This time, Aiden was genuinely surprised.
He only roughly counted them, but the number of ships Ronin had brought exceeded thirty.
What surprised him even more was the strength Ronin displayed. After interacting with him throughout the journey, Aiden had assumed Ronin was an Enhancer. Yet now, Ronin had used what seemed to be a Conjuration ability.
It honestly left his mind feeling somewhat confused.
But the more that was the case, the more wary he became of Ronin, and the more he admired Lord Gatekeeper's judgment.
At least in terms of strength, Ronin already qualified to explore the Dark Continent in Aiden's eyes. As long as his luck was not especially bad, he might even be able to live quite well there.
The prerequisite was that he did not touch or search for the mission targets given by the Gatekeeper.
But was that possible?
Aiden looked at Ronin and the others with a trace of sympathy in his eyes. He wondered, when the day came to return, whether Ronin would still be able to bring out a ship, and whether the people boarding that ship would still be the same nine, including himself.
Aiden raised his hand and pointed in a direction. Kurapika had already consciously taken the helm and started the ship.
Looking at the blue sea, Ronin still felt a sense of unreality.
Had they really crossed the Dark Gate, reached the edge of Lake Mobius, and were now about to set foot on the Dark Continent?
No matter how unreal it felt, when the coastline began appearing in their field of vision, Ronin and the others truly understood that they had left Lake Mobius and arrived at the Dark Continent.
Especially when an enormous and bizarre snail-like monster appeared along that coastline. It vividly embodied the unique absurdity of the Dark Continent, something that had previously existed only in Ronin's imagination.
Great waves rose as the monster's many flesh-foot-like organs touched the water, spreading outward in surges.
The ship avoided the direction where the monster existed from far away and instead sailed toward a stretch of coastline that did not seem especially dangerous. There were even wooden houses that had clearly been built there long ago.
"That is the outpost Lord Gatekeeper left behind the last time he came to the Dark Continent," Aiden said, rarely taking the initiative to speak. "As long as Lord Gatekeeper's aura still lingers there, no creature will easily step into that area.
"And if something truly does come to challenge it, then most likely, every living thing left there will be destroyed."
Ronin understood what Aiden meant.
He was just very curious about how the Gatekeeper had left his aura behind.
Was it Nen?
The answer was quickly revealed.
When the ship reached the shore, a massive beast head appeared in the camp filled with wooden buildings.
And on that beast head, there was blooming Nen.
It felt as though someone had deliberately injected Nen into the beast head and allowed that Nen to slowly fade over time.
"As long as Nen is regularly injected into the beast head, Lord Gatekeeper's deterrence will continue to exist," Aiden explained proudly.
"Impressive," Ging praised.
It was unclear whether he was praising the effect of the beast head, or the Gatekeeper who had created such an aura-based threat.
Perhaps both.
In any case, that one sentence made Aiden's gaze toward him soften quite a bit.
It seemed no humans had set foot in the camp for a long time. The facilities were covered in dust and looked extremely old.
"From here on, I will wait for you in the camp. If you cannot return before the agreed time, I will leave. Whether you can return to Lake Mobius after that will depend on your luck," Aiden said seriously.
After saying that, he no longer communicated with Ronin's group and simply went about his own business.
Ronin was not in a hurry to leave the camp. Instead, he also led everyone in cleaning it up.
Aiden was not surprised by this.
Or rather, any smart person, after learning that a safe zone existed, would choose to stay for the time being and observe the situation on the Dark Continent.
The sky was already growing dark. Continuing forward now was clearly not a wise choice.
Moreover, now that Ronin had reached the Dark Continent, he had no intention of rushing back. As for the Gatekeeper's mission, Ronin did not care much about it at all.
To him, whether he could return to Lake Mobius did not seem to make that great a difference.
Staying on the Dark Continent meant endless adventure waiting for him.
Returning to Lake Mobius meant a stable life waiting for him.
He did not reject either kind of life. But if he had to choose, he would still prefer a life with more excitement and surprises.
When night fell, no fire was lit in the camp. Aside from Aiden, everyone silently ate compressed biscuits and drank bottled water.
All of these things had been brought from Lake Mobius.
Aiden watched everything.
From the moment Ronin took out the ships, he knew this group had made thorough preparations long ago.
No wonder, when Lord Gatekeeper had slightly relented back then, these people had needed no preparation at all and had impatiently jumped straight into the Dark Gate.
But it was useless.
He had seen people even better prepared than Ronin's group, and he had also seen larger teams. Yet back then, very few of them had been able to return to Lake Mobius.
So Aiden likewise did not think highly of Ronin and the others' chances.
The Dark Continent at night was truly pitch-black. Once the moon in the sky was covered by clouds, the only sound left in the entire world was the waves washing against the shore.
There were no insect cries, no birdsong, and none of the unbelievable things they had imagined appeared.
But the more nothing happened, the more unsettled people felt.
It was not until a remark from Shizuku reminded Ronin and the others that they finally remembered this camp was entirely within the range of the Gatekeeper's aura.
According to Aiden, aside from beings on the same level as the Gatekeeper, or those of an even higher level, which would ignore his aura, all other creatures would naturally stay as far away as possible.
"All right, sleep. We officially set out tomorrow," Ronin said.
After being busy for quite some time, Ronin was already somewhat tired.
Even so, he forced himself to keep watch outside. In the latter half of the night, Ging replaced Ronin, and Ronin finally got a proper sleep.
The night passed without incident. All talk of ghosts and monsters was complete nonsense.
At dawn, everyone in the camp got up. After packing up, they did not bring Aiden with them this time. Instead, they began walking south along the coastline.
The Trinity Elixir existed to the south.
At the same time, that was also where the gaseous life-form Ronin had always been interested in existed.
According to online speculation about the gaseous life-form, many people believed this being, which existed by depending on desire, was the unknown thing inside Alluka—that is, Nanika.
If Ronin had to choose the thing within Lake Mobius that interested him the most, it would undoubtedly be Nanika.
After all, judging from its expressive power in the manga, the destruction this unknown thing could achieve was simply terrifying.
Although it was not especially good at healing, it could still produce impressive results, even ones that could be called miraculous.
~~~
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