After getting settled in, and Makino showing him the different duties around the bar, he went out to explore the island.

The sun was still shining, and the windmills were turning lazily atop their green hills. The main road was wide, green fields climbing the hills fenced off by old wooden logs. He walked for a while, until he could see a forest and the mountain in which the mountain bandits called their base.

The island felt like its own ecosystem, and walking towards the forest, he started thinking about what he wanted to do with this new chance at life.

Firstly, he would need to become strong enough to be able to adventure in this world, and travel out to sea.

Did he want to be a pirate, or did he want to be a marine?

Neither sounded amazing, because while pirates were free to do and go wherever they wanted, they were also constantly hunted by the navy and the world government.

The Navy / World Government on the other hand wasn’t really the force of justice that they advocated. Although they had amazing style (Cool Cloaks with Justice on the back), if you entered the navy, you were locked in for life, and not at all free to decide where you wanted to travel.

It would have to be neither. Just a strong guy like admiral Kuzan, travelling around the world doing whatever he felt like. Problem is, how do you become strong in this world?

Lifting rocks, and punching trees? Did he even want to be a close-range fighter? No, of course not, swords are way cooler!

But first, he needed to train his body, to become as strong and sturdy as possible!

Of course, he wanted a strong devil-fruit as well, but it wasn’t like he could just eat a normal apple and decide which power he wanted. Devil fruits were rare here outside the grand line, and only the captains of pirate crews mostly had them.

There was also the fact that you don’t need a devil fruit to be strong in this world, just like Shanks and Rayleigh have shown us. Even without the power of Haki, you can become strong like Zoro, and with haki, the limits are even wider.

It was decided. He would have to train like crazy every day, before getting his hands on a sword, or finding a dojo to train his sword skills! When he felt he was strong enough, he should try to make it to Logue Town, before Luffy arrives!

-

The next day, after finishing his chores at the bar, he started living his life almost like Luffy. He ran over to the forest every day, and started with long jogging trips, before he did different training regiments from the modern world.

The difference was exceptional!

In the beginning it was just like normal training, but the rate of improvement was completely different, and he rarely ran out of stamina!

He could train for 8 hours, and while training he could feel his body getting visibly stronger.

In his old life, training was a struggle, but here he could see himself getting stronger and stronger, and it was a completely different feeling!

After just a month, he was able to lift a rock the weight of around one hundred kilograms, and the speed of his running and movements felt superhuman!

Every day after finishing his chores he would run out to excercise, and Makino would just sigh to herself, discovering that she had mistakingly discovered another training maniac like Luffy.

-

Luke met Luffy at times while training, and one-time Luffy asked if he also was getting stonger to become a pirate, but Luke responded with how he just wanted to become strong for his own dreams.

“What is your dream?” Luffy asked. 

“To explore the world, and make tons of friends.” Luke answered.

“That’s almost the same as mine ha-ha, just that I will become the strongest man at sea as well, the pirate king!” Luffy said proudly.

“That’s a great dream!” Luke answered, “Hopefully we’ll meet out at sea sometime and we can eat and drink together when we are both bigshots!”

“Yepp” Luffy answered.

“I have to get back to my training now, I have a lot of catching up to do!” Luke said, and continued his run.

“I won’t lose out to you” Luffy answered, and ran at an incredible speed, passing by Luke in a flash, running towards the forest.

“Luffy is amazing, huh.”

“He doesn’t have a single bad bone in him, and always wants to become stronger. It's no wonder he gets so many amazing people to follow him.” Luke thought.

Luke kept jogging, and he had really started enjoying this routine of working and training in this new environment.

Now that he felt that his body was as strong as a normal pirate brute in this world, he was ready to start training with the sword.

-

He estimated that he would travel a couple months before Luffy went out to sea, to get to Logue Town in good time, and enjoy the plot, but he was still far away from even the starting power of Luffy.

The next morning while doing his duties, he asked Marino if she knew about a dojo or a sword training area close to town, but she told him there wasn’t really anything like that in the area.

Luke then asked here if there were any place where he could find a sword, as he wanted to train the way of the swordsman.

She didn’t seem as surprised as he expected, but it was no wonder since she was a close friend of one of the strongest swordsmen in the world, Shanks.

She told him there were some swords in the attic, and that he was free to train with one of them, as long as he returned it when he was done with it.

-

Up in the attic there were several old and rusty swords, but there were also katanas and sword that looked to be of real quality. He took a sword in a black sheathe, and unsheathing it he found that it was heavy, but had a great balance in his hand.

This wasn’t just a random sword, but probably something Shanks and his crew had deposited here and forgot about, as they earned too much good stuff to remember all of it beeing an emperor of the sea!

He fixed it to his belt, and it made him feel like a real warrior. Problem was, he had never fought with a sword before.

-

He started training with the sword in the forest, slashing at trees, and cutting in the air, doing different moves he remembered from shows, and with this stronger body, he really felt like the slashes exuded some strength.

Even still, it felt very clumsy, and he knew that it would take a long time until he got used to fighting with the sword.

-

Five months went by in a flash, and he was now walking unto a gangplank, a merchant ship set to stop at Logue Town, leaving the port of Windmill Village.

He had trained with the sword until sundown every day for 5 months, and had even done some mock battles with some  mountain bandits he got to know after training all over the island.

He didn’t end up training a lot with Luffy, as Luffy had unbelievable energy levels, and his devil fruit wasn’t too great a match to fight for a swordsman.

But the one time they tried to fight, Luke got punched in the face with a gumo-gumo no rocket, before he could even react.

He could feel the difference in their strength on his face every time he woke up for the next three days.

Luffy was really a monster, after training with Garp and Ace since he was a child.

Walking up on the gangplank, he waved goodbye to Makino who had taken care of him for his entire stay, and he felt truly sad to leave her behind on her own again.

“You can always come back if it doesn’t work out Luke!” she said.

“Thanks! I will try my best!” he answered.

Luffy wasn’t on the port to say goodbye, but he hadn’t expected it. They were not that close, only having talked occasionally, meeting around the island and at the bar.

He turned around to walk onto the ship, but then he heard Luffy running and screaming.

“Have a good trip, and tell me some good stories the next time we meet!

“I will!” Luke answered, and went into his cabin with a smile on his face.