In a temporary experimental area adjacent to the Eclipse medical bay, several steel lab benches were pushed together. They were piled high with ancient medical tomes brought back from the Torino Kingdom, Chopper's personal notebooks, Vegapunk's Lineage Factor data sheets, and rows of glowing, strangely colored reagents.
Chopper stood before the central bench, looking down at a clipboard detailing his own biological readings.
"Monster Point can now be accessed without the consumption of a Rumble Ball." Chopper tapped the clipboard with his hoof. "The duration of rational control sits between three and four minutes. However, the fundamental problems remain obvious. The caloric and energy consumption is far too great, the microscopic muscle tearing is severe, and reversing the transformation triggers a short but critical period of absolute exhaustion."
Caesar Clown floated near the ceiling, a wide grin stretching across his face. "Shurorororo! Is that not an easy fix? Just pump the formula with a heavy dose of nerve stimulants. It will artificially boost your body's reaction speed and explosive power to compensate for the fatigue."
Law leaned against the cold steel bulkhead, his voice cutting through the room like a scalpel. "And then what? Irreversible nerve damage, permanent sluggish reactions, and subsequent transformations spiraling completely out of control?"
Caesar's face darkened into a scowl. "What do you know about true science, you gloomy little brat!"
"I certainly know more about the human body than a man who only knows how to stuff poison into a syringe."
Dr. Indigo interrupted with a grating laugh. "Fos fos fos! My proposal is infinitely more elegant. We inject animal enhancement hormones to artificially increase muscle endurance, paired with a specialized calcium agent to reinforce the skeletal structure. That is the true art of life enhancement."
Law shifted his gaze toward the clown-faced scientist. "Hormonal imbalance and abnormal muscle growth will leave your body horribly deformed the moment you revert to your base form."
Indigo's laughter caught awkwardly in his throat.
Chopper slammed his hooves onto the steel desk, his fur bristling. "You two are equally terrible!"
Caesar crossed his gaseous arms, refusing to back down. "Shurorororo! You want absolute power without bearing any of the side effects? The world does not work like that. There is no such thing as a free lunch!"
"Medicine exists to save lives!" Chopper roared, slamming the clipboard down. "It is not meant to blow people up or turn them into deformed monsters!"
The experimental area fell dead silent.
Law watched the blue-nosed reindeer huff, his small chest heaving. Over the past three months, Law had grown accustomed to this specific duality. Normally, Chopper would melt into a puddle of giggles at the slightest compliment. But place him in front of a lab table or a patient, and he became as unyielding as a fortress wall.
Chopper took a deep breath to steady his heart rate. He carefully placed a pale green test tube into the center rack of the lab bench.
"I am not synthesizing a new Rumble Ball," Chopper stated, his voice returning to a professional calm. "I am not looking for a magic pill that permanently solves the Monster Point problem with a single dose. The purpose of this specific compound is purely for calibration during training."
Law raised an eyebrow. "Calibration?"
Chopper nodded firmly. "The inherent nature of Monster Point is the ultimate, localized amplification of my Zoan-type abilities and multi-stage transformation pathways. In the past, I relied on the Rumble Ball to forcibly violently disrupt my cellular wavelengths to trigger that form. Things are different now."
He pointed a small hoof at the green liquid.
"I can now access Monster Point on my own, but my biological baseline has not fully adapted to containing that much mass and energy. Therefore, Monster Point Stabilizer Number One is designed to help my body record and stabilize the neural responses, muscle stress, and skeletal shifts during the transformation. Taking a micro-dose before each training session will force my cells to adapt to the pressure naturally."
Chopper looked directly at Law. "The ultimate goal is to completely break free from all drug dependence."
Caesar rubbed his chin, floating a few inches lower. "So, it is not a combat stimulant at all. It is a training supplement."
"Exactly," Chopper confirmed. "In the future, we might develop a highly concentrated emergency combat version to forcefully extend Monster Point in life-or-death situations, but that will carry massive physical blowback. This is different. This drug teaches my body how to control itself, rather than letting the drug control my body."
Law stared at the small vial for a long moment. "A solid path forward."
Caesar snorted, puffing out his chest. "Obviously it is a solid path! My brilliant cell activation technology is functioning as the base catalyst."
Indigo immediately began doing a bizarre tap dance. "Fos fos fos. Do not forget my proprietary animal enhancement formula stabilizing the mixture."
Chopper carefully secured the test tube, locking it inside a temperature-controlled case. "It also utilizes ancient pharmacology from the Torino Kingdom, Dr. Vegapunk's Lineage Factor data, and Tra-guy's recommendations on kinetic body structure."
Law kept his hands buried in his pockets. "I merely pointed out that their two deranged ideas would kill you. That was the extent of my suggestion."
Chopper closed the case with a click. "In the next round of high-altitude training, I will begin testing with the absolute minimum dose."
Caesar grimaced, rolling his eyes. "So ridiculously conservative."
Chopper snapped his head around, glaring daggers at the gas scientist. "Safety is always the first priority!"
Looking into the reindeer's bright, fiercely determined eyes, Law finally understood why Ace had handed this small creature the absolute medical authority over the entire ship.
Just then, the heavy steel door to the lab creaked open.
Buggy's detached head floated into the room, peering around shiftily. "Hey, hey. Have you nerds finished playing with your test tubes yet?"
Chopper turned, instantly wary. "Buggy. What crazy thing are you up to now?"
"What do you mean 'now'!" Buggy's head floated higher, hovering directly over the lab table with a highly offended expression. "I am here to inspect the results of my genius tactical investment!"
Caesar's eyes lit up with maniacal glee. "Shurorororo! Perfect timing, Red Nose. The first prototype of your living support weapon is completely finished."
A massive, sinister grin split Buggy's face. "It is finally ready?!"
At a temporary testing ground stationed near the edge of the cloud sea.
Several impact-resistant combat dummies engineered by Jeno stood firmly anchored to the ground in the distance. The dummies were draped in thick cloth, heavy metal armor plating, and wooden shields to test the adhesion properties of various materials.
Jeno stood behind a reinforced control console, rubbing his large mechanical hands together. "Hahahaha! Prototype Slime Miniature Split Poison Bomb. Commencing the first comprehensive field test!"
A transparent, pressure-sealed container rested on the table in front of them. Inside the thick glass, a clump of grayish-purple, highly viscous living matter writhed slowly.
It was the original Slime gas weapon engineered by Caesar on Punk Hazard.
However, it was no longer a massive, uncontrollable toxic pet confined to a laboratory. Under the combined efforts of Jeno's micro-mechanical engineering, Caesar's gas compression, Indigo's activity-maintaining serums, and Buggy's incredibly insidious tactical mind, the entity had been divided into dozens of thumb-sized, semi-autonomous units.
Each miniature piece of slime was safely encased within a semi-transparent, spider-like mechanical shell.
Caesar spread his arms wide, soaking in the glory of the creation. "Shurorororo! Each individual clone retains the absolute ability to release highly concentrated H2S gas, and they can crawl independently for a short duration."
Indigo chimed in, pointing at the glass. "Fos fos fos! My active agent guarantees the biomatter will not immediately disintegrate upon separation from the mother body."
Jeno slammed a fist into his open palm. "The outer shells contain synchronized remote detonation mechanisms. They lock onto a target, dig their mechanical legs in, and wait for the signal."
Buggy's red nose practically vibrated with excitement. He held his detached hands out, wiggling his fingers.
"In other words..." Buggy snatched a handful of the miniature spider-bombs. "I can use my Chop-Chop Fruit to deliver these little beauties right onto the enemy without them ever noticing a thing. Collars, boot treads, sword hilts, ship cabins, cannon barrels. I can stuff them anywhere!"
Carina lounged on a cloud-chair a safe distance away, casually sipping a glass of fruit juice through a straw. "That sounds exactly like the kind of cowardly ambush you would come up with."
Buggy placed his detached hands on his hips. "That is called tactics! Do you have any appreciation for high-level tactical warfare?!"
Law stood near the perimeter, watching the display in total silence.
When he first boarded the Eclipse, he assumed Buggy was merely a comedic mascot kept around for amusement. But looking at the densely packed, writhing miniature poison bombs in the clown's hands, Law suddenly realized something chilling. The Marines labeling Buggy the Clown as a "master of poisoning and explosives" might not have been a complete clerical error.
In a very specific, highly asymmetric sense, this man was incredibly dangerous. Especially since his Devil Fruit allowed him to bypass direct combat entirely.
"Commencing target acquisition." Jeno pressed a heavy switch.
The metal armor on the distant dummies emitted a faint, high-frequency hum, serving as magnetic target markers.
Buggy flashed a vicious grin. "Watch and learn!"
His hands, fingers, and wrists detached in a flurry of movement. He hurled the dozens of miniature slime bullets through the air like a scattergun blast.
Unlike standard projectiles, the small mechanical spiders did not adhere to a normal ballistic arc. Aided by the micro-thrusters in Jeno's shells, they aggressively altered their trajectories mid-flight. They swarmed the dummies, precisely attaching themselves to the undersides of the armor plates, the gaps in the visors, the soles of the boots, and the inner curves of the wooden shields.
A handful of them crawled directly down the barrels of the dummy's replica flintlocks.
"Attachment phase complete." Jeno yelled, slamming his hand down on a red lever. "Buggy. Detonate!"
Buggy snapped his floating fingers together. "Pop."
A synchronized chain of explosions ripped across the firing range.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Small, concussive blasts shattered the silence. The explosions were not massive, but they instantly shattered the mechanical shells, violently expelling highly pressurized paralyzing gas and corrosive toxic mist directly into the armor gaps.
The structural joints of the dummies failed instantly.
The thick metal leg armor of the first dummy pitted, hissed, and dissolved into slag, causing the heavy construct to collapse to its knees with a heavy thud.
Another dummy holding a rifle had its weapon detonate from the inside out. The blast tore the metal arm completely backward, twisting it into a mangled knot of steel.
Simultaneously, the bionic skin patches exposed to the toxic fog rapidly calcified, developing a thick, grayish-white shell as the venom solidified everything it touched.
Law's eyes narrowed sharply.
The kinetic explosion was merely the delivery system. The true nightmare was the toxic gas silently devouring the target from the inside out.
Caesar threw his head back, laughing hysterically. "Shurorororo! Do you see the true majesty of my Slime? The explosion shatters their guard, but the gas does the killing. If the concentration is high enough, it instantly halts pulmonary function and triggers total muscle paralysis. Even a micro-dose will completely freeze an enemy combatant in the middle of a strike."
Buggy stared at the melting dummies for two full seconds. Then, he burst into a fit of exaggerated, triumphant laughter.
"Hahahaha! Did you see that? I am an undisputed tactical genius! If anyone dares underestimate me in the New World, I will rot them from the inside before they even draw their swords!"
Caesar nodded frantically. "Shurorororo. Excellent work. The individual blast radius is small, but the concealment, adhesion, and sheer volume of gas deployment is absolutely perfect."
Indigo rubbed his chin. "Fos fos fos. If I tweak the active agent slightly, we can extend the dormant adhesion time for delayed traps."
Jeno was already hunched over his console, rapidly typing data logs. "For version two, I will forge a lighter alloy shell. I can add micro-thrusters for mid-air course correction and a delayed-release trigger. It will not just be a bomb. It will be an absolute, invisible suppression grid tailor-made for Buggy's fruit."
Carina took another slow sip of her juice, her voice completely deadpan. "The Marines explicitly labeled you a master of poisoning and explosives. Seeing this, they really were not entirely wrong."
Buggy puffed his chest out proudly. "Of course! I am the great—"
He froze mid-sentence. His jaw dropped.
"Wait. If the Marines actually believe I am a legitimate master of toxic warfare... won't they send even higher-tier monsters to hunt me down?!"
Carina offered a sweet, entirely merciless smile. "Congratulations. Your brain has finally caught up to reality."
"Waaaaaah!" Buggy dropped to the cloud floor, clutching his head in absolute despair. "I just wanted to ambush people from the shadows! I do not want to be chased by an Admiral!"
A furious shout echoed across the clouds. Chopper sprinted onto the testing ground, his face red with rage.
"You absolute maniacs! Why did you set up a highly toxic explosive testing ground directly next to the ship?!"
Caesar blinked innocently. "So you could rescue us faster if the wind changed direction?"
Chopper launched himself into the air, driving a heavy hoof directly into Caesar's face. "That makes it infinitely worse!"
Law stood at the edge of the testing ground, watching the chaotic scene unfold.
Buggy was rolling on the floor in a panic. Chopper was aggressively chasing a screaming Caesar around the control console. Jeno was completely ignoring the noise, frantically sketching out blueprints for an even deadlier weapon.
It looked utterly chaotic. Absurd, even.
Yet, beneath the absurdity, Law recognized the terrifying truth. Every single one of these ridiculous, chaotic moments was being systematically harvested and forged into genuine, world-ending lethality.
Chopper was isolating and perfecting the raw power of Monster Point.
Buggy was weaponizing his cowardice into an undetectable, lethal biological strike.
Jeno was rapidly converting abstract theories into hard steel and artillery.
Even Caesar and Indigo, two irredeemable lunatics who belonged in a maximum-security prison, had been seamlessly integrated into the ship's research engine.
This was not a pirate crew. At least, not any kind of pirate crew Law had ever encountered.
Three months ago, he boarded the Eclipse believing he could borrow Ace's raw strength to secure the resources needed to kill Doflamingo. Now, the reality was setting in.
The true terror of the Eclipse was not just its monstrous captain, nor was it the collection of apex combatants in the vanguard.
It was the perpetual evolution. Everyone on this ship was constantly, aggressively getting stronger. Every single day, new powers, new technologies, and new lethal tactics were being welded onto the black skeleton of the dreadnought.
Law looked down at his own hands. His surgical skills, his Devil Fruit, his very perspective on combat had already been thrown into this raging furnace.
If the day finally came when Doflamingo stood before them, the Heavenly Yaksha would not merely be facing a stronger Trafalgar Law.
He would be facing the entire, relentless Eclipse system, dragging the world into a new era by force.