Cherry was led to a private room by the auction house attendant. The attendant asked her politely to wait inside while he retrieved the catalogue.
Cherry used the time to poke around with her Life Sense. She found no people or den den mushi spying on her inside the room. She was very surprised by this fact and inwardly raised her opinion of this auction house.
Speaking of den den mushi, the first time Cherry had seen one, she very nearly squealed in delight. She thought they were, by far, the most adorable communication method she'd ever seen. Even more adorable than the mice couriers of the Mighty Spirit Beast Sect that she had seen in her last life.
When she had seen one doing an impression of Commander Frowe, she had collapsed into fits of laughter. She was very fond of them, to say the least.
The attendant returned pushing a cart into the room. He placed a massive book on the table before her, as well as a small selection of drinks and pastries.
'They really know how to treat their clientele. They must value their reputation quite a lot.' Cherry thought, before diving into the catalogue.
Although she had already scanned the refreshments and found nothing wrong, such as poison, she did not touch them at all.
She knew that everything was a test for these people, so she would keep her dealing with them strictly business. A surprising amount of information about a person can be obtained by watching what they do in these circumstances.
While the attendant watched, Cherry quickly turned through the pages of the catalogue. Long enough to get an idea of the items displayed, but not long enough to seem like it was what she was looking for. In fact, every turn of a page happened in almost exactly the same amount of time.
Finally she reached the devil fruit section and began memorizing the summaries of each one, in case she ran into them later.
Then she found it, the devil fruit that was strapped to her abdomen at this very moment.
[ Starting Bid: 100,000,000 Beri
[Appearance: A coconut shaped like a cauldron,
[ Dark Grey with yellow and orange swirls like flames
[ Powers: Ability to fuse matter to create something new
'Oh, not bad! This might make up for my lacking skills in pill refining. Who needs a cauldron when you can become one?' Cherry was quite satisfied. Combat power wouldn't be an issue for her, so having a devil fruit with high utility was very good in her opinion.
Naturally Cherry didn't stop here. She continued to look through the catalogue, giving no indication she had already found what she wanted.
She reached the end of the devil fruit section, but after turning the page her rhythm was disrupted.
She had paused on the small section right after the devil fruit section for only a moment, but the attendant watching behind her didn't miss the change.
'Well, shit. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me. This is too absurd though. Objects with devil fruit powers? It's fortunate that I didn't start praising the heavens right then. This may just be the solution to the greatest problem I would face in cultivation.' Cherry sighed inwardly.
The problem she was referring to was naturally the fact that eating more than one devil fruit would cause you to 'explode'. She wasn't sure just how violent that would be and what realm she would need to reach to survive it. Not to mention that even if you do survive, the devil fruit inscriptions will likely be destroyed in the process or worse.
However, now she had a solution; Blood Bound Weapons. Weapons that were tied to a body cultivator, stored within their bodies, and grew along side them. If she also managed to 'feed' a devil fruit to one, she could hypothetically use the resulting vital energy influx for her cultivation as well as safely possess additional devil fruit abilities.
Cherry finished reading the catalogue and asked the attendant what the auction schedule was. She could return after gathering more wealth and possibly buy more devil fruits if she was lucky.
When she exited the auction house, she found Butterball still waiting for her.
"You can go now, I don't need your services any longer. Stay out of trouble and don't mess with any more pregnant ladies." Cherry dismissed him. Butterball nodded his head
vigorously, then scurried, well, lumbered off.
Cherry made her way back to her ship and set sail immediately. She would find a secluded island to eat the devil fruit and make her break though.
Cherry found a small island with no plant life and a lot of tall, jagged stones.
Making her way to the center of the island, hidden behind many boulders, she made her preparations.
Once her condition was ideal, she hardened her teeth and jaw then tore through the tough shell of the devil fruit, not wasting a single scrap. It was took a few seconds to swallow it all down.
She began to circulate her vital energy, closely observing the foreign vital energy as it started to move towards her heart.
Her heart painfully pounded in her chest as the devil fruit inscribed itself into her very being. 'Marvelous, it's truly miraculous...'
A great deal of excess vital energy was released when the inscription was finished. No doubt it was typically wasted when others ate a devil fruit, but she wouldn't lose a single scrap. Cherry guided the surging energy with her body cultivation method. Finally she felt that her second realm was perfected, but a large amount of energy still remained. She pressed forward and broke through to the third realm instantly.
Unfortunately, she had to release the excess energy. It was too unstable and violent to be used for general cultivation and she had only just broken through. It was good news that they contained more than enough vital energy for use in future realms, however.
Cherry let out a long breath. She felt strong, powerful. Standing up, she went to a nearby boulder and punched it.
The boulder shattered sending many smaller rocks flying quite a ways.
'One step closer to my goal. I should go bounty hunting soon, I'm going to need the money for metals if I'm going to forge a Blood Bound Weapon. Now let's see this devil fruit in action.'
Cherry thought to herself.
Cherry returned to her ship and found her stock of assorted herbs she'd picked up. They weren't good enough to make pills for cultivation, at least not of the quality necessary for her body cultivation method and realm.
Taking some herbs with numbing effects, she pressed them into a ball and activated her devil fruit ability. She could feel the change taking place, how they were being altered. When she opened her hands, she saw a tiny green pill.
Cherry popped it into her mouth and swallowed, waiting for it to take effect. The herbs hadn't been very strong individually, but when the pill took effect her sense of touch was dulled considerably, though not completely.
'Not bad, not bad at all. However, I don't think I'm getting the most out of this. I think it could be done better still. Well, practice makes perfect I suppose.' Cherry concluded. Cherry climbed into the hammock on her ship and let the gentle waves rock her to sleep.