I was about to wave it off and say it was nothing, but old Jim interrupted me before I could say anything. "If you're going to say that saving my little brother's life was nothing, you should stop, or I'll be angry," he said with a reproachful smile.

"He's a hot-headed old fart who always causes problems for people everywhere, but he's still my cute little brother, and I must thank you for saving his life," old Jim stated with a glint of resolution in his eyes as he bowed his head to me.

"Tehaha, If you put it that way, then I guess I have no choice but to accept your gratitude, but hurry up and raise your head," I said as I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him from bowing his head again.

"that's what I wanted to hear," said old Jim with a smile. "Before we talk about the ship, I have something to tell you," he said in a grave tone and waited for me to nod before continuing to speak.

"The man you bought the Bally wood from seems to have played a trick on you," he stated, and I raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing and waited for him to keep going.

"he would have had you wood sent into the worst shipyard here. It's a shipyard that specializes in mass-producing ships with no soul to them," he said with disdain. "Most of their products are faulty vessels that would end up drowning sooner rather than later, so I did the only thing I could and threw whatever weight I have here to take over your order after hearing about you from my little brother," he concluded with a sigh.

"is that so? Then it seems we owe you a debt of gratitude as well," I said with a calm smile, but I was fuming on the inside.

I was going to shrug it off, but it seems my vindictive perk finally started acting up. 'I guess I'll have to take care of that shifty wood merchant and that shady shipyard before we leave the island,' I thought inside my head but didn't let it show on my face.

We then scattered as Wilson went to explore the town while Elly and bob went to find us suitable accommodations to stay in until the ship was complete. Laffite and I stayed and made our way to old Jim's office to discuss the finer details, like the final price and the design for the ship.

It was already dark by the time we finished discussing the construction of the ship. It would take one month for the vessel to be ready. It would cost us twenty-five million bellies, which might seem like much, it was, however, only the cost of the work as old Jim refused to take even one belly more than that, and he even stated that he's going to have a surprise for us ready for us by the time the ship was complete.

We tried asking him what the surprise will be, but he was surprisingly stubborn about not telling us what it was, so we had no choice but to give up on what it was and leave as it was already late.

Once outside the shipyard, we contacted Elly to ask her where we'll be staying until our ship was complete and made our way to the Inn she found for us after she informed us of its location.

It was nothing like the inn we stayed at in the capital, but the beds were comfortable, and the place was clean, so it was still ok.

We spent the rest of the month training and doing some bounty hunting work when we got bored or had free time.

I mostly worked on my impact fist technique while also keeping up with my daily practice swings. By the time the month was over, I've made a lot of progress in my training as I could now use Impact fist even while moving, but I could only do it every five seconds or so, and it still required some more work.

Wilson was also doing his own training, but he refused to share what that training was with the rest of the crew or myself, saying that he'll leave it as a surprise.

Laffite came to me to learn the rest of the marine's six powers, but he, unfortunately, had to spend the whole month learning Geppo, so he didn't have time to learn the rest before it was time to leave the island, but he did master geppo, so that counts for something.

Elly spent the first week recovering from her injuries while setting up a simple workshop to work on some ideas she had about improving her bombs, and she came to me to learn the six powers as well once her wounds were ok.

She spent the first week learning soru as it was the most suitable for her. We then moved on to kami-e, which also took her a week to master. She, however, refused to learn rankyaku, saying that it didn't suit her fighting style, and I agreed, so I had her doing leg strengthening exercises instead to prepare her for learning Geppo later.

Bob didn't do any training himself and was content with watching from the side like always while preparing the occasional home-cooked meal for as we trained. He was no Sanji, of course, but his cooking was still delicious.

It also seems that the shifty merchant who sold us the wood in the capital had unfortunately disappeared under "mysterious" circumstances. That shady shipyard also seemed to have accidentally caught fire and was burned to the ground, but it had nothing to do with me, so I digress.

It was finally time to take our first look at our completed ship, so the crew and I got together and made our way to old Jim's shipyard.

The old man received us with a warm welcome and invited us in after we exchanged a couple of polite words, then took us straight to the shipyard's dry dock as he noticed our impatient expressions.

"allow me to introduce my pride and joy and the finest ship I had the pleasure to build so far. The Black Pearl galleon," he stated as he gestured to our ship that was finally complete.

She looked exactly like the black pearl from the Pirates of the Caribbean, with some minor changes. She had a lot of silver decorations on her. The figurehead, the sails, and the keel were all silver in color, and she didn't have any canons yet.

"She comes with three masts, a captain's room, ten officer bedrooms, crew quarters capable of comfortably housing thirty sailors, kitchen, bath workshop, a doctor room, a storage area, and twenty canon slots, but that's not all," old Jim stated while gesturing with his hand in a grand, dramatic manner.

"The most important thing is this," old Jim stated while pointing the black pearl's keel. "I had to step on my heart and use my treasure, the Adam Wood I've been holding onto for 25 years now, to make the keel as it's the core of the ship and its most important part," he concluded with a proud smile like a father looking at his child.

"Old Jim, I don't know what to say. She's so much more than I expected," I said with a sigh of admiration as I looked at this magnificent ship that will carry us through the seas.

"You don't have to say anything. You only have to take care of her and use her well," old Jim said with a smirk. "I'll be looking forward to hearing about your adventures in the grand line, so hurry up and get out of here," he concluded, as he smacked me on the back in a friendly way.

And so we loaded our luggage into the ship and set sail, after some ceremony and bidding farewell to old Jim and the rest of the shipyard workers.

"Alright, people, look alive. It's finally time to start our first voyage as a formal crew with our new companion, the black pearl," I said with a smirk as I stood in front of the crew.

"Our first destination Will be Toroa island, the home of musicians."

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