Chapter 16: Chance encounter part 2
"So Luffy, what brings you to the forrest?" I asked as he ate my food without reservation. Even though I know the answer it's proper manners to strike up conversation at times like this.
"I'm looking for Ace." Still chewing his food Luffy looked up at me and answered, his face suddenly focused as his eyebrows scrunched together.
"Oh? Who's that?" I asked just to keep the conversation going. I'd like to know how much of his personality is the same as it is in the anime/manga.
"Hmm, Ace is Ace, who else would he be?" Luffy responded while swallowing an entire chunk of unchewed snake meat, his throat bulged out unnaturally, but he showed no sign of discomfort.
"Want me to help you find him?" I asked after thinking it over.
"No it's ok. I can do it myself. If I'm going to be a great pirate one day I can't get stuck on something like this." Luffy replied as if it was the most basic thing in the world.
"Oh? So you want to be a pirate do you?" Hardly able to suppress my smile at this point, I continued to talk to someone I once thought to be nothing more than a fictional character.
"Not just any pirate, I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!" Luffy stated matter of factly, confidence written clear across his young face.
"King of the Pirates!" Morph chimed out, changing into an older, more familiar form of Luffy as he did.
"Well then, I'm sure you'll need a powerful crew and an amazing ship to help you in your travels." I added with a gleam in my eye while thinking about all that is to come in this world.
"That's right!" Luffy replied while stuffing his mouth with the last piece of snake meat. It was far too big a piece to fit in a child's mouth, yet it easily fit as Luffy's cheeks stretched and contorted even more than the snakes. It was to a degree even a chipmunk would be jealous.
'His body truly is strange. Being made entirely of rubber. I wonder if he notices any difference between how he is now and how he was before he ate the Gum-Gum fruit?' I thought curiously.
"So what's that thing beside you and how is it floating? It looks weird." Luffy asked while staring up at Morph, seemingly only having just noticed him now.
"Oh this guy? He's a morph. A shapeshifter from space. I hear they can be found living in the lakes on one of the seven moons, though I'm not sure which. This little guy fell to earth in a meteor shower." I replied, answering with the in world explanation Pontus gave me for Morphs existence.
Proving to be the best visual aid Morph turned into a miniature moon before bursting into a cluster of fragments and raining down like a meteor turning into a puddle of water as he impacted the ground and reforming with a bow for dramatic effect.
"Wow really? That's so cool!" Luffy's eyes sparkled like polished diamonds as he looked up at one of the moons not fully obscured by the light of the sun. Likely imaging himself making it there with his crew one day.
"Wait! What are you doing now?" Luffy asked in shock as I took the head of the snake and pressed its fangs into my forearm, pushing with no small amount of force in order to make the fangs pierce my Atlantean skin.
"I'm building up a resistance to this particular type of toxin." I stated as the fangs sank slowly into my arm. The venom within then gradually seeped into my veins, making me momentarily dizzy.
Tossing the head of the pit viper to the side when I was done with it I grabbed the orange gourd filled with the water that was lying next to me. Pouring some water on the open wound I watched as the water lit up, glowing ever so slightly. The radiant liquid quickly healed the puncture wounds, closing them over without so much as a scar. But it didn't stop there. The healing waters kept working their magic, slowly detoxifying the venom coursing through my blood stream and helping my antibodies fight off the invasive bacteria.
Without the combined healing abilities of Namor and Percy Jackson I would never do something like this. It would be stupid.
"But why would you do that?" Luffy couldn't help but ask after seeing something so weird happen right before his eyes. It's the natural response, since no normal person would do something like this.
"With repeated exposure it's possible to build up an immunity to certain toxins. And you never know when something like that might be needed. Centipedes, spiders, snakes, mushrooms, even certain types of plants, flowers and all kinds of fruit, all of them can be poisonous to ingest, or posses venom that can be fatal if exposed to the blood stream.
Honestly, this forest is filled with the stuff. Besides you never know if someone in the future will try to poison you. So I figured rather than be afraid of what I might run into, or being carful with what I eat, I should just build up a tolerance to anything and everything I can instead." I stated matter of factly, not for a second thinking myself stupid. My confidence only grew stronger as I felt the effects of the vipers venom subside completely.
"There are also several species of fish that contain extremely deadly poison, like the lion fish, the stone fish and the puffer fish. Then there's the box jelly fish and the blue ringed octopus. Eventually I'll work my way up to them. I'll keep going until my immune system is strong enough to fend off even the most deadly toxins known to man. I mean why not right?" I added with a satisfied smile. The pain was only mildly annoying this time.
It's not like this is going to be easy. I'm talking to a seven year old, so some embellishment is expected. But that doesn't mean it's not possible with the right effort. Who knows when this might come in handy in the future? Especially with people like Warden Magellan, Caesar Clown and Queen the Plague walking around.
There was even a normal guy on earth who did stuff like this and it worked! Why wouldn't the same principle apply? Shaking my head of those thoughts, I focused a stream of purified water to course along my wrist and up my arm, towards my chest and along my neck, stopped only after passing over my gills. The slight glow began to fade as the healing waters finished working with my immune system to filter the venom from within my blood stream.
To be fair the water is healing me by itself for the most part. But I do have some degree of control over it. I didn't exactly set out to do any of this either. It started when I wanted to eat some wild berries I had scavenged. Turns out they were poisonous. Then I wanted to east some mushrooms. Which also turned out to be poisonous. So after dealing with severe diarrhea I drank some water only to feel much better almost immediately.
After that I decided to test the theory by eating the poison berries again while drinking water at the same time, only to find that they didn't effect me as badly, in fact they almost didn't affect at all.
I guess I've just watched too many anime and read too many light novels. I couldn't resist the temptation of becoming immune to poison. By the time I had realized what was happening I kept escalating to the point I would go out of my way to hunt poisonous/venomous creatures in order to let them bite me before eating them.
To that extent I've eaten some really weird things lately and I've been living rather dangerously. But the effects are always temporary and so far there is no toxin I can't heal from given time. Assuming I don't over do it that is.
I continued to sit with Luffy for a while. I even told him a few stories hinting at his future. We sat there until he had finished his meal, digested his food and was ready to go on his way.
"Im going back to look for Ace now. Thanks for the food mister… uh, Casper Mattress." Luffy waved goodbye as he ran back into the bushes once more. Chasing after the son of the man he aims to surpass. He didn't even turn back.
'Portgas D. Ace, the son of Gol D. Roger. I wonder if I'll ever meet you in these woods?'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Professor_Zzyzx
Professor_Zzyzx From here on out the updates will follow a schedule of one chapter every two days. If I can post more I will.
Thank you to everyone who has followed the story so far and a special thanks to those of you who donated power stones.
I really appreciate it.
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