"Lance, you're literally lightning now! What are you doing?!"
"Are you stupid? Why are you still trying to shoot guns?!"
"You can fire lightning just by raising your hand now! Isn't lightning stronger than your bullets?!"
"Shirley! Hit him with the shield! Use Armament Haki!"
"Tokikake, stop standing around watching and beat him up too!"
Aboard the Warhammer, Hammer was currently instructing Lance on how to develop his abilities.
Unfortunately, Lance had been a sniper for so long that he couldn't immediately break his old habits.
This made Hammer extremely annoyed.
If he hadn't been busy forging at the same time, he definitely would've smacked Lance with a couple hammers already.
After leaving the giant ship, the Warhammer didn't return to Birka.
Instead, it slowly sailed back toward Angel Island.
Hammer had his own plans.
Even if Roger had gone to Angel Island, he would leave after reading the Poneglyph.
At that point, Angel Island would still become his personal backyard!
At worst, he'd just wait a few extra days.
The Warhammer had more than enough supplies anyway.
Hammer had plenty of patience.
So now he had directly set up a forge on the deck.
Training people while forging at the same time.
Life was pretty damn good.
"Whoa! Shirley, you're actually serious?!"
"Three million volts! Lightning!"
Facing the pitch-black shield, Lance quickly reacted.
Both arms transformed into lightning and blasted forward instantly.
The electricity slammed into the shield, exploding into dazzling flashes of light.
As for Lance's initial training direction, Hammer only had one instruction:
Increase the intensity of the lightning.
In other words, increase the voltage.
To accomplish this, Hammer subjected Lance to brutally inhumane training.
As for the training content?
Simple.
Hit him with a hammer.
Hammer firmly believed that any form of energy, once compressed, could unleash far greater power.
Thus, Absolute Space + Omnidirectional Hammer.
Of course, without Armament Haki mixed in.
Otherwise even ten Lances wouldn't survive it.
Once transformed into lightning, Lance would be compressed into a tiny cube by Hammer.
It was miserable, but extremely effective.
Lance quickly mastered three million volts at incredible speed.
Once he got the hang of it, Hammer left the rest of the training to him.
The sparring partners also shifted from Hammer himself to Shirley and Tokikake.
"Gion, are you sure you still want to experience this?"
Hammer continued forging without even lifting his head as he asked the woman beside him.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Earlier, inside your Absolute Space, I felt a completely different kind of pressure."
"I think only when I can ignore your Absolute Space entirely will my strength truly reach completion."
Hammer responded with a disdainful smirk.
'Ignore his Absolute Space?'
'Dream on.'
'Even Teacher Zephyr could only forcibly break through it using brute strength.'
Without exaggeration, if Hammer activated Fruit Awakening while using Absolute Space, even Zephyr wouldn't escape quickly.
"Fine then. Since you're asking to suffer, go ahead."
"Absolute Space!"
Without any visible movement from Hammer, invisible hammer strikes instantly surrounded Gion as Absolute Space formed immediately.
The reason Hammer agreed to this was because he had discovered something:
Absolute Space also greatly improved his own growth.
By constantly maintaining Absolute Space, he could clearly feel his mastery over the Devil Fruit strengthening at a noticeable pace.
And so seven days passed.
The group drifted across the White-White Sea for an entire week.
Once Hammer calculated enough time had passed, he finally ordered the soldiers to accelerate toward Angel Island.
"Hammer, what if we run into the Roger Pirates again?"
Looking at the increasingly close Angel Island, Lance asked from behind Hammer.
For Lance, these seven days had been absolute hell.
Constant Armament Haki beatdowns from Shirley and Tokikake,
Combined with Hammer occasionally using All-Directions Hammer to forcibly compress him,
Left Lance mentally exhausted.
But the results were obvious.
From his initial three million volts, he had now increased his output to seven million volts.
As for Shirley and Tokikake.
Shirley was fine.
Being a Mink, she naturally generated electricity and possessed near-maxed-out lightning resistance.
But Tokikake?
He suffered miserably.
The man had basically become an afro-headed explosion victim.
Still, his lightning resistance improved quite a bit too.
"Run into them? I'll just throw you out there to electrocute them."
Hammer shot Lance an irritated glare.
Seriously, what an awful topic to bring up.
"What if we run into them again?"
'What?'
'Did eating the Rumble-Rumble Fruit suddenly make Lance think he could challenge Roger now?'
'Stop joking.'
Hammer still wanted to live a few more years.
"I can see the harbor. Shirley, do you see Roger's ship?"
"Nope. Don't see it."
"Perfect. They probably already left. Alright boys, let's dock!"
The moment Roger's ship wasn't spotted, Hammer's mood instantly brightened.
As long as he didn't run into Roger,
Hammer feared absolutely nobody!
"Oh? Vice Admiral Hammer, you've returned."
The moment Hammer and the others landed at Angel Island again, Gan Fall, who happened to be patrolling the harbor, immediately noticed them.
"Gan Fall, where's that bastard Roger?"
"Roger? He already left."
"GOOD!"
'...Was Roger really that scary? He honestly didn't feel that terrifying to me.'
"Since Roger's already gone, let's spare him for now."
"Gan Fall, there's actually something I want to discuss with you."
Hammer immediately dragged Gan Fall aside, preparing for a little heart-to-heart conversation.
"What is it, Vice Admiral Hammer?"
"You helped us resolve the Shandian conflict. If there's anything you need help with, just say it."
"You know I'm a Marine, but I'm also a blacksmith."
"I'd like to establish a long-term purchase arrangement for Skypiean Dials and Iron Clouds. What do you think?"
This had always been Hammer's plan.
Skypiea produced huge quantities of Dials and Iron Clouds, both were materials he desperately needed.
Obviously freeloading wasn't an option.
But if he could get a discount?
Even better.
"That? Sure."
"But Vice Admiral Hammer, can you frequently come to Skypiea?"
In Gan Fall's eyes, the real problem was transportation.
Skypiea was ten thousand meters above the sea.
Traveling back and forth wasn't easy.
"Don't worry about that."
"My vice-captain Lance can fly now. He'll come collect the shipments."
As he spoke, Hammer looked toward Lance in the distance with an extremely devious grin.
Lance instantly shivered.
Just from that smile alone, he already knew Hammer was plotting something against him again.
"In that case, it's possible."
"But if Vice Admiral Hammer can also forge a Cloud Armor for me, I can personally ensure every merchant gives you a 20% discount. What do you think?"
Gan Fall had personally witnessed Hammer's forging ability.
That heaven-defying craftsmanship was truly extraordinary.
And the incredibly powerful Cloud Armor, he wanted one too!
"You old geezer, you're pretty sly!"
"Do you even know how difficult Cloud Armor is to forge?!"
"40% discount!"
"25% discount, Vice Admiral Hammer."
"Iron Clouds still need to be gathered and processed. You should consider the hardships of Skypieans"
"30% discount!"
"Deal!"
Hammer: 'Damn old man! Old people really are the most annoying!'
Gan Fall: 'Ahahaha, young man, you're still too inexperienced! Iron Clouds are easy to gather! Cloud Armor, here I come!'