When El started making the nutritional supplement himself, he managed to shock Dr. Kureha all over again.
Born with the ability to read people's hearts and control his own body perfectly, El was destined to become a master in whatever field he seriously chose.
Those two talents meant that, no matter what he tried, he could learn insanely fast—and if he wanted, he could steal the accumulated experience of true experts by reading their memories.
If El ever decided to become a doctor, all he had to do was read the memories of a few famous physicians on Drum Island, take some time to digest their knowledge, and he could immediately stand at an operating table and start saving lives.
Just like with swordsmanship:
As long as he'd seen a standard basic form once, he could reproduce it flawlessly.
With his perfect control, El could handle the steps and timing of the brewing process no worse than Kureha herself.
Yes—no worse than Dr. Kureha.
While Kureha was working, El had been watching her inner thoughts with his ability.
Every movement she made, every point of focus in her mind, every tiny adjustment in timing and temperature—El saw it all.
What he was copying wasn't just Kureha's actions.
He was copying the way she thought through each step.
That kind of talent—one in a million—brought a rare heat into Kureha's eyes.
But in the next second, that heat cooled into regret.
Seeing El's monstrous potential gave her the same impulse Koushirou once had: she wanted to take him as her disciple.
But she abandoned the idea almost immediately.
At a hundred and thirty years old, she'd seen too much. With that experience, it only took one glance to know this boy was not the type who could sit quietly in a clinic for decades.
Trying to force this little devil to live a doctor's steady life would be harder than killing him.
El had no idea what Kureha was thinking. Right now, he didn't have the spare focus to peek at her heart—his entire attention was on the brewing process in front of him.
Time slipped by. He didn't know how long he worked.
When he finally looked at the bottle of green liquid in his hand, El couldn't help the satisfied smile that tugged at his lips.
His first attempt was a success.
He really was a genius among geniuses.
"Brat, remember not to waste your talent."
Kureha had watched the whole process. She took a sip from her bottle, didn't look the least bit drunk, and admonished him in a low, serious tone:
"Talent sets your upper limit. But everyone's time is limited."
"If you don't push that talent to its limit while you're in the right stage of life, once that window passes, your potential will start to fade. A talent that could've been 'world number one' will fall a step—or more—until it's no different from the people who used to be second to you."
"At that point, even if you regret it, there's no fixing it."
"Thank you for the warning, Dr. Kureha. I'll keep your teachings in mind."
El carefully set the bottle down and bowed sincerely.
He knew what she was saying was true.
Because in the second half of the Grand Line, there was already a monster who had wasted her own talent.
A monster loved by the world from birth. The "protagonist" of that era—if she had fully realized her potential, even if she failed to become the absolute strongest in the world, she would still be one of the most terrifying contenders.
In the Grand Line's long history, whether in the golden age before or this current Great Pirate Era, no one—aside from El himself—had talent that truly matched Charlotte Linlin.
Born with invulnerable skin and monstrous strength, Charlotte Linlin had started life already standing at the finish line that ordinary people would never reach, no matter how they struggled.
That's how insane her upper limit was.
If she had kept her body under control, continued to refine her strength and Devil Fruit, no one could say what kind of creature she would have become.
Yet even after squandering her potential, she was still one of the current three Emperors of the Grand Line.
The sea called her the Queen of Pirates.
That title, though glorious, was almost ironic compared to the favor the world had granted her at birth.
Look at what Whitebeard was doing at six years old.
Then look at six-year-old Charlotte Linlin—who already made her debut with a 50 million Belly bounty, shaking the entire world as a monstrous rookie.
That was the gap between "genius" and "monster."
To El, Charlotte Linlin was a warning. A failed example.
He had to learn from her and become a monster who fully realized his own gifts.
Only then could he sit firmly at the very top, fear nothing, and become a true player—not a chess piece—in the chaotic era that would fully ignite in twelve years.
After mastering the method for brewing the nutritional supplement, El took the chance to ask Kureha about some basic medical skills. Opportunities like this didn't come twice.
Kureha didn't turn him down.
After all, for many years now, there hadn't been a single young person she genuinely admired.
Now that one had finally appeared, she didn't hesitate to teach him.
Not only that—she even gave El a few of the medical notes she had written in her early days, along with a small stack of medical books that hadn't been touched in over a hundred years.
"Study them yourself," was all she said.
El accepted them like treasure.
It wasn't until late afternoon that he took the three girls to say goodbye to Dr. Kureha and left the castle.
"Nii-san, did you get the method to make the nutritional supplement?"
Inside the cable car on the way down, Carina hugged El's arm and asked, eyes sparkling.
"Yeah, I've got it."
El nodded, then looked at Kuina and Nami sitting across from him with a smile.
"Once we get down, we'll go buy the equipment and ingredients."
"From tonight on, I can start brewing nutritional supplements for you."
"I've already drunk one myself—the effect is incredible. If you drink it consistently, I'm sure you'll gain a few years worth of training results in a single year."
"Really? The effect is that outrageous?"
Carina and the other two couldn't help but open their mouths slightly, staring at him in disbelief.
"Of course," El said.
"Nutritional supplements are basically the condensed essence of a huge amount of medicinal herbs. The energy inside one bottle is comparable to the nutrition from several sea beasts."
"Your stomachs can't handle a whole sea beast—but you can drink a bottle."
"As long as your bodies fully absorb it, it's like you've completely digested the nutrients of several sea beasts in one go."
"I eat several sea beasts a day. For me, drinking a bottle of nutritional supplement is about the same as one meal."
"If you three keep drinking it over a long period, do you still think the effect sounds exaggerated?"
"…I get it now!"
The three girls finally understood and nodded with shining eyes.
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