Chapter 25: Awakening Observation Haki

After speaking, Karl turned and left. He wanted to find Newgate. In the Rocks Pirates, Newgate was the only one he got along with, and he hoped Newgate would teach him how to master Observation Haki.

Karl glanced at the sky—it was almost evening. He thought it might be better to visit Newgate with a jug of wine in the morning since that would probably increase his chances of success.

He ordered his men to find a wine jug and fill it with Newgate’s favorite hometown liquor.

Meanwhile, in the courtyard, he kept practicing Armament Haki, trying to get a better feel for its power every time it surged through him.

He wanted to grasp the deeper levels of Armament Haki, since it was divided into three stages: covering, projecting, and internal destruction.

Covering meant coating Armament Haki on your body, strengthening its defense.

Projecting was cloaking weapons or clothes with Haki, which increased both offensive and defensive power.

Internal destruction let you drive Armament Haki into the enemy’s body, damaging their insides.

So far, Karl had only managed to coat his fists and arms with Armament Haki. He still had a way to go before he could cover his entire body.

He was desperate to get stronger—after all, the battle at God Valley was getting closer every day. He needed to be able to protect himself.

His abilities had come to him too easily. Although his overall strength could reach a vice admiral’s level, his actual combat experience was sorely lacking.

Most of his victories were thanks to brute force and his bottomless stamina—he even beat John that way, although he did use a few tricks.

But if he really had to go toe-to-toe with a Navy admiral, he probably wouldn’t last long before going down. He had no intention of running for his life.

That’s why he had to awaken Observation Haki as soon as possible. It would give him an edge in battle.

Since Krell and the other two had already started practicing the Golden Light Spell, he’d let them train on their own for now.

Maybe it was because people from this world had such unique physiques.

Everyone in this world seemed to be born with incredible talents: some could breathe fire from birth, like King, while others, like Charlotte Linlin, had monstrous strength.

If they could grasp these skills so quickly, it really wasn’t surprising they could get the hang of the Golden Light Spell in no time.

Krell took Karl’s orders to heart. Every day, he’d push Long Yi and Long Er to their limits, draining their stamina before letting them rest.

This had the side effect of making Long Yi and Long Er more and more wary of him.

At dawn, as the first sunlight touched the land, Karl grabbed the huge wine jug and headed for Newgate’s room.

With his Titan Strength bloodline steadily working its magic, Karl now stood about three and a half meters tall.

But when he reached Newgate’s door, even Karl couldn’t help being stunned.

It was the biggest door he’d ever seen.

With Whitebeard standing close to seven meters tall and wielding a nearly ten-meter-long blade,

his door was an unbelievable twelve meters high.

Just as Karl raised his hand to knock, the door suddenly swung open from the inside.

“Gurararara!”

“Karl, what brings you here?”

Newgate looked genuinely happy to see him. In the Rocks Pirates, his personality fit well with Karl’s, and he appreciated the way Karl handled things. Seeing Karl come to him so early really cheered him up—truth was, there weren’t many people in the crew he could call an honest friend.

But he was still a little puzzled why Karl would visit so early—until he noticed the massive wine jug in Karl’s hand.

“Swoosh!”

Newgate caught the wine gourd that Karl tossed his way.

“Ah, wine from home.”

Newgate had only just caught the jug and already a faint aroma of liquor wafted up.

This batch was something Karl had specifically put together—Newgate’s favorite from his hometown.

“Looks like you’ve got something you want to talk about, Karl?”

Newgate twisted open the lid, took a swig, and spoke.

“Yeah, Newgate, I wanted to ask you about Observation Haki…”

Karl wanted Newgate to teach him Observation Haki because mastering it would give him a huge advantage in combat. It’d ramp up his fighting power.

Hearing this, Newgate immediately understood Karl’s real reason for coming—to learn how to awaken Observation Haki.

“I don’t have any real tricks—honestly, you just need to get hit.”

Newgate invited Karl inside and briefly explained how to awaken Observation Haki.

The basic training was simple: blindfold yourself, then have someone hurl small stones at you from a distance at high speed. The key was to let your body learn the feeling and then trigger Observation Haki by instinct.

If the stones weren’t thrown fast enough, your body wouldn’t sense the danger and it wouldn’t work.

“Give me a hand here, will you? Please?”

Karl made his request—he figured if he trained alone, it might take forever to awaken Observation Haki. He needed Newgate’s help to speed things up.

“Sure, even if it wasn’t for the wine, you came straight to me so early—I’d help you no matter what.”

“Gurarara! Come on, let’s go!”

Newgate strapped the wine jug to his waist, grabbed his massive blade, and led Karl off to a deserted island next to Beehive Island.

This small island was right beside Beehive Island—close by, but worthless from a strategic point of view. That’s why there weren’t any pirates stationed there.

It was the perfect place to train. No worries about destroying anything important.

“I’m not going to hold back, all right?”

Newgate warned Karl in advance—after all, to help a powerhouse like him awaken Observation Haki, he’d need to go all out. Better to say so now than waste time and effort later.

“No problem, hit me with your best shot.”

Karl really wasn’t worried. Awakening Observation Haki meant more to him than a little pain.

“Oh, and don’t use Armament Haki to block.”

“If your body doesn’t sense a real threat, the results won’t be good.”

Newgate reminded him again out of kindness.

“Got it—bring it on.”

“Swoosh!”

The moment Karl finished speaking, Newgate sent a stone rocketing toward Karl’s right shoulder.

“Bang!”

Karl felt a sudden gust of force slam into him, pain exploded in his right shoulder, and his body was knocked backward before he knew what hit him.

Even though Titan Strength kept toughening his physique, the pain instantly shot through his whole body.

He’d left himself totally relaxed just now, so his muscles weren’t braced for impact.

Still, he gritted his teeth, stood back up.

“Again!”

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!”

Seeing Karl still mostly unscathed, Newgate immediately fired off three more stones—this time, even faster.

Each one came in at a different angle, aiming for his legs and stomach in a triangle formation.

“Thud!”

Karl heard the incoming stones and dodged sideways, but one still nailed him in the stomach, knocking him hard into the sand.

“Ugh!”

“Hiss!”

Pain rippled out from his abdomen through his whole body—Newgate really wasn’t holding back!

And seeing that Karl could still take it, Newgate just stepped up the tempo for another wave of attacks.

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!”

He didn’t even give Karl a second to breathe—stone after stone came flying right at him.

One attacked, the other dodged!

So they kept at it all day, the two of them on that island, one striking and the other evading, all the way until nightfall.