Reginald, Adarte, Anisa, and Lina, who heard about the third ability, looked at the eyes of Conrad in expectation.
They wanted to know what this third ability was.
Conrad then started talking, telling the details about the ability.
"While we are together in 10 km in all directions, a passive nen defensive shield will be activated."
"This shield can be activated three times per day, and it is capable of blocking physical attacks and nen attacks."
Conrad showed his finger and then added.
"One must know that it is not an omnipotent ability."
"If you get hit by a relatively strong ability, the attack will be just weakened."
"It will not be blocked completely."
Reginald thought and then said.
"In a sense, what I understand is as long as the team is together, the capability to fight is really increased a lot."
Conrad nodded.
"That is the point of it."
"In the future, there may be new sub-abilities that are possible for our teams to have."
"As the ability itself can evolve."
Hearing this, Lina, who was silent, spoke.
"Can I ask you something?"
Conrad looked at Lina and then waited for her to speak.
Lina took a deep breath and thought for a moment and then spoke.
"I would like to know what you mean by 'evolution' and 'new sub-abilities.'"
Conrad smiled hearing this question from Lina.
"Now."
"I want all of you to listen and answer a question of mine to get an answer."
"Do you guys think that your nen abilities are set and cannot be changed after you have created them in the first place?"
Hearing this question, the four NEN users all looked at each other for a moment.
"I am not sure..." said Adarte first.
Anisa kept her silence.
Reginald added.
"I know that there are cases that a non-user can abandon their ability to create a new one."
"But it is rare and not advised, as it needs a huge amount of work and involves risk to create a new ability from the start."
Conrad nodded as he looked at Reginald and then said.
"I asked about the change not in terms of abandoning a new ability."
"Think about it," he said, and then he started manipulating his aura and then separated a nen ball from it.
"This is an ordinary NEN ball."
"I just used simple emitter applications to separate my aura from my body and emit it."
"This is easy to see. Am I wrong?"
Reginald and others shook their heads and kept on listening.
Conrad nodded.
"For a relatively weak nen user, this act itself is a nen ability."
"Then, what makes a new ability strong and practical in the first place?"
Anisa this time spoke.
"Training and Mastery."
Conrad nodded.
"You are half right."
"If I were to add a condition of one nen ball per day to this separated nen ball, what would happen?"
Adarte, this time, spoke.
"Oh, this is easy."
"Because you added a condition to your non-separating and the ball, it becomes stronger."
Conrad smiled.
"Right."
"So, when I say that your abilities can evolve and improve as time goes on and our Seekers Of Unknown abilities may get different abilities, what do I mean?"
As Conrad said these words, Lina, who asked the question in the first place, gulped and then said them.
"You mean that adding conditions and limitations as life goes on..."
"The ability then gets more powered up, and then new sets of places for more sub-abilities involving the team-based ability in the first place open for you to fill up."
Conrad smiled.
"Precisely."
"This is true for all NEN abilities, but it is hard to do and not much thought is put into it."
Conrad then made the ball move back and forth and then smiled.
"The natural law of life is pretty much integrated inside of the nen theory and use of it."
"If you want something, you give something in return."
"This may be pain as Adarte does..."
"Or loss of an organ in time like Reginald does."
Conrad then looked at Lina for a moment and added.
"Or just simple time."
"The more you make it harder for yourself without trying to cheat the theory of nen, the more powerful your ability gets."
"There is no rule for you to be thinking that one ability is only there and can not be changed or improved with different conditions."
"As long as your conditions and limitations are great enough, everything is possible."
Conrad smiled as he looked at the faces of the people and then laughed as he added.
"When I created the team-based ability of ours."
"I spoke about creational conditions."
"Those are basically conditions that need to be met to create ability in the first place."
"Can any of you give an example?"
"Which one of you is using the Creational Condition for your own ability?" Conrad asked and waited for them to think for a moment.
This was an important lesson and something that they need to understand.
Conrad noticed that most nen users have some problems in terms of setting up their conditions to weaken themselves, not in terms of a payback but just a mistake in general understanding of the nen theory.
After understanding that nobody is going to answer.
Conrad looked at Anisa.
"Anisa."
"You need to get hit by a life-threatening attack and get hurt for you to use your revolver, am I wrong?"
Anisa gulped and nodded.
"That is right."
Conrad then said.
"Now."
"Don't you think it would make more sense for you to just put that condition to create your ability in the first place...?"
Anisa was taken aback, and then she did not know what to say.
Conrad added.
"I am telling you to understand that there is a huge difference between a creational condition and an activation condition."
"If you were to say, I cannot create this ability until I need to be in this situation and then create the ability…"
"You would only need to get hit by an ability to use your revolver, and you would not need life-threatening intent from your enemy."
"The fact that you wanted power made you put a condition that you did not need to put on your ability, which cuts practical ability to fight."
"As you have noticed in the last mission." As Conrad said these words, nobody said anything while Anisa was white as clouds.
She did not know what to say.