Chapter 221: A New Direction—Paths of Nen and Greed

With everything he needs to do taken care of and his place of training chosen precisely to get rid of any distractions, Auren focuses completely on training.Consolidating his physical improvements, which he achieved through daily training in addition to spending almost all of his Aura using Azure Restoration to boost his recovery each time, speeding up his training time by an incredible amount, Auren is hard-focused on training. Now, he focuses on getting used to his new capabilities, trying to adjust his techniques to his raw power and physicality.

After a few basic exercises, like running, climbing, and jumping, he switches to basic martial arts, then his various assassin techniques, like Shadow Step and Rhythm Echo, along with his claw techniques.

Afterward, he trains with his throwing knives before dedicating time to sword training, of course, using Eternity.

Despite the changes, Eternity still feels like a familiar part of Auren’s body, requiring almost no adaptation at all. In fact, it feels even easier to control, reaching levels where Auren feels like he can predict the future, because the precise arc of Eternity is something he can feel by now, even before using any technique. Just with his thoughts, he can imagine Eternity cutting anyone down within seconds, as if he could order the sword to fulfill a prophecy. Gripping it tightly, he realizes the power he’s holding in his hands.

With his body now firmly under his control, fully capable of performing any physical feat at a level like never before, he switches to Nen exercises.

Dedicating a few days to the basic and advanced Nen techniques, Auren swiftly continues with his Hatsus.

Excluding Azure Restoration, which he trained more than enough over the last months, Auren focuses on Limitless Waters, which is the base for all his other abilities.

He then dedicates time to Hiding in Mist, Water Clone, and Heavy Rain, along with variations of his Hatsu, like creating mist without any special effect—the version doesn’t act like En when using Zetsu inside.

Now... there is one thing I did, maybe unconsciously, maybe because of my own incompetence. I need to try to correct that mistake... not that it is a mistake, but merely a different path... the easiest one. That path has been incredibly easy and natural to walk on, but it drives me further from my initial goal. If possible, I need to walk both... no, all three of them at the same time. They might appear contradictory, but it’s just a technique. Mastering one will help me learn the others faster as well.

Auren draws Eternity, holding it forward briefly, and closes his eyes. Suddenly, his Aura spikes as he activates Limitless Waters, gathering all of his Aura onto Eternity.

Like so many times before, the weapon grows, a watery Aura surrounding it, spinning rapidly with incredible force. The overall size increases to three, four, five, six, and finally seven times.

With an incredibly large edge, Eternity grows to a size where he could probably cut a building in two with ease.

I could increase this application of Limitless Water even more... in time, I’d increase it to a size ten... no, twenty times its original size. I could cut apart a tall building, maybe even a skyscraper. However, that path... while it seems useful for violent destruction and maybe for hunting large beasts, which I’ll definitely acknowledge as useful, as I’ve just proven in the wild, is not the only one. Walking solely on this path on its own is limiting me.

Auren concentrates hard, maintaining all of his Aura’s strength, not reducing the total Aura at all.

Yet despite that, Eternity’s size, enlarged with Limitless Waters, shrinks, growing more and more dense and powerful, the water spinning so fast that Auren can feel Eternity growing heavier and heavier.

From seven times to six, five, then finally four times. As it shrinks more and more, Auren suddenly loses control, the Aura violently dispersing outward in all directions, a cut appearing on his shoulder and his face. Despite the injuries, Auren shows no fear or sign of pain—he just smiles in satisfaction.

Not bad... almost to half its size on the first try. I’ll get there... actually sooner than I thought! This is the right decision. Even before, I still created quite a powerful effect with Limitless Waters—I cut apart that forest worm, after all. If I had only focused on size, I could have expanded it to thirty times its size, but then the power would have been so weak, it would have felt like a splash of water. The previous size was my natural, balanced approach, which I thought was the perfect form.

Reducing strength for something as basic as size is a bad trade and not the correct path. It might be useful when dealing with a lot of weak enemies, but that’s not something I want to focus on. I could pull that off even without training.

The technique is perfectly balanced. At first, I thought changing that balance was a mistake, but both other directions—increasing size with a decrease in power, and decreasing size with an increase in power—have their uses. While I do not need to train the former way, decreasing its size while maintaining all the Aura is harder than I thought. This variation exchanges all that extra size for even more power after all, allowing me to cut apart anything... or anyone, at least in theory. I need to learn how to perfectly control and execute it, and then finally, using Emission I could... no. I need to focus on achieving initial control first.

Motivated and driven by extreme ambition, Auren continues his training, doing nothing besides training, meditating, and sleeping.

Finally, after two weeks of solitary training, he contacts Zepile, asking him to visit him along with his new employees, Ura and Oron.

They swiftly arrive hours later, Auren locking onto them from the roof of the abandoned building he uses as a training ground. Briefly flaring up his Aura and using Ren, he catches their attention, surprising them.

A few minutes later, they join him on the roof.

“It’s good to see you again,” Auren says, nodding toward them.

“Nice to see you, boss, I guess,” Oron says, rubbing his head. “The new guy you sent to support us is quite the boon. Knows his stuff, I suppose.”

“Doing my best to help out,” Zepile says, smiling. “I am grateful, Auren. Not only did I make progress with my Nen, but I also managed to buy a few of my... regrets back. I can’t believe I’m still being paid for work like that. I’m doing my best to make it all up for you at the auction and beyond.”

“Auction...” Auren mutters, realizing what he’s talking about. “I guess it’s already September, so the auction indeed starts on the sixth and ends on the tenth. Why are we bothering with it, though?”

“I can answer that,” Ura chimes in. “We managed to identify a couple of interesting relics containing Aura. We wanted to ask you if you want to acquire them. They fit your bill and contain Aura, though you’ll have to pay many millions, maybe even billions of Jenny to acquire them. This is quite different from the usual finds we’re trying to find. We know nothing about the quality, so it’s completely up to you. The price, meaning the risk of getting them, increases a lot. However, the potential rewards only increase marginally, so this is only something you should consider if you have the finances to support that decision.”

She is right... but money... I don’t lack money at all. If these things are expensive... that might have a reason, so the chances of acquiring... I need to try.

“I guess you can just buy everything you can that fits my criteria,” Auren decides, not caring too much about it. “No limit. I’ll give you access to my accounts. As long as we’re not blatantly overpaying by a few times or so, buy what you can. I trust your judgment, Ura. Even if I deem them worthless, I can simply resell them when I need money. That will boost my reputation a little as well, make it known that you are entering on my account.”

“Understood,” Ura replies. “After the auction, we’ll deliver everything we’ll acquire, along with our usual finds, to your... place of residence. Though we don’t know where that is, Zepile seems to know.”

“You’re in charge then, Zepile,” Auren orders.

“Understood, boss,” Zepile says, grinning. “My Master is bored at home anyway, so he has time to help out... he’s just enjoying life with his maids under the shallow guise of... training.”

“Why would you give us access to your accounts... you rich people are so strange... You know? What if we just steal it?” Oron grumbles silently.

Auren does not hesitate and instantly releases his full Aura, his Ren so strong that the ground shakes beneath him, the old stones on the roof cracking as a colossal wave of Aura gets pushed outward from his body.

Zepile, Ura, and Oron instantly go pale, backing up by sheer instinct, their eyes filled with terror, as beads of sweat immediately begin to appear. The pressure is so large that their bodies slowly turn stiff.

That was slightly overkill. It feels great to see some progress, though.

Auren ceases his Ren, giving them room to breathe, which they instantly do, gasping for air.

“The next time you want to punish yourself and want to ask a question like that, just tell me,” Ura says in an icy, cold voice, glaring at her twin brother before smacking the back of his head.

“... I guess it was a slightly unnecessary question,” Oron admits, holding onto his head and rubbing the spot Ura hit. “Don’t take my remarks seriously, boss. I don’t want to die just yet.”

“Your question may not be so dumb after all. I’ll limit the account to only ten or twenty billion Jenny. Anything above will require my confirmation. Forgive my rash... response. I’m rather on edge since I’ll enter a contest soon,” Auren explains.

“What contest?” Oron wonders. “Who will you fight? I’m not sure I’d want to see you destroying your opponent. I’m not into that kind of snuff film.”

“It must be Battle Olympia. It’s always a bloodfest... so a snuff film might be a crude, but also accurate description.” Ura’s face shifts as she thinks, turning calculating, rubbing her chin softly. “If you enter, Auren... that provides us another opportunity. If you allow me to use some resources, I can increase your money tenfold, up to a certain amount.”

“Betting?” Auren asks for confirmation, clearly guessing her scheme.

“Yes,” Ura replies. “Not like there is a risk that you will lose, right? And your reputation seems to be quite inaccurate. You’re merely considered a competent Floor Master, but not even close to a top contender... with your true abilities, at least from what I’ve just seen, I don’t see you losing. Especially with those Regalia you’re still wearing. In fact, if people knew, they wouldn’t even fight you. There are only a couple of people who could hope to threaten you. That gives us a significant edge in all the betting. I’ll immediately place bets and do some research on the opposition.”

“Speaking of my Nen Regalia...” Auren begins to speak. “Any leads on new ones?”

“I am sorry, no,” Ura replies, looking frustrated. “We’ll do our utmost to find you more.”

“That is all I can ask,” Auren replies, slightly disappointed, before continuing. “Since you seem to know what you are talking about, Ura, focus mostly on Battle Olympia. Leave the auction to Zepile and the day-to-day business to Oron.”

Pausing for a second, Auren continues. “However... make sure the betting is not directly tied to me. If you need to, pay a cut to the Ten Dons in charge of that area, but if whoever is in charge gets too demanding, tell me, and I’ll temporarily change their group name to the Nine Dons.”

“Understood,” Ura replies, her face tensing up, while her brother looks outright shocked.

“Under what kind of madman did I decide to work?!” Oron mutters, immediately earning himself another smack on the head by his sister.

Meanwhile, Zepile just listens, appearing dazed, unable to believe what is talked about.

After talking a while longer, they take Auren with them to the city center.

After all that training, I guess I’ve earned myself a break.