Just as Merlin was about to ask, and she was preparing to tell him that she couldn't learn just by imitating him, several seconds passed.
Noticing that Merlin's attention wasn't on her, the expectation in Yol's eyes gradually turned into a mix of depression and confusion.
Yol blinked, unable to stop herself from mumbling:
"Didn't you say you were going to teach me? Shouldn't you be guiding me hand-in-hand?
"What is this now?"
Unaware of Yol's muttering, Merlin's attention was completely occupied by the sudden appearance of the Skill Specialization.
As Merlin focused his consciousness on the specialization, its specific information appeared.
[Entry-Level Lynx Body Tempering Arts]: Yoga shapes the body, Lynx shapes the form. Combining the agility of the lynx, you have glimpsed the flexibility of the lynx's physique through yoga. The faint form and intent of the lynx's suppleness have appeared in your body.
His breathing rose and fell slowly. Vaguely, the various yoga poses memorized in his mind began to blur. At the same time, complex movements of a lynx stretching its body echoed one after another in his mind.
Imitating the muscle and bone movements of a lynx, synchronizing them to his own body, maximizing the development of physical flexibility.
From breathing and movement to possessing form and intent, Merlin's understanding of the lynx was no longer limited to just [Equipping] it.
Blinking, Merlin withdrew his consciousness from the Equipment Slot. In the next second, he saw Yol staring at him with a bewildered expression:
"What... are you doing?"
Merlin's voice snapped Yol back to reality. After reacting, the corner of her mouth twitched a few times, and she said with a subtle tone:
"Did you forget what you were preparing to do to me half an hour ago?"
Merlin was stunned for a moment, then realized what happened. He coughed awkwardly and apologized to Yol:
"Sorry, I got distracted just now."
"I can tell. After all, you ignored me completely even though I was right in front of you! I was like air to you just now."
Yol made a subtle jab at Merlin, but soon, she took a deep breath and looked at him, asking with a hazy curiosity in her eyes:
"Just now, I noticed your movements seemed different, as if they became more coordinated and graceful?
"By the way, are you still going to teach me?"
Seeing her tipsy appearance, clearly from the delayed kick of the Monkey Wine, Merlin thought for a moment and nodded:
"I'll teach you!"
With that, Merlin went to Yol and began to teach her yoga movements hand-in-hand.
Since she was a beginner, he didn't teach her the high-difficulty Lynx Body Tempering Arts he had just comprehended.
First, he hadn't perfected it yet.
Second, you can't become fat with just one bite.
However, he soon discovered that her limbs were stiff. Merlin said helplessly, "I'd better help you stretch your muscles and ligaments first!"
"How?" Yol looked embarrassed but asked openly.
Merlin began to explain the essentials of stretching.
Before long.
Merlin and Yol sat facing each other. Holding each other's wrists, Merlin placed his feet against Yol's spread ankles.
Then, exerting force outward with his feet, Yol's legs were slowly forced into a split. Deep, muffled groans escaped continuously from Yol's mouth and nose.
Even though Merlin's wrists hurt from her grip, he maintained the position.
Merlin looked at Yol calmly and said:
"Scream if it hurts; there's no need to endure it silently."
Fine beads of sweat oozed from Yol's forehead, but she just gritted her teeth and shook her head.
Seeing this, Merlin stopped being polite and began to violently stretch her muscles and bones, starting from the ligaments between her hips...
Waist, neck, shoulders, chest, spine, arms, legs, and feet...
Every ligament in every corner of her body was attended to. By the end, Yol couldn't help but scream.
So.
At Merlin's prompting, Yol began to guzzle Monkey Wine again, using drunkenness to numb her consciousness.
As time passed, both Merlin and Yol were covered in sweat and dust.
From time to time, black flames would ignite in Merlin's hand, absorbing the Calamity brought by Yol's torn and snapped ligaments.
One hour later.
Merlin placed Yol on the monkey skin. She was completely limp, like a pile of mud, having lost consciousness.
There were no injuries inside or out; she was just exhausted and drunk.
Covering her with a monkey skin large enough for her body, Merlin finally stood up and sighed in relief, looking exhausted:
"Luckily, I can absorb Calamity; otherwise, this process could only be done gradually.
"However..."
A gleam flashed in Merlin's eyes. After stretching Yol's tendons and ligaments all over her body and repeatedly using Calamity absorption, Merlin gained a new understanding of his fruit ability.
After the ligaments were torn and broken, even though he absorbed the Calamity, once the injury healed, the stretched ligaments did not return to their original state.
In other words, the effects of the stretching exercises were retained in her body.
Merlin pondered, "Absorbing Calamity is just absorbing Calamity. Calamity can be negative statuses from unrestrained training.
"It can be like peeling a cocoon, removing unfavorable factors for the person while keeping the favorable aspects.
"Right, the recovery effect brought by my absorption of Calamity is a manipulation of cause and effect, not time reversal."
After figuring this out, a brilliant light gradually blossomed in Merlin's eyes.
"Then, from now on, I can consume physical and mental strength to use my ability to ignore injuries from training, thereby accelerating my cultivation results.
"Although the scope of Devil Fruit abilities is limited to the specific conceptual range of that type of fruit.
"But within the scope of the fruit's ability, it can indeed achieve effects akin to miracles."
Merlin sensed the unique ability he now possessed to control the "Absorption," "Storage," and "Release" of [Calamity] after [Equipping] the Calamity Fruit.
The core of this fruit's ability lay in these three actions targeting the concept of [Calamity].
And what is Calamity?
Through skillful use over these past few days, Merlin had grasped the key points of the ability.
Disasters and suffering existing in living beings can all be attributed to Calamity.
As for damage to objects, Merlin currently had no clue. He couldn't make a broken mirror reunite or restore damaged items.
A trace of hesitation flashed in his eyes. "I just don't know if there will be any strange changes after the fruit awakens?"
Merlin shook his head, no longer thinking about things he currently couldn't achieve. Just the current Calamity effects were already an incredibly powerful ability.
As long as his stored [Calamity] bullets were "insidious" enough, could he possess a threat of an unexpected one-hit kill against any creature?
Perhaps.
Merlin dared not say absolutely.
Because the waters of this world run deep. Just the power of Haki he knew about could be used to counter fruit abilities.
Then, based on the numerous literary works he had dabbled in...
If there were ability types similar to some kind of [Magic Resistance].
Then one day, if an existence possessing Haki energy appeared, they might be able to counter or be immune to his Calamity ability.
Therefore, Merlin's gaze became firm:
"The ability needs to be developed, but heart, technique, and body must all be continuously strengthened. Relying solely on the power of the fruit won't get me far."
Unknowingly, Merlin echoed similar words said by a certain "teacher."
Just then, two light but rising and falling snores entered his ears.
Merlin looked at the two sleeping on the monkey skins. "It's getting late."
Merlin went to Yol's right, sat on the monkey skin, and positioned his backpack.
Using it as a pillow, he covered himself with a monkey fur and closed his eyes slightly.
Before long,
Merlin entered a light sleep.
Whenever there was movement outside, Merlin would open his eyes, vigilantly listening to everything around him.
...
The next day.
Amidst the noisy squeak, squeak screeches of monkeys outside the tree hollow.
Merlin slowly opened his eyes, which had been squinted into slits. After a while, his consciousness fully cleared.
Sitting up, the monkey skin slid off his body. Merlin exhaled a breath of stale air:
"It already smells a bit!"
His sensitive nose could smell the rotting flesh stench coming from the Monkey King's corpse at the entrance.
Before long, grabbing the tail—the only part with fur left—of the monkey corpse, he dragged this rotting "chunk of meat" out of the cave.
Until he was hundreds of meters away from the ancient tree, under the gaze of the monkey troop in the surrounding fruit trees, Merlin threw the corpse into an earthen pit.
Subsequently, Merlin arrived at the base of a cliff not far from the ancient tree. There was a clear mountain spring here.
This was also the drinking spot for the monkey troop in this territory.
The spring was close to the base of the cliff, a long strip-shaped cave two meters long and half a meter wide, from which clear spring water gushed out.
Crystal clear to the bottom, about a meter deep. The bottom of the spring was a fissure in the rock layer, and water bubbled out from the crack just like that.
Then, the spring water flowed straight towards the right along the gap between the cliff wall and the rocky ground, seeping away.
Looking at this spring water, Merlin thought to himself that he could completely lie flat inside.
Thinking this, Merlin did just that. He took off his clothes and jumped into the spring, scrubbing and washing his clothes and himself together.
Before long, wearing clothes that had been wrung out but were still damp, Merlin walked towards the ancient tree.
When he returned to the tree hollow, he was carrying a pile of different kinds of fruits in his arms.
Arriving at the fur bedding and seeing Yol still asleep, Merlin gently patted her cheek: "Yol? Time to get up!"
However, she was clearly hungover. Merlin continued to call her and pat her cheek, and Yol's tightly closed eyelids began to tremble incessantly. Seeing this, Merlin thought for a moment, then pressed his thumb hard on her philtrum.
Soon, Yol's eyes snapped open, and she woke up. Seeing this, Merlin released his hand and smiled:
"You're awake! Then get up!"