Gourmet Hunter (HxH Fanfic)

Kenda came to a long corridor. At the end of the corridor was a wooden door, guarded by two tall men in black.

"Kenda, stop."

When Kenda walked about ten meters to the door, the two men in black looked at Kenda and urged him to stop.

Kenda was silent for a moment, then his arm suddenly moved. With two slight sounds, blood spurted out from behind the back of both men's heads, and they collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

Looking at the two bodies lying beside the door, Kenda expressionlessly put away his silenced pistol and opened the wooden door, revealing a staircase leading downward.

…

The circular room was very large, with a thick stone pillar in the center and leather sofas placed around the pillar underneath. Apart from that, the space was mostly empty, leaving much of the area underutilized.

The collection was displayed in wall-mounted cabinets, which are neatly arranged and surrounded the entire room.

Each cabinet was meticulously organized, with just one item placed per meter-wide section, positioned at a height of over one meter for optimal viewing.

Unlike the strong light in the Elder's basement, the light in the round room was softer and a little dim.

With this rendering, the various collections in the closet exude a quiet and eerie atmosphere, as though the objects were relics of a bygone era.

Generally speaking, collectors have specific preferences, and the collectibles they buy are basically limited to a very small range of categories, but Barney is obviously not a conventional collector.

At a glance, Law saw a total of 128 items. The diversity of the items was staggering, almost chaotic, like the haphazard acquisitions of a nouveau riche collector.

'Jackpot...'

Law couldn't help but walk in. Without waiting for the reminder of the white smoke text, he gathered his Aura in his eyes and glanced at the items in the room. After counting, there were only 15 items attached with Nen.

'Only 15 out of 128...' The ratio was lower than Law had anticipated, but it is still a considerable number.

'As long as I absorbed the Nen from these 15 items, to what extent will the Awakening Rates increase, and how much will the amount of Aura in my body increase?'

Law took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement that was welling up in him.

"Law, over here."

Ellie ran to the third cabinet from the right-hand side of the door.

Hearing this, Law walked over to Ellie.

"I only recognize 36 of the items here, so I'll start with this one!" Ellie said as she pointed to an oddly shaped bronze goblet inside the cabinet. She was practically glowing with excitement, like a child eager to share her treasures with a friend.

On the airship, Law was able to tell the origin of the human puppet doll, so Ellie thought that Law would also be interested in the antiques. That's why she immediately took Law to Barney's collection room.

Of course, showing off her knowledge of the antiques to Law was also one of the reasons.

"Ellie, wait a minute."

Law interrupted her just as she was about to continue.

"What's wrong?" Ellie looked at him in doubts.

Law smiled and suggested, "How about we play a little game?"

"Game?" Ellie tilted her head in confusion.

"Yeah, it's a very fun game." Law nodded, and his persuasive tone sounded like a weird uncle who was luring a little girl with a lollipop.

Ellie hesitated for a moment and responded, "Okay, what game?"

Law's eyes glinted as he grinned, "Guess how many of the items here I can tell you about their origins."

"35 pieces." Ellie replied without hesitation.

"…"

Law's eyelids twitched, and he chuckled bitterly, "Then, if I can tell you the origins of more than 35 of these items, you lose, how about that?"

"Then I'll guess you can identify 127 pieces." Ellie retorted and rolled her eyes. She was not stupid, so she directly increased the number from 35 to 127.

"Deal." Law agreed decisively. After all, all he wanted was to touch all the items here and then take the opportunity to absorb the Nen on the items.

"Let's start from here."

Law walked to the first item on the right-hand side of the door, opened the glass cabinet, retrieved a rusted dagger, and began to explain its origin.

Ellie followed beside him, quietly listening to Law's detailed explanation. At first, she didn't think anything of it, but as Law talked about more and more items, she was dumbfounded.

"Item 45..."

"Item 46..."

"…"

"Item 89..."

"Item 90..."

"…"

"Item..."

As Law picked up the items, he explained their origins. The content he explained was already simplified, but it sounded very detailed to Ellie.

By the time he reached the 127th item, Law had already absorbed the Nen from 14 items. Throughout the process, he hadn't had a moment to summon his data, and he simply repeated the routine of picking up, setting down, and explaining each item.

Every time the Nen of an item is absorbed, the amount of Aura in his body increases. By the time he finished the 127th item, the Aura in his body allowed him to maintain its maximal output for 40 minutes, which is equivalent to doubling the duration.

As the attentive listener, Ellie transitioned from surprise to shock and finally to a dazed state.

The 127 pieces already include 36 pieces she knows, and since Law's explanations for these were flawless, it shows that Law's explanations of the origins of the other items is not just him talking nonsense.

"Item 128..."

Law returned to the left side of the door. After making a big circle, they almost returned to the door.

This is the last item, which is a slightly weathered stone sculpture of a two-headed snake, and also the last item imbued with Nen.

"The Gatekeeper of Yemendar..."

Law said the name of the stone sculpture and began to absorb the Nen attached on it before telling its origin. At this point, the Nen of all 15 items had been absorbed.

After placing the stone sculpture back into its display and closing the glass cabinet, Law turned back to look at Ellie, only to see that the little blonde girl was in a daze.

Law chuckled inwardly when he saw this, and he took the opportunity to call out his data interface.

The average Awakening Rates ​​of the his Nen Categories just exceeded 20%, among which the Manipulation Category is the highest, reaching about 24%, while the Transmutation Category is the lowest, with only about 17%.

'My Aura Reserves has at least doubled. I don't know if it's just my imagination, but controlling my Aura feels easier now.' Law thought to himself. At this moment, he couldn't wait to try out the results.

He wanted to use Ren to release the Aura in his body, however, his Aura Nodes could not open to their maximum output, and the Aura on the surface of his body still remained in Ten state.

'What's going on?'

Law was shocked by this sudden change and his brows knitted in confusion. He tried using Ren again, trying to control the abundant Aura in his body, but the result was the same.

'The Aura Nodes... can't be opened?' Law suddenly panicked.

His understanding of Nen was rather superficial, and he didn't know what had caused it to become like this.

If he couldn't open his Aura Nodes, then what was the use of having a lot of Aura in his body? And if he could only use Ten, he wouldn't even be able to use his Nen Ability.

Law didn't believe it and continued to try many times, but he still couldn't open his Aura Nodes and could maintain the Ten state.

In his panic, he noticed that a countdown timer had appeared under the data interface displayed in white smoke text.

[83:23:50:32]

The final digits ticked down by the second, which is obviously a countdown.

'If the number 23 represents hours, then the number 83 is most likely days.'

'84 days?'

Law's frown deepened.

'My inability to use Ren was clearly tied to this countdown. Is it because I absorbed too much Nen were in a short period of time, or is it because the average Awakening Rates exceeds 20%?'

'Could it be that in these 84 days, I can only maintain Ten and cannot use Ren, let alone my Nen Ability?'

'When I checked the data just now, the countdown number did not appear. After I tried to use Ren and failed, the countdown appeared, but only about three minutes had passed, not ten minutes.'

Law pondered the situation. If he couldn't use his Nen Ability for this duration, it would be a significant handicap.

However, unlike forced Zetsu state, at least he could still use Ten, which was a small consolation.

Moreover, Law vaguely felt that when the countdown ended, his mastery over Nen would reach a new level.