Chapter 28: First Island
Finally in the West Blue, Alyssia could finally put her Navigation skills to work in a better way rather than relying on a log pose to find her way towards an island.
For now her experiences were low and she could only go off what she had learned so she took out an ordinary compass and followed kept on a straight path putting the calm belt behind her until she comes across the island.
The West Blue, like its sister seas, comprises almost entirely of ocean, with scattered islands and a border with the Red Line.
It is known to be the birthplace of the Straw Hat Pirates Nico Robin and Brook; the emperor, Red Haired Shanks; current Warlord, Gecko Moria; and one of the future members of the Worst Generation, Capone Bege.
Other notable pirate crews from this sea include the Rumbar and the Happo Navy.
The West Blue is also known for having a strong Underworld scene due to the presence of five influential mafia organizations known collectively as the Five Families of the West.
Although it was not known for being the strongest of the four blue seas, it did produce many strong or interesting characters and very few islands were named or given a proper backstory within the manga or anime so Alyssia decided to behave cautiously.
Upon arriving smoothly at the docking area of the first Island many people came to look towards the ship as it was pulling a large creature behind it.
Right away a merchant came forward and began to talk to Alyssia who was leaving the ship.
This time she had properly dressed so that her body was covered up thoroughly and she kept a sniper on her back along with the staff parts attached to her leg.
After the battle the ERG1 was partly damaged and overloaded with Electro so it needed to be repaired, it was made with inferior metals and techniques so it was expected that it would be damaged or be overloaded after using the amplification setting but the situation required her to use it so that her crew were not harmed.
For now she also needed to lay low and not display her true skill set so she restricted herself to her staff and sniper skills if they were even needed.
She arrived off the ship and met the merchant who was eager to ask questions. "Where are we?"
The merchant put on his professional attitude and began to get to business. "Welcome to Las Camp! How may I be of service to you today? Is that a Sea King I see? Are you looking to sell it? How long since it has been killed?"
Alyssia took a breathe and closed her eyes as she witnessed many flashing skills available around her and she couldn't help but sigh. 'Indeed the outside world is more diverse in skills compared to Zou… even this weak man has a brokering, trading, swindling, business management, etiquette and acting skill that is past the basic grade and some of them are even at the intermediate grade.
Suddenly her mind fell into confusion and then she suddenly remembered one Island that barely had a mention in the story but was attacked by pirates after Whitebeard's death.
A picture was beginning to form in her head of the West from some of the skills she had seen and some basic information that she knew.
This island had many hidden forces just like other places in the West Blue which either sided with the nobles and royalty, the pirate factions, the navy, the independent armies or royal armies, merchants and also the underground big families.
This meant that she was walking into the middle of a silent war zone that could erupt with the right motivation.
However while she was free, she decided that it was best to play along with the merchant as she quickly bought the beginner skills for etiquette, swindling, brokering, trading and also acting then she began to adjust her posture a little.
Although inexperienced and although she did not have time to read through the skills in her mind, she still had her experiences from her past life when she worked many part time jobs so she was able to watch his movements and mirror them a little. "Pleased to meet you. It was only killed recently and some of it has been harvested and kept away but there is still lots of meat left along with its bones and other parts."
Suddenly Archie yelled down with a face like he was betrayed. "Boss you cannot do this! Can't we at least keep some of it?"
Suddenly a sly smile crept on her face which went unnoticed by the merchant as she spoke again. "Ah.. it seems that it would be difficult to sell. After all you should know that many like to keep their trophies."
The merchant instantly knew that this person was not someone to be tricked and he could not be on the winning side of the deal if he tried to use his usual tactics to get what he wanted. "Follow me and let me introduce you to Las Camp. Let us discuss this over some food."
Alyssia nodded as she followed him. "Alright. Let's go."
Alyssia left the other crew members on board the ship for now so that they could arrange the Sea King to be pulled out of the sea.
Archie and Nica were busy making any repairs to the generator, the ship, the cannons or any of the other tools but Archie seemed to be mostly interested in a certain part of the serpents body which was the head.
Clifford focussed on his swordsmanship on the desk of the ship after his failure to pierce or cut through the serpents scales and deal it a deadly blow while Tristan was studying in the lounge and Carrot was asleep in the lookout.
As she followed behind the merchant and entered into a small restaurant she began to close her eyes every now and again to view the beginner skills that were available to her so that she could get rid of her fast increasing points which was always close to reaching the limit.
Ever since a couple of years ago, her yearly points had grown to a whole new level after many of the musketeers, guardians, old and retired veterans and other important or influential people within Zou had come to notice her talents.
After every day she still received many points that came from many young or non combatant minks that gave 1 point per person, 10 points for those who had a decent control of electro which was way more than two hundred but 100 points per strong mink that had trained diligently or was a member of one of the forces on Zou which was numbered to be around or over two hundred so she was receiving a high number of points per day.
Thanks to this she always seemed to have points to burn and she couldn't help but imagine how fast she would earn points once her influence was spread among the blues, the grand line and the new world.
Now that she was in a city many professions were around her out in the open being used by ordinary citizens.
Since the beginner skills were a maximum of 200 points and the basic skills were at most 2000 then the intermediate skills were at most 20,000 so she was able to use her overflowing points to buy anything that was around her that she lacked or needed to have additional help upgrading.
Even the various business skills from merchants or businessmen were split into different sections like acting, swindling, brokering, trading, negotiation, advertising, bargaining etc.
Now there were skills from other types of roles like a barber, fisherman, clay, wood or other types of craftsmen, cooks and other types of roles that have their own type of specialty of knowledge focussed in one area.
For example some of the restaurants focussed more on a fish and other seafood while others mainly sold meat, rice, soup or noodle dishes but she still was unable to find that many with enough skill that could be considered as a unique or special skill so she just purchased whatever was available to fill in her missing parts of knowledge for a cheap and discounted price since she had already reached a rank higher than most of these people on some or a lot of her skills.
As for the others which she lacked or had only begun to learn she bought the beginner or basic version.