Momomga would have us fight a round of one v one matches. First up was Grount vs a boy names Gin, the fight didn't last long. Grount charged at Gin and before he knew what was happening he was punched by Grounts large metal brace. He scoffed as he walked down the platform confidently. A few matches went by and I couldn't help but be rather disappointed, the cadets were rather average. They wouldn't even be able to take out a sea king. However, when I thought about it, it was reasonable as they had only had basic training. Only Grount who had learnt from Aokiji would have advanced training as well as Jules, although I hadn't the system made up for this.

Jules match went similarly fast. Her opponent was a buff looking, cadet, named butch. When the match started the temperature dropped as Jules transformed. The cold affecting the speed of her opponent while her speed rose. She let loose a flurry of attacks that built in intensity as she charges. The lumbering butch crossed his arms in front of his chest in an effort to block the attack. Jules the sprung to the side with a roll then kicked off the floor to attack his unguarded side. Not even a minute had passed and her opponent surrendered. It was clear he was completely overwhelmed.

Soon it was my turn and I was up against a rather good-looking man.

????: You should give up. I won't give you the win because you're related to Garp. You don't deserve to be here with us and you even dare to approach the goddess. When I expose your true self to everyone she will see you for who you truly are. A brat cruising by on his family connections. Then she'll finally accept me.

I decided to speak with actions rather than sink to his level. I don't enjoy petty people like him especially when he had ideas about my woman. He seemed to think that I was scared and knew that he was right which gave him a smile. When Momonga shouted start I immediately activated tiger form and aspect of lightning. I then teleported in front of him and punched him in the chest. Teleporting into the path he was knocked to I kicked him into the air. I used a final teleport to appear in the air I then axe kicked his stomach. Raising my hands I shot lightning at him continuously. As I stopped his body continued to twitch for a while and the place the lightning struck was burnt black with arcs of electricity like scars. He could heal from this with his bodies constitution but it would take a few months at least. As I left the stage the others practically had their eyes popping out of their heads. Even Momonga didn't know how to proceed. I climbed down from the stage and sag Jules with eyes sparkling as she stared at me. It wasn’t that the guy stood no chance it was the combination I used. The teleport caught him off guard and the aspect of lightning raised my movement speed. Finally, the tiger transformation raised my strength. The combination was flawless the last lightning burst was more punishment than necessity as he wasn't getting up from the axe kick.

All the other cadets stared at me with a mixture of horror, fear and awe. The rest of the day was far more boring, with my ability to learn I could memorise the material easily. We had to learn battle strategy and gun handling. All was relatively simple for me. One week of training with a gun would be the equivalent of a year for others with my 50x training and learning. After that, we had ’gym’ class which was basically very intense physical exercise. We were sent to a gym where there were many weights and tracks to run on. I decided to opt with a dragon ball type training with weights attached to my body as I did exercise. I did pushups, squats and some dagger training. To finish up I ran for about an hour with some very heavy weights.

At the end of the day, both me and Jules were tired so when we arrived home we lay down on the bed for a nap. When she was asleep on my chest I opened up the system. I decided to use my draws at this stage. My excitement was building as I saw the cards one after another but I felt slightly disappointed when they weren't as incredible as previous times.

[Haki awakening/ strengthening]

[rarity: common]

[description: Awakens Haki present on host body or strengthens it. The card can be purchased from the system in exchange for beast essence]

The second card was the same.

[technique card: serpent restriction]

[rarity: rare]

[description: a footwork technique that is used for close quarter combat. It also allows the user to dodge attacks at the last possible moment catching an opponent off guard.]

The footwork technique would be immensely useful to me but compared to some other Skills and their rarity I couldn't help but expect more. As I thought what beast essence was a system prompt appeared.

[Beast essence is obtained from defeating beasts the stronger they are the more essence they will award. Current essence: 6]

It appeared that each sea king I defeated yielded only one essence. I opened up the card shop, the haki card I had was costing 25 essences whereas the rare cards were at least a hundred. I felt like a poor man staring up at through a shop window at a mountain of treasure unable to take it. When I looked at the mythical class cards I almost had a heart attack. The price was 500,000 for the cheapest one. It would be hard to find that many let alone kill them. I needed to face stronger opponents than tier 1 sea kings if I wanted to stand a chance of getting a mythical card. I used all the cards and felt a change in my body. My mind suddenly filled with how to activate each of them. They had also been strengthened to the level of a captain except for my emperor haki which was about the strength of a rear-admiral. Jules seemed to sense something as she woke up. She then looked at me and seemed surprised.

Julia: you awakened haki?

I nodded then closed my eyes.

Julia: don't tell me something like that then doze off.

Me: fine I’ll make dinner then

Julia: that wasn't the point.

I just smiled and walked to the kitchen. We had a nice meal and then read the textbooks. When it got late we then went to bed, I couldn't help but think that life was great. It was peaceful and quiet, I had no pressing concerns and all I wanted I had. However, I wouldn't slack as I knew that I would need to be able to hold my own against Akainu if I wanted to save Ace.