"Let's go outside and give them some time to say goodbye," Ging said, standing up and walking out of the cave.
Kevin looked at the dying Double-Headed Wolf before him and reached out to gently stroke its head.
Seemingly feeling Kevin's touch, the head with the sharp horn curved slightly, rubbing against the back of Kevin's hand and licking it twice before limply drooping down again, quietly awaiting the arrival of death.
"It really is quite human-like." Kevin stood up silently and also walked out of the cave, leaving the Double-Headed Wolf family their own quiet space.
At the cave entrance, Ging leaned against the stone wall.
Kevin stood at the entrance and looked into the distance. Several large trees had holes pierced through them, yet they still stood tall and resilient, refusing to fall.
"You've surely been looking up all sorts of information online about Exotic Beasts, Rare Beasts, and Magical Beasts lately because of your own needs, right?" Ging asked.
Hearing this question, Kevin nodded. "Yeah, because of my Nen Ability, I'm particularly interested in these things."
"So, what are your thoughts on these creatures?"
There was nothing to hide here, so Kevin said frankly, "It's amazing. I didn't expect to be able to learn about creatures that seem to have stepped right out of a storybook in modern society."
After all, in the twenty-odd years of his past life, he had lived in a mundane world without such dream-like, fantastical things.
"I see," Ging murmured. After a moment, he suddenly tossed something toward Kevin.
Kevin reached out and caught it.
The object was about the length of his forearm and felt quite heavy in his hand. It was tightly wrapped in oilcloth, with a layer of bandages wound around it.
More interestingly, some extremely complex yet orderly patterns could be seen on the bandages. With his mastery of Nen Ability, Kevin could clearly sense a trace of 'Aura' from these patterns.
"That is God Script, something created through knowledge, special characters and patterns, combined with the appropriate Nen Ability and exquisite Nen control techniques," Ging explained.
Hearing this, Kevin immediately lost interest; this sounded like something an ordinary person could never learn.
"Oh, don't be so dejected. While very few people have mastered this technique, if you try hard, maybe you really could learn it?" Ging said with a sudden smile, his expression looking very much like a con artist's.
"How long did it take you to learn it?"
"I'm still learning it now."
"Heh." Kevin couldn't help but retort inwardly. Then what's the point of me learning it?
Still, if there were a chance, it might be worth a try.
Kevin wanted to see and try anything fantastical or extraordinary.
How interesting.
Thinking this, Kevin slowly unwrapped the bandages. A faint Aura began to emanate through the oilcloth, causing him to frown slightly.
When he unfolded the oilcloth, a denser life energy—or 'Aura'—rushed toward him.
Before his eyes was a long, slender bone of an emerald green color. Through the surface of the bone, he could faintly see a fine, crystal-like structure inside.
It had to be said that, based on appearance alone, it was definitely a fascinating collectible.
However, the 'Aura' emanating from it was not to be underestimated. It meant the owner of this bone was a creature with an incredibly powerful physique; even after death, the bone still contained such dense life energy that a slow dissipation of 'Aura' could be sensed.
In other words, the oilcloth and the bandages were actually meant to prevent the 'Aura' on the material from dissipating completely, which would deplete its life energy and turn it into an ordinary item.
What shocked Kevin even more was a strong craving welling up in his body, more intense than any he had felt toward any material before, far exceeding what he felt when he saw that Shed Horn.
"Whew..." Kevin took deep breaths for a while before he finally managed to calm the desire within him.
Ging had been watching closely from the side.
"The Aura on you... never mind, we'll talk about that later. What do you think of this 『material』?"
"Strong. I can only describe it as powerful. So powerful that it's impossible for me to use it as a material in the short term."
Just as he graded potions, Kevin also classified materials into different grades.
Potions of a certain grade didn't necessarily have to be made entirely from materials of the same grade, but the primary ingredient—the key material placed on the gold scale—had to match the potion's grade.
There was no doubt that the material in his hand was definitely not of C-grade quality.
Was it A-grade? No. Although Kevin had categorized materials into different levels, in his conception, A-grade should be even more extraordinary.
This should be B-grade, and surely the top tier of B-grade materials.
With his current potential Aura capacity, he simply wasn't allowed to perform any operations related to it.
"Damn, isn't this just deliberate temptation? I can see it, but I can't use it."
"Then I'll give it to you."
"Huh?" Kevin looked up at Ging in confusion.
"It no longer has any practical value for me; it's mostly just for display, and I'm not interested in that sort of thing," Ging explained simply. "Just consider it a small gift from me."
Saying this, he clapped his hands. "Let's call it a gift to help you gain the power to protect yourself."
"What? That reason was obviously made up on the spot."
"Alright, don't fuss over the details," Ging waved his hand, his eyes becoming bright as he looked toward the distant sky. "As a Ruin Hunter, I've spent all these years doing things based on my own interests and hobbies.
In the process, I've discovered many secrets. For instance, that bone in your hand is actually just a small segment of a finger bone from a biological cub."
"Then just how big must that creature be?" Kevin murmured, looking at the rewrapped, green crystal-like bone in his hand.
"Most of the interesting creatures you've looked up came here across the ocean over the past millennium. They come from the true world outside the current 『Known World』." Ging's words made Kevin frown.
He had probably already guessed it; what Ging was talking about was that there was a world beyond the world.
After all, in this world, there had never been a clear definition of the world's boundaries; there were certainly unexplored new continents beyond it.
For top Hunters like Ging, they surely had their own information channels to know these things.
Given the current level of technological development, the fact that the top powers hadn't organized teams to colonize them only showed that those so-called new continents posed risks far outweighing the potential gains.
Otherwise, a piece of habitable land, a blank continent, would be a temptation too great for these powers to refuse.
These were all judgments Kevin made based on his understanding of this world.
It seemed that Ging was now about to reveal the answer to him.