One Piece: Hashirama Template

"Oars!!!"

From the execution platform where Ace stood, to the Whitebeard Pirates scattered across the battlefield, countless eyes went blood-red as they roared in fury at the sight of Little Oars Jr.'s mangled corpse.

The "wood clone" finished the job with a neat strike—and, in doing so, stole the spotlight of the entire world.

All across the East Blue, people stared at the image of the youngest Warlord of the Sea and pictured how Link had earned the title "Piercing Duke." In the other seas, onlookers recalled the headline about him slaughtering hundreds of pirates in fifteen minutes—and the way he stepped over Crocodile and Gecko Moria to take a Shichibukai seat.

A Warlord—and a top-tier Logia user, no less.

Those who knew about the Forest-Forest Fruit (a "true" nature type) felt a chill crawl up their spines.

The Piercing Duke had clearly pushed the Forest-Forest Fruit to a terrifying realm. Just a sliver of wood—yet once it pierced a body, it rooted and surged from within, killing an enemy from the inside out. A completely different kind of dread from Hancock's petrifying charm.

For a moment, the wood clone dazzled the stage.

Bartholomew Kuma also raised his palms—announcing he, too, had joined the fray.

Then, side by side, the wood clone and Kuma leapt down from the ramparts to fulfill their duties as Warlords of the Sea.

Only Doflamingo remained on the wall. He didn't keep spectating for long. With a jaunty pose and a crooked grin, he hopped down as well.

His fighting style was as flamboyant as ever: strange poses, razor-fine threads too thin for the naked eye, forcing pirates without Haki to slaughter one another—or slicing bodies and limbs apart like paper dolls.

Even so, he didn't go on a mindless rampage. He had no interest in drawing the combined fire of Whitebeard's division commanders and top officers.

He was here to witness a new era being born.

The messier the seas grew, the closer his dream came—to yank the Celestial Dragons off their pedestal and throw the world order into chaos. And that made Donquixote Doflamingo very, very happy.

"Ding! You defeated an enemy. Gained 2.93% EXP!"

As the wood clone plunged into battle at Marineford, the prompt chimed in Link's mind aboard a Navy warship slipping through the Gate of Justice toward Impel Down—thanks to Nojiko's help.

His EXP stockpile ticked up as well—another 8.15%. Only 1.85% remained to reach Stage Five.

No wonder this was hailed as one of the best EXP pools in the world—packed with elite mobs.

If he could wipe out the forty-three subordinate captains allied to Whitebeard, a dozen division commanders, and even the old man himself… the Senju Hashirama template would unlock at a frightening pace.

While the wood clone hunted at the Summit War, Link's real body headed for Impel Down—the prison that held countless criminals.

As the underwater fortress loomed closer, a spark of anticipation flashed in Link's eyes.

Woo—woo—woo—

Suddenly, piercing sirens wailed across the sea, reaching Link and his crew.

A flood of prison guards poured out at Impel Down's gate. At their head strode a man who looked like a devil and a pharaoh had fused into a single, mutated human—the deputy warden, Hannyabal.

He grabbed a loudspeaker Den-Den Mushi and bellowed, "Warship ahead, stop immediately or we open fire! Why are Warlords Marshall D. Teach, the Blackbeard, and Link the Piercing Duke appearing here of all places?!"

"Zehahaha… As expected of the iron-walled Impel Down. Fast on the draw," Teach laughed, then glanced at Link. "Still, why aren't we using the Door-Door Fruit to slip in quietly?"

Link smiled. "Aren't you recruiting? Sneaking in is dull. Smashing our way through has… presence."

"Zehahaha… you've got a point."

Teach nodded—and grinned. "Then I'll leave it to you, Link."

"On it."

Link clapped his hands. The warship groaned—and an ocean of branches erupted from its hull, surging toward Impel Down like a nest of giant serpents.

"Open fire!"

At Hannyabal's order, the deck guns on the first tier thundered, vomiting a storm of shells.

Boom—boom—boom!

Fireballs blossomed one after another.

When the smoke cleared, Hannyabal and the guards went wide-eyed.

Every shell had been swallowed by the living rampart of branches. Those blasted directly had only their bark scorched.

Even Lafitte and the others narrowed their eyes.

This defense… was monstrous.

In this world, only the legendary Treasure Tree Adam was said to shrug off cannon fire. Yet the trees born of Link's Devil Fruit were doing the same.

Had he pushed the Forest-Forest Fruit to a tier just shy of the Treasure Tree Adam?

So this… was Link's true power.

None of the Blackbeard Pirates had witnessed Link unleash himself before. Facing a man whose power and mind both felt unfathomable, their respect—and dread—deepened.

Teach's caution spiked as well. Until he laid hands on the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, picking a fight with this guy was a straight path to a grisly death.

The flood of branches lashed onto the fortress and wove themselves into a colossal wooden bridge.

"Move—double time."

Link took point. The Blackbeard Pirates raced after him.

"Wood Release: Cutting Technique!"

"Black Hole!"

Countless wooden spikes screamed from Link's hands, swelling into an arrow-rain that drowned a swath of prison guards. Some raised shields in time—

—only for the ground beneath their boots to blacken like ink. Gravity seized them like an invisible giant hand and dragged them down into a bottomless void…

Hannyabal blanched and bolted back into the prison to alert Magellan—who was, unfortunately, mid-bout of stomach trouble.

In his panic, Hannyabal forgot to order the elevators shut down.

And so Link's party rode the lift straight toward Level Six.

As they passed Levels Three, Four, and Five, Link lifted his sleeve. Hidden in the folds, his fingers flashed through hand seals.

In a camera blind spot on Level Three—where dozens of millions-berry felons and the odd hundred-million-berry monster were caged—a branch sprouted from the stone and bulged into the shape of a middle-aged man.

Wood Transformation. Wood Clone.

Three clones appeared in the blind zones and, ignoring the watching Den-Den Mushi, fanned out—using sensory arts to hunt for the strongest auras.

"B-Boss—let me out!"

"Open my cell! You'll never make it out alone—let me help!"

"Sir—no, my lord—please! I'll be your man! Your dog!"

The level erupted. Prisoners who'd been half-dead from torture suddenly grabbed their bars like men reborn, either pleading or howling at the clones.

A clone frowned. With no time to pick the perfect test subject, he formed new seals and spat out a dragon of flame at a certain cell.

The fire dragon smashed into the bars and burst into a tidal wave of heat, swallowing the entire cell.

Inside, the inmates turned into human torches. Their screams cut off in seconds.

"Ding! You defeated an enemy. Gained 0.03% EXP!"

"Ding! You defeated an enemy. Gained 0.01% EXP!"

…

As the Level Three clone began its culling, prompts chimed one after another in Link's mind.

The numbers, however, were pitifully small—just as he'd expected. Back in Stage Three, even Absalom—who was about Level Three material—had only been worth 0.15% EXP.

Absalom's body had been modified to beastlike strength and augmented by a Devil Fruit. He was top tier among Level Three inmates.

Now that Link was in Stage Four, getting any EXP at all from Level Three prisoners was already decent.

Before long, the Level Three clone slipped back into the blind zone and—thanks to Nojiko—stepped into a pocket space to dispel on the spot.

Reason: there was nothing left on Level Three that could feed him EXP.

By then, his EXP stock hit the 10% threshold—and the system cleanly flipped the difficulty over into Stage Five.

(End of Chapter)

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