Benjamin's aura output is roughly around Lv40...
After retreating into the forest, Morrow immediately turned around and quickened his pace, putting distance between himself and the lake.
The encounters with various Nen users after his Death Rewind, along with the noticeable increases in his aura output after each level-up, had given Morrow a relatively clear understanding of "levels."
Using his own aura output as a reference, he roughly estimated Benjamin's level to be around 40.
Experienced Nen masters had their own methods for assessing an opponent's strength.
Some used mission ratings to preliminarily gauge an enemy's level, while others relied on straightforward numerical values or even game-like monster classifications...
Everyone had their own approach.
But the common thread among all these methods was that the assessor needed ample experience.
And experience was precisely what Morrow lacked the most. The only reason he could arrive at an assessment was because the Tree Rings tattoo had quantified his own aura output.
With his own level data as a reference, he naturally had a general direction for evaluation.
Morrow's assessment of Benjamin was Lv.40, though he wasn't entirely confident in its accuracy, he was certain Benjamin's aura output was a tier above his own.
While aura output alone couldn't fully represent a Nen user's actual combat prowess...
It was the most basic, observable information available before direct engagement.
In Morrow's eyes, Benjamin had appeared calm and composed since his arrival, yet his aura showed no signs of laxity; instead, it remained consistently intense.
This very observation led Morrow to mentally label Benjamin as hypocritical.
Unwilling to invite unnecessary trouble, Morrow had no intention of lingering there.
Still, the knife Benjamin had used to shave the horn left Morrow somewhat envious.
It wasn't just the aura swirling around the red crystalline blade: the Boning Knife itself was exceptionally sharp.
Morrow was certain that Benjamin hadn't used Shu to enhance the knife's strength when shaving the horn.
That alone spoke volumes about the knife's quality.
Morrow mused that if the opportunity ever arose, he'd carry a similarly high-quality blade on him.
Crunch.
Stepping on damp, rotting leaves and branches, Morrow moved through the woods, occasionally glancing back toward the lake.
Benjamin's sudden appearance had forced him to retreat into the forest without carefully choosing his path.
Now that he was deep in the trees, he decided to simply continue along this route.
After walking briskly for several kilometers, the density of the trees increased, and visibility in the forest plummeted: even the faintest moonlight was now hard to spot.
Morrow pulled a flashlight from his backpack and pressed onward.
He had to admit, the appearance of those poachers had solved his most pressing issues, ensuring he wouldn't have to worry about survival supplies or practical tools for a while.
One shouldn't underestimate the wilderness of this world, especially unexplored regions like forests, mountains, grasslands, and deserts, all of which were rife with danger.
Forget the surreal Magical Beasts and animals; even an inconspicuous venomous insect could silently claim your life. In such an environment, professional knowledge was often more crucial than Nen abilities.
Morrow had almost no experience with wilderness survival. After crossing over, he'd spent most of his time running his antique shop.
After dealing with clients who could lie without batting an eye, he had once believed that these creatures with faces were the most adept at devouring a person whole.
But in the untamed depths of the jungle, he truly had to worry about being devoured, literally.
The beam of his flashlight pierced the nearby darkness, only to be swallowed by the shadows further away.
The information his eyes and ears could pick up was uniformly gloomy, damp, and deathly silent…
Unsettling.
Morrow felt he needed to get out of this forest as soon as possible and, without realizing it, kept increasing his pace.
As he moved, while maintaining constant vigilance, he intermittently released his En to more thoroughly survey his surroundings.
The radius of his En was only twenty meters.
Moreover, En was a technique that consumed a great deal of stamina and focus, making it impossible to sustain continuously at high intensity.
By using it intermittently, Morrow could keep his energy and mental state stable.
After an indeterminate amount of time, he finally began to see moonlight filtering through gaps in the canopy, a sign that the density of the trees was thinning.
Bathed in streaks of silver light, Morrow sped up again and soon spotted more brightness ahead, along with the faint glimmer of a lake's surface through the sparse trees.
Then, involuntarily, Morrow slowed his steps and turned off his flashlight.
Did I go in a circle?
Seeing the lake again, he wondered if he had gotten lost and circled back to the same lake.
To confirm, he closed his aura nodes, entering a state of Zetsu, then lightened his footsteps as much as possible, slowly approaching the edge of the woods.
In the distance, silver light spilled over the lake's surface, rippling faintly as the night breeze passed.
Morrow stood behind a tree, observing the shoreline. He saw no sign of Benjamin or the poachers' bodies, and the terrain and vegetation were different.
This was another lake.
He relaxed slightly, then tensed again.
On the lakeshore stood a weeping willow wrapped in vines, about two hundred meters from his position.
Morrow fixed his gaze on the tree with its dangling vines and could clearly make out seven motionless figures standing upright, along with one person leaning against the trunk.
Those are…
His pupils contracted slightly as he slowly closed the distance along the forest's edge.
As he got closer, he could see the aura surrounding those seven individuals more clearly.
Very weak aura…
And the seven of them looked strange, like lifeless puppets.
That was Morrow's first impression.
Just as his gaze shifted downward to observe the person against the tree, he suddenly noticed something unusual.
Under the moonlight, those seven motionless figures cast no shadows.
At this sight, Morrow's expression changed. In an instant, he confirmed the identity of the person by the tree.
The phenomenon of shadowless manipulation could only mean one thing: this was the Manipulation-type ability user who had controlled the passengers on the airship.
Morrow narrowed his eyes at the aura flowing like water around the Manipulation-type ability user, recalling their targeted actions. A flicker of killing intent passed through his mind. To think that the route he was forced to take to avoid Benjamin would lead him to encounter that Manipulation-type ability user who had also crash-landed in the forest.
What an ironic twist of fate.
Morrow suppressed the urge to move closer; it might expose him.
Although the current distance exceeded a hundred meters, he could utilize the return mechanism of his Shooting Star.
Deceptive Shooting Star.
Once Morrow found the right angle, he could no longer restrain his impulse to strike. He immediately channeled his aura and fired two Shooting Stars backward.
Moments later.
The returning Shooting Stars passed over Morrow, who had just dodged, slicing through the moonlight toward the figure standing before the weeping willow.
—--
Luyuan suddenly opened his eyes, locking onto the direction of the incoming Shooting Stars. A glint reflected in his turbulent gaze.
Almost simultaneously.
The seven puppet humans, programmed with a protective command, rushed in front of Luyuan, forming a solid wall to block the path of the Shooting Stars.
The next instant.
Two massive Shooting Stars collided with the human barricade and exploded violently.
With a deafening blast, the tightly packed wall of bodies was torn apart in the most literal sense.
For a brief moment, dismembered limbs mixed with copious amounts of blood rained onto the grass, the thick plasma flattening entire patches of foliage.
Luyuan stared at the scattered remains, his pupils trembling.
The puppet humans he had worked so hard to preserve had been shattered so effortlessly.
As fury surged within him, Luyuan rose and drew his katana, his gaze snapping toward the forest, only to quickly regain his composure.
With his emotions under control, the aura emanating from his body gradually stabilized, no longer erratic and scattered.
Hm?
Then, Luyuan saw Morrow step out from the trees. His initial surprise quickly gave way to a cold, murderous expression. "I hadn't even gone looking for you, yet here you are, delivering yourself to me..."
A ninja?
Bathed in moonlight, Morrow took in Luyuan's attire and was momentarily taken aback.
A black hood and mask, along with a black, form-fitting bodysuit...
It was an outfit reminiscent of a ninja.
Yet this ability user, who seemed to hail from a ninja background, wielded a katana.
Under Morrow's scrutinizing gaze, Luyuan offered no further words. Instead, he leveled his blade and assumed an offensive stance.
The prerequisite for activating Nowhere to Return From Shadows was the presence of ordinary humans to serve as material for the ability.
But in a place like this, there were no ordinary people, meaning Luyuan couldn't use his ability.
More often than not, the inherent Limitations of Nen abilities brought trouble to their users.
Though one could consciously avoid or even exploit these Limitations...
There were always moments of bad luck, or instances where enemies who knew their weaknesses set deliberate traps.
Unable to use his ability, Luyuan had no choice but to revert to basic combat methods.
Yet a flicker of doubt crossed his mind: why had the opponent's aura suddenly grown so much stronger?
He suppressed the thought almost immediately, focusing entirely on the mission assigned by his leader.
The next second.
Luyuan lunged forward, his body cutting through the air like a blade aimed straight at Morrow by the forest's edge.
The fate of his puppet barricade had given him a clear understanding of the destructive power of Morrow's Nen bullets and confirmed Morrow's Nen type.
Under these circumstances, closing the distance to engage in close combat became Luyuan's only viable option. Just as Luyuan had halved the distance between them, he suddenly noticed a basketball-sized fluorescent green Nen bullet flying out from the woods behind Morrow.
How could this be...?
Luyuan was slightly startled when he saw the Nen bullet pass by Morrow's body and shoot straight toward him.
In the blink of an eye, Luyuan swung his blade at the Nen bullet.
Relying on the solidified Aura wrapped around his blade, he cleanly split the bullet in two.
Boom! Boom!
The divided Nen bullets landed on the lake's surface, sending two towering columns of water into the air.
Meanwhile, Morrow took advantage of Luyuan's deflection of the Shooting Star to stand still, arms raised, heedless of his Aura consumption as he continuously fired off more Shooting Stars.
Now at Level 18, his Nen bullet release speed had visibly improved. As long as he controlled the size of the Shooting Stars, he could maintain rapid-fire without issue.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh...!
In just one second, over a dozen Shooting Stars shot toward Luyuan dozens of meters away.
The power and size have decreased!
Seeing the barrage of egg-sized Shooting Stars coming his way, Luyuan's eyes sharpened. Instead of retreating, he charged forward, meeting the onslaught head-on.
Ssssh!
Luyuan cleaved through the first two Shooting Stars with his blade, then swiftly adjusted his position mid-sprint to evade the rest.
But even as he advanced, Morrow didn't stop his ability. Shooting Stars continued to fire from his outstretched palms.
However, the density and power of these projectiles couldn't pin Luyuan down; they only slowed his charge.
Thirty meters, twenty meters...
The distance between them steadily shrank.
Yet Morrow, as an Emitter type, showed no concern over Luyuan's approach.
Conventional wisdom suggested that Emitters should avoid close combat at all costs.
But this wasn't an absolute rule.
Take Franklin of the Phantom Troupe, for example, a Nen user capable of wielding both Emitter and Enhancer abilities at 100 % efficiency.
Even without the advantage of distance, he could hold his own in close combat against Nobunaga, another Enhancer.
Unlike Franklin, Morrow's Nen affinity leaned more toward Emission and Manipulation.
But when it came to forced close-quarters combat...
While he couldn't match Franklin's 100 % Enhancer offense-defense conversion rate, he had his own countermeasure:
The return of the Shooting Stars.
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty...
Some of the countless Shooting Stars were shattered by Luyuan's blade, but most were dodged.
And those that missed him hung suspended in the air behind Luyuan like scattered stars.
Morrow could freely adjust the return time of each Shooting Star between one and five seconds.
This meant that by setting progressively shorter return times for each projectile, he could orchestrate a simultaneous return of all Shooting Stars after five seconds.
As for the issue of power dilution due to excessive numbers...
This unavoidable mechanic within the Nen system could be compensated for through Vows and Limitations.
Under the Limitation of "Self-Inflicted Wound," the returning Shooting Stars gained double their original power, effectively overriding the power-dilution mechanism.
This was the unique advantage of the Shooting Stars.
And it was one of the tangible improvements Morrow experienced upon reaching Level 18. When the preset moment arrived, Luyuan finally stepped within the ten-meter range.
At that very instant, the numerous Shooting Stars suspended behind Luyuan reversed course at an even greater speed, hurtling toward him, now aligned in a straight line with Morrow.
In that fleeting moment, it was like a meteor shower!
By the time Luyuan realized something was wrong, it was already too late to turn back.
Because Luyuan didn't understand the ability mechanism of the "Deceptive Shooting Star harming Morrow," and Morrow never stopped releasing the Shooting Stars.
This was a pincer attack from both sides!
More crucially, a Manipulator unable to use Nen was no different from a beast stripped of its fangs and claws.
Luyuan abruptly halted his steps. When he turned his head, his pupils reflected a sky full of stars.
Thud thud thud thud…
Nen bullets like meteors struck Luyuan's body in rapid succession.
The relentless impacts sent his body trembling back and forth, and in the span of a single breath, his entire form was left battered and broken.
I… actually lost…
After the meteor shower passed, Luyuan collapsed to the ground, his face twisted with unwillingness.
Morrow glanced at the fallen Luyuan and instinctively prepared to fire a few more Shooting Stars to finish him off. But when he saw the change in the tattoo level on the back of his hand, he suppressed the urge to deliver the final blow.
Lv.18 → Lv.22
A full four-level jump in one go…