Malphegor
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OP: AMP Ch. 11
🕑 Added 2025-08-14 18:11:33 +0000 UTCThe sight of the gold bar hitting the ground made Kira drop to her knees in distress, frantically trying to dig it out of the dirt.
Her hands trembled as she carefully lifted the precious metal, and her overly cautious expression made Marcus chuckle a bit.
Alvida didn't feel jealous watching this scene. Instead, she looked at Marcus with complex emotions swirling through her mind.
Ever since she'd started following him, she'd gained this beautiful appearance, which alone was enough reason to stay by his side. Sure, she still worried about money sometimes, but for someone like her, a pirate, that wasn't exactly a problem.
After all, when pirates needed money, they just went out and took it.
But clearly, Marcus seemed to be the kind-hearted type who wouldn't initiate that kind of thing. She wasn't in any rush though. As long as they eventually ran out of funds, they'd figure something out. Worst case scenario, they could always find legitimate work, right?
Sooner or later, this era would force the man in front of her to make harder choices about how to survive. Or maybe he'd discover some completely new way to earn money.
She just hadn't expected that he would casually produce wealth beyond her wildest imagination.
Just that one crate of gold ore was worth a fortune.
No wonder this man had given her something as rare and valuable as a Devil Fruit, even though she'd been a complete stranger.
Watching him carry supplies around, she stepped forward to help out.
"Where should I put this stuff?"
"Take it to the deck. I've placed a trapdoor there. Just put these mineral resources in one by one through the opening."
"Got it."
Kira also stuck close to Alvida, ready to help out.
Although she'd been dead tired just moments ago, seeing that massive gold ingot had somehow reignited her energy reserves.
"Hold on, don't rush into it. Eat something first," Marcus stopped them from continuing their work. He wasn't some kind of slave driver, his crew needed to be fed properly.
As he spoke, he pulled out some tropical fruits. These Minecraft-modified fruits had almost magical effects, after fully restoring hunger, they actually began regenerating health. Alvida's rapid healing from her earlier injuries was thanks to these.
And over the past few days, he'd discovered an additional hidden benefit: the fruits didn't just restore health, they also quickly replenished stamina and energy.
That's why both girls had been able to work all day without feeling hungry or completely exhausted.
Taking the offered fruits, they didn't hesitate and started eating immediately.
Kira had a small appetite, three pieces were enough to completely fill her up. Alvida, on the other hand, devoured over twenty pieces before finally stopping.
Marcus was speechless watching her eat.
In the One Piece world, the truly powerful individuals were always massive eaters. It seemed to be a universal rule.
If you could visualize it with RPG-style stats, Alvida's food consumption was probably more than double Marcus' own capacity.
Once they'd finished eating, the trio got back to work.
Their transportation speed was impressively fast with all three of them coordinating.
With the moon hanging high overhead, Marcus and the others finally finished processing the entire day's mining haul.
Most of the time, Marcus and Alvida were handling the heavy lifting and cargo transport.
Kira was responsible for opening the storage containers and carefully placing items inside one by one.
When items were stored inside the containers, they somehow shrank down and became much lighter to handle. They only returned to normal size when taken outside the container's influence. But when transferring items directly from box to box, with Kira handling the process, the size didn't change at all, allowing for rapid, efficient transfers.
Marcus occasionally made trips to their ship's warehouse to combine all the iron ingots into compressed iron blocks using his crafting abilities.
If this were still a video game, he could've used mods to automate the whole process, but that wasn't an option now.
Even with all the compression and optimization, they ended up filling over thirty additional large storage containers.
By the time they were finishing up, Kira's stomach started growling loudly again.
Marcus was about to offer her more fruit when Alvida interrupted.
"Let's hold off on the fruit for now. Look over there."
She was getting a bit tired of tropical fruits after eating so much of it over the past week. The taste was fine, but variety would be nice.
Marcus looked curiously in the direction she was pointing.
Sure enough, a large bonfire had been lit in the distant village, and he could see people gathering around it.
"What's going on over there?"
"Their town was taken over by Buggy until recently..." Alvida briefly shared the information she'd gathered during her earlier visit.
Marcus was surprised at first, but then nodded in understanding. It made perfect sense.
They were heading toward Loguetown, so their route would inevitably overlap with Luffy and his crew's path, especially since Luffy had probably already encountered Nami by now and their course was set.
"Let's go check it out. Could be fun."
The group made their way into the village.
---
The town was filled with laughter, music, and celebration. When the townspeople spotted Alvida, they warmly greeted her like an old friend, immediately offering food and drinks.
Marcus and Kira were also treated with kindness and hospitality.
The villagers were in incredibly high spirits, and even the village chief came over personally. Seeing the visitors were just two young women and one man, none of whom looked like troublemakers, he gave them an enthusiastic welcome and began telling stories about Luffy and his crew's heroic deeds.
Listening to the tales, which matched exactly what Marcus already knew from the original story, he found the whole experience quite entertaining.
Kira, however, looked increasingly confused as she heard the details.
"So... can they even still be called pirates?" she asked with puzzlement.
"Hahaha, of course they're still pirates! But this world has good people and bad people in it. Clearly, Luffy and his crew are the good kind of pirates," the village chief praised them without any hesitation.
Kira's expression became even more complex.
The village chief noticed her troubled look and laughed heartily. "There are plenty of good people in this world. If you happen to meet some, why worry about their identity?"
Marcus gently patted Kira on the head. "He's right. Just like not all Marines are good people, not all pirates are bad. You have to judge individuals based on their actions, not their titles."
Kira nodded thoughtfully, then happily dug into the feast that the villagers had spread out for the celebration.
That night, she ate more than Marcus had ever seen her consume, and listened intently to countless stories about heroes, adventures, and the complicated nature of good and evil in their world.
She even got invited to try some local wheat ale, which probably wasn't the best idea.
In the end, Alvida had to carry the slightly tipsy navigator back to their ship.
Marcus, however, stayed behind to have a private conversation with the village chief.
"You seem like you want to ask me something..."
"I stayed because I wanted to know, does your village have any cattle, sheep, or chickens? I'm willing to pay well."
"Well..." The village chief looked troubled and conflicted.
It wasn't that they didn't have any livestock, they did, but not many animals had survived recent events. Even with money, it would be difficult to buy any. Due to the Buggy Pirates' occupation, much of their livestock had been stolen or slaughtered for supplies. While they were celebrating now, most of the meat being served was from animals that the pirate crew had killed before being defeated.
"Is it a supply problem? I can pay more than market value."
"It's not just about the money. You've seen the current state of our town. After all the recent chaos and destruction, we don't have enough shops left operating, and many families have lost almost everything they owned. The remaining livestock needs to be distributed carefully to ensure people can rebuild their lives, otherwise, they won't survive the coming months."
"I see..." Marcus now understood the situation.
After thinking for a moment, he made a proposal.
"If that's the case, I can offer your people something in return, a safe refuge where they can temporarily relocate. It's large enough to house several thousand people. I can even construct a dozen or so proper houses for families who need them."
"Are you serious?" the village chief asked, clearly skeptical.
What Marcus was proposing sounded almost too good to be true.
"Are you folks construction workers or builders by trade?"
He had naturally noticed their ship earlier. Since it didn't fly any pirate flags or look particularly threatening, he hadn't given it much thought.
"Uh... not exactly, but close enough. So, what do you think?"
"How much would I need to pay?"
"Same as I originally asked for, just one breeding pair each of cattle, sheep, and chickens. That's all."
"Are you for real?" The village chief could hardly believe what he was hearing.
