A few minutes later.
Xiano had finished his breakfast and was now watching with great interest as Alaska, the pig at his feet, eagerly devoured the Pot Pot Milk.
There were only five boxes of strawberry milk in the fridge, and he had poured all of them into the basin. In no time, Alaska had licked it clean, its pink little tongue still lingering around the edges for a few more laps.
Its little belly was now round and bulging, looking utterly adorable. Xiano couldn't help but squat down and poke it with his finger.
As Xiano leaned closer, the little creature immediately jumped into his arms, its purple pupils narrowing into crescent shapes, and a soft, cooing purr escaping its throat.
"Burp—"
Suddenly, it let out a sweet, strawberry-scented milk burp, its fluffy tail freezing mid-air in embarrassment. It cautiously glanced at its owner.
"Heh, already learning to read people's expressions at such a young age," Xiano chuckled, amused. Wolves and dogs really are from the same family, no wonder the initial loyalty was as high as 89.
He checked the panel, and the loyalty had now updated to 92.
"Silver hair, natural curls, a love for strawberry milk, and those intelligent dead-fish eyes."
Xiano pinched his chin, "Hmm, seems like I don't even need to think too hard about your name. How about we call you Agin?"
Agin?
The little creature wagged its tail happily. It didn't understand what the word meant, but it now had a name of its own!
"No objections? Then it's settled."
Xiano laughed heartily, "Let's go, Agin! Time for some outdoor exercise!"
As he pushed the door open, the two parrots from the neighbor's house were already perched on the courtyard wall.
"My brother, the champion!"
"My brother, the hero!"
Xiano's face immediately darkened.
So embarrassing.
The mess Nami had caused a year ago still hadn't been cleared up.
"Agin, scare them!" he immediately commanded his newly acquired little sidekick.
"Grr—Woof!"
Agin bared its milk teeth and let out a roar toward the wall.
To Xiano, it looked purely adorable, but surprisingly, the two parrots instantly shivered in fear, too scared to chatter anymore.
"Whimper…"
Another fearful dog's whimper came from nearby. Xiano turned to see the big white dog that he had almost sacrificed years ago, just passing by on the shaded path. It was now lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth, its limbs trembling like a sieve.
Is this really a Bloodline suppression?
Seems like it's especially effective against canines.
Xiano was pleasantly surprised and rubbed Agin's belly, "Not bad, little one. If you can scare Akainu to the ground someday, I won't question your Silver Wolf King's Bloodline anymore."
Akainu?
Agin tilted its head, its small eyes filled with big confusion. What's that? Can I eat it?
...
At the mountain peak, the cold wind howled.
Yet, Xiano had stripped off his outer clothes and pants, casually tossing them aside, revealing a robust and muscular physique.
Agin, ever the dutiful companion, immediately picked up the clothes and carried them to a clean stone block nearby.
"Jarvis."
He touched his chest expressionlessly.
The surface of his skin rippled instantly, as if a nano-tech iron suit was forming, and a sleek black outfit quickly covered his entire body.
...
Of course, this was purely a fantasy.
Agin obediently sat by the stone block, watching in confusion as its owner pulled out a set of black clothes from who-knows-where, grunting and struggling to stuff his legs into the pants...
The elasticity was indeed impressive, but it still needed to be worn before it could automatically adjust to his current physique. The process of putting it on was still a bit challenging.
"Finally, it's on."
Xiano set the weight to 2.2 tons, and the long-lost sense of heaviness instantly pressed down on him.
Ever since defeating Arlong, he had taken a break to relax his mind and body. It had been quite a while since he last trained with weights, so he wasn't quite used to it at the moment.
While doing handstand push-ups to loosen up his muscles, he browsed through the three secret manuals in front of him.
The other two manuals had prerequisites, so he could only start with mastering Paper Drawing. As for Storm Leg, its priority could be pushed back a bit.
For the next period of time, he planned to practice Paper Drawing every morning and hone his Armament Haki in the afternoon.
He would return home by dinner time to eat with his sisters. He didn't plan to go out at night either. Training for such long hours in a day already exceeded what an average person could handle. There was no need to push himself as hard as he did before Arlong arrived.
After just over a year of intense training, his mental state had already become somewhat abnormal.
If this continued for a few more years, by the time he set sail as an adult, the world would only be greeted by a madman.
...
About half an hour later.
After loosening up his muscles and bones and finishing reading the manuals, Xiano sat cross-legged on the ground, deep in thought.
Paper Drawing, in simple terms, was a martial art that relied on extreme perception of airflow changes to dodge physical attacks. It was similar to Observation Haki but had fundamental differences.
If he could, without relying on vision, use minimal movements to dodge enemy attacks as lightly as a piece of paper floating in the wind, even achieving a seemingly "ethereal" body dodge effect...
Then he would be considered to have mastered it.
"Iron Body trains hardness, while Paper Drawing seeks softness..."
Xiano pondered. When he practiced Iron Body before, he had Man-Scar and the others take turns hitting him hard with a Spiked Club to achieve success.
To practice Paper Drawing, he couldn't rely on himself either. He needed a sparring partner who could unleash moves that would put pressure on him to dodge.
A sparring partner...
His gaze slowly shifted and involuntarily landed on Agin.
"Woof?"
Before Agin could react, Xiano grabbed the back of its neck and lifted it up, coaxing, "Hey, Agin, do you have any attack skills? Something fast? Try using it on me."
"Woof—"
Agin, dangling in mid-air, was initially wagging its tail in grievance. Hearing this, it tilted its little head and thought for a moment, then suddenly let out a low growl, its silver fur standing on end.
Xiano felt a tingling, stinging sensation in his palm and instinctively let go. At that moment, a dazzling blue-purple electric light burst from the little one's throat.
Zap!
A bolt of lightning as thick as a bowl shot past Xiano's ear, blasting a several-meter-deep charred hole in the rock wall more than ten meters behind him.
Amidst the smoke, Agin landed on all fours, its body still crackling with electric arcs, its purple pupils shimmering like silver moons.
"Woof?"
It seemed to be discovering this ability for the first time as well, curiously raising its little paw with jumping electric arcs, flipping it back and forth.
"Holy crap!"
Xiano was wide-eyed, turning to look at the still-smoking rock wall, then glancing at his slightly numb palm.
Was this the kind of destructive power a little pup born just a day ago could have?
If that attack from earlier had hit me without activating Iron Body, I would probably have been left with a bloody, mangled mess.
And an ordinary person? They might have been reduced to a charred corpse in an instant.
Suddenly remembering something, Rayleigh quickly opened the system panel and glanced at the pet section.
Sure enough.
Several lines of freshly updated notifications appeared.
[Pet "Agin" has awakened the primary Bloodline Talent skill "Azure Lightning Breath"]
[Pet "Agin" has awakened the primary Bloodline Talent skill "Electric Arc Body Protection"]
[Note: The power of all Talent skills will increase as the pet's strength grows]
(End of Chapter)