon remembers you through your updated bounty, she might force a Marine Admiral to find you."
Hearing that, Miya almost fell to the ground. She stared at her Captain with disbelief and asked.
"Captain, will they really send a Marine Admiral just for this guy?"
Tyler slapped himself in the forehead, and Frank quickly picked up his words.
"Idiot, didn't you realize what Captain meant? Marines won't send a Marine Admiral, but if the Celestial Dragon gives an order, the Marine Admiral will have no choice but to capture me."
A look of realization hit Miya as she slapped her palm and said.
"So, that's why you don't have a new bounty. Marines don't want to reveal your current situation."
Tyler nodded.
"That's it! If nothing goes wrong, we might get promoted by a Vice Admiral or at least a Rear Admiral. If it is a Rare Admiral, I do have some confidence."
"But if it is Vice Admiral, I have zero confidence of survival."
Hearing that, Miya and Frank's facial expressions changed. There was a trace of fear and unwillingness in their eyes.
Tyler saw this and slapped them on their shoulders.
"Don't worry! We will not die or be captured by the Marines here. It will take the Vice Admiral several days, if not month to find us in the West Blue."
"If we keep our tracks clean, it might even take them much longer. During that time, we will do our best to get stronger."
"If it doesn't work, we need to gather a lot of supplies before finding an empty island where we can train for a few months or days."
Hearing that, both suppressed their fear and gained some confidence.
"Captain, I will get stronger."
Frank spoke with a deep voice.
All of this happened because of him. He was destined to be a Celestial Dragon Slave, but his Captain saved him from such a fate.
Now, they were still being chased down because of him.
So, Frank took the blame for everything in his mind and used it to fuel his ambition to grow stronger.
Tyler noticed his expression. With his ability to sense emotions, he knew that a massive burden was being placed on his crew.
He didn't want to see it, but he knew this was better for his crew.
Burden often helped a person grow in adversity.
So, he chose not to interfere. Instead, he started thinking about his own problems.
He did have a Mythical Zoan, but that wasn't enough to put him in the top tier of this world.
What could help him reach that state would be his Conqueror Haki, but he had no control over it.
He couldn't even use it otherwise; he would've used it in the Marine Base.
After its initial awakening, he didn't feel any different. He knew he possessed Conqueror, but his emotions hadn't been out of control.
And, he also didn't have a proper teacher. So, learning to control Conqueror Haki was out of the question.
He couldn't learn any of the techniques without strengthening his body. So, basic exercise was his only choice.
But with the basic exercise, he could start swinging his sword.
Not much, just a thousand swings a day! Then, he would also try to learn sword moves.
While learning Marine Six Styles was out of question, sword moves weren't simply because he could start merging his Devil Fruit power with his sword.
Using the wind slashes that could tear through boulders and cleave a ship! That would be his goal.
Using wind flow to speed up his hand movement and footwork. Using lightning to constantly strengthen his body while also infusing it with his swordsmanship.
Lightning was one of the elements he could control, but because of its ferocity, he had never tried it before.
Especially since generating lightning wasn't exactly easy for him. He had to create a storm to conjure black clouds that could strike lightning.
Only then would he be able to control lightning. But if he lost control of that lightning, it could cause severe damage to the boat.
That's why he never tried to use it before.
Of course, he believed he could generate lightning from his body as well. That was the true power of the Dragon King.
But he didn't know how. At least, there seemed to be a certain lock placed on his body that made him unable to release lightning.
Because of this, he planned to learn to control the clouds and rain the lightning over his body before learning to infuse it with his sword.
All of this could only happen if his body was strong enough to bear the force of the lightning.
Considering how Robin and Usopp were able to tank the power of Enel's lightning, Tyler wasn't worried about crippling himself.
As long as he pushed his body to his current limit, using lightning on his body might improve it further.
There was also a matter with Haki training.
He could potentially start his training with Observation Haki, but even that would be difficult without a proper training method.
So, he had to find those training methods.
For this thing alone, Tyler was happy that he was in the West Blue.
Because it was the home of the Underworld. While Underworld trades were secret, he could still find them if he searched for brokers around the West Blue.
Through them, gaining the training methods for Haki wouldn't be a problem.
But how to find those brokers was a problem.
Thinking about it, he looked at Miya and asked.
"Miya, how far can we go without landing?"
Miya contemplated for a moment before answering.
"With our current food reserves and gas, we can survive for two weeks, but this boat is really cramped."
"Then, can we reach Kano Country without any stops?"
"As long as we don't encounter any battles or stop for something else, we can reach that country in about a week."
"Good! Set sail for the Kano Country!"
"Yes, Captain!"
With his orders, Miya started changing the direction of the ship towards the Kano Country.
While she started doing her job, Tyler also started his training.
——————————
Somewhere in the Grandline;
"Joker, one of our ships in the West Blue has lost contact."
"Fufufufu! Diamante, isn't it normal for one or two ships to lose contact in this sea? Still, though, have you found whether it was man-made?"
"We haven't found the trace of that ship. That's also why I believe it is man-made. They must have destroyed the entire ship."
"Since they destroyed the entire ship, it can only be those Marines."
"But, something interesting happened to that area where the ship was destroyed. G80 Base was completely wrecked by a newcomer."
"Although it might sound like I am putting blame on others, I have a feeling that they were the ones who did it."