Chapter 121 - 121. Exchange

Leo was sitting comfortably on a chair on the deck under a big umbrella and humming a tone. Shinobu was right next to him and reading a book.

"You sure are excited."

Shinobu had a teasing smile on her face.

Leo grinned, "Of course I would be. I always knew our Breathing Techniques were flawed. Otherwise why would I not be able to advance to the next realm?"

Shinobu asked curiously, "You really think this can help?"

Leo nodded seriously, "Absolutely."

She smiled and went back to her book.

Few hours later they saw the shadow of Marineford.

Docking the ship Leo asked Mace to accompany them.

"Captain, your merit is more than enough to exchange for Observation and Armament Haki training method."

Leo asked, "How long will it take?"

Mace thought for a moment and replied, "Usually it would take a day. But I know someone inside so the process will be shortened. You can get it within five to seven hours."

Leo nodded and thanked him.

They went to a floor below the base. There weren't many people here. Just a few guards.

Leo was surprised at how the security was lax here.

Mace seems to have known what he was thinking and said, "This fortress is made of the hardest stone there is. Kairoseki are used to reinforce the walls as well. There is only one entrance and that entrance is placed right in the middle of the ground floor. No one can get in or out without anyone noticing."

Leo nodded. He spirit sense did pick up a strange fluctuation from these walls.

Soon they reached a remote corner. A person was sitting behind a counter. He was dozing off.

Mace coughed. The man suddenly woke up and straightened his back. Seeing it was Mace he calmed down.

"It's just you, Mace. That scared me."

Mace shook his head in resignation, "Can't you atleast take your job seriously?"

The man shrugged, "Hey, not many comes to trade."

Mace didn't dwell on it and introduced Leo, "This is my Captain, Leo Heart. He is here to exchange for Observation and Armament Haki training method."

The man looked at Leo and Shinobu before nodding. He checked the doc.u.ments for a Leo Heart.

Captain Leo Heart, merits - 267.

The man nodded. Both types of Haki rounded up to a total of 180 merits.

Mace suddenly said, "Can you speed it up?"

The man raised his head and smiled, "The usual?"

Mace nodded.

Leo and Shinobu were silent while they were speaking.

He suddenly asked, "What are the other items for exchange?"

The man heard him and pulled out a stack of papers.

"You still have 87 merits."

Leo nodded. He looked over the list. There were many interesting items on the list.

After looking for a while Leo asked Mace, "What would you recommend?"

Mace flipped through the list and pointed an item.

Rokushiki.

"I have seen your battles, Captain. You have immense speed and strength, however I believe your techniques are very crude when utilising it. You should train several of these skills."

Leo looked over the list.

Rokushiki. A set of six skills.

Moon Walk and Shave.

Both of these skills are related to speed. Leo's movement technique was crude. He simply used brute force to achieve extreme speed.

Leo nodded and checked the merits for both of them.

Moon Walk, 45.

Shave, 40.

Luckily his remaining merits were enough for these two skills. Finalising what he wanted they left the exchange area and headed for a meal.

After filling their stomach they returned to their quarters.

Five hours later an officer came by to deliver him his purchase.

Looking at four books neatly placed before him Leo grinned.

He didn't immediately go for Haki training and read the books for Moon Walk and Shave.

Moon Walk allowed it's user to fly by kicking air.

Shave is a skill for instantaneous movement.

He read them carefully and understood the basic theory.

Placing them down he first checked Observation Haki. He took his time and carefully read it. Ten minutes later he closed it and started reading the Armament Haki book.

After reading both methods a painful expression took over his face.

Shinobu asked, "What's wrong? Is it difficult?"

Leo shook his head, "It's not. It's just that these manuals are a way to train in spiritual energy. Observation and Armament are simply two unique methods to use spiritual energy."

"So it's useless?"

Leo shook his head, "No. In fact it's very important to us. I finally figured out why we can't reach the next stage. It's because our spiritual energy is too weak."

Leo patiently explained, "I told you before, our Breathing Techniques are flawed. I don't know how many flaws it has, it's more than a couple."

"The first stage is Gathering Breath, Next Stage is Refining Breath, followed by Breath Core and finally Life Formation."

"Until now we were training our 'Breath'. It's now as vast as an ocean but our spiritual energy is sparse compared to it. Even for me with an abnormal spiritual energy it's too weak."

"Only after going through the Haki training method did I understand how to proceed."

"Gathering 'Breath' stage is about breathing in life from the world. Refining Breath stage is about making this Life Breath our own."

"I short we need to increase our spiritual energy and form an equilibrium with our 'Breath' before merging them as one."

Shinobu suddenly got why Leo had a painful expression on his face, "I see. Your 'Breath' is so vast so it's gonna be hard for you to form an equilibrium in a short time."

Leo smiled wryly, "If I had known I wouldn't have tried so hard."

Shinobu chuckled, "Well, it's fine isn't it. We don't know how long we are here for so we got plenty of time. And Haki training can increase spiritual energy as well as our control over 'Breath'."

Leo nodded and agreed.

"Then I better get started."