The Devouring Dragon-Chapter 101: A C-Rank World

"It’s time," I hummed, standing in front of a large blue swirling portal, simply glancing back at Tiamat, "Just stay here for half an hour. If I haven’t come back to request backup after that long, then you can leave."

"If you haven’t come back?" Tiamat raised an eyebrow at me, her expression looking a bit doubtful. "If you don’t come back, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to come through and help you? What if something unexpected happens?"

"What, are you worried that I’ll die in there? Or that I’ll be captured and unable to return?" I smirked lightly at her, teasing the Dragon King a bit, "Though, it’s nice to know you care so much about me. I didn’t know you could be this cute."

My words were confident, bordering on arrogant, but I had a reason to be. The C-Rank World would be much more difficult than the E-Rank one, but it shouldn’t actually give me that much trouble - at least in the beginning.

The ’C’ ranking the world had meant it would be a balanced difficulty for the previous me - the one who had defeated Sirzechs and conquered the Underworld. At this point, I was a lot stronger than I had been before, as getting literal hundreds of thousands of stat points from quests tended to do that, not to mention all the devil clan skills I got.

Essentially, besides the top-tier beings, who were the strongest in the entire C-Rank World, there shouldn’t be anyone who could pose a serious threat to me. Tiamat was just here because I didn’t know where the portal would initially appear, as there was always a chance, even a small one, that I would appear near one of those top-tier beings. If I needed to fight right away, having Tiamat on standby would be nice.

"I-I just don’t want the kingdom to suddenly be king-less! I’d have way more work to do!" Tiamat huffed at my words, blushing as she glanced away annoyedly, "I’ll stay for 15 minutes! No more!"

"Sure you will," I just grinned at her, knowing the woman would probably actually stick around for more than an hour to ensure I was safe, then turned back to the portal without another word.

I stepped forward, feeling the air around me shift as I went through the portal. I shivered a bit, and blinked rapidly as I did, still not entirely used to the feeling of traveling between universes. When I stepped through, for a second, as I glanced around, I felt like I hadn’t even moved.

Well, I obviously had, as instead of a massive open cavern, I was now in a small stone room, but my overall surroundings didn’t change much. I was still in a dimly lit cave, which did the incredible feat of having even worse lighting than the portal room being lit up solely by a few lanterns.

At least, I first thought I was in some type of cave, but quickly realized that wasn’t quite the case. While there was a smooth stone wall behind me, as well as to my right, my left, and there even was a stone roof above my head and a stone floor below my feet, not the entire room was stone.

One of the four walls was different. Instead of a rocky wall, there was a steel door with a window at the top, though that open portion was lined with iron bars. I was definitely underground, but instead of a random cave, this was some type of base. At the very least, someone had to have built that door.

As I stood in the middle of the dark room, I knew there was only one path forward.

What else was there to do when faced with an unknown door but to bust it open? I could see what looked to be sunlight shining through the door, and heading to a more open area would allow me to get a better idea of where I was.

I promptly walked up, casually lifting my foot and placing the bottom of my boot against the door. I didn’t bother using [Appearance Disguise] yet, as this was a more difficult world than the E-Rank one, so I should at least be careful and conserve MP at the start.

I pressed forward, and the metal door bent effortlessly under my boot. It was ripped off its hinges, flying forward and landing flat on its front on the ground. I stepped through the open area and over the broken object, silently wondering if I should’ve just checked if it was unlocked before destroying the door, and then looked around.

Around me was a place that looked vaguely familiar - there were large white walls that seemed to sag a bit, looking to be made of a material that wasn’t simply stone, despite my earlier thoughts. There was also a pure-white rocky floor, and no roof, as there was a large opening to view the orangeish-blue sky overhead. As I glanced up, I could see various pipes shooting smoke upwards from within the building I was in.

The overall area in front of me was pretty open, as there was nothing but people standing in the large empty space. I immediately had a thought about where I was, but as I glanced around, that thought was pretty much confirmed. Various people, mostly men, were walking around, their hands cuffed together in thick metal handcuffs, and holding pickaxes.

But, the people who were clearly prisoners weren’t the ones who confirmed to me where I was, but instead the other group that I immediately spotted - and who apparently spotted me.

"What the hell was that banging?! Hey! Don’t stop working, idiot! I’ll check on it!" A guard shouted, pushing forward a prisoner who had turned at the noise of the door clanging against the ground.

The man who spoke was only partially a man, as while he had muscular legs, a muscular torso with pretty defined muscles, and an overall human-looking body, his head was certainly not human-like. He had a long neck covered with pink fur, and his face, instead of looking like a human one, was literally the head of an alpaca.

Literally. It was as if someone had taken a normal man, pulled his head off, and then put an alpaca’s in its place. And, as I looked at the name floating over his head, that assumption wasn’t too far off.

[Alpacaman] [Beast Pirate Gifter] - Level 57

Considering I knew he was essentially just a step above a grunt, the man’s level was actually pretty impressive. He wasn’t the lowest-level of grunts in the Beast Pirates, as that was the ’Waiters,’ but he was only one step above that. Despite that, he was roughly as strong as Ragno had been when I first met the Direwolf Prince so many months ago.

If the title and alpaca head wasn’t enough, the leather-looking black jacket he was wearing, which flowed out behind him like a cape, along with the buckle wrapped around his waist - which had a symbol of a skull with two sharp white horns sticking out of it on the front - gave away who he was associated with immediately.

He was a part of the Beast Pirates - a group of Pirates who served under one of the Yonko, Kaido.

I was in the world of One Piece.

Overall, I wasn’t terribly shocked, as I knew this was a possibility. With the world rankings being based upon my ability to conquer the Underworld in the DxD world, I had considered that this one could be anywhere from D-Rank to B-Rank, as the most powerful beings here were pretty unknown overall.

The C-Rank requirement was that, essentially, some of the higher-power beings here would be able to keep up with me, and the top-tier beings could match or even surpass me. This world certainly seemed could fit that criteria, as I didn’t know how strong Haki really was compared to my own skills and powers.

Overall, from a physical standpoint at least, I should outmatch most of the opponents I could run into here. The Admiral Kizaru, whose Devil Fruit let him move as quickly as light, was probably the fastest opponent I could meet here, and I had long since passed the speed of light.

Granted, I had never done the cliche ’flip a light switch and run to the other side of the room as fast as I can’ test, but considering that even early-DxD Vali was considered faster than light, I was pretty confident I would run circles around anyone in this world. The White Dragon Emperor couldn’t hold a candle to someone like Sirzechs, and I had kept up with the Maou’s speed pretty well even in his True Form - and that was before I claimed the quest rewards.

Even the higher-tier beings who might’ve been able to match me before the quest rewards, like the Yonko or Admirals, probably couldn’t do more than make me sweat a bit at this point. Haki was really the only concern with them, but there was still a tier above them.

One Piece’s top-tier beings were largely unknown, as Imu, Shanks, and even someone like Garp hadn’t ever showcased their full powers. But, considering that destroying merely an entire island was considered a big feat in this world, I figured I could stack up pretty well against them. If I really went all-out, I could probably muster a big enough attack to destroy a lot more than just an island, but I still couldn’t be careless in this world.

And, not only was I in the world of One Piece, but my plan would have to be thrown out the window immediately. Avoiding the top tiers was pretty hard when my portal appeared in the middle of what looked to be Udon Prison inside of Wano.

I didn’t know exactly where in the timeline I was, but considering a Gifter was here, it meant Kaido had already taken over Wano. Kaido ruled the country with an iron grip, so it wasn’t like I could just start making moves without him noticing.

"Where the hell did you get that armor?! Are you a prisoner?!" Alpacaman asked as he stalked toward me, his long neck leaning forward as his face got a bit too close to mine, causing spit to fly out onto my helmet, "A prisoner wouldn’t have armor like that! Are you a new Gifter sent by the Captain?! I didn’t hear anything about a new-"

"You talk too much," I smirked, reaching up and grabbing the hilt of my sword. In a split second, my sword was pulled from its sheath, and I made my move.

[Devouring Stab] has claimed stats from [Alpacaman]!

+150 HP!

+15 MAXHP!

+25 STR

+17 END

I casually disappeared before the man’s eyes, appearing behind him as he inhaled sharply. He didn’t get to say another word as a fountain of blood burst outward, raining down onto the ground around us as the top of his long neck was separated from the bottom.

His head fell onto the floor, his wide, pained eyes dimming, and the guard’s body slumped over soon after in a pool of blood.

I couldn’t move around slowly or silently with Kaido’s watchful eye over Wano, so I wouldn’t try to. I was in a dangerous area right away, but in the same vein, I was in a position to gain a ton of powerful subordinates.

Honestly, in this instant, Kaido being so ruthless with the country of Wano worked in my favor. He had done the dirty work - he had drained the country dry of its resources to power up his crew, making them far stronger in the process. He had turned all of the people of Wano against him and created a powerful crew to scare away even the World Government.

And, he had created the perfect situation for a hero to appear in Wano. Not just a hero, but a conqueror.

I would take not just Wano for myself, but also its people, its leaders, its samurai, and even the Beast Pirates. Everything Kaido had built up here was gathered in one place, and I was in a prime position to make a move.

Kaido had built quite an empire, and I was going to take it all for myself.

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AN: Thank you for reading! The next Chapter will be out tomorrow!

Also, Chapter 100! Whoo! (Technically 101 if you count the omake)

You can also read the next 7 Chapters right now on Patreon.com/Koyon !

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