In the end, the three followed the clerk’s advice and bought two Eternal Poses.
They didn’t buy the one he recomnded, though—they purchased two of the Grand Line’s best-selling Eternal Poses instead.
One pointed to Sandy Island, the vast land beneath an archipelago said to be the world’s largest island, ho of the ancient human kingdom, the Desert Kingdom of Alabasta.
The other pointed to the shipwrights’ holy land—Water 7.
After Alabasta, their next target would inevitably be Sky Island.
And Water 7, like the clerk’s suggestion, was among the seven islands closest to the Sabaody Archipelago.
Although Alabasta and Water 7 lie on the sa route and technically they didn’t need two Eternal Poses,
Karl bought both to save ti.
After picking up additional navigation tools Nami needed, the trio left the Bugas Kingdom and, following the map, headed to the nearest Marine base.
Anywhere within a World Governnt mber’s seas, there will always be a Marine branch on that island or on nearby islands.
Mary Geoise assigns "bodyguards" to mber nations—that’s one of the benefits of mbership.
It’s not just that pirates don’t dare cause trouble in mber states; with nearby Marine bases, warship reinforcents arrive fast.
"Ufufufu... can’t wait to hit the Boin Archipelago, huh?"
Aboard the ship, Carina looked at Karl with a playful smile.
From the clerk, she’d learned that the Boin Archipelago was packed with enticing "food" everywhere.
"Eh..."
Before Karl could answer, Nami glanced back from the helm. "Karl, are you really going to that terrifying man-eating island?"
"Yeah... aren’t you curious how this ’scrawny’ body of mine can eat so much?"
Karl nodded and went on, "My physique cos with a gift on par with Devil Fruit users—an innate talent others would envy."
"My talent turns food into power. The more I eat, the stronger I get."
Pointing at himself, Karl grinned. "Half of my strength? I ate for it."
The remaining half broke down to thirty percent from the mysterious lance, and ten percent each from Observation Haki and Armant Haki.
Just that first fifty percent made Karl invincible in the East Blue, and a rare match even in the first half of the Grand Line.
"So that’s it. You really are a ’monster’!"
Nami first looked enlightened, then her eyes sparkled. "Which ans once we land on the Boin Archipelago, you’ll co out way stronger, right?"
"That’s right."
Karl nodded.
As they chatted, the three soon sailed their sloop to the island with the Marine branch.
It was one of those islets that have magnetism, but too weak to be on any of the seven official routes.
Aside from the Marine base, there was a small town much like Shells Town.
After asking the townsfolk for directions, the trio lugged the pirate captain into the base.
Maybe their luck was good—or maybe Grand Line Marines weren’t as corrupt as those in the Blues.
Either way, cashing the bounty was smooth.
Carrying a chest filled with Berries, they headed back.
By the ti they returned to the Bugas Kingdom, the sun was just setting—the hour of dusk.
After confirming there’d be no Marine sting nearby, Karl and Carina got to work and launched a frenzied hunt on the island’s pirates.
Notorious in the Blues though so were, here they were barely developing rookies—none of them even Supernova level. Before Karl, who wielded city-levelling might, they were children before an adult, utterly helpless.
With an overwhelming show of force, he felled nearly all the strongest auras in the royal capital.
The trio then interrogated them and identified over a dozen wanted pirate captains, plus three officers with bounties.
They looted the ships one by one, and once their tri-sail sloop’s hold was almost full, they hauled the lot to the Marine base and redeed nearly 300 million Berries in bounties.
As for the treasure aboard those dozen ships—far more than the bounties—the trio netted around one billion Berries total.
One wave and they were rich.
When Nami finished tallying, her eyes had turned into \$ signs, glittering with golden light.
Even Carina stood akimbo, satisfied. "This much should last ... half a year."
"No way. All that money lasts only half a year?"
Nami stared, aghast. "Am I going to spend over a hundred million a month?"
"Probably more."
Carina patted Karl’s shoulder and shrugged. "The richer this glutton gets, the less he holds back. Didn’t Baratie’s bill teach you anything?"
"Pfft... you’re right." Nami hid a laugh behind her hand.
Karl could only look helpless. "We earn money to spend it. Don’t you buy clothes and such too?"
"Get a load of this."
Carina jabbed an elbow into his cuirass and huffed, "People say girls’ things cost more than boys’, yet your als cost more than all my shopping combined."
"Hehe..."
Karl finally offered an embarrassed smile.
Joking as they went, the three returned once more to the Bugas Kingdom.
As a mber nation, it had everything.
They exchanged the looted treasure for cash at the capital’s exchange house, then deposited half the Berries in the bank.
They kept the other half on hand in case they hit backwater islands where only cash would do.
While they were exchanging money, word of the trio’s purge of the island’s pirates spread completely through the Bugas Kingdom.
So tabloid reporters gathered the story, and those paparazzi quickly dug up Karl and Carina’s identities.
The East Blue’s "Knight and Phantom Thief" had just reached the first stop of the Grand Line and nearly swept the pirates who’d co from the Blues—this tidbit was sold to the World Economy News Paper or printed in their own rags.
The na of the "Knight and Phantom Thief" from the East Blue began to spread—slowly—across the first half of the Grand Line.
Karl even piggybacked on Carina’s spotlight and got a small blurb in the World Economy News Paper.
Those nosy paparazzi happened to catch a shot of Carina using the Barrier-Barrier Fruit.
A Paracia power with quite a reputation—its user reappearing on the seas with absolute defense—made the girl nad Carina draw a lot of eyes.
Karl, on the other hand—a guy with impressive martial prowess—went overlooked for the mont, since he hadn’t shown any "special ability."
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