"Lupos! Call your clones back!" Allen loudly instructed his pet.
Inside the Blackrock Depths dungeon, a dozen Shadow Wolves, composed entirely of Shadow Energy, were rushing out of the tunnel at incredible speed. Trailing behind them were countless Anvilrage Overseers and a few elite Fire Elementals.
Train kiting!
Evidently, Allen was utilizing Lupos's Nen ability, Shadow Wolf Pack, to group a massive number of enemies in the dungeon.
As the leading Grimstone Marshal was about to charge out, the Frost Trap placed on the ground was finally triggered.
Instantly, a patch of white frost covered the entire tunnel exit. Both Allen and the large horde of monsters behind him entered a slow-motion state, gathering tightly into a small, narrow area within seconds.
"Perfect! This is the result I wanted!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Allen threw a huge wooden barrel with all his strength.
The next second…
Boom!
Accompanied by a towering flash of fire and a deafening explosion, the ground trembled violently for hundreds of meters. The Anvilrage Overseers were instantly thrown head over heels.
Goblin Sapper Charge!
Other than the Arcane Bomb, this was the most terrifying engineering explosive in the entire Vanilla era, perfectly embodying the core principle of "Goblin engineering is a shock to the system." Had this happened in the real world, this single blast could instantly collapse a three- or four-story building, and even a Nen-using Hunter would likely be seriously wounded, if not killed, by a direct hit.
Unfortunately, within the semi-datafied dungeon, its power was strictly limited to around seven to eight hundred damage, and the resulting concussion wave didn't cause effects like stun or knockdown.
Watching the Dark Iron Dwarves, their bodies marked with burns and scalds and their expressions utterly ferocious, swarm forward like a tide, Allen showed no trace of panic. He simply extended both hands and silently chanted a single word in his mind—[Liquid].
In less than five or six seconds, countless objects resembling raindrops began to fall from above, striking the bodies of the Dark Iron Dwarves, the Twilight Emissary, and the elite Fire Elementals. Unlike ordinary raindrops, these light blue, faintly glowing droplets would immediately begin to absorb heat from their surroundings and rapidly vaporize upon contact with a target.
In no time, the entire tunnel exit was filled with innumerable bizarre-shaped ice sculptures, including the bosses.
[Nen Ability: Enhancement]
[Imbue Arrow Attribute: Sever]
[Multi-Shot]
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three serrated arrows, infused with Enhancement Nen, shot through the cluster of ice sculptures in a fan shape at an almost indiscernible speed, carrying a powerful and dangerous rotating airflow.
Due to the Nen coating the exterior of the arrows, any ice sculpture that was grazed, struck, or blocked their path was instantly shattered into countless small pieces with a crack! Naturally, the monsters inside were killed beyond any doubt.
Clearly, this was the astonishing effect produced by the cooperation between Allen's Enhancement and Transmutation Nen categories. Especially the latter, it wasn't merely generating freezing air or melting steel, as Marcus had imagined, but the power to change the fundamental state of matter.
As is commonly known, matter has four most common states in nature: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. As for the Bose-Einstein condensate and Fermionic condensate, they belong to the microscopic quantum realm and are virtually impossible to observe with the naked eye without the aid of advanced laboratory equipment.
The solid, liquid, and gas states are easy to understand, as they are covered in middle school physics textbooks. Taking water as an example, in the gas state, it is steam; in the liquid state, it is water; and in the solid state, it is ice. Plasma, on the other hand, can create phenomena like luminescence, combustion, and electrical discharge; even nuclear fission and fusion can be classified as plasma states.
However, with Allen's current Nen ability, being able to convert relatively simple substances between the solid, liquid, and gas states was the absolute limit. He could not yet control the highly complex plasma state.
The rain-like droplets that fell earlier were actually Allen utilizing his Transmutation Nen to turn a portion of the air into its liquid state. Liquid air has a temperature of -192°C. When it encounters room temperature and begins to change state, it rapidly absorbs heat. Coupled with the water vapor contained in the air, the visible result was that all the monsters were flash-frozen in place.
Similarly, the freezing of the mobsters in the hotel lobby and the alloy door that melted into iron liquid were achieved in the same way.
As for the shield that was virtually weightless yet capable of blocking pistol bullets, it was air in its solid state. It possessed unimaginable hardness, strength, and tenacity, and the moment it left the control of Nen, it would immediately absorb heat like liquid air, creating ultra-low temperatures locally. Under the influence of such low temperatures, even hardened steel would become incredibly fragile.
"My initial choice was indeed correct. Changing the state of matter is the ultimate evolution of Transmutation Nen. Nen abilities like Hisoka's Bungee Gum and Killua's use of his Aura to generate electricity are too basic. Their cost is completely disproportionate to the effects they produce…" Allen muttered, putting away his bow.
It was important to note that all he was doing was performing the most basic state changes without altering the substance itself. All the effects like extreme cold and high temperatures were secondary, the result of energy transfer in a normal-temperature environment. The Nen only needed to work for the brief moment of transformation, consuming very little Aura. Only when shaping something like the Solid Air Shield did he need to expend extra Nen to ensure he wasn't frozen or burned himself.
Furthermore, to minimize the time required for state change and maximize the range of the Nen effect, he had established a series of Restrictions:
1. Before use, the user must mentally confirm the substance's melting point and boiling point. The closer the estimate is to the correct answer, the less Aura is consumed, and vice versa.
2. The substance being transformed must be visible, sensible, and recognizable by the user, or conversion cannot occur.
3. The transformed substance must be able to form stable gas, liquid, and solid states. Things primarily composed of fibers, like wood, and organic tissues like human or animal bodies and hair, cannot be transformed.
4. The simpler and more uniform the composition of the target substance, the shorter the time required for transformation, and vice versa.
5. If only one substance within a relatively complex target is being transformed, the Aura consumption depends on the substance's percentage in the whole. The smaller the percentage, the more Aura is consumed, up to fifty times the amount required for the whole target.
Taking nitrogen, which has the highest proportion in air, as an example, it only costs about one-quarter more Aura than transforming the entire air volume, but the transformation speed is instantly increased by five times, making it the preferred choice in combat.
With this initially developed Transmutation Nen ability, the entire Blackrock Depths dungeon no longer posed any threat to Allen. He effortlessly fought his way to Emperor Dagran Thaurissan and Princess Moira Bronzebeard, sending the star-crossed lovers to the next world.
The moment they both fell, golden light descended. His Hunter level finally rose from 55 to 56, leaving only four levels until the max level of 60.
Of course, only less than two months remained until the next Hunter Exam.
Specifically, since striking the bargain with the Yorknew Mafia, he had been holed up at home, going nowhere. This was partly to calmly focus on raising his Hunter level and training his Nen abilities, while also mining in dungeons like Maraudon, Blackrock Depths, and Dire Maul East to craft Goblin Sapper Charges and Grenades for contingencies.
The other reason was that he was still somewhat wary of Marcus Cabrelli, preventing him from making any irrational moves driven by greed, such as kidnapping, threats, or extortion.
However, after six months of observation, Allen found that this seemingly ruthless man was genuinely smart. At the Underground Auction, which had just concluded in September, he had not only used the potions and gear provided by Allen to make the Cabrelli Family name famous but had also successfully gained the favor of the Ten Dons.
His status and position were rapidly rising like a rocket. Outsiders even referred to him and Light Nostrade as the two fastest-rising Mafia stars of the year. The latter was the man who used his daughter's Nen ability, Lovely Ghostwriter, to perform fortune-telling for Mafia bosses, and who would become Kurapika's future employer.