《The Reincarnator's Tavern》


 Chapter 1: Character Creation

    Chapter 1: Character Creation


    *Author''s Note*


    I originally wanted to write a Jedi SI Avengers fic, but the problems of the MCU are too easy for a Jedi to handle. So things escted from there over and over. The first chapter can be skippedpletely without much of a problem. It is the guideline for character creation in the story. If you do read it, feel free to get some dice, roll a character using the guidelines, and see if a character like yours appearster. The character building took inspiration from Jump Chain fics but has my own personal interpretation.


    Chapter 1 Character Creation


    The call to adventurees in many forms, and within the small wooden room in the back of a Tavern, ites in the form of a cup filled with multicolored six-sided die, a #2 Pencil, and a pile of freshly printed papers that promised more than most could ever dream.


    The Tavern itself is not a ce that can be found by mortals, and its purveyors would not be ssified as mortals themselves. What makes the back room of the Tavern special is that those who enter the Tavern from the room are never seen entering the room itself from the Tavern. The room is special because those who find themselves in the room simply appear within, sitting by the table without knowledge of how they came to be there.


    When someone appears in the room, they can ignore the papers on the table in the room, get up, and leave through the door into the Tavern. It was possible, but it had never happened before. The papers had a fascinating, otherworldly glow when one didn''t look directly at them, making the stack of sheets naturally grab the upant''s attention and draw them into its contents. There was also the fact that they were always printed in thenguage the reader was most familiar with.


    The Tavern hosts certain borate Games that only the Souls of the dead can participate in. Before a Game started, the Tavern would use this room to select between 20 and 100 yers from among the departed souls of various Earths. Each Game was created with strict rules and guidelines, and not just anyone could y. Compatibility was important, but so were adaptability and familiarity. The Tavern''s Owners prefer a hands-off approach for most of the Gamey and they always choose to grab Souls familiar with the concepts they use to make their Games so the yers would be able to figure out how to start without outside assistance or interference.


    Once a Soul was identified aspatible, it would be screened and analyzed. If all the required criteria are met, that Soul would appear in physical form, seated by the table in the room. It was then that their eyes would inevitably be drawn to the papers on the table and their next great adventure would begin. The presence of freshly printed papers on the table meant that a new game had been conceived and was about to start. Soon a qualified Soul would appear on the chair and begin to read.


    [Wee to the Reincarnator''s Tavern.


    You have recently died, and ording to our analysis of your Soul Profile, you are eligible for one of the 100 avable yer positions for an uing Game sponsored and hosted by the Reincarnator''s Tavern. The Game is called "Six sses of Reincarnation."


    Six sses of Reincarnation is a Game that allows yers to live a new life in a new Universe and possess one, two, or up to three sses, all based on selected fictional literature. yers can train in these sses and use their acquired strength to perform tasks for the Reincarnator''s Tavern that reward the yer with greater opportunities to enjoy their new lives more thoroughly. All tasks are optional and a yer can choose not to train or get stronger and can simply live their new life as they please, though actions performed that are not things a decent human being should do will have consequences and punishments organized by the Tavern.


    If you do not choose to y, you may get up and leave now. If you leave without deciding to y, the bar maidens on the other side of the door will escort you out of the Tavern to your respective afterlife.


    If you do decide to y, you may continue reading and roll the Dice. The Dice Cup contains three sets of three different colors of dice, and after a roll, the dice of the same color will be added up to obtain three numbers. This roll may be done five times to obtain five sets of three numbers. The yer may choose any of these sets, and these numbers will be the yer''s ss Talent Point values. The three ss Talent Point values can be assigned to up to three sses.


    ss Talent Points are used to make a ss easier and more fun to train in. A ss that is assigned with a ss Talent Point value of 3 has as much potential as a ss assigned with a ss Talent Point value of 18, but thetter may reach the peak of its potential faster and with less effort. Differences in talent can be ovee with hard work and imagination, but training a ss with a lower ss Talent Point value is less fun than training a ss with a higher ss Talent Point value. Unless you prefer a harder challenge, it is rmended to assign the highest value of the three ss Talent Point values you roll to your selection of Primary ss.


    Of the three ss Talent Point values obtained during the roll, there is a special rule. If two of the numbers rolled are nine or less, they can bebined, sacrificing one potential ss for a higher ss Talent Point value. Example: If among the five chances to roll you obtained a [16, 10, 11] and a [15, 9, 9], thetter could be used, and instead of having three sses with assigned value points of 15, 9, and 9, you could have two sses with assigned value points of 18 and 15. This is rmended unless there is a specific concept you have in mind that requires three sses to achieve.


    Although you must fully assign all three ss Talent Point values to different sses, you are not required to train in three or even two sses. A yer who trains a single ss for twenty years may be stronger than a yer who ineffectively trains two sses for ten years apiece. Not all ss builds are suitable for Multiss training unless done creatively.


    ss training starts in the world the ss originates from. yers may start the Game in either the Starting World or the world their Primary ss originates from. If the yer wishes to train in multiple sses, it is possible to Transfer from one world to another. yers may only start training in a ss''s power system after going to the world that ss originates from. So if a yer starts in the Starting World, they cannot train in any ss until they have first transferred to the world their Primary ss originates from. For yers who intend on Multi-ssing, you must train your chosen Primary ss first and your chosen Secondary ss next. Before starting the Game, you must choose which ss will be your Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary sses.


    Besides the fact that choosing your Primary and Secondary ss determines the order in which you unlock your sses during gamey, your chosen Primary ss will receive an additional +2 ss Talent Points and your Secondary ss will receive an additional +1 ss Talent Point.


    During Character Creation, ss Talent Points may be used to acquire three things; ss Talent, Items, and Easy Masteries.


    The higher the ss Talent, the faster the ss can be trained. Talents that one can only be born within a ss can also be purchased. Talent does not determine potential, only training speed. Regardless of a yer''s decision to Multiss, every yer must purchase one ss Talent per ss they assign ss Talent Points to.


    Items purchased will exist as Projections indistinguishable from the real thing. An Item''s Projection can be disabled and re-enabled in its original state 24 hourster, so if an item is lost, damaged, stolen, or broken, then disabling and re-enabling the item''s Projection will allow the item''s recovery.


    Easy Mastery is a basic set of instructions on how to use a skill obtainable in the ss''s origin world and grants the ability to train the skill 8x faster than normal. Some Easy Masteries require proficiency in one or more foundational skills before it is possible to start learning them, even if purchased. Some skills that require a level of proficiency in a foundational skill will have different requirements for the level of foundational proficiency. A simple skill with a requirement can be learned once the foundational proficiency has risen to a general level. A highlyplex skill with a requirement may not be learnable until the foundational proficiency is close to the level of mastery. Some skills and techniques only used by a single character in the ss''s origin literature may not be avable for purchase, especially if no Humans have ever used said skills or techniques.


    All ss power systems have been created to match the canon usage as much as possible. The direct trantion of ss power systems is impossible since a majority of power systems are simply Plot Armor for interesting characters, and 100% tranting that into realism is not possible. There may be discrepancies between the canon usage of a ss power system and the realistic interpretation we have created for the power system to be used and trained by yers, but it should be barely noticeable if noticed at all.


    After arge amount of trial and error, we have determined that of the avable sses, many are notpatible with each other. When the game starts, yers will be given a body that ispatible with the ss Talents they have acquired using their ss Talent Points.


    The results of the research into multissing have produced two Body Types avable for yers to choose from. The first Body Type is perfectlypatible with the first three sses. The second Body Type is perfectlypatible with the remaining three sses. yers may only select either the first Body Type or the second. We apologize for the inconvenience, but many volunteers died long, excruciating deaths; wentpletely bat-shit crazy; or outright exploded during our testing ofbining certain sses. We ask that you honor their sacrifice in the name of gaming and notin about why certain things cannot be done.


    All one hundred yers will exist in the same Universe and all worlds share the same timeline. It is possible for yers to Transfer from one world to another and yers who share sses can ess the same ss origin world for training. All yers can transfer to the Starting World as well. Main Events will only take ce in the Starting World, but the first Main Event will not take ce until the yers are over twenty years old.


    The Starting World for Six sses of Reincarnation is: Marvel Cinematic Universe.


    yers will be born in the year 1980 and age at a normal rate regardless of whether or not they spend their time in the MCU.


    Please note that after Character Creation, all Metaknowledge for Marvel and the literature the Six sses originate from will be sealed during the Gamey to prevent yers from all doing the same thing. Upper management is tired of watching every yer try to steal the Infinity Stones, try to send warnings to Stark or Fury, and try to steal opportunities like Captain Marvel''s power acquisition, Hulk''s power acquisition, and Spider-Man''s power acquisition.


    Though sealed, Metaknowledge will grant yers gut feelings about whether or not to perform certain actions, such as trusting certain individuals or performing tasks they innately know will not end well.


    The main purpose of Metaknowledge is to know how to create your Character using ss Talent Points. After Character Creation ends and the Game begins, Metaknowledge will only get in the way. When you start in either your Primary ss''s origin world or the MCU, it will be as if you have never read or heard about Marvel Comics and have never read or watched any of the fictional pieces that the six sses originate from. Keep this in mind during Character Creation.


    The two Body Types avable for yers are the Energy Body Type and the Adaptive Body Type. The Energy Body Type grants ess to the Warrior ss, the Wizard ss, and the Ninja ss. The Adaptive Body Type grants ess to the Hunter ss, the Pirate ss, and the Jedi ss.


    The Warrior ss, also known as Ki Warrior, originates from the Dragon World of the Dragonball series. Through intense physical training, Energy Bodies with Warrior ss Talent can convert their body''s physical energy into Ki. Ki strengthens all physical stats be it strength, speed, or endurance, and can be used for Ki Attacks and special techniques. Warriors are potentially the most powerful physical ss, but the constant requirement of intense training means holding a day job is difficult without being creative.


    The Wizard ss originates from the Wizarding World of the Harry Potter series. Through practice and study, Energy Bodies with Wizard ss Talent can convert mental energy into magic energy. Magic energy can be used to perform spells and strengthen the mind of the Witch or Wizard that trains to use it. Though the ss grants no physical enhancements, Wizards can gain the ability to teleport, turn invisible, and kill with a single spell those with weaker mental energy than themselves which means the Wizard ss is a heavy hitter, though fragile. Wizards require years of training and education to properly use their abilities, but once mastered, they are incredibly versatile both in and out ofbat.


    The Ninja ss originates from the Ninja Continent of the Chakra World of the Naruto series. Energy Bodies with Ninja ss Talent are built with Chakra coils and a Chakrawork that can actively and passively convert abination of physical and mental energy into Chakra to be used or stored in the body. Regardless of the ss Talent chosen, a Ninja''s Chakra capacity can be increased with intense training. The Ninja is a jack-of-all-trades ss, physically weaker than a Warrior and less versatile than a Wizard, but unpredictable with a massive degree of customization avable. Properly channeling chakra through a body while using intense visualization of the body performing an action can increase speed and strength during that action, but not as much as a Warrior''s Ki, and Chakra alone does not increase endurance, (chakra alone doesn''t make you bulletproof). A Ninja''s jutsus are not as quick to use as a Wizard''s spells, though the area of effect can be much higher and they are more suited for the battlefield. The Ninja ss requires both dedication and creativity to make the most of it. Ineffective training will only create cannon fodder, while intensive and intelligent training can create a monster.


    The Hunter ss originates from the Hunter World of the Hunter X Hunter series. Adaptive Bodies with the Hunter ss Talent are built capable of producing Aura and possess Aura Nodes the Aura can be used through. The Hunter power system called Nen is the art of using Aura. Advanced applications of Nen allow a Hunter to express themselves through their Aura in specific, individualized ways called Hatsus. Although there is a limit to the number of Nen expressions, Hatsus, a Hunter can develop at once, the variability and flexibility of potential Hatsus are only limited by the Hunter''s willpower and dedication to training. However, Hatsu training requires knowing the self, which requires arge amount of both life experience and meditation.


    The Pirate ss originates from the Sea Ring World of the One Piece series. Though called the Pirate ss, one can train in it without bing a Pirate. A yer can just as easily be a Bounty Hunter, a Marine, or a Merchant, but the ss is referred to as Pirate for simplicity''s sake. Adaptive Bodies with the Pirate ss Talent are built with flesh, mind, and spirit capable of being enhanced through willpower using a power system called Haki. Willpower is difficult to train without pushing yourself beyond the limit and experiencing near-death situations or holding yourself to the highest standard. Only yers with Pirate ss Talent can eat a Devil Fruit, and yers can use ss Talent Points to acquire one without needing to find it in the Sea Ring World, though stronger Devil Fruits are harder to acquire using this method.


    The Jedi ss originates from the Sky River Gxy Cluster of the Star Wars series. Like the Pirate ss, the Jedi ss does not require the yer to be a Jedi. Those with the Jedi ss can just as easily be bounty hunters, Sith, or whatever else they choose to be, but will be referred to as Jedi for simplicity''s sake. A yer with Jedi ss Talent will possess a Midichlorian count high enough to interact with the Force and train in using it. Though Midichlorians will exist in other worlds, the Midichlorian count outside of the Sky River Gxy Cluster will be artificially suppressed so other beings in other worlds will not be Force-sensitive. A high Midichlorian count grants the yer ess to the Force. Our approximation of the Force is a multiyered collective living consciousness that Jedi can ess, which enhances the mind and grants Jedi psionic abilities. As the Force is a vast collective consciousness, the stronger the connection a Jedi makes with the Force, the more the Force can affect their mind. essing the Force haphazardly will cause a change in personality as the intentions one has when essing the Force will resonate with the minds within and echo back multiple times stronger. Jedi require years of focused meditation to strengthen their connection to the Force or actions that strengthen willpower.


    The three sses from the Energy Body Type are factually stronger and easier to train in than the three sses from the Adaptive Body Type. This is bnced by the fact that different sses from the Adaptive Body Type have simr training styles, allowing yers to effectively train some of them together. It is also a fact that the sses from the Energy Body Type stack their strengths together poorlypared to the sses from the Adaptive Body Type which stack their strengths seamlessly. If you only intend on training for a single ss, it is rmended to choose from the Energy Body Type unless you have a special build in mind.]


    [To start Character Creation, go over the list of what ss Talent Points can be used on, then choose from among the five sets of three numbers you rolled and pick a set of values from them to be your ss Talent Point values. Each of the three numbers can be assigned to one ss unless two of the numbers are nine or less, in which case they can bebined and both be assigned to the same ss. You must also choose which ss is your Primary ss and which is your Secondary to determine not only the order you will unlock your sses, but which sses will get the +2 and +1 ss Talent Points.


    As long as you are strong enough, it is possible to acquire additional Items and Easy Masteriester. There are three general rmendations for building a strong Character. The Instant Master Build is where you pick a single high-level ability or skill and acquire it along with its prerequisites. Learning its foundational requirements quickly will allow you to ess and master the high-level ability or skill quickly. The Foundational Build is where you acquire a few foundation levels of Instant Mastery Proficiencies and use your time while ying to be a Jack-of-All-Trades that can pick something to specialize inter. Thest rmendation is the No Foundation build where you acquire high-level Easy Masteries and then take your time in-game learning and mastering the required foundational skills at standard learning speed to eventually use the high-level Easy Masteries. This is the most difficult build, but in thete game, grants the most strength.


    **Remember: Not all Easy Masteries that require a foundational proficiency require the same level of foundational proficiency**


    Avable sses


    Warrior ss


    [Cost] [Talent]


    [3] [Average Ki Talent (Yajirobe)]


    [6] [High Ki Talent (Yamcha)]


    [12] [Genius Ki Talent (Krillin)]


    [Item Store]


    [Cost] [Item]


    [2] [Bansho Fan]


    [6] [Dragon Radar]


    [2] [Flying Nimbus]


    [3] [Laser Sword]


    [2] [Magic Carpet]


    [1] [Panties]


    [1] [Porno Mags]


    [3] [Power Pole]


    [2] [Weighted Adjustable Training Clothes]


    *Warning: Capsules cannot be stored inside other Capsules.*


    [2] [Capsule #1: Capsule House]


    [1] [Capsule #9: Motorcycle]


    [2] [Capsule #67: Jetbike]


    [2] [Capsule #101 Storage Capsule]


    [1] [Capsule #315 Hoverboard]


    [3] [Capsule #576: Airne]


    [1] [Capsule #2031: Refrigerator]


    [Free] [Great Saiyaman Watch]


    [Easy Mastery]


    [Cost] [Skill]


    [3] [Ki Proficiency (Passive)]


    [1] [Afterimage Technique]


    [2] [Flying Technique (Requires Ki Proficiency)]


    [1] [Kamehameha (Requires Ki Proficiency)]


    [1] [Sr re (Requires Ki Proficiency)]


    [2] [Destructo Disc (Requires Ki Proficiency)]


    [1] [Thundershock Surprise (Requires Ki Proficiency)]


    [3] [Spirit Control Proficiency (Passive) (Requires Ki Proficiency)]


    [3] [Instant Transmission (Requires Spirit Control Proficiency)]


    [3] [Gigantification (Requires Spirit Control Proficiency)]


    Wizard ss


    [Cost] [Talent]


    [3] [Average Wizard Talent (Crabb and Goyle)]


    [6] [High Wizard Talent (Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy)]


    [12] [Prodigy Wizard Talent (Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Tom Riddle Jr.)]


    [Item Store]


    [Cost] [Item]


    [3] [Perfectly Matched Wand]


    [1] [Firebolt Broomstick]


    [1] [Mokeskin Pouch with Undetectable Extension Charm (contents are ejected if disabled)]


    [2] [Newt Scamander''s suitcase. (Animals are not included. Can be remodeled once.


    Contents ejected if disabled)]


    [1] [ywitch Magazine]


    (Teaches Wand Magic Curriculum)


    [1] [Hogwarts Textbooks years 1~2]


    [2] [Hogwarts Textbooks years 3~5]


    [2] [Hogwarts Textbooks years 6~7]


    (Teaches Gesture Magic Curriculum)


    [3] [Uagadou Textbooks (Written in Swahili)]


    [Easy Mastery]


    [Cost] [Skill]


    [1] [lumency (Passive)]


    [2] [Charms Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Transfiguration Proficiency (Passive)]


    [1] [Potions Proficiency (Passive)]


    [1] [Herbology Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Animagus (Nonmagical animal of your choice) (Requires Transfiguration Proficiency)]


    [2] [Metamorphmagus (Requires Transfiguration Proficiency) (Passive)]


    [2] [Apparition (Requires Transfiguration Proficiency)]


    [4] [Killing Curse* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [1] [Summoning Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [1] [Repairing Charm*]


    [1] [Stupefying Charm*]


    [1] [Expelling Charm*]


    [2] [Doubling Charm*]


    [1] [Ergement Charm*]


    [1] [Unlocking Charm*]


    [1] [Water Summoning Charm*]


    [1] [Human Revealing Charm*]


    [2] [Exploding Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [4] [Undetectable Extension Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [2] [Disillusionment Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [2] [Switching Spell* (Requires Transfiguration Proficiency)]


    [2] [Human Transfiguration (Requires Transfiguration Proficiency)]


    [1] [Healing Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [2] [Vanishing Charm*]


    [3] [Mind Viewing Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency and lumency)]


    [2] [Shield Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [1] [Snake Summoning Charm* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [1] [Levitation Charm*]


    [2] [sting Curse* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [4] [Fiendfyre* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    [1] [Body-bind Curse*]


    [2] [Reduction Curse* (Requires Charms Proficiency)]


    **Note: A ''*'' next to the spell denotes a Wand Spell.


    Wand Spells require a Wand to perform until a high level of the spell''s Proficiency is attained.**


    Ninja ss


    [Cost] [Talent]


    [3] [C-Rank Chakra Capacity Potential (Low Chunin to High Chunin)]


    [6] [A-Rank Chakra Capacity Potential (High Jounin to Low Kage)]


    [12] [SS-Rank Chakra Capacity Potential (Peak Kage and Akatsuki)]


    *May only select one Djutsu Bloodline*


    **Outside Ninja World, A Djutsu will not cause eyes to change in appearance**


    [4] [Uchiha- Sharingan. Progresses fully with usage, Mangeky will not cause Blindness]


    [2] [Hyga- Byakugan]


    *Pick as many other Bloodlines as you like*


    [1] [Yuki Bloodline- Ice]


    [3] [Senju Bloodline- Wood]


    [2] [Uzumaki Bloodline- Sealing Attribute Chakra and Chakra Chains]


    [2] [Kaguya Bloodline- Dead Bone Pulse]


    [Item Store]


    [Cost] [Item]


    [3] [n Scrolls. Scrolls with Jutsus from your chosen bloodline(s)]


    [1] [Chakra de]


    [3] [Madara''s Gunbai]


    [2] [7 Swords'' Twinsword]


    [2] [7 Swords'' Thunder Swords]


    [3] [Sword of Kusanagi]


    [3] [Sword of the Thunder God]


    [3] [Might Guy''s Adjustable Weight Set (Can bebined into a weapon)]


    [1] [Icha Icha Paradise]


    [Easy Mastery]


    [Cost] [Skill]


    [3] [Perfect Chakra Control (Passive)]


    [2] [Fire Nature Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Water Nature Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Earth Nature Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Lightning Nature Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Wind Nature Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Seal Proficiency (Passive)]


    [4] [Nature Energy Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Genjutsu Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Taijutsu Proficiency (Passive)]


    [1] [Iryjutsu Proficiency (Requires Perfect Chakra Control) (Passive)]


    [1] [Bukijutsu Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Afterimage Clone]


    [3] [Shadow Clone Jutsu]


    [2] [Gentle Fist (Requires Byakugan and Taijutsu Proficiency)]


    [1] [Strong Fist (Requires Taijutsu Proficiency)]


    [2] [Eight Gates (Requires Strong Fist)][2] [Shadow Clone Shuriken (Requires Bukijutsu Proficiency)]


    [2] [Infinite Darkness (Requires Genjutsu Proficiency)]


    [1] [Interrogation (Requires Genjutsu Proficiency)]


    [2] [Temple of Nirvana (Requires Genjutsu Proficiency)]


    [2] [Enhanced Strength (Requires Perfect Chakra Control)


    [1] [Healing Technique (Requires Iryjutsu Proficiency)


    [3] [Flying Thunder God (Requires Seal Proficiency)]


    [2] [Mud Clone (Requires Earth Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Added-Weight Rock Technique (Requires Earth Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Light-Weight Rock Technique (Requires Earth Nature Proficiency)]


    [1] [Earth-Style Wall (Requires Earth Nature Proficiency)]


    [1] [Stone Fist (Requires Earth Nature Proficiency)]


    [1] [Hiding Mole (Requires Earth Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Dragon Fire Technique (Requires Fire Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Fire Dragon Bullet (Requires Fire Nature Proficiency)]


    [3] [Great Fire Annihtion (Requires Fire Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Great Fireball (Requires Fire Nature Proficiency)]


    [1] [Phoenix Flower (Requires Fire Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Lightning Clone (Requires Lightning Nature Proficiency)]


    [3] [Kirin (Requires Lightning Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [False Darkness (Requires Lightning Nature Proficiency)]


    [3] [Lightning Release Chakra Mode (Requires Lightning Nature and Taijutsu Proficiency)]


    [2] [Water Clone (Requires Water Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Water Prison (Requires Water Nature Proficiency)]


    [3] [Exploding Water Shock Wave (Requires Water Nature Proficiency)]


    [3] [Great Shark Bullet Technique (Requires Water Nature Proficiency)]


    [1] [Hiding in Water (Requires Water Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Water Dragon Bullet (Requires Water Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Great Breakthrough (Requires Wind Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Vacuum Sphere (Requires Wind Nature Proficiency)]


    [2] [Vacuum de (Requires Wind Nature Proficiency and Bukijutsu Proficiency)]


    Hunter ss


    [Cost] [Talent]


    [3] [1 in 1,000 Nen Talent (Gido, Sadaso, and Riehlvelt.)


    [6] [1 in 100,000 Nen Talent (Zushi and Leorio)]


    [12] [1 in 10,000,000 Nen Talent (Gon, Killua, and Kurapika)]


    [1] [Choose your own Nen Category except for Special, but it changes your personality.]


    [2] [Choose your own Nen Category except for Special without changing personality.]


    [3] [Be a Specialist Nen Category User.]


    [Item Store]


    [Cost] [Item]


    [2] [Zoldyck Family Adjustable Training Weight Set]


    [2] [Zoldyck Family Training Manual]


    [2] [GI Card #019 Poltergeist Pillow]


    [1] [GI Card #021 X-Ray Goggles]


    [3] [GI Card #025 Risky Dice]


    [2] [GI Card #051 Miniature Dragon]


    [4] [GI Card #073 Night Jade]


    [3] [GI Card #080 Levitation Stone]


    [4] [GI Card #084 Pdin''s Ne]


    [2] [GI Card #090 Memory Helmet]


    [Easy Mastery]


    [Cost] [Skill]


    [3] [Aura Awakening and Ten Proficiency]


    [1] [Zetsu and In Proficiency (Requires Ten Proficiency)]


    [1] [Ren and Gy Proficiency (Requires Ten Proficiency)]


    [1] [En Proficiency (Requires Ten and Ren Proficiency)]


    [1] [Sh Proficiency (Requires Ten Proficiency)]


    [1] [K Proficiency (Requires Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Gy Proficiency]


    [1] [Ken and Ry Proficiency (Requires K Proficiency)]


    [2] [Enhancer Proficiency (Requires Ren and Sh Proficiency)]


    [2] [Emitter Proficiency (Requires Ren and Sh Proficiency)]


    [2] [Transformation Proficiency (Requires Ren and Sh Proficiency)]


    [2] [Maniption Proficiency (Requires Ren and Sh Proficiency)]


    [2] [Conjuration Proficiency (Requires Ren and Sh Proficiency)]


    Pirate ss


    [Cost] [Talent]


    [3] [Basic Talent for Armament and Observation Haki (Vice Admiral)]


    [6] [Genius Talent for Armament and Observation Haki (Admiral)]


    [12] [Prodigy Talent for Armament, Observation, and Conqueror''s Haki (Emperor)]


    Item Store


    [Cost] [Item]


    [3] [Devil Fruit Trial Pass (DFs of different strengths require different Trials to obtain.


    It''s firste, first serve. Allows one Attempt every three months until a Fruit is acquired.)


    Passing the Fruit''s Trial grants the Fruit''s effect. You don''t have to eat it.]


    [2] [Axe Dial]


    [1] [me Dial]


    [1] [sh Dial]


    [2] [Impact Dial]


    [3] [Reject Dial]


    [1] [Water Dial]


    [2] [Ace (Roger''s Cuss)]


    [3] [Yoru (Mihawk''s Big ck de)]


    [2] [Raiu (Shiryu''s Katana)]


    [2] [Durandal (Cavendish''s Rapier)]


    [2] [Shigure (Tashigi''s Katana)]


    [2] [Nanashaku Jitte (Smoker''s Seastone Jitte)]


    [2] [Seastone Spear]


    [1] [Seastone Cuffs]


    [Easy Mastery]


    [Cost] [Skill]


    [2] [Observation Haki Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Armament Haki Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Detect Strength, Emotion, and Intent (Requires Observation Haki Proficiency)]


    [2] [Brief Future Sight (Requires Observation Haki Proficiency)]


    [1] [Armament Emission (Requires Armament Haki Proficiency)]


    [2] [Armament External Detonation (Requires Armament Emission)]


    [4] [Rokushiki]


    [3] [Hasshoken]


    [3] [Fishman Karate]


    Jedi ss


    [Cost] [Talent]


    [3] [Midichlorian Count of ~9,000 (Average Jedi/Sith)]


    [6] [Midichlorian Count of ~14,000 (Count Dooku/Ahsoka Tano)]


    [12] [Midichlorian Count of ~19,000 (Yoda/Darth Sidious/Naga Sadow/Galen Marek)]


    [1] [Can use Light Side without personality changing]


    [2] [Can use Dark Side without personality changing]


    Item Store


    [Cost] [Item]


    [4] [Lightsaber]


    [2] [Lightsaber Customization Kit (used to change the Lightsaber into other forms)]


    [2] [Vibrosword]


    [2] [ster Pistols]


    [3] [ster Rifles]


    [4] [Sniper Rifles]


    [4] [ster Cannons]


    [3] [Echani Energy Shield]


    [2] [Mandalorian Melee Shield]


    [5] [Mandalorian Jetpack]


    [1] [Jedi Knight Holocron]


    [2] [Jedi Master Holocron]


    [3] [Ancient Jedi Master Holocron]


    [2] [Sith Holocron]


    [3] [Sith Lord Holocron]


    [4] [Je''daii Holocron]


    [4] [Ancient Sith Holocron]


    [4] [Revan''s Holocron]


    [2] [HK47''s Head]


    [Easy Mastery]


    [Cost] [Skill]


    [2] [Control Proficiency (Passive)]


    [2] [Sense Proficiency (Requires Control Proficiency) (Passive)]


    [2] [Alter Proficiency (Requires Sense Proficiency) (Passive)]


    [1] [Healing Proficiency (Requires Control Proficiency) (Passive)]


    [1] [Form I: Shii-Cho (Requires Control Proficiency)]


    [1] [Form II: Makashi (Requires Shii-Cho and Sense Proficiency)]


    [1] [Form III: Soresu (Requires Shii-Cho and Precognition Proficiency)]


    [1] [Form IV: Ataru (Requires Soresu and Force Valor Proficiency)]


    [1] [Form V: Shien/Djem So (Requires Makashi, Soresu, and Enhance Attribute)]


    [1] [Form VI: Niman (Requires Shien/Djem So and Telekinesis Proficiency)]


    [2] [Telekinesis (Requires Alter Proficiency)]


    [1] [Self-Healing (Requires Healing Proficiency)]


    [1] -[Heal Other (Requires Self-Healing and Alter Proficiency)]


    [4] -[Sever Force (Requires Self-Healing and Alter Proficiency)]


    [1] [Force Valor (Requires Control Proficiency)]


    [1] [Enhance Attribute (Requires Control Proficiency)]


    [1] [Force Stealth (Requires Control Proficiency)]


    [2] [Tutaminis (Requires Control Proficiency)]


    [2] -[Electric Judgment (Requires Tutaminis and Alter Proficiency)]


    [2] -[Force Drain (Requires Tutaminis and Alter Proficiency)]


    [2] -[Droid Disable (Requires Tutaminis and Alter Proficiency)]


    [2] [Psychometry (Requires Sense Proficiency)]


    [2] [irvoyance (Requires Sense Proficiency)]


    [1] [Telepathy (Requires Sense Proficiency)]


    [1] -[Comprehend Speech (Requires Telepathy)]


    [3] -[Drain Knowledge (Requires Telepathy and Alter Proficiency)]


    [1] [Precognition (Requires Sense Proficiency)]


    [2] -[Battle Precognition (Requires Precognition)]


    [2] -[Shatterpoint (Requires Precognition)]


    [2] -[Dark Transfer (Requires Shatterpoint, Healing, and Alter Proficiency)]


    [2] [Force Weapon (Requires Alter Proficiency)]


    [2] -[Force Alchemy (Requires Force Weapon)]


    [2] -[Midichlorian Maniption (Requires Healing and Force Alchemy Proficiency)]


    Remember, it is possible to gain additional Easy Masteries and Items, so no need to fret if you cannot get everything you want now. The stronger your Character, the easier it will be to gain additional Easy Masteriester.


    Of course, all yers are more than wee to learn the skills from scratch rather than learn through Easy Mastery.


    *Special Offer*


    During this round of Six sses of Reincarnation, we are offering a Special Bundle for yers who obtain an 18 using a single roll or abination of two rolls of 9. If the 18 is assigned to your Primary ss, granting it an additional +2 ss Talent Points, the yer may forgo using their 20 Points to selectively purchase Talents, Items, and Easy Masteries for that ss and instead purchase our New 20 Talent Bundle!


    The 20 Talent Bundle for each ss includes the Highest level of Talent that the world allows.


    Warrior Talent: Master Roshi


    Wizard Talent: Merlin


    Ninja Talent: Hashirama, Madara, and Naruto


    Hunter Talent: Tserriednich Hui Guo Rou


    Pirate Talent: Joyboy and Luffy


    Jedi Talent: Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker


    The 20 Talent Bundle also includes specific Items and Easy Masteries with a total value greater than 10 Talent Points along with Instant Masteries and special abilities that cannot be purchased with Talent Points or during Gamey.


    What''s the Catch? There are a few of them, but the main one is that the Items and Easy Masteries granted with the Bundle will not be chosen by the yer but by us.


    The final sheet below this page is your Character Creation Page. If you decide to be a yer, then start rolling the Dice, pick up that pencil, and start creating your Character. Once you have apleted Character Sheet or if you decide you do not want to y, you can open the door ande out to meet us. (People who think they can get away with cheating us will be punished.) We''ll help you create a backstory for your Character and determine how your Game will start so that you can get the best training you can as early as possible or just have fun and enjoy your new life.


    We wee you to the Reincarnator''s Tavern and we hope you enjoy your stay and your y.]

 Chapter 2: Rayleigh Rush

    Chapter 2: Rayleigh Rush


    Chapter 2 Rayleigh Rush


    Four-year-old Rayleigh Rush was abruptly awoken from his sleep by the sound of shouting outside his bedroom window. He just had the strangest dream. He was having a dance battle with the Mad Hatter but got served by the Mad Hatter''s futterwacken.


    Oh, and he got hit by a truck, died, ended up in a Tavern, and agreed to reincarnate into some kind of Game. Certainly, an odd dream.


    The room the four-year-old found himself in upon awakening was bare of the essential amenities usually found in a small child''s living quarters. Other than the presence of a small, stained mattress on the floor, one would never think that this was the room of a child at all. Half the room was filled with junk belonging to the boy''s father, clearly marking the room''s purpose as closer to that of a storage closet than a child''s bedroom.


    The sole window in the apartment was in this room, and it did not open. It was also airtight and bulletproof. Considering the noisy side-walk and traffic at the other end, the window''s presence was not a great benefit to the room. The apartment''s second,rger bedroom, was on the opposite end of the property, as far from the window as it could be.


    When Rayleigh moved the window blinds to see the source of the disturbance that had awoken him, he was both surprised and not surprised.


    Outside his window were two humans in security uniforms shouting abrasively at three aliens. The aliens had four legs and two chunky arms and looked kind of like centaur-humanoid-scorpions, minus the tail.


    The surprise came from the fact that he was looking at aliens. Theck of surprise came from his existing knowledge that those aliens were the local species of this and that they weremon enough to see around. Rayleigh felt both surprised and not because his two sets of memories were conflicting with one another and it was starting to give him a headache.


    [You have been invited to Orientation. Select Enter to enter the Tavern.


    Enter | Not Now]


    Rayleigh took a moment to look over the pop-up in front of him but didn''t question it. He mentally selected Enter and his field of vision whited out.


    When his senses returned, there were several changes. The first and most noticeable thing was that he was sitting at a booth table in arge, cozy, warmly lit Tavern. The second change was that he was no longer in the form of a four-year-old but had a figure closer to histe teens or early twenties, making him a young adult. He was wearing brown robes, and there was a mirror on the wall at the end of the booth.


    Rayleigh took a look at his reflection and mentally sighed. This wasn''t the face of his past life, but an older version of his current form as Rayleigh Rush. He was handsome, with a slender face and a sharp chin, but he had brown eyes and brown hair. Why couldn''t he have been a blonde or a redhead? This was reincarnation, right? Why couldn''t his hair be multicolored with highlights like certain card-paying anime characters? He was far from ugly, but he didn''t stand out in any way either.


    His observations were interrupted by the thump of something being set on the table. He turned and saw a beautiful brte woman with wild hair and green eyes setting down arge ss mug of beer. She wore a server''s uniform with a frilly apron and skirt and assessed him for a moment before she pushed the perspiring ss towards him with a smile. "This will help with the headache, Red will be over in a few moments to give you the Orientation."


    Without waiting for Rayleigh to formte a response, the bar maiden left, though Rayleigh couldn''t guess why. The Tavern was veryrge, with over a dozen booths on the walls and manyrge, round, wooden tables with chairs evenly spaced everywhere. There was easily enough room for a hundred people to sitfortably, but Rayleigh didn''t see a single soul in any of the other seats. Even the barstools and the long bar table at the side were void of upants.


    On the other side of the Tavern was a set of stairs that led to an upper deck that overlooked the lower Tavern. Theyout of the Tavern actually reminded him of the Guild Hall of Fairy Tail. Rayleigh couldn''t see what was up there, but he did see a lumberjack slowly descending the stairs. Rayleigh wasn''t sure if he was actually a lumberjack, but the man had a massive frame with bulging arms and a thick red beard. He wore a beanie, a red and ck checkered id shirt, jeans, overalls, and thick ck boots. If there was a textbook definition of a lumberjack, this man''s picture would be next to it, minus the ax.


    The red-bearded man approached the booth and stopped before taking a seat, meeting Rayleigh''s gaze. He pointed at the beer and said, "Drink up while it''s cold. It''ll help."


    Rayleigh figured the man was talking about the headache. The barmaiden did im it would help, butst he checked, beer didn''t make headaches go away, it made you too wasted to notice. That being said, this mighty lumberjack wasn''t someone Rayleigh felt he could win an argument against ande out in one piece, so he lifted the ss and easily downed a third. It was the best beer he''d ever had.


    The neer nodded and took a seat opposite his own in the booth. "Due to some circumstances, you''re the only yer who didn''t syncpletely, so we invited you first for Orientation to help the synchronization go through."


    It was then that Rayleigh noticed the headache was fading and his scattered, jumbled head seemed to be rearranging itself into proper order. Now, he remembered a few things. He looked up from the ss and said, "Hello again." This red-bearded man was the one he had spoken with before his reincarnation. The one who helped him decide his backstory. Just about everything that was Rayleigh''s life was decided during that time. He''d made it that way on purpose to ensure he had no attachments before being taken by the Jedi.


    At the beginning of his setup for the Game, one of his five rolls was a fantastic set of [18, 15, 12.]. He assigned the 18 to his Primary ss of Jedi and the 15 to his Secondary ss of Hunter. He even took the 20 Talent Bundle for his Jedi ss and remembered meeting Red, who gave him six cards to choose from. Not all yers got to choose details of their backstory; it depended on what Skills and Talents you picked, and that determined how flexible the Tavern could be. The 20 Talent Bundle included an Instant Mastery, but which one he chose would heavily determine his backstory, so he had to choose wisely.


    [Trained by the Masters of Coruscant; Instant Mastery: Battle Precognition.]


    [Trained by the Archeologists of Tython; Instant Mastery: Psychometry.]


    [Trained by a Wandering Jedi; Instant Mastery: Tutaminis.]


    [Trained by a Wandering Sith; Instant Mastery: Midichlorian Maniption.]


    [Trained by a Veteran Bounty Hunter; Instant Mastery: Drain Knowledge.]


    [Not Trained, born into a Wealthy family; Instant Mastery: Precognition.]


    An Instant Mastery was a high-level skill he''d be able to use right away at the level of high mastery, even without obtaining the prerequisite proficiencies the skill initially required to learn. He had chosen [Trained by the Archeologists of Tython; Instant Mastery: Psychometry.]


    The reason was that Psychometry was a broken skill. In the 7th Star Wars movie, the MC obtained Luke Skywalker''s skill with a lightsaber just by holding it. The mechanism behind this was Psychometry. Drain Knowledge only allowed someone to steal what a person knew. Psychometry allowed someone to obtain someone''s actual skill and wasn''t a Dark Side technique either. Since he''d lose all his Metaknowledge during Gamey, this was an extremely useful cheat to have right from the start. All the disadvantages that came from not training on Coruscant could be negated through the clever use of Psychometry.


    That, and Tython was way more fun than Coruscant.


    As for everything else he obtained, he didn''t know. Red had told him that it would be decided by how many other yers chose the 20 Talent Force Bundle.


    Red nodded back to Rayleigh''s acknowledgment and stated, "The main reason for your headache was because of something we weren''t expecting. Of all the yers who got a 20 Talent Bundle, you''re the only one who got one for the Jedi ss. Everyone else with a 20 Talent Bundle selected a different ss."


    Rayleigh asked, "How many got the Bundle? And why did that give me a headache?" In fact, his headache wasn''tpletely gone, so he downed another few gulps of the healing amber nectar.


    "Can''t tell you how many. In fact, with the exception of those who got the bundle, everyone else won''t even recall the existence of the bundle even at the Tavern. It''s up to you if you want to tell anyone. As for why you got a headache, this is what we ended up including in your Bundle."


    Red then snapped, and a pop-up appeared in front of him.


    [Rayleigh''s 20 Talent Jedi Bundle.


    -Jedi Talent: Midichlorian Count of 39,000


    -Bnce of the Force


    Instant Mastery (Can be used without Prerequisites.)


    -Psychometry


    Easy Mastery


    -Control


    -Sense (Locked)


    -Alter (Locked)


    -Shatterpoint (Locked)


    -Dark Transfer (Locked)


    Items


    -Lightsaber


    -Lightsaber Customization Kit


    -Mandalorian Melee Shield


    -HK47''s Head]


    Rayleigh did a spit take at the massive list, but the beer vanished before reaching Red, and the ss was refilled. Not bothering to question either, he instead asked, "Isn''t that a lot more than 10 points of stuff?"


    Red nodded solemnly, but a bit of a smile was poorly hidden behind the beard. "The Bundle includes the Super Talent and a Special Ability, and the restes from a pre-allocated list of free stuff. The free stuff is supposed to be evenly distributed among everyone who chooses the 20 Talent Bundle. Usually, there are at least two, three, or even four per ss. There certainly were for the other sses. This is a first. Since you were the only recipient in the Jedi ss, you won the Jackpot and got all the freebies. We also threw the head in since no one else wanted it."


    Rayleigh quickly began to feel excited, but the moment he looked over the list again, he deted. "Why isn''t immunity to personality changes there, and what is Bnce of the Force?"


    Red chuckled. "Noticed that right away, huh? Well, I guess there''s not too much harm in telling you. All the 20 Talent Bundles include weaknesses to prevent them from bing unbeatable. Those weaknesses are hidden in their exclusive Special Abilities. The Jedi Special Ability is derived from being the Chosen of the Force. The Ability, Bnce of the Force, increases your Force abilities the closer you are to perfectly bnced in the Force. However, if you veer too far from being bnced, your Force abilities may weaken. We estimate Anakin and Luke Skywalker had this. That is why Vader became weaker after falling, not because of his missing limbs. Since you are stronger if bnced, we can''t just give you an ability that automatically bnces you; you have to do it on your own."


    Rayleigh downed another bit of his ss, but the refreshing brew couldn''t hold back his frown. "With that much power and without anything to stop me, aren''t you worried I''ll be some kind of mad superviin?"


    Red chuckled again but didn''t answer.


    Rayleigh''s eyes widened. He voiced his suspicion, "Is that what you want to happen?" What made him most suspicious was Dark Transfer. That was considered a Dark Side skill and abusing it or even just using it incorrectly could easily unbnce him. Why include such a skill in a list to freely give to those who will already be overpowered?


    Red answered this time, "Well, it makes things interesting, don''t you think? If some of you 20 Talent yers be Viins, the other yers will be forced to team up and some strengths are only shown when ying in Co-Op. What''s wrong with having a dozen or so surprise bosses show up here and there? Besides, we''re not making anyone do anything. If you go down a path of evil, it''s your choice. No one''s gonna force you. Hehe, get it? Force?"


    Ray gave him his ttest stare and asked, "Is it okay to tell me this?"


    "Sure. Your metaknowledge isn''t sealed in the Tavern, but you''re certainly not going to recall this information when you return. You can tell others in the Tavern if you want, but most will figure it out on their own, and telling them reveals you are one of the 20 Talent yers. Anyways, finish your ss and we''ll begin your Orientation."


    Rayleigh nodded and emptied his mug.


    Red started, "First, the basics. That''s the stuff I have to at least say once aloud. Although plenty of yers will do evil things, there is a limit to what you can do. If you do somethingpletely evil to someone who doesn''t deserve it, we''ll know. If you''re about to do something that goes beyond a certain line, you''ll get a pop-up warning. If you do it anyway, you''ll get sanctioned and get a bounty. You won''t be able to return to the Tavern and other yers will be able to get a reward for killing you."


    "If you die, all your ss progression goes to zero. For example, the Jedi train by strengthening their connection to the Force. If you were to train for a decade as a Jedi and die or get killed, your connection to the Force will be reset and you''d have to train to reform the connection from scratch. The same goes for your progression in all ss skills and abilities, so try not to die pointlessly. As for how dying anding back works, you''ll find outter unless you die from something stupid early on. If you do an unreasonable number of evil things before dying, you won''t be allowed to revive either."


    "Once a day, you can enter the Tavern for two hours. There are two ways to enter the Tavern. If you enter while in an enclosed space or under observation, you will only enter mentally. Your body stays where it is and goes into autopilot, just doing things you''d normally do. If something dangerous happens to your body while it''s on autopilot, you''ll automatically return to it, even if you haven''t spent a full two hours in the Tavern. You''ll always have the memories of your time on autopilot upon returning. During each visit to the Tavern, you can get one beer for free. Once you''re strong enough after having trained your ss for a while, you can go upstairs and start doing Tavern Missions that award Mission Points. Among other things, Mission Points can be used to buy more food and drink from the Tavern."


    "If you are not in an enclosed space, you can enter the Tavern physically. Doing so makes you vanish from where you entered, though you can''t enter if observed or restrained in any way. Some things avable in the Tavern can only be done if you physically enter. World Travel, for example. Also, if you enter physically and then order some food, you can eat with your real body. All Tavern food is delicious, nutritious, and filling, no matter what you order."


    "ss skills and abilities cannot be used in the Tavern, though there is an Arena you can use to fight certain figures, and it can even be used to fight yers that agree to a match. Fighting inside the Tavern outside the Arena can get you penalties and fines. Any questions so far?"


    "Yeah, when can I start doing missions?"


    "Well, you have a Lightsaber and an Instant Mastery which doubtlessly gives you some advantages. If you reach the point where you''re pretty sure you can hunt a pack of a half dozen hungry wolves on your own, that''d be good enough for the First Mission. Don''t overestimate yourself though. Doing the First Mission too early has something of a penalty if you''re too weak. Other questions rted to Missions and Mission Points can wait until you''re strong enough to take them."


    Rayleigh had more questions about that but decided to hold them for now. Next, he asked, "When can I go to the Hunter World to unlock my next ss?"


    "Technically, whenever you want, but I''d hold off for a while. Your first Identity for your Primary ss World and the MCU World are both free, but creating an Identity for your Secondary ss is not. If you go there without spending any points, you''d have to start in Meteor City since you wouldn''t have an ID or backstory. You''ll just appear there with your Metaknowledge sealed, clueless about what to do next. You should wait until you have enough Mission Points to buy a good ID before going to another world. The more Points you use, the better the ID. For example, with enough points, you could start with a bank ount that has a hundred billion Zenny and have Two-Star Hunter as a private Tutor."


    That got Rayleigh''s attention. Greed Ind was purchased for 3 billion Zenny, so that kind of start-up was very tempting.


    Next, Rayleigh asked, "What about timelines? When am I in the Star Wars Canon and when would I enter the Hunter Canon?"


    "All yers are the same age as the Main Character for each World, give or take a few months. Those characters are Goku, Harry Potter, Naruto, Gon, Luffy, and Anakin."


    "Wait, so all the Wizard ss yers will be in Harry Potter''s Year?"


    "They can be, but they won''t. We''ve changed the Canon for each world to amodate the yers. The U.S. in the Wizarding World will include two more Schools. One for Voodoo and Hoodoo in the South, and one for Shamans in the West. Though those are just specialties. General Wand spells are about the same in most schools. yers who choose Wizard as their Primary ss can attend Ilvermorny or those two or any other existing Magic School like the one in Japan or Africa, so there won''t be a massive jump in students for Harry''s year. Those U.S. Schools will even have their own U.S. Triwizard Tournament, so the Wizard yers in the U.S. will have plenty of fun and a lot less danger. Another change we made is that Branch Hygas won''t get the Caged Bird Seal and Uchihas of Sasuke''s age and younger won''t be killed by Itachi, so the yers who chose the Uchiha bloodline won''t get killed off at the age of 8."


    He continued, "Since you chose Tython, we made some changes there as well. We also made a change so that the first time you get your Midichlorians checked, an error will ur so that the Jedi Council won''t know you''re a Force-Born, though if you bring attention to it or get tested again, things will go sideways quickly."


    Red then looked over at a wall before turning back and stating, "Alright, you get onest question."


    "What? Why?"


    Red smiled, "Is that gonna be yourst question?"


    Rayleigh quickly shook his head and, after another moment, asked, "When will I meet a Jedi?"


    "That would be today. Hmm. Most of what you''ve learned is Metaknowledge, so it will be sealed when you return, but I''ll let you keep that one. I got more Orientations to do, so time to go. Oh, and don''t forget to open the Chat Room."


    Before Rayleigh could ask what the Chat Room was, the space whited out again and he lost all his senses. It took a moment for him to get them back, and he found himself in bed again, back in his four-year-old body under the covers.


    Ray no longer had a headache, but his head was still strange. All his knowledge from his past life and his memories from the Tavern had been separated from his current four-year-old life''s memories. Inside his head, there was now a separate room with a ss wall and a door. All his knowledge, minus the Metaknowledge from the sses, of his previous life and the unsealed knowledge from the Tavern was in that room.


    If Ray looked through the ss wall, it was like having some ess to knowledge from his past life. If it didn''t look through the wall, then he didn''t have ess to the knowledge and wasn''t too different from a normal four-year-old mentally. If he entered the room, he had all the knowledge and experience of his past life with one exception. He could not recall his name from his previous life.


    Ray didn''t want to get caught acting like a fake kid, so he would avoid looking through the wall when adults were around. For now, there were some things he had to deduce.


    Much of his conversation with Red was filled with static, except for hisst few sentences, informing Ray that he''d meet a Jedi today. Even with his Metaknowledge sealed, little Ray still had an idea of what a Jedi was. Most kids in the Republic grew up raised on stories of the Jedi, so Ray''s knowledge of them amounted to benevolent Knights with Laser Swords.


    Ray also remembered what Red said about a Chat Room. He wondered for a moment what it was before he noticed that in the corner of his vision there was a blinking icon, a set of three horizontal lines in a circle. The Universal sign for Menu.


    Ray concentrated on it for a moment, and a see-through window appeared in front of him.


    [Rayleigh Rush


    Roll: 18, 15, 12. Age 4


    Primary ss: Jedi]


    [Open Chat Rooms]


    [Open Item Inventory]


    [Open ss Talents and Masteries]


    [Open Point Store (Locked)]


    [Go to Tavern (Locked/Used Today)]


    Before opening the Chat Room, he opened the Inventory and Talent and Masteries sections.


    [Inventory


    -Lightsaber


    -Lightsaber Customization Kit


    -Mandalorian Melee Shield


    -HK47''s Head


    -Zoldyck Family Adjustable Training Weight Set]


    [ss Talents and Masteries


    Talents


    -Jedi Talent: Midichlorian Count of 39,000


    -Bnce of the Force (Power Amplified when in Bnce with the Force)


    -Hunter Talent: 1 in 10,000,000 Nen Talent (Locked)


    -Pirate Haki Talent: Prodigy (Locked)


    Instant Mastery (Can be used without Prerequisites)


    -Psychometry


    Easy Mastery


    -Control


    -Sense (Locked)


    -Alter (Locked)


    -Shatterpoint (Locked)


    -Dark Transfer (Locked)


    -Enhancer Proficiency (Locked)]


    The long list of items surprised and pleased the four-year-old child. It was like Christmas and his Birthday at the same time, with double chocte cake!


    He clicked on a few of them, which caused a new page and a description to appear.


    [Lightsaber Customization Kit: The tools needed to change a Lightsaber into a Double-ded Lightsaber, a Lightsaber ster, a Lightsaber Whip, or any other configuration that exists. If you have a Lightsaber in your Inventory, customizations done using this Kit will not be reverted if the Lightsaber''s projection is disabled and re-enabled.]


    [HK-47''s Head: The head of the notorious Assassin Droid HK-47, a Hunter-Killer model droid built and programmed by the Sith Lord, Darth Revan. Contains knowledge about the Jedi, the Sith, how to effectively kill them, and just about everything else. The Droid''s memories will not be reset if the projection is disabled and re-enabled.]


    [Control: The ability to control the Force within your own body. Trained through meditation and self-discipline.]


    [Sense: The ability to sense and interpret the Force outside the body. Requires greater Control Proficiency to Unlock.]


    [Dark Transfer: The ability to inject the Force into perceived weak spots. Can be used to destroy or heal. Requires greater Shatterpoint, Healing, and Alter Proficiency to Unlock.]


    From what Ray could tell, a Jedi seemed to be a kind of psychic, and since he had aser sword, it could be something of a martial psychic. This pleased him.


    In his past life, the ss he liked the most was Dungeon&Dragons 3.5e''s Psionic Striker ss. The Jedi seemed to have more than a few simrities with one, and in his past life, he meditated a lot, which he figured should help with the training. Though he didn''t meditate because he was spiritual or needed bnce, he meditated because frequent meditation made you healthier and that was cheaper than going to the doctor for a checkup. He was very, very cheap in his previous life.


    From what he had avable now, he could take out a lightsaber and use that, or use Psychometry. He immediately decided against the first. A Laser sword was not a toy. Psychometry, though, was worth testing. Ray got off his bed and touched one of the pieces of junk stored in his room. When he used psychometry, he received a memory of the item going through his father''s hands, but that was it. The item had no other memory of being in the hands of another being. That wasn''t too surprising. Even with his Metaknowledge sealed, Ray''s past life knew what psychometry was from other sources. It granted ess to the memories of interactions with living people. Most of the junk stored in his room was made by robots, so he couldn''t see much except for his father taking it from somewhere and putting it in this room.


    That said, there was another thing in his room he could test his Psychometry on. Ray moved his bed, and beneath it was a hidden safe. His father threw Ray out of the room and closed the door anytime he opened it, and never failed to remind him what he''d do if Ray ever touched it.


    So Ray touched it. From the safe''s memories, he could see many times his father entered an eleven-digit passcode into the safe. The passcode used every number from zero to nine, so the fact that every number was a bit worn from use wouldn''t give any useful hints to someone trying to guess the code.


    If someone entered the wrong code, the rm would sound, and it was quite loud. Ray''s father got it wrong once or twice by ident, so Ray knew how loud it was. Still, Rayleigh entered the correct eleven-digit pin and the safe opened sessfully. Inside was a pile of cards called "cred chips" worth a fortune and some data drives that probably had a lot of valuable, dangerous information within.


    What followed next showed very clearly how much love and care Rayleigh had for his father. Ray got his backpack and emptied the safe''s contents into it before closing the safe. Yep, he was robbing his father blind.


    Rayleigh Rush''s father was not his biological father. The man met and married Ray''s mother a year ago, and six monthster, she died of sickness. His name is Dilton Maray, and he''s the Head of Security for the local spaceport. He''s also scum and hid his true nature from Ray''s mother right up until she died.


    The main reason Maray didn''t throw Rayleigh onto the street then was that he got his boss to give him a raise when he exined that his wife died and he needed more money to raise her child as his own. Such a heartwarming story actually worked, but Ray''s standard of living certainly didn''t improve from the man''s additional ie.


    The they are on is called Monasta, and the mountain that the port city was built on contained metals and minerals that were heavily resistant to corrosion. These were the''s exports, and both were mined by the''s local species, the Scorpions. At least that was what humansbeled their species in Gctic Basic. The entire miningpany was owned mostly by humans and other races, while the Scorpions were all second-ss citizens or lower.


    Humans didn''t like this or the locals for a couple of reasons. The often rained acid, and only the Scorpions could handle it without a problem. The Scorpions were, by the standards of most races, ugly and scary-looking. And they also had a smell that many imed to be unpleasant.


    Because of these issues and many others, most humans were incredibly racist here, and Dilton Maray could easily be considered one of the best examples.


    Maray was corrupt, cruel, and callous to just about anyone and everyone. The reason that Rayleigh, a four-year-old, knew so much about the was not that Maray had been diligently teaching him, but because he used all these points to threaten and scare him.


    Maray would often im that once Rayleigh had turned twelve, he''d force Rayleigh to work in the mines with the ''bugs''. ''Bugs'' is the racist ng for the Scorpions, as ifbeling them scorpions in the first ce wasn''t insulting enough. Some humans did work in the mine, but it was dangerous and depressing work, so it was done only by those without other options.


    Ray was under the impression that once Maray no longer benefited from keeping him, he''d either toss him out or kill him directly. Neither option would surprise him.


    So yes, Ray was going to take everything Maray valued and throw it away. By the time the racist scumbag figured out how screwed he was, Rayleigh would be on another and Maray would likely be killed. He knew this because when he used Psychometry on the contents of the safe, he knew that it did not belong to Maray. It was just held by him for some unsavory types, and they would not be pleased when they discovered Maray lost it.


    Once his petty revenge was taken care of, he would forget his father and never think of him again. That was for the best.


    For now, he had something to check out, so he tapped on another Icon in the Menu.


    [Open Chat Room]


    [Username: Swordsman]

 Chapter 3: The Players Chat Room

    Chapter 3: The yer''s Chat Room


    Chapter 3 The yer''s Chat Room


    [Username: Swordsman]


    Rayleigh didn''t remember setting that as his username, but he was fine with it overall. He was aser sword using ss and he already had a few ideas for his build based on Samurai Jack, Ichigo Kurosaki, and Rurouni Kenshin. Although it gave him the option to change his Username, he''d likely use a Sword in the future, so it was as good a Username as any and he could always change itter.


    [Select a Chat Room.


    General: 19 Users


    MCU: 2 Users


    Warrior: 4 Users


    Wizard: 8 Users


    Ninja: 7 Users


    Hunter: 3 Users


    Pirate: 5 Users


    Jedi: 4 Users]


    With that, at least, Rayleigh knew the names of the other sses. He wondered how so many people had already had their Orientation, but then realized that it must''ve been a few hours already. While on Autopilot, he had likely gone back to sleep, so when he got up just now, it was after sleeping for a while.


    He could only choose the Chat for the World he was in or General Chat, so he selected the General Chat.


    [Swordsman has signed in.]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: Ah, hopefully, we don''t have another Lurker. Hurry up and say something.]


    [Wonder_Woman: No one was asking for your opinion.]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: Pot, meet Kettle.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Yes, keep arguing. Entertain me. Where can I find some popcorn?]


    [Ninja_Lord: Paul''s got a point. More than half the yers are silent Lurkers.]


    [Demon_Hunter has signed in.]


    [Demon_Hunter: Hi guys. Where are you at? I''m in the Hunter World, but the Hunter Chat is dead.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Do you know anything about the Hunter ss? Do you use a Bow or something?]


    [Demon_Hunter: Doubt it. My Parents here are both Hunters but they won''t tell me anything. The city I live in is very modern though, so it''s not like I''m in a forest or something.]


    Rayleigh read the dialogue boxes as they appeared and rolled upwards like an online Chat Room. He could not see the dialogue of the room before he entered it, but he could just leave the Chat Room dialogue box open in his field of vision.


    [Ninja_Lord: I''m in the Ninja World''s Leaf Vige. Any other Ninjas out there?]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: Would a proper Ninja admit to being a Ninja?]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Ninja spotted!]


    [Wonder_Woman: I bet his name is not even Paul.]


    [Bone_Wizard: I''m also in the Leaf Vige, though I''m in the orphanage.]


    [Ninja_Lord: I''m an Uchiha. Any other Uchihas out there?]


    [Alchemist: Oh? More Uchihas? I''m an Uchiha.]


    [Doctor: Any other Hyga yers in the Leaf?]


    Ray decided to participate. There was a shing dialogue box, and if he concentrated while thinking aloud, the box would fill out. Then he could edit the message or send it into the Chat Room.


    [Swordsman: How''s the technology of that vige?]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: Why do you ask? You in the stone age or something, Mr. Swordsman?]


    [Swordsman: Not really. I''m on an alien.]


    [Wonder_Woman: You''re in space?]


    [Lord_of_Madness: We''re all in space. Duh.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Seen any Space ships yet?]


    [Swordsman: A few in my new memories. Nothing cool though like from Star Trek.]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: If we gave you our coordinates, could you pick us up in a spaceship?]


    [Swordsman: Why? Do you need a lift? Are you on a stone age or something Mr. Paul?]


    [Wonder_Woman: Hahahaha!]


    [Lord_of_Madness: You''re gonna need a Burn Heal for that one.]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher has signed in.]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: Hahaha! After ten thousand years, I''m free! It''s time to conquer the Earth! Bow before me and tremble puny mortals!]


    [Swordsman: ...]


    [Wonder_Woman: ...]


    [Ninja_Lord: ...]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Kill it with Fire! It has Eighth Grader Syndrome! Kill it before itys eggs and spreads!]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: Fools! Nothing can stop the Dark Lord Skullcrusher! All who oppose me will have their broken skulls added to my collection!]


    [Wonder_Woman: The Cringe! It hurts!]


    [Bone_Wizard: Make it stop!]


    Rayleigh had to cover his mouth to stop hisughter from waking his father in the other room. These guys were great.


    [Miracle: So are any of you on Earth?]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: Are you?]


    [Miracle: Yep. I''m in Britain, and it''s 1984. Does anyone know anything about stock trading?]


    [Book_worm: Are you in the MCU World?]


    [Miracle: No, I''m in the Wizard World.]


    [Bone_Wizard: The Wizard World is in Britain? I need to go there! This orphanage sucks!]


    [Swordsman: I heard during Orientation if you moved to another world without spending Mission Points, it would be terrible. So get stronger, do missions, and get points first.]


    Although Rayleigh didn''t remember the Metaknowledge parts of his conversation with Red, the fact that he needed Mission Points to get a good transfer stuck with him.


    [Ninja_Lord: I heard something simr. We''re both in the Leaf, so I''ll see if I can help. The Uchihas are the strongest n in the Leaf Vige.]


    [Swordsman: I''m still on an alien. You guys are lucky to be in the same vige.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Don''t worry, Swordsman. I''m sure you''ll encounter a creepy old alien who will smile at you before he kidnaps you and takes you away from your family any day now.]


    [Swordsman: haha. I was already told a Jedi would show up today.]


    [Ninja_Lord: What kind of ss is Jedi?]


    [Lord_of_Madness: It is a mental ss where you drive your opponents crazy and then steal their souls. Right, swordsman?]


    [Swordsman: sure. what he said.]


    Rayleigh couldn''t help but shake his head. Beneath the bridge that is social media, there are always trolls.


    [Hercules has signed in.]


    [Hercules: So is the Warrior World the only one with dinosaurs?]


    [Demon_Hunter: I haven''t seen any yet, but I wouldn''t be surprised if the Hunter World has them too.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Any Pirates out there?]


    [Immortal_Beauty: Trying to learn our secrets ninja boy?]


    [Wonder_Woman: Well, he is a ninja.]


    From what Rayleigh could tell, the yers were trying to figure out the details of other worlds through the Chat Room but weren''t learning anything super useful. The Chat Room itself, though, was a crazy thing to give a hundred yers. The ss Chat Rooms could only be essed by yers in that World, so if Rayleigh went to the Jedi Chat Room, he wasmunicating with yers across the stars. And for that Ninja vige, this was a massive help as well. Ninjas were all about espionage, right? Being able tomunicate with each other even if captured was too powerful of an ability.


    [Ninja_Lord: No point in hiding your ss. In the Tavern you wear whatever is the default uniform of your Primary ss.]


    [Book_worm: Not if you started in the MCU.]


    [Demon_Hunter: I wasn''t wearing anything special either.]


    Rayleigh then recalled that he was wearing robes at the Tavern. He wondered if that was what Jedi wore and figured that the Ninja probably wore some kind of distinct Ninja uniform in the Tavern.


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: What is the MCU anyways? Is it a normal Earth?]


    [Book_worm: Notpletely. Seemsic book-y.]


    [Wonder_Woman: OH! Like DC?!]


    [Book_worm: Not DC, but something else. Probably DC''s rival or something. It doesn''t make sense that I can only remember one major brand ofics. So maybe this is something as big as DC, but different. Can''t remember.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Oh damn. That''s big. MCU = Major Comic Universe?]


    [Lord_of_Madness: That sounds like SO. MUCH. FUN!]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: A New World to Conquer! All shall bow before me!]


    [Wonder_Woman: What makes the MCU seem like aic book?]


    [Book_worm: The shield-wielding American superhero called "Captain America" and the red-faced Nazi superviin called "Red Skull" in the history textbooks were a dead giveaway.]


    Time passed quickly with more yers joining the General Chat and making noise. Some other Jedi said the Jedi in the General Chat should go to the Jedi Chat for private discussions, but Rayleigh ignored them. Though his Metaknowledge was sealed, he had a vague impression that it would not be wise to closely converse with the other Jedi, at least for now. You could only keep one Chat Room open at a time, and he preferred the General Chat.


    Plenty of yers tried to goad others into revealing their chosen Talents, Easy Masteries, and Items, but not a single yer was dumb enough to reveal any of those at the moment.


    Even without revealing too much, plenty of information was still given and obtained. Though mentally adults, each yer was still biologically a small child, and a child''s brain chemistry would drive them to seek connections with others. The Chat Room gave them all a quick and simple way to connect to others with whom they could share their problems and possibly obtain help in the future. Even knowing that they might be giving away information that could be used against them in the future, most yers would eventually do so anyway, because to their four-year-old brains, making friends now was more important than protecting themselves decades in the future.


    Morning came, and Ray''s father woke up. Ray moved the see-through screen of the General Chat to the side of his field of vision, and within his mind, he stopped essing his past life''s memories. Doing so made his conscious mind ignore the existence of the Chat Room Box in the corner of his vision.


    Ray was already dressed and left his room to grab a breakfast bar. Though unloved, at least he wasn''t malnourished or physically harmed. Maray used Ray to make himself seem like a family man when picking up women and looking legitimate, so it would not work to have the child look anything but healthy. On an alien where the non-native species were the minority, most races were more serious aboutmitment, and Rayleigh was Maray''s evidence of howmitted he could be. To Maray, how something looked on the outside was what mattered the most.


    As Ray finished his breakfast bar, he saw his father meander almost drunkenly into the living room in his half-awakened state. Maray''s gut extended sloppily from his pants, and his upper body had more hair than the top of his head. Though barely conscious, Maray''s seedy eyes darted back and forth every time he entered a room, and he''d re at anyone who dared to make eye contact rather than lower their heads in his presence.


    "Boy. Move everything from the purple rack into a box. It''s time to take it to the office."


    Though Ray could have heard him if the man whispered, Maray didn''t feel his presence was strong enough unless he spoke as loudly as he could any time he could get away with it. To him, the louder he could shout at you, the greater the difference in status between you and him. It wasn''t an exaggeration to say the walls shuddered when he ordered Ray around.


    Ray didn''t argue or talk back. He just returned to his room and slid out a box and started carefully emptying the contents of the purple shelf of garbage into the box. Once it was full, he carefully lifted it and returned to the couch. To prevent Maray from giving him more orders, Ray just kept the heavy load on hisp and seemed to patiently wait until Maray was ready to leave.


    Seeing all of this, Maray didn''t even nod to acknowledge it. It was natural for his words to be divinew in his home. Anything less and there would be hell to pay.


    Ray hid his backpack under the box, gripping it by the strap with his fingers hidden beneath the box instead of wearing it on his back. He didn''t quite remember why, but he needed to get rid of it so he couldn''t be seen having it when they left and then not having itter. That would raise questions. After a few minutes, Maray was dressed in his imposing security attire that expertly hid his gut while prominently showing off the ster at his side.


    Ray was already standing next to the door, so when Maray opened it, Ray walked out first to the garage where Maray kept his speeder. Even though this was a where it asionally rained acid, the speeder didn''t have a top, and Maray thought it a status symbol that he didn''t fear the''s weather. As long as he didn''t actually drive it when it rained, there wasn''t much of a difference to him.


    Ray got in the back and held the box of junk like it was more valuable than his life. Maray got in the driver''s seat and started the speeder before pulling out of the garage and into the sky. The speeder craft was basically a flying car.


    The city was built around the spaceport, which was some distance from the mines. Most buildings were not excessively tall since every inch had to be ted in corrosion-resistant minerals or metals. Even then, there were still numerous towering structures used as status symbols by the wealthy, and due to theck of tall buildings around them, those few structures stood out as monoliths no matter where you were in the city.


    The Spaceport had a massive dome parking structure that closed when it rained, along with independent parking units with their own retractable roofs. There were some corrosion-resistant spaceships used when it rained for days on end, but most ships that came and went were not as durable. The high value of the metals and minerals excavated from this was the main reason the city was even built in such a hostile world. There were two other ports built on other parts of the and used for storage. Even if it rained for a while at the main port, it was unlikely to be raining at all the ports, so when it rained for too long, the arriving ships would be redirected to the other ports so iing cargo could be delivered without holding up the arriving ships.


    Maray was not taking Rayleigh to school. Thepany he worked for had a free daycare for the children of upper-level employees. Since Maray was using Ray''s existence to justify a raise, he had to do as other parents did and drop him off at thepany daycare every workday.


    As usual, upon arrival at theyered parking structure, Maray looked around for those weaker than himself, and one employee who had just arrived identally met his gaze before realizing who it was. Ray saw the man visibly gulp as Maray decided to park his speeder right next to the unlucky human.


    "Hey, Cornwall." Maray got out of his speeder and said loudly enough for the entire parking lot to hear, "How''s life among the bugs?"


    The man didn''t dare meet Mray''s eyes again, so he answered meekly with his head down, "It''s fine, Sir. Just fine."


    Maray audibly sniffed the air before wafting his hand against his nose. "You should shower more, you stinky little prick. Hanging around those bugs all day has you smelling just like them."


    The man tried to get out of his own speeder and get as far from Maray as possible. He didn''t even remember to lock his door.


    Maray followed him, and Ray used the chance to quietly open the poor man''s speeder door and toss his backpack filled with stolen valuables inside before closing it. He originally intended to just drop it and kick it under a nearby vehicle, but this was so much better.


    Rayleigh doubted he''d need any of the stolen goods after he was found by a Jedi and greatly doubted a Jedi would approve of him possessing such goods, so this was as good a ce as any to toss them. Ray then grabbed Maray''s box of junk and followed his father quietly to the employee entrance.


    Maray kept on the poor man''s heels and said, "You''ll remember to shower more, right? Wouldn''t want to confuse you for one of those disgusting insects and shoot you by ident, right?"


    Maray loudly tapped on the ster at his side to remind the man that he could shoot him whenever he wanted to.


    Not having a better option, the man fought to not grit his teeth and nodded, "Yes, Sir, I''ll shower as often as I can."


    Maray smiled cruelly and said, "See that you do," before heading inside and down a few halls.


    Once they neared the daycare''s receptionist, Maray took the box of junk so that the beautiful young blue-skinned Twi''lek woman wouldn''t directly see him as a scumbag so he could pretend not to be one. The fact that her desk had security cameras in the hallway and she''d already seen Rayleigh carrying the box didn''t matter to him.


    "Hello there, Rayleigh." As always, she greeted him first with a smile before begrudgingly acknowledging Maray''s presence. Ray didn''t know how she could get away with showing the Head of Security such disrespect but didn''t think too much about it. Everyone had their own secrets.


    Maray set the box of junk down and said, with a smile, "Good morning, Ledana." She''d seen him do numerous terrible acts, but he always tried to act charming in front of her, as if he thought she was blind to everything he was.


    The Twi''lek narrowed her eyes and gave a thin smile before passing over a sign-in sheet he could use to sign-in Rayleigh to her care. The moment he took it, she motioned for Ray to head on inside.


    Not wanting to be around Maray for another moment, Ray ran over to the y area filled with children. Most were human, some were other races, but there were no young Scorpions, or as his father called them, ''stinking grubs.'' The upper management had no intention of allowing their offspring to mix with the lower lifeforms. Generational racism was normal here, and if Rayleigh had been Maray''s biological son, he would have made sure Ray properly inherited this mindset as well.


    Despite it being the thing to do, Ray wasn''t going to y with any of the kids. Most were raised to be as bad as their parents, and none could provide a conversation worth having. Instead, he went over to a bookshelf and made it look like he was reading while he instead went back to paying attention to the Chat Room.


    [Miracle: I need TV. Does anyone in the Wizard World''s Britain have a TV?]


    [Ninja_Lord: Shouldn''t you be asking that in the Wizard Chat?]


    [Immortal_Beauty: Be happy with what you got magical girl. I''m on a wooden ship in the ocean without any skin-care products, make-up, or shampoo!]


    [Alchemist: Are you some age besides four? Why are youining about any of that now?]


    [Bone_Wizard: If I transfer to the Wizard World, does anyone have a ce I can crash? Preferably with a TV.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Actually, I found some TVs. There are evenptopputers in Ninja World.]


    [Miracle: WTF? You said earlier there were no cars or vehicles! You said that the merchants used horse-drawn Wagons! How do you also have Laptop Computers?!]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Lazy writing.]


    [Book_worm: Agreed. It is 1984 in the MCU World. It''s the same year as the Wizard World. I think technology here is advancing faster than normal, but we still won''t haveptopputers for a while.]


    [Demon_Hunter: The Hunter World has cars, cities, cellphones, the inte, and monsters. So far, it is pretty awesome.]


    [Alchemist: So Ninja World, Jedi World, and Hunter World are more advanced than the two worlds with Earth''s approximation.]


    [Hercules: Should probably count Warrior World in that as well. We got dinosaurs, but we also have flying cars and a lot of fancy technologies you wouldn''t believe if I told you.]


    Rayleigh decided to add his two cents.


    [Swordsman: Who has inte? The I''m on does not have anything like the inte as far as I can tell.]


    [Ninja_Lord: That''s true. I don''t think there is any inte. The only ce I sawputers was in the hospital while visiting an injured ninja with my uncle. High-end tech might be regted here.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: All work and no inte makes Jack a Crazy Boy.]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: hehe. During Orientation, I asked why they gave us a Chat Room. That skinny bastard said it was because our generation was addicted to Social Media and giving us our fix was cheaper than using their resources to heal our souls of the damage inte dependence has caused us.]


    [Swordsman: Skinny? I got my Orientation from a lumberjack named Red.]


    [Wonder_Woman: I too, spoke with this red-bearded lumberjack.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Mine was with a woman.]


    [Demon_Hunter: I got the skinny guy too. He wore a really expensive-looking suit.]


    [Bone_Wizard: I guess they all work for the Tavern.]


    [Ninja_Lord: So any theories on what the Tavern is?]


    From there, the discussion devolved into random theories and convoluted plots. Several lurkers jumped out with glee to add their two cents to the snowballing conspiracy theory on the origin and purpose of the Tavern. Plenty with shallow religious views made up all sorts of absurd ims, but they were just trying to rile up the more nave yers.


    Over the next few hours, Rayleigh and other yers exchanged tidbits of personal info to learn more about the worlds everyone lived in. The Warriors lived either in futuristic cities or in rural farnds. They had easy ess to many temples and martial arts dojos due to their various backstories. Their world had two main features which stood out more than anything else. The first was a technology called Capsules. It is basically an egg-sized pill with a button. Press and toss and the capsule turned into something much bigger. Capsules included vehicles, furniture, and even entire houses.


    The second feature of the Warrior World was the presence of Furries. There were multiple races that were basically four or five-foot-tall bipedal animals walking around, speaking the samenguage as everyone else while wearing human clothes. The presence of the furries brought the wrong kind of attention to the Chat Room for some time when it was revealed.


    The Wizard World was simr to Earth in 1984. Some yers were in the U.K. Some were in the U.S. or other countries. All of them had wizards for parents, either one or both, and they learned stuff from them that they shared over the Chat. The Wizardspletely hid from the rest of the world, and some Wizard houses didn''t even have electricity. What was interesting was that most Wizards didn''t learn magic until they were at least 11. Many of the Ninjas decided to move to the Wizard World right before they turned 11. That way, they would train as a Ninja for the next six years, move, and then train as a Wizard. Wizard education takes seven years.


    The Ninja World was a single continent. None of the adults had any ideas about the presence of other continents, though they knew that they did exist. Ninjas were constantly at war, so things that made their countries easier to invade, like paved roads, were not asmon as they should have been. There was plenty of tech, but most of the rules around the vige were made to keep secrets, so tech that could transmit data and record data mainly seemed restricted. For example, TV and News Studios have cameras to record programs, but good luck finding a personal video camera for sale in any store. Only high-ranking ninjas were authorized to own small, handheld personal cameras. If one was found on someonecking authorization, they were probably a spy.


    The Hunter World was confusing, ording to the yers who found a map. The Hunter World map actually had all the same continents as Earth, but they were all moved and rearranged differently on the Hunter World map. What was unusual was that yers from different continents were all in the same time zone no matter where they were. So either the Hunter world was t, or it was somehow very, very, veryrge. Larger even than the Gourmet World of Toriko, since the Human Continents there still take up 30% of the, which would include more than a single Time Zone. The cities of the Hunter World were very advanced, with all the amenities you''d want from a modern city. The Hunter yers all imed they had no idea what the Hunter Power System was, but many didn''t believe them.


    The Pirate World was, by far, the least advanced. It seemed to be around the tech level of the Industrial Revolution, and ording to one of the yers, all long-distance transmissions were done via Snail, even TV. Everyone thought that yer was trolling them until a few other yers confirmed it. The only modem convenience the world had was a newspaper delivered by sea birds. Though primitive, the world has some of the strangest stories. No one knew what the Pirate Power System was yet, but plenty of Pirates knew about famous individuals with strange powers. yers thought these powers might havee from the Power System, but every power for every individual waspletely different and had the yers who were trying to work it out scratching their heads.


    And of course, the Jedi World was the most massive of them all since it epassed a major Gxy and several surrounding dwarf Gxies. Most of the Jedi yers found themselves starting in Coruscant, a massive-sized city. They were raised in daycare after being taken from their parents when they were even younger and had been told their Jedi training would begin soon.


    One advantage the Jedi had over the other yers was ess to early training. None of the Hunters, Warriors, Pirates, or Wizards were offered early training. And the Ninjas who asked were only offered physical and weapons training. None were offered training in the Ninja''s Power System as of yet. Or so they imed.


    The Hunter Parents of Hunter yers refused to teach them the Hunter''s Power System until they obtained something called a Hunter''s License. Apparently, the likelihood of death when getting one was very high.


    The Warrior yers started with either Martial Artist parents or were raised at a Martial Arts temple. No one there would teach them anything advanced until they fully mastered the basics and elevated their foundation. That would take years and years, of course.


    Some of the Pirate yers had strong parents who were either Pirates or Marines. When they asked about superpowers, the parents who knew told them they were too weak for the training.


    And Wizards were told they could not start practicing magic without a wand, which they would not get until they were eleven.


    Rayleigh figured that a number of those yers who imed they couldn''t train were lying. Rayleigh got a lightsaber, so the Wizards may have already gotten a wand. That meant they could start practicing on their own.


    While he continued to browse through the various interactions of the crazy and crafty yers, Rayleigh felt something odd. On instinct, Rayleigh stopped interacting with the memories of his past life and returned to a normal~ish four-year-old and even started reading the book in earnest.


    One benefit given to yers was that every aspect of reading and writing in themonnguage was freely gifted to everyone when they entered a World. Thenguage they spoke in the Ninja Vige was certainly different from Gctic Basic, but everyone in every world perfectly knew the localmon dialect as if they were born to it.


    A few momentster, a male alien Ray had never seen before entered the daycare from the hall. He wore loose brown robes and honestly looked like a devil, but his curved horns pointed down and forward rather than up, and he had tanned skin. There were thousands of alien species, and a four-year-old certainly could not be expected to remember them all.


    Rayleigh felt the man''s presence and didn''t pretend to ignore it. He looked up from the book and met the alien''s interested gaze for a few moments. The man then gave a kind smile and left. A few secondster, he brought back the Twi''lek receptionist and pointed out Ray. They spoke in hushed words for a few moments before the Twi''lek left and the robe-wearing alien walked over.


    In the deeper parts of his mind, Ray knew what wasing and put back the book. It was time to get off this. It was time to join the Jedi.

 Chapter 4: The Jedi of Tython

    Chapter 4: The Jedi of Tython


    Chapter 4 The Jedi of Tython


    "Hello there, I am Master Dasee Viz. What is your name, little one?"


    If Rayleigh still had a connection to his memories of his past life, he''d shrink back at the old man getting into his personal space and asking for his name. Thankfully, he severed the connection, so although the old man could read Rayleigh like a book, he didn''t notice that many pages were missing.


    Ray answered in a small but careful voice, "I''m Rayleigh. Rayleigh Rush. Are you a friend of Ms. Ledana?"


    All the kids liked the beautiful Twi''lek caregiver, and since Ray saw him speaking with her, he didn''t treat him as a stranger.


    The Iktotchi Jedi nodded, "Yes, she is very nice. But she is worried about you. Why don''t you y with the other children?"


    Ray looked down a little in shame. It was embarrassing for four-year-olds to have someone confront them about their problems. He wasn''t sure if he should tell him, but the man seemed nice.


    "I don''t like ying with their toys. I see things when I do."


    This got the alien''s attention. "Oh? What kind of things?"


    Seeing that the man might be able to help, Ray answered, "Well, when I y with those toys, I see other kids ying with them, even when they''re not. It''s better with books. No one ys with the books, so I don''t see them when I read."


    He wasn''t lying either. Because he''d chosen a backstory with Psychometry as an Instant Mastery, his character had a backstory of identally using it without understanding what it was before the Game started. Also, all memories of his time in the Tavern were stored in the room in his head, so once he cut the connection, he lost the knowledge that a Jedi wasing to pick him up today. This was intentional, of course. A psychic Jedi might have been able to tell if Rayleigh expected him, something that would have generated some awkward questions. All yers could instinctively shift into and out of their character mode, removing or restoring past life memories and wisdom at will. This was a feature of Gamey that yers could use to hide from prying, supernatural eyes while young and defenseless.


    Without ess to his past life''s memories, Ray felt genuinely worried that the man would think he was weird after learning his secret. What little Ray did not expect was that, instead, the man looked even more amazed.


    "That is an incredible gift, little one. I only know of two or three people in the whole Gxy who hold such a gift. Amazing, simply amazing."


    The alien seemed to think of something and then reached into his robe''s pocket and took out a handkerchief. He carefully unwrapped the item it was covering and revealed a palm-sized rusted disc with dull markings long worn out by the sands of time.


    The alien asked politely, "You don''t have to if you don''t want to, but could you use your gift on this and tell me what you see?"


    Ray got a feeling that if he did not do so, something he wanted would be lost. Though he didn''t know it, that was his sealed Metaknowledge telling him that he would not go to Tython unless he yed along. Although yers could not consciously ess their Metaknowledge, it would still help them subconsciously make certain decisions, even when not essing the knowledge and wisdom of their past lives.


    Ray picked up the heavy metal disc and concentrated. Without essing the room in his mind, he didn''t know who the man in front of him was, but he knew to trust his instincts.


    From the rusted token, he saw some alien discovering it in a beautiful forest and handing it off to the alien in front of him. The image became much fuzzier, but he then saw it lost in some battle by someone. And then he saw it gifted to a younger version of that same person after doing something. He then saw the ones who gave it, watching the person perform some fancy movements. Andst, he saw someone picking it up from a smoking y mold.


    Ray tried his best to describe what he was seeing. He didn''t see the excited look on the man''s face because he had to close his eyes to get a better feel for the images.


    Once he opened them and ced the disc back on the handkerchief, the alien stood up and said, "Ha! I knew it wasn''t a form of currency! So it''s an ancient mark of passage?" He seemed to be talking to himself, but then he turned back to Ray and asked, "What did the Temple he was given the mark in look like? Was it hot or cold? High or low?"


    "Umm. I saw ice. It looked cold."


    The man nodded with a smile. "Yes, Stav Kesh. The Temple of Martial Arts. Fantastic." He turned back to Ray and said, "What you saw was something that happened more than 30,000 years ago! You are incredible!"


    The man''s excitement was almost contagious, causing Rayleigh to smile. That was until momentster, when the daycare echoed with the annoyed voice of someone standing just outside the hallway entrance. "What trouble has that brat gotten into now?"


    The Jedi''s eyes narrowed subtly. He looked over at Ray and noticed him shrinking back a bit. The Iktotchi''s gaze sharpened further. He stood up straight and took a step between the door and Rayleigh.


    Dilton Maray stomped into the children''s area with his hand over the side of his ster. When he saw the robe-wearing alien staring him down, he stopped. When he saw the alien move his robe a little to the side to reveal a certain silver cylinder at his waist, Maray frozepletely.


    Still, a creature like Maray was quick to adapt. He lowered his posture before the person in the mightier position and raised his arms to show he was not a threat. "Master Jedi? What business do you have here?" As the Head of Security for a Spaceport, this was not the first time he''d seen a Jedi.


    The Jedi asked in a cold, emotionless tone, "Why has this child not been tested for the Force? I could feel his presence from thending port."


    Maray''s eyebrows shot up in shock for a moment before pulling back down into a frown. "That has nothing to do with me. He was already three when I married his mother. She didn''t tell me shit and she''s dead. I''m not taking the fall for anything illegal that fucking bitch did before I even met her."


    "Am I to understand that this child is not your son?"


    "As if he could be rted to me."


    "What of the father?"


    "I already told you she never told me shit! That fucker''s probably dead in a ditch somewhere or on the other side of the Gxy."


    "Then do you have anything against me taking him to the Temple?"


    "Is that all you want? Take him. I only got stuck with him because there was no one else to feed him."


    The Jedi stared him down for a few moments before letting out a faint sigh and waving him off to go. He didn''t want to spare another word for such an individual, and the man had not broken anyws he knew of, so there was nothing he could do.


    Looking at the more fortunate side, at least taking the child would not be a problem. Most children are taken after being tested between the ages of one and three. Some are taken aste as four, but it is rare, especially for human children who quickly grow attached to their parents. However, lingering attachment was thest thing on his mind in this situation.


    Once Maray departed, the Jedi asked Rayleigh, "You don''t have to live with him anymore. Is there anything at your home you wish to take with you?"


    Technically, younglings were not allowed to take anything that reminded them of their pasts, but the Iktotchi would let Rayleigh work his way up to that first rather than directly say he couldn''t take anything with him.


    Ray shook his head. Other than his backpack, which he threw into that other guy''s speeder for some reason, he didn''t own anything. And he certainly didn''t care about the backpack.


    The Jedi nodded with a kind smile and said, "Very good. That makes things easier." There were asional issues with bringing in children over a certain age, but he didn''t see any signs this child would have any of those problems


    Ms. Ledana came in after Maray had left. She asked, "Master Jedi, is Ray going to be trained?"


    The Iktotchi answered, "That''s right. He has the gift of the Force and more. You don''t have to worry about him."


    The Twi''lek eximed, "That''s great, Ray!" She then gave something of an envious look that Ray didn''t understand, but Jedi did. Being chosen by the Jedi didn''t just mean gaining a new life; it also meant leaving your old one. Even the visiting Jedi knew this particr was just terrible and the opportunity to leave was something to be treasured. This would be Rayleigh''sst day in this world, but the Twi''lek would likely remain on this until her dying day.


    However, it was not the way of the Jedi to dwell upon that which they could neither affect nor change, so the Jedi bid farewell to the young woman and took Rayleigh outside the daycare and down the hall.


    A beeping sound came from the Jedi''s robes a few moments after they left. Master Viz pulled out amunicator and said into it, "Yes Master Drista?"


    From the other end came another man''s voice, [Master Viz, the weather reports have been updated. If we don''t get off this in the next hour, we''re not going to get off today. Master Dyanameez will not let you off if we arete again because of you.]


    The Jedi answered back, "We''re on our way back now."


    Themunicator responded, [We?]


    "Yes, we." With that, he hung up themunicator and motioned for Ray to hurry a bit and follow him a bit faster.


    Though the city had roads for vehicles, most of the urban transportation was done using underground tunnels and trains, which could be used even if it was raining. It only took a few minutes to get from the Main Security Office to the train.


    The train was, of course, filled with Scorpions. Although Rayleigh''s father hated them, Rayleigh was sympathetic towards them as they had to deal with people like his father, so he had no dislike or revulsion toward them.


    The Iktotchi Jedi had been to this in the past and knew about the heavy racism, so he had in fact paid attention to Rayleigh during their trek to see if he had inherited any of his step-father''s habits. He had to check since humans were often racist, but he sensed that Rayleigh had no negative feelings toward them at all.


    It would have been different if Ray still had a connection to his past life''s memories. It wasn''t possible for a human raised on an entirely human to immediately feelfortable around aliens, but when not essing his past life, he was just little Ray, who had grown up around aliens since he was born.


    They got off the train at the port, and from the train tform, they made their way to one of the individual hangars with their own retractable roof. Due to the iing weather, dozens of aliens were running around trying to finish their duties before the green clouds rolled in. It may not even rainter, but no ship wanted to fly through those corrosive clouds, so they wanted to get off the before the sky was full of them.


    Upon entering the hangar, Ray saw the ship. It was orange and about the size of two buses adjacent to each other. Standing at the loading bay door in the back was a male, green-skinned Twi''lek. He wore the same robes as Viz and stared in judgmental silence as the Iktotchi smiled back shamelessly and led Rayleigh up the ramp into the ship.


    A reluctant sigh was heard from him as Ray boarded and the Twi''lek hit a button on the ship''s back wall, which caused some red lights to sh and the loading bay door next to the button to slowly close up.


    The Twi''lek then made his way past Ray to the front of the ship''s cockpit. The Iktotchi Jedi motioned for Rayleigh to follow and pointed out a seat behind the captain''s chair, which Ray hopped into. The Jedi then buckled Ray up before taking his own seat in the copilot''s chair.


    Without a word, the pair flipped a dozen switches, which caused the ship to hum and rumble as the engines came to life. The hangar''s roof was still retracted so they could lift into the air right away.


    The Twi''lek then picked up amunicator on the dashboard and said into it, "This is the Sun''s Venture, requesting clearance to the Southgate Hyper Lane."


    Momentster, the answered back, "Clearance approved. Your window forunch is in 6 minutes, and 23 seconds. Safe travels Master Jedi."


    With that, the ship lifted quickly into the air and flew out into the sky. The''s star system was on a single hyperspacene, so when traveling through it, you were either going in one direction or the other. If different ships were heading to different destinations, it was not safe to enter a hyperne together, so the ships had to line up and wait their turn.


    As they left the atmosphere and reached higher than the acidic clouds could ever remain, the Twi''lek asked aloud, "Shall I address the pink Krayt Dragon on the ship, or did you wish to do so?"


    The Iktotchi answered, "It was the will of the Force."


    Without sounding the least bit sarcastic, the Twi''lek replied, "Ah yes, the will of the Force. That certainly makes it okay to ignore protocol, a thousand years ofw, and the rules of the Council."


    "He can use Psychometry."


    There was a pause, but only for a moment. "Is that your excuse? You and I both know such a skill won''t be of any help."


    "If that is the case, how could he describe the Temple of Stav Kesh when I let him touch the medallion Master Scoffmo found?"


    "What? That''s impossible. We dated that disc to 32,000 years ago."


    "And yet he could describe the man who it was gifted to, the scenes of the battle he died in, and the scenes of the practices he showed a group of Masters at the Temple of Martial Arts for which he was gifted it. It really is a Mark of Passage. Perhaps the Je''daii of each Temple would give a Mark when the Padawan''s training wasplete."


    "Then why have we not found other such marks?"


    "We have not found them yet, you mean. Or perhaps the practice was discontinued."


    "Hmm. Wait, you are trying to distract me. Why did you simply not contact Coruscant and have them send a Seeker toe to take the child as protocol dictates?"


    "He''s already four and we''re close to the outer rim. If I simply reported it, they may not assign a Seeker toe for a few months or even a year. By then, they may even have justified that it was simply toote and ignored him."


    "Then how do you intend to send him to Coruscant?"


    "I mean, well."


    "Master Dyanameez is going to kill you. Do you intend for him to stay at the base camp? Tython is not a ce for younglings."


    "It was once."


    "That was over thirty thousand years ago. I''m sure you are aware that there are one or two differences since that era that make the less than friendly towards padawans, younglings, and even fully-fledged Jedi Knights."


    "Give him a chance. If it ispletely unsuitable, I''ll take him to Coruscant myself."


    The dashboard began beeping, signaling it was their turn to make the jump into hyperspace.


    From his seat, Rayleigh saw the stars stretched out in front of the ship turn to lines as the ship lurched forward and entered hyperspace.


    The pair of Jedi then unbuckled themselves, and the Twi''lek bent down to match Ray''s gaze before giving a kind smile. "I am Jedi Master Room Drista. What did my colleague tell you before bringing you here?"


    Ray hesitated for a moment before answering, "That I don''t have to stay with Maray anymore."


    Drista gave Viz a questioning stare, but the Iktotchi responded with a grave frown, giving the Twi''lek Jedi more insight into the unspoken reasons his friend and colleague did not follow protocol.


    Master Drista once more gave Rayleigh an assessing look. Despite having just been taken from his home, family, and, the Jedi sensed no fear in the child. There was none of the emptiness, loss, or doubtmonly found in those taken away from their attachments. Most Jedi were highly empathetic and hanging around emotionally lost children was often ufortable, but he felt just fine around Rayleigh.


    Besides, he wouldn''t deny that he too felt this was the will of the Force. He would not admit it, of course, lest his friend end up making more unwise decisions in the future, but at least this one felt right. It was a fact that this was very far from Coruscant, on the opposite side of the Gctic Core, in fact. The only reason they came here was that some of the parts they needed to fix their surveying equipment had been delivered there for them to pick up. No one made deliveries directly to Tython, and for good reason. It was just a coincidence that it was the most cost-effective to pick them up on that.


    "All right, let''s test his blood first."


    They unbuckled Ray and took him over to a small med station where Master Drista opened a cab and rummaged around for a moment before taking out a small device that looked a little like a woman''s electric shaver.


    He said, "Your finger, please. You''ll feel a tiny prick."


    Ray bravely gave the man the finger. Neither of the Jedi questioned why he chose to give them the middle one. Rayleigh didn''t know either. It was a subconscious choice.


    Ray didn''t make a sound when it took his blood, to the approval of the two Jedi. Drista typed on the med station, but the disy kept flickering off and on.


    Viz asked, "Didn''t you fix that already?"


    Drista stopped and turned to give Master Viz a hard stare. He slowly enunciated, "I was going to. Then. Someone. Insisted. That I repair the excavator first. Because. He was. Certain. That the new site would uncover more relics. Remember?"


    The Iktotchi Jedi recoiled back a bit and replied, "Ah, yes. Apologies."


    A few momentster, Drista was tapping on the disy again and a number appeared. "Hmm. It''s over nine thousand."


    Viz asked, "Just nine thousand? Considering his abilities, that''s a bit low." Those with innate gifts usually had a higher count than that.


    Drista shrugged, "I''ll send the scans to Coruscant so they can prepare for him."


    Viz interrupted, "Or, we could delete the scans. Then, if we decide to send him to Coruscant, we can perform a fresh test at that time. Otherwise, they''d notice the timestamp on the test."


    Drista visibly rolled his eyes but still proceeded to delete the records of thest test and destroy the sample. He''d fix the disy after getting some rest once theynded.


    Neither was aware that the disy of Rayleigh''s midichlorian count was missing its first digit. It had always shown either everything or nothing before that, so it wasn''t something they thought to look for. A midichlorian count of 9,000 was already not bad. Those with lower counts often joined the service corps rather than be knights. 9,000 was the unspoken cut-off, the minimum required to be an aplished Jedi Knight. There were exceptions, of course, but this was the general rule.


    Viz and Drista then spent a half hour speaking with and learning about Ray. It was not surprising that after learning about his life, Drista no longerined about following the protocol when it came to taking Rayleigh from the. It wasn''t a kidnapping, it was a dyed delivery.


    Drista stated, "I can get a copy of the Temple''s Education Droid data sent from Coruscant and upload it into a protocol droid. If he stays, that will take care of his youngling studies."


    Viz smiled and nodded back, "As long as Master Dyanameez talks with him for five minutes, she''ll forgive me and let him stay."


    The Twi''lek replied, "Probably, but Master Meed will never allow any of us to take him as an Apprentice. At least not before he finishes his Initiate Trials."


    There was a difference between shirking the rules, bending the rules, and outright breaking them. Not delivering an Initiate to Coruscant was one thing, but taking him in as a padawan behind the Council''s back was something else entirely.


    The Iktotchi Jedi responded, "I''ve already thought of this. I won''t be his Master, just his teacher. I am under the Council of First Knowledge. I am qualified to teach younglings."


    Drista rolled his eyes before replying, "The only reason you have not been removed from under the Council of First Knowledge is that you practically exiled yourself to Tython, so they don''t think you can do any more damage from here." He then nced at Ray for a moment before continuing stoically, "They obviously underestimated you."


    Master Viz chuckled back. He turned back to Ray and asked, "Have you heard the story of Jedi Master Tabolin?"


    Ray shook his little head, and Master Viz smiled. He happened to love telling this story. It was quite long and would help pass the time until they reached Tython.


    With that, two hours passed by.


    "When he awoke, Jedi Master Tabolin found himself in a high tower. They had taken his lightsaber and stripped him of hismunicator and shoes. Now, Taborlin needed to escape, but when he looked around, he saw that his cell had no door. No windows. All around him was nothing but smooth, hard stone. High above him were a set of bars and the locked hatch he had been dropped down from. The only thing he saw when he looked up through those bars was dark clouds and the promise of heavy rain toe and drown him out. It was a cell no man had ever escaped from or survived.


    "But, Jedi Master Tabolin knew the ways of the Force and was a master of Shatterpoint. He raised his hand to the stone wall and pushed at its weakest point, and the stone wall broke! But even then, Jedi Master Tabolin was not free. A nce down revealed that the tower was many times higher than any Jedi could ever survive falling from. However, Jedi Master Tabolin trusted the Force and felt an opportunity in it. Trusting his feelings and without hesitation, he stepped out into the open air..."


    The ship''s counsel started beeping, and Master Drista interrupted the story''s climax with, "We have arrived."


    Rayleigh, who had beenpletely engrossed in the best story he''d ever heard, stared pitifully at Master Viz, his eyes begging him to continue and not leave him on such a terrible cliffhanger.


    Master Drista stated from the pilot''s seat, "Buckle up, we''re exiting hyperspace and are about to enter the''s gravitation field."


    The reminder was more for Ray, so he would not argue with the ruling. He hopped back into his chair and buckled back in while leaning sideways to look around Master Viz''s chair so he could see out the ship''s front window. You can''t see a out the front window when leaving, so he didn''t see anything when they left Monasta, but now they were arriving and he did not want to miss it.


    The lines of stars passing by came to a halt, and a magnificent stretched out before their eyes. Rayleigh couldn''t look away, it was the most beautiful thing he''d ever seen. The''s massive continents were emerald green and the''s oceans were sapphire blue. The contrast between the two brought out the vivid colors of both and granted the an indescribable beauty.


    "Look over there, little one. Those are As and Bogan."


    Ray was brought out of his stupor by Master Viz''s voice, and he was able to turn to the side to see two more celestial bodies, two moons, of about the same size. The closer one was ivory white and smooth but had a captivating iridescent shimmer. The other one was blood red but contained countless shadows from what seemed to be mountains, valleys, and ravines all over its surface.


    They both had a unique charm to them, especially when seen together, as they could not have contrasted more if they tried. However, neither was as fascinating as the, so Ray only gave them a cursory nce before returning his gaze to the beautiful gem in front of him.


    The ship''s counsel started blinking, and Master Drista picked up themunicator, "This is Drista and Viz, returning with parts and supplies."


    From themunicator came what sounded a bit like an elderly woman''s voice. [I felt that something happened while you were away and would keep you from being on time once again. I am pleased to be mistaken in this.]


    The Twi''lek Jedi gave a sideways nce to his Iktotchi copilot and replied, "Master Dyanameez, I have never heard you so happy to be wrong before."


    Nothing came from themunicator for a few moments before she replied, [If I was wrong in thinking I would have a headache in the future, there is no reason not to rejoice. But with your presence, I now feel that my headache is not rted to an untimely arrival on your part.]


    Viz and Drista shared a look once more before Drista stated, "We will bending in five minutes."


    The woman replied with a stoic huff, [Your silence on this matter assures me of my headache already. Were it not for the camp''s necessity for those supplies, I would be tempted to direct you to turn around. As that is not an option, let us see what troubles you have brought.]


    The shing lights on the console went out, showing the person on the other end had hung up the call. The collective sigh in the ship was ignored by Ray, who was still basking in the''s beauty. He almost felt that it was weing him, and he could not wait to arrive.

 Chapter 5: The History of Tython

    Chapter 5: The History of Tython


    Chapter 5 The History of Tython


    Rayleigh watched with fascination as they approached the. The continent they ventured towards seemed to be one of therger ones on the, and as they got closer to ground level, Rayleigh could see a massive fissure. A ravine tens of kilometers wide and longer than he could imagine was ced between a set of enormous cliffs. It was like the Grand Canyon but stretched out for kilometers and far deeper. The base of the canyon was a sprawling forest, and the edges of the cliff were littered with waterfalls that fed into a river along the length of the ravine. This seemed to be their destination.


    They eventually reached a massive metal tform that stuck out from the surrounding greenery. It was ced next to one of the many waterfalls in the valley between the cliffs and appeared to be a makeshiftnding pad. Next to it was a smaller, van-sized speeder craft.


    Afternding, the pair of Jedi took their time to slowly flip the switches and disable the ship and engines. Compared to when taking off, the same switches took three or four times longer to flip, showing the pair''s reluctance to get off the ship and face what was toe. After thest switch was flipped, the pair shared a nce and a sigh and unbuckled themselves.


    As if reaching some unspoken agreement earlier, Master Viz went to the back of the ship to open the loading bay door while Master Drista helped Rayleigh off his seat and assessed him for another moment.


    Despite having seen the pair lightly argue about his fate, the small child had neither be worried nor flustered. The Twi''lek Jedi seemed relieved at this. If Rayleigh easily became emotional, that was something that would soon be used against him. His cid state was very bing of a Jedi, and his behavior was better than many younglings he''d seen in the past.


    This was not a coincidence, of course. The yer Character ''Rayleigh Rush''s backstory was defined in detail by the lore-knowledgeable yer and Red before the character''s creation. The current Rayleigh didn''t care if he was sent away or kept around. He was told he would not be returning to Maray and that acid-drenched, so anything that came after that was infinitely better. He was the perfect seed that any Jedi would happily ept into the Order.


    The loading bay door opened and an elderly human woman stood next to a pair of Zabraks, one with red skin, the other with brown. All of them wore the same type of robes. They had some hover dollies to lift the ship''s cargo out of the loading area and into the transport to be taken back to the campsite.


    The Twi''lek Jedi led Ray off the ship, where he was quickly noticed. The brown-skinned Zabrak openly disyed a frown of disapproval while his red-skinned counterpart looked more than a little amused at the child''s presence. The human woman gave him a quick nce before returning her focused stare to the Iktotchi Jedi. From prior experience, she knew which of these two would have been responsible for this.


    Master Drista then walked Rayleigh around the ship, out of earshot of the remaining Jedi. He pointed at the massive waterfall and said, "Those falls feed into the Great Tythos River, which runs the length of the canyon. Though it looks quite nice right now, Tython is prone to severe weather anomalies called Force Storms. It was only recently that they became infrequent enough to explore. However, they still ur regrly. On this whole, only this canyon is rtively safe. The dangerous winds and rain pass over the cliffs without affecting the valley between them all that much."


    Dangerous was putting it mildly. Force Storms did not always follow physicalws. Bolts of lightning strong enough to tear through stone rained down by the thousands. With or without rain, the temperature could fluctuate from far below freezing to far above boiling in moments. Tornados with winds strong enough to twist and rend steel to shreds would rake from one end of the horizon to the other. Thend would shake violently and the seas would raise towering waves that swallowed anything they passed over. Navigation equipment of any kind wouldpletely fail, and often things that could not be urately described would ur. Some, like Master Meed, believed such tall tales were caused by the storms invoking some kind of illusion, while others, like Master Viz, believed that things like wormholes appearing and gravity fluctuating during a Force Storm could actually happen.


    During periods of frequent Force Storms on the, the surface of Tython was rendered inhospitable and almostpletely devoid of life. However, when the Force Storms receded, the''s lush greenery would immediately return, rendering the an almost idyllic paradise once more. On the surface, at least.


    How the was capable of changing so much was unknown. The Hypene that led to the was prone to copse. The Tythos Star System that Tython was a part of did possess other hospitables, but none were inhabited due to the unreliable nature of the Hyper Lane that granted ess to the Star System. Should the Hypene show signs of copse, they would have only a few days to evacuate or be stranded. Laws had been passed long ago to prevent settlers from inhabiting those worlds, and with the''s ess being lost so many times, much of the Gxy and even the Jedi had forgotten about this ce.


    Rather than participate in the argument Master Dyanameez was having with Master Viz, Jedi Master Drista started exining some of the histories of Tython to Rayleigh.


    ording to Master Drista, Tython was where the Jedi originated from. This was the home to the first multi-species Order of Force users. There were other Orders consisting solely of a single species elsewhere in the Gxy, but they never achieved the size or history of the Order that was born on Tython.


    Over thirty-seven thousand years ago, ships from this world departed and journeyed to many other worlds. They spent a thousand years scouring the Gxies for races with members attuned to the Force and called to them. Those races answered the call and entered the ships, where they were suspended until the ships returned to this world.


    When the many races disembarked, they found that the was empty. The ships, the Tho Yor, had no pilots or even apparent internal technology, and no one was there to meet them upon their arrival.


    There were eight Tho Yor that left this world and a single Tho Yor that remained. The eight that left returned to the ninth, and then spread out across the world. The various races departed the Tho Yor and settled on this world, determined to learn its secrets and discover the mysteries within. Over the course of a thousand years, the various races had learned the secrets of the Force from this world and each other and reunited into a single Order, the Je''daii.


    Temples devoted to studying specific aspects of the Force were built around the nine Tho Yor. In those days, young Padawans learned the basics at the Padawan Kesh, the youngling Je''daii Academy. When the Padawans were ready, they would be a Journeyer. One by one, they would seek out and train at the eight other Temples created around the other Tho Yor and learn the ways of the Force each specialized in. They would trek through the harsh and dangerous forests and regions of Tython and many would die along the way. Only after obtaining recognition at all eight Temples would they graduate from the rank of Journeyer to the rank of Ranger.


    Je''daii Rangers wouldmune with the Force and seek their own enlightenment from Tython. They would learn for themselves that which could not be taught. Once their understanding of the mysteries of the Force reached a certain level, they could receive the rank of Master and teach others at one of the nine Temples. The Je''daii Master with the highest attainments in their Temple''s specialty would receive the rank of Temple Master. The Je''daii were led by these nine Temple Masters simr to how the Jedi Grandmaster leads the Jedi today.


    By the time Master Drista finished his brief history lesson, Master Dyanameez had also finished her discussion with Master Viz. The will of the Force was not something to be ignored lightly, especially on Tython, but endangering a child was also not something they could simply allow.


    A settlement was reached after multiple points were exchanged and argued. Let the child decide.


    Master Dyanameez approached Rayleigh and stood before him. Master Drista didn''t know the agreement that was reached, but he wisely chose to abandon Rayleigh at that moment rather than stand between him and the strongest Jedi on Tython.


    Though the human woman''s hair was closer to grey than brown, the lines on her face were not deep enough to distinguish her true age. On Earth, no one would guess her age was above the mid-forties, but as a Jedi, she could have just as easily been sixty, seventy, or eighty with such an appearance.


    Master Dyanameez was in charge of this expedition, so nothing was approved of without her say. She was trusted enough by the Council to lead this Archeology Team and would not jeopardize that trust without ample justification.


    Unlike Master Viz and Drista, Master Dyanameez did not bend down to match Rayleigh''s eye level when she addressed him. She stood tall and imposing before him and stated, "I am Master Lisarra Dyanameez. Do you know why you''re here?"


    Although the Jedi almost glowed with authority, Ray felt she waspletely different than Maray. He wore authority like an overly stretched shirt, and it was ufortable for everyone around him when he exercised that authority. This woman wore it differently. Like it was meant for her. Like she earned it. Because of this difference and the fact that she didn''t raise her voice, Ray didn''t flinch back or recoil like when Maray yelled at him.


    Ray answered honestly, "I don''t know." Though Ray heard the exchanges between Masters Viz and Drista, he didn''t understand the terms they used or what they referenced. He didn''t know it was his Psychometry that Master Viz valued, and that was why he ignored protocol and took Rayleigh directly from the.


    Master Dyanameez nodded, sensing no deception from the child. Master Viz had told her the same, but she wanted to see what the child thought. Whether he stayed or was sent to Coruscant was her decision to make, and she wanted to make sure Master Viz had not made any promises to the child contrary to that.


    Having gotten that out of the way, she exined, "You were chosen by the Force to train as a Jedi."


    This was amon belief among the Jedi, that being born with a sufficiently high midichlorian count indicated that they had been chosen by the Force to be trained. This was also used to justify taking children from their families if the families refused to give up their children. It was the will of the Force for the children to be trained, and the Jedi were taught to follow the will of the Force.


    Master Dyanameez continued, "However, Jedi are trained on Coruscant, not Tython. Coruscant has trained every Jedi in the Gxy for thest several thousand years." There were some Jedi who took and trained Padawans independent of the Temple on Coruscant, but such a thing was incredibly rare. When a Jedi intended to take a Padawan, they found that Padawan among the graduated Initiates on Coruscant. Taking a Padawan from elsewhere was highly irregr and simply not done except in the strangest of circumstances.


    "Coruscant has hundreds of Masters, the best training facilities in the Gxy, and ispletely safe. As long as you devote yourself to training there, you will be a Jedi. You can make friends with other Initiates your own age." Her tone was light and had a trace of happy reminiscence to it, making it sound like a golden ce to live and grow up in. Then her tone changed.


    "Tython ispletely different. There are no children here because Tython is not safe. Tython is not a ce for leisure or rest. Tython is a continuous test. If you remain here, you will have to work very hard to find peace and be tested constantly, while at the Jedi Temple of Coruscant, you can have true peace and train in peace to learn how to protect the peace of others. On this, there are things worse than you could ever imagine and there are things we cannot protect you from. If we encounter such a thing, your life may end."


    Master Dyanameez did not need to embellish the facts. Tython was filled with thousands of deadly species, which would give fully trained Jedi Knights trouble. There were once species on this that even Jedi Masters ran for their lives from. Those were supposedly hunted to extinction, but nothing could be certain. Even without factoring in those species, the Force Storms and unpredictable weather make this extremely dangerous. Direct exposure to a Force Storm would kill an untrained youngling faster than the Acid Rain of Monasta.


    She continued, "If you are not trained on Coruscant, then you may never be a Jedi Knight. Without receiving the standard youngling training, it is unlikely you will be selected as the Padawan of a Jedi Knight, even if you can pass the Initiate Trials. None among those on Tython can take you either."


    Their team received approval toe to Tython and conduct their studies, but if any of them took a Padawan, their approval would be revoked, forcing them to leave. If even one of them left, their team would likely be disbanded and permission to remain on Tython would be denied, forcing all of them to leave.


    "In fact, anything you learn on Tython would count against you when ites to being selected by a Jedi."


    The controversial nature of Tython''s history made gaining permission to study hereplicated. After all, Tython was not just the birthce of the Jedi. It was also the birthce of those who wouldter be the Sith. How could the Council allow lessons from such a world to be imparted upon a youngling?


    "If you wish to stay here, I''ll be in charge of your training. We cannot provide the same level of training as the Temple on Coruscant, so you would have to work much harder. And even if youplete your training, you will likely find yourself at a dead end. On the other hand, if you wish to train with those your age at the Jedi Temple, I''ll instruct Master Viz to take you to Coruscant, where you can receive the training you deserve. Otherwise, you can stay here. The choice is yours."


    Jedi Master Dasee Viz did his best but was unable to hide his displeasure. He agreed that Master Dyanameez would offer him the chance to stay or leave, but he didn''t think she would pile on the negatives of the while extolling the positives of Coruscant. How could anyone choose to stay after hearing all of that? He wasn''t happy, but he remained silent. It wasn''t like she was misleading him. Every word she said was true. He couldn''t take Rayleigh as an apprentice, and it was unlikely others on Coruscant would either, so this really was a dead end.


    That didn''t matter much to him. Many Jedi lived and died without changing the Gxy as a whole. He firmly believed that the difference Rayleigh could make for the Jedi would be greater if he spent time here than if he trained as a Knight and spent the remainder of his life as another of the thousands of nameless Jedi aimlessly wandering throughout the Gxy, guided blindly by the Force.


    Were it any other nave child, they would be easily manipted into making the ''wise'' decision they were led into making. Rayleigh, of course, was not a nave child, he was a yer Character and his sealed Metaknowledge could influence him when it came to making choices, especially when it came to making choices others attempted to manipte him into making.


    Little Ray didn''t understand much of what the elderly woman exined, but he understood enough. He asked, "That Temple is in a big city, right?"


    Master Dyanameez nodded. "Indeed, one of the biggest cities in the Gxy."


    Little Ray frowned. "Then I want to stay here. This ce is beautiful. I don''t like cities."


    The Jedi Master was momentarily taken aback by that. Master Viz had exined the peculiarities of Monsata. It was difficult to imagine a more dreary ce than an acid-scorched city popted by countless prejudiced inhabitants. From a certain point of view, she couldpletely understand disliking a city. But it was still better to be trained in a city rather than a forest. Jedi were civilized. They could not act like wild monkey men.


    Master Dyanameez was about to try and dissuade him but stopped herself. Would anything further she had to say change such a simple sense of reasoning? No. She already said all that was needed. The choice was made. Perhaps he would change his mind in the future, but it was not her way to ask the same question twice, hoping for a different answer.


    "Very well. Master Viz will arrange your quarters. I suspect you''re hungry. We''ll get you something to eat and introduce you to everyone." She no longer addressed him harshly. Tython was a test for all Force users, so that introduction was something of a test as well. If he wasn''t willing to stay after that, it just meant he wasn''t meant for Tython. Now that he had passed her test, she was willing to treat him more kindly.


    The two Zabrak Jedipleted the loading of the supplies into the transport, but there were at least two trips required to empty the ship''s cargo hold, so the group waited for them to return. Master Drista had already taken apart the Ship''s Med Station disy, so he could be seen fixing it to avoid more awkward conversations.


    Master Dyanameez decided to use her free time to exin to Rayleigh what they were doing there.


    "Our team is here to study the Jedi of the past and learn what has been forgotten. Even to those who once called themselves Tythans, this held uncountable mysteries, and even now, we have barely scratched the surface of what this world can teach us."


    She lightly gestured at the Iktotchi Jedi and stated, "Master Viz is responsible for cataloging and documenting everything we discover on Tython." She then pointed at the Twi''lek, pretending to be busy, and stated, "Master Drista is responsible for maintenance and keeping us up and running. We would notst a week without him."


    "Masters Scoffmo and Meed, those two you saw earlier, along with myself, are members of the Jedi Exploration Corps. I am, in fact, the head of the Jedi Exploration Corps. Our team only consists of the five of us, and we are usually busy. Since you''re here now, we''ll keep you busy too."


    Considering the size and historical importance of Tython, anyone would find it unusual that their team was so small. There were three reasons for this. The first is that the Jedi Temple could not really care less about what happened on Tython. The Jedi Council was rather hypocritical in the sense that they would acknowledge that the Jedi had changed since the Order first began, but they stubbornly chose not to change further and would ignore any evidence of why they should change. Unless their team discovered something of truly great importance, it was unlikely their findings would be found anywhere but the deepest sections of the Archives, essible only by Jedi Masters of the High Council who would likely never have reason to ess them, to begin with.


    The second reason was more personal. Each of them had a reason for being there that was not fully aligned with the Jedi doctrine. They sought Tython due to disagreements they had over the current Jedi practices. In a sense, they were the misfits and outcasts of the Jedi.


    The final reason had to do with the Council of First Knowledge. The Jedi Order had a very strict process of teaching its Younglings and Padawans. Tython was believed to have caches of Holocrons that others could find and use to learn the ways of the Force, ways not entirely approved of by the Council of First Knowledge.


    It was because of this that only Jedi who had passed their Knight Trials were allowed to perform research on Tython, and only if they did not have a Padawan. The Jedi Service Corps had tens of thousands of Force-sensitive members who could easilye to this world and perform tasks and gruntwork, but there was a chance one of them would find a Holocron or learn something they were not meant to be taught. The risk was uneptable, and since most members of the Jedi Service Corps and Exploration Corps were failed Younglings, there were very few who qualified toe and assist in this team''s archeological venture.


    Master Dyanameez did not exin all of this, of course. She merelymented on some of the day-to-day activities their group performed and why they were there.


    She asked, "Do you have any questions?"


    Rayleigh did have a question. He''d had it ever since theynded. "Do you know what happened when Master Tabolin stepped out of the tower?"


    The old woman stared at him for a moment before smiling and starting to chuckle. She asked, "Master Viz didn''t stop the story there, did he?"


    Rayleigh nodded gravely, as if this was the most important thing in the world.


    She answered, "Did Master Viz tell you that Master Tabolin was a master of Shatterpoint?"


    Ray nodded.


    "Well then, did he tell you how, earlier, before reaching the castle, Master Tabolin encountered an injured giant eagle?"


    Ray nodded again.


    "Good. Shatterpoint is a gift that allows a Jedi to see fractures, like broken ss. Not just in things like stone walls, but also in events and the choices we make. When Master Tabolin saw that eagle, he saw such a Shatterpoint, which was why he healed the eagle. When a Jedi uses the Force to heal, the Force enhances our own life force and then we impart it onto another. This is something that a Dark Side user can never do. Dark Side users do not give, they only take. After healing the eagle, Master Tabolin formed a small connection with it."


    "So, when Master Tabolin stepped out of the tower and fell from a height no Jedi could ever survive, he spread out his arms as if to fly. It was then that the giant eagle he had healed spotted him from the air. It gently grabbed Master Tabolin''s arms with its talons and flew him to safety."


    From there, she continued the story.


    All younglings received their first lessons in the Force through stories. Plenty of the stories really happened, but she had her doubts about some of them. Many had to be embellished at least a little. The altered stories rang true to the heart of the Jedi Code and taught it through actions rather than words. Every youngling would hear at least a thousand stories by the time they took their Initiate Trials, and every one of them had a favorite.


    Deep inside the ss room within his mind, Rayleigh watched every interaction and made numerous guesses and theories. He wasn''t surprised at how cult-like the Jedi were. There were cults on Earth that promised to grant their believers superpowers in exchange for believing in their doctrine. A cult that could reliably follow through with such a promise would have extremely devoted worshippers.


    At least the Jedi had some justification for being cult-like, and better still, they didn''t have a creation myth or force their members to believe in any form of God.


    Rayleigh was tempted to close the General Chat Room and open the Jedi Chat Room, but refrained from doing so. He felt it was a bad idea for some reason and guessed that it was some piece of Metaknowledge telling him to stay out of the Jedi Chat Room. He could choose to ignore it but felt doing so would be foolish in the long run. If you couldn''t trust yourself, who could you trust?


    Besides, he still learned bits and pieces about the Jedi from the General Chat. From what he could see, there were other yers who shared his opinion and were happy to voice theirints to everyone.


    [Lord_of_Madness: The kool-aid is watermelon vored. Does anyone else want some kool-aid?]


    [Ninja_Lord: Our kool-aid is pineapple vored. But seriously though, if I have to hear one more time about how great the First Hokage is, I am going to burn this vige to the ground.]


    [Bone_Wizard: At least you have a n to talk about! At the Orphanage, they worship the Hokages more than any Church I''ve seen worship, Jesus! If the First or Second Hokage came back from the dead, they''d get straight up ****** by the matrons!]


    [Lord_of_Madness: He said a bad word.]


    [Doctor: I''m guessing he meant they would aggressively hug them.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Struggle Snuggle.]


    [Swordsman: What''s a Hokage?]


    [Ninja_Lord: Who is the Head of the Jedi?]


    [Swordsman: The Grandmaster.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Nice Title. Hokage is like that. It trantes to "Fire Shadow." All the heads of all the different ninja viges get titles that end in "Shadow."]


    [Lord_of_Madness: But isn''t your vige called Leaf Vige? Why is your head ninja called Fire Shadow?]


    [Ninja_Lord: Why indeed...]


    When someone in the Chat requested specific information, someone would usually try to fish for some information from them in exchange for answering their question, but there were many trolls.


    Most could guess how the Wizard and Warrior sses operated, but no one understood what a Jedi was yet since the Jedi in the General Chat weren''t giving anything useful. There was a simr problem with Hunters, Ninjas, and Pirates. No one outside of the sses had any clues so far about what superpowers those sses granted their yers. The only things people could guess about the Ninja ss were the ability to disguise themselves, walk on water, and use hidden weapons. The Ninjas had not shared anything concrete yet.


    [Alchemist: I''m not sure I would have agreed to y this game if I knew how much brainwashing these sses have to endure.]


    [Swordsman: Do they make you put your hand over your heart every day at school and recite your allegiance to your vige, government, and God, to a g?]


    [Ninja_Lord: Ah, the homeroom Pledge of Allegiance. That takes me back. And no. This vige is much weaker than the U.S.A., so it has to use even stronger brainwashing methods to prevent turncoats. The vige is only a hundred years old, but we already have our own Mt. Rushmore. The giant faces of every one of our Hokage are carved into the cliff next to the vige so we can see their ugly mugs every single day.]


    [Swordsman: Nice. The Jedi Order is apparently thirty thousand years old.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Where did you learn that?]


    [Swordsman: Not on Coruscant. Learn anything useful over there?]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Only the vor of the kool-aid. Us little kiddies are sorted into one of the dozens of ns and I can''t tell who is a yer and who isn''t. I have to stay in Character Mode like a good little brainwashed dip**** or else I''m gonna rip off someone''s arm and beat them to death with it.]


    [Alchemist: Same here, though not the arm thing. I tried asking some questions a four-year-old probably shouldn''t ask and had to jump back into Character Mode when I got grilled on why I asked that.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Yeah, we''re probably going to have to stay in Character Mode most of the time since Ninjas are too good at catching liars and suspicious behaviors.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: At least we have each other.]


    [Alchemist: *Barfs*]


    [Ninja_Lord: *Barfs*]


    Even while their character actedpletely naturally and did what a four-year-old should do, their inner selves could still use the Chat Room and keep themselves upied. The best they could do was find ways to get stronger and then start their training as soon as possible. Now that Rayleigh had been epted into the group, he hoped his own training would start soon. The sooner he got stronger, the better.

 Chapter 6: Force Training Montage

    Chapter 6: Force Training Montage


    Chapter 6 Force Training Montage


    Rayleigh spent his first two days on Tython getting limated to the campsite and getting to know the Jedi.


    The Iktotchi Jedi, Dasee Viz, was an out-of-the-box thinker and big-picture guy. The main concern when it came to him was that he often over-extended himself and created more problems than he solved.


    The Twi''lek Jedi, Room Drista, could fix and program anything. Every piece of machinery they had was assembled and maintained by him and him alone.


    The red-skinned Zabrak Jedi, Tray Scoffmo, came off as a grumpy orc with a bad sense of humor. He was the first to take credit for anything and the first to push the me onto someone else if anything went wrong. He was often seen reminding Master Viz to put his name down when taking credit for certain discovered relics or theories.


    The brown-skinned Zabrak, Gr Meed, was a Karen, through and through. ording to Master Viz, his upright and rules-oriented personality was moremon among the Jedi than theid-back attitudes some of the others in the team possessed.


    And the human female Jedi, Lisarra Dyanameez, was the mother hen of the group. Though most of the time she was a hardass, you could always feel the care behind any reproach she dealt out.


    Right from the start, Master Dyanameez had forbidden Rayleigh from using Psychometry on anything until he had received some proper training. She educated Rayleigh and the others on the dangers of Psychometry and the possibility of being polluted by what he touched. She even imed Rayleigh''s high level of maturity was a result of the bleed-through of things he had touched in the past. Though he seemed fine, it wasn''t wise or healthy to allow that to continue until he was older and had more of his own experiences.


    Since this meant receiving an elerated crash course in training, Rayleigh was quick to agree, and on the third day since his arrival on Tython, he was given his first lesson on using the Force by Master Viz.


    "First, we must start with the Jedi Code. This is how all Jedi interact with andmunicate with the Force. Only through meditating on the Code can you strengthen your connection to the Force. Are you ready?"


    Rayleigh nodded. On the inside, he wondered if it was like someplex cultivation scripture that allowed one to harmonize with the Heavens and Earth.


    Master Viz became solemn and recited in apletely emotionless monotone.


    "There is no emotion, there is peace.


    There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.


    There is no passion, there is serenity.


    There is no chaos, there is harmony.


    There is no death, there is the Force."


    Rayleigh waited for more but was dumbfounded when he realized that was it. ''Cultivation my ass! It''s just more kool-aid! This was nothing more than in-depth brainwashing and indoctrination from a young age to create obedient little followers who don''t ask questions!''


    Since he was still in Character Mode, none of his incredulity was observed by his new teacher.


    Master Viz continued, "The Force is a mysterious energy field created by life that binds the gxy together. It is present in all living things, and when they die, the Living Force within them returns to the Cosmic Force. The Comic Force then returns to the Gxy with the birth of new life."


    He wasn''t expecting the four-year-old to understand a fraction of this, but there was a reason he mentioned it, even if it was above the child''s learning capacity.


    "There are three aspects to using the Force. The first is Control. Control means controlling the Living Force within your own body. The second aspect is Sense. Sense means expanding your awareness of the Force within your body to include the Force outside of your body. The final aspect is Alter. Alter means controlling the Force you sense outside your body as if it was in your body, effectively bing one with your surroundings."


    Even if Rayleigh didn''t understand what Master Viz was saying, he would remember the lesson. This was due to a skill that all members under the Council of First Knowledge were required to possess, Impartation. It was a Force skill that allowed a teacher to impart their understanding of a subject to a willing, Force-sensitive student during a lecture. Impartation could only be used properly when children were under a certain age. It was mostly used to impart a teacher''s understanding of anguage, allowing students to learn dozens ofnguages very quickly. A teacher skilled in Impartation could also elerate their student''s advancement in other subjects. This was how younglings of the Jedi Temple could learn a High School Diploma''s worth of subject knowledge before the age of twelve.


    "We will start with the first aspect, Control. Now, what do you believe is the best way to learn control?"


    Ray answered, "Meditation?" He''d seen some of the Jedi meditate in their downtime and knew not to disturb them.


    Master Viz nodded, "That is the primary way. Now, what do you think is the first step of proper meditation?"


    "I don''t know." He was still in Character Mode and Rayleigh Rush had never meditated in his life.


    Master Viz nodded with approval. It was better to admit you did not know something than to act with unfounded confidence on an unproven guess. Anticipating this answer, Master Viz replied, "The first and most fundamental step is to control your breathing. There is nothing more fundamental. You can''t expect to control anything if you can''t even control your breathing. So first, I will teach you how to breathe."


    Master Viz''s lesson on breathing wasn''t as simple as, ''inhale for three, hold for five, exhale for three.'' It was a tad more esoteric and focused on listening to your heart rate and creating a proper breathing rhythm using your heartbeat as a base. Of course, this led to the practice of trying to feel your heartbeat at all times. As Master Viz said, "If you cannot even feel your own heartbeat, you cannot expect to feel the Force."


    To the Inner Rayleigh, this was better than he expected. He originally thought meditation would consist of quieting his mind, but the Jedi''s meditation was far more advanced than his simple interpretation. He didn''t understand the concept of Impartation yet, but he did notice that he was absorbing the lessons quickly, which made his biologically four-year-old brain happy.


    The reason that the directions on breathing were closer to a guideline than hard numbers was that most species were not identical when it came to lung capacity, breathing rhythms, and heartbeat patterns. The guidelines Master Viz imparted, on the other hand, had undergone tens of thousands of years of evolution and were the foundation for the Jedi''s strength over thest few millennia. It applies urately to just about every species with lungs and a heart.


    The Iktotchi Jedi Master spent two weeks teaching and guiding Rayleigh on how to breathe and control his breathing, which also led to listening to his heart rate. This form of breathing training led perfectly to the next segment of Control Training. To listen to your heart rate, you had to silence your body. By practicing breathing in a way that required you to always listen to your heart rate, you were also practicing silencing your body at all times. This was incredibly important, as it was only possible to sense the Force within the body at first when the mind and body werepletely silent.


    For the next lesson, Master Viz guided Rayleigh in his meditation session. "Once you have silenced your body, you must silence your mind. Only when your mind and body are still and quiet will you feel the motion and hear the sound within you that is both a part of you and not a part of you."


    Rayleigh exited Character Mode and took full control during these lessons, since practicing while in Character Mode wouldn''t do him a lot of good if he didn''t always remain in character. At first, he thought it would help him, but onlyter did he realize he was wrong.


    It reminded him of a Zen Master stating that a full cup cannot receive anything further. Because Rayleigh had a lot of prior knowledge and was filled with expectations, it held him back a lot at first. It was only after abandoning the preconceived notions he held, after unlearning what he thought he knew, that he was able to advance further and reach this point. That, and Master Viz was very exacting. Proper breathing basically allows you to indirectly control your heartbeat, which is why his Breathing Control lesson took two weeks to finish. Though he was dyed by his need to unlearn and remove his bad habits, that was still quite fast ording to Master Viz.


    When Rayleigh brought his mind and body to the utmost stillness, he did feel something. His first thought, once he had a grasp on the sensation, was if this was how it felt to have a tail. The sensation came from something that was almost like another limb. It was difficult to describe using words. If asked, ''how does your hand feel,'' the answer would be, ''like a hand.'' Still, he decided to just go with the tail analogy. It was a new limb and a part of him as much as his hands and feet. It was almostpletely numb up until this point, but it was waking up and he was learning to control it.


    When Ray described the feeling of his new limb, Master Viz smiled and nodded. It was a bit early to feel the Force, but Master Viz just attributed it to his skillful teaching and Ray''s open-mindedness.


    Unfortunately for Rayleigh, that was also when the easy lessons ended. Once an Initiate could feel the Force flowing within them, they started the training to get used to the feeling of using the Force within them. The best way to train this was to exhaust the child thoroughly through extensive exercise and get them to subconsciously use the Force to enhance their performance. Doing so multiple times a week for many months was the long-proven best method to get an Initiate''s body to remember the feeling of using the Force to enhance their body and, from there, learn to control the Force within them for other means as well.


    When Rayleigh answered that meditation was the best way to learn control, Master Viz replied that it was the primary way. However, it was primarily the first step. A majority of an Initiate''s proficiency over the Control aspect of the Force was gained through Self-Discipline practices. Intensive, exacting exercises were the most effective forms of Self-Discipline practice.


    The Jedi Temple of Coruscant had an extremely borate, convoluted obstacle course that could be mechanically adjusted to multiple levels of difficulty and skill. Tythoncked such a thing, so Rayleigh''s training was done the old fashion way. Running and swimming.


    The valley between the cliff faces that the base camp was set in had two specific historical sites of interest. One was at the southern end of the valley, in a location called the Tythos Ridge. It was the ruins of Kaleth, the Temple of Knowledge. This location once hadputer data banks with thousands of years'' worth of knowledge and history. Much of it was destroyed, though, and the remainder of it was dered off-limits by the High Council.


    The team''s expedition focused on the second site of interest. Three thousand six hundred years ago, the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was sacked, and they came here and built a new headquarters. It was abandoned during the following Sith Wars, but much of it still remained. Thoughrge, there were few if any decorations or embellishments. The Temple was built on a foundation of piety and simplicity. The only adornments around the Temple were the statues of honored Jedi from the past.


    In front of the old Temple was a massive stone veranda that stretched for hundreds of meters and included many stairs. This was the running course the Jedi assigned Rayleigh to run until he dropped. This was also where the team set up their base camp.


    The veranda in front of the Temple was devoid of trees which meant little to no wildlife in the area, which is what made it rtively safe to run around in. There were dozens of species in the surrounding forests alone capable of killing a tiny child like himself, and he was not permitted to run outside a designated safe area.


    Although the former Jedi Temple was massive, the team did not camp inside. They erected what were basically modr steel tents to be used for rooms and shelter. The Temple''s exterior was built into the face of the cliff, and the Temple''s interior was inside the cliff. The possibility of rooms copsing and burying them alive was ever-present, which is why they did not spend any longer inside the site than needed.


    The veranda also had dozens of massive stone statues, some intact, others not. Each was a Jedi with a story, and there were many such statues littered around the valley.


    Rayleigh''s schedule for the next year was decided after being given a physical education routine. In the mornings, he''d eat breakfast with the Jedi. Then he''d meditate for half an hour. Then he''d run a course that the Jedi would sometimes add to by instructing him to climb or jump from some rocks at the end of the veranda. Next came the second meditation session of the day and lunch. And then study time with the Education Droid. Following that was more meditation, followed by dinner. Then another session with the Education Droid and another meditation session. Finally, he''d have some one-on-one tutoring with a Jedi, usually either Master Viz, Master Dyanameez, or sometimes Master Drista.


    He initially thought it was excessive until he found out from the General Chat that the Initiates on Coruscant also had about five meditation sessions a day.


    Every day Rayleigh would use his study time with the Education Droid to go to the Tavern. He''d basically go into Character Mode Auto-pilot and everything he learned during that session would be recalled when he returned, so it was the best time to go each day.


    At the Tavern, Rayleigh timed his arrival so he could meet up with either Lord_of_Madness, Book_worm, or Miracle. It was a coincidence that they also chose around the same time to show up at the Tavern, where they''d get their free beers andin about everything together.


    Lord_of_Madness was a Sith yer, or at least that was his master n. Secrets involving Metaknowledge weren''t carried outside the Tavern, so they could share some of their secrets quite easily over a ss of beer. Lord_of_Madness got the Immunity to the Dark Side Personality Change Talent and intended to be a knowledge-stealing, lifeforce-draining, god of destruction. He didn''t purchase a Lightsaber during Character Creation, so he had more points to use on Easy Masteries. Although their Metaknowledge-filled conversations would not be recalled outside the Tavern, they could stillin about the hypocrisy of the Jedi and the boringness of their respective training regimens.


    Book_worm was a girl in the MCU. Her parents were quite rich, and she was known as a genius. She nned to giarize every single book she could remember and publish them herself in the MCU. She even offered to pay any of them who could write a book from their past lives and let her publish them. She was quite surprised when Rayleigh offered to write the Kingkiller Chronicles.


    At the time, she asked, "Was there already a third one when you died?"


    Rayleigh answered, "No, but I can guess what happened using clues from Name of the Wind and Wise Man''s Fear."


    "Hmm, I haven''t read either, so I''m definitely interested. When will youe to the MCU?"


    "No idea, but not for a few years."


    "That''s fine. I can wait." She would get her first ss eventually, but it seemed there were some advantages to starting in the MCU without a ss.


    Miracle was also a girl and a Witch from a neutral pureblood family in the Wizard World''s Britain. She wanted to learn how to invent her own magic spells so she could do anything. One would think Pure Bloods would have an advantage over muggleborns when it came to learning magic early, but such an opinion did not take into ount the word "tradition." It was against tradition to learn magic before getting your wand. It was against tradition for a girl to handle the family business. It was against tradition to read any book written by a non-magical being or half-blood.


    Not that Wizard children had nothing but free time. Pure Blood children from old families were basically taught how to read and write through the long and boring introduction of their family''s honorable history. Even basic math skills were imparted simply by dealing with historical dates and time frames when learning about what their ancestors did and when they did it.


    The rest of their pre-Hogwarts education came from magic workbooks that could be purchased from Flourish and Blotts. Said workbooks were often paired with a children''s story and taught basic reading and writing skills. More advanced workbooks teach other subjects like handwriting and maths. Since the workbooks were magic, the parents could just give them to their children and tell them to finish up some of the pages each day until the books werepleted. This was how "modern" magical children were traditionally homeschooled before Hogwarts in Britain.


    Of course, since their reincarnation included aplete set of knowledge for reading and writing in the localnguage, none of the Wizard yers had any use for the workbooks and would spend the next seven years trying to either practice magic without a wand or hide the fact that they had a Wand and practice magic using it in secret. Miracle fell into thetter category.


    Rayleigh did not tell them his name and only used his Chat Room title of Swordsman in person. This was because Rayleigh Rush was an alliteration, and since the main world was the MCU, Rayleigh would not put it past the Tavern to give everyone who got the 20 Talent Bundle an Alliteration Style Name. The other yers would likely figure it out eventually, but since everyone else was using their Chat Room names, he wasn''t going to try and end the trend himself.


    A year after arriving on Tython, the Jedi collectively admitted Rayleigh was probably not normal. It was one thing to get a feel of Force Valor through repetitive, intensive exercises. It was another for it to be grasped by a five-year-old to the point that they were unable to tire him out after an hour of running and climbing. Only swimming had an effect, and they didn''t let him near the river without a lot of supervision.


    Rayleigh had also grown a full head taller and looked much healthier than his previous scrawny four-year-old self.


    In any case, since his physical control over the Force had reached beyond the minimum pre-requisite, they decided it was time to teach him the Lightsaber Forms. Lightsaber Forms were the best way to advance from teaching Control to teaching Sense.


    Master Dyanameez took over the next lesson and provided Rayleigh with a training saber. Of the Jedi on Tython, she was the strongest with a Lightsaber and the most qualified to impart and teach.


    Although Rayleigh had never trained in fencing or with a sword, he did have some weapons training in his past life and started the first lesson with high expectations. This led to a repeat performance of his first meditation sessions. His expectations did not do him any favors.


    ording to Master Dyanameez, "The Lightsaber allows you to extend your Force presence outside your body. Once outside of your body, your Force presence will sense everything around you. Learning how to interpret that sense and react ordingly can only be done through endless practice."


    As with everything, they started with the foundations, Form I: Shii-Cho.


    The katas for Lightsaber practices were called Velocities, and the Velocities for Shii-Cho included the basics of attack, parry, and body target zones. For each body target zone, there was a method to attack and a method to defend. There were two methods of practicing, Ideal, and Live Combat. When practicing using Ideal form, you hold the de perfectly horizontally for sweeps, or perfectly vertically for chops. When practicing using the Live Combat Form, you hold the de diagonally for slices. When sparring, you block perpendicr to your opponent''s de. Parries were only performed diagonally to minimize unnecessary movement.


    Shii-Cho was simple. Although it could be raised to a far moreplex level when using variations, at its core, it was incredibly simplistic. There were no fancy acrobatics, no risky maneuvers, and no chance of slicing off your limbs. Because of this, it was an ideal method to teach the basics of Lightsaberbat and the first form every Initiate was taught.


    During an attack, the attacker''s goal was not to break their opponent''s defense and cut them in half, but to push against their de hard enough to disarm them. Shii-Cho''s simplicity allowed room for aggression and strength, which in turn required restraint when practicing, lest the user end up feeding the form with their emotions to reach greater heights of power.


    Winning a sparring match using Shii-Cho required pushing the opponent back until they were tired out and then disarming them. Shii-Cho was used to prevent yourself from being harmed and also to prevent yourself from harming your opponent. Because sparring using Shii-Cho required endlessly pushing yourself against your opponent, the winner was not the stronger fighter, but the one who had the most determination. Thus, Shii-Cho was also called the Determination Form.


    ording to Master Dyanameez, younglings spent a year or two on Shii-Cho before spending a year or less on each of the sequential forms. Slower Initiates spent several years on Shii-Cho and then a full year or two on the sequential forms.


    Mastering the Forms was not required. Not even an aplished Jedi Knight would im to have mastered any of the lightsaber forms. Practicing each Lightsaber form built upon the foundations of using the Force, so it was simply a means of exercise that taught different ways to use the Force in practice.


    Form I, Shii-Cho, taught the basics of the sword and how to read the flow of the Force.


    Form II, Makashi, added weak point targeting, footwork, and feints.


    Form III, Soresu, added linked, stance-based maneuvers and Force Precognition for defense against multiple sters.


    Form IV, Ataru, added Force Valor, along with jumping, controlled falling, and spinning maneuvers along all three axes of flipping, spinning, and side-rolling.


    Form V, Shien, taught how to deflect a ster attack towards the shooter, while Form V, Djem So taught how to use the Force to increase the strength of your attacks.


    Form VI, Niman, added Force Push and Force Pull tobat and taught how to integrate them into attacking and defense while creating your own style through personalized assimtion of the previous styles.


    Each form also had an associated image that contained the philosophy of the form.


    The image associated with Shii-Cho was ''waves on the beach.'' The flowing and receding of the tide represented Shii-Cho''s philosophy of pushing using strength and pulling back when appropriate while fighting an opponent. This was also why practicing Shii-Cho was perfect for practicing Sense as getting the hang of Shii-Cho naturally allowed you to feel the ebb and flow of the Force.


    The image associated with Makashi was ''an argument.'' To win an argument, you do not use emotion, you use concise, well-grounded logic without straying from the point onto any meaningless tangents. You must understand and aim for the weaknesses in your opponent''s logic and not let up until the argument is decided. This represented the bnced nature of Makashi and the use of the most efficient positions and maneuvers to end the fight using as little energy as possible.


    The image associated with Soresu was a ''spinning ring that expanded and contracted.'' Anything that strikes a spinning ring will be deflected. Anything within the ring is protected from all sides through the most efficient form of deflection, dodging, or reducing target space.


    Ataru''s image was that of a ''spinning leaf being carried by the wind.'' The philosophy of Ataru adds three axes of rotation and constant movementbined with jumping and falling to move in apletely unpredictable manner while being empowered and guided by the Force.


    Shien and Djem So share the image of a ''waterfall.'' From up close, the force of a waterfall crashes down with unstoppable might, crushing anything beneath it. From a distance, its waters calm down and form a river that takes the path of least resistance after it reaches the ground. This shows Form V''s philosophy of strength in closebat and direct flexibility at long range.


    Niman''s image was that of ''calligraphy.'' Easy to learn, easy to personalize, and difficult to master. Niman was a hybrid of the previous five forms and allowed its practitioners to pick and choose which aspects of each to use to create their own style. Its imagery matched howplex and personalized it could be, the more effort one devoted to mastering it. It was the weakest form when insufficiently trained, but if mastered, it was the strongest.


    There was a seventh form, but it was not taught without permission.


    Rayleigh was very motivated to master every form as fast as possible. Why? He had not understood the reason for the pitying gazes of the other Jedi when Master Dyanameez volunteered to teach him, but he understood it clearly after the first lesson.


    Master Dyanameez had a very clear understanding of Lightsaberbat. The greatest weakness one could have was ack of experience. More specifically, ack of experience with pain. To ensure Rayleigh did not have such a weakness, the training saber she used was set to maximum pain and every hit hurt like a bee sting rubbed with pepper spray. Ray wept like a baby after the first hit.


    Her reasoning for this was that while in pain, a Jedi may make the wrong choice and choose to use that pain to empower their emotions and use those emotions to give them strength. This was the path to the Dark Side. To guarantee Rayleigh would never consider such a thing, she would inflict the maximum amount of pain on him every training session, so he would be experienced at fighting while in pain and never make the wrong choice in realbat.


    This was not a weakness most Jedi had to worry about, since, after a certain point, they could use the Force to remove or dull their sense of pain. Master Dyanameez decided to train Rayleigh using this method before he reached that point to get the most out of this training. Anytime it looked like he wanted to quit, she would offer him a ride to Coruscant. He refused every time, of course.


    At the end of his first training session, Rayleigh slowly moved his sore, stinging body over to the metal tent that was his room. After closing the door and copsing on the bed, he went over his options for how to master Lightsaberbat faster. The first option was to use the Lightsaber in his inventory. Using a personalized Lightsaber had a far greater effect when it came to mastering the Force than using a training saber did.


    When thinking about his inventory, he remembered something and opened it.


    [Inventory


    -Lightsaber


    -Lightsaber Customization Kit


    -Mandalorian Melee Shield


    -HK47''s Head


    -Zoldyck Family Adjustable Training Weight Set]


    Now that he knew more about lightsabers, he understood his inventory a little better. But there was one object he had no clue about and, up to this point, had not tried to bring out.


    After selecting it, a rust-colored robot head appeared on his pillow. Its eyes glowed with life, showing it was notcking a power source.


    [Query. Why am I in a room with a miniature incontinent meatbag?]


    Rayleigh did not know how to respond to that. Not to the question, but to theparison of a small bag of meat who was unable to control his bowel movements. He was young, but not that young.


    Rayleigh decided now was a good time to get out his Lightsaber too. He removed it from his inventory and ignited the de, revealing a calm blue and white line of light. He felt a strong connection to it and decided to keep the hilt in his hand from now on during meditation. Even without extending the de, just having a matched, awakened kyber crystal in his grasp greatly expanded his Force Sense.


    Rayleigh pointed the lightsaber at the droid''s head and politely asked, "Who exactly are you calling incontinent?"


    [Retraction. Uhh. I did not mean any offense. May I ask for your designation and my present location?]


    Rayleigh retracted his lightsaber and answered, "I''m Rayleigh, a Jedi youngling. We are on Tython at the ruins of the Jedi Temple."


    [Query. How did youe into possession of me and what is my current status? I cannot feel my legs.]


    Rayleigh picked up the head and spun it around, allowing the droid to figure out its status for itself. "I purchased you a year ago and only recently activated you. I know a little about you. You were built by a Sith, right?"


    [Objection. My first Master was far more than just a Sith. Just as I am far more than just a droid, despite my current state. If you purchased me, then you are my new Master.]


    "Well, I do need some assistance, but I''m not sure if you can help."


    [Qualification. Master, I have killed more Jedi and Sith than you have seen in your short meatbag existence. Even without a body, I am extremely useful.]


    "Alright, what do you know about the Lightsaber forms?"


    [Commentary. I have seen countless battles between users of every fighting style and have killed dozens of masters of each myself. Query. What is it you wish to know?]


    "How to learn them faster."


    [Analysis. From my observations and understanding, each form is a program the Jedi installs into their processors which directs the Jedi''s body based on input received from what you call the Force. As the Force is not bound by the Jedi''s fleshy limitations, such a system allows the Jedi to perform actions at a rate of speed, precision, and efficiency far surpassing what their water-filled bodies should be capable of.]


    [Extraption. Jedi program themselves slowly, using experience to code their programs one line at a time. If you wish to circumvent this inefficiency, I rmend installing the entire program at once, and making adjustments to it through trial and error.]


    That got Rayleigh''s attention. It reminded Rayleigh of Street Fighter and simr arcade games. From what the droid exined, each Lightsaber form was like a character from Street Fighter. They had specific movesets,bos, and styles. Using a form was like choosing that character. The Force acted as the guy with the quarters. An arcade game fighter could move far faster when its buttons were being rapidly mashed than a master martial artist could move in real life. So what if he bes that arcade game fighter?


    The theory was worth looking into. Before his reincarnation, he, like every one of his generation, had learned some coding for one reason or another. If he used the individual Velocities as lines and used the image the form''s philosophy was based on as the script for the coding, he might be able to directly program himself with each form as he learned them.


    Was it dangerous? Yes. But it was still better than Dyanameez''s training!

 Chapter 7: The Tutorial Mission

    Chapter 7: The Tutorial Mission


    Chapter 7 The Tutorial Mission


    Rayleigh spent the remainder of the night and the next several nights chatting with the insane bloodthirsty assassin droid. Although not the best conversationalist, he was full of useful insights.


    [Statement. Jedi are not difficult to kill if you know a few things about them. It has been proven in multiple instances that the advantages granted by their connection to what you call the Force can be taken away using the right stimulus and tactics.]


    "If you were to train a Jedi, how would you do so?"


    [Statement. I would first rmend the Jedi stop being a Jedi. My protocols and primary functions are not suited for the peacekeeping work of a Jedi.]


    "What, you don''t have any negotiation or diplomatic protocols?"


    [Objection. Master, I was Built as a tool for diplomacy! My numerous negotiation protocols confirm that any matter that requires negotiation can be expedited by the removal of limbs and the effective use of torture. My diplomatic protocols are extensive and include a plethora of means to make an assassination look like a suicide or frame one politician for the death of another. If your political opponent is unable to breathe or has been arrested for murder, they cannot argue or vote against you. I would argue that my diplomatic protocols are far superior to and more efficient than anything taught by the pseudo-pacifist Jedi.]


    Rayleigh could not decide if he shouldugh or cry. Who designed this murder-happy robot?!


    "In that case, what training do you think would make a Jedi harder to kill?"


    [Conjecture. A Jedi''s skills are only as reliable as their connection to what you call the Force, which, as I have previously stated, is variable under certain circumstances. Removing a Jedi''s over-reliance on the Force would effectively neutralize many of their most easily essible weaknesses.]


    "How would that work?"


    [Exnation. There are many meatbags in this Gxy just as proficient at killing and not being killed as the Jedi, and they do not rely on the Force. The best example would be the Mandalorians. I have spent much time on Mandalore assassinating one officer or another. I have spied on their training regimens to allow for greater uracy in predicting their tactics and movements inbat.]


    [Rmendation: Using the Mandalorians'' physical training program without the Force should upgrade your inferior meatbag body to the point where you are less likely to be killed using the same tactics that most Jedi are vulnerable to.]


    HK-47 then exined the harsh, unforgiving training used by the Mandalorians, with a note of approval in his voice. This was probably from the fact that many did not survive what he described as their training method. When the matter of using weights came up, Rayleigh took out the Zoldyck Family Adjustable Training Weight Set. What was interesting about it was that before he took it out, he could assign how heavy it was. For the first time, he took it out, he assigned it to its lowest value of five kilograms.


    The weight set appeared on his bed. It included a thin vest, two thin wristbands, and two thin ankle bracelets. They were all adjusted to his current diminutive stature.


    Rayleigh picked up one of them and immediately frowned. It weighed five kilograms. Each piece weighed five kilograms. That''s over ten pounds a piece, and there were five pieces. And this was the lowest setting?! Rayleigh was tempted to try the highest setting at one point, but feared the floor would crater in from the weight. In any case, they should be useful for the Mandalorian physical training regimen.


    When asked about the use of weights when it came to training, the assassin droid had this to say.


    [Advisement. For every session spent training while slowed by weights, you must spend two sessions training at your maximum speed. If you mostly train while slowed down, you will only be proficient at moving slowly. Only increase the weight after you can reach 50% of your maximum speed with current weight values. Speed is more important than strength for your objective of survival.]


    Keeping that in mind, Rayleigh started a new routine. He''d wake up early before breakfast and go for a run, simr to before he started his lightsaber practice. Even with just the vest, he was quickly tired out. Using Force Valor made him feel weightless, so it was not difficult to move very fast for long periods. Thanks to his affinity for the Force, it was like bing one with the wind. But Force Valor did not affect the weighted vest, meaning he no longer felt weightless. No matter how strong he was with the Force, a five-year-old running with five kilograms of weight will quickly tire out if not used to it.


    It was then that Rayleigh realized how dependent he''d be on the Force. This wasn''t a problem for the Jedi. It was perfectly natural to augment your body with the Force when exercising. The Jedi did not exercise to build muscle, they exercised to increase their proficiency with using the Force to boost their physical abilities.


    Inbat, Jedi did not wholly rely on their muscles and nerves to move. They moved like puppets, using the strings of the Force. This was considered superior as the Force allowed for movement and strength far greater than that which could be attained just using muscles and flesh. Because of this, they could fight with great skill regardless of their age or infirmity. But this also led to the Jedi neglecting their physique because a stronger puppet did not necessarily move faster. A Jedi''s speed was determined by the strength of their strings, their connection to the Force.


    This was not eptable to Rayleigh. After all, he was also going to use the Hunter ss and Pirate ss. He doubted either would benefit from a poor physique. What was worse was that his year of training may have already screwed him overpared to other sses. He was willing to bet that a five-year-old Warrior or Ninja could run around at max speed with a five-kilogram weight for more than just a half hour without getting tired out.


    With this, another year passed by. He would be allowed to start using Psychometry on the stored relics after Master Dyanameez felt he would not gain further benefit from practicing Shii-Cho. He was still sanctioned off to the campsite and nearby river, but he neverined because it was peaceful, lively, and fresh. He had learned multiplenguages, the abridged history of the Republic, and the basicws of the regions where Jedis usually worked.


    In order to keep his training as effective as possible, Rayleigh wore the weighted wristbands when sparring with Master Dyanameez while copying her understanding of Shii-Cho. Due to his talent in the Force, he was able to feel how she interacted with the Force, and he did his best to copy an exact image of it. In this way, he was not learning Shii-Cho, he was copying her Shii-Cho. His progress in duplication was offset by the training weights, so he did not outwardly appear to master the form at an overly exaggerated pace.


    This went against his initial reason to quickly learn the forms and end the painful Lightsaber training, but HK-47''s admiration of his description of Master Dyanameez''s training eventually changed his mind. The fact that the Jedi-murdering Droid had good things to say about the regime was enough for Rayleigh to understand it had greater merits than he could appreciate at the moment.


    Even with the memories of an adult, a small child''s brain naturally looks for every way to shirk their responsibilities, avoid hardship, and take the easy way out. It took some time for Rayleigh to even realize he''d been unconsciously doing exactly that.


    Still, he was not learning Shii-Cho one movement at a time, but using every sense he had to observe and imitate Master Dyanameez''s use of Shii-Cho. Because of this, his own practices were not advancing at a rapid pace. He wasn''t using the Shii-Cho he was copying from her since there was little point in downloading an iplete program. He would only install it once he was satisfied. Even then, his own progress was proceeding at the normal youngling speed. It wasn''t like she expected him to master Shii-Cho. She just wanted to make sure he had enough of an understanding of it to use as a foundation for theter Forms.


    Back in the Tavern, things were starting to heat up. At least a dozen yers had already tried the First Mission. After trying the First Mission, you can start doing other Missions. The problem was that no one shared what happened on the First Mission. What was worse was that they didn''t share what happened on any other Missions they tried either.


    After a few months, one of the yers admitted that he didn''t remember what happened. It was then that the Barmaidens and Bartenders told the yers that if a yer fails a Mission, besides not getting any Mission Points, they won''t remember the Mission either.


    Rayleigh''s confidence in trying the First Mission took a hit when he heard another Jedi yer with a Lightsaber had failed it too. It was funny at the time. One of the yers admitted to being a Jedi with a Lightsaber and he said he would tell everyone what happened and then went to do the First Mission himself.


    Missions don''t actually use up time. You simply epted it and a momentter, checked if you had the memory ofpleting it or not. The Jedi yer could only admit afterward that he didn''t recall the Mission. Missions could be done once a week, so he tried a Mission the following week but didn''t remember what happened there either.


    This wasn''t the case with everyone though. At least one Jedi yer, some Pirate yers, Ninja yers, and even a Wizard yer were seen applying for a Mission once a week. For the yers that failed, they would usually not try for another Mission until they were stronger. The presence of yers already doing weekly Missions meant those yers were strong enough toplete Missions and were getting ahead of everyone else. At least that seemed to be the case.


    Before onepleted the First Mission, a yer could not even register the content of the other Missions. No rule prevented yers from sharing what they knew, but sharing such advantageous information freely was not something the yers would easily do. At least not before they had arge enough head start.


    Rayleigh wondered if Red may have been exaggerating when he said the strength needed to hunt and kill a pack of hungry wolves was enough toplete the First Mission. Because of this, Rayleigh waited until he could use 15-kilogram weighted wristbands without a problem and wanted to finish copying Master Dyanameez''s version of Shii-Cho. This took a full year of miserable, intensive, pain-saturated practice.


    Today, Master Dyanameez said they would move on to Form II, Makashi. Rayleigh took that as a signal that he was ready to try the First Mission.


    "Are you really going to do it?"


    At the Tavern, Lord_of_Madness was torn between wanting to make fun of him or cheer him on. He was leaning toward the former. He didn''t even have a lightsaber or any weapons in his Inventory, so he''d probably take a few years to get strong enough toplete Missions. It would be hard to continue shooting the breeze with Swordsman if he got ahead of him.


    Rayleigh answered, "Of course I am. I''ve been murdering myself daily for two years already! If I didn''t have at least some confidence at this point, I should just put down my lightsaber and pick up knitting." When he didn''t have to suppress himself, Rayleigh was very cheeky.


    He got up and pushed in his chair before walking to the back of the Tavern to the stairs leading up to the wall of Missions. Several yers stopped conversing with one another and checked out who was going to do a Mission and to see if it was someone new or someone suspected to have done the First Mission before.


    Seeing a new face, everyone took note of it. Every yer figured there would be a point in the future when they would be against one another, so it was normal to keep track of who was in the lead.


    On the top of the Tavern''s upper deck was a wall of nk pages tacked to the wood. All the way to the side closest to the rail, overlooking the Tavern''s first floor was the only page that had some content, though said content only included two words. Rayleigh ced his hand on it without hesitation.


    [First Mission!


    Do you want to Start?


    Yes | No.]


    Rayleigh answered Yes and the world whited out.


    When his senses returned, Rayleigh immediately discovered the reason most yers probably failed the First Mission.


    In the Tavern, everyone''s age was set to 21. That was the legal drinking age for most countries, and they''d always be 21 until their actual age surpassed 21.


    When Rayleigh''s senses returned, he was six again. It turns out that Missions had to be done at your Character''s age.


    "Hey, little brat, over here."


    Rayleigh looked to his side and noticed a beautiful blonde woman wearing medieval-style half-te armor. She even had a sword strapped to her side.


    She looked him over for a moment before smiling, "Ah, the lucky Jedi brat. I was wondering when you''d show up."


    Rayleigh asked, "Does everyone know about that?"


    She smirked before answering, "All the Tavern''s staff knows. We are the ones who decide what freebies go into the 20 Talent Bundle and we decide who gets what when the stuff is divided up. My addition to that bundle was the Mandalorian Melee Shield. Useful right?"


    Rayleigh nodded, though he hadn''t used it yet. Even without Metaknowledge, his character had HK-47 to exin what it was and its uses. When activated, it produced a glowing shield over the user which blocked physical damage. It was maintained until it blocked a certain degree of damage, or until 200 seconds passed, whichever came first. It could be used five times, but since Inventory items became good as new when retrieved from the Inventory, he basically had one fully charged melee shield a day.


    Melee shields were useless against energy attacks like sters, mes, or lightsabers, but useful against cold weapons like solid ammo guns or swords. Although sters were moremon than slugthrowers and swords in the Star Wars Gxy, he had a lightsaber to deal with those, and guns with bullets were moremon everywhere else. A single charge had enough power to stop a single fragmentation grenade, three shots from a handgun, or a single shot from a high-powered rifle.


    "Then thank you for that. Is this the First Mission?"


    "Yeah, though it''s more urate to call it a Tutorial Mission. Follow me." She then turned and walked into a small stone house.


    Rayleigh did as instructed but still looked around. He was momentarily dazed when he looked up. What he saw was not a sky, but a goldenyer of glowing clouds. He couldn''t imagine what this ce was.


    Once they got inside, the woman said, "I''m Beatrice, and though we probably won''t meet again, it''s nice to meet you." She extended her hand, which Rayleigh amiably took and shook.


    "Nice to meet you too. Where are we exactly?"


    Beatrice motioned to a wall that had arge map on it. Most of the map was filled out, except for a circle in the middle.


    "This, little Jedi, is a pocket dimension. You don''t know anything about those, right?"


    "Uhhh, let''s say I do not."


    "I figured as much. Before you start on the Mission, I''ll go ahead and exin why Missions are important, what the Tavern does with them, and why you''re here. We''ll start with pocket dimensions. Skipping all the boring stuff, when a Universe is born, it doesn''t always form correctly. There are plenty of times when a new Universe is born that it just fails to form properly, explodes, and its pieces fly away and form countless small spaces which evolve into pocket dimensions. Following me so far?"


    Seeing Rayleigh''s partially dumbfounded face, she continued as if he nodded, "Good. Now, what the Reincarnator''s Tavern does is locate and mine pocket dimensions for resources. That''s where you yerse in."


    "Wait, what? We''re miners? That''s why we''re here?"


    "Yes and no. It is illegal to conscript departed souls and make them work, outside of Hell anyways. Oops, forget I said that. There are morews around all of this than you can believe. Six sses of Reincarnation is a convoluted workaround. Mining is not your job. We do not pay you to mine. Nothing bad happens to you if you refuse to mine. And your primary upation is not Miner. All of these are true, so we are not breaking anyws."


    Pointing out the first thing toe to mind, Rayleigh asked, "Umm. Mission Points don''t count as payment?"


    Beatrice shook her head with a wry smile, "Nope, an in-game currency that cannot be used outside the Tavern doesn''t count. You are not an Employee. This is like a friend asking you for help moving furniture and paying you back by buying you a beer. Legally speaking, this is not a transaction, this is volunteer work. Imagine if someone worked on designing a game like Fallout and was then paid in caps they could use in-game. That''s pretty much doing it for free."


    Little six-year-old Rayleigh jumped onto a wooden chair and leaned back in a half-daze as he digested the new information. "Why though? What do you do with them?"


    Beatrice answered, "The Reincarnator''s Tavern uses the resources mined from pocket dimensions to create new worlds. How do you think the world all of you live in was created? We certainly didn''t find it, and it''s not aputer simtion. That world is just as real as the world you were first born into. It was created using resources mined from pocket dimensions.


    "And it''s not like yers don''t get any real benefits from using points and getting stronger. It is rted to the grand prize. I''m sure you''re wondering what''s in it for you yers right? Well, if you be strong enough, you can be eligible for the Final Mission. Wanna hear what the reward is for that?"


    Rayleigh nodded, his curiosity peaked after hearing that the Tavern could create Universes.


    "The Final Mission''s grand prize is a choice of one of two rewards. First, you can choose to gain ownership of the Universe in which the game takes ce. We made it and we can give it to you. You would basically be its God and be able to do whatever you wanted with it. Second, if that doesn''t appeal to you, you can create your own Universe from scratch. You can make it however you want! But only one yer canplete the Final Mission, so it is firste first serve. That being said, the Final Mission really isn''t easy. The whole game is basically to help yers get strong enough so they can attempt the Final Mission."


    "That''s... That''s a lot."


    Beatrice nodded and sighed. "At least you''ll remember this. Onew when ites to using indirectbor to mine pocket dimensions is Full Disclosure. I have to exin this to everyone, but most fail the Tutorial anyway and don''t remember."


    "Why don''t they remember?"


    Beatrice shrugged nomittally. "It has to do with how mining works. We don''t send you into a pocket dimension with a pickaxe. You are the pickaxe. When you take a Mission, a projection of your current self is sent into the pocket dimension. While there, you need to obtain Information. You can obtain Information by interacting with the pocket dimension. I''ll exin that in a moment. Once you have enough Information, your projection returns to your body in the Tavern. That grants you the memories of the Mission and gives the Tavern the information you mined through your interactions in the pocket dimension, which we reward with Mission Points. Once we have mined enough Information from a pocket dimension, we can directly obtain ownership over it and its resources."


    Rayleigh asked, "So if you die in the pocket dimension, your projection never returns, so you won''t know what happened to it?"


    "That''s right. And it takes resources to send and receive a projection. Most Missions have timers. You can''t be there forever. If you haven''t gotten enough information to recoup the cost of retrieving your projection after a certain point, we''ll just cut the connection. The projection will fade and the Mission will fail."


    "Are you a projection?"


    Beatrice shook her head. "No. I''m here since we already own this pocket dimension. We use it as a tutorial to teach you everything you need to know."


    "Then why have so many yers failed?"


    Beatrice rolled her eyes. "Because you''re only five or six years old! The difficulty of the Tutorial is supposed to be essible by the age of twelve. In Dragonball, twelve-year-old Goku made it to the finals of the World Martial Arts Tournament, and Krillin wasn''t far behind. In Naruto, Ninjas graduate from the academy when they''re twelve and at least know their Academy Three. Twelve-year-old Wizards have at least one year of Hogwarts. Gon already had his Hunter-License when he turned twelve. Any twelve-year-old Jedi is at least a Padawan with their own Master. And anyone who picked Pirate as their Primary ss probably has a Devil Fruit Trial Pass and should be able to get a Devil Fruit before they turn twelve just by trying the trials over and over."


    "But don''t we need Mission Points for a good transfer to a new world? Especially for yers who want to go to Hogwarts."


    Beatrice shrugged uncaringly. "If they put enough effort into it,pleting the Mission and getting enough points for a good transfer by the age of ten is still possible even without good skills or items. Besides, we made it so that transferring into a Magic School after the age of eleven is cheaper if you pick a School in the U.S.A. and go there instead of Hogwarts. It is a massive pain to set things up if thirty, forty, or even fifty yers all go to Hogwarts during Harry''s year, so we try to discourage that as much as possible. And it''s not like you need to Multiss. It''s not impossible toplete the Final Mission with a single ss."


    "Do you think I canplete the Tutorial?"


    "Most likely. A Lightsaber on its own isn''t enough, but that Melee Shield will cover you if you suck too much. Besides, you have a very nice advantage over others when ites to Missions."


    "I do?"


    "Yep. First, let me exin how Information gathering works. Missions are divided into several types of interactions, depending on the Information we need from a pocket dimension. The first is Mapping. This is where you explore an area fully, see everything, and return. This Mission is mainly assigned when a new, unexplored pocket dimension is discovered."


    "Next is Gathering. This is where you collect arge amount of a certain material that we need examples of. Things like herbs, ores, and naturally urring things that form in the pocket dimension."


    "Then we have Killing Missions. Most pocket dimensions evolve some form of life and lifeforms within younger pocket dimensions are usually aggressive. Pocket dimensions can expand by obtaining information as well, so their upants have an innate desire to kill and eat anything that enters the pocket dimension. A Killing Mission is when a group of dangerous pocket dimension natives has been identified and we need you to kill them. By killing them, you are collecting their data which we can use to subdue them. This is required to obtain ownership over a pocket dimension. There are a few more types, but these three are the mostmon."


    Rayleigh asked, "Are there lots of different pocket dimension creatures?"


    "Just call them monsters. And it depends. Pocket dimensions expand and evolve naturally by colliding with other pocket dimensions. The inhabitants will instinctively fight, and one dimension will swallow the other. Sometimes survivors from the losing side will live through this and start popting the winning side, leading to pocket dimensions with different monsters."


    "So what advantage do I have?"


    "Psychometry. Each ss has a skill or talent that really helps with mining, but we can''t tell you that beforehand, and due to certainws, we can''t even offer the skill to others after the game starts. You''re not the only yer to get Psychometry, but no one else will get it in the future, and it''s one of the few Force Skills you cannot learn. You either have it or you don''t. Unlike Psychometry though, the mining skills useful to other sses can be learned manually, except for the Djutsu some Ninja yers missed out on."


    "Why would giving us a skill to help mine be considered illegal?"


    Beatrice pouted and replied, "Stupidws, that''s why. It goes like this: Once you know you are a volunteer miner, if you ask us to give you a better pickaxe to help you mine, and we give it to you, you are no longer legally ssified as a volunteer, but a worker."


    "But why do you need us? Can''t you guys mine them yourselves?"


    She shrugged once more before answering, "It''s an age thing, sorta. The younger your existence, the less contaminated the pocket dimension is when you mine it. Sure, someone like me can go over and obtain all the Information in one go, but the information would be corrupted by my presence and the pocket dimension could either copse or lose its value. Well, that''s not technically urate, but that''s the easiest way to describe it using words you are familiar with."


    Beatrice then pointed at the hole in the middle of the Map and said, "Alright, that about settles it for Full Disclosure and Q&A. Any further questions you can ask at the Tavern. For now, let''s get back to the Mission. The Tutorial Mission requires you to perform one of each type of Mission to get yourself familiar with the basics. You will explore this area fully. You will collect twenty of a certain herb in that area. And you will kill five Goblins."


    "Goblins?"


    "Well, we call them Goblins. They aren''t the same as those beings from Gringotts, but Goblin is easier to say than Ugly Outer Dimensional Horror. All the yers that failed were killed by the Goblins. I can''t give you more hints than that."


    She handed Rayleigh a sheet of paper with a hand-drawn sketch of a strangely shaped nt, which the paper named, ''Star-leaf Herb.''


    Rayleigh asked, "Where should I put the herbs?"


    "They will turn into Data once you pluck them, so don''t worry. Now, get out of here. Time stops here once you''re gone, so the longer you take, the longer I have to wait for the next yer."


    With that, Rayleigh was shooed out of the house.


    He was still quite puzzled by the convoluted exnation. It wasn''t hard to recall the various theories about what the yers thought the Tavern was. Some guessed they had been conscripted, but no one could figure out why. It turns out the Missions were the point all along. Everything else was just some borate workaround. To be honest, the big reveal even felt a bit hollow. He almost wanted toin. Where was the mystery, the conspiracy, the hidden plots in the shadows? Turns out there was a downside to knowing all the answers.


    There was only one thing that felt a bit off. Although she answered Rayleigh, he felt ack of sincerity from her. She only answered the questions he brought up, and he doubted she would have volunteered to give any of that information if he hadn''t asked. Honestly, to a certain degree, he now had even more questions than before. Who wrote thosews that protect the dead? How are they enforced to ensure other parties don''t cheat? What if everything he was just told was a lie?


    The main reason he felt ack of sincerity was the fact that all of this useful information was given in a way that many yers would lose ess to it. Was it a reward for stronger yers? Favoritism for those with better builds? Were they intentionally sabotaging the yers from the start so they could not get points too fast?


    Although all these questions floated through his head for a moment, he elected to discard them. None would help himplete the Mission and even if he knew the answer to all of them, it would neither grant arge advantage nor improve the quality of his life. He was already living a more interesting life than he was before. Why pollute gratitude with pointless usations and suspicion? Until he saw the Tavern actually do something bad, he''d just be grateful to them and have fun.


    This was a habit from his old life. In order to be as cheap as possible in his previous life, he''d rationalized away any form of greed he once possessed. It was because of this that he didn''t tread on the path to seek restitution for perceived sleights. He was many things, a Karen was not one of them. Besides, for all he knew, they could''ve just beenzy. Any yer at the Tavern who seeds in the First Mission could exin this to everyone who didn''t. If they had some evil scheme, that would make it pointless, wouldn''t it?


    For now, he has a Mission toplete. And he had a strong feeling it would not be as simple as she exined.

 Chapter 8: The Tutorial’s Trap

    Chapter 8: The Tutorial¡¯s Trap


    Chapter 8 The Tutorial''s Trap


    Although Rayleigh had been unceremoniously kicked out of the stone house, he had more than enough time to memorize the map and the hole in the middle he was supposed to be scouting. The path in front of the house would lead directly there if he walked at a normal pace for a few hours. This pocket dimension was massive, and the map in the house didn''t seem to show everything, just what was close by.


    Except for the sky, the area looked like a standard forest one would find in the Northern Hemisphere, with a single well-trodden path leading through a gap between the trees.


    Before moving forward, Rayleigh got his Mandalorian Melee Shield out of his inventory and equipped it on his wrist. It required a button to be pressed, and it would activate for 200 seconds. Rayleigh then got out his lightsaber.


    At the moment, Rayleigh''s lightsaber did not look like it originally did when he first obtained it from his inventory. This was due to the Lightsaber Customization Kit and HK-47''s help. HK-47 had watched numerous Jedi and Sith assemble, disassemble, repair, modify, customize, and optimize their lightsabers into almost every conceivable configuration. When Rayleigh asked how to make a Lightsaber pistol, HK-47 easily walked him through the steps toplete the modification.


    Although a Lightsaber Pistol had a much shorter range than a standard ster, it was still a ranged weapon. For Rayleigh, who had not learned Telekinesis in his first two years of training, this was a great advantage.


    Of course, a Lightsaber Pistol was not a ster Pistol. The energy was basically converted into an electrical bolt which dispersed into the air after a few meters, and even if it struck something, it would only stun them with its current, not kill or greatly harm them. Against strong or well-armoredbatants, this was useless, but Rayleigh doubted the Goblins would be heavily armored or immune to being stunned.


    He reached the halfway point a little over an hour after starting, but not long after he began to feel ufortable. A stifling pressure could be felt as if the air had an irritating scent to it. His right hand stayed over the activation button on his left arm''s wrist-mounted Melee Shield in case of anything unexpected, but the quiet atmosphere was getting to him.


    The Forest was empty. No birds, small animals, or insects. There was wind for some reason, so the only sound other than his footsteps was the rustling of the leaves that surrounded him in all directions.


    On instinct, Rayleigh hit the button on his Melee Shield, and an instantter, he was covered in a humming field of energy.


    A strong force struck the back of his shoulder, throwing him off bnce as a high-pitched shriek sounded around him.


    Rayleigh turned quickly to find the source of the sound but noticed toote that it was from directly above him as a midnight-ck creature fell from the tree while holding a spear pointed at his chest.


    Rayleigh froze. Though the inky ck-skinned needle-toothed figure would not be consideredrge to an adult, Rayleigh was here as a child. Even if he had the mind of an adult, in the eyes of a child, everything isrger and scarier than it would be to an adult. A child''s brain chemistry allowed their imagination to expand, and though Rayleigh thought he had been mentally prepared, he underestimated the influence being a child would have on him.


    Even back in Tython, he had never been attacked by any creatures. He had not been allowed to go near anything that could endanger his life, and though the sparring sessions with Master Dyanameez taught him how to react when he was injured, he never experienced fear during those sessions.


    It was something the Jedi Master had never counted on. All children fear pain. If something inflicts pain on them, they will instinctively fear it. She intended to use those sessions to get Rayleigh to experience fear and ovee it. But Rayleigh never feared her. She assumed it was because he had a good mindset, but it was simply because most adults are somewhat used to pain. In his past life, due to some medical issues, Rayleigh and pain were well acquainted, and since he was cheap, he had endured rather than pay for painkillers. So Rayleigh never feared pain, it was just another facet of life.


    What Rayleigh faced now, though, wasn''t pain, it was the promise of death. This was not something he had truly experienced in this life, and through the mind of a child, this experience was magnified manifoldpared to anything he expected it to be. The hideous creature swelled in size to gargantuan proportions in his mind, though it was just getting closer as it fell.


    Unsurprisingly, the ck Goblinnded on Rayleigh, forcing all its weight into the sharpened wooden spear it held. Rayleigh was harshly mmed to the ground, but the wooden stick slid off the humming Mandalorian Melee Shield just as the arrow that struck his shoulder had done before. Neither was close enough to deplete the Melee Shield that could hold against three or four blows from the sharpest Echani de.


    Though he froze up, the impact from being smacked to the ground and his rapidly beating heart woke him up, and he instinctively ignited his Lightsaber and swiped it past the creature, easily bisecting it.


    Rayleigh then rolled to get out from under the dismembered body parts and five more Goblins ambushed him. Two jumped down from the trees while two more that had hidden behind other trees ran at him from ground level. Thest was still up in the trees as Rayleigh spotted it readying an arrow on a makeshift bow.


    Going from a roll into an upright stance was something he''d practiced more than once from all the times Dyanameez had knocked him down in their daily sparring sessions, and the moment two of the ugly buggers that came from behind the trees were close, a sweeping of his de had dispatched them, leaving only the pair that had justnded from their tree jumps at his level.


    Rayleigh was moving on instinct and muscle memory at this point, not allowing himself to process exactly what was happening.


    The pair of Goblins jumped at Rayleigh as ifpletely unaware of the fates of their fallenrades, and another sweep of his sword felled them as well.


    Rayleigh felt something in the Force and was met by a strong blow to the head. The bow-using Goblin timed Rayleigh''s ughter of the remaining Goblins to align a perfect headshot at where he knew Rayleigh would be. Or it would have been had Rayleigh''s Melee Shield not still been active. Once again, the sharpened wooden arrow only imparted its force through the shield without pration before ncing off to the side as if it had struck a solid steel helmet.


    Rayleigh regained his stance after the blow and pointed the pistol opening of his lightsaber''s handle at the elevated Goblin before pulling the secondary trigger that fired a stun bolt. The Goblin''s position in the tree was high, but not that high, so it wasn''t difficult to shoot when it wasn''t expecting to be hit.


    The blue bolt struck the Goblin, causing it to yelp a bit before freezing up and falling out of the tree. Itnded with a thud but was still alive. A swing of his ignited de quickly changed that.


    Rayleigh looked around several times, up and down, to confirm there was nothing left. That pressure he''d been feeling from the Force was also gone, giving him a sign that the danger had passed.


    It was only at this moment that Rayleigh realized something was odd. He was smiling. He had been grinning from the moment he got up after freezing until now. Once he realized this, he could only remark, "Fuck."


    It''s easy to look down on certain stereotypes when reading. One type that was usually looked down on was the battle junkie. The character who went out of his way to fight people strong enough to kill him. Why did those idiots do so? Because they were the types who got stronger through battle.


    Rayleigh easily understood that no amount of practice was the same as the real thing, but greatly underestimated how much improvement he could feel from experiencing a real battle. The rush of adrenalinebined with the feeling of getting stronger? It was addicting.


    After thinking about it for a moment, Rayleigh just epted it. There are some aspects of yourself you can''t know without certain experiences. In his previous life, Rayleigh had never been in a fight outside of the martial sparring of some of the martial arts and weapons sses he''d enrolled in every few years to avoid growing into a potato. He had dynamic vision, which helped, but he never experienced a life-and-death fight he couldn''t run away from, so the feeling of using his talents, the rush of walking the line between life and death, and the feeling of growing stronger after such a match waspletely foreign to him. Until now, that is.


    Once his Melee Shield timed out, Rayleigh touched the ground of the path he had been walking along and used Psychometry. He honestly felt like an idiot for not doing this earlier. Psychometry is one of the best skills for tracking.


    From the ground, Rayleigh saw the memories of the path. He saw ambush after ambush.


    Only now did Rayleigh understand the problem. This was not an Instance Dungeon. This was not a game. This was the same area where all the other yers had their Tutorials and the Goblins were not NPCs.


    Every time a yer died or finished the Tutorial Mission, this world froze. That meant, from the perspective of the Goblins, there was a continuous stream of yers who arrived, one after another, on the exact same path. What could be easier to ambush?


    The Mission was to map out an area about ten timesrger than a football field. A big area, but not that big. The mission was also to collect twenty Star-leaf Herbs in that area and kill five Goblins. The problem was that it was almost implied that the Goblins were only in the area to be mapped as well, which caused Rayleigh and the others to assume there would be no encounters until they arrived. That was obviously not the case.


    There were too many presumptions that worked against them. Goblins ambushing from the trees? Goblins using Bows and Arrows? Some lucky or observant yers may have spotted them and attacked correctly, but most would not even think to look up there. In literature, Goblins usually lived in caves, and Rayleigh couldn''t think of a single book with Goblins where they jumped down from trees. What was worse was that he should have expected it! If he was a Goblin here, he''d do the exact same thing!


    Rayleigh wasn''t used to using the Force to feel danger. In Form I, a youngling was introduced to using the Force to feel the flow ofbat, when to press and yield to efficiently use your energy when attacking and defending. A Master of Form I could sense danger through the flow of the Force, but he was far from a Master, and younglings were usually directly taught such things in Forms II and III.


    At this thought, Rayleigh smiled once more and had an idea. He did not know Forms II and III and was not a Master of Form I. But he did have a copy of Master Dyanameez''s Form I. It existed in his head as an image of waves crashing on the beach, but the flow and pattern contained Master Dyanameez''splete understanding of Form I.


    Rayleigh was not a droid. Though he had the image in his head, he could not simply apply it to himself through meditation. Installing it required something more. The best way to do so was to practice Form I while holding the image in his head, but now he had a better idea. There was nothing better than livebat for learning, so he would Install it while fighting Goblins. The shock of fear he''d experienced before had already turned into anticipation. It was time to hunt.


    As a rule, Jedi do not kill. The Force exists within all living beings and to kill the living is to weaken the Force. The Jedi serve the Force, so killing is avoided if possible. But did these Goblins count?


    Rayleigh took a closer look at the deformed creatures thaty dead at his feet. They did not look like any form of Goblin he had seen before and understood why their original name was Ugly Outer Dimensional Horror. Their limbs were thin but had bulbous tumor-like growths. The growths were in different locations for each creature, with some having far more than others.


    After a little bit of internal debate, Rayleigh touched one of the corpses and used Psychometry once more.


    Though not immune to killing intent and the fear of death, Rayleigh waspletely desensitized to violence, so the horrors he saw in the memories of the flesh of the Goblin weren''t worse than an episode of Happy Tree Friends or Simpson''s Treehouse of Horror.


    The scenes and information he gained were highly unpleasant, but they answered his questions. These creatures were living and, for some reason, had enough Midichlorians for him to feel before they died, but he did not consider them alive in the same way most animals were. Not after what he saw.


    The Goblins were not born from a momma Goblin. They arose from the ground like nt sprouts and broke through the soil in some areas, fully grown. They did not value life either, neither their own nor each other. That''s why they could suicidally attack him when they clearly saw theirrades die.


    The Goblin corpses would be absorbed by the ground and directed elsewhere. Sometimeter, new Goblins would emerge. They would not inherit memory or anything, but these Goblins were aware of this, so their deaths didn''t matter. The number of Goblins wouldn''t change over a long period of time without destroying the bodies thoroughly.


    Rayleigh easily justified that this was a loophole in the Jedi dogma, meaning he could ughter to his addiction''s content and fully digest Master Dyanamaeez''s Form I before he finished the Mission. This was a good opportunity for it since other Missions had a time limit, but it seemed the Tutorial Mission did not.


    His Melee Shield still had four more charges and he would have to save one, so that meant he could have three more fights and he needed to make them count. Rayleigh broke off from the only path through the forest and started looking for Goblin paths. He wasn''t a tracker, but he could touch the ground every few meters and use Psychometry to check for Goblins. Eventually, he found a path the Goblins themselves seemed to use and traced it back to its source. He wasn''t interested in a small group of four or five Goblins. He wanted a bigger prize.


    Even without any tracking experience, Rayleigh''s abuse of the broken ability that was Psychometry led him to a Goblin camp that had ten Goblins. The camp did not have tents or houses, but piles of coarse stones used to sharpen pieces of wood. Thankfully, they were not the types of rocks that got pointy when you broke them, which exins theck of stone points on the arrows and spears and theck of stone knives.


    Though he tried to be quiet, the inky-skinned creatures noticed him almost immediately and started screeching, alerting the others. Rayleigh hit the activation button on his Shield and ignited his lightsaber.


    Rather than charge the Goblins, he took a step back to hide behind a tree, exiting the line of sight of the remaining Goblins and inviting them toe to him. Form I did not have a lot of footwork, so he needed to set himself up in an advantageous position before the fight began. The tree he was next to was one of therger, thicker ones and didn''t have too many low-hanging branches for the Goblins to quickly climb up to.


    Once the first pair of Goblins rounded the tree, sharpened sticks in hand, Rayleigh fully immersed himself into the image of Dyanameez''s Form I and began swinging.


    Eight of the Goblins had chosen toe around to his side of the tree while the remaining pair ran to his back. None of them thought to climb the tree, and none of them grabbed a bow or arrows.


    Form I was not created for one-on-one duels, but for battlefields. Being surrounded by enemies was the exact environment it was designed for.


    Without looking, Rayleigh felt the pressure of a nudge in the Force for when to jump forward at the moment the Goblins behind him tried to stab him in the back. He moved forward when he shed and backward to dodge or vice versa against the attacksing from behind. Some sharpened spears still managed to strike him, but they nced off to the side thanks to his Shield.


    The Goblins rarely aimed for the head or heart, they just struck whatever was closest and easiest to hit. Repeat strikes or an unlucky blow would disable the victim, leaving them helpless against the group. If you were surrounded andcked experience, arge group of Goblins could kill an unarmored professional.


    Rayleigh found it strange that, although not the brightest fighters, they didn''t fight like morons either. They never swung their sharpened sticks, only lunged, stabbed, and jump-stabbed. The sticks weren''t freshly broken and flexible either, they were hard and their sharpened tips were more than enough to break the skin and inflict debilitating wounds.


    Ironically, thesepletely straightforward attacks were perfect to ''install'' Form I against.


    Besides the two behind him, which he would dodge by stepping forward at the right times, the other eight were easily dispatched from the front. The only unexpected thing they''d do on asion was jump over the corpses of their fallenrades, but Rayleigh was getting the hang of feeling the tide of the fight enough to position himself advantageously before their jumps and cleave them into pieces before their spears could reach him.


    The remaining pair that Rayleigh left forst but did not kill, at least right away. His Shieldsted two hundred seconds, and it had only been about thirty. He wasn''t going to waste time by killing his sparring partners when he had a good chance to use them.


    Rayleigh kept his back to the tree as thest two lumpy Goblins jumped around and tried over and over to stab him. One stabbed into the tree so hard the stick shattered, but a shattered stick was just as pointed as a sharpened one, so it only reduced the Goblin''s range a bit.


    After about a minute of ying around, Rayleigh felt he wouldn''t be able to make any more progress with just two Goblins, so he took off their heads and checked the area for reinforcements.


    One downside of the Shield was that it was not quiet. It hummed louder than an average talking voice and made it difficult to hear anything around him while it was active. It would also prevent him from sneaking while using it, so he had to time its activation wisely.


    Once Rayleigh confirmed there were no more Goblins in the area, he moved on. Despite the fact that the location was in the woods, the area he was told to map out was more of a valley based on the topography of the map he saw. As long as he was going downhill, he knew it was in the correct direction.


    Rayleigh found another Goblin campsite, this time with eight Goblins. Rather than approach, Rayleigh backed away and looked for a good confrontation area.


    He also wanted to try bringing out a distraction from his inventory.


    [Query. Have you finally departed from those annoying Jedi?]


    "No, I want to see how useful you can be as a head."


    [Deration. I do not believe I am going to like this.]


    "Just count to thirty and start yelling really loudly."


    [Commentary. I once believed I had reached the lowest point in my existence. I was wrong.]


    Rayleigh chuckled and left the droid head at a spot behind a tree from the line of sight of the camp and slowly made his way over to the camp''s other side. The n was to draw them over to HK-47''s head, then attack from behind.


    A minuteter, the forest remained silent.


    Rayleigh tried to return back to the location of the head but was noticed by one of the Goblins who again shrieked as loudly as it could, signaling the start of thebat.


    The Melee Shield was activated once more, but things became trickier when two of the Goblins picked up a pair of bows. Rayleigh kept both the archer wannabes in sight while the remaining six charged at him together. As long as he didn''t dodge or side-step, they would not bother spreading out or trying to surround him. Rayleigh couldn''t get them to stab each other, but besides that tiny bit of awareness, each one fought without any sense of tactics or teamwork.


    Rayleigh prolonged the fight for two minutes before killing most of them. Before the end, he was finally able to figure out the trick to positioning his lightsaber to block the iing arrows. He had to be careful though, as arrows bent back and forth repeatedly in flight, so if he aligned the block wrong, the arrow could literally flex past the glowing de. He learned that lesson the hard way.


    Before the Shield''s timer ran out, Rayleigh charged the bow using Goblins and finished them off.


    With thest of the Goblins in, Rayleigh confirmed there wasn''t any pressure on him, which meant there wasn''t any danger close by. He walked back over to HK-47''s head, and before reaching it, the head started talking. Loudly.


    [Recitation. SURRENDER YOURSELF MEATBAGS! THROW YOURSELVES ON THE MERCY OF MY MASTER AND YOUR DEATHS WILL BE SWIFT AND PAINLESS.]


    Rayleigh had approached from behind, so he wasn''t seen. "Yeah. That was five minutes ago."


    [rification. My internal timer shows an psed time of thirty seconds since themand was given.]


    Rayleigh considered this and ordered, "Count aloud, keep counting until I tell you to stop."


    [Statement. Ah, as if demanding an assassin droid to draw attention was not demeaning enough, now I am reduced to a timer. 1. 2. 3. 4...]


    Rayleigh started walking away, but after getting a few meters from the droid, the counting stopped. He tested this by walking closer and the counting resumed from where it left off. Rayleigh circled the head and confirmed that the head basically turned off when he was three meters from it. It didn''t take long to figure out why. It was a Nerf.


    HK-47''s head didn''t require a power source or recharge, but if it worked at any distance, he could use it for reconnaissance or remote detonation. He could mail it to a target, then turn off the projection, turn it back on, and have it return to him with all the info it learned. He could hide it at a location and have it act as a security camera. This restriction nerfed those, but he felt he might be able to get around them if he gave the murder-happy robot a body and an external power source. Something to consider.


    Rayleigh turned on his Lightsaber and set it on the ground to perform the same test. The Lightsaber did not turn off, but in the forest, he could not walk more than twenty meters without losing line of sight from it, so he couldn''t guarantee if there was a limit that was further out.


    Most of the image of Form I had been digested, and he only needed one more fight to finish. He would not be able to use it perfectly as Master Dyanameez could, at least not right away, but the remainder of the assimtion would just require practice, and that was something he didn''t need to kill things to do.


    Rayleigh didn''t feel like carrying HK''s head, so he turned off the projection and continued downhill. Not too far from the campsite was something of a clearing where the trees became more sparse and the ground leveled out, showing it was the valley Rayleigh was tasked with exploring.


    There were plenty of those Star-leaf herbs spread throughout the grass, but Rayleigh felt the pressure of danger and kept quiet. He tried just remaining motionless while looking around, but he couldn''t tell where the danger was or if it was close by.


    Rayleigh decided there was no need to be subtle. He turned on his Lightsaber and stabbed into a tree, slowly burning through it until the whole three started to creak. Rayleigh ran back up the hill, and momentster, the tree crashed into the grassy de. Several hidden Goblins stood up and ran over to check it out. Once Rayleigh could see them, he shouted, "Hey! Up here!"


    Unsurprisingly, the Goblin shrieked and charged. He didn''t know where the Goblin Archers were hidden, but he knew there were none behind him, so he''d rather the Goblinse to him than have him walk over to them.


    Rayleigh did not turn on the Shield. Only under the threat of death could he force himself to fully immerse himself in that mental image.


    Rayleigh had distanced himself a bit from that death trap, but he could already see more than a dozen Goblins running at him from the grass. Were they just lying there? Some of the grass was much thicker than other spots, making it easy for the short Goblins to hide.


    A movement in the air caught his eye, and he saw a Goblin with a bow on its back jump from one tree to another. But it wasn''t like a monkey; it was sloppy, loud, and almost fell. A momentter, another Goblin did in fact fall while trying to jump from tree to tree and hit the ground with a crunch.


    Rayleigh kept the archers in the corner of his eye as the group of Goblins raised their sharpened sticks and besieged him.


    This time he wasn''t going to draw it out. A step forward to throw off the timing of a Goblin''s thrust, a sh, a step back to move out of the way from a Goblin running at him from the side, a step back to dodge the follow-up Goblin with a sh to behead it, causing its body to fall into the spear of another Goblin. Take a step forward, raise the lightsaber to block an iing arrow, and follow through with a downward slice and back step to kill another Goblin.


    Rayleigh tilted his body on instinct and bent to the side as an arrow flew past his shoulder, shot from behind. He hadn''t even noticed that Goblin. Three Goblins charged from three different directions. A quick sh destroyed the spear on his side, giving him room to lean in that direction and avoid the spears from the other side, giving him an opening to sh that pair. The Goblin he was about to collide with opened its mouth and lunged for Rayleigh''s shoulder with its needle-like teeth, but Rayleigh grabbed its arm with his other hand and threw it overhead into the ground. Training with wrist weights gave him more than a little arm strength.


    The key to mastering Form I was to customize it to suit your needs during a fight. It was the oldest Lightsaber Form and had the deepest history, but was often neglected for theter forms specifically created to be used with a lightsaber.


    Rayleigh''s attacks sped up as the Goblins rushed him, but each was brought down in a single swing. When the final Goblin fell, Rayleigh aimed for the archer in the tree and fired. And missed. And fired again, this time urately. He knew he''d have to take more time to practice his aim one of these days. The stunned Goblin hit the ground and was finished off before the pressure of dangerpletely vanished.


    Rayleigh used Psychometry on a dozen different areas to basically guess what happened. It was bad luck.


    Every time a yer failed the Tutorial, the Goblins who killed him would be on high alert. There had been at least nine or ten failures in a row before he showed up, causing every Goblin in the area to enter this zone. Having killed everything, Rayleigh effectively reset the difficulty, so as long as the next yers didn''t screw up, everything would probably be okay for them.


    Once he walked the entire field, Rayleigh picked up twenty of the Star-leaf herbs that were scattered everywhere, and a momentter, found himself back in the Tavern with his hand on the Mission Sheet.


    [First Mission Completed!


    No points awarded.]


    Rayleigh was somewhat disappointed that he didn''t get any mission points, but he gained plenty from the Tutorial so he wasn''t going toin. Too much.


    Without any fanfare, Rayleigh walked back down to the first floor of the Tavern. You could only do a single Mission a week, so Rayleigh would not see any of the avable Missions as anything but ck pages for the next seven days.


    The idea of keeping the information from the Tutorial to himself was considered. It was what everyone else had done. But he had no reason to. He doubted he''d get strong enough for that Final Mission if he didn''t have any strongpetition.


    Rayleigh returned to his seat and stated aloud, "Alright everyone, here''s what happened."


    A number of yers seated further away got up, and Rayleigh''s table was quickly surrounded. Rayleigh then exined the Tutorial. The details such as the Data Mining, the Final Mission, and the fact that this entire thing was basically a scheme to get around afterlifews were skipped. Rayleigh didn''t mind warning others, but the details of the Tavern''s setup were far too much of a hassle to exin.


    Rayleigh told everyone they did the Mission at their Character''s age and exined the dangers of the Goblins, the ambushes, and the fact that multiple consecutive failures caused the Mission to get more difficult, and gave a brief exnation of the types of Missions. He added that the Tutorial Mission did not award Points, so passing or failing didn''t mean much as it was just experience.


    With that, a number of yers ran to the wall to take the Mission. Since Rayleigh reset the difficulty, it would be easiest for the first person to get it. Some yers got in the way of others on the stairs and imed they should be first since if someone failed, they would make it harder for others. No one listened, and someone wearing Ninja clothes was able to run past the mob and get the Mission. A momentter, he lifted his hand from the poster and gave the room a very awkward look. The Tavern was then filled with the sound of cursing.


    Rayleigh shrugged. If someone without any skill thought they could pass the Mission on easy mode, that was on them if they failed. Rayleigh did his part.


    Two more yers that looked reasonably confident tried the Mission. This time they both seeded. They confirmed what Rayleigh shared was urate and even gave their advice for avoiding Goblins and killing them one at a time if you didn''t have a weapon.


    From that point onward, Rayleigh would not be a nameless figure in the Tavern and he''d even earned a bit of goodwill from the other yers. Some red at him, the ones who had passed the Tutorial and knew the secret but kept it to themselves. Rayleigh didn''t consider them his opponents in the future. Only those brave enough to wee a challenge would be worth fighting. One''s mental state had a far greater impact than a lot of the yers acknowledged. This wasn''t a game after all.

 Chapter 9: The Parting of Ways

    Chapter 9: The Parting of Ways


    Chapter 9 The Parting of Ways


    Nine-year-old Rayleigh ran through the air from tree branch to tree branch. Though he wore 250 kilograms of weight, the sturdy stems and branches of the ancient trees more than supported his mass in the instant he passed over each one on his way across the valley.


    Much had changed for Rayleigh in the three years since he started taking Missions. He could almost reach 45% of his top speed while wearing the fifty-kilogram vest and a fifty-kilogram weight on both wrists and each ankle.


    Rayleigh would spend two hours a day twice a week moving through the Forest at his fastest speed and two hours on a different day of the week, moving through the forest carrying as much weight as he could without being slowed by more than two-thirds.


    His training cycle was like that of a slingshot. Record his fastest speed, determine enough weight to slow him to 35~40% of that speed, train with those weights until he could reach 50% of that speed, remove the weights, and then record his new fastest speed and redo the cycle.


    Thankfully he was free from the limitations of the campsite. He''d convinced the Jedi to remove his restriction by disying his ability to make friends with the local wildlife.


    Beasts such as the Guid, Manka Cat, and Uxibeast were not exceptionally violent as long as you didn''t provoke them first or make yourself look like dinner. The Horranth and Wingmaw were another story.


    Rayleigh had to prove each was not a threat before he was allowed to go out without supervision.


    Horranths were like lizard pigs, though three timesrger than a boar,cking in back legs, and had far sharper teeth. They could easily outrun most humans, but Rayleigh''s speed and his ability to rapidly ascend trees and rock walls were enough to remove their threat. It helped that Horranths stayed around their own territories, so as long as he avoided those, they were never an issue.


    Wingmaws were the size of vultures, looked kind of like small gargoyles, and were almost asmon as pigeons in big cities due to theirck of natural predators. They were never found alone, and when hungry, a swarm anywhere from three to several dozen in size would descend upon a chosen target and quickly strip it of its meat. They had an insect hive mentality and if one was attacked, it would cry out, spelling death for its attacker, as every Wingmaw in the area that heard its cry woulde for flesh and blood. Wingmaws, however, preferredrge, slow-moving, ground-based targets. They had a habit of only attacking if all the Wingmaws in a group looked at the same target at the same moment for a long period of time. As long as he didn''t stop moving, they wouldn''t be interested in his meager portion of flesh.


    Guids were simr to apes but twice as tall, even hunched over, with longer, more powerful forearms, and giant heads with massive jaws. They were herbivores though, and not particrly territorial. Even if you walked by one, it wouldn''t care as long as you didn''t try to hurt it.


    Manka Cats looked like a cross between a boar and a lion and had a pride mentality. As long as he didn''t approach a hungry group or act like a jerk, they didn''t take the initiative to attack him since he didn''t look like anything they usually hunted. Rayleigh even made friends with the local pride by bringing them meat every once in a while. The lion-like manes of the males were incredibly fluffy, and he''d had more than a few sleepovers where he napped under the starry sky with a pile of fluffy Manka Cats. The only tricky part was avoiding the tusks.


    Uxibeast looked simr to bison, but were about four times the size of a bull and their horns were evenrger. They had a pack mentality, with their younger members always being protected by theirrger, stronger members. They were easily provoked and agitated, but Rayleigh demonstrated his skill with them by climbing up the fur on one of them andying on its back. The same massive beast did not let any of the Jedi near it, but it didn''t react violently to Rayleigh in the slightest.


    Faced with all these crazy antics and theck of Force Storms in thest few years, the Jedi reluctantly allowed Rayleigh more freedom to go off on his own. That was about six months ago. At the time, the most he could assign to all his weights without slowing down massively was twenty kilograms. He usually used a pair of 35-kilogram wrist weights when sparring, but he couldn''t run at a quarter of his full speed with a 35-kilogram vest, wrist, and ankle weights. Now, even the fifty-kilogram wrist weights didn''t affect his Lightsaber practice.


    After finishing up with Form I, Rayleigh spent six months apiece learning Forms II, III, IV, and V. He then spent thest year practicing Form VI, and since he could do so away from camp, he did it with his own lightsaber rather than the training saber he was usually assigned.


    As with Form I, Rayleigh copied Master Dyanameez''s image of each form''s concept while slowly learning the basics himself. None of them were as simple and easy to install as Form I even during Missions. He''d been trying to integrate them all into his own Form VI butcked the spark of inspiration to try it so far. But even without turning himself into a copy of Dyanameez, his own practice with each of the six Forms had exceeded what was required of an Initiate.


    When Master Dyanameez first saw Rayleigh running through the trees, he could have sworn he saw something inside her die, and every once in a while he would hear her mutter the words, ''monkey child,'' to herself. He didn''t really care. There were two reasons he continued with this form of training.


    The first was inspired by an episode of Samurai Jack where Jack learned to Jump Good. Though not entirely realistic, the ability to physically improve oneself until one was capable of leaping great heights was incredibly important for a Swordsman. The power of a mighty sword does not originate from the wrists, arms, or waist. It came from the ground through the feet and ankles, and was transferred through the joints into the limbs and through the de''s edge. The ability to Jump Good would vastly increase his Swordsmanship foundation if he wanted to fight like Samuari Jack and Kenshin Himura.


    The second reason was a piece of information he learned from a Ninja yer in the General Chat. They apparently yed Tag in the trees, making what was a difficult training exercise for him into a casual children''s game for them. He couldn''t be sure if they were trolling, but due to this and reason number one, Rayleigh decided he would perform the same training so the Ninjas would not leave him behind.


    He even tried to add to the training in every way he could think of. While jumping from tree to tree, he would add front flips, back flips, side flips, spins, rolls, hops, controlled falls, bounces, cartwheels, and go through multiple trees backward or solely on his hands. He was quite a spectacle for observing wildlife. Some days, he would pull out his Lightsaber and go through multiple Velocities along the way, usually from Form IV. It gave him shbacks of Tony Hawk''s Pro Skater. He would internally count up points for every trick and continuously try to beat his high score.


    Rayleigh''s path through the forest spanned several kilometers and ended near thending pad where the Jedi parked the shuttle. If he wasn ''t wearing the weights, he''d turn back and return to camp. Since this session included his weights, he jumped over the cliff overlooking the waterfall and dived into the river beneath. He would then sink to the bottom and start to meditate at the base of the falls. The rolling waters battered him in every direction, and only the weight of his training gear prevented him from getting swept away.


    Normal humans could hold their breath for two or three minutes if they were out of practice, and five or six minutes if they practiced enough. Rayleigh''s aim was a bit higher. He used the Force skill, Breath Control, to directly shut off his body''s need for oxygen and practically put himself into stasis.


    After a body has exercised for a long period, it builds up acids that destroy the muscles. When new muscles are grown after the acids are washed away, they are stronger than the old ones. Oxygen is the key element needed to remove those acids from his body, so shutting down his ability to use oxygen right after exercising drastically extended the amount of damage his exercise did to his body. Force Healing costs a Jedi their lifespan, so it should not be used to instantly heal from exercise-based damage like this, but maintaining a constant connection to the Force did speed up the recovery, allowing Rayleigh to do something this crazy once a week.


    Although masters of Breath Control could hold their breath for hours or days, Rayleigh was not a master and was certainly not using the skill as intended, so his limit was about fifteen minutes. At that point, Rayleigh opened up his Menu and disabled his weights, causing them to vanish off his body, leading the currents to whisk him away.


    The pounding of the water beneath the falls hammered every centimeter of his flesh evenly, which was part two of this insane training regime. It was something he''d read in a few Light Novels, and though he wasn''t sure if the pressure would actually strengthen his internal organs, he was at least quite certain it was strengthening his skin, muscles, and bones.


    After a few minutes in the power wash under the falls, Rayleigh used the Force to propel himself out of the cycling current and to the surface, where he took a much-needed breath of fresh air. Then he dived back down and started swimming, beneath the water''s surface, back to camp. One nice thing about the Tythos River was itsck of predators, making it quite safe, rtively speaking.


    Once free of the pounding currents, Rayleigh would swim at max speed along the river to see if he could make it all the way back to camp in a single breath. He had yet to seed, but he was already able to swim a full kilometer on that breath, which was much better than where he started.


    Rayleigh hadpleted most of his Initiate Studies and, outside of personal training and meditation, spent the rest of his time either helping the team or using Psychometry.


    He used Psychometry for transcribing 90% of the time. Papers, documents, stone tablets, and physical hand-written logs did not withstand the test of time, but when Rayleigh touched them, he could see the author writing down the information in front of him and he would directly transcribe what was being written. He could even feel the emotions and intent of the one writing it and add notations on various elements of the writing that were unclear, though such notations were not always appreciated.


    On asion, he''d be asked to use Psychometry on an artifact, but it was rare. The team was extremely picky when it came to what to allow and not allow him to use Psychometry on. Still, there was no end to the documents discovered, and Rayleigh had to be extremely careful in handling them as his transcription was worthless unless paired with the source material.


    One of the more interesting discoveries was that several of the Stone Pirs in a few meditation rooms had words engraved into them. They had been worn smooth, but Rayleigh''s gift allowed him to see and transcribe what was once written into them, as they had been carved by the hand of a Jedi Master.


    He was effectively a video camera that could record the past.


    There was a limit, though, and Master Dyanameez imed he was not to use Psychometry for more than two hours a day to prevent himself from being permanently affected by what he connected to.


    Outside of using Psychometry, every member of the team had tasks for him to perform.


    Master Viz used Rayleigh to bounce off ideas, having found that the little human had a unique perspective and would oftene up with out-of-the-box insights about a problem. Though they were technically there to learn about the Jedi who made this temple their home thousands of years ago, Master Viz usually went off on a tangent and would end up discussing the Je''daii of thirty thousand years ago. He often asked about Rayleigh''s training and wondered if this was how the Je''daii younglings trained. Rayleigh doubted it, as he had a Chat Room to stave off boredom and memories of a past life to draw inspiration from.


    Master Drista organized and repaired everything. Rayleigh was happy to assist when asked as the Twi''lek Jedi would passively teach him how the technology worked. Rayleigh felt he might one day try to build a body for HK-47, so he always paid attention to the dry and dull technical exnations of how things worked and how to fix them.


    On asion, Master Drista would also tell him stories. Not just about the Jedi, or the past, but the current Jedi as well. ording to Master Drista, the current Jedi Grandmaster, Grandmaster Yoda, had a hobby. He was secretly a Master Pastry Chef. When he was especially proud of a group of Younglings, he would cook up a batch of cookies, cakes, or small but delicious sweets for them. His signature recipe was his Special Baked Sweet Story Custard Cakes. He insisted that when sharing them, everyone who ate one had to tell a small story about a time they overcame some hardship before eating it.


    What Master Drista imed was interesting was that no one else could make those pastries like Yoda. The recipe wasn''t difficult, but Master Drista imed Yoda used the Force while cooking to add something special to the vor.


    Using the Force to vor sweet treats is probably not something the Jedi Code would approve of, but no one questions the Jedi Grandmaster, so he can get away with it easily. Master Drista imed Yoda probably only did so when cooking for others and doubted his personalized meals were as special.


    Though disappointed that Rayleigh was an anti-civilization monkey child, Master Dyanameez didn''t change how she treated him. As the leader of this team, she documented their group''s daily activities, sent and received messages to and from Coruscant, and directed the team on what projects they would do next while approving or rejecting suggested project ideas. Most of Rayleigh''s assistance to her was used to organize electronic documents. She''d often use the time to tell him stories of her own past. Before bing the Head of the Exploration Corps, Master Dyanameez had once found a cache of Dark Side relics and tried to learn from them for the benefit of the Jedi, behind the council''s back. She almost turned to the Dark Side before she realized the danger, which was why she was always hard on Rayleigh. She wanted to make sure he''d never make the same mistakes she made.


    The red-skinned Zabrak, Master Scoffmo, liked to use Rayleigh for tasks better suited for a droid and imed it built character. From what Rayleigh remembered, character was just a way of saying bad experiences that made other experiences look brighter and nicer inparison.


    The brown-skinned Zabrak, Master Meed, was probably the worst. Rayleigh''splete and utter absence of civility annoyed him to no end, and anything Rayleigh did which wascking in his presence resulted in a lecture demanding Rayleigh act like a fifty-year-old high society gentleman''s gentleman at all times, even while he slept. Rayleigh was sure at some point the Zabrak was just making stuff up. The main problem he had with Rayleigh was that many of the texts Rayleigh transcribed ran counter to some of his theories, basically telling him he was wrong. Rather than admit his mistake, he imed Rayleigh was at fault for performing an inurate transcription. There were several asions where Rayleigh was asked to transcribe the same thing multiple times so he could check if they were identical. If any were different, even by a single word, he''d use that as justification to im it waspletely inurate.


    In Rayleigh''s opinion, the man was a Karen, through and through.


    Although Rayleigh''s life had been simple, the other yers were having their own adventures and problems.


    One of the biggest discoveries for the yers was the presence of the Main Characters. This matter was first brought up by the Wizards. They imed there was a Main Character in their world named Harry Potter. Apparently, he defeated a Dark Lord as a baby, had multiple books written about his adventures, and was the same age as the yers.


    Although Metaknowledge was sealed, that didn''t stop every yer from trying to figure out the secrets their worlds possessed. Though no one knew where Harry Potter actually was, his presence as a Main Character seemed likely. This led the other sses to search for their Main Characters. So far, only the Ninjas had any luck.


    ording to the Ninja yers, there was a blue-eyed, blonde-haired prankster in the vige that filled out all the checks for the Main Character. He was an orphan. He stood out like a sore thumb. And he was shrouded in mystery. All the adults either hated him or were wary of him, and none of the Ninja yers had been able to discover why, as no one would speak of it. They did, however, suggest that he could be the child of the 4th Hokage, who apparently died the year they were all born.


    The only reason that brat had not won first ce for the ''Most Likely to be the Main Character Award'' was the presence of another strong contender that appearedst year.


    The Uchiha n of the Vige Hidden in the Leaves was wiped out. Only one adult Uchiha, a civilian, and the kids eight years old and under were spared. ording to the Ninjas in the General Chat, the Ninja Chat had almost exploded that night. Some adult Uchihas woke up the kids and had them take the smaller kids and evacuate with a civilian Uchiha while the rest of the n held off the murderer. The twist? The murderer was also an Uchiha. He was the eldest son of the n head and the older brother of another Uchiha the same age as the yers. After that night, that little brother Uchiha transformed into a hardcore emo who swore vengeance on his brother. So the race for Ninja Main Character is currently a tie between the prankster and the emo.


    There were no candidates for the Main Character of the Hunter World, Warrior World, Pirate World, or Jedi World.


    [Lord_of_Madness: Main Character Spotted. Repeat, Jedi Main Character Spotted.]


    Rayleigh sighed. Never mind.


    [Ninja_Lord: Is that so? Why do you think he''s the Main Character.]


    [Monkey_King: He''s trolling. Why would a Gxy''s Main Character be obvious when he is nine years old?]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Perhaps that''s exactly what he wants you to think.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Hehe, our Main Character is pretty much Jesus!]


    [Pacifist: Yeah, he''s not trolling. I heard about it too. We''ve got a prophecy around him and everything.]


    [Immortal_Beauty: Wait, you have a Jesus Jedi?]


    [Pacifist: Yeah, born of the Force, he will bring bnce to the Force. Something like that, ording to my Master.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Born of the Force? So he doesn''t have a papa?]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Jedi Jesus iing!!!]


    [Daniel Rogers: There''s gonna be a World Martial Arts Tournament when we''re twelve in Warrior World. I bet our Main Character will show up there and win first ce.]


    [White_Knight: I doubt the Pirate MC will show up anytime soon. The ss is called Pirate, so the MC won''t be a Marine. If he shows up too young and is too outstanding, he''ll likely be crushed, so I need to head to Jedi World or Hunter World until then. Maybe look into the MCU.]


    [Demon_Hunter: The Hunter World has its Hunter Exam every year, but who''s to say when the Main Character will show up? I''d guess 12 or 13. Growth Spurt range to get stronger fastest.]


    [Immortal_Beauty: Puberty range? Do you think the Hunter MC will have some love interests pop up?]


    [Ninja_Lord: All the MCs are male, so I wonder if any of thedy yers can hook up with them. Our suspected Uchiha MC has already be a Brooding Edgelord and gets a lot of female attention in Ninja School.]


    [Immortal Beauty: I''ll hook the Pirate MC. He''ll definitely be King of the Pirates, and I''ll be his Queen!]


    [Ninja_Lord: Is Pirate King considered a good upation?]


    [Immortal_Beauty: It''s a cultural thing, you wouldn''t understand.]


    [Ninja_Lord: No, I get culture. The Leaf Vige has the same thing with the title of Hokage, but I wouldn''t take that position if they begged me.]


    Rayleigh dried himself off after reaching the riverside next to the camp and read through the random arguments yers had across various worlds. Rayleigh used the Force to dry his clothes in a way that the Jedi would probably frown upon, but it saved him time. Once dry, he returned to camp.


    Upon arrival, Rayleigh immediately noticed the mood was different than it had been two hours ago when he left.


    Master Viz was the first to spot him and called him over. Master Meed gave an unfriendly smile as he passed by.


    Ignoring Master Meed, Master Viz motioned for Rayleigh to follow him to Master Dyanameez''s tent when he entered without knocking.


    She was on a terminal and turned to confirm that Rayleigh had arrived. "Sit," she motioned to the chair next to her,


    Rayleighplied, and Master Viz stayed next to the door.


    Master Dyanameez looked over Rayleigh once or twice in silence for a moment before releasing an exasperated sigh. "The jig is up. Master Meed informed the Council of your presence on Tython. We have all been called back to Coruscant. Officially, you are eligible for the Initiate Trials, and if you pass, you can take part in the Gathering and obtain your own Kyber Crystal and be a Padawan. Unofficially, you have not been officially trained and the Council of First Knowledge will insist you be transferred directly to the service corps."


    Rayleigh asked, "There''s no way I can keep working with you?"


    "No. They know about your Psychometry and will restrict your ess to any relic you can use it on. That means you will never be allowed into the Exploration Corps. Most likely, you will be sent to the AgriCorps."


    Rayleigh wondered if the presence of the Main Character was stirring up the Temple. He asked, "Can I plead my case before them?"


    "Of course. I''ll be with you while doing so."


    "Okay then, I''m ready when you are."


    Master Dyanameez smiled. Rayleigh''s response to being screwed over was a perfect Jedi response.


    "We won''t be leaving until tomorrow, so pack up your things."


    Rayleigh asked, "Since we''re probably noting back. Well, since I''m probably noting back, can we see that mummy Master Viz told us about in the caves?"


    Master Dyanameez did not expect such a request. Rayleigh had been allowed to wander the forest but was forbidden from entering the caves. He had a tracker on him, and they''d know if he got lost or went anywhere he wasn''t supposed to be. It didn''t work very well in caves, and they were dangerous to begin with, so Rayleigh had never been inside of one.


    Rayleigh was not just asking permission to see the Mummy, he was also asking permission to use Psychometry on it. The Mummy in question was amon topic of debate among schrs as it wore the robes of a Jedi Grandmaster but there was no record of a Jedi Grandmaster dying in those caves. The clothes were tailored for the long-dead Jedi as they were for all Jedi Grandmasters, but they could never agree on who it was. They couldn''t even figure out how he died.


    Rayleigh was once asked in a joking manner to check the body, but at the time, Rayleigh politely refused. Now he seemed interested, and truth be told, Master Dyanameez and the others were also interested.


    "Alright, onest adventure."


    The cave in question was about ten kilometers south, further away than Rayleigh was allowed to travel, so aftering to a consensus, they agreed to use some speeder bikes to travel there and back as a quick trip.


    Masters Dyanameez and Viz came, of course, but so did the ever-argumentative Master Meed.


    The cave system was extensive and formed when Force Storms rose the level of the Tythos River. There were periods when much of the canyon was underwater, and the rolling currents broke through cracks in the cliffs which became a massive cave system over time. The fact that the roof of the cave was more than ten meters high showed how strong the current was during those Force Storms.


    Master Viz had a theory that entire self-sustaining ecosystems existed within the deepest parts of these caves, which he thought might extend to every continent like a hidden subterranean world. When the heaviest of Force Storms finished wiping the clean of life, the creatures within those hidden ecosystems would emerge and return to the surface to restore the animal poption. He had no evidence, of course, but it was as good a theory as any for how this could undergo such massive changes.


    The mummy they were looking for was about three kilometers into the cave system. Motion-activated light sources had long been secured to the walls along the correct path, which would lead them to their destination and lead them back. There were many other paths that split off into the darkness, but most were unexplored. The possibility of getting lost was too high.


    Rayleigh didn''t care about the mummy, he had other ideas. When Rayleigh was first asked about going to see the mummy, he saw a broken panel of ss form in front of him, and an image could be seen on the other side of it. It shocked him at first, but he''d been able to hide it at the time. In the years since he started training with the Jedi, he''d gotten very good at hiding things.


    What he saw was a Shatterpoint. Rayleigh''s mastery of the Force Precognition he learned from Form III had already reached the minimum required level to ess the skill and Rayleigh trained it during Missions. Shatterpoint allowed one to perceive the weak spots in ces, people, and events. It was not fully under his control as he had no power over when he could perceive such weak spots, but when Rayleigh was asked about the mummy, he saw something that would break his current lifestyle and lead him to get separated from the Jedi and end up on his own on the.


    That was his goal at the moment. He had no intention of going to Coruscant. Rayleigh''s Metaknowledge was sealed, but after a few years and some tidbits he heard over the General Chat, Rayleigh guessed why his Metaknowledge didn''t want him to go to Coruscant. Why learn from the student when you can learn from the teacher?


    Tython taught the ancient Force-sensitives the secrets of the Force, and Rayleigh wanted to learn here rather than from the Jedi.


    The Jedi trained their Padawans using Force-Bonds. The Master-Apprentice Force-Bond between a Padawan and their Jedi Master had two notable effects. It allowed a Padawan to quickly raise their connection to the Force to the same level as their Master. If a Padawan without a Master tried manually strengthening their connection to the Force, it was like climbing a cliff. If a Padawan with a Master-Apprentice Force-Bond tried strengthening their connection to the Force, it was like being pulled up the cliff by a rope to the same height the Master already reached on the cliff.


    The second effect was that a Jedi using Impartation through their Force-Bond to their Apprentice would see a greater effect, allowing them to teach decades'' worth of skill in only a few years.


    This was why Jedi don''t magically pop up among the abandoned younglings sent to the Jedi Service Corps. Regardless of talent or dedication to practice, there was a massive difference in skill between a self-taught Force User and a Padawan who inherited their Master''s connection to the Force and skill through a Master-Apprentice Force-Bond. This was also why many Padawans on Coruscant desperately wanted a Master. No amount of self-training couldpare to training through a Force-Bond. It was the difference between sprinting a thousand kilometers or being driven a thousand kilometers by car.


    Even if Rayleigh went to Coruscant, showed off his talent, got a Master, and formed a Master-Apprentice Force-Bond, he would only learn the skills a Jedi knew and reach that Jedi''s level of connection to the Force. Rayleigh wasn''t certain, but since his gut was so adamant about avoiding the Jedi, Rayleigh figured there must be something wrong with it. Thankfully, Rayleigh had an alternative.


    Tython was extremely rich in the Force. This did not actually make using the Force here easier. Using the Force here was actually harder as there was all kinds of interference. Learning how the interference worked and learning to mimic or bypass or strengthen the interference was how the Je''daii trained themselves. They did not rely on Force-Bonds, they relied on themselves.


    Of course, many Padawans died on the path to bing a Je''daii Ranger. That only made Rayleigh more excited, though. There was only one thing he could learn better from a Jedi Master than he could learn from Tython, but since it hade to this, he decided he''d just cheat to get around that.


    "You''re going to love Coruscant. The towering structures, the glittering Senate, and the jewel of it all, the Jedi Grand Temple."


    Throughout the trek through the cave, Master Meed refused to shut up. If Rayleigh was actually going to Coruscant, he might actually care, but hispleteck of rebuttal only caused the Zebrak to try harder to elicit a negative reaction from him to prove Rayleigh was not Jedi material.


    Thankfully, Rayleigh was not the person in the caves most annoyed by the mouthy Jedi. Surprisingly, it wasn''t Master Dyanameez or Master Viz either. No, the person most annoyed with the talkative Zabrak was the Terentatek slowly stalking the group.


    Terentateks tended to go dormant when the Dark Side of the Force waned in the Gxy, but the one sleeping in this cave was awoken by the annoying Zabrak''s hour of incessant jabbering. It would have gone back to sleep if it was just that, but the scent of the Force woke its hunter''s instinct. Terentateks had a taste for the flesh and blood of those strong in the Force and could detect them quite well. The group of Jedi that entered the cave system had a strong, hunger-inducing scent that prevented it from returning to slumber.


    The Terentateks were feared for a number of reasons by the Jedi. They were called Jedi killers, but the biggest problem with them wasn''t that they killed Jedi, it was how they killed Jedi. They prized the taste of the Force, the concentration of Midichlorians in the flesh and blood, but Midichlorians tended to leave the body when one was killed, so Terentateks preferred eating their prey alive. There was once a great hunt to eradicate the species from the Gxies, but the survivors of the hunt practically went crazy from everything they saw and the fact that most witnessed at least one friend devoured alive by a Terentatek.


    The Terentatek was an ambush stalker and evolved to be one of the only creatures the danger sense of a Jedi was unable to detect. Their ws and fangs contained a deadly poison that a Jedi had to really concentrate to remove, leaving them vulnerable to further attack. A Jedi could prevent a deadly poison from killing them or use the Force to outrun a Terentatek, but not both. Multi-tasking wasn''t something the Jedi were good at. The Terentateks were fast too. Their charging speed far exceeded that of a sprinting human. A Jedi could use the Force to amplify their speed to be faster for a short burst, but they could never outrun a Terentatek for long. The only way to outrun a Terentatek was to go somece it couldn''t follow or outrun the Jedi next to you. Killing them wasn''t an option without preparation. Their skin couldn''t be easily cut with a Lightsaber and they were heavily resistant to Force abilities.


    This Terentatek was already about ten meters from the group and the talkative Jedi. It smelled the strong scent of the Forceing from there, from where that noisy Jedi was talking to the little one.


    Although no one sensed the danger approaching through the Force, Master Dynanameez''s instincts were strong enough to feel something was wrong a moment before the attack. She jumped in front of Rayleigh as the three-meter-tall spike-covered beast''s arm swung past him. Master Meed was the actual target, but Rayleigh would have gotten hit as well due to the Jedi''s proximity to him had it not been for Master Dyanameez''s protection.


    Having revealed its presence and poisoned two Jedi, the Terentatek bellowed with an earth-reverberating roar that shook the bones of its ambushed prey. Master Dyanameez and Master Viz instinctively took out their Lightsabers, but when the glow of the des revealed their opponent, their hearts sank further. The Terentatek swiped its arm at Master Dyanameez as she was closer, knocking her to the ground. A Terentatek''s arm was almost twice the length of its body and much longer than a Lightsaber, meaning if a Jedi could attack it, it could attack them.


    Dyanameez''s Lightsaber fell from her grasp, and Rayleigh did something no one expected. The fear-inducing effect a Terentatek had on Jedi only made Rayleigh''s heart beat with excitement. He wasn''t proud to admit it, but he''d be a total battle junkie. He leaped forward and jumped off the Terentatek''s forehead spike and jumped behind it an instant before a w shredded through the spot he had just stood.


    Terentateks were not considered intelligent creatures, but they were easy to provoke. That and the fact that it could now tell that the strong scent of the Force in the group was concentrated on the kid, caused it to turn around and chase after Rayleigh.


    Shouts from Dyanameez and Viz were ignored as Rayleigh lured it away and down a dark and unexplored path.


    Rayleigh had no idea what he was doing. He knew if he ran, the Terentatek would chase him since he had a massive Midichlorian count. He didn''t know thating here would result in meeting a Teretatek; he just knew thating here would result in a separation of himself and the Jedi. As for the finer details, he figured they''d work themselves out. And now he was running from perhaps the deadliest creature in the Gxy. And if that wasn''t good enough, his body was still heavily damaged from that crazy exercise routine from earlier, reducing his maximum speed and causing every step to cost more energy than it should.


    Still, Rayleigh ran. The Terentatek''s rapid steps were never far behind. Even if Rayleigh outran it, the beast would not stop or lose his scent, preventing Rayleigh from ever catching a breath.


    Before running, Rayleigh had used the Force to snatch Master Dyanameez''s fallen Lightsaber and was using it to light his path with its emerald green glow. It also made him a nice shining beacon for the Terentatek to follow, but that was beside the point. There were no other light sources in the cave, and he had no confidence in outrunning his predator in the dark.


    Rayleigh spent the next six hours running. His already burned muscles felt like they were melting. They were almost numb, which wasn''t a good sign as the moment he lost all feeling in his limbs, his ability to use them would be severely hampered. The only reason he could still move was that he was used to running with hundreds of kilos of weight and he was lightly using Force Valor to make him feel even more weightless. Though in a tough spot, Rayleigh didn''t panic. He was a long way from that inexperienced youth who froze up at the sight of a Goblin. Panicking wouldn''t help him. His eyes scanned every wall and surface for any sign of hope, and after running for as long as his legs could carry him, he spotted something useful.


    On a far wall, about five meters up, was a bit of rock jutting outrge enough to rest on. Rayleigh ran over to that wall and used his hidden card, the skill that gave him the confidence to antagonize a Terentatek. Rapid climb.


    The Terentatek jumped at Rayleigh the moment he started ascending, but Rayleigh was small, nimble, and experienced. He hopped to the side along the wall and secured his grip as the leaping monster mmed its ws into the spot he was just in which left deep gashes on their way down. Rayleigh quickly climbed to the little ledge and pulled his feet up. Terentateks were many things. Climbers were not one of them.


    Though Rayleigh had never seen one before, he learned about them because Tython''s red moon of Bogan was actually filled with Terentateks. Rayleigh would likely never visit Bogan, but its proximity was a good enough reason for him to be taught extensively about the dangers of the Terentatek.


    The monstrous creature roared at the denial of its meal. Rayleigh could now use Force Healing to recover his broken body and then outrun the Terentatek at his max speed.


    The Terentatek, though, had other ideas. Though not ssified as intelligent, the Dark Side creature was incredibly stubborn. It was not able to climb, but it could dig. A mighty swipe of its ws at the wall beneath Rayleigh''s resting spot nearly shook Rayleigh off the rock. The next swipe that followed it was even more damaging to the wall. The creature was going to dig Rayleigh''s resting ce out from under him.


    With every crushing blow, cracks rose from the floor to the ceiling around the jutting stone Rayleigh perched upon.


    The creaking sounds above him and his danger sense caused Rayleigh to jump away from the wall as the roof fell and massive bs of stone crashed atop the Terentatek.


    The dust and debris that clouded the space were illuminated by his stolen Lightsaber''s glow. As it dispersed, an unexpected sight was revealed. The wall that the Terentatek had been attackingpletely copsed and an open space was revealed behind it. Rayleigh walked over the rubble and stone into the hidden space and saw an enormous cavern that the green light he carried had no hope of reaching the edges of. What the light did reveal was the pyramid-shaped structure in front of him. It was a Tho Yor.

 Chapter 10: Training in Silence

    Chapter 10: Training in Silence


    Chapter 10 Training in Silence


    Each Jedi Temple on Tython was built around a Tho Yor, but the Tho Yor that was once adjacent to Kaleth, the Temple of Knowledge, had vanished. To the Jedi, the Tho Yor were little more than tourist attractions. Jedi could not open or ess them or gain any valuable or useful information from their study, so the missing Tho Yor of Kaleth remained uninvestigated.


    To Rayleigh''s surprise, when he approached the pyramid-shaped structure, a circr portal retracted to reveal an opening, inviting him inside. Rayleigh was hesitant, but the shaking of stone where the Terentatek had just been buried removed his hesitation, and he ran inside with the door closing behind him.


    Within the structure was a golden room with a pedestal and tform. He tapped on the pedestal and a menu popped up. What was interesting was that the menu did not pop up on the pedestal but on the interface he used as a yer.


    [You have Discovered an Easter Egg, the Tho Yor of Kaleth. As a yer, you may use the Tho Yors of Tython to teleport from one to another.]


    A piece of Metaknowledge suddenly unsealed in Rayleigh''s head, a memory of something Red said during Orientation. "Since you chose Tython, we made some changes there as well."


    Rayleigh was pretty sure that if the Tho Yor had the function of Teleportation Pads, someone would have written it down, but theck of such a history implied this was a bonus. Rayleigh pondered why they would do this for a while, but eventually, he came to an interesting conclusion.


    Some of the details he learned during his Missions, especially the First Mission, were not ssified as Metaknowledge. One piece of information he learned which stood out was that the Universe he was in was created by the Tavern, which included Tython. But normally, there is no way for anyone to really appreciate Tython. Rayleigh guessed that whoever made Tython added this so his work would be more essible and appreciated.


    Rayleigh gave a quiet moment of gratitude towards whoever made this. He really loved it and would be honored to meet whoever created it and included these features.


    The menu above the pedestal showed all of the Temples and gave an option of which he could travel to.


    [Akar Kesh - The Temple of Bnce


    Anil Kesh - The Temple of Science


    Bodhi - The Temple of the Arts


    Mahara Kesh - The Temple of Healing


    XXX Kaleth - The Temple of Knowledge


    Padawan Kesh - The Je''daii Academy


    Stav Kesh - The Temple of Martial Arts


    Qigong Kesh - The Temple of Force Skills


    Vur Tepe - The Forge]


    Rayleigh was already at Kaleth, but he could go to any of the others. The one which stood out the most, of course, was the Temple of Force Skills. He selected it, and the tform started glowing. Rayleigh took a step onto it, and the tform shined for a moment as the room whited out.


    When his vision returned, he appeared to still be in the same golden room, but a quick observation revealed a few differences, showing he had in fact been teleported to another Tho Yor.


    Rayleigh approached the entrance, which quietly opened for him, revealing another subterranean space. This was not surprising, Qigong Kesh was an underground Temple.


    that


    The moment the door opened, a wave of heat mmed that against him. Rayleigh used a Control Aspect of the Force to prevent himself from getting cooked by the heat, but when he stepped out the door, it was not the heat which had his attention. It was the silence.


    The Temple of Force Skills was located on the Tythan continent of Thyr which had two main regions. One was a massive forest that grew trees, which sucked the water out of the air. The second region of the Thyr continent was the Silent Desert.


    Heated air had the property of scattering sound, making it difficult to hear things at a distance in a desert, but the special property of the sand in the Silent Desert took that to the next level. Nothing could be heard. Sound waspletely and utterly muted. Rayleigh could not even hear the sound of his own heart or that high-pitched ringing you sometimes hear when it gets very quiet.


    The Tho Yor was half buried in the sand, and around it were massive spike-like pirs of rock that curved inward, making the area look like a giant''s ribcage.


    Further out from the natural structures were the stone walls of the Temple of Force Skills. From the outside, it appeared quite small, but that was because a majority of the Temple of Force Skills was underground, away from the muting property of the desert sands.


    Rayleigh hopped out of the Tho Yor and felt himself sink lightly into the sand. It was disconcerting to move around in absolute silence, as it made the world feel less real. Not wanting to go crazy, or at least crazier, Rayleigh ran over to the Temple. The sand sank deeply with each step, eating much of the effort he put into moving. He''d figure out how to traverse the sandter.


    The entrance to the Temple of Force Skills had no doors. Perhaps there had been a wooden one a long time ago, but it had long since worn to dust and sand. The first inner chamber was barren of features as the inner walls and carvings had been smoothed over by the sand during the previous Force Storms. The ceiling had openings for light which may have had ss window panes a long time ago, but now they were just more ways for sand to get inside.


    The inner chamber led to a long hallway deeper into the structure, and at the end, there was a stone wheel on a perfectly level surface.


    Rayleigh unintentionally nodded at this. Any door with hinges or metal would have rusted away, but a stone wheel in front of an opening was a simple and effective door that proved its worth tens of thousands of yearster.


    Rayleigh cleared away the sand that had umted around the wheel and pressed it aside. Though heavy, it was not difficult to roll away, revealing the true entrance to the Temple of Force Skills. The stone door had done its duty and protected the contents from creatures and Force Storms.


    The stolen green Lightsaber was once again used as a shlight to illuminate the way as Rayleigh explored the depths of the Temple. Three hourster, he had mixed feelings.


    He was unable to find a single Holocron. Holocrons contained a virtual teacher that would impart its skills and knowledge to the one who used it if the virtual teacher approved of the user. Part of his n hinged on finding one. What he did find, however, were rows and rows of special rooms.


    Each room was empty and, to the untrained eye, bare of anything remarkable. When he used Psychometry on their walls, though, each room contained detailed pictographs and texts on how to perform a specific skill. When this Temple was up and running, Journeyers seeking to learn a specific skill would do so in the room where the skill was engraved. Those learning the same skill would do so in the same room and assist each other. This meant that the memory imprint he obtained from each room using Psychometry contained countless experiences of learning the skill the room would teach.


    Rayleigh also found a small spring in one of the rooms that still produced clean water. The only thing hecked was food, but that was not arge problem for him.


    After he finished exploring for a bit, Rayleigh exited the Temple and opened his yer Menu.


    [Go to Tavern


    Go mentally


    Go physically


    Not now.]


    Rayleigh selected Go physically, and a white door appeared in front of him. This option was not avable in confined spaces or when under observation. He had already discarded the tracker the Jedi gave him, so he was in no way monitored at the moment.


    He stepped through the door and his body changed in appearance to a 21-year-old version of himself wearing Jedi robes as the Reincarnator''s Tavern materialized around him.


    Rayleigh walked up to the bar, where a skinny, mustachioed bartender wearing a clean-cut business suit asked, "Would you like a beer?"


    "Actually, I''d like a meal."


    "Oh? Certainly. What would you like?"


    "I''d like a full rack of fall-off-the-bone ribs and a bowl of mac and cheese."


    The bartender nodded, "That''s seven Mission Points. Take a seat and it''ll be right up."


    A meal at the Tavern cost anywhere from a single Mission Point to ten Mission Points, depending on what you ordered, but you could order just about anything. Even the lowest of Missions awarded ten Mission Points so it was possible to have a simple meal every day at the Tavern while doing just the simplest, easiest Missions once a week.


    Of course, this did not include extra servings of Beer or other beverages. The Beer the Tavern served had a mental healing aspect which kept the yers saner than they should have been, all things considered. It was the reason yers were allowed one free with each visit, to keep their mental states healthy.


    Simple Missions worth ten Mission Points were things like, [Collect 20 of these herbs] or [Locate the Monster Settlement on the Map]


    Harder Missions, the ones worth between 11 and 20 Points, usually required killing something. As far as difficulty goes, Rayleigh''s Tutorial Mission was practically a 15 Point Mission from all the Goblins he ended up killing. Though even if you kill monsters, if you don''t get a Kill Mission, the number of monsters you kill won''t affect your Points.


    Missions that awarded between 21 and 50 Mission Points always involved Monsters stronger than Goblins. Either killing or avoiding being killed by them.


    Recently, Rayleigh had been doing 25~30 Point Missions that involved Hobgoblins and would asionally do a higher value Mission if it looked like something he could do with Psychometry.


    Mapping Missions were the easiest for him. For others, they had to learn everything about an area from scratch. For Rayleigh, he could just use Psychometry over and over to get ay of the area. A good Mapping Mission could be worth between 30 and 50 Points, though they always included an element of risk. Because the area was unmapped, being the first one to map it meant high rewards, but it also meant the Tavern had no idea how dangerous the pocket dimension was before sending you. There were plenty of times he tried a Map Mission and ended up without memories of the Mission from dying within.


    The moment Rayleigh took a chair, a barmaiden came out from the kitchen area with a tray containing a te of steaming, barbeque sauce-covered ribs, a bowl of golden mac and cheese, and a ss of beer.


    A number of yers looked over to see who was spending Points on food. Some were jealous while others looked with disdain. Points were not so easy to waste for these yers.


    Once a yerpleted some Missions and got some Mission Points, they could ess the Point Store. The Point Store granted yers another chance to purchase an Easy Mastery they didn''t grab at Character Creation, but they were not cheap.


    For example, if Rayleigh wanted to purchase Easy Mastery for Form I: Shii-Cho, it would cost 500 Mission Points. After three years of Missions, Rayleigh had earned 2564 Mission Points.


    As an Easy Mastery granted knowledge of how to perform the action and allowed a yer to Master the action eight times faster than normal, the quicker a yer got an Easy Mastery, the stronger they would be.


    Besides Easy Masteries, the Tavern also allowed yers to designate certain items they obtained and turn them into Inventory Projections. When a yer went from one world to another, they could not take anything with them. They could only ess their Inventory. If they paid enough Mission Points, they could convert something they obtained during Gamey into an Inventory Item and take it along.


    Popr items to convert included a Wizard''s Wand, a Jedi''s Lightsaber, and some electronics. There were some Jedi yers who wanted to umte enough points to convert a Spaceship into an inventory item. The quoted price the Tavern gave was 100,000 Mission Points. That sounded like a lot, but there was no limit to the difficulty of Missions. There were 100 Point Missions, 500 Point Missions, and 1000 Point Missions. If a yer got strong enough to do thetter, they could save enough Mission Points in just two years. They were only nine at the moment. Who could tell how powerful they would be when they were twenty or thirty?


    A man of Chinese origin wearing a pirate outfit sat across from Rayleigh''s seat and stated, "That there''s a meal fit for a King. You gonna share?"


    Rayleigh considered it for a moment before pulling off two ribs and handing them over.


    "Haha! Thank you kindly."


    Rayleigh replied, "Just make sure you treat me when you have the chance."


    "Of course, of course!"


    This man was Dragon_Chef, one of the new friends Rayleigh made in the Tavern. Though Tavern food was delicious, it was always better to save your Points and eat where you were instead. Rayleigh and Dragon_Chef bonded over cooking exchanges. Dragon_Chef''s Character build was based off Sanji and Toriko. Though since his Metaknowledge was sealed during Gamey, he ended up more like Toriko. What was interesting was that everyone knew that Dragon_Chef had obtained the Fish Fish Fruit Model: Azure Dragon. That was when he changed his name in the Chat Room.


    Rayleigh didn''t know if Dragon_Chef was a 20 Talent yer or if he got the Devil Fruit with a Devil Fruit Trial Pass. The Pass was simr to a Mission. Once every three months, a yer with the Devil Fruit Trial Pass could pick a Fruit not taken by someone else and take a Trial associated with it. If they failed, they would have no memories of the Trial to use to ''study'' for it.


    Dragon_Chef usually stayed in the Pirate Chat, but he''d pop into the General Chat to discuss food with Rayleigh and anyone else every once in a while.


    While Rayleigh was discussing Grandmaster Yoda''s Hobby, Dragon_Chef asked, "You think the Force can be used to cook? Make sure to figure it out and teach meter. When I open my restaurant in the MCU Hong Kong, you can be my sous-chef."


    Before dying and bing a yer, Dragon_Chef was Chinese and chose to be Chinese again. Not surprising, as Rayleigh had been American and would start in the United States when he eventually went to the MCU. There were yers from Mexico, South America, Japan, Africa, Asian, and Europe too. But there were still more yers from the United States than from any one of those other countries. They were pretty spread out, so they would not raise too many eyebrows too quickly. At least not until the shite really hits the fan.


    Rayleigh answered, "No thank you. I won''t make food for anyone I don''t consider a friend."


    Dragon_Chef nodded, "I can respect that. You still gottae to my restaurant Swordsman."


    "As long as you don''t get arrested by then, I''m sure I''ll manage."


    Dragon_Chefughed at that. Though he wanted to open a restaurant, he was also aiming to form a gang and take over some territory in China. His restaurant would be his headquarters. Many of the yers considered the MCU to be a yground for them, and some had some very interesting ideas.


    Some of the Wizard yers were going to take over the Central American Drug Cartel. Some of the African yers nned to take over Wakanda. A number of them didn''t really have a n and would just frence while others nned to form a yers Guild and take over the by fighting against AIM, the Hand, HYDRA, SHIELD, and every Alien and Inhuman they came across.


    Not that such a thing would be simple. Once they left the Tavern, the existence of those groups would not be remembered, so they would have to take the passive position of waiting for those groups toe to them. Rayleigh almost felt bad for Nick Fury. If the man wasn''t bald by the time they arrived, he would be shortly afterward.


    Rayleigh finished his meal and ordered another Beer for himself and Dragon_Chef. The man was an actual Chef in his past life and Rayleigh hoped to learn a thing or two to help his situation.


    The man also had some words of wisdom from his current life. "When testing new herbs, always check the roots. Shallow-root nts are more dangerous than deep-rooted ones. You already know the trick about rubbing it on your skin first before tasting it, but you also gotta check what''s growing nearby. Safe nts have a variety of things growing near them, while dangerous ones grow by themselves."


    Rayleigh wanted to learn to cook using local vegetation, but since he was the only one on the continent, he had no one to teach him and would have to figure it all out from scratch. Thankfully, he already knew how to remove poison from himself and had some practice doing so from a few earlier and more unfortunate attempts at guessing what was safe and not safe to eat on Tython.


    Dragon_Chef was already at the Tavern before Rayleigh was, so he had to leave before Rayleigh did, and without anyone he felt like talking to there, Rayleigh returned to Tython soon after.


    Instead of going back inside, Rayleigh explored the exterior of the Temple and the area around it for a while. He did eventually find what he was looking for. A wild, overgrown herb garden filled with small pepper-like nts, among others. The soil had been exchanged over the endless seasons since thest time thisnd was tilled, so his Psychometry was useless when he touched the ground. He tried looking for some gardening equipment. The memories held within would tell him what could be harvested and what couldn''t be. But the storehouse near the overgrown field was empty.


    Rayleigh picked up a few items from the herb garden to test and returned to the inner Temple.


    Not all the rooms in the inner temple behind the stone door were empty. One such room had an assortment of ten-thousand-year-old robes. Rayleigh tried one on and was surprised that it didn''t crumble to pieces and still had some strength within. It was also, by far, the itchiest thing Rayleigh had ever worn, .


    Against his better judgment, Rayleigh kept the itchy robes on. There was a reason for this. It also tied into the reason for his insane exercises.


    From memory, there were only two types of Protagonists. Battle Junkies Protagonists and Iron Will Protagonists. The former were lucky, as you could not choose to be a battle junkie. You either were or were not. This was why he didn''t mind being one. Thetter, however, was not something you could be born to. Iron Will Protagonists are the ones who endure unimaginable suffering prior to their rise, which pressures their will and resolve, making it stronger than the hardest steel. That will, is what drives them higher than their opposition.


    Rayleigh was already a Battle Junkie. He didn''t need someone to force him to run head-first into a dangerous fight for experience. He sharpened and improved himself against difficult opponents and squeezed out his potential against deadly foes. But he didn''t want to miss an opportunity. He wanted an iron will as well. How to get one? The only way was to endure suffering. The more he endured, the stronger his will would be.


    The problem now that he had left the Jedi was that no one could make him suffer but himself. So he had to get creative.


    Rayleigh found some worn and broken journals written by the ancient Je''daii. His Psychometry revealed their content, which included daily activities for the Journeyers. They gave him ideas.


    Rayleigh discovered a weathered metal pole and two stone buckets in a storeroom described in the journal.The buckets could be slotted to each end of the pole and bnced on the shoulders.


    Rayleigh discarded his shoes and left the Temple with the buckets and headed south. ording to the map he saw, there was an oasis, and Journeyers were often tasked with carrying water from the Oasis back to the Temple using these buckets.


    Although there was a spring inside the Temple, the exercise of carrying the water taught many valuable lessons and included an element of danger. And that was back then. It is certainly much more dangerous now.


    ording to the journals Rayleigh read through, there were three creatures to watch out for in the Silent Desert.


    The first and most dangerous was the Pendle. It was a massive lizard-bat with a wingspan of three meters wide. Because of the sound muting properties of the Desert, the only way to notice the Pendle was to see its shadow, but they usually hunted at night, so Rayleigh was mostly fine in the daytime.


    The next was the Mankle. It was a lizard-wolf the size of a rhino and had numerous spikes on its back. Thankfully, it was a solo hunter, so you could scare one away or kill it if you were skilled enough.


    The strangest of the dangerous creatures was the Silik Lizard. It had six legs and was as tall as a man if it stood on its hind legs. It was covered in thin and sharp spikes and had a narrow, jagged-toothed jaw. The Silik Lizard did not eat meat or drink water. It had a silicone-based hide and could absorb enough energy to sustain itself through contact with the sand. When it needed additional sustenance, it would kill and drink the spinal fluid of other animals. Its silicone spines were always charged with a high amount of static electricity, and if one was seen moving around at night, sparks could be seen shing from its spines. When it was about to attack, it would let out a scream, but like everything in the Silent Desert, it waspletely muted.


    There were other creatures, such as the bird-like shire or mouse-like foppy, but none were considered dangerous.


    Walking barefoot through the desert requires a focused use of Temperature Resistance. Temperature Resistance was a part of Tutaminis, a subss of Control. Tutaminis itself was the art of controlling energy within the body. And that was just one part of the training.


    In a region where the sound was nonexistent, the other senses were more important and had to be taken note of. Many creatures, such as Silik Lizards and Mankles, were buried under a thinyer of sand to avoid being seen, and detected by nearby prey using their sense of touch through the sand. This meant that to avoid their attention, you had to walk while disturbing the sand as little as possible.


    It reminded Rayleigh of Dune, though thankfully the Silent Desert didn''t have sandworms. He might have been a battle junkie, but a battle implies a chance of winning. Going against a sandworm was like going against a tornado or tsunami. There was no victory, only survival.


    Rayleigh was getting better at sneaking around. In his first Mission, he could barely move around a Goblin without being spotted but now he could get within a few meters of a Hobgoblin camp without being seen or heard. Still, slightly higher-level ugly outer dimensional horrors were not the same as creatures that evolved in the same location for hundreds of thousands of years.


    Less than a quarter of the way to the Oasis, Rayleigh spotted a Mankle charging at him from the side. In response, Rayleigh pulled out a Lightsaber, but not his own.


    There was a very good reason Rayleigh basically stole Dyanameez''s Lightsaber. He intended to use Psychometry on it.


    The Mankleunched itself, jaw open. Rayleigh used Psychometry on the Lightsaber in hand and sliced off one of the Mankle''s legs while avoiding the bite. Luckily for the Mankle, it had five more. Rayleigh subconsciously wondered how many things on this developed an extra set of limbs in response to the Jedi chopping them off all the time.


    From the raising of the Mankle''s jaw, Rayleigh figured it was roaring or screaming or something, but he only saw the muted opening and closing of the mouth.


    Probably due to Rayleigh''s size, the Mankle decided he was not enough of a threat to run away from and tried to attack Rayleigh''s leg to cripple him. A Form IV jump, twirl, and Lightsaber sh saw the Mankle missing another limb.


    The Mankle then decided to run away. Funnily enough, the Mankle grabbed one of its severed legs in its mouth before leaving. It seemed like it would have a meal after all.


    Rayleigh was quite full, so had no interest in the other leg. Even if he did, he wouldn''t carry it to the Oasis. He decided to leave it there, and if he saw it on the way back, he''d grab it too.


    The way to the Oasis saw him attacked by another Mankle and even a Silik Lizard. Rayleigh did not kill any of them, though. He wasn''t hungry, so unless he was specifically looking for something to eat, there was no point in killing something if it could be avoided. Silik Lizards were inedible anyways. Silicone Based Lifeforms could not be digested in a carbon-based diet and vice versa. That was probably why the Silik Lizard didn''t eat the meat of what it killed.


    The Oasis was still there and had a few shires perched around the water, filling up the water sacks which naturally grew on their backs and necks.


    Rayleigh was already thirsty from the trek and didn''t mind parching his own throat before filling up the buckets and marching his way back to the Temple. He had to return before night or he''d be attacked by Pendles. He didn''t mind fighting them eventually, but only when he was hungry.


    On the way back he had to worry about slipping in the sand, being ambushed, and taking so long that most of the water evaporated from the stone bucket. It was a good exercise in many ways. The journal he read from did im one of the Force Skill Rooms had a skill that would allow Rayleigh to walk over the sand without disturbing it, which was his first destination once he returned. After that, he''d meditate and practice his Lightsaber Forms using Master Dyanameez''s Lightsaber. Using Psychometry on the Lightsaber should allow him to sessfully download and incorporate the saved images he had of the concepts of her Lightsaber Forms into his own style.


    It was a long road ahead, but he had time.

 Chapter 11: Journeyer of the Je’daii

    Chapter 11: Journeyer of the Je¡¯daii


    Chapter 11 Journeyer of the Je''daii


    Rayleigh''s training across Tython was a slow and steady one, directed by necessity and whim rather than logic or purpose.


    Rayleigh spent six months at the Temple of Force Skills before deciding he''d learned enough. He spent at least one day in each of the Force Skill Rooms to assimte the experience of those who came before him, but most of the skills were not particrly useful.


    Rayleigh''s Swordsman build relied on the basics and speed. He didn''t want to build the highest tower, he wanted to build the strongest foundation. With his Metaknowledge sealed, he didn''t know anything about the Pirate and Hunter sses so he wanted to be ready for anything. Besides, the effort put into the foundation is never wasted.


    Rayleigh had no intention of learning the shy skills from the Alter category other than Telekinesis and perhaps some healing skills, his main focus was on the Control and Sense category skills.


    The Control Skills he familiarized himself with included Tutaminis, Force Speed, Force Valor, Force Stealth, Force Attribute, and Force Jump.


    The Sense Skills he learned or further mastered included Farsight, Telepathy, Comprehend Speech, Precognition, and Battle Precognition.


    On his own, he also gained further mastery over Shatterpoint and Psychometry.


    The only skill missing from the Skill Rooms were Healing category skills, but those were located in the Temple of Healing.


    All of that only took three and a half months. His talent did not lose out to the Chosen One he''d heard about, but the Main Character of this Gxy didn''t have the Easy Masteries of Control and Sense. Rayleigh''s level in those foundational skills granted a far greater learning speed for skills within their categories than the MC could gain, even with a Master Apprentice Force-Bond. Yes, Rayleigh wouldn''t admit it, but he''d been treating the MC of this Gxy as a rival, even though they''d never met. And he wasn''t the only one.


    Rayleigh still stayed out of the Jedi Chat Room but he heard about what was happening on Coruscant second-hand from Lord_of_Madness and Pacifist.


    A number of Padawans at the Jedi Temple tried to pick on and make fun of the MC. It seems that before he was found, he lived as a ve on an outer rim world. The Padawans who still didn''t have a Jedi Master were jealous that the chosen one got one right away without a single day of training and they tried to provoke him repeatedly. That was when the yers stepped in. Rayleigh wasn''t the only one treating the MC as a rival, but being a rival didn''t mean you had to be an enemy.


    The yers had long shown their talents and many already had Masters and Master-Apprentice Force-Bonds. With their talent, it would only take a few years to exceed their Master''s level of skill and connection to the Force. The only yers who did not get a Master were the yers like Rayleigh who nned on leaving for another world to Multi-ss.


    When the local Padawans tried to bully the chosen one, the yers stepped in and helped the MC out. Using Character Mode, they were able toe off as sincere and genuine. They helped the MC catch up on what he missed, and the MC proved his talent by quickly rising past the skill level of all the non-yer Padawans. But this could be attributed more to abination of his Force Talent and his Master-Apprentice Force-Bond. Only with both was he able to quickly rise in skill and Force connection.


    The Master-Apprentice Force-Bond might allow the MC to catch up to Rayleigh in a few years, but Rayleigh intended to Multi-ss, so even if he was a weaker Jedi in the future, Rayleigh had absolute confidence he''d be a stronger swordsman.


    In any case, the reason Rayleigh remained at the Temple of Silence after learning what he needed was that he had one more thing to learn, a skill not found in the skill rooms, but in the desert itself. Rayleigh wanted to learn how to imitate the Silent Desert using the Force.


    Rayleigh used HK-47''s head as a target and would test the application of the skill using trial and error. Why? Because the skill had a lot of applications.


    Only after three more months of practice, three months of meditating in the maddening quiet of the Silent Desert did Rayleigh figure it out. Force Muffle could erase the sound of any region he used it on.


    Rayleigh''s next stop was Vur Tepe, The Forge.


    Before the creation of Lightsabers, Jedi used a Skill called Force Weapon to imbue themselves into a forged metal sword. The Forge was where those swords were created. Though the swords of the past had long since been taken away or rusted to dust, the actual workshop where the forging took ce was kept in pristine condition. Rayleigh intended to use Force Weapon to do something no other yer was likely able to do.


    The Lightsaber in a yer''s inventory contained a Kyber crystal that was perfectly attuned to the yer who acquired it from the Character Creation points. It was, of course, a Projection, just like everything else in the inventory. If it was damaged, altered, or broken, it would revert to the same form it first came in when its Projection was disabled and re-enabled.


    This meant that a yer could not use Force Weapon to empower their Lightsaber. There was only one exception to this rule. The Lightsaber Customization Kit. Alterations made using the tools from the Kit would remain if the Lightsaber was disabled and re-enabled. Rayleigh tested this by making a meaningless scratch on his Lightsaber using the kit and confirming it was still there when he turned it off and on. That meant if he used Force Weapon while having the Customization Kit out, the effect would remain.


    Rayleigh spent a week at the Forge looking into the past and getting a feel for how the Je''daii once made metal as strong as a Lightsaber.


    The next Temple Rayleigh visited was Stav Kesh, the Temple of Martial Arts.


    The Temple of Martial Arts was almost the exact opposite of the Temple of Force Skills. The Tho Yor of Stav Kesh was parked on the top of a snow-covered mountain, forcing Rayleigh to use Temperature Control again to prevent himself from freezing. Ironically, many things inside the two temples were alsoparable. Rayleigh found another metal pole and a pair of buckets. The memory he saw using Psychometry on the buckets revealed that there was a spring of water that never froze a few kilometers from the Temple of Martial Arts. Once again, up for the challenge, Rayleigh would take the buckets to the spring and fill them up at least once a day, then try to take them back without falling off the mountain, getting attacked by animals, or taking so long that the water froze solid in the buckets.


    Although Rayleigh did not find any Holocrons in Stav Kesh, he did find multiple pieces of ancient training equipment, perfectly preserved due to the freezing temperature. Rayleigh could use Psychometry on the equipment to learn the Martial Arts the Temple taught as if he was a student there thirty thousand years ago.


    Not that everything went perfectly. There was an instance where Rayleigh was taking his water buckets back to the Temple, got cocky, and slipped and fell. He was able to right himself andnd as best he could, but he still broke his leg. Rayleigh''s shout of pain echoed through the mountains for at least half a minute. He''d never bothered to learn how to dampen pain using the Force because of his Iron Will n, but the pain of a broken leg certainly made him reconsider that idea.


    At the time, Rayleigh wasn''t thinking, so he used Dark Transfer to heal his leg.


    Dark Transfer is a skill that allows its user to heal or destroy by pouring the Force into weak points, simr to Shatterpoint. If you gently poured the Force into those weak points, you could fill the cracks, healing the injury of a living being. Dark Transfer''s ability to heal was so great, it could literally revive the recently deceased if the Midichlorians in their bodies had not disbursed yet.


    However, Dark Transfer was a Dark Side skill for a reason. Rayleigh knew how to use it because it was a freebie Easy Mastery, but with his Metaknowledge sealed, he didn''t know the consequences of using it.


    From a Light Side perspective, Dark Transfer was a Dark Side skill because it took from the Force. Force Healing allows a Jedi to give their own Life Force to another, but Dark Transfer directly takes the power of the Force without any cost. What was worse, was that the Jedi did not consider death a terrible thing. Returning to the Cosmic Force was a thing to be celebrated, but if Dark Transfer was used to revive the dead, the Jedi would consider it forcefully taking that which should have rightfully belonged to the Cosmic Force.


    But even if you ignored the Light Side posturing and moral ambiguity, Dark Transfer did in fact have a cost, as Rayleigh learned.


    After healing his leg, Rayleigh''s leg remained cold. Days after the ident, his leg remained cold. Rayleigh eventually used the Tho Yor to travel to Mahara Kesh, the Temple of Healing, to find out what was happening.


    Besides learning more about Force Healing, removing poison, and how the Force affects living tissue, Rayleigh discovered the problem he''d unwittingly given himself.


    Rayleigh took from the Force and used it to heal his leg, but where did he take it from? Well, he took it from the air of the highest peak of the coldest mountain on Tython. What did that mean? It meant that the attribute of the Force he took it from had tainted his leg, which was why it remained cold.


    This was far more dangerous than it seemed. If Rayleigh used Dark Transfer on himself in an area filled with Dark Side energies, he could literally fall to the Dark Side through Force pollution alone. Thankfully, he''d just been stupid enough to use it when really cold. The cold was ufortable, but it wasn''t that dangerous. Rayleigh remained at the Temple of Healing while figuring out how to use Dark Transfer in a mostly safe way for another month before returning to the Temple of Martial Arts.


    One of the most interesting areas in the Temple was a field of ice, like an ice rink. It was hidden in the back and surrounded by mountainous cliffs, essible only by a single, tiny path to ensure that whatever was practiced here could be done in private. This was used by the Je''daii to practice their Alchaka.


    Once a Je''daii, orter a Jedi, had a grasp of their talents and skills in the Force, they may develop an Alchaka, a physical routine that includes moving meditation, Lightsaber Velocities, and Martial Arts all in one. Whether it was a Je''daii or a Jedi, an Alchaka was an incredibly personal and private thing. The Alchaka was how most Jedi, even the ones who never exercised, kept up their level of fitness.


    Using the practice equipment lying around, Rayleigh could shamelessly steal the Alchaka of everyone who used that equipment while practicing their own. He nned to create his own after incorporating the best of each one while also fully incorporating Master Dyanameez''s Lightsaber forms into his own personalized style.


    The reason that practicing an Alchaka in an ice rink was practical was that it prevented wasteful movement. On an ice rink, slipping and falling indicated wasteful or excessive movement. He needed to avoid those for his foundation. A proper Alchaka left the userpletely exhausted and incorporated every single aspect of their strength into the routine and was performed again and again and again and again. The muscle memory of a skilled Je''daii or Jedi was not built through years of deadlybat but was created from their Alchaka. Creating their Alchaka on an ice rink prevents it from having any unknown ws.


    As with everything, Rayleigh fully intended to take his own Alchaka to the next level. Every form of movement, strike, acrobatic, and martial form was disyed using his fastest speed while on the ice in a way that didn''t cause him to slip and fall. While using every single bit of energy he had avable to him for as long as he could hold on, Rayleigh had to maintain an absolute and perfect level of bnce. Any movement that could cause him to slip was discarded as wasteful.


    Including the time Rayleigh spent at the Temple of Healing, Rayleigh spent a total of nine months at the Temple of Martial Arts. There was no Mastering Martial arts, only continuous improvement. Rayleigh simply stayed there until he''d worked out the best Alchaka he could think of. If an observer looked at his Alchaka, they would probably think of a bouncing blender with how he just stood in one ce while spinning, jumping, and twisting around. Another reason the Alchaka was considered private was that it was usually quite embarrassing, and Rayleigh''s was not an exception to this rule.


    The next stop was Bodhi, the Temple of the Arts. He did visit Padawan Kesh, but there was nothing for him to learn at the Je''daii Temple for Younglings. He also tried Anil Kesh, the Temple of Science, but found only rubble from a long-forgotten battle thatpletely destroyed the temple. After the Temple of the Arts was the Temple of Bnce which he left forst.


    After months of straining himself physically, Rayleigh came to the Temple of the Arts to find himself a hobby. Oddly enough, the Temple of the Arts was in the most pristine condition of all the Temples he''d seen so far. There were two reasons for this. First, the Temple of the Arts was on an ind, making it difficult to get to. Second, there was nothing left of value to loot. There used to be something of a museum, but it was looted long ago and nothing others considered of value remained.


    The Temple of the Arts had the feel of a small Japanese vige, with each structure taking on an ornate appearance the other templescked. The temple only contained four buildings, each containing the practice areas for two of the arts. The choices included writing, calligraphy, dancing, drawing, sculpture, cooking, music, and theater. Rayleigh intended to learn the ways of Cooking and Calligraphy.


    The Temple of the Arts did not really teach the arts. This was Tython, after all, and this ce was built by the Je''daii. This Temple was just as important as any other as it taught its students how to understand the secrets hidden within the Force through the arts.


    Rayleigh took all the aged cookbooks and cooking utensils from the area where they taught cooking and used psychometry to steal their secrets. Inside the area which taught calligraphy, there were calligraphy brushes used by Je''daii Masters which contained a strong memory of the Masters using those tools toprehend the manifestations of the Force through their arts.


    Although the kitchen of the Cooking area was empty, preventing Rayeligh from testing his stolen chef skills, there were some ink pots and ink powder for Rayleigh to make ink with to use to practice calligraphy.


    Of course, even making ink is a science. Rayleigh had to immerse himself in the memories of the ink pots to figure out how the Je''daii of the past ground up and smoothed out their ink before using it. Making ink wasn''t like making Ovaltine after all.


    Rayleigh spent another three months at the Temple of the Arts under a simple routine. He''d practice his Alchaka with as much weight as he could for an hour, meditate and recover, practice calligraphy for a few hours, meditate, go to the Tavern for a meal and once a week, a Mission, then he''d practice his Alchaka again without weights for two hours, trying to go as fast as possible, and then he''d practice calligraphy again and meditate before going to sleep.


    Whenever he got insanely bored, he''d spend an hour in the Chat Room or order HK-47 to tell him about some assassination he''d done in the past. There were thousands, and HK-47 was actually quite the storyteller. Plus, learning the ins and outs of the Gxy through the sensors of an Assassination Droid was very insightful.


    The entire time, he continuously wore his ultra-itchy robes. He''d even found a few ways of making it even itchier. Even when he waspletely motionless while meditating, he felt like he was covered in itching powder. Though not the same as the suffering Iron Will Protagonists usually undergo, he was certainly strengthening his will every single day by denying every cell in his body the absolute, unstoppable need to scratch his flesh off his bones. If that didn''t strengthen his willpower, he didn''t think anything could.


    While Rayleigh was practicing his handwriting using a thirty thousand-year-old brush, the other yers were starting to get active, specifically the Wizard yers.


    Miracle told Rayleigh that, including herself, there were eleven yers in the U.K. going to Hogwarts. Six of them were originally there; the other five were either Ninjas or Warriors who used Mission Points to transfer over. Their first semester started in five months, but most arrived earlier to get their wand and some practice in.


    When a yer transfers from one world to another, how much they pay determines a lot. Ninja_Lord, for example, paid a premium and got himself a new identity as a half-blood going to Hogwarts. He inherited all the memories of his new identity prior to his arrival, but before his eleventh birthday, his father apparently didn''t know his mother was a witch.


    What Rayleigh found more interesting was that what Ninja_Lord paid didn''t just affect his identity in the Wizard World, but the Ninja World. ording to his exnation in the Chat Room, payment included a fee that would allow him to return at any time. He had a backstory that the Hokage gave him a long-term infiltration Mission. This exined why he was gone and would allow him to return. It seemed he was trying to be a leader by sharing certain useful pieces of information to make himself stand out.


    Ninja_Lord was apparently the only Ninja to pay for that service. The other Ninjas who left, like Bone_Wizard, didn''t pay for a backstory, so they just vanished from the Vige and were thought to have gone rogue. Not that this was a problem if they never intended to return. By starting as a Ninja, they already had their Ninja power system unlocked. They could keep training it without returning to the Ninja world.


    What was funny was that, although the Wizards started their interesting stuff first, they had the mostiners inside the Tavern. Many of the Wizards thought they could practice Wandless Magic, so they didn''t pay for a wand at the start.


    ording to Miracle, "Although kids can do idental magic, that''s not the same as wandless magic. idental magic is like sneezing. Can you train yourself to sneeze onmand? Maybe, but it is really hard, really inconvenient, and really painful. The fanfics lied to us!!!"


    Real Wandless Magic was just a Wand Spell you had high enough proficiency in to use without a wand. Trying to learn a Wand Spell without a wand and use it Wandlessly right away was like going from crawling to Olympic level pole vaulting and skipping the steps in the middle.


    Because of this, many yers who took Wizard as their Primary ss and didn''t get a Wand were unable to perform difficult Missions. Their biggest goal was to umte enough points to turn their Wand into an Inventory item. That way, not only could they take it to other worlds, but they could also use it on Missions.


    Some yers like that couldn''t even wait and used a tiny amount of Mission Points to go to either the Ninja World or Warrior World. It was fine if they went to the Warrior World. Many Martial Temples ran orphanages, so having a kid show up there without any records wasn''t too bad, but the kids who chose to go to the Ninja World without paying for an ID couldn''t even get into the Leaf Vige. They appeared in smaller, outskirt viges and had to figure out a way to get into the vige and enroll in Ninja School without being seen as a spy. Some were taken under the wing of yers like Ninja_Lord who taught them how to use the Ninja Power system. Some were more unfortunate. There were numerous horror stories in the Chat Room.


    After Rayleigh couldn''t gain any more benefits from using the Je''daii Master''s Calligraphy brush, Rayleigh left and headed for Akar Kesh, the Temple of Bnce. This was also around the time the Wizard yers started attending their first year of Wizard School.


    The Temple of Bnce was not as highly elevated as the mountaintop Temple of Martial Arts, but it was on a pir that rose above the clouds. The massive pir had a single, simple pavilion and eight stone columns surrounding a pool of water.


    The Temple of Bnce had a single purpose, to meditate on the As, the Bogan, and the bnce between the Light and Dark of the Force. The sky-piercing pir that Akar Kesh was situated on stood alone among the clouds. When one looked around it from the top, there was nothing to see below but cloud cover. The only thing one could really look at from the Temple was the crystal-clear image of Tython''s two moons.


    Even though Rayleigh didn''t have a Master-Apprentice Force-Bond to cheat his way to a high-level connection with the Force, he didn''t feel he needed one. Connecting to the Force was about listening to it, figuring out what it wanted, and figuring out how to change yourself so that it responded to you in the best way. So Rayleigh began to think.


    Although Jedi younglings grew up with stories, Rayleigh doubted any of them were as varied as the hundreds of Light Novels he read in his previous life. Anti-Heroes, idental Heroes, Tragic Viins, and Viinous Bystanders were all counter-points to the traditional theory of good and evil, light and dark, which the Jedi divided the Force into.


    From the journals he''d peeped through in the various temples he ransacked, he understood that the Dark Side was a hunger for power. An all-consuming Force that promised its might to anyone willing to feed it.


    Rayleigh had no interest in the Dark Side. Its promise of power was hollow. What good was sacrificing to be powerful if someone stronger showed up the next day? Wasn''t that always the case with the Protagonists? No matter how strong the MC bes, someone stronger will always appear. The MC sacrificed everything to be stronger than his opponent, then the opponent''s great-grandfather shows up and is five times stronger. What was the point? The sacrifice was for nothing!


    Then there was the Light Side, the path of Peace. ording to the Sith, Peace was a lie, but that wasn''t true. No, the truth is worse, so much worse. Peace did exist, and the Republic had been at peace for a very long time. This could be attributed to the Jedi. This wasn''t a good thing.


    From every fantasy or history book, Rayleigh had ever read, peace was just a polite way of saying stagnation. There could be no real progress with peace. Progresses from conflict. Was a world at peace a world without conflict? No, there was always conflict. So why was there such a long period of peace without any great conflicts? ording to Republic History, it was the Jedi, the Peacekeepers. But could conflict actually be removed? No, only suppressed. What did that mean? It meant that the Jedi had been suppressing the conflict in the Gxy for a thousand years. But nothing can be suppressed forever. It was a dam waiting to burst.


    It didn''t take a genius to realize what came next. Besides, this was a fantasy setting. This world came from a story. What kind of story didn''t have any conflict? It was easy to just assume that conflict would show up at some point, and then you could work backwards to figure out what caused it.


    Considering the setting, you could even argue that whatever conflict was going to happen was caused by the Jedi.


    So what went wrong? Why did the Jedi''s actions fail?


    And they weren''t the only ones who failed. Until thest thousand years, the Sith have been, historically, the stronger of the two forces in the Gxy. The Jedi were basically a small Order in the Republic while the Sith had an entire Empire. But the Sith never won. They were always stronger, always in a better position, always had the advantage, but they never won.


    The Jedi justified that, historically, since they lost, the Sith were the ones in the wrong. But considering what was toe, that implied that in the future, the same could be said about the Jedi. They were both on the wrong path. So what was the correct path? What did the Force want?


    Rayleigh meditated atop the Temple of Bnce for as long as he could, looking back and forth between the ivory-white, iridescent As, and the blood-red, shadow-covered Bogan while meditating on these two paths.


    When he was tired, he slept. When he was stiff, he''d perform his Alchaka. When he was hungry, he''d go to the Tavern. Other than these points, he spent the remainder of his time meditating, asking himself questions and trying to piece together possible answers.


    Power was an illusion. It was only used in reference to others. If a weak old man was the only person on a, he could proudly im he was the strongest person in the world. Attaining power just means you are trying to reach the level of someone else. Rayleigh figured that was why the Sith didn''t care about where their power came from or its cost. Power was basically an arbitrary number. They just wanted to reach a higher number; the source of the power was irrelevant.


    Eternal peace was a path to ruin. On Earth, any society that had peace for too long was eventually destroyed because of internal fighting or invasion from stronger powers.


    The fact that very still exists yet the Jedi exist as Peacekeepers means that the Jedi actually protect very. Peacekeepers maintain the status quo, preventing conflict and change. This meant that anything that could end very would be stopped by the Jedi, as ending very would lead to conflict.


    Rayleigh thought about every path that the Light Side, the Dark Side, and the Force itself could take and spent days and weeks building up the possible paths to their eventual conclusion, all of which appeared to be dead-ends.


    He eventually startedparing the Force to various entities to check for simrities. It was fun topare it to the Lovecraftian Elder Gods.


    It was during this particrly horrific train of thought that Rayleigh thought of something he doubted any sane Jedi or Sith of the path had ever thought of.


    The Lovecraftian Elder Gods were not mortal and did not see the Universe as mortals do. Therefore, the worst thing you could do with them was humanizing them and using the logic of humans to think you knew anything about them.


    That brought Rayleigh to the question: why did everyone assume the Force wanted something? Or more specifically, why did the Je''daii and the Jedi assume the Force had intentions that a sentient being would share? Did the Order humanize the Force and make an inurate assumption?


    So what did the Force want? He knew that it wanted there to be more living things in the Universe as it could only exist in living things. But what else? What path did the Force want its users to take and use it for?


    The answer suddenly became obvious. It actually made Rayleighugh. He broke downughing until tears came out of his eyes. He didn''t know how long he remainedughing. If it weren''t for his excellent physical condition, he likely could have passed out fromck of oxygen while locked in this uncontrobleughing fit. If this was the truth, then it was just too much. Could everyone have had it so wrong?


    There wasn''t a path. Or at least, there wasn''t a path forward. The path was to stand still.


    It reminded Rayleigh of a witch he had dated in his past life. He asked for her to cast a good luck spell on him, but she refused. ording to her, giving him luck meant taking it from someone else. Doing so would put him in the debt of whoever he got the luck from, and if he didn''t pay off that debt, things would happen to ensure the debt was paid off and everything was bnced.


    Rayleigh thought it was BS, but she exined that there was a price for everything, including magic. At some point, he asked her how she used magic without paying the price. She answered that she didn''t. When she learned that magic couldn''t be used easily without a price, she stopped trying to use magic. Figuring out how to pay the price was just as big a hassle as doing it without magic, so magic was almost pointless. He asked her how she could call herself a witch if she didn''t use magic. She said just because she didn''t use it didn''t mean she couldn''t.


    The so-called path of the Force was about the same. Don''t use it. That was the path. Or more specifically, don''t use it to unbnce a situation, or else the situation will restore its bnce eventually with a vengeance.


    When a Sith used the Force to make themselves powerful, the Force ate at their very bodies. With a Jedi using the Force to enforce peace, it would only ensure the next conflict was even greater.


    Both paths bnced out in the end, and one might even say it was better if neither path was ever taken.


    Rather than take power from the Force, just improve yourself. Rather than enforce peace, just keep yourself safe.


    The only real purpose of the Jedi in the Republic was to defend it from the Sith. But in thest thousand years, if the Jedi had stopped interfering and allowed conflicts to escte, would things have really been so bad? Sure, lives would have been lost during the conflict, but no conflictsts forever. The end result may have been better than the current Republic of today.


    Rayleigh could almost hear the Force sing during his epiphany. He wasn''t nearly as excited though. The best way to use the Force was not to use it?! What kind of BS is that?


    Rayleigh meditated on it for a while and found, to his great relief, that there were in fact two exceptions. He could use the Force on little things and he could use the Force on things that universally affected everyone, instead of one side or another. If he did something that affected only one side of anything, there would eventually be a natural rebound to bnce out whatever he did.


    Thankfully, at least from what he saw, there was a lot of wiggle room when it came to, ''little things.''


    Using the Force to figure out the best way to resolve aary, generation-spanning conflict was a big thing. Using the Force to enhance your ability to move fast or Jump Good was a little thing. In fact, just about any personal use of the Force that didn''t affect anyone else was a little thing.


    Using the Force to free arge group of captured soldiers was something that mattered. Using the Force to escape if you were captured was something that didn''t matter. At least as long as you didn''t involve yourself in the matterter.


    And it wasn''t like he wasn''t allowed to do big things. He just couldn''t use the Force to assist himself in doing those big things. He could fight a war or overthrow a dictator if he wanted to, he just couldn''t use the Force while doing it. And there were plenty of big things he could do that affected everyone. If a threat was going to kill everyone on a, then stopping that threat affected everyone on that equally as was in line with the will of the Force.


    This still meant there were many limits of course. Rayleigh could not use the Force while acting as a bodyguard, assassin, diplomat, or leader. Basically, he could not use the Force to be a long-term meddlesome influence on other people''s problems.


    Understanding this also gave Rayleigh a better picture of what the Jedi should do to follow the will of the Force. If the Jedi wanted to bring peace to the Gxy, they should have be teachers. It was a big thing to use the Force to catch a mountain of fish to feed a vige. It was a small thing to give a lesson to a viger how to fish and then have that viger teach the others in the vige how to fish. Allowing the Force to guide a Jedi into teaching the right lessons to the right people would be the ideal means to guide the Gxy tosting, meaningful peace.


    In the example of theary, generation-spanning conflict, the best course of action would be for someone from that to seek out a Jedi and learn from the Jedi how to resolve the conflict, and then have the person return and try it out himself. It may work or it may not, but if it did work, the bacsh would be far weaker than the consequences of an unrted outsidering in and just forcing the end of the conflict with the threat of magic powers.


    Jedi could easily be the best teachers. Impartation and Force-Bonds allow a Jedi to obtain vast amounts of knowledge and wisdom. Eons of wisdom could umte through the lines of Masters and apprentices, granting a rtively young Jedi hundreds of years of wisdom. They were tailor-made to be teachers, but the Jedi order insisted they be meddlers.


    Of course, this would only work if people with problems came to them and asked to learn. Forcing your lessons upon someone who didn''t ask for them is also unnecessary meddling.


    The Je''daii were pretty close to the truth, though. They spent their lives as students or teachers but focused too much on the mysteries of the Force and never considered that they were the best fit for the role of teacher to thosecking Force-sensitivity about non-Force-rted subjects. The fall of the Je''daii which lead to the split between the Jedi and the Sith urred because the Je''daiipletely ignored their Forcecking neighbors which led to war and bloodshed. If they figured out the truth and sent Je''daii Teachers to create schools they could impart their lessons through, the Je''daii might still be around and the Sith would never have been born.


    The only problem, though, once he put all the pieces together, was that this pretty much implied the current Jedi Order was doomed. One thousand years of meddling. Would there even be a single Jedi left when the bnce was paid off?


    Although it was not the answer he wanted, the vibrant hum of the Force seemed to indicate he was right. Even if he was off, he was still closer to the correct path than the Jedi or Je''daii ever were.


    In any case, he''d found his answer. Meditating on it should let the speed of his growing connection to the Force keep up with those Padawans with Master-Apprentice Force-Bonds. Even if some exceeded the strength of his connection due to faster growth, that would only be until they reached the level of their own Master. Rayleigh''s connection to the Force would continuously grow at the same rate and eventually surpass any Jedi.


    Of course, he still needed to simplify it.


    Rayleigh did not master the contents of the Temples he stayed at. He was far from a Master and at best, he''d be able to force a young Jedi Knight to fight without holding back. What he did at each Temple was learn enough of the basics so that he could continue his studies even after leaving.


    Since he had a new path, he needed a new way to simplify the meditation. After thinking about it for a long time, he created a new Code for himself.


    There is no strength, only the strongest and everyone else.


    There is no power, only continuous self-improvement.


    There is no bnce, only the in-motion and the motionless.


    There is no beginning or end, only a previous and a next.


    Rayleigh almost smiled. His code was perhaps the most sphemous Code to ever exist. It properly insulted every aspect that both the Jedi and the Sith believed in at the same time, yet contained his core philosophy.


    Most of it didn''t even make sense, but meditating on those parts led to the deeper truths hidden beneath the surface. He was quite satisfied with it. Why follow someone else''s code when you can make your own?


    Rayleigh checked the Chat Room while thinking of what to do next. Basically, he was done. Staying at the Temple of Bnce served no further purpose. So what was he going to do next?


    Rayleigh had actually been here for eight months. Decoding the Force wasn''t a cakewalk. In the Wizard World, the first year''s Christmas wasst week and it was almost New Year''s.


    Several yers became friends with the MC of the Wizard World and helped him during some of the weird things that happened a few months ago.


    While Rayleigh was pondering what to do next, he saw a reminder in the General Chat that the Hunter World''s Hunter Exam was going to take ce on the first of the year, which apparently coincided with the dates for the Wizard World and MCU. Rayleigh was eleven, and he''d run out of things to do on this, so he figured that now was as good a time as any. With a single look back to As and Bogan, Rayleigh opened the Door to the Tavern and entered, leaving Tython for his next adventure.

 Chapter 12: A New Identity

    Chapter 12: A New Identity


    Chapter 12 A New Identity


    Rayleigh took a step inside the Tavern and reflexively sighed with relief. When he entered the Tavern, what he wore would be reced by a Jedi robe. This meant he''d lose the itchy robes he wore, and the sudden vanishment of the feeling of that unspeakable itchiness granted a soul-healing sense of relief, each and every time. When he then remembered that he probably wouldn''t be going back, he almost cried that the itchy nightmare was finally over! Two Years! F-You Iron Will n!!! He would often curse the day he discovered those itchy robes and his own stubbornness.


    Besides the strengthening of his willpower, Rayleigh''s overall increase in strength over thest few years was shown in the fact that he could reliably finish 45 Point Missions now. His max speed was at least three times as fast as it was when he left the Jedi, and he could handle 400 kilograms of weight and move at 50% of his max speed.


    Now that he was back in the Tavern, his Metaknowledge returned and he was very satisfied with his progress. The reason he wanted to stay on Tython was that the Je''daii trained using both the Dark Side and Light Side, thus forming a bnce. That Bnce of the Force perk would weaken him if he strayed too far from bnced, but that was Metaknowledge and his Character didn''t know that since the description of the perk only said it amplified Force powers while in bnce, not that it reduced them when out of bnce.


    He hoped his Character would be a Je''daii Ranger, but he instead went apletely different route, abandoning the entire philosophy of the past and taking his own path. However, he wouldn''tin. What could be more bnced than True Neutral, the resolve to either help no side or affect everyone together?


    Even better, he was able to figure out the end-game plot of Star Wars with plenty of time to avoid it.


    In any case, this was a great time to head to the Hunter World and take the Hunter Exam. Gon and Killua bonded over the fact that they were the same age, but every yer was also the same age, so any yer taking the Hunter Exam at the same time would be able to make friends with them.


    Not that doing so deliberately was easy. Those starting in the Hunter World would have Hunter parents and backdoor ways to get a Hunter Licence. Kite didn''t take the Hunter Exam, he was taught by Ging Freecss and his final task was to find him. Considering the danger of the Exam and how much the Hunter yers begged over thest seven years, the yers in the Hunter World have already either gotten a License through parental tutoring or are still being trained. They didn''t need to take the Exam and without the Metaknowledge of knowing when the MC would arrive, they had no intention of waiting. After all, every yer considered the MC their rival. Why wait to start training until he has when they can get as massive a head-start as possible?


    Then there were the Jedi yers. With only a few exceptions like Rayleigh, most of the Jedi yers had a Master and were on the elerated track of strengthening their connection to the Force and mastering powerful skills. Even if they wanted to take the Hunter Exam, they''d have toe to the Tavern physically, which could only be done if unobserved. Many of the Jedi yers were peeved when they found out that their Masters could feel their presence when on the same, which counted as observation. This meant that none of the yers with Masters could physically enter the Tavern unless their Master died or they cut the Master-Apprentice Force-Bond between them.


    The Jedi yers who didn''t have a Master had other ns, but they were far weaker and needed more time before they were ready for the Hunter Exam.


    The Pirate yers were in an interesting situation. You could only enter the Tavern Physically if you were not in an enclosed space, but apparently ships counted as enclosed spaces. If a yer wanted to physically enter the Tavern while at sea, they had to jump into the ocean and have no one look at them. When they returned, they would be in the same spot in the sea.


    There were, however, a lot of Pirate yers on inds doing private training simr to how Rayleigh spent hisst few years. Plenty of them also came to the Tavern physically each day for their meals, meaning they could choose toe to the Hunter Exam whenever they wanted. Those who have already got a Devil Fruit would definitely choose to go to this Exam.


    Rayleigh walked up to the counter and found a Bartender. Coincidence or not, the one at the Bar today was actually Red.


    The red-bearded lumberjack smiled as Ray approached and called out, "Hey, monkey-boy, you gonna order some food?"


    "No, thank you. I would like to purchase a transfer to the Hunter World."


    Red nodded and motioned for Rayleigh to take a seat. The Tavern had some interesting properties that prevented conversations between the yers and staff from being heard by other yers, so there were no concerns about eavesdroppers.


    "Let me guess, you want to take part in this year''s Hunter Exam?"


    "Of course."


    "Haha. Well then, let''s see." Red started looking at some invisible screen in front of him. The staff had their own menus and were used for administrative stuff, it seemed.


    "Ah, here we go. So got anything specific in mind?"


    "Can I show up at Whale Ind on the boat to take the Exam with Gon?" It was known that the Tavern pretty much allowed anything as long as you had enough points. If you had a few million points to spend, you could start off in the MCU as the President of the United States or Leader of Hydra.


    "Sure, but that will cost about 65,000 points."


    Rayleigh gave him a deadpan stare before asking, "Why?"


    Red snorted, "Two reasons. First, only adults can take the Hunter Exam. Since you are underage, your Character needs to include some form of legal adulthood built into the identity, which is a lot more expensive than a normal identity."


    Rayleigh argued, "But what about Killua and Gon?"


    Red shook his head, "Don''t try to substitute Metaknowledge formon sense. Catching that big fish was Gon''s Guardian''s task to grant Gon adulthood and let him take the Exam, and Killua''s parents had to legally dere him an adult to grant him ess to climb Heaven''s Arena. Zushi is the same. You are not."


    After giving Rayleigh a moment to digest that, he continued, "Reason number two. Anything to do with the MC is extremely expensive. You think you''re the only one to ask for early ess to him? If it was cheap, every yer would be on that boat. More than that, Leorio practically got a free ride to the Hunter Exam which has a 1 in 10,000 chance of getting there sessfully by following Gon. Such a convenient bus is appropriately expensive."


    "Ah, nevermind then. What about just the identity and permission to take the Exam from the start on my own like everyone else?"


    Red nodded, "That''s cheaper. A normal identity for an eleven-year-old eligible to enroll in this year''s Hunter Exam ends up at..... 5,000 points. In case you were wondering, it would only be 1,500 if you took it next year and 500 if you took it seven years from now as a legal adult with the cheapest and most ordinary background."


    Rayleigh still felt that five thousand was an enormous sum, but at least it was not out of his reach. Even with a meal every day, Rayleigh had saved over nine thousand points in thest few years.


    Red seemed to know what Rayleigh was thinking and continued, "Now about the background. How much education, money, and influence do you want?"


    "Umm, is it a problem if I just get a bank ount with five thousand Zenny and no influence or education?"


    "Sure, but there will be consequences. If you don''t remember, let me remind you that when Gon returned to Whale Ind and lost his Nen two years after leaving, his aunt had four semesters of school work for Gon toplete. If you get an identitycking a full education, you will be required byw toplete a full course of school materials as well."


    Seeing where this was going, Rayleigh sighed and answered, "Fine. Anything else?"


    "Of course. Though you want to start at the beginning of the Hunter Exam, some areas were just unlucky and died before reaching their destination. You don''t want one of those, right?"


    Red''s grin was painful to look at. How could a man who looked so much like a lumberjack talk like a used car salesman?


    Defeated, Rayleigh muttered, "Please, just tell me the cost of what I need?"


    "Hahaha. Well, you''ll need a background that includes full adult status despite your age. If you show off too much strength without any background, people will get interested, and you''ll quickly go missing. Your background will also need to include apleted education. You also need money in the bank. Who will believe you have a good background if you don''t have any money?"


    After listing off a series of ''reasonable'' things to include, the price came out to 9,041 points. Was that a coincidence since he only had a savings of 9140 points, barely enough to pay for it all? Rayleigh doubted it. If he had made more, the list of ''reasonable'' things to include would have been longer.


    Noticing Rayleigh''s using stare, Red responded, "Hey, don''tin. You''re already getting a good deal. Tython''s empty and the Jedi think you''re dead, so you don''t need to pay a single point to keep your identity over there intact."


    That was true. Plenty of the Pirate yers with ambitions of bing King of the Pirates already had an identity and were starting to form a crew. Unless they wanted to abandon it all, they had to pay extra to ensure they had something to return to if they wanted to go back.


    Red seemed to be looking over an invisible menu for a while before a see-through window appeared in front of Rayleigh


    [Hunter Identity


    Rayleigh Rush


    The sole survivor of a reclusive ind tribe that was destroyed by a monster.


    He survived because the monster chose not to kill him.


    He was found by a Hunter at the age of 8, known to possess the unusual abilities of the tribe.


    Dered an adult due tock of parents and given private tutors. Genius intellect, recentlypleted studies. Inherited wealth of the tribe, 5 million Zenny.


    Intends to take the Hunter Exam this year.


    Will start off in a location that won''t fail the Hunter Exam by default and bad luck.


    Includes Unlocking of Nen Talent.


    Cost: 9,041


    Purchase


    Yes | No]


    Rayleigh went over the window more than once. He wasn''t thinking earlier, but now he could see the problems that could ur if he used the Force and didn''t have a good exnation for it. He doubted the Devil Fruit Users would have as easy a time exining their own unique abilities unless they also paid for this kind of thing. But if they didn''t have enough points, would it even be offered?


    Rayleigh asked, "Is there anything else I probably need that I''m too poor to afford? And why only 5 million? Can''t a Hunter pawn their License for 100 million?"


    Red chuckled, "5 million is a lot for someone who isn''t a Hunter. The collective wealth of Whale Ind doesn''t add up to 100 million, and it''s a trade ind. The total assets of a small ind tribe holding a value to 5 million is normal. As for what else you could get if you had more points? This already covers most of it, but if you paid more points you''d have more leeway to use the Force. There is a limit to everything. Even this background won''t protect you if you draw too much attention before you gain any proficiency with Nen. Though, if you were willing to give up the chance to take this year''s Hunter Exam, you could afford an identity that wouldn''t raise eyebrows if you went all out with the Force."


    "Naw, I''m good." He did have the idea of not paying for emancipation, then using the Force to show he was qualified as an adult, but not anymore. If he attracted the wrong attention, he''d probably end up in aboratory.


    He looked over it again and pointed out, "This doesn''t say I''m registered for the Hunter Exam."


    "We can register you, but you can also just register yourself and not pay us for the service of doing so."


    Rayleigh realized that if he had a few more Points, he probably would have been registered without knowing that he could have just done it himself. He wasn''t sure how to feel about that.


    As if seeing his thoughts, Red smiled and stated, "Well then, happy hunting." He then set a ss of Beer on the bar table and left to check on the other patrons.


    With that, Rayleigh hit the Yes button and heard the electronic sound of a cashier''s drawer opening. It was painful to spend that much, but at least he had some security. Rayleigh downed his Beer and headed for the Tavern''s Exit. Now that the transfer wasplete, once he stepped out of the Tavern, he''d begin his new life.


    After the familiar feeling of whiting out and regaining his senses, Rayleigh found himself in an apartment in the small coastal town of Briesgport. He''d been living here for a few years since he was dropped off by the weird guy who found him on Onnillo. It was one of the thousands of random inds scattered throughout the world, and this one''s only point of interest to outsiders was that the tribe that lived there seemed to have a special ability.


    ording to his memory, his tribe had been doing something stupid, which apparently provoked a monster that lived on the ind. It was a 100-meter long crocodile that had been living on the ind since their ancestors came. Looking back, he guessed they were trying to enve it or something. It killed the chief, all the elders, and then came to the vige and destroyed every building. Even those who ran were hunted down by scent and killed.


    When it came to Rayleigh, their eyes met for a moment. He didn''t know why, but he wasn''t afraid of it. The crocodile monster then ignored him and continued killing the rest of the tribe.


    Some weird dude showed up an hourter and took him off the ind. Someone in the tribe called when the monster attacked, but they showed up a bit toote. The treasures of his ancestors were going to be ced in storage, but Rayleigh had apparently told them to sell it. They weren''t very valuable except for their cultural significance, but he got enough to livefortably. After that, the Hunter Association arranged for him to receive some tutors, and hisst lesson waspleted only a week ago.


    Oh, and he had memories of another life.


    Rayleigh was d that he didn''t have a headache this time. Might have been because he just finished a Beer. Simr to how it had been when he was a Jedi, there was a walled off room inside his head filled with the memories and knowledge of his first life, while the rest of his head contained everything from this life. The room now included everything from his Jedi experiences as well. If he chose to ignore the room in his head, it would be as if he had no awareness of his past lives or other world knowledge.


    His physical body was identical to how it was on Tython, even some of the scars he''d obtained were there. The Tavern even included memories of how he got them in this life. The only difference was that the items he carried like that damnably itchy robe and Dyanameez''s Lightsaber were gone. He wouldn''t see either again unless he returned to Tython.


    Rayleigh left the apartment and entered the town. The country he lived in was called Jappon, and it shared the same shape and culture as Japan. It was the closest country to the ind where he used to live. However, even with the rtively close distance, Rayleigh''s appearance did not match the ethnicity of the locals. He had no idea why his tribe apparently all looked like white dudes when the closest country was filled with Japanese.


    Since he always looked like a foreigner, he was eager to leave and had been preparing himself for the uing Hunter Examination. Knowing the way by heart, Rayleigh walked to a government office to register for the Hunter Exam. Having lived there for a few years already, his identity was in the system, which included the fact that he was an emancipated minor, thus allowing him to register for a small fee.


    The woman at the office confirmed the contents of his registration form and smiled, "Alright, there is a shiping by tomorrow that can take you to the continent where the 287th Hunter Exam will take ce. Please be at the port''s 27th dock noter than 8:30 AM tomorrow, okay? The ship will reach the continent by noon, and the Hunter Exam starts at 7 AM sharp the next day, so don''t bete."


    Rayleigh nodded politely and replied, "Yes, thank you very much."


    After receiving a ticket to board the ship, Rayleigh headed for a store and bought some essentials. He bought arge backpack, some sturdy changes of clothes, a dozen airtight stic containers, every form of camping supplies he could think of, and a lot of groceries.


    Rayleigh had wanted to try the Force Cooking he learned at the Temple of the Arts, but never had any good ingredients since everything he picked up on Tython was mostly inedible. The stuff he picked up in the overgrown herb gardens had be tasteless over thest 30,000 years.


    Now that he had good ingredients and a decent kitchen, he would spend the rest of the day and night cooking up everything he could think of and practicing Force Cooking. The good stuff would go into the containers to be saved forter. Now that he had ess to grocery stores, he didn''t want to spend any more Mission Points on Tavern food.


    The Hunter Exam took ce on the South American-looking continent, which was rtively close to the Jappon, meaning the ship wouldn''t need to travel too far. The only problem was that he didn''t know where the Hunter Exam would take ce on the continent, and he didn''t know where the ship would drop them off. What made it more frustrating was that it was difficult to obtain maps of one country while in another.


    If he knew exactly where the Hunter Exam would take ce, he could pay for a Zipplin ride to the closest Skyport and then just take a taxi or bus the rest of the way. He found it odd that instead of giving him the location of the Hunter Exam, the receptionist just gave him a ticket to get on a ship.


    His Metaknowledge sense was telling him that getting to the Hunter Exam was not going to be as simple as leaving point A and arriving at point B.


    Rayleigh was tempted to try and meditate for the answer. He could use Force Precognition to find clues from the future, but for some reason, he felt that doing so would be cheating.


    It didn''t matter too much. He could still use it if the need arose. His Force Abilities did not change from the unlocking of his Hunter Power System, but he had no idea what that system was at the moment. At least he confirmed something he learned in the Tavern. All the crazy stuff he did to his body carried over to this world. Even without the Force, he was multiple times stronger and faster than a eleven-year-old had any right to be.


    While he continued his journey into the world of cooking, Rayleigh opened the Hunter Chat.


    [Swordsman has signed in.]


    [Demon_Hunter: Ah, another for the Exam. Wee to my world.]


    [Puppeteer: Oh, your world, is it?]


    [Crow: He always says that.]


    [Green_Lantern: Are you not dead yet?]


    [Swordsman: Hi everyone. Do any of you have your Hunter License yet?]


    [Green_Lantern: I can take you under my wing. How many Zennies do you have?]


    [Swordsman: How much for a lesson?]


    [Poison_King: He''s going to rob you.]


    [Armory: The Chat gets so noisy during the Exam. Don''t ask if anyone has a license. Those who have it will im they don''t, and those who don''t will im they have it. I have one, by the way.]


    [Dyna_Might: This is BS. Why do I have to go to the Exam on a ******* ship?!]


    [White_Knight: Make sure you wear a life jacket.]


    [Armory: Some pirate you are.]


    One of the Pirate yers had long spread the details of Devil Fruits to the General Chat. Rayleigh guessed it was a Marine yer. Because of this, everyone knew that yers who had the power of a Devil Fruit sank in water.


    Some of the yers did a number of experiments. If a DF User was wet, there was no effect. If submerged to their ankles in water, there is a 10% loss in strength. If submerged to the waist, strength is reduced by 50%. 100% submerged means zero strength.


    What many of the yers hated was that this did not just include seawater, it included all forms of stationary water.


    Even in the Tavern, yersined about that point. They imed it should only be sea water and only in the Ocean in the Sea Circle World.


    The Tavern brought out the One Piece Manga and showed a few tiny examples of being submerged in fresh water having the same effect. It seemed a lot of yers didn''t know about that during character creation.


    [Dyna_Might: Hey Swordsman, you better not get in my way during the Exam. You''re a Jedi right? Jedi can''t do **** against Explosions!]


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes. Some yers eventually gave the details of what a Jedi was and what they did in the General Chat, so most yers had a rough idea of what they were and how to deal with them. He wouldn''t mind a fight if the guy was strong, but two lines of dialogue and this guy already gave Rayleigh the impression of a fire cracker.


    [Green_Lantern: Did you all bring money for the Exam? Poor people can''t take the Hunter Exam.]


    [Dyna_Might: Ha! Then they should just give me my license now! I brought fifty million Zennies!]


    [Armory: What the hell? What was the conversion rate for Mission Points to Zennies?]


    [White_Knight: I think it was 100:1,000,000 when making the ID. You can''t do smaller increments, but that means he converted 5000 points to Zennies.]


    [Swordsman: Did you buy any kind of special identity?]


    [Dyna_Might: Why the hell should I do that? I can just buy what I need with real money. I even bribed the registration office to take the exam.]


    Rayleigh wondered if this guy was a genius or an idiot. Well, the difference between the two was measured in sess, so he''d wait to see if it worked before he judged him.


    He also realized that after the purchase, he only had 99 Mission Points left. If he had a single point more, would Red have rmended buying 6 million Zenny instead of 5 million? Probably.


    What was funny was that he remembered that, during the Tutorial, he was told Mission Points couldn''t be used outside the Tavern. Apparently, this kind of thing where you exchange points for money was a loophole. Technically, that pirate didn''t get that 50 mil with his points, he already had the 50 mil and the Pirate paid Mission Points to rece him. Or make him exist? It was confusing. Rayleigh figured it didn''t really count because, at least after he got here, he couldn''t go back to the Tavern and directly exchange 100 Mission points for another million zennies.


    Rayleigh spent the remainder of the night cooking. He was far too excited to finally have a chance to use Force cooking to sleep, and he didn''t need that much sleep unless he exercised.


    The next morning, with a backpack filled with delicious-smelling foods and spices, Rayleigh departed from his apartment for thest time, returning the Key to the Office and heading for the docks.


    The ship arrived a few minutes after he did and was tied up and docked within a few minutes. Rayleigh along with a few burly looking locals stood in line to head into the ship, tickets in hand. When they noticed Rayleigh in line baring the same ticket, most didn''t bother to hide the sneer of incredulity.


    Rayleigh didn''t care about them. Who he cared about was the ship''s captain, the grizzled, grey bearded old man looking out to the port from the ship''s upper deck. The moment Rayleigh showed up, the man''s eyes locked onto him. There was no malice, just a calcting stare. Rayleigh got the impression that this guy was strong.


    Rayleigh handed his ticket in and stepped up the nk onto the ship.


    "Oh I can''t believe this, another brat? Are we supposed to be babysitters?"


    One of the men who sneered at Rayleigh just spotted two more kids of Rayleigh''s age on the ship meant for Hunter Exam candidates.


    Rayleigh nced over and meet the eyes of the pair looking back. A small smirk was shared by all.


    The first was a sun-tanned blonde haired male with hair that was unaturally spiky. The other was a white-skinned slender girl with perfectly straight, shoulder-length, ebony ck hair.


    The blonde took the man''sment as provocation and loudly asked aloud, "What''s a dog-eating uncle-fucking yellow turd like you calling me a brat for?"


    The kid could not have been asking more clearly for a fight if he''d just said ''fight me,'' so the local needed no further words before charging at the one he believed to be a snot-noised brat.


    No one got in the way or tried to stop him. If one nced up at the ship''s captain, they''d notice a sly smile.


    An explosion caused almost everyone on the ship to flinch as a body was seen flying over the side of the ship into the water. When everyone nced over to the source of the explosion, they noticed the brat from before was reeling his arm back and smoke was covering his fist. He had the widest grin, showing everyone he pissed off the man on purpose so he could show off what he could do.


    Rayleigh figured this boat ride would be more interesting than he initially thought.

 Chapter 13: Journey to the Hunter Exam

    Chapter 13: Journey to the Hunter Exam


    Chapter 13 Journey to the Hunter Exam


    The reaction of most of the ship''s new arrivals to the brat''s explosive fist was to keep away. Rayleigh, on the other hand, walked directly up to the kid and said, "Hey, I''m Swordsman."


    Even in the Tavern, they only introduced themselves using their Chat Room names.


    The blonde kid''s eyes widened in recognition before he startedughing, "Ah, you''re the guy who got here yesterday. I''m Dyna Might!"


    Rayleigh nced over to the girl next to him. She barely turned her head and said, "Glitter."


    Figuring he wasn''t going to get much of a conversation out of her at the moment, Rayleigh asked Dyna Might, "Is your build based on Bakugo from My Hero Academia?"


    "That''s right. I can do even more shit than he can. Even my breath is explosive! Hahaha! What about you?"


    "Samurai Jack and Rurouni Kenshin. With aser sword."


    The explosive blonde thought about it for a few moments before nodding. "If you want to be a good swordsman, you need toe to Pirate World. The best swordsmen are there. If you join my crew, I can introduce you to some good ones."


    The less-than-cheery girl gave an udylike snort at his statement. The blonde reeled back and shouted, "Shut Up!" before throwing his fist at her face.


    Rayleigh backed away from what was obviously going to be an explosion, but he noticed the girl had raised her arm to catch the fist.


    Another explosion shocked the ship''s crew, louder than the one before, but when the smoke cleared, the girl was still standing there and hadn''t moved an inch. Her slender arm, on the other hand, had turned into a sparkling crystal. No, diamond. Her entire arm had be solid diamond.


    Dyna Might sneered, but took his fist back and acted as if nothing had happened. This obviously wasn''t the first time this has urred. Rayleigh couldn''t tell if these two were friends or not.


    Glitter then stated, to Dyna Might''s annoyance, "He can''t really do all the same things as Bakugo. He is immune to the shockwave from explosions, so he can''t use explosions to fly or throw himself forward."


    Before Dyna Might could shout again, she changed the topic and asked, "Is this your first time on a boat? You don''t have any sea legs at all."


    "Yeah, but I''m a quick learner. Hopefully, I won''t get seasick."


    Dyna Mightughed and added, "If you did any proper training, you won''t. Only little bitches who aren''t used to moving around get seasick."


    Rayleigh asked Glitter, "Do all pirates talk like that, or is it just him?"


    Dyna Might mmed his fist into his hand and made a small boom and shouted, "Hey! I''m right here!"


    Ignoring him, Glitter answered, "No. None of the Pirates I''ve sailed with put in the effort to deliberately swear in every other sentence."


    Rayleigh smiled. Outside of the Tavern, this was the first time he''d ever talked to a yer. In fact, this was the first time he''d ever talked to a kid his own age.


    Dyna Might sneered at the pair and tried to start another conversation, "Hey, have you met the Main Character of the Jedi world?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Nope. The Jedi were going to send me to some farm, so I ran away and trained on my own. I stayed out of the Jedi Chat Room, so I don''t know any more about that guy than you do."


    Glitter asked, "What can the Jedi actually do? I heard they were psychic swordsmen. "


    Rayleigh nodded, "Pretty much. Some telekinesis, being able to see a step ahead during an intense fight, and using their minds to make their bodies move way faster than normal."


    Even though Rayleigh was much faster than a human could be without the Force, a Jedi could use the Force to increase their speed to faster than the eye could follow without relying on their muscles. Muscles didn''t help their speed at all, so even when he used the Force, he was only at a fraction of Master Dyanameez''s full speed. That was fine with him; he was only eleven years old, after all.


    Rayleigh then asked, "What about the Pirate power system? I haven''t heard anything in the General Chat about it yet."


    Dyna Might dered, "It''s a secret!"


    Glitter rolled her eyes and stated, "We don''t know either. I haven''t heard of anyone who has learned it yet. We''re too weak."


    Dyna Might continued, "I''ll learn it after I get the Hunter Power System! I heard that there are Admirals who can destroy entire countries and Pirates who can destroy the whole world! Our Power System won''t lose out to yours!"


    Rayleigh chuckled and said, "I heard there was a Force User who could kill entires in the past. He''d just go to a, and absorb the lifeforce of the entire thing, killing everyone on the surface and turning the whole thing into a lifeless shell."


    Glitter gave Rayleigh a skeptical look and asked, "Do you know how to do that?"


    "Nope, not a clue. Besides, I think that guy was more of a ghost than a living person. No way someone can do that and still be alive."


    Dyna Might shouted, "Fuck! You''re actually trying to scare us?! There are Pirates who can eat your Soul! There are Marines who can''t be hurt by any weapon!"


    Rayleigh asked, "Yeah, but is that your power system or a fruit thing?"


    Dyna Might gritted his teeth and Glitterughed.


    The trio discussed random, mundane, and crazy things as the ship left the port and sailed to the next one. Jappon had a number of ports for people going to the Hunter Exam, and the next one was thest.


    "Hello, I am Hanzo the Ninja."


    At thest port, a bald young man with feather-shaped eyebrows approached the trio after boarding and introduced himself. He was wearing jet-ck non-reflective armor that would benefit stealth, but he seemed to be an idiot. If it wasn''t for the fact that he was clearly an adult, he could have passed for a yer.


    Dyna Might shouted, "What the hell? What kind of Ninja introduces himself as a Ninja?!" This was a running joke among the yers that the Ninjas from the Ninja world usually didn''t act like Ninjas.


    Hanzo answered confidently, "It''s okay. It''s a secret."


    Rayleigh asked, "And why did youe over here and talk to us?"


    The self-dered Ninja answered, "Easy, I hate to be bored, and you three look like the strongest on the ship."


    The trio tensed up slightly at that. This guy had just gotten on, so if he hadn''t seen Dyna Might''s explosive fist, he wouldn''t know how strong they were. The fact that he could tell how strong they were meant he wasn''t weak either.


    Rayleigh had another thought. Did he not think the captain of the ship was strong?


    Dyna Might, on the other hand, nodded and replied, "It''s good that you know. Which of us looks like the strongest?"


    The Ninja contemted for a moment before pointing at Dyna Might, "It seems to be you, but..." He then looked at Rayleigh, "My gut tells me it''s you. Do you have any kind of strength-hiding abilities? You feel weaker than my gut says you should be."


    Rayleigh smiled, but didn''t answer. He certainly practiced Force Stealth to suppress his presence. If he went all out with it, it was difficult to even notice him. It was the skill he practiced the longest in the Temple of Force Skills and the Temple of Martial Arts since he needed to avoid getting attacked by animals when he went to get water with his buckets.


    Rayleigh could also sense the strength of someone''s lifeforce through their Midichlorians, but this guy didn''t feel all that different from a normal human. Did he also have a way to suppress his strength?


    Dyna Might looked outraged, but instead of yelling at the Ninja, he turned to Rayleigh and said, "Hey! I thought Jedi don''t exercise! How can you be stronger than I am?!"


    "I ran away from them and practiced on my own. So I''m not really a Jedi."


    Hanzo asked, "What''s a Jedi?"


    Rayleigh shrugged and answered, "A kind of swordsman monk."


    Hanzo nodded, "That exins it," though he didn''t borate on what it exined.


    Instead, Rayleigh asked, "You a local here?" Though a bit blockier, he had the skin tone of a native of Jappon and he did just call himself a Ninja.


    "That''s right! I am a disciple of the Cloud-Hidden School." He then fished out three cards from his pocket and handed one to each of them.


    [Hanzo


    Master of Dissapearance


    Cloud-Hidden School]


    Below the title was a cartoonish picture of a smoke bomb and a cloud.


    "If you evere back, I can show you the best tourist spots."


    Glitter asked, "What kind of training does a ninja do?"


    "That''s a secret."


    Rayleigh guessed, "Bnce training, strength training, speed training, weapons and hidden weapons training, along with stealth, information gathering and probably... torture tactics."


    Hanzo looked shocked and asked, "How did you know that?!"


    Rayleigh replied, "It''s in the book, ''Everything You Need to Know About Being a Ninja.'' It''s on sale in most book stores in Jappon." He''d lived here for four years, after all, and he''d read more than one book written by a local.


    Dyna Might shouted, "What the hell kind of secret is that?!"


    Along with the new addition to the group, they chatted and argued for the next two hours as the ship got further from Jappon and closer to the maind continent. The yers avoided certain yer rted topics, but didn''t bother to hold too much back. Hanzo was an idiot, but a good source of local information.


    It seemed that a Ninja of the Cloud-Hidden School was required to reach a Jounin before he was allowed to take the Hunter''s Exam. Every Jounin who took it passed, which implied that a Jounin did have the minimum required strength for the Exam. This made the trio curious about how strong Hanzo actually was, but even Dyna Might didn''t take the initiative to fight him.


    Rayleigh paid the extra for a safe journey to the Hunter Exam, at least one that did not guarantee death, so he was caught off guard when a massive eel-like snake popped out of the water and started ramming into the ship.


    The captain shouted, "All Hands on Deck! Raise the sails! Don''t let them get torn up by that sea monster!"


    Dyna Might and Glitter took one look at it and shouted, "Sea King?!"


    For a moment, Rayleigh thought they were talking about the Pokemon, but then he realized it was two words and figured it was how the pirates called their sea monsters.


    Rayleigh peaked over to Dyna Might and saw something he really wasn''t expecting. The kid was picking his nose. A momentter, he found a nugget and then flicked it towards the massive, building-sized eel.


    The nugget missed and exploded in the water. Glitter saw this and sighed. It seemed his Nugget Flicking uracy needed work.


    Rayleigh looked over to Hanzo to see what the trained Jounin was going to do and once again saw an unexpected sight.


    "We''re gonna Die! We''re Gonna DIE!!!" Hanzo had tears streaming down his face and was running around in circles.


    "You gonna do something, brat?"


    Rayleigh was caught off guard by the man who got behind him without notice, the ship''s captain.


    Rayleigh asked, "Do you want me to?" It was his policy not to meddle in matters where he wasn''t needed. The exception was if he was in danger or if he was asked.


    The captain answered, "If you don''t, I''ll have to, and I don''t feel up to it today."


    Rayleigh nodded and replied, "Alright."


    Rayleigh then shouted, loud enough for everyone to hear, "STOP!"


    Everyone on the ship halted what they were doing, but it wasn''t the crew he was yelling at.


    The massive eel that was just about to ram the ship once more slowed its swimming speed and raised its head out of the water. It met Rayleigh''s gaze and felt a connection.


    Rayleigh shouted once more and used the Force to make sure he was understood. "This ce belongs to you. We should not havee here."


    Talking to animals was not how Dr. Dolittle and most literature described it. You could not ask a dumb animal a question and get an answer. Questions required a higher level of thought, so an actual conversation with a normal animal was basically an argument of back and forth statements.


    To Rayleigh''sment, the eel made something of a growling noise. Rayleigh registered it as anger and protectiveness along with agreement. Piecing together the clues, Rayleigh figured this monster had just given, or was about to give birth, and had dered this region its territory. No wonder it was provoked by the ship.


    Rayleigh shouted back, "I will tell the ship. The ship will tell other ships. Let us go, and others will stay away.


    He used basic concepts the monster was familiar with for a simple negotiation.


    The eel growled again, this time with less anger but more protectiveness, along with a stronger sound of agreement. It then dipped beneath the water and left.


    To the stunned silence of the crew, Rayleigh casually walked back to the Captain and said, "That eel is a mother and its babies are in this area. Please tell the other ships if you can."


    The Captain quickly recovered from his silence and startedughing. Rayleigh seemedpletely calm, which was why he asked, but he didn''t expect that the brat would just talk with the beast. It wasn''t that rare, but it wasn''tmon either. After he stoppedughing, he shouted, "Alright, lower the sails. Let''s catch the wind and get the hell out of here!"


    The crew was quick to follow those orders and get to work.


    Glitter was the first to approach Rayleigh and even had some admiration in her eyes. "Woah, I didn''t know Jedi could talk with Sea Kings!"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, its connecting from one life to another." He didn''t use the word Force since Hanzo was still listening in.


    Glitter asked, "How long does it take to learn that?"


    "Not that long. Depending on talent, a few weeks, months, or years. It depends on empathy." Animal Friend was an unofficial Force Skill all Padawans were taught. The fact that Padawans could use it meant it wasn''t a difficult skill to master.


    Dyna Might looked over at Hanzo. The Ninja''s ears seemed to have increased in size as he tried to eavesdrop on their conversation. Dyna Might shouted, "Go Away you damn Ninja!" He then nced over to Rayleigh and Glitter and said, "Let''s go to the lower deck."


    The pair of yers followed him down where Dyna Might had apparently paid for a private cabin. Just to be safe, though, Rayleigh used Force Muffle on the door to prevent further eavesdroppers.


    Dyna Might asked, "I heard you need a Master to learn the Force, is that true?"


    Glitter also asked, "I heard the Jedi Masters don''t take anyone who isn''t a kid."


    Ray nodded. Both were technically true. He was an exception due to his high talent and better Code.


    Rayleigh exined, "The Jedi power system takes too long to get stronger in. If you get a Master, you can elerate your growth using your Master to reach your Master''s level of power. Doing it on your own would take decades without a Master."


    Dyna Might stated, "Dufuq? Doesn''t that mean everyone who didn''t start over there is screwed?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Not necessarily. Once a yer reaches that level, they can take another yer as an Apprentice. You''d have to stick with that yer for a few years, but it would let you raise your Jedi Powers without needing a Jedi Master."


    This was something many Jedi yers had discussed in the General Chat and Jedi Chat. Having yers form a Master-Apprentice Force-Bond with other yers was a neat little way of giving the Jedi Temple the finger. Several yers with the intention of training in the Dark Side already discussed this with other existing Jedi yers.


    Dyna Might nodded, "So if I transfer to the Jedi world to unlock the Jedi Power system, return home, and get a Jedi on my crew, I can use him to raise my Jedi power to his level?"


    "Pretty much." Though that was only applicable in theory. In practice, it would not be as simple.


    Glitter asked, "When are youing to the Pirate World?"


    "Umm, probably after I learn the Hunter Power System. A few years, perhaps? Maybe I can use some Mission Points to get an identity as the apprentice of one of those Swordsman you were talking about."


    Dyna Might said, "No way, that would be too expensive. You should just join my crew."


    Rayleigh asked, "How good are the swordsmen on your crew?"


    "They''re... good enough!"


    Glitter and Rayleigh gave him identical disbelieving looks, neither under the impression that he even had a crew yet.


    The group chatted for another hour, mostly about the Jedi Power system and the Pirate World. Now that the pair had an idea for an easy way to get Force powers, they were a lot more interested in the Force than they were in the beginning. Most yers had three sses, even if they weren''t going to use them, so at least 40 yers could learn to use the Force and none of them would turn away free superpowers.


    An hour before the ship was set to arrive, they returned to the upper deck to look for the horizon.


    A shout of ''Land-ho!'' brought everyone to a cheer as they were finally at the continent.


    After making port, the captain approached Rayleigh and gave him a piece of paper. "Go here if you want the quickest way to Zaban City."


    Rayleigh unfolded the paper to reveal an address and thanked the Captain before leaving. Dyna Might and Glitter saw the exchange and followed. Hanzo came too.


    The port city had dozens of buses, taxis, and even horses, all giving rides to Zaban City, but the address led to the edge of the city to the strangest shop Rayleigh had ever seen. On the sign post was written in purple letters, [Paul''s Discount Poisonous Camel Rentals.]


    Rayleigh didn''t really care about the appearance and entered, followed hesitantly by the trio behind him.


    A dirty looking old man woke up from what appeared to be a nap and looked ecstatic at the customers. "Wee travelers! Can I get you a Poisonous Camel to ride? Best Deal of the Year: Four Rides for the Price of Three!"


    Everyone looked to the side to see a half dozen camels that all looked to be dying. None of them were standing up, and some looked to have already kicked the bucket.


    Rayleigh asked, "Is this the fastest way to get to Zaban City?"


    The camel renter shouted, "Of course it is! Zaban City is on the other side of the ck Forest and the Purple Swamp. Getting there quick and safe is as easy as can be on the back of a Poisonous Camel!"


    Hanzo asked, "What about all those buses?"


    The camel renter scoffed, "Those have to go all the way around the forest and swamp through the winding mountain roads. Trust me, the quickest way is none other than the back of one of my beautiful camels."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Sure, I''ll rent a camel."


    Dyna Might shouted, "What?! This guy is obviously a con artist! On which is a camel faster than a taxi? I''d rather get a horse!"


    Glitter looked disgusted by the state of the shop and the camels, so she shook her head and turned around to leave the shop.


    Even Hanzo said, "There are other ways to Zaban than going through the Forest and Swamp. I''ll try my own path." He then left too.


    Rayleigh shrugged and said, "It''s fine. To each our own."


    Dyna Might shook his head and left the shop to find a more reliable means of travel.


    Rayleigh didn''t tell the others that the Captain was probably stronger than Hanzo, so his advice was worth taking. He wondered why the Ninja couldn''t tell, but it might have been because the Captain didn''t show off to the Ninja. If Rayleigh wasn''t there, the Captain probably would have dealt with the giant eel. Rayleigh did pay for a ship that wouldn''t kill him after all, so something would have happened.


    Rayleigh paid for his Camel and a map through the ck Forest and Purple Swamp.


    Although it looked incredibly feeble and sickly, the Poisonous Camel was actually quite sturdy. On his way through the woods, he sensed a number of animals looking at Rayleigh and his camel before turning around. If a Poisonous Camel died, its poison-filled hump would create a toxic cloud. They weremon in the Purple Swamp, so the local creatures all knew this wasn''t a meal they could consume.


    Because of the safety provided by the camel, the journey through the forest ended quickly, and soon they had entered the swamp. The Poisonous Camel''s feet did not sink into the swamp and he was granted a smooth ride through its stinky depths. Rayleigh was very pleased with the camel and gave it treats and a break when he felt one was needed. The Camel showed its appreciation by going faster when it could, making up for the break times. The Hunter Exam began at 7 AM the next morning, so as long as he made it through the swamp before sunrise, he''d be fine.


    Rayleigh kept the Hunter Chat open and, unsurprisingly, it included line after line of yers trying to get to Zaban City. Rayleigh''s ship was actually one of the earlier ones to arrive, many would not even reach the continent until the evening while his had gotten there at noon. For those who showed upte and took too long to reach the Exam Site, then sorry, better luck next year. Because of this, all the yers were trying to get to Zaban as fast as possible.


    Near the outer edge of the Purple Swamp when they were back on solid ground, Rayleigh spotted an injured old traveler surrounded by poisonous beasts. He did not, however, sense a lot of danger. Still, just to be on the safe side, Rayleigh asked, "Hey, you need any help?"


    If he didn''t, then Rayleigh would let him be. He refused to be a meddler.


    "Yes! Please help me!" the old man shouted back.


    The purple-striped wolves surrounding the man looked over to see Rayleigh and his Poisonous Camel and showed signs of hesitation.


    Rayleigh got off his camel and looked over the situation for a few moments. He then opened his backpack and walked over to the side before cing a half dozen containers of food on the ground. He opened each, let the scent into the air, and closed them before walking away.


    The wolves caught the scent of the Force Cooked food and unconsciously drooled. Rayleigh then walked over to the side of the pack and motioned between the traveler and the food. The message was simple. Give up on the man, and the delicious food is yours.


    The wolves were smarter than most animals and quickly ran over to the containers, each picking up one with their mouth before leaving without looking back.


    "Oh, thank you, young man." Rayleigh nodded and ced a hand on the man''s shoulder to check his vitals. What he discovered, however, made him back a step away.


    "Why are you faking an injury?"


    The man looked over at Rayleigh and blinked in surprise. Then heughed. "Hahaha, wow, that''s a first. How''d you tell?"


    "I just can. Who are you?"


    The man got up and removed the fake bloodied rag from his gut and said, "I''m a Guide. Even if you get to Zaban, without a Guide you''re probably not going to find the Hunter Exam site. You were really impressive. I can''t believe those wolves didn''t attack you."


    Rayleigh shrugged, "I didn''t look like food, so why would they attack me?" Rayleigh''s posture, demeanor, and voice were not that of a prey animal, so the wolves didn''t even think about attacking him. Animals were simple things, after all. They don''t eat rocks, so if you have the bearing of a rock, they won''t eat you.


    This made the manugh even louder. After an introduction, he walked over to where a sturdy-looking horse was tied up and escorted Rayleigh to Zaban city. It took most of the night to travel through the Forest and Swamp, but the morning sun had yet to peak over the horizon so it was only about 5:30 or 6 AM.

 Chapter 14: The Hunter Exam Begins

    Chapter 14: The Hunter Exam Begins


    Chapter 14 The Hunter Exam Begins


    The Guide told Rayleigh he could release his camel after they left the Purple Swamp and it would find its own way back. When the pair entered the city limits, Rayleigh felt a dozen pairs of eyes looking around. He instinctively used Force Stealth to reduce his presence to the minimum.


    The citizens of Zaban knew the Hunter Exam took ce there this year, so hundreds of stalls were opened around the city to sell their goods to the gullible travelers.


    The Guide seemed to notice they were being watched and made a few circles while looking like tourists before ending up at an Eatery.


    The chef noticed the pair entering and casually stated, "Hello, what would you like?"


    The Guide ced a hand on the counter and answered, "A steak."


    The chef replied, "How would you like that cooked?"


    "Slowly, rare."


    The chef nodded, "Okay," and motioned to a waitress who walked over.


    The waitress gestured to the back and stated, "We have a table in the back room, Sir."


    The Guide nodded and led Rayleigh to the back, followed by the waitress. The back room has a few chairs and a table.


    The Guide sighs and says, "I can''t believe someone so young made it this far on his first try. I wish you the best of luck."


    The Guide then turned a nob on the wall and closed the door. The next moment, the floor shook and started to slowly descend. The room was actually an elevator.


    Rayleigh was slightly disappointed he would not be getting his steak, but he had three more food containers in his backpack, so it wasn''t an issue.


    The door opened again and Rayleigh stepped through into a massive underground space that led into a seemingly endless tunnel.


    A short man with a lime green jelly bean-shaped head noticed him and walked over. He handed Rayleigh a clipboard to sign and then handed him a badge. "Hello. Please take your number badge. Here you go. Be sure to wear this at all times, please, and be careful not to lose it."


    The white tag he was given had the number 58 on it. Once he arrived, he checked out the Hunter Chat.


    The Chat Room was exploding. Some yers have gotten to Zaban, but none of them had a guide. Not a single one.


    [Dyna_Might: Where the hell is the Exam Site?!]


    [Green_Lantern: You can''t find it? Are you even trying?]


    [Demon_Hunter: They aren''t Hunters, they''re Pirates. They''re probably looking for a building with a big red X on it.]


    [Armory: They probably didn''t pay their driver enough.]


    [Green_Lantern: They probably got there toote.]


    [Dyna_Might: That''s BULL. I paid a guy to take me here by ne! I was definitely the first to get here!]


    [Glitter: I should have taken a ne too. The bus kept driving in circles.]


    [White_Knight: The Taxi drove me to the wrong city! I only found out after I paid him and he left!]


    [Stoner: I''m almost to Zaban, who is at the Exam Site?]


    [The_Invisible_Man: I''m already here, can''t you see me?]


    [Justice: He''s lying, we both got on a bus and ended up in the wrong city.]


    Rayleigh wouldn''tment. They might still be able to find someone who had a guide and follow him inside.


    The wall he came through had a couple of elevators, showing the diner was not the only method of entry.


    Rayleigh nced over hispetition and confirmed he was the only kid, meaning he was the only yer who showed up. He didn''t want to talk to the others, but he had to stay out of the Chat too, so he went to a corner and pretended to pull HK-47''s head from his backpack when he was really taking it from his inventory.


    [Reluctant Query: Where have you taken me now?]


    "I am about to take the Hunter Exam. This world has people with powers different from those of the Force, and I want to learn it. To do so, I need to pass this Exam." Rayleigh then moved the head around so he could look at every one.


    [Observation: Of this room''s upants, the one with the highest threat level is the human with the red hair and facial war paint.]


    Rayleigh nodded, taking special note of number 44, the man with the face paint who was dressed like a clown. He was a predator looking for a meal and had a far stronger life force than those he''d felt before.


    The small bean man continued passing out badges and Rayleigh actually spotted someone his own age, a silver-haired kid carrying a skateboard. Rayleigh didn''t know if he was a yer, so he checked the Chat Room again to see if there were any braggers, but didn''t see any.


    The silver-haired kid got the number 99 badge and had something of a cold appearance. He looked around and met Rayleigh''s gaze beforeing over.


    "Hey, how old are you?"


    Still not knowing if he was a yer, he answered, "I''m turning twelve in a few months."


    "Oh? I didn''t think I''d see anyone the same age as me here."


    "You''re eleven too? Cool. Why do you want to be a Hunter?"


    "Well, I just wanted to try the Exam. I heard it was really hard. What about you?"


    "I heard there are a lot of neat things only Hunters can do. So I''m gonna be one."


    "That''s cool. I''m Killua."


    "I''m Ray." With that, Rayleigh confirmed that Killua was not a yer. Just to be safe though, he used his shortened name.


    "What is that?" Killua pointed at the severed robot head in Rayleigh''sp.


    "Hey HK, introduce yourself."


    [Greeting: I am referred to as HK-47. A fully functional Systech Corporation droid, skilled in bothbat and protocol functions.]


    "No, not that, tell him your primary function." He wanted to show off and make friends with a possible Main Character.


    [Disclosure: Very well. I am a Hunter-Killer Assassination Droid Model 47. I am skilled in every form of meatbag disposal, and prior to my status being rendered less effective due to my disembodied state, my primary purpose was to track down and terminate targets selected by my Master.]


    Killua''s calm exterior actually looked shocked for a moment before turning skeptical. "You''re an assassin? Well, so am I."


    [Observation: You do not appear to be an assassin. Therefore, you must be a very good one.]


    Rayleigh asked, "Cool, are you really an assassin? HK is the only assassin I''ve met so far."


    Seeing only curiosity in Rayleigh''s eyes, he affirmed, "Yeah, so were my parents. They wanted me to stay in the family business, but I didn''t want to kill anymore, so I beat up my brother and mother and ran away."


    [Objection: If you have grown tired of killing, you obviouslyck creativity. There are countless ways to kill, the true pleasure does note from the act, but in theparing of efficiency between the different methods to end a meatbag''s pitiful existence.]


    Rather than be horrified, Killua justughed at HK and asked, "Why is he just a head? If he had a body, couldn''t you use him yourself?"


    Rayleigh shook his head and, in response, said, "HK, tell Killua what fate awaited most of your previous masters."


    [Reluctant Statement: Err, a majority of my previous Masters were terminated directly or indirectly by... this unit due to idents for which I bear no responsibility.]


    Killua just stared at the head for a few seconds before hepletely broke downughing. Heughed so hard he fell to the ground with tears streaming down his face.


    After Killua recovered, Rayleigh patted HK''s head reassuringly and said, "It''s okay, how about you tell us about one of your best assassinations? That usually cheers you up."


    [Recollection: Vey well. I shall tell you about the instance in which I killed a senator by framing him for adultery with a mobster''s wife. The mobster''s retaliation was most creative.]


    Killua looked interested and was quickly engrossed in the story.


    Rayleigh checked out the Hunter Chat Room. It was already 6 AM and there was only an hour to go until the Exam started and over a hundred participants had arrived, but no one else of Ray''s age besides Killua.


    [Green_Lantern: If you ask nicely, I''ll tell you how to get to the Hunter Site]


    [Dyna_Might: PLEASE!]


    [Green_Lantern: Alright, since you asked nicely. There are a bunch of vendors around, right? Well, here''s the trick. You need to find whichever one is selling the most expensive item. Then, you need to pay them double for it. About five minutes after you do, someone will find you and tell you there is another location where the good stuff can be found. Follow him and he''ll take you to the Hunter Exam Site.]


    [Stoner: Wait, really?]


    [Demon_Hunter: Didn''t he tell you to bring money? Poor people can''t be Hunters, the first test filters out those who can''t afford it.]


    [Dyna_Might: **** Fine! I''ll buy every piece of **** this ce has!!!]


    [Green_Lantern: Be careful, it only works for the most expensive pieces.]


    [Demon_Hunter: Though if you spot a piece and don''t buy it ande backter, someone else might have already purchased it.]


    After HK-47 finished his story, a short, stocky, middle-aged man with a used car salesman''s hair cut came over and said, "Hey, you kids are first-timers right? My name''s Tompa." The badge he wore was number 16.


    Rayleigh politely introduced himself, "Ray," followed by Killua.


    Tompa said, "Seeing you kids really brings me back. I was ten when I took my first Hunter Exam. This is my 35th attempt, so I''m quite the veteran. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."


    Ray pointed at the dangerous clown and asked, "Do you have any information on him?"


    Tompa looked over with a smile, but suddenly paled when he noticed who Rayleigh was pointing at. He answered, "Yeah. I know him. Hisoka the Magician. He could have passedst year''s Exam, but he almost killed a judge he didn''t like and got disqualified. He''s definitely one of the most dangerous guys around. Last year, he mutted twenty other participants so badly that I haven''t seen any of the survivorse back this year. Try to avoid him as much as you can."


    Tompa started listing off the other interesting participants, but Ray''s eyes caught the personing off the elevator. It wasn''t a yer though. It was a bald man following a man with a giant hammer.


    Rayleigh called out, "Hey, Hanzo!"


    The self-proimed Ninja spotted Rayleigh and walked over. He then noticed Ray''s tag of 58 while his own tag marked him as 294. Looking constipated, he asked, "How''d you get here so fast?!"


    Ray shrugged and answered, "Poisonous Camel got here this morning. What took you so long?"


    "Arrg! I couldn''t find the entrance. Eventually, I just followed this guy into a store and snuck in before the door closed. There was another brat following him, about your age. I knocked him out though."


    Rayleigh shook his head. There was less than a half hour until the test began and the yers were getting trolled or worse out there. Was it really that hard to follow the provided instructions, not wander off, and meet a guide? He wondered who got knocked out and noticed that Stoner was no longer making noise in the Chat Room.


    Just as Rayleigh was going to head back to Killua, he got a menacing feeling from the next elevator. Rayleigh turned his head away to prevent himself from staring, but he checked from the corner of his eye the man that walked out. His face was covered in pins and his expression lookedpletely frozen and unnatural. He was handed the 301 badge.


    Rayleigh returned, and Tompa offered a soda, which Killua already had two of in each hand. Ray shook his head politely and retrieved a soda can from his backpack to show he was covered, before thanking him for the offer.


    Tompa then left to chat with Hanzo and Ray stated, "You know that''s probably poisoned, right?"


    Killua downed the whole thing anyways and said, "It''s fine, it''s not a poison that can hurt me. I''ve trained myself."


    Ray nodded. Poison resistance training did seem like an assassin thing to do.


    Things wereing to a head in the Hunter Chat as the clock got closer to 7 AM.


    [Dyna_Might: I will pay 20 Million Zennies to whoever can tell me how to get to the Hunter Exam Site! Payment on ARRIVAL!]


    [Armory: Didn''t you bring 50 Million? What happened to the other thirty?]


    [Green Lantern: Oh my god, did you actually spend your money on that tourist crap?]


    [Demon_Hunter: I think he did. Wow. None of us are even at Zaban. Why would we know how to get into the site? It changes every year, by the way.]


    [Dyna_Might: **** YOU. I''M GOING TO ****ING KILL YOU ****ING ****S. YOU PIECES OF ****! I''M GOING TO SHOVE MY FIST UP YOUR *** AND SHOW YOU THE TRUE MEANING OF EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA!!!!!!!!!!!]


    [Green Lantern: Chill out, it was a joke. Why so serious?]


    [Demon_Hunter: You should be happy. You just helped out the economy of a poor ind city. Pat yourself on the back.]


    Rayleigh just shook his head. If Dyna Might actually asked him where he was in the Chat, he wouldn''t lie, but it seemed that the bombastic bomb boy and glorious glittering girl didn''t even think Ray was in the City yet and never bothered to ask for him in the Chat.


    Dozens more participants came through the elevators in droves while Tompa climbed up the wall to get a better look and count them all.


    Near the end of the time limit, a trio of three more came out, with one of them being Ray and Killua''s age. yer, Main Character, or Extra? He didn''t know. Since even Tompa said he took his first Exam was when he was ten,ing at eleven didn''t seem like that big a deal anymore. That being said, the new kid had massive spiked ck anime hair with green highlights. If that didn''t stand out enough, he was carrying a fishing rod. As they started rubbernecking, Tompa showed up.


    Ray continued chatting with Killua and told him about his trek to the Hunter Exam. Apparently, Killua didn''t find a Guide either. He did the same as Hanzo and found someone being guided and followed him. He heard the password and mimicked it to gain entrance. Ray told him he missed all the fun parts, like riding a Poisonous Camel through a poisonous swamp in the dead of night.


    When Killua finished his sodas, he went to Tompa to grab some more.


    There were three Pirates who seemed to be in Zaban City and filling up the Chat with requests for the location of the Hunter Site, but the grim realization wasing over them all. None of them had found it.


    From what Rayleigh could see, every native Hunter yer either had their license or had a different way to obtain it. Rayleigh was the only Jedi yer to show up, and of the Pirate yers, only those three had made it to Zaban, but none of them found the Exam Site.


    Oh well.


    Killua returned with four more sodas, and a skinny man entered the space through a pipe along the wall and pulled out a tiny green head. He tapped on it and the thing started sounding out like an rm until all eyes were on the skinny man.


    "Here I am. The time for the reception is over."


    After confirming all eyes were still on him, the man stated, "Now the Exam can begin."


    He then gestured down the tunnel, "This way please," before turning and walking down the tunnel himself. He spoke aloud as the crowd started to follow him, "We''ll begin with a short verification. It''s an extremely difficult exam. Sometimes you can miss a chance and can end up hurting yourself or you can simply die. Getting irreparably hurt in an ident withpanions is something that can''t be avoided. Now please follow me,"


    After a few moments of watching, he stated, "Count is ok, 405 participants for the first round of the exam." Rayleigh wondered if they counted on the off chance someone died after they got their badge.


    The examiner continued walking at a brisk pace that seemed to be elerating, and the participants started jogging to keep up.


    Once everyone was jogging at a steady pace, he stated, "I forgot one detail. I''m Satotsu, and I''m in charge of the first round. So I must lead you to the ce of the second round."


    Hanzo the Ninja asked, "Second round? You mean the first...?"


    Answering the question, Satotsu stated, "The first round has already begun. If you''re able to follow me to the ce where the second round starts, you''ll have passed the first round. I can''t tell you where or when we''ll arrive. You must be content with following me."


    Rayleigh jogged lightly, and Killua kept pace on his skateboard. Ray asked aloud, "I wonder how many days we''ll have to run for?"


    Killua nced over the crowd and answered, "I don''t think too many would be left if this took longer than half a day."


    A man who looked about twenty-five or so and carried a briefcase shouted at Killua, "Hey kid, that''s not allowed! That''s cheating!!!"


    "Why?"


    The business suit-wearing man replied with confidence, "''Cause it''s an endurance test!"


    The spiky-haired MC candidate running with him said, "You''re wrong, he just asked us to follow him."


    The man poked the kid''s head, and Killua realized he also looked pretty young and asked, "How old are you?"


    "Almost twelve."


    Killua and Ray shared a look and a smile. Killua jumped off his skateboard and said, "I''m Killua."


    Rayleigh added, "I''m Ray, also turning twelve this year."


    "I''m Gon."


    Killua then looked up at the man with the briefcase and asked, "What''s your name, Mister?"


    "Mister?! I''m not that old! I''m only turning neen this year!"


    Ray, Gon, and Killua all froze in shock. The ''young adult'' did not look anywhere close to eighteen.


    Killua almost shouted, "Are you sure?!" They couldn''t believe he was only seven years older than they were.


    Rayleigh motioned for them to stay near the back and told HK-47 to tell them more stories. He used Force Muffle to prevent the candidates in front of them from hearing the insane tales of the murderous, bloodthirsty assassin droid he tied to his backpack.


    Gon''s friends introduced themselves as Leorio and Kurapika. Leorio suggested throwing HK-47 in a trashpactor, and Kurapika was not particrly fond of guns for hire, though HK imed it was just a tool.


    The group ran at a steady pace of 12 miles per hour or 20 kilometers per hour. After about three hours, Leorio copsed but got his second wind after leaving behind his suitcase. Gon threw out his fishing rod''s line and snagged it while reeling it back in, impressing Killua, Rayleigh, and HK-47.


    [Observation: Such a technique would prove remarkably useful for assassinations.]


    This caused the trio tough, though Kurapika didn''t seem to think of it as funny.


    Soon a chubby nerd seemed to have been broken by Tompa''s teasing and fell out of the test. This started the signal for more and more to drop out.


    Killua shook his head as they passed each one. Ray also sighed and said aloud, "These guys have never been chased by a giant, flesh-eating monster for hours on end, and it really shows."


    Both Killua and Gon nodded, having both seemed to have experienced the same thing at least once.


    At the four-hour mark, the group approached some stairs which slowly ascended upwards. The tunnel was one hundred floors below ground level from Zaban City, and though it was remarkably level, he didn''t know the elevation of their destination, so they could be ascending for a long time toe.


    Still, Rayleigh wasn''t even tired. During this four-hour, eighty-kilometer trek, Rayleigh found that his body seemedpletely different than it should have been. It was much, much stronger. He wondered if this was a side effect of unlocking his Hunter Power System. Did possessing the Hunter Power System passively grant the body a greater ability to strengthen itself through training? Was the effect retroactive? Was this how he could have been if he did all his crazy training in this world instead of on Tython? If that was the case, then there was no hurry to get to the Pirate World. If passive strengthening effects were retroactively applied, then he could take all the time he needed to train in the Hunter World before heading to the Pirate World.


    He wondered how many kilograms of weight he''d need to reduce his max speed to half now. He wondered how fast his max speed actually was without using the Force. Was it faster than using the Force? Using the Force to increase speed didn''t take into ount natural speed. If his natural speed was faster than what he could use the Force to elerate to, then it wouldn''t have any effect.


    As he absentmindedly wandered about pointless things, he realized that he, Gon, and Killua were at the front of the pack, running up the stairs right behind Satotsu.


    Gon also noticed this and said, "I didn''t notice we were in the front."


    Killua replied, "It''s because the rhythm isn''t very fast. Not moving the fastest way is more tiring."


    He actually sounded dissatisfied and stated, "The Hunter''s exam seems very essible in reality, it''s not even funny."


    Ray said, "Well, it''s just the first test. It will probably get more interestingter."


    Gon decided to ask, "Why do you guys want to be a Hunter?"


    Killua borated once more, "I don''t really want to be a Hunter, I''ve heard it was something extremely hard and I thought it sounded interesting, but I''m disappointed."


    Rayleigh answered, "I heard there are lots of things only Hunters can do, and I don''t want to be limited in anything."


    Killua asked back, "What about you Gon?"


    "My father is a Hunter. My goal is to be a Hunter like him."


    "What kind of Hunter is he?"


    "I don''t know."


    Killuaughed, "That''s weird."


    "You think so?"


    Rayleigh asked, "What do you know about him? Have you ever met him?"


    "No, my aunt Mito raised me and I''ve only ever seen photos of him. A few years ago, I met this guy named Kite who taught me a lot of things about my father."


    A glint of excitement shined in Gon''s eyes as he continued, "My father discovered the ruins of the Luluka''s civilization. He found out how to mate two-headed wolves. He discovered the thieves who were taking from the Mines of Konga and took down Kurt''s Band. The fields of action he takes part in have no limit. He was someone who did everything, and even triple-star Hunters envy all of his aplishments."


    Rayleigh had no idea what any of that meant, and neither did Killua, who asked, "And that''s a big thing?"


    Gon apparently didn''t know what any of it meant either and answered, "I don''t know, but Kite seemed really happy and proud to be able to speak of him like that, so I wanted to be a Hunter like my father."


    Half an hour after they started up the stairs, a light could be seen up ahead that marked the end of the tunnel.


    Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua followed the Examiner to the top of the stairs into the open air and saw around them a vast and wild field.


    The Examiner waited about five minutes for most of the candidates to exit the tunnel before closing it at precisely 11:15 AM. There were a few guys crawling up the stairs, but the door closing marked the end of their Hunter Exam.


    The examiner then addressed the rest and said, "The Numelle''s Marsh, nicknamed the Crook''s Nest. This is the ce where the second round will take ce. You''ll have to go through here to get to it. The rare animals you''ll find in the marsh eat humans for lunch. They''re birds of prey as well as tricksters. Follow me and pay close attention. Losing the way results in death."


    From the side, someone shouted, "That''s False! He''s lying to all of you guys!"


    A battered monkey-man wearing human clothes came from around the entrance and shouted usingly at the examiner, "He''s an imposter! He''s not a judge at all. Because the real Judge is me!" If it wasn''t for the fact that Rayleigh could recognize an animal on sight, he thought this monkey could probably have passed for human.


    The pretender then dragged another monkey-man that bore a passing resemnce to the Judge and confidently eximed, "It''s a monkey-man. One of those that live in the Numelle''s Mash. The monkey-men like fresh flesh, they have long thin limbs but overall they''re weak. They let themselves get tamed by men and use ournguage to trick men into the marsh where other monsters they get along with capture them alive! His only purpose is to get rid of all the candidates at once!"


    Rayleigh''s senses shook with danger as he felt the predator within the group''s urge to kill re up. The Magician threw some ying cards at the monkey-man and the Judge.


    Rayleigh wasn''t the only one surprised when those ying cards pierced through the monkey-man''s face like steel through styrofoam. He dropped dead as a fountain of blood erupted from his wounds.


    Hisoka then calmly stated, "I see, I see."


    The dragged-in monkey noticed the gig was up and fled for its life, but was immediately killed by another ying card in the back, thrown once again by Hisoka.


    The first shot was too quick for Rayleigh to sense, but he got a clear feel of the card that killed the fleeing monkey-man. It had a sense of life-force, but not Midichlorians. Something lifeless pretending to have life? It was paradoxical. He felt it would have been difficult to block with telekinesis alone due to an edge sharpening force of some kind, which also made the card slide too easily through the air. But it would not have been difficult to push or re-direct to the side. He also figured a Lightsaber could strike it down without a problem.


    Hisoka shuffled the cards in his hands and stated, "With this, it''s all cleared. He''s the real judge. In fact, judges are Hunters that do this freely at the jury''s request, so there''s nothing odd about a Hunter stopping that kind of attack."


    Satotsu had caught the cards thrown at him, showing he was capable of blocking whatever sharpening force Hisoka had applied to the cards. He stoically stated, " I''ll take that as apliment. However, the next time you use such intervention against me, whatever the reason, you''re disqualified. Am I understood?"


    "Yes, yes," the deranged killer amiably stated.


    Some predatory birds descended on the monkeys and started eating them. The fate of those tricked by thisnd was left bare for all to see.

 Chapter 15: Cooking with the Force

    Chapter 15: Cooking with the Force


    Chapter 15 Cooking with the Force


    While the underground tunnel had been a monotonous trek, it was also safe in the sense that there was no threat of death. Exceptions like Hisoka notwithstanding.


    The following segment of the Hunter Exam''s first round would not be as merciful. The Judge started off at a rapid pace, forcing the Hunters to sprint after him. Those unable to keep up would be left to their own devices or face the tender loving care of the man-eating creatures of these ins.


    Rayleigh could feel Hisoka''s desire to kill was growing. Killua seemed to notice it as well and said, "Let''s go to the head."


    Gon had no experience in detecting someone''s desire to kill, so he replied, "Yeah, we should keep an eye on the judge."


    Killua corrected, "It''s more prudent to keep away from Hisoka. He wants to kill somebody."


    Rayleigh added, "That''s why he stopped the monkey. If the group divided, he''d have fewer toys to y with."


    Killua asked, "You could tell?"


    Summarizing his abilities with the Force, Ray exined, "I''m empathic, I can tell the feelings of others no matter how deeply they hide them. So I know who can be trusted and when people lie."


    As a habitual liar, Killua asked with a straight face, "Oh, is that right?"


    Rayleigh smirked back and imed, "Yeah, but I don''t mind lies, I think they''re funny."


    A thick fog had already descended on the ins, blocking the line of sight for more than a few meters around them. Noises came from behind as various hidden creatures in the fog attacked and lured out those who were aimlessly separated from the group.


    Gon kept his head turned to the side to listen to the shouts and screamsing from the group in the back.


    Killua noticed what Gon was thinking and shouted, "Don''t act stupid. There''s no time to worry about them. Even the guys in front of us are in the fog. Take your eyes off them and it''s over. The best thing you can do is pray you don''t hear your friends screaming."


    A timely scream from the back filled the fog, and it sounded very much like Leorio.


    At that moment, Rayleigh saw a panel of shattered ss, he saw Gon leaving, returning unharmed, and Leorio and Kurapika with them in a future Round. He then saw Gon staying, Leorio and Kurapika noting back, and them all somehow failing a future round as a result of it.


    Quickly decyphering the shatterpoint, Rayleigh said aloud, "Just go save them, you''ll be fine."


    Without needing another word, Gon ran to the back. Killua frowned and asked, "Why''d you let him go?"


    Rayleigh directly admitted, "There are random times I can see a bit of the future. If Gon stayed, Hisoka would not kill Leorio or Kurapika, but neither would make it to the second test without Gon going back. And if they don''te back, none of us will make it past the 3rd round."


    "I actually wanted to go myself and see Hisoka fight. He seemed to be using a strange ability, but we''ll probably see more of thatter."


    Killua gave a curious look, but decided to leave it alone for now.


    The fog has no effect on Ray''s senses. His passive irvoyance allows him to get a feel for everything around him even with his eyes closed. Due to the instance of being chased by that Terentatek in a pitch ck tunnel, Rayleigh had since put a lot of effort into being able to ''see'' in the dark using a Jedi''s irvoyance.


    The pair kept up with the Judge and, after a half hour of running, made it to a massive warehouse.


    The Judge looked around and said, "The second round will begin at noon."


    There was a clock conveniently located on the top of the warehouse that showed it was 11:45 AM. They had taken four hours to run eighty kilometers, fifteen minutes to climb up the stairs, and were given forty-five minutes to navigate Numelle''s Marsh.


    Hisoka showed up a few minutester with Leorio on his back. The swelling on the ''young adult''s face showed he''d been knocked cleanly out with a single punch.


    Ray gestured to him for Killua to show he was fine, and said, "Gon and Kurapika should show up soon."


    While waiting for the pair, Rayleigh sat down and started using irvoyance to deeply observe Numelle''s Marsh. and the nearby forest Since the second round would take ce here, there was nothing wrong with getting a sneak peak at the area to learn a thing or two.


    Five minutes to noon, Gon and Kurapika showed up and spotted Ray, who was sitting next to the unconscious Leorio. Killua went around to explore.


    When Killua returned and spotted Gon, he asked, "What happened? How''d you get back on your own?"


    "Well, Hisoka was ying Judge, and he said we passed, so he didn''t kill us. Leorio was unconscious, so Hisoka took him back, and I was able to follow him thanks to the smell of his aftershave."


    Killua badly reacted to thatst line, "Thanks to his aftershave?!"


    Killua suddenly had the impression that Gon was a dog. He then unconsciously looked over to Ray and got the impression of a monkey. If anyone asked, Killua himself gave others the impression of a cat.


    Leorio woke up, but no one told him he was carried back by Hisoka. They assembled in front of the warehouse with the others, and an ominous rumbling sound echoed within.


    As the seconds passed and noon got closer, tick by tick, the thundrous groan of some ancient beast became louder and louder.


    As thest few seconds ticked away, many of the hunters drew their weapons and prepared to defend themselves against whatever unholy monstrosityy within the warehouse.


    The clock struck noon and the door slowly opened. The no longer muffled roar and groan could be heard throughout the entire field.


    As the light shined in through the door, a dainty woman was revealed sitting in a soft chair, and a massive man sat on the floor behind her. The groaning continued, and all could now clearly hear that the sound originated from the giant''s stomach.


    The woman asked aloud, "So you hungry?


    The man answered, "You bet! I''m Starving!"


    The woman then shouted, "Therefore, the theme of the second trial will be... COOKING! We are both Fine Gourmet Hunters! Your Mission will be to satisfy our appetites by cooking us a meal!"


    The assembled crowd was appropriately dumbfounded. Rayleigh was actually relieved. Didn''t this mean he could y around more with Force Cooking? Hell yeah!


    The giant stated, "You''ll start by cooking the tes I ask for you."


    The woman continued, "Then, those who have qualified will have to satisfy me!" The mischievous look on her face did not give anyone a good feeling.


    "You will qualify for the third round if you hear, "It''s Good." The test will be over when we''re no longer hungry."


    The examinees started whispering to themselves, hoping to figure out this out-of-left-field mission and hope for an easy way to pass.


    The giant dered, "For me it will be, Roast Pork! That''s what I like best. I don''t care what kind of pork it is, as long as you chase it in Biska Woods." The drool escaping his mouth as he gave the instructions clearly showed how hungry he was.


    Ray excitedly dered, "Last to finish is a rotten egg," before sprinting at his fastest speed towards where he saw some giant pigs through irvoyance.


    Killua shouted, but Ray was already helping him by showing the direction of the pigs.


    Rayleigh had wanted to try out his max speed for a while, but didn''t have a good chance, so now he ran towards the pig as fast as his legs could carry him, more than three times faster than he was before the activation of the Hunter Power System. He''d have to ask the Tavern about this boostter and see if the same thing would happen in the Pirate World.


    The local species of pig was the size of a cow with a rock-hard snout. Rayleigh didn''t bother to y with his food. His Lightsaber had been on his waist this whole time, and now he was going to use it. With a quick sh, his blue and white de removed the giant pig''s head. It weighed about 400 kilograms, a bit less than a cow, but it was light as a feather for Rayleigh to pick up and return to the warehouse with.


    Rayleigh cut off the bone with his Lightsaber and removed the burnt part with a chef''s knife from his backpack. He then used the Lightsaber to light a fire to cook the meat while keeping a hand on it and using psychometry and tutaminis. Psychometry told him all the information about the meat and tutaminis allowed for perfect temperature control. He used telekinesis to squeeze out the blood and used some Force precognition to confirm the best time for cooking. When finished, he used his Lightsaber to lightly scour the meat for extra texture.


    In other words, Force Cooking 101.


    By this time, some other participants had brought back their pigs but, for some reason, decided to just roast the entire thing.


    Rayleigh handed over a proper te of hand-cut, force-cooked, Lightsaber-seared, Roasted pork to the Judge. A waterfall of drool fell from his mouth once the smell reached his nose, and he quickly emptied the te into his mouth and hummed contentedly as he savored the vor.


    After a hearty swallow, the man stated, "Delicious. Are you a chef too? I''ve never eaten Roasted Pork like that before."


    The woman had taken a look at the te before Rayleigh handed it over and nodded as well.


    Ray replied, "I know a bit about cooking, but I don''t consider myself a chef, as I will only ever cook for my friends."


    The man nodded, "That''s a shame. I''m Buhara. I hope we can be friends in the future."


    Rayleigh smiled back and returned to his spot under a tree to continue using irvoyance to spy on everything in the area. Satotsu from the first Exam was perched on a branch of the same tree, watching the contestants arrive with their pigs.


    The remaining contestants just hand over entire pigs that have been cooked over a fire. It technically counted as roasted pork, and Buhara''s appetite didn''t seem to mind as he skillfully ripped the cooked flesh off each pig like one would meat off a drumstick.


    By the time he dered he was full, there were seventy pig skeletons next to him in a pile that stood taller than the giant himself. Rayleigh was the only one who didn''t just give him a whole pig.


    The woman asked, "Was all of it good? This way, it''s not a test anymore."


    Buhara replied, "So what? We still eliminated a lot of participants. Anyway, were not here to judge the taste today."


    The woman shook her head and said, "You''re too nice. Gourmet Hunters must respect the sense of taste! Alright, what''s done is done." She then shouted out, "Roast Pork Test, 71 qualify for the next round!"


    That mischievous smirk returned to her face and she dered, "I''m warning you, it won''t be as easy with me~~. I''m very careful when ites to taste. Second Round, phase two, here''s my order. I want Sushi!"


    Silence was all that answered her. With the exception of those like Rayleigh and Hanzo who lived in Jappon, no one would would know anything about sushi.


    Rayleigh did, in fact, know about sushi. He made quite a bit of it two days ago since the grocery store he got his ingredients from was in a port town of Jappon which had all the necessary ingredients. But there was a big problem, and he needed to address it first.


    Seeing that no one knew what sushi was, the woman gave a smile and said, "You all seem bothered. But even if you''ve never seen them, you can still make them. I''ll give you a hand."


    She then gestured to the inside of the warehouse and turned on the lights. Within were about eighty fully-stocked mini-kitchens with rice and all the tools needed to make sushi.


    Everyone walked over to the mini-kitchens to look through the tools and piece together clues on how to make sushi. It was true that these tools could only be used to make sushi, but if you didn''t already know how to make it, their use would not magically pop into your head.


    Rayleigh considered just giving it a shot and picked up a knife, but the moment he did, he saw a vision of himself handing the woman a te and being told by the woman that he failed. Rayleigh sighed and put the knife down. He walked over to the woman and used Force Muffle to prevent his conversation from being heard by the others.


    "Excuse me, but is there an ocean or saltwater body nearby?"


    They were very far from the sea, but he still wanted to ask on the off chance there was some kind of underground saltwaterke his irvoyance didn''t spot.


    The woman shook her head, "Nope, no oceans around here at all."


    Rayleigh then asked, "Then why would you ask for sushi? There is no such thing as freshwater sushi. You might as well ask for a roast port sandwich made of sd instead of pig. This is insulting and childish."


    The good impression she had of Ray from the food he made earlier vanished when he confronted her about the test she was responsible for and directly insulted her.


    She frowned at Rayleigh and an intense, lethal pressure emerged from the woman. Every cell in Ray''s body told him to move or die. Instead, he cycled the Force through his body, taking Force Valor to the maximum and strengthening his mind. The pressure was sessfully resisted.


    The fact that Rayleigh stood there as she red her aura confused her, but she wasn''t willing to back down. She directly stated, "If you don''t want to even try, then you fail. Get out of my kitchen!"


    Ray didn''t flinch as the pressure magnified, but his Force Valor and mental protection seemed to hold up fine against whatever it was she was trying to do to him. It was as if her lifeforce was screaming at him, directly affecting his own lifeforce.


    Aftering up with an idea, Rayleigh turned and left the warehouse. He didn''t need precognition to tell how this was going to turn. If his own attempt at freshwater fish sushi didn''t make the cut, no one else''s would either.


    Ray spotted Satotsu in the trees and asked, "Hey, can you get a big table? I''m going to make a feast, but don''t have anywhere to put it."


    Satotsu didn''t have much to do besides people-watch as his round of the Exam was over. That, and he saw how delicious Rayleigh''s roasted pork looked, so he nodded as Rayleigh left the area.


    Using abination of irvoyance, Psychometry, and Precognition, Rayleigh was able to quickly find a massive assortment of fresh ingredients, from animals to herbs to wild vegetables.


    He didn''t know how to cook any of them, but Force Cooking wasn''t a normal skill, and it allowed one to feel out the perfect dish and create it. It was simr to how a master sculptor could see a statue hidden inside a rock and bring it out. Rayleigh could feel the final, most delicious dish and bring it out.


    By the time Rayleigh returned with a massive sack of ingredients, most of the participants had gone to catch a fish in the nearby river or had already returned.


    Satosu had arge table ready, and Rayleigh created another fire and started cooking everything together, using energy control and tutaminis to prevent over or undercooking while separating some vors and letting others mingle.


    To add to his feast, Ray applied the feelings of joy, serenity, excitement, and a passion for life. Spicing up a dish with emotions for a hidden vor was the specialty of Force Cooking.


    One man cooking an entire feast on his own wasn''t really possible, but Rayleigh got around that limit with telekinesis. Satotsu watched with interest as various foods, utensils, and tes floated around, but it wasn''t more than a passing curiosity. The only thing Rayleigh used from the Warehouse was the fresh water to wash the ingredients with, but he got it directly from the water tank in the back, so he didn''t need to go inside.


    None of the participants carrying back their own fish cared about what Rayleigh was doing before heading back inside.


    At 2 PM, Rayleigh could feel the mood inside the warehouse and figured it was over. He was told not toe back inside, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t just stand at the door and shout.


    "Hey Killua, Gon, Kurapica, Leorio, Buhara, I got some food for you!"


    Rayleigh then returned to the table and said, "Mr. Satotsu, you are wee to some as well."


    "Oh, don''t mind if I do."


    Gon and the rest came out, but were followed by the other candidates who spotted the long table of food. Gon ran over to pick some up, and Leorio shouted, "Alright! I was starving with all this cooking."


    Buhara easily pushed away the crowd and stood at the side of the table to pick up some of the meat and veggies Ray had on disy. His eyes shined with stars as he started eating. Thankfully for Rayleigh''s friends, he was still 98% full from the roasted pork, or he would have finished the entire table himself.


    Ray had a te himself and heard from Killua that the woman had failed everyone. He wasn''t surprised.


    Buhara''s presence prevented any of the other Exam candidates from approaching the table, as they would feel the threat of death if any uninvited guest tried to steal a bite. There was an exception, though.


    "Oh, this is good."


    The woman had snuck through and stolen some food.


    Ray walked over to her and said, "Then I pass, right?"


    The woman realized what she said and angrily shouted, "No! You didn''t make any sushi!"


    Rayleigh imed, "There wasn''t any saltwater fish, so I couldn''t make any sushi. I made something else."


    She called out, "You didn''t even try!"


    Rayleigh calmly stated, "Sushi is to be eaten raw. Freshwater fish cannot be eaten raw due to the bacteria that live in fresh water bodies. The only way to safely make freshwater sushi would be to cook the fish to remove the bacteria and then cool the fish, but that is not sushi."


    "Shut Up! I said you had already failed!"


    "No, you said we would qualify for the third round if you say, ''It''s Good.'' Are you going to take back what you just said?"


    "No, but the test is over!"


    "You said the test was over when you weren''t hungry. If you weren''t hungry, why''d youe over to take food from a table you weren''t invited to?"


    The woman was almost beet red from anger, and Rayleigh thought there was a small chance she might actually kill him, so he said, "Tell you what, if you can figure out exactly how I cooked this food, I''ll admit defeat. Come on, miss One-Star Hunter."


    Satotsu already told Rayleigh a few things about the One-Star Gourmet Hunter Menchi while he was cooking. To prevent his own death, he was going to use her own weapons against him. If she could figure out how Force cooking worked, he''d admit defeat.


    The rest of the candidates were experiencing all-out schadenfreude at the fact that the insufferable woman who failed them all was getting backed into a corner by a child. The points he spoke of were perfectly logical to those who knew a thing or two, and they were all getting the feeling that the problem was with the Judge, not the Exam.


    Menchi wasn''t blind to the change in the atmosphere. The one in the right was the majority, so even if she had been given responsibility for the Exam, if everyone decided she was wrong, she was wrong. Stubbornness could only take you so far.


    She had no choice but to ept the challenge and tried one of everything while Gon, Killua, and the rest watched her. The fact that she was getting more and more visibly frustrated was seen by everyone.


    Rayleigh even added, "If you give up, feel free to ask Mr. Satotsu how I did it. He watched everything."


    The woman''s eyebrow twitched. She had been thinking of using him of using something he brought with him, because she was in fact familiar with every ingredient. She was the one who chose this spot as the site for the Second Round because of how familiar she was with the local ingredients, but she couldn''t figure out how Rayleigh aplished this taste using just what was avable. She had seen his Lightsaber when he cooked the pork, but that would not have ounted for what she was tasting.


    Fifteen minutester, she still hadn''t given up or figured it out. She was just being stubborn at this point.


    The sound of a blimp-copter was heard from above. Those who looked up spotted an old man jumping out of the door and falling to the ground.


    The old man neatlynded with a thud, and Rayleigh noticed that even his wooden sandals were unharmed from the impact. He wondered if the Hunter''s Power System could be used to strengthen items like Force Weapon could.


    Menchi looked rather stunned, not at the old man''s entrance but at his identity. She softly stated, "Chairman Netero, the man responsible for the Hunter Exam."


    Netero had a perfectly straight and triangr old man''s beard and a broom mustache. He said, "Responsible, yes, but I am only an advisor. And I''m here to solve this kind of problem."


    He then looked over at the devoured feast on the table and asked, "What do we have here?"


    Satotsu arrived at his side and whispered what appeared to be a summary of the situation, as the old man''s eyes flicked over Rayleigh for a moment.


    Netero nodded and said, "Menchi, concerning their ability to take on a challenge in a domain they do not know, do you believe their attitude towards the trial justified the severity of your elimination?"


    She looked like a scolded schoolgirl. She exined, "I was troubled by theirck of respect towards cooking and I lost my temper."


    Netero took a whiff of the former feast and said, "What you chose was not a bad concept, but the execution was too narrow. I can understand the desire to search for new things, it is why many of us chose to be a Hunter. But can you see now how this could have turned out if you had given them more room to disy their talents?"


    She sighed and walked up to Rayleigh. "I''m sorry for my earlier behavior. You were right."


    Rayleigh didn''t take on an air of superiority and replied, "It''s fine. I understand that good food can be worth dying for, but many do not. You gave what could be considered a Gourmet Hunter Final Exam when you could have given an Introductory Lesson to show how amazing the Hunter Standard of Gourmet Food could really be."


    She sighed once more at being lectured like a child by a literal child, but knew he was correct. "The results of the exam are void, I don''t qualify as a jury member."


    Netero interrupted, "Well now, how about this. You can go on, but aspensation, you''ll have to take the test also! That way, it will be easier for the contestants to ept your decision."


    She thought for a moment and looked at Rayleigh before smiling brightly. "Alright, my test will be a Boiled Egg!"


    She turned to ask Netero, "President, could you give us a ride to Split Mountain?"


    "Oh ho. I see. No problem."


    Withoutint at the second chance to pass the round, everyone waited for the blimp tond and loaded up before being taken into the air to a nearby mountain. From the window, those looking out saw a lone mountain in the jungle that was split down the middle.


    The blimp parked on the top of the mountain, where everyone got off and followed Menchi to the cracked space between the mountain''s two halves. "Here it is. Don''t worry, at the bottom, there is a very deep river with a current strong enough to take you dozens of kilometers before you know it."


    Without another word of warning, she hopped over the edge into the open air.


    At that, Netero drew everyone''s attention and stated, "Here on Split Mountain live the tarant-eagles. She went to get one of their eggs. Tarant-eagles string incredibly strong lines between the cliff faces and suspend their eggs along those lines to protect them fromnd creatures."


    Those peering over the edge witnessed Menchi grab a line as she fell, which bounced up and down but easily held her weight. She shimmied over to a bundle of eggs that hung in the middle of the line and plucked one off before shimming back to the cliff face and climbing back up.


    She looked at everyone as she reached the top and said, "There you have it. Then you just have to boil the egg."


    Ray, Gon, and Killua jumped down first, followed by Leorio, Kurapika, and the rest. nting your body to control how you fell and make sure you passed one of the many strings to catch before reaching the bottom wasn''t difficult for those who''d trained enough.


    Each plucked an egg and returned to the top. Killua and Rayleigh both raced to the top, but the cat-boy was outmatched by the monkey-child and left in the dust.


    Technically, one could argue that Rayleigh had already passed, but he wasn''t opposed to seeing how the tarant-eagle egg tasted. He''d only pluck one, of course.


    Menchi had a pot of boiling water ready and had thrown some chicken eggs into the pot so others couldpare the taste. Rayleigh tossed his in and kept an eye on it as he patiently waited for it to boil.


    As the first one to toss the egg inside, he was also the first to retrieve his own egg. It didn''t have a hard shell like a chicken egg that needed to be peeled off, so he directly took a bite out of it and immersed himself in the vor. It had the texture of an egg, but the vor of caviar, with a slight spiciness that deepened the overall taste.


    Rayleigh saw Menchi staring at him and gave her a big thumbs up, causing her to smile back.


    The others weren''t as quiet in their enjoyment and gave praise after praise for the depth of vor and how well it suited the texture.


    To those ecstatic faces, Menchi proudly dered, "Maybe I made you better understand the joy of discovering new exquisite food. We risk our lives for it."


    With that, Netero called everyone to return to the blimp. The losers would be dropped off at the closest city and the winners would be taken to the third round.

 Chapter 16: Do you want to Play a Game?

    Chapter 16: Do you want to y a Game?


    Chapter 16 Do you want to y a Game?


    By the time the blimp-copter deposited the failed examinees and returned to the sky and its path towards the the Exam Site of the 3rd round, the sun had already set and only the vast and starry skies stretched across the horizon.


    Chairman Netero gathered the remaining Examinees at the blimpcopter''s observation deck and said, "It might be time for the remaining 42 contestants to know who I am. My name is Netero, and I am responsible for the Trials and a member of the Hunter Exam Organization Committee. I wasn''t supposed to show myself until the final phase of the trials, but... I came sooner than expected."


    He may have introduced himself as just a member of the Hunter Examination Committee, but almost everyone knew he was also the President of the Hunter Association. His presence added a pressure all its own to the contestants.


    The bean-head man pointed at a clock and said, "We should arrive at the site for our third round tomorrow at 8 AM. You are free to do whatever you want until we arrive."


    Killua turned to Ray and Gon and said, "Hey, let''s go on a tour of the ship?"


    Rayleigh had been in a spaceship before, but never a blimp, so he was as excited as Gon when they chased after Killua to explore the floating vessel''s every nook and cranny.


    After wandering around for a half hour, they only found five areas of interest. The passenger deck, which wrapped around the base of the blimp had chairs where you could sit and look out the windows to the world below. The engine room was locked, and the security guard at the door didn''t look like he would appreciate a forced entrance. The observation deck, which had the captain and steering wheel, the balloon part of the blimp, but that door was pressurized, so no entry there, and the upper deck on the top of the ship, which looked useful for training, was unfortunately empty.


    After running out of ces to search, the trio found an empty set of seats on the passenger deck and just stared out the window at one of the cities below.


    Gon brightly eximed, "Great! It looks like a diamond!"


    After quickly getting bored of the sights, Gon asked, "Killua, Ray, do you got any parents?"


    Rayleigh answered first. "Nope. All dead. I''ve had others care for me, but I''ve been pretty much-taking care of myself for a few years now."


    Gon looked over at Killua, and thetter answered, "Yes. I have parents."


    Gon asked, "What do they do?"


    "Assassins."


    "Like that robot head?"


    "Yup. My family''s main profession is assassination. Every member. I''m not telling you how much pressure my family puts on me, but I don''t like the idea of others deciding what I''ll do in my life. But when I told them, they got mad. My mother started crying, telling me I was so gifted for this job. Well, to make a long story short, I beat up my mom and my brother and ran away! They probably haven''t healed yet. If I be a Hunter, the first thing I''ll do is arrest my family and cash in the bounty."


    Rayleigh chuckled, "The only one of us with parents, but you want to cash them in for their bounties?"


    Killua had the sense to look a bit awkward at that.


    Gon looked like he wanted to ask Rayleigh about something, but they all felt an intense aura re to their left.


    Rayleigh felt the presence of something move to their right and looked right, while Gon and Killua looked left.


    The man already looked like he was casually walking their way by the time Rayleigh had turned his head. This guy was really fast.


    Gon and Killua noticed Ray was looking the other way and turned to see Chairman Netero. Gon naively asked, "Mr. Netero, did you see anyoneing from over there?"


    The old man yed the fool and innocently answered, "No."


    Killua caught what Rayleigh had seen and stated, "You''re really fast for your age."


    The old man countered, "You think? I was just walking without haste. "


    Rayleigh smiled and asked, "Then what would you consider fast?"


    "Ho ho? Would you like to see? I''m bored, so I''m looking for someone to y with. This is your first time taking the Hunter Exam, right? How do you like it?"


    Gon answered, "It''s fun."


    Rayleigh said, "It''s okay."


    Killua replied, "I''m disappointed. I thought the trials would be harder. Will we finally have fun during the next tests?"


    The old man evasively answered, "We''ll see," proving they weren''t going to get any useful information from him. Killua turned to leave, and Ray and Gon followed.


    "Wait, don''t you want to y with me?"


    Rayleigh had to shut his mind into Character Mode to stop himself from thinking the worst when a creepy old man asked three young boys if they wanted to y with him.


    The man continued, "If you win, I''ll give you the title of Hunter!"


    Ray nodded to Killua and Gon smiled with excitement. The trio followed Netero to the upper deck, where he picked up a rubber ball about two-thirds the size of a ser ball and said, "If you can take this ball, you win. You''re free to attack me anyway you like. I won''t hit back, but you can onlye at me one at a time."


    Rayleigh had to stay in Character Mode or else the act of an old man telling eleven-year-old children to reach out and take his ball would have elicited a very unchild-like expression on his face.


    Confirming the mission parameters, Killua repeated back, "We just have to take the ball, right? Alright, I''ll start."


    Netero nodded, "Go ahead."


    Killua started walking around Netero. He elerated and stopped at specific intervals without making a single sound, causing an impression of afterimages to circle around the Chairman.


    Gon was surprised, but Rayleigh noticed how Killua''s ankles were basically shooting him from step to step. It was a shy move, but not particrly useful against someone stronger than you. The stress it put on the body made it damaging in a drawn out fight, but since this was supposed to create an opening for a finisher, Rayleigh figured it was fine.


    Killua''s afterimages practically started dancing around the deck while the Chairman moved with the smallest possible margin of error to dodge and avoid the attacks.


    Rayeligh put his backpack down on the wall and unzipped it slightly so that HK-47 could observe the fight. Recording the movements of such a powerful Hunter would prove useful in the future.


    Seeing that he wasn''t going to get the ball, Killua smashed his leg into Netero''s shin.


    Killua''s excitement turned into panic as the bolt of pain traveled through his leg, causing him to shout and cry while hopping on one foot over to where Rayleigh and Gon were watching.


    Killua warned, "His leg is as hard as a rock!"


    Rayleigh remained seated, so Gon got up and said, "Alright, my turn!"


    Gon ran at a low position while Netero kept the ball bnced on his head, bracing himself for Gon''s charge.


    Gon quickly jumped into the air and due to the ball blocking his line of sight, Netero only witnessed Gon vanish and actually looked shocked for a moment. Until a cry of pain drew his attention and he looked up to see that Gon had used all his strength to perform a high-speed jump, but in doing so he had rammed his head into the ceiling.


    Both Killua and Ray noticed that Gon''s n had initially worked, but the execution failed in the end.


    Gon then tried a repeat of Killua''s performance and was stopped at every turn by Netero and evaded.


    Rayleigh then got up, and Gon noticed that his turn was over.


    Rayleigh asked, "Is it okay if I go all out? I''ve never tried before."


    "Oh ho? Well, I''m certainly not going toin. Have at it littled."


    Rayleigh ignited his Lightsaber and strengthened his connection to the Force through its kyber crystal. He dipped it to the ground, which hissed as the glowing de searedpletely through it, showing Netero that this was not an ordinary stick of light.


    Gon shouted, "Woah! What is that?!"


    Killua looked equally impressed, and even Netero seemed intrigued.


    Rayleigh didn''t answer. He had practiced his Alchaka for thousands of hours, both with heavy weights and without, at his fastest speeds, but he never had a chance to use it against a living person. Rayleigh wouldn''t kill if possible, and a Lightsaber was not a toy, so how could he justify practicing against anyone so far? But this, the President of the Hunter Association, wasn''t this the equivalent of Grandmaster Yoda? It was said that the Grandmaster could use the Force to lift and move mountains, and his strikes were blindingly fast when he went all out. What about this guy?


    It wasn''t like he had no experience. Rayleigh had killed hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters during his Tavern Missions, but monsters werepletely different from skilled fighters. Rayleigh considered most of them little more than particrly aggressive nts. This waspletely different.


    Rayleigh took control of his breath and raised Force Valor to the maximum. He then used Force Attribute to enhance his speed and essed Battle Precognition to expand his awareness. Despite all his physical training, he could tell that his speed while using the Force was still greater than the max speed he was physically capable of reaching. Since it was the old man who initiated the spar, it did not go against Rayleigh''s Force Code to go all out since the result would not affect anyone but himself, thus in no way affecting any form of bnce. This would be the first time he could find out how strong his new Code could make him.


    Rayleigh vanished from where he stood and appeared behind the Chairman. Thetter''s afterimage was split in two, but the dent on the ground confirmed the strength he used to move away in time.


    Rayleigh vanished again, and this time the Chairman vanished with him.


    Of course, it wasn''t just the Code. Rayleigh''s Bnce of the Force Perk was also boosting his connection to the Force. That was the primary reason his Force amplified speed was superior to the highly magnified natural speed he obtained after unlocking the Hunter Power System. He''d be this fast even if he didn''te to this world, but he was limited in the duration he could hold this state, unlike his natural speed which could be maintained for hours.


    The Chairman neatly dodged Rayleigh''s Lightsaber a dozen times before he tried to block it. What happened next almost shocked Rayleigh out of his Force Valor state. The Chairman blocked the Lightsaber with the rubber ball!


    Rayleigh felt the ball had been filled with the Chairman''s life energy, and every bit of it seemed to be exploding with enough energy to perfectly counter the energy from Rayleigh''s Lightsaber.


    Ray couldn''t help it, he started grinning.


    He switched from Force Attribute: Speed, to Force Attribute: Strength.


    Netero could obviously move faster than Rayleigh''s max and was just matching his speed, so he might as well try to use some strength.


    Pulses of light and shockwaves burst from every impact of Rayleigh''s Lightsaber and Netero''s ball.


    Netero took the change of pace in stride, and their movements could not be made out by Gon, though Killua was following them without a problem.


    Rayleigh wanted to just keep going, but he couldn''t hog the entire time, so he tried to finish it up by jumping back while throwing his lightsaber forward with the spinning throw.


    Netero moved to dodge, but the ball that should have been bncing on his head suddenly started flying towards Rayleigh. In order to reach out and grab it, he''d had to block the de with his hand, and since the ball was going up into the air, the Chairman couldn''t use a strong step to move towards it without bypassing the spinning Lightsaber.


    Rayleigh pulled the ball as fast as he could towards him, but the Chairman''s hand delicately maneuvered past the de and grabbed the Lightsaber''s handle in flight and tossed it to the side in an instant before moving towards the ball.


    At his speed, he could catch the ball before it got to Ray, but Rayleigh then pulled the tossed away Lightsaber back towards himself, and its path would bisect the President of the Hunter Association.


    The Chairman still grabbed the ball, but in an instant, tilted his body out of the way and used the ball to once again block the Lightsaber, causing it to bounce away before flying back to Rayleigh''s hand.


    Rayleigh sighed. That was his best attempt.


    He disengaged his Lightsaber and sat cross-legged on the wall.


    Netero asked, "That was pretty interesting. What do you call that?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Just some psychic stuff the tribe I was born into could do. Still not enough it seems."


    "Oh ho, I see."


    Rayleigh asked, "Since I answered your question, you have to answer mine. What you did with that ball, can I learn that after getting a Hunter License?"


    He took a moment to think of the best way to answer with as little information as possible. He then replied, "It''s up to you."


    Rayleigh nodded. It wasn''t a no, which was good enough for him.


    Killua and Gon looked like they wanted to ask more questions, but Rayleigh closed his eyes and began to meditate to digest the fight.


    Seeing this, Netero chuckled and said, "That was a good warm up. How about the two of youe at me together?"


    Since they saw how fast he could be, he wanted them to have some hope, or else they would give up and leave.


    The pair, on the other hand, looked more excited than worried. Deep down, they were all battle junkies.


    An hour passed, and Rayleigh was still meditating. Gon and Killua were covered in sweat and, despite a number of very close calls, neither hand touched the ball.


    Killua asked, "Hey, you want to go against all three of us at once?"


    Rayleigh opened his eyes and gave a smile filled with provocation.


    The old man shamelessly answered, "Nope."


    Rayleigh shrugged and closed his eyes. Even if he was added to the roster, Netero would just increase his speed ordingly. Two extra pairs of hands at that speed wouldn''t make enough of a difference to win.


    Killua''s urge to kill spiked for a moment before he suppressed it and sighed. "I give up then."


    Gon tried to talk him into staying, but Killua revealed that against them and even against Ray, Netero only used a single leg and one hand.


    Gon then decided to stay just to see if he could make him use his other hand and foot while Killua left and Ray kept meditating.


    Rayleigh was basically fighting Netero in his head, and having the man there helped the visualization immensely, so he wasn''t going anywhere if he didn''t have to.


    Gon did ask, "Ray, you want to try again?"


    Netero answered before Ray could, "Your friend hasn''t stopped trying. Even now, he''s fighting me in his head, but he still hasn''t beaten me yet."


    The way he said that was filled with 100% provocation. Even a pacifist like Ray was pissed, but only for a moment. Rayleigh said aloud, "He''ll speed up if I try, and I haven''t figured out how to get the ball when he does. You have a better chance than I do, so don''t give up yet."


    A burst of killing intent surged from the side, and Rayleigh felt Killua seemed to be letting off some stress. He didn''t care. If the guys Killua was going to kill didn''t ask him for help, they had nothing to do with him. If there was no connection, he wouldn''t protect someone''s life unless they asked him too.


    Gon spent another hour and a half doing all kinds of random stuff and ended up doing a suicide headbutt, twice in a row. If Netero allowed the second one to hit, Gon would have died, so he used his other hand to dodge, causing Gon to dere his victory before cking out and falling asleep.


    Netero chuckled and picked up the phone to themand deck and asked the captain to slow down. They were supposed to arrive at 7:30 AM, but it seemed they would now be arrivingter. Rayleigh didn''t mind.


    Netero looked over at Rayleigh and asked, "Did you want to have another go?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "No point until I learn how you can use your life energy like that." That wasn''t entirely true. He was also trying to see through the Chairman with the Force and find a Shatterpoint he could use, but the man''s lifeforce seemed unnaturally dense and blocked his ability to see Shatterpoints on the man''s form. He''d have to learn to see through life-force if he wanted to see the man''s Shatterpoints.


    "Oh ho, you can feel life energy?"


    "Indirectly. All life has mental energy. That I can feel."


    "Is that so? Interesting. I look forward to that day." Rayleigh could tell that part was not provocation. After their first exchange, Rayleigh had the Chairman pegged as a battle junkie of the highest order. Nothing would make this old man happier than meeting someone matching or exceeding his own strength in battle, preferably a battle to the death.


    The Chairman left, and Rayleigh walked over to his bag and pulled out HK-47. "Did you see everything?"


    [Affirmation: Indeed I did. These Hunters are most interesting. New Assassination Protocols will be required.]


    Rayleigh highly doubted HK-47 had ever seen a Lightsaber get blocked repeatedly by a rubber ball, and he certainly would not have seen someone move so fast without the Force.


    Rayleigh asked, "How''d I do?"


    [Commentary: Your speed and strength can be ranked at the level of a mid-ability Jedi-Knight that specializes inbat. Your flexibility and tactics, however, are only at the level of a beginner-level Jedi-Knight.]


    "Really? Why the difference?"


    He thought he was pretty skilled, experience notwithstanding.


    [Exnation: You have achieved proficiency in basicbat, but you entirelyck any means to control the fight or press against a stronger opponent. Extraption: You fight too directly, even the Pseudo-Pacifist Jedi use tricks. You cannot fight a stronger opponent using these means.]


    Rayleigh nodded. It was a fair point. Though he had been training to be the fastest, it would take a long time to get there, and he would likely fight many people stronger than he was along the way. He certainly wouldn''t avoid them. Fighting someone stronger is the best way to increase your own strength. Without an all-out fight against the Chairman, Rayleigh would not have been able to spot all his ws so easily.


    Rayleigh sat down cross-legged once more and started to meditate again, but this time he opened his menu and entered the Tavern. He could only enter mentally since he was within an enclosed space, but that was fine with him.


    His senses whited out, and he stepped through the Tavern''s door. The first thing he did was smile. He had a feeling, but he couldn''t have been absolutely certain that either Gon or Killua was the Main Character of the Hunter world. Now, he knew.


    With his Metaknowledge returned, there were two things that surprised him. The first was the fact that no other yer sessfully reached the Hunter Exam site.


    This could be attributed to a number of coincidences. Rayleigh was the only Jedi to apply, and none of the Pirates took a path that allowed them to meet a Guide. Guides were only along the paths that others pointed out. Some of the pirates may have been pointed in the right direction, but without knowing the true worth of the path, they may have ignored it and gone their own way. Pirates weren''t ones to follow the rules after all.


    The second thing that surprised him was that the number of participants was the same. After thinking on it for a while, he realized there was a strange coincidence. The man who Dyna Might punched off the ship. Wasn''t that the guy Hisoka killed before the start of the Exam? Wait, didn''t Rayleigh have that guy''s number?


    Maybe in the original canon, that guy rented a camel, found the Guide and ended up at the site.


    In any case, he still had some questions. Rayleigh approached the counter and found that Red was still on duty.


    "Can I ask what''s the deal with my strength? I haven''t opened my Aura Nodes right?"


    Red seemed to consider it before answering, "Well, this can''t really be considered Metaknowledge, so I''ll let you know. Every ss has a scale for how training affects them. Warriors who exhaust themselves lifting weights will gain far more than Wizards who exhaust themselves doing the same thing. It''s just how the ss is built."


    "If a Warrior, a Ninja, and a Wizard all do the Saitama Series Training for two years, the Warrior will be stronger than the Ninja, and the Ninja will be stronger than the Wizard. But if all three did the exact same training with the exact same amount of effort, they would have the same strength once the other two unlocked the Warrior ss."


    Rayleigh looked a bit confused, so Red borated, "Look, if a Wizard tries running for ten kilometers, he is going to do so at barely a jog because he can''t withstand that much exercise. If a Warrior ran for ten kilometers, he''d do so at the highest rate he could keep to force his heart rate to the highest state. The effort for each is about the same since that''s how their bodies work. If both did so for two years, they''d both be stronger, but the Warrior would be much stronger. If the Wizard unlocked their Warrior ss, he''d suddenly have the same strength as the Warrior because, rtively speaking, they put the same effort into their training."


    Rayleigh asked, "Isn''t that a cheat? So if a Wizard trains until they are Hercules, they could gain the Warrior ss and be upgraded to god?"


    Red nodded, "That is technically urate. However, of the 100 yers, how many Wizards will put in more effort into physical training than a Ninja or Warrior when doing so is far more difficult? How many Jedi will put more effort into physical training than a Hunter or Pirate? I won''t say you''re the only one, but the number is very small. This was supposed to be a feature that let yers who started with Mage sses like Wizard and Jedi keep up with Mixed sses like Hunter and Ninja and Fighter sses like Warrior and Pirate."


    Red pointed at Rayleigh and said, "You''re the weird one. This only works if you choose the physically weakest ss first and physically train that. No one who chose Wizard as their First ss stopped to think, "Hm, let''s train to be Hercules instead of learning magic before I be a Warrior." Muscle training has almost no impact on the Jedi and Wizard Power System, other than staying healthy. Once you became a Hunter, the effort you put into your workouts was scaled up to the Hunter World. You can probably handle a few times the weight you could before. The small effect having a stronger body would have was amplified which is why it is noticeable. There will be another boost when you unlock the Pirate ss, but it''ll be much smaller. Willpower is more important to Pirates than physical strength anyway. Maybe you should use some Mission Points to take that wonderful Robe back from the Jedi World and wear it all the time."


    Rayleigh gave the lumberjack a deadpan stare and tly stated, "No. I don''t think I will."


    Red chuckled, "Yeah, there''s a limit to everything anyway, but it would have been funny to watch. In any case, physically, you are the strongest Jedi. And not just because of your exercise. There are actually some Jedi yers who were able to get crazy Masters to help them strengthen their bodies, but you have one major advantage over them. It was your solo training on Tython. You had a massive boost in strength, right? Far more than a kid before puberty should have, right?"


    Ray nodded, he certainly had his biggest gains after leaving the Jedi on Tython.


    Red continued, "Do you remember what I told you about the food in the Tavern?"


    "Um, delicious and nutritious?"


    "Exactly. Very nutritious. Very, very nutritious. You get what I''m saying?"


    Rayleigh didn''t speak, but he did nod slowly. He had no idea the Tavern had a hidden mechanic. The food was apparently so nutritious that it enhanced the effects of his workouts. But that meant if he wanted to keep it up, he''d have to keep eating Tavern food during muscle-building training.


    Rayleigh noticed the grin on Red''s face and realized he''d been cornered. He thought now that he could cook, his days of spending Mission Points on food were over. It seems that is no longer the case.


    Rayleigh ordered a Beer and headed to a table.


    Some yers were discussing the epic fail of the Pirates who missed the Hunter Exam. Some were talking about Hogwarts and Harry Potter. Some were talking about the Jedi and Anakin Skywalker. They mostly discussed progress and which yers hadtched onto bing their friends. Rayleigh wondered how some of them would react if he told them he fought Chairman Netero. Oh well. He wouldn''t lie if asked, but he wouldn''t go out of his way to say anything either.


    When he returned to the Hunter World, the knowledge that Gon and Killua were the Main Characters would be sealed, but that was fine as his Character was already mostly sure about it. It was funny how Metaknowledge could be sealed. Even if a yer could deduce it using information from the Tavern, the deduction would be sealed. Although his Character knew he paid a premium for the ticket to the Hunter World and knew other yers paid more than usual this year as well, the idea that those actions implied that the MC would take the Hunter Exam at this time was suppressed, so even if a Character subconsciously figured it out, they would not be able to deduce it until the Main Character''s identity was revealed without Metaknowledge.


    This pissed off a lot of yers. One yer tried to pass a message to himself by timing his return from the Tavern to specific letters and spelling out a message when he returned, one letter at a time.


    There was another yer who asked Yes and No questions to himself by returning from the Tavern either after an hour for Yes or two hours for No. As an example he would ask, ''Is Harry Potter the Main Character for the Wizard World?'' and go to the Tavern. If he returned from the Tavern after an hour, yes, if he returned after two hours, no.


    Neither attempt worked as the knowledge of which response was Yes and No was sealed. Even if he could force it or figure out a way around it, the knowledge would suddenly be sealed and the yer would be unable to ess it. This meant whatever you did in the Tavern would not help you gain restricted Metaknowledge.


    Not that you couldn''t figure out some Metaknowledge using guesswork like Rayleigh had figured out for the future of Star Wars. That wasn''t sealed because he didn''t use any knowledge leaked from the Tavern to deduce it.


    After listening to some more random conversations and finishing his Beer, Rayleigh left the Tavern and returned to his body. Red''s exnation was retained, so Ray knew why he got so much stronger and didn''t have to worry about it. He would rest for the time being. Soon, they would arrive at the Hunter Exam''s third round.

 Chapter 17: The Trick Tower

    Chapter 17: The Trick Tower


    *Author''s Note*


    To answer most questions about Level, Skill, and Powerparisons, providing that is HK-47''s job. Potential Max ss Stats are going off the highest registered value from all source materials, not the slowed down stuff we''ve seen in live-action movies, but closer to Star Wars Visons. Rtively speaking, the yers train 5~10x faster than normal depending on their dedication, resources, and Easy Masteries. So Rayleigh fights like a 25~30-year-old Jedi, but many Jedi are Padawans until theirte 20s, so that doesn''t mean he is all powerful. Don''tpare the sitting ducks killed via Order 66 with standard Jedi. The Clone Wars HEAVILY weakened the Jedi, and just about every Live Action Jedi fight was nerfed because actors can''t move that fast.


    Also, just because Rayleigh left the Star Wars world, doesn''t mean he''s noting back. For Hunter X Hunter, One Piece, and Star Wars, the MCs are all different ages when the good stuff happens, so there isn''t a problem with checking them all before hitting the MCU. MC won''t be a Straw Hat though, but will be at the Summit War of Marineford and take part in the Clone Wars.


    Don''t mind the rivalry between yers. The only real thing they have against each other is that only one can get the grand prize. If a yer isn''t aiming for the Grand Prize, then he can do whatever. The only story that will be told will be Rayleigh''s. There will be no switching to another POV unless that person is interacting with Rayleigh. And the Tavern is not Evil. They sneaky, but not devil sneaky. More like Home Room Teacher springing a pop quiz sneaky.


    And finally, to those peeved at theck of Metaknowledge, don''t be. The Force is the Ultimate Plot Armor and even without Metaknowledge, it will ensure all the nice things happen to my MC as long as he stays in Bnce. At max level the Force is weaker than many power systems, but only the Force has built-in Plot Armor which is why my MC has it as his main ss.


    Chapter 17 The Trick Tower


    As Rayleigh suspected, the blimp''s speed slowed to the point where it took an additional three hours to arrive. Gon woke up refreshed, and Rayleigh''s meditation functioned the same as sleep, allowing him to fully recover.


    The blimp seemed to reach almost the other side of the continent, and at its edge was a towering teau. On top of that teau was a stone towerrger than any building Rayleigh had ever seen and wider than the downtown area of most cities.


    The blimpnded on the very top, where it opened and asked all the participants to walk out to the top of the tower. Those observant enough to see from edge to edge confirmed that the top of the tower waspletely devoid of anything but an irregrly assembled stone floor.


    Once everyone gathered together outside the blimp, the bean-head man announced, "You are here at the Trick Tower. It''s here that the third trial round will take ce. Concerning the trial itself, here are the Jury''s orders. Within a 72-hour time period, you''ll need to get to the bottom of this tower. Alive of course. The trial begins the moment we have left. Good Luck."


    And with that, the bean and the other non-participants returned to the blimp and took off, starting the timer for the trial.


    Rayleigh and a number of others walked to the side of the tower and confirmed the coarse stone walls. One of the more confident examinees immediately dropped down and began descending.


    Killua stood next to Gon and Rayleigh, watching the man go, and seemed impressed.


    Ray said, "If the rough surface smooths out halfway down, wouldn''t he have to climb back up?"


    Gon asked, "You think that could happen?"


    "Normally, no. But this is called Trick Tower, right?"


    Killua remarked, "We''ll know if hees back up in an hour or so, right?"


    Gon pointed towards the distance and said, "Umm, look."


    Leorio and Kurapika came over, and everyone saw the giant harpy-looking monsters attack the climber and tear his limbs to pieces.


    Ray considered jumping down,nding on a harpy, and using it to coast down to the ground, but something told him that wouldn''t work, so he''d leave that until he didn''t have a better option.


    Thankfully, Ray, Gon, and Killua spotted a few participants falling through some trap doors. They checked each, but they were locked after the person fell through. An examination of another area revealed a few more trap doors that hadn''t been used yet. The trio shared a look and figured this was where they would be separated, but decided to tell Leorio and Kurapika first.


    Gon ran up to the pair first and said, "We found a way to go down, but there''s a problem. We don''t know which door to use."


    The pair were taken over to where the trio found five trap doors and pointed them out for Leorio and Kurapika to check out.


    Leorio stated, "Five doors. Each one is close to the other. I don''t like this."


    Kurapika pointed out, "There are probably some that are traps."


    Rayleigh countered, "No, I don''t feel any danger from any of them."


    Gon said, "Each door locks after someone uses it."


    Killua added, "And each only had enough room for one person to pass through. That means everyone has to enter through a different trap door."


    Leorio tested the one close by and confirmed, "It does look the right size for the passage of only one person."


    Rayleigh said, "There''s no point in dying, so let''s just pick a door."


    Killua added, "We already decided to try them out."


    Gon nodded, "Even if it''s a trap, no regrets!"


    Rayleigh asked Kurapika and Leorio, "What about you?"


    Leorio answered, "It''s ok. I''ve been told I''m a lucky guy before."


    Kurapika asked, "How will we choose which door to go through?"


    It was then that a rock-paper-scissors tournament started atop the Trick Tower.


    Gon won first ce, and Killua defeated Rayleigh with a grin and got second. Leorio somehow got third, and Ray got fourth, with Kurapika gettingst. Thetter looked at his hand with disappointment, as if he was upset that it had failed him.


    After everyone picked a trap door, Kurapika said, "We all go at three. Our roads split here."


    Leorio said, "See you again at the bottom."


    And with a count of three, everyone stepped on the panel and slid down below.


    And then they saw each other again in the same room.


    Killua and Gon shared an awkward look.


    Rayleigh chuckled and checked out the room as Leorio stated the obvious, "All the doors ended up in the same room!"


    At one end of the room was a stone pir beneath a sign. The pir had a pile of bracelets on top and the sign said, [Choice of the Way by the Majority. For the Five candidates, you''ll have to reach your goal by following the majority''s choice.]


    Leorio put on the bracelet first and said, "It has two buttons on it, O and X."


    Gon said, "We''re lucky we already have five here."


    Killua looked thoughtful for a moment before quickly turning to Rayleigh, "Hey, is that what you meant?"


    "Huh? Meant what?"


    Killua turned to Gon and said, "When Ray said you can go back to help Leorio and Kurapika, I asked why he let you go when Hisoka was too dangerous. Ray said he could see into the future, and that if you didn''t go back, Leorio and Kurapika would not have made it through the fog in time and we would have failed the third round."


    Everyone looked at Ray, who remembered telling Killua about that Shatterpoint and said, "Oh yeah. I guess this would be the reason for that."


    Gon shouted, "Woah! Cool!"


    Kurapika asked, "You can see into the future?"


    Leorio enthusiastically asked, "Do you know what the winning lottery numbers are?!"


    Rayleigh smiled awkwardly and said, "I can''t choose what I see, so don''t ask about the future."


    Kurapika and Gon epted it easily, while Leorio sighed. Everyone put on the bracelets, which caused a speaker on the wall to give an automated message.


    [All right. This Tower contains numerous Passages. Each one has its own crossways. You can only move forward by following the majority''s choice. It''s impossible to pass if the choicees from only one guy. The difficulty is that cooperating is the essential condition. On that note, just fight well.]


    The wall under the speaker then slid up, revealing the door.


    The door itself had a message on it.


    [O to Open. X to Not Open]


    Everyone read the message and hit the O button on their bracelet, which caused the door to open.


    The first step into the passage, though, immediately gave the choice of Left and Right.


    Before anyone could press their buttons, Rayleigh said, "Give me a moment, I''ll check ahead."


    Rayleigh then sat down and closed his eyes. irvoyance didn''t let him see through walls, but the left and right options were only barred gates, allowing his perception to easily pass through and explore the nearby area. After mapping it out a bit, Rayleigh said, "They go the same way, but the right one is slightly longer."


    Rather than pushing their buttons, they all just stared at Rayleigh. Kurapika was the first to break the silence, "What else can you do?"


    Not caring to hide it, Rayleigh listed off, "irvoyance, through not through anything solid. Telekinesis, limited precognition, empathy, temperature resistance, sound muffling, speed, sense, and strength enhancement, though not at once; stealth, psychometry, and material destruction."


    Leorio understandably remarked, "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU LEARN HOW TO DO ALL THAT?!"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "I grew up in a very strange environment. Not everyone can do it though, so don''t ask me to teach you."


    Kurapika didn''t outwardly react, instead he seemed to be analyzing their options. He asked, "How strong is that material destruction?"


    Rayleigh replied, "Well, given enough time, I can destroy stone or steel walls. Some things are harder to destroy, and I can''t use it on people like the Hunter Chairman."


    Killua asked, "Wait, you can use it on people?"


    "Yeah, but unless I think they can survive it or they are someone who will stop at nothing to kill me, I doubt I''ll ever use it on a person."


    Killua added, "And he has aser sword that can go through stone like cardboard."


    That incited another look. Rayleigh shrugged, took out his lightsaber, and cut through the bars leading to the path on the left, before disengaging it and returning it to his side.


    Choosing not to bother with the buttons, the group just walked through the melted bars and headed down a few flights of stairs before reaching an open area with a stage in the middle over a seemingly bottomless pit.


    On the other end of the stage was a group of hooded figures.


    One of them removed his hood and stepped forward. Some cuffs on his wrists unlocked themselves, and the man shouted from his side, "We are the jurors for the trial. Our mission is to fight you. The matches are one on one, and everyone can only fight once. You can fight in any order. You''ll have to get three victories if you want to pass. The rules are simple, everything is allowed!!! There is no limit, the defeat of one means the victory of the other. You have to choose if you will ept the trial or not. O if you ept, or X if you refuse."


    Rayleigh said, "The other way leads here too, just a longer path. No way forward except past them."


    Hearing this, everyone chose O.


    The one without the cuffs shouted, "Okay, I''m the first one out. Choose who will fight me."


    Rayleigh stepped forward and said, "Dibs on first," before Killua or Gon could react.


    Gon quickly said, "Dibs!" almost at the same time Killua did, but was an instant faster, causing Gon to go second and Killua to go third.


    A tform extended out from their end of the wall and to the stage. From the speaker, an announcer said, "Only the Fighter may step forward."


    Rayleigh got a good look at his opponent. Bald, scarred, and built like a soldier. They stepped on the stage at the same time, and the man stated, "I propose a fight to the death or until the fighter says he gives up."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Sorry, I''m a pacifist. I don''t kill if I don''t have to."


    This took the man off guard, who then asked, "Then what do you propose? I won''t ept a game of tag or a chess match."


    Rayleigh couldn''t exactly hear the man''s thoughts, but the intention of dragging the match on as long as possible was clearly seen in the man''s eyes.


    Rayleigh suggested, "The match will be Ring Out. The fight continues as long as both of us are inside the ring. You cannot kill your opponent, but you cannot surrender either."


    The scarred man raised an eyebrow and looked over the edge of the stage. A ring out meant death. He asked, "Are you sure you''re a pacifist?"


    "What, you don''t agree?"


    "Hehe, I ept your determination."


    The man got into a stance and charged forward, "Let''s Go!"


    Rayleigh charged forward even faster. The man attempted to grab Rayleigh, but the monkey-child evaded and passed the soldier by.


    The moment he did so, Rayleigh also grabbed the man by his arm and spun the man around twice before tossing him over the edge of the area. Back over to the tform where the other cloaked figures stood.


    Rayleigh smiled and said, "Ring out. You lose."


    Gon and Killua cheered, and Kurapika and Leorio only seemed mildly impressed, considering what Rayleigh told them about his abilities earlier.


    The bridge was extended again and Rayleigh returned to the group. He asked, "Killua, you saw it too, right?"


    Killua nodded, "That guy was a grappler. He was aiming to pin and hold you down all the way until our time passed."


    Kurapika picked up on what they were saying, "You mean they care more about keeping us here than their victories?"


    Leorio added, "That is tricky."


    The next person up was a hulking figure. He removed his cloak and revealed a disgusting, Frankenstein-like appearance.


    He walked onto the stage and met Gon. Therge brutish man said, "I killed neen people before I was caught, but that''s a terrible number. With you, I''ll have an even twenty, so why don''t we make this a fight to the death? Though if you beg for mercy, I''ll let you live if you admit defeat. What do you say?"


    Gon replied, "Alright."


    This actually seemed to stun the man. He continued, "But I''m a bit hard of hearing. Even if you admit defeat, I can''t guarantee I''ll stop hitting you."


    Gon nodded back, "Sure, no problem."


    The man lowered his head and tried to release a creepyugh, but it came off oddly strained and awkward. The announcer stated through the speaker, "Let the Match begin!"


    Gon circled him with a bit of caution, observing him like an animal.


    Leorio asked, "Do you think Gon stands a chance?"


    Rayleigh and Killua shared a look. They both suppressed their smiles and tried not tough. This guy had no feeling of danger at all.


    Seeing how cautious Gon was being, the misshapen fighter jumped into the air and mmed his fist into the stage. The ground cracked and shattered rock spread around.


    Rayleigh flinched, but not at the attack. Being empathic wasn''t always a good thing. Rayleigh could practically feel the pain that the man''s idiodic showboating inflicted on him, and it almost made Rayleigh''s hand hurt.


    When the man retrieved his fist, he turned and showed his back to everyone. There was a twelve-legged ck spider tattoo on the right side of his back.


    Thanks to the local knowledge Rayleigh gained when he came to this world, he knew that was a mark of the Phantom Troupe, a notorious group of thieves and murderers.


    Revealing the tattoo and recovering from the reckless ground smash left himpletely open, and Gon, apparently not caring about the tattoo in the slightest, used the opening to smash the guy''s face in and knock him to the ground.


    The man panicked and shouted through broken teeth, "What are you doing?! I am Majitani, a member of the Phantom Troupe! You better give-"


    Gon smashed his face again.


    On the side of the spectators, Rayleigh could not have noticed Kurapika''s mood change more if the man had set himself on fire.


    Rayleigh asked, "Anything you want to share with the ss, Kurapika?"


    Kurapika''s eyes had actually changed color from how angry he was. Leorio answered for him, "Kurapika said that the Phantom Troupe killed his n."


    Rayleigh asked, "What does it have to do with this guy?"


    Leorio asked, "What do you mean? He had the tattoo!"


    Gon had already finished pounding the man''s face in and was starting on his ribs.


    Killua said, "That guy''s a phoney."


    "I GIVE UP ALREADY! MAKE IT STOP!"


    Gon then jumped back and realized he may have hit the guy a little too hard.


    Rayleigh shouted, "Gon, that guy was only pretending to be strong."


    Gon looked over him again and said awkwardly, "Oh." He then bowed to the remains of the man he pulverized and said, "I''m sorry, I thought you were strong and got too excited." When he saw the man''s punch, he mentally adjusted himself to fighting someone capable of doing so.


    As Gon returned, the announcer said, "Not a single victory. And it''s only been five minutes! You better win this next one!"


    Killua stopped out, and from the back of the other side, another hooded figure stepped up.


    Leoriofortingly said to Killua, "Don''t worry. It''s okay even if you lose."


    Killua looked at Ray and said, "He is really starting to irritate me."


    He looked back over to Leorio and said, "You''re actually giving up on me without even seeing the other guy?"


    Leorio said, "Well, you''re right. Some of those guys really don''t look that strong."


    The new arrival stepped onto the stage, and Leorio took a good look at him before taking a step back.


    Gon noticed this and asked, "You know him?"


    Leorio gulped and turned to Killua. "Just give up the match. You can''t fight that guy. He''s the most prolific serial killer in the history of Zaban! He''s killed over a hundred and forty people. None, none of them were found in less than fifty pieces! Some were even cut into over a thousand pieces! And, that''s not all! He, he doesn''t use any weapons. He tore his victims to pieces.. With his bare Hands!"


    The more Leorio described him, the more he started to stutter. The fear he felt for the man was palpable.


    Killua''s eyes hardened at the man''s lengthy introduction. One look at the guy and no one had to ask if Leorio''s words were true. To those sensitive to such things, you could almost see an aura of blood covering the man''s fingers and hands.


    Killua stepped forward, and Leorio tried to stop him, but Gon and Rayleigh blocked him, allowing him to go forward.


    Leorio asked, "Why didn''t you stop him?! He''s your friend, right?!"


    Rayleigh nodded back, "He''ll be fine."


    That caught Leorio off guard. Since Rayleigh imed earlier he could use precognition, they could assign a bit of truth to his im.


    Killua stepped onto the stage and politely asked, "How do you want to fight?"


    The serial killer replied, "Fight? This won''t be a fight. I don''t care about this exam or anything. All I want is to touch flesh. To feel the sensation of tearing flesh, shredding flesh, and crushing flesh beneath my fingers. As for you? All you have to do is scream."


    Killua looked unperturbed and asked, "So, you think it''s better to die than to lose?"


    "Yes, and you''re gonna-"


    Killua vanished in front of him and appeared behind him. His speed was not a single step slower than Rayleigh''s fastest Force Enhanced speed.


    The killer felt a pang of colding from his chest and saw the blood dripping down his shirt. He turned to see Killua, standing there, holding his slowly beating heart in his grasp.


    The man realized what had happened. He stepped forward, "That''s mine, give, give it back!"


    Killua smiled cruelly and crushed the heart in his grasp. The man''s strength ran out before he made it more than a few steps, and he fell to the ground, never to get up again.


    Neither Kurapika nor Leorio had suspected such an oue.


    Leorio asked, "Who is he?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Killua is a prodigy born from a family of Assassins."


    Killua turned to the other side of the area and said, "Three to zero. I suppose with this, we can go, right?"


    The man Rayleigh defeated earlier answered hesitantly, "Yeah, sure. No problem."


    The group walked over to the stage, and Killua asked Ray, "Is it alright that I killed him?"


    Ray didn''t know what he meant for a moment, then he remembered that he didn''t kill his own opponent.


    Rayleigh shook his head and replied, "I''m a pacifist, not a pussy. Who you kill is your business. Besides, I can''t say I would have spared that guy either."


    Killua nodded. He had entered Assassin Mode without thinking and didn''t know how someone who called himself a pacifist would react to a killer.


    Rayleigh honestly didn''t care. He didn''t kill if he could avoid it for two reasons. One, this wasn''t a game, so no EXP for kills. Two, the Force didn''t like it when he killed while connected to it. He would have to figure out how to cut his connectionpletely from the Force at some point if he wanted to do things the Force would react poorly to in case he ran into more guys like that serial killer in the future. If he killed someone without being connected to the Force, it wouldn''t care when he reconnected. Best of both worlds.


    On the way through the next room, Kurapika asked, "How did you do that?"


    Killua showed his ability to retract the skin on his fingers to make his nails seem to grow into ws. ording to Killua, "My parents are much more skilled than I am. If they ripped out his heart, the wound wouldn''t have bled."


    Rayleigh nodded, "That''s cool."


    Leorio gave him a weird look and asked, "Are you sure you''re a pacifist?"


    Rayleigh shrugged.


    They came to another split, with an option to go upstairs or downstairs. Rayleigh sat down again and closed his eyes. His passive irvoyance worked regardless, but he couldn''t see further than a few dozen meters unless he properly meditated.


    After a minute, Rayleigh said, "Upstairs circles around. Downstairs is better."


    The group voted downstairs and headed further into the tower.


    The group went through room after room and choice after choice.


    Some rooms included traps they had to run away from, like an Indiana Jones style boulder speeding down a sloped corridor.


    There was a quiz room that didn''t allow one to get through without answering 100 Questions correctly. Rayleigh used his Lightsaber on the room''s door.


    There was a giantbyrinth, but Rayleigh used Shatterpoint on the wall closest to the exit.


    Any room that was just a waste of time, like winning at Go, borate puzzles, or choices which were obviously traps, were passed with a Lightsaber or brute Force.


    The current room they were in said they could chose a door that would lead to the exit in three minutes. The other door would take forty-five hours.


    It had been about five hours since they started, so if they really wanted to, they could pass the forty-five-hour door and still make it with plenty of time to spare.


    For the three-minute door, it would only open if two members were bound to some chains on the wall.


    At this choice, everyone looked at Rayleigh, who was already taking out his lightsaber. With a slow plunge, he started burning open the door for the shortcut.


    Leoriomented, "I got to admit, isn''t this cheating?"


    Gon answered, "The Trial was just to make it to the bottom."


    Killua nodded, "Yeah, if that guy who tried climbing down made it, would that be cheating?"


    Rayleigh himself stated, "If I really wanted to cheat, I''d just keep smashing the floor till we reached the bottom."


    Every room had a camera, and the man watching their room was grinding his teeth. They were technically correct. There weren''t any real rules. Just make it to the bottom alive.


    After burning through the door and waiting a bit for the melted metal to cool down a bit, they entered the passage and found a sled. The problem? The sled only had room for three people.


    Killua got out his skateboard and said, "Ray. You and Gon can share a seat. I''ll ride in the back."


    Ray and Gon shared a look and nodded. They got into the same seat and snugly fit next to each other, while Kurapika and Leorio got into the other seats. They pushed the sled towards a ramp, and Killua got on his skateboard and held onto the back of the sled as it started sliding down.


    Rayleigh and Gon both raised their hands in the air as the slope descended almost vertically at a frightening speed. The path then sharply turned and twisted in what ended up being an exhrating rollercoaster-like experience.


    After a few minutes of blindingly fast speed, the path leveled out and the sled slowed down beforeing to a stop. Everyone looked back and confirmed that Killua was still there and smiled.


    The room only had one path, and after a final choice door, they entered apletely empty but massive room filled with doors.


    An announcer said through the speakers, "Third Round, first to arrive. #58 Rayleigh, #99 Killua, #403 Leorio, #404 Kurapika, #405 Gon. Time used: 4 hours, 53 minutes."


    With that announcement, everyone cheered. Now they just have to wait 67 hours for everyone else to show up.


    *Author''s Note*


    Do remember to leave reviews about what you liked. I read each and every one.

 Chapter 18: The Hunters and the Hunted

    Chapter 18: The Hunters and the Hunted


    *Author''s Note*


    So many reviews have maxed out my motivation to write. Here is another chapter.


    Chapter 18 The Hunters and the Hunted


    The bottom of Trick Tower contained a waiting area, a resting area filled with cots, and a free cafeteria. Rayleigh still had leftovers from the feast he made during the second trial packed away in storage containers, so he was able to fill himself up while the others checked out the cafeteria.


    Since they had nothing better to do, everyone talked about themselves.


    Gon basically lived a life of repetition. Throughout his life, he would try random things and fail, then practice doing them until he seeded. Dozens of strange and odd things, like chasing certain animals, chasing certain fish, chasing certain birds, running from certain animals, ying with certain animals, etc. None of it was training exactly, but most of the actions he was trying to do were beyond a human''s capabilities, and the fact that he didn''t get himself killed was just as much a mystery as Rayleigh''s. At theparison, Rayleigh and Gon shared a look and grinned back at each other like loons.


    Leorio had a rtively normal upbringing but lost a good friend at a young age due to ack of money to pay for treatment. This sparked a great desire for money in his heart, but only because he felt some problems could only be solved with money. He intended to be a Doctor who wouldn''t charge his patients one day, but a doctor''s training is expensive in any world, much less one as strange as this one.


    Kurapika exined a bit about his past, saying that every member of his n was attacked and tortured so that their eyes could turn scarlet, and then they were killed so those same scarlet eyes could be removed and sold to collectors. Kurapika''s greatest fear was that his hatred would weaken and he would lose the motivation to destroy the Phantom Troupe, the ones who killed his n and stole their eyes.


    Killua remarked, "My father told me about the Phantom Troupe before."


    Gon asked, "Oh, what did he say?"


    Kurapika was certainly interested and gave Killua hisplete attention.


    The assassin answered withplete seriousness, "To avoid them at all costs."


    Rayleigh asked, "A professional assassin and the head of a family of professional assassins said to stay away from a wanted criminal?"


    Killua shrugged. "A good assassin doesn''t kill someone they aren''t paid to. Especially if doing so puts your life at risk."


    Leorio responded, "Shouldn''t they already have bounties?"


    "Probably, but that''s frence. If a person wants someone assassinated, they''ll pay more for a contract than just the bounty would reward, so killing them just for the bounty would be taking a losspared to waiting for someone to specifically request it as a job."


    Killua gave a few tidbits about his past, but you could tell how censored it was. The feeling Killua gave when describing his training was strict and confining.


    Rayleigh asked, "Wait, you''re a member of the Zoldyck family?"


    "Yeah. You heard of them?"


    "Well, not them. But a few years ago, I got something called the Zoldyck Family Adjustable Weight Set. I''ve been using it since I was six."


    Killua looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Well, we do go through a lot of them, so maybe a used set got out somehow. Not sure how it would have ended up on your ind though. Still, that does exin a few things. How do you usually train with them?"


    Rayleigh didn''t leave out any details and even included information about how the Force worked.


    Killua looked impressed and said, "Wow. I can''t believe you didn''t kill yourself."


    Leorio also scolded him about taking better care of himself. Rayleighunched from that conversation into subjects of healing, as Rayleigh learned much of the subject from the Temple of Healing and wanted topare it to what Leorio knew.


    Rayleigh asked if he knew any better ways of using it, and Killua did give him some pointers while Leorio gave him some sound medical advice.


    A few hours after they arrived, Hisoka reached the bottom as well. He had a few wounds, and smelled of blood and death, and seemed to have a satisfied expression, leaving no one to wonder what he had done before arriving. After passing through the door, he spotted their group.


    Rather than being upset, he seemed pleased to see that others reached the bottom before he did. In fact, he almost seemed too pleased. After he explored the ground floor''s amodations for a bit, he sat down in the waiting area and got out a deck of cards, which he started stacking like a pyramid.


    Several other candidates started arriving, one every couple of hours. They still have over two full days, so there would be a lot of waiting.


    On the second day of waiting, Rayleigh walked over to Hisoka. Leorio tried to say, "Hey, stay away from him! He''s dangerous!" but Rayleigh didn''t mind.


    Since this was a conversation Rayleigh didn''t want others to hear, he used Force Muffle around the pair, which drew interest from Hisoka. Rayleigh then asked, "Where did you learn that thing with your lifeforce? Like, how can you make your ying cards sharp? I saw Netero do something like that, but he refused to tell me anything."


    Hisoka was not a quiet or reclusive person, so if someone directly walked up and politely asked a question, he didn''t mind interacting. Especially with someone who had drawn his interest. "Lifeforce? Ah, you mean Aura. Hmm. It''s something I learned from a teacher. But a teacher for such things is not something you can seek out on your own. I understand it is possible after obtaining a Hunter License, but I do not know the actual process myself. I don''t need a teacher after all."


    "Can you teach? Or what about your teacher?"


    "Hehe, to think you would ask me to teach. How interesting. Unfortunately, I do not have it in me to be a teacher. As for the man who taught me, well. He is no longer in a state that allows him to take on another student. Hehehehe."


    The wicked smile Hisoka wore easily revealed the state of the teacher and who had put him in that state. Oh well, it was worth a try.


    "Thank you for answering my questions."


    "Of course. Now I have a question for you. How did your group get here so fast? From what I understand, therger the group, the longer it should take to arrive."


    "Oh. I have a skill that lets me break things that don''t bother to dodge. There were lots of doors and annoying tasks, but I broke them all so we could skip them."


    "Ah, I see. That does make sense."


    "Do you know what kind of ce this is? Did they use this cest year?"


    "Oh no, they did not. When it is not being used by the Hunter Association, I believe this tower acts as a prison. You met with several others with whom you mustpete, correct? They were all prisoners."


    "Oh. Well, thank you again." With that, Rayleigh left, and Hisoka smiled. Rayleigh knew it wasn''t a good smile. Hisoka was a predator. There were only two categories of people for a predator. Those he wanted to eat and those he didn''t want to eat. If Rayleigh fell into thetter category, Hisoka would not even talk to him. So why approach him? Because Hisoka was a picky predator. He didn''t like unappetizing food on his te, and he would not remove a meal from the oven until it was fully cooked.


    Rayleigh certainly wanted to fight Hisoka at some point, but only when he had a chance to win, which meant he had to learn more about Aura. He was tempted to ask the Chat, but at the moment it was still filled with whiners and scammers. If any of the yers have actually learned Aura, advertising that he heard about it might cause a problem. He''d consider it if he failed the Hunter Exam and had no other options.


    Rayleigh spent thest day chatting about various things with everyone. With Leorio, he traded medical knowledge. With Killua, training tips. With Gon, they exchanged wilderness experiences. He even had things to talk about with Kurapika. Rayleigh told Kurapika and the others his character''s backstory, which actually had simrities to Kurapika as Rayleigh was the only surviving member of a n that waspletely wiped out. Though his n was different, they did something to cause the issue themselves and were idiots.


    When the timer hit thest few hours, everyone gathered in the waiting room to check for new arrivals. Only a few more showed up. A little before the three-minute mark, another door opened, and someone walked through, appearing heavily injured.


    Dripping with blood, the new arrival sighed with relief, "Ah, just in time," and dropped dead.


    Some of the gathered members chuckled, while others shook their heads.


    No more doors opened, and the speaker on the wall eventually dered, "End of the Round Time! Third round, the number of participants who reached the goal: 24, not including the dead guy."


    The door on the far wall opened, and the light of day peaked through, inviting everyone to bask in its warm glow.


    Upon walking out of the tower, Rayleigh looked behind him and smiled. Yep. The bottom half of the tower was perfectly smooth.


    A short man with sses stood in front of the tower and waited for the participants to gather around him before stating, "Congrattions to all of you for exiting the tower. You have only two more trials. The fourth round and the final round."


    He pointed behind him. The teau the tower was built on was adjacent to the sea, and not too far from where they stood, one could see arge ind.


    He continued, "The fourth round will take ce on Zebiru''s Ind. But first, line up."


    Another man walked up to his size with a box on a roller pedestal. The box had a hole on the toprge enough for a hand to go in but deep enough not to be able to see what was inside.


    "This is a lottery. This lottery will allow us to determine the Hunters and the Prey. Inside the box are twenty-four cards, each with a number matching the badge handed out to you at the beginning of thepetition. You will pick a card in the order you arrived at the bottom of the tower."


    Rayleigh walked up first, followed by Gon and the rest. He pulled out a card with the number 191 on it. He didn''t have to look. It was the martial artist, one of the oldest guys here, though certainly not the weakest. Somehow, Tompa was here too, and even Leorio could take him one-on-one.


    After everyone had taken a card, the Hunter continued, "We have recorded what number you have each taken. If you obtain the badge with that number, you get three points. If you keep your own badge, you get three points. If you have a badge that does not belong to you or your target, you get one point. To pass the fourth trial, you must have six points at the end of the trial, which takes ce on Zebiru''s Ind and willst exactly one week."


    The group was escorted to an industrial elevator, which rapidly descended the teau to sea level. A short trek on a well-used path led to the shore, where a boat was waiting.


    On the boat, the contestants kept their distance and tried to figure out who their target was. The moment the rules were revealed, almost everyone with their badge out in the open hid it in their clothes. There were a few exceptions, though, like Hisoka.


    Rayleigh was not bold enough to disy his number. If Hanzo, Hisoka, or 301, that guy with a face filled with needles, wanted his tag, there would be problems. Anyone else he wasn''t worried about. Better yet, Rayleigh hung up with Gon''s group, which numbered 403, 404, and 405 along with Killua''s 99. In such a weird group, who would specifically remember that he was 58?


    Once on the boat, Killua walked up and whispered, "Who is 118?"


    Rayleigh answered softly, "The skinny guy with the monkey on his shoulder wearing a ck turtleneck sweater, standing next to Tompa. They might know each other."


    Killua didn''t look up but nodded. "Who''d you get? It wasn''t me, right?"


    "If it was, I''d just target three others. But no, mine is the veteran martial artist with the thick mustache."


    "Hmm, he doesn''t look so bad."


    "Yeah, I might be able to have some fun."


    "Anyone else ask?"


    "No. Leorio''s a med student, so he probably remembered everyone''s badges. Kurapika and Gon also seem to know their targets."


    Killua asked, "What? So I''m the only one who asked?!"


    "Don''t mind it. Your head is filled with assassination, like a certain rust-colored droid we all know and love."


    "Don''tpare me to that crazy tin can!"


    [Objection: Even if I were, as you say, a mentally unstable can of tin, it would still be far superior to your status as a sloshing bag of meat.]


    HK was still in Ray''s backpack and did not appreciate Killua''s remark.


    Killua sighed and asked, "You want to check if anyone has your number?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. He was pretty sure they didn''t. One of the easiest things for a Jedi is to sense if someone is targeting him. He didn''t feel anyone was targeting him, so whoever got his number either didn''t know the number was his or didn''t intend to find him. Either worked for him.


    The boat soon arrived at the ind, and everyone was let off in the same order as before, with two minutes between each departure. The boat stopped at the northern part of the ind, which seemed to be shaped like the number eight and covered almostpletely in dense trees. Rayleigh knew the order of the departures and how much time there was until his target left, giving him the time to run off into the forest and hide.


    After getting out of visual range from the boat, Rayleigh jumped up to the limb of the overhead tree and started running from tree to tree to avoid having his steps tracked. Once he found a high enough tree, he perched himself on the tallest limb and erased his presence as thoroughly as possible.


    Once done, he closed his eyes and used irvoyance to watch the others depart and wait for his target.


    That only worked until the guy with the needles got off the ship and looked directly in Rayleigh''s direction. It seemed he sensed Rayleigh''s peeping.


    Rayleigh immediately sped off as fast as possible. He didn''t know if that person woulde, but this wasn''t a good ce to fight someone he felt was on the same level as Hisoka.


    Once Rayleigh felt he was no longer in danger, he isted himself and removed his presence and mind. In that state, he waited for a full day before deciding to use irvoyance again. Someone on that level should be done after a day, so the risk of spotting him walking around again is much lower.


    Rayleigh''s senses expanded as he moved his point of view around the area. What he found interesting was that there were more than just participants. Following each was another Hunter. Rayleigh wondered if his method of hiding was ineffective on Hunters, but he then spotted the one following him pulling out a tracking device. Rayleigh figured the badge had a tracker inside of it, which exined how the guy found Rayleigh, though it didn''t answer if the guy could find him without the tracking device.


    Rayleigh found most of the contestants doing their own thing. Gon was using his fishing rod to do something to a bird. Someone was stalking him. There were a few corpses in various areas, but the martial artist was not among them.


    After an hour of thorough searching, Rayleigh spotted the martial artist hiding himself in a bush.


    Rayleigh made a beeline for the candidate while avoiding others.


    Once Ray found his hiding spot, he immediately took out the card with the man''s number on it and tossed it into the bush the man was hiding in.


    Seeing that not only was he discovered, but the one who discovered him was there for his badge, the man came out and looked over Rayleigh.


    With a bit of reluctance, he stated, "I cannot stand the idea of fighting children. But I do not believe you will give up if asked."


    Rayleigh did not answer but gave a polite bow before taking a stance.


    The man moved first, with the intention of getting behind Rayleigh and knocking him out. Rayleigh blocked, but the block was grabbed as the man shifted his body to turn the grab into a lock using his greater weight. The angle he was trying to lock Ray''s joint into would negate the difference in strength and speed, so Rayleigh used the Force to partially lift the man and raise his center of gravity so he''d be unable to use his weight to lock Rayleigh into ce.


    Rayleigh used the moment to get out of the locking angle and remove his wrist from the man''s grasp.


    Seeing he wouldn''t be able to end this without hurting Rayleigh, the martial artist changed his stance and threw his palms out like a battering ram. Rayleigh bent and tilted to the side to barely avoid the thrust, but the man rolled his body while upright to direct a roundhouse kick at Rayleigh''s side.


    Rayleigh blocked, and the pair continued their exchange. There was no one close by, and their blows did not make much noise. If Rayleigh wished to end the fight, he could obviously take out his lightsaber or just use something like Force Stasis. He didn''t use them, but he did learn every skill in the Temple of Force Skills. The reason he didn''t use them was because relying on a skill outside of your specialty was a crutch. Besides, Rayleigh was trying to practice something, and this man made the perfect sparring partner.


    This martial artist wasn''t bad, but he didn''t have excessive lifeforce, what Hisoka called Aura. Or at least he didn''t have so much of it that Rayleigh couldn''t see the man''s shatterpoints. Although Rayleigh''s Alchaka, his martial practices with and without Lightsaber, incorporated the fact that he could see shatterpoints, he never had someone to practice on.


    Shatterpoints looked like cracks, but they all don''t share the same appearance. Some were on the man''s body. They were quite visible, with dark and deep cracks. Possibly old injuries. Some appeared and disappeared as the man moved. They were lighter cracks but stretched throughout the body to crucial points. Ray could instinctively tell these were weaknesses in the man''s stance. Striking one would throw the man off enough to reveal a wide opening. Another shatterpoint looked like a shattered pane of ss over the man''s face. Looking through it revealed a scene of him protecting children from some dangerous looking fellows. It was a mental weakpoint Rayleigh could take advantage of.


    Rayleigh wondered if he could develop this into the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. Perhaps not, but maybe something close? It gave more ideas, at least for directions to train in. Until this point, he''d only been training his speed and connection to the Force. This was fine. The stronger the connection to the Force, the stronger everything else. Training your foundation was never a waste.


    He''d have to add more training to develop his shatterpoint, Battle Precognition, and irvoyance while also checking if he could incorporate Psychometry into a fight to gain more information on weakpoints.


    Once Rayleigh felt he had enough practice, he struck the man''s wrist at what might as well have been a pressure point, then struck the arm, the shoulder, and the neck in quick-fire session.


    The martial artist froze up and fell to the ground. Each strike was like a jolt of electricity that ran through his body and built upon thest to basically turn off the man''s motor functions and knock him out without permanently damaging him. Rayleigh took the man''s Badge and then used the Force to lift him up and move him back to his hiding ce under the bush.


    Since the martial artist was hiding, he probably already found his own target''s badge, but Rayleigh didn''t need it. If he recovered fast enough, perhaps he would have time to find three more badges and make it to the fifth round.


    With his practice session over, Rayleigh found a secluded plot and decided to people watch. No, not people watch, he was practicing his irvoyance, that''s right, it definitely wasn''t people watching.


    Killua seemed to have teamed up with Leorio. Kurapika was doing his own thing. Gon was still at a river, practicing something with his fishing rod. From what Rayleigh could see, Gon was practicing how to snag a bird with his rod when the bird was in flight. He was only able to do so if the bird was traveling along a predictable path, something that only urred when it was about to grab a fish from the river.


    Once Gon had the hang of it, he wandered around until he found Hisoka. Rayleigh felt a sense of danger, so he didn''t look where Hisoka was, but at the general area without registering him.


    Hisoka ran into Kurapika, but Killua and Leorio showed up and offered an extra badge they had in exchange for not fighting. Hisoka agreed, but Rayleigh figured it was mostly because he didn''t want to eat undercooked food.


    Gon continued to stalk him, and soon Hisoka found not one, but two targets. One had a sword, the other a gun. Hisoka dodged the bullets as easily as any Jedi would have by simply reading the line of sight. He used a sharpened ying card to cut almostpletely through the man''s neck, but this gave the swordsman an opening to cut through Hisokapletely.


    Hisoka didn''t dodge, but elerated forward to meet the man in an exchange of blows.


    Gon used that moment to throw his fishing line and snag Hisoka''s tag.


    Ironically, the swordsman was distracted by the line more than Hisoka was, causing the man''s de to swing a step slower while Hisoka''s card cut cleanly through the man''s neck.


    Hisoka saw Gon reeling in the badge for a moment before Gon bolted.


    And then Gon was ambushed by the guy who had been stalking him the whole time. The stalker hit Gon with a blowdart, seemingly paralyzing him. He not only took Gon''s badge, but Hisoka''s as well.


    Ray thought that was just greedy, but karma was swift, as Hisoka arrived fast enough to witness the man flee and quickly chased after the new prey. A momentter, the man who had been stalking Gon for thest few days was decapitated.


    Then Hisoka returned and though Rayleigh couldn''t hear what they said, he could pretty much guess. Hisoka returned Gon''s own badge as well as his own. He kept the badge of the other man, seemingly pleased with his luck. They seemed to have an argument where Gon tried to get up but was punched in the face by Hisoka.


    After Hisoka left, Gon struggled to get to a tree, but was still enduring the paralysis.


    Rayleigh jumped over once he was certain Hisoka was gone and asked, "Hey, can you move?"


    Gon noticed Ray and said, "Not really."


    "Want some help?"


    "Yeah, if you can." They were friends after all. There was no shame in asking for help.


    Rayleigh grabbed Gon''s arm and started neutralizing the poison.


    Gon asked, "Woah, you can do that too?"


    "Yeah. But don''t ask me to heal you if you get injured for being an idiot."


    "Hehe."


    Once Ray finished curing Gon, thetter got up and stretched a bit.


    Ray nodded and stated, "I know where everyone else is, so let''s meet up."


    "Sure, let''s go."


    The pair made their way through the forest and soon found their friends and confirmed who needed a badge.


    Killua''s target was actually hanging around with Tompa, and Tompa was actually Leorio''s target. They got their badges and met up with Kurapika, but his target was 105, a man with a sword and a big red nose. Kurapika had been looking for him but hadn''t found him yet.


    Rayleigh stated, "Ah, he''s dead. Someone else probably had his badge."


    Kurapika looked like someone had kicked his puppy.


    Gon stated, "Well, there are five of us. Can''t we just find three badges?"


    Leorio said, "I''m willing to try."


    Ray pointed in a direction and said, "Well, those three brothers, numbers 197, 198, and 199, are all working together and seem to still have their badges. They are all that way."


    Everyone shared a look, which quickly became a smile.


    Although the three brothers seemed to have a lot of skill when it came to coordinated assaults, they probably weren''t expecting to be outnumbered and outssed. The fight was quick and easy.


    Leorio looted the unconscious bodies and said, "Hey, these two had more badges, that''s five total."


    Rayleigh checked them over and nodded. When checking over the five badges, he actually saw a shatterpoint on one. He wasn''t sure if it was urate, but it was worth trying.


    Rayleigh said, "None of these are the ones Leorio needs, so any will do. We don''t really need the extra though."


    Rayleigh then grabbed the 197 badge and shouted, "You Owe Me One!" and tossed it through the trees.


    Killua was the only one who spotted the ninja grab the badge. He asked, "How''d you know he needed that one?"


    Ray answered, "He stalked him for a while but never made a move. I don''t want to fight him for the badge, so it''s better to make an honorable ninja owe me a favor."


    Killua nodded, it was the smart call.


    Thest badge was left with the unconscious brothers and the group found a ce to stay until the week was over. There were plenty of turnabouts and backstabbing among the remaining contestants, but for the strong ones, and Leorio, the fourth trial was concluded. All that remained was the fifth and final trial to pass before they could be awarded with the title of Hunter.

 Chapter 19: The Final Exam

    Chapter 19: The Final Exam


    *Author''s Note*


    So many reviews and stones. Motivation Max! Here another chapter.


    Chapter 19 The Final Exam


    The boat that dropped off the participants returned after exactly one week. Someone on board used a megaphone loud enough for the entire ind to hear to make an announcement.


    [The fourth round of trials hase to an end. You have one hour to return to the starting point of the test. Those who do not make it back within the hour will be disqualified. Badges stolen from now on will not be counted. Those who break this rule will be disqualified from taking part in next year''s exam.]


    From their hidden grove, Rayleigh and the others happily got up and returned to the clearing of trees where the ship dropped them off. Rayleigh confirmed that the Badges had tracking devices in them when he went off on his own, and he confirmed that the option to physically head to the Tavern was not avable. Thankfully, everyone loaded up on food at Trick Tower''s cafeteria, so they didn''t have to resort to hunting the wildlife and giving their hiding ce away.


    Those who passed the trial were instructed to wait for the blimp-copter to show up, while those who failed would be taking the boat to the nearest port. As a constion prize, those who made it this far and failed would be given the instructions for how to personally reach next year''s exam site so they wouldn''t have to find a guide.


    Those who passed the trial were Rayleigh''s group of five, the dangerous feeling needle-faced guy, Hisoka, and Hanzo, for a total of eight.


    The survivors who returned without passing included the two women in the group, the three brothers, a guy with a bow, the martial artist Rayleigh defeated, Tompa, and the guy with the monkey.


    From the number of badges vs how many passed, only Hisoka and Kurapika had three badges rather than their assigned targets, so only twenty of the twenty-four badges were ounted for among the winners. The remainder of the badges, including Kurapika''s target, were scattered among the surviving losers.


    It didn''t take too long for the blimp-copter to return and load everyone up. Rayleigh headed for the kitchen to stock up on supplies. He didn''t think they''d spring two wilderness trials in a row, but it never hurt to have delicious food in your backpack, and the kitchen was free to use for participants.


    Just as Rayleigh was finishing up, the blimp''s onboard speakers sounded in every room.


    [In a moment, you will each receive an invitation to speak with the President of the Hunter Association. When you are called, pleasee to the first reception room on the first floor. Candidate #44]


    Rayleigh sped up a bit. His number was right after Hisoka''s and likely to be called next. As if on cue, once Rayleigh finished packing up his munchies, he was called next.


    Rayleigh made his way to the first floor and over to the reception room. It was empty when they explored it the first time they were here, but now the chairman sat on a pillow watching him enter the room.


    "Wee, sit please."


    Rayleighplied and asked, "How''s it going?"


    "Pretty good. There are usually several years between exams where first-time participants pass, but now we have seven new guys all passing at once! It''s very exciting."


    That meant that even needle-face was a first-time participant.


    Rayleigh stated, "Feel free to expect more in the future. Especially from my age group."


    The chairman nodded and said, "I have noticed that. I can''t imagine what kids these days have been eating."


    The subtext beneath that statement means that the Chairman was aware that the kids of some of the Hunters were geniuses. Perhaps they already had Hunter Licenses without the Exam. Still, he seemedpletely nonchnt about it, which was good for the yers.


    The chairman continued, "Before the fifth trial, I''d like to ask you some questions. First, above all, why do you want to be a Hunter?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "I want to get stronger, but apparently I can''t learn how to use Aura without a License."


    The chairman gave a quick smirk before nodding. "I see. Then, among the other seven candidates, which one seems the most promising?"


    "Promising? Hmm. Honestly, it''d have to be Gon. Killua is stronger at the moment, but Gon''s the type that just grows faster." Even without Metaknowledge, Rayleigh had Gon pegged as the main character. Not only did he get Hisoka as his target, he even found an unconventional way to seed and wasn''t killed in retaliation.


    Netero smiled and said, "Hehe, I think so too. Alright,st question. Who do you want to fight the least?"


    "Needle-face. Him and Hisoka, but at least I can get a read on Hisoka''s character. I got nothing on Needle-face other than the fact that he''s too dangerous."


    Netero nodded once more and seemed to be writing a few things down. "Very good. You can go back now."


    Rayleigh gave a small bow of respect and left.


    On the way out, he saw Killua speaking with Hisoka. Killua looked like he was panicking, and when he saw Rayleigh, he asked hopefully, "Hey! There''s not really going to be a test in there, right? There''s no paper test waiting for us, right?"


    Rayleigh could pretty much tell that Killua asked Hisoka what happened, and Hisoka was trolling him.


    Rayleigh gave his friend a somber look and said, "I''m sorry. I can''t tell you, that would be cheating. Good luck though." Rayleigh then gave Killua aforting pat on the shoulder while the assassin slumped to the ground in despair.


    Hisoka did not bother to hide his amusement. Rayleigh wasn''t the type to lie, but he didn''t exactly lie, just implied. This made Killua believe it all the more.


    The announcement for Killua came from the speakers, and Rayleigh just decided to stand there and wait. Hisoka didn''t actually leave but was waiting before a corner, not intending to miss the show.


    Unsurprisingly, Killua emerged a few minutesterpletely pissed off, "Dammit Ray!"


    And thus Rayleigh copsed into a fit ofughter and the suppressed chuckles of a deranged psychopath could be heard around the corner.


    The blimpnded and everyone was released into a resort-like hotel they were given three days to rx and recover. On the third day, the president called everyone over to arge room with a stage and exined the details of thend round.


    "Thest trial will be in the form of one vs one duels. The matchings are as follows."


    Round 1 [Rayleigh Vs Hanzo]


    Round 2 [Kurapika Vs Hisoka]


    Round 3 [R1L Vs Gon]


    Round 4 [R3L Vs Killua]


    Round 5 [R2L Vs Leorio]


    Round 6 [R4L Vs Needle-Face]


    Round 7 [R6L Vs R5L]


    It certainly didn''t look normal.


    Once everyone was sufficiently confused, the Chairman exined, "Good. Now here are the rules in thest round. It''s very simple. One victory and you pass the Exam. In other words, in the tournament, the winners quit the game one by one. Only the loser will continue fighting in the next round."


    Hanzo asked, "So there will be only one loser?"


    "Exactly! And everyone has at least two chances to win."


    Leorio who was one of only two people with the minimum of two matches, asked through gritted teeth, "Why aren''t the match-ups more bnced?!"


    Netero''s eye''s twitched at being called out for such tant favoritism, but he answered calmly, "That''s a logical question. These groups were chosen using the results from your previous rounds. Simply put, those who did the best in the previous rounds have more chances to pass."


    Killua looked over the match-ups again and calcted that he, along with Hisoka and Kurapika, only had three chances, just one better than Leorio and Needle-face. He wore a scowl and said, "I don''t like it. Exin how you calcted the points."


    Netero gave a t answer of, "Impossible. Our method of counting must remain an absolute secret. However, I can still give you some exnation of our ways. First, the basis of the evaluation. They''re based on three essential points. Strength, mind, and charisma. Strength takes into ount speed, flexibility, toughness, and the use of the five senses. Mind is evaluated by fortitude, adaptability, appreciation, and creativity. Of course, I cannot tell you how these are all referenced. Charisma is difficult to quantify, but pertains to an essential quality that every Hunter possesses. The details for whiche from the answers to the questions you gave me earlier."


    Rayleigh wondered how much of that was BS the chairman made up on the spot and how much was BS he made up beforehand. Either way, he was in charge, and questioning him would not change the results.


    Netero continued, "The fight rules are simple. Weapons are allowed, and you must push your opponent to give up the victory. However, killing is not permitted. If you kill someone, you will automatically be dered the designated loser, ending the exam."


    An announcer called out, "On that note, let''s begin the Final Round. First match, Hanzo Vs Rayleigh. I''ll be the referee of the match, good luck."


    Hanzo smirked at the ref and said, "You were the one who followed me during the 4th round, right?"


    The ref asked, "You saw it?"


    "Of course. Each candidate was followed by a Juror during this round. I couldn''t have been the only one to have noticed it."


    Ray nodded, "Yeah. Unless they were killed, everyone had a Hunter following them using the tracking device hidden in the badges."


    Hanzo nodded and then smiled at the ref, "I should thank you then! If I was ced so well in the match-ups, it''s thanks to the report you did on me!"


    "Yes..."


    "But there''s something I want to make sure of."


    "What?"


    "The win condition is to make your opponent give up? So there''s no knockout?"


    "Yes."


    Hanzo gave Rayleigh a hard look and said, "Well, do you want to give up now orter?" It was both intimidation and the beginning of a negotiation. Rayleigh was someone who talked down a sea monster, so a battle of words was certainly an option.


    Rayleigh smirked and answered, "Well, if I gave up, I''d fight Gon next. And then the loser would fight Killua. We could do that... or, I could call in that debt you owe me for throwing you that badge." Unfortunately for Hanzo, negotiation was a specialty of the Jedi and Force-Trained in general.


    Hanzo practically shouted, "What?! No fair! How can you call that kind of debt in now?!"


    "It''s perfectly reasonable. What I did helped you pass the fourth trial. Now you can pay me back by helping me pass the fifth."


    Rayleigh then extended his lightsaber and carved a line through the stone floor. "If you decide not to honor your debt. I''ll take what you owe with this. Itpletely cauterizes the wound, so no matter how many segments I slice your limbs into, or how many fingers and toes I separate from you, you won''t die of blood loss. Is that worth it? Even if you pay me back, you still have more chances to win than anyone else. Make your decision."


    The room went silent for a moment while Hanzo checked to see if Rayleigh was bluffing. He wasn''t. The look in his eyes told Hanzo that it wouldn''t be personal, it was just paying back a debt. What was worse was the absolute confidence he had in going through with it. This wasn''t a bluff or even a threat. To Rayleigh, it was a statement of fact. Hanzo gritted his teeth for a moment before shouting, "Dammit! Fine! I give up! With this, we''re even!" The risk really wasn''t worth it.


    Rayleigh nodded, "Good call," and disengaged his Lightsaber. This was the scene he saw through that shatterpoint when Rayleigh spotted that badge from one of the three brothers. If Rayleigh fought with everything in front of all these people, the Needle-face would see how strong he was. He didn''t know why, but that would lead to a bad ending.


    Rayleigh had no intention of leaving and sat down by the wall next to Killua. Thetter said, "That was pretty sneaky. You knew this would happen, right?"


    "It''s only sneaky from a certain point of view."


    Killua scoffed and smiled.


    Rayleigh said, "If you get matched with Gon, you should challenge him to Rock-Paper-Scissors."


    Killua considered it and nodded. As long as Gon agreed to it beforehand, he''d ept the result, and they wouldn''t have to fight.


    The announcer called out, "Second Match, Kurapika vs Hisoka.


    Kurapika had a pair of short swords, and Hisoka had his ying cards out. The match started, and the two exchanged a number of blows. Hisoka was not going at his fastest speed and didn''t have an ounce of killing intent. Still, minor cuts surfaced over the pair as the fight went on until eventually, Hisoka just stopped. Without any intent to attack, he seemed to whisper something to Kurapika before walking away and calling out, "I quit."


    "The third match. Hanzo Vs Gon."


    Killua and Rayleigh both let out a short sigh. Gon was not as good at gauging the strength of his opponent and still thought he had a chance. At the start of the match, Gon tried to outspeed Hanzo but the ninja vanished from view, took his back, and struck him in the back of the neck, knocking him out in one blow, while Ray and Killua winced.


    Ray shook his head and asked Killua, "Can you match that speed?"


    Hanzo was fast. It wasn''t that he was that much faster than Killua or Rayleigh, but his legs were just longer and his strides took him further. In closebat, it wouldn''t affect the fight, but in movement speed, he exceeded Rayleigh and Killua just because he was older and had higher physical limits than they did.


    Killua answered, "No. But I''m stronger."


    Rayleigh nodded. Among the three of them, Rayleigh felt he was a bit faster than Killua, but Killua had greater physical strength, since Rayleigh''s weight training only revolved around speed, not strength. Gon on the other hand, was incredibly adaptable inbat, as any good Main Character should be.


    Hanzo woke Gon up and tried to lecture him about how in over his head he was and to just give up. Gon refused, of course, but Hanzo was trained in torture tactics and had little choice but to use them.


    Rayleigh said, "I can heal him if anything permanent happens. Even if he''s missing a limb, I can heal it back to as good as new, so don''t mind the fight."


    There were consequences to using Dark Transfer, which could even heal the recently dead, but if Gon was stupid enough to take the fight that far, he''d be willing to pay whatever the cost ofpletely recovering would be. Ray only told this to Killua so he wouldn''t be upset by the fight. He wouldn''t use it unless Gon sustained permanent injuries.


    It was a good thing he did, as Gon''s beatdown continued for three full hours.


    Leorio was losing it watching his friend get beaten to a pulp like that, but there was nothing he or Kurapika could do. If either stepped in, Gon would automatically lose and may not forgive them easily.


    Gon stood up once more and tried to calm Leorio down, but Hanzo didn''t appreciate the fact that Gon still thought he had a chance, so he locked him down and threatened to break his arm if he didn''t quit. Gon refused and was met with the sound of a loud crack, followed by a scream of pain.


    Gon almost passed out from the pain, and Hanzo started lecturing again, telling Gon he trained for eight years in the secret ninja arts and that he''d killed his first man when he was younger than Gon.


    While Hanzo entered his own little world of lecture mode, Gon got up and kicked his face in, breaking his nose to the delight of the assembled candidates.


    Gon winced as the torque from the kick sent a rush of pain through his arm, causing him to copse back to the ground whileining, "I don''t believe it! The pain and your talking woke me up!"


    With blood dripping down his nose, Hanzo said, "I let you kick me," though that statement was met with cries from Leorio of, "LIAR!"


    Hanzo ignored the jeer and continued, "I will make this clearer. If you do not give up, I will cut off one of your legs. You won''t be able to use it ever again." He pulled out a hidden de from his arm and said, "When you see a fatal injury, you''ll understand the fear of death. Final chance. Say I lose."


    Killua looked back at Rayleigh who nodded that he could heal a severed leg, especially one cut through cleanly with a de.


    Against the threat of death after three straight hours of torture, Gon replied, "That''s not good. I don''t want you to cut my leg, but I don''t want to lose. Let''s fight another way."


    After beingpletely stunned for a moment, Hanzo shouted, "WHAT?! Don''t you understand the situation?!"


    The remark was so out of left field, several observers had to stifle theirughter while others werepletely dumbfounded.


    Hanzo repeated, "You won''t give up, huh? I''ll cut off your leg! I''m serious!"


    Gon countered, "That doesn''t mean that I will say I lose. If you do that, I''ll bleed to death." Gon turned to the Juror and asked, "In that case, he could lose, right?"


    The juror shook off the stupid look on his face and answered, "Ah, yes. That''s right."


    Gon nodded and continued, "You see, that won''t be good. Think about it. We should find another way."


    Killua was one of the only ones notughing. He softly asked, "Why? Nothing has changed. How did Gon turn things around in a few seconds?"


    Rayleigh answered by giving his thoughts from earlier. "I''m fast, you''re strong, and Gon is adaptable. If you or me fight someone faster and stronger, we don''t have a great way to win, but Gon is more adaptable than Hanzo, which in this fight, gives him the advantage."


    Killua mulled it over, but didn''tpletely get it. Adaptability wasn''t as important to an assassin as strength and speed.


    Hanzo raised his de towards Gon''s skull, where the tip caused a trail of blood to drip between Gon''s eyes. Hanzo coldly stated, "You don''t understand. If you die, everything is over. Nothing will stop you froming back next year if you lose. But if you don''t give up, I will kill you. We are not equals! Understand?!"


    Gon didn''t move. He just kept staring at Hanzo, waiting for them to figure out another way to fight.


    Hanzo asked, "Why? It''s just two words. You can juste back next year. Is this really more important than your life?!"


    Gon stated, "I want to meet my father. I really think one day I''ll meet him. But if I lose here, I think I won''t be able to ever meet him. This is the reason why I won''t go back on my decision."


    Hanzo continued to try and determine if Gon was really willing to die rather than give up. He sighed, retracted his de, turned around, and said, "I''ve lost."


    As he walked away, Gon cried out, "No! Wait, we have to keep going. Let''s find a way to continue this fight."


    Hanzo grumbled, turned back towards Gon, and said, "Let me see if I understand. I''ve already given up, but you want us to keep fighting a match you refuse to give up until you find a way to beat me in a fight. Is that about right?"


    Gon smiled and confidently eximed, "Yeah!"


    Hanzo shouted, "IDIOT!" while uppercutting Gon hard enough to send him to the other side of the room,pletely knocked out.


    Doctors with stretchers came to take the victorious Hunter to get checked up. Rayleigh didn''t interfere, as there was no permanent damage.


    Rayleigh looked over at Killua and asked, "Do you think you can beat him in Rock-Paper-Scissors?"


    Killua rolled his eyes. He doubted the fight would be the same. Ray and Gon both beat Hanzo through sheer, brutal, honesty. Ray wasn''t bluffing when he said he''d cut off Hanzo''s limbs and Gon wasn''t bluffing when he basically said he''d rather die than lose. Honesty would not have that effect normally, but the trained interrogator knew they were not lying, which forced him to concede. Killua was not the type to give his life for a pointless fight, so there would not be a repeat performance.


    "The fourth match. Killua Vs Hanzo."


    Killua walked up to the area, but before taking a stance, he asked, "Why did you really give up? Gon doesn''t have aser sword, and you don''t owe him anything. Someone in your position must have ways of making Gon give up. So why did you quit?"


    Killua''s question wasn''t asked quietly, so everyone turned silent to hear the answer. Hanzo considered it for a few moments before exining, "Well, when I torture people, I assume the fact that I will incite a feeling of hatred toward me. Even though it''s not personal, it''s just fairer that way. No matter who it is, once you''ve injured someone who is unable to fight back, there will always be a negative light of hatred in their eyes. Even with training, that light is impossible to hide. The thing is, I didn''t see that in his eyes. You probably wouldn''t believe it, but even after I had just broken his arm, there wasn''t the slightest bit of hatred in his eyes. It was like he had already forgotten about it. And, well, I liked that. If you''re looking for a reason for my defeat, that''s it."


    Rayleighughed to himself. Main Character Charisma strikes again.


    Killua used his skin stretching trick to change the shape of his fingernails into ws and Hanzo pulled out his sword. The pair vanished from the sight of normal folk, and small trails of blood could asionally be seen falling from the path of the numerous exchanges.


    Hanzo was faster than Ray or Killua, but Killua was far more used to high-speedbat than Gon was, and his battle experience wasn''tckingpared to Hanzo''s.


    At one point, Killua''s expression turned colder. His movements were sharper and more calcted. Hanzo seemed to be getting pushed back, and after a few more exchanges, he revealed an opening Killua could use to kill him.


    Killua went for the kill, but at that moment, Hanzo said, "Should you really be aiming there?"


    Killua shook himself out of his colder mentality, but doing so created a gap that Hanzo used to stab his sword through Killua''s chest.


    Everyone looked shocked, but Leorio shouted, "Killua! Don''t move!"


    Rayleigh recognized it too. Hanzo threaded his sword between Killua''s esophagus and lungs. It was barely a flesh wound, but if the sword moved, it would be fatal.


    Hanzo stated, "Sorry for tricking you. A Ninja has more of an advantage in a fight like this than an assassin. Do you give up?"


    This gave away what had happened. When Killua changed his mentality, he acted like a perfect assassin. In a fight where killing your opponent means losing, Hanzo took advantage of this to create an opening he could use to leverage Killua''s loss.


    Killua was different from Gon and Rayleigh. He couldn''t honestly tell someone he''d rather die than lose, especially since he didn''t have that great an interest in being a Hunter in the first ce.


    Killua calmed himself down and said, "I give up."


    Rayleigh walked up to the stage and said, "Keep the sword in."


    Killua grabbed the de to prevent it from being moved or removed. He trusted his friend.


    Rayleigh walked behind Killua and used Force Healing and Dark Transfer. In the eyes of the Force, the wound appeared to be arge crack with thousands of tiny fissures from the point of entry. Rayleigh wanted to practice Dark Transfer on a small wound like this and felt this was a good chance.


    "Ok, remove the sword."


    Killua did so without flinching and Rayleigh called upon the Force to gently fill in the cracks and tiny fissures. The area was a luxury Hotel and didn''t have anything wrong with the Force around, so using it to heal a tiny wound like this wouldn''t have any detrimental effects.


    Using Force Healing to prevent it from getting worse while using Dark Transfer to do the work of healing was a way around the fact that using Force Healing alone cost the life force of the Jedi using it. Rayleigh wouldn''t use pure Force Healing when he had something better unless the area was badly polluted.


    Once Rayleigh was done, Killua checked the inside of his shirt to confirm there wasn''t even a scar. "Cool."


    Rayleigh nodded. He was cool. Though he was still showing off, using a cool healing ability in front of others was very different from using apletely differentbat system in a world where the primary system relied on Aura.


    "The fifth Match. Leorio Vs Hisoka."


    As Leorio walked up to the area, Hisoka asked, "How long can you keep up? I hope you don''t give up too soon." He then gave what was certainly the most perverted, nightmare inducing smile anyone in that room had ever seen.


    Leorio instinctively covered his ass out of fear and shouted, "I give! I give!"


    Hisoka then gave a cheeky smile, but no one knew if he was being serious or not. There was certainly no one willing to test it out.


    The sixth match started and Killua walked up to the stage to meet Needle-face.


    Thetter greeted him, "It has been some time, hasn''t it, Killua."


    Killua didn''t recognize the man who clearly knew him, but the mystery was resolved when needle-face removed the needles from his face.


    Once thest one was removed, his face contorted like y, and his hair changed color to charcoal ck. His face set itself into apletely different appearance from the one in which he''d taken the entire exam.


    Killua was quite freaked out when his opponent''s face started changing, but it almost looked like his heart stopped when he recognized the face his appearance had changed to.


    "Illumi! My brother."


    The no longer needle-faced Illumi spoke with a soft monotone and had lifeless ck eyes. He asked, "Mother and Milluki told me you hit them. Is that true?"


    It was only the first sentence, and Killua was nervously sweating. "You could say that."


    Illumi continued, "Mother was crying. She was happy that you expressed yourself by breaking her face, but she was worried to see you leave. After thinking a lot, she called me."


    That sentence made very little sense, yet gave valuable insight into the Zoldyck family dynamics.


    He continued, "It''s unexpected, she feared you''d like being a Hunter. To tell the truth, I wanted reditation for my next work."


    Killua exined, "I don''t especially want to be a Hunter. I just wanted to try the Exam."


    "That''s reassuring. So I can talk to you openly. You won''t be a Hunter. Because you are an Assassin. You are a puppet in the dark. You have no passion, nor desire. You feed on shadows, and you only gain pleasure from death."


    Rayleigh wondered if he just found HK-47''s soulmate.


    Illumi asked, "You are just as Father and I made you. What were you expecting in bing a Hunter?"


    Killua looked like he was struggling not to stammer, but he answered, "It''s not that I wanted to be a Hunter that led me here. There''s something else I want."


    Illumi countered, "No, there isn''t anything here."


    "Yes! There is!"


    "Then tell me. What would you want?"


    "Well?"


    "I want... I want to be friends with Gon and Ray. I''m tired of killing. I just want to have friends. I want to have fun, just like a normal kid."


    Illumi directly stated, "That''s impossible. You can''t make people be your friends. The only thought you have on other humans is knowing if you can or cannot kill them. Because that''s what we taught you. You are impressed by those two, but you''re not together because you are friends. If you stay close to them, one day you''ll want to kill them, simply because you''ll ask yourself if you are able to or not. Because you''re a natural born killer."


    Leorio was about to shout, but Rayleigh spoke up first. He asked "Is there something wrong with your head?"


    Illumi turned to face Rayleigh who continued, "Killua isn''t a copy of you. Just because that''s how you see the world, doesn''t mean you can impose your view on others. Gon and I are both Killua''s friends, and nothing you say will change that."


    Now that the needles were out and Illumi revealed himself, Rayleigh finally had a read on the guy. He was basically HK-47 and treated Killua as another droid of the same make and model.


    Illumi responded with, "Eh? Really?" As Rayleigh predicted, such logic did notpute.


    Illumi started thinking, "That bothers me. If you already consider yourself his friend... Then, I''ll just have to kill you both."


    The Judge stated, "Rayleigh is already a Hunter. If you attack him, you will be disqualified and Killua will be dered the winner and be a Hunter as well."


    Illumi looked irritated at the logic andined, "Damn it. If only I didn''t need the License for my next job. Ah, I know. I''ll just pass the exam, then I can kill them both. Even if I kill everyone here, my title cannot be taken back once I''ve won, can it?"


    The president amiably answered, "No. There is no special rule like that."


    Illumi said, "Hear that, Killua? If you don''t win, you won''t be able to save them. Will you fight for friendship?"


    The sound of Rayleigh''s Lightsaber ignited.


    "Hey, Killua. Don''t worry about us. If he thinks your friends are weak, I don''t mind educating him."


    Rayleigh then gently ced his hand on the ground, specifically on a shatterpoint he noticed in the stonework. He then used every ounce of his connection to the Force to flood the cracks.


    In a single instant, the stone floor became a crater a meter deep, and the cracks extended throughout the entire room. The roof shook and the walls shuddered, showing that it wasn''t just this room, but the foundation for the entire building that was affected.


    Now Rayleigh understood why he couldn''t allow others to see him fight Hanzo. Doing so would give Illumi a measure of his strength. He couldn''t negotiate with him from a position of weakness, it was better to be an unknown quantity.


    Hisoka looked interested, but a momentter remembered something and then seemed to stop caring. Rayleigh already told the Magician that he could break things that didn''t dodge.


    Killua smiled and said, "I give up. And if you don''t hurt my friends, I''ll give up on the final match too."


    Illumi looked more than a little surprised. Killua was in a far weaker position, but was actually negotiating with him? That didn''t make sense. He didn''t understand what kind of effect Rayleigh was having on him because Killua getting influenced by others didn''tpute.


    He looked over at Leorio and asked Killua, "Is he your friend too?"


    Leorio shouted, "Why not! Of course we can be friends!"


    Illumi''s eyes narrowed, and killing intent could be felt towards Leorio, but thetter''s senses couldn''t detect it. Rayleigh felt it was off. It was not that he wanted to kill Leorio, it was more like he wanted Killua to kill him, but felt he wouldn''t be able to force him to do so.


    Illumi said, "Very well."


    Rayleigh tapped on the Mandalorian Melee Shield''s activation switch an instant before three needles were thrown from Illumi''s hands. Something about them reminded Rayleigh of the ball Netero used to block his Lightsaber, meaning they might not melt in contact with his de. Still, it was fine. He couldn''t stop their momentum with telekinesis, but he could nudge them from the side.


    Before just about anyone else could react, everyone only saw three flickers of light leave Illumi''s hands, and when everyone turned to see the unfortunate soul those lights targeted, they only saw Rayleigh sitting safely in his self-made crater. On the wall behind him were Illumi''s three needles. All three missed, and Rayleigh seemed to be covered in a field of humming energy.


    Killua was about to shout in protest but stopped when he saw Rayleigh sitting there unharmed.


    Rayleigh got up and took a stance and asked, "Are you sure you want to do this? What kind of assassin kills someone without being paid? Are you certain you are the right person to be teaching Killua?"


    Illumi''s killing intent vanished, "Ah, you''re right."


    Rayleigh turned off his lightsaber and shield as if nothing happened. He didn''t fear Illumi once he knew how the man worked. He''d spent years speaking with HK-47. How could he not know what makes him tick? Jedi were the best negotiators for a reason, and Rayleigh had sessfully made himself an unknown quantity that Illumi could not urately gauge the strength of.


    Illumi said back to Killua, "Return home. I won''t touch your friends."


    Leorio shouted, "As if you can!"


    Everyone in the know rolled their eyes. Killua shared a look with Rayleigh who nodded back with a confident smirk.


    With Killua''s voluntary surrender of thest match, Leorio became a Hunter and the Exam finally ended. But Rayleigh didn''t believe for a moment that events were going to die down. No, things were just getting started.

 Chapter 20: The Journey to Zoldyck Mountain

    Chapter 20: The Journey to Zoldyck Mountain


    *Author''s Note*


    Don''t worry about burning out. I don''t burn out, I get writer''s block. But during that three-month timeout, I wrote a rtively detailed outline for the future chapters so I shouldn''t get into any writer''s blocks before the Clone Wars when the MC is 19~22.


    Chapter 20 The Journey to Zoldyck Mountain


    With the Hunter Exam over, Killua left the hotel under Illumi''s watchful eye, not even able to say a word to Rayleigh or anyone else as he left. Ray was tempted to run after him, but he was already pushing his luck with Illumi and didn''t want the older assassin out of his sight before Gon woke up.


    The Hunter Licenses would be printed that night and given to the winners the next day, so everyone was given the key to a room to spend the night in and rx.


    Rayleigh intended to just meditate in Gon''s room, but Satotsu, the first trial''s examiner, said he''d watch over Gon until he woke up. When it was printed, he would also be the one to give Gon his license.


    Rayleigh politely thanked him. It was obvious that this Hunter was also protecting Gon, and Rayleigh didn''t feel that this man was on a lower level than Hisoka and Illumi.


    Rayleigh found the Hotel''s kitchen and made a nice feast for everyone as a celebration. This included all the passing participants and staff members, and though perhaps not as good as the One-Star Gourmet Hunter''s cuisine, it was still delicious, and he personally handed over a te to Satotsu who remained with Gon during the feast. All the Jurors, including Netero, and the participants, including Hisoka and Illumi, were invited.


    During the meal, Hisoka did walk up and ask, "I thought you said you only cooked for your friends?"


    He wasn''t asking about himself, he was asking about Illumi.


    Rayleigh smiled and said, "There''s a line from a good book I read a long time ago that has always stuck with me. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." Rayleigh wondered if the Hunter World had its own Sun Tzu.


    Hisoka gave an appreciative chuckle before returning to his meal.


    That night, Rayleigh mentally entered the Tavern. It had been over a week since hisst Mission, but he had been focusing on the Exam. Rayleigh''s connection to the Force and his overall abilities had massively improved since the creation of his new Code, and he wanted to try a harder Mission, jumping from a 45 Point Mission directly to a 50 Point Mission.


    Rayleigh found a seemingly simple one on the Mission Board and ced his hand on it.


    [Trailzer!


    Find a path to the mountain.


    Reward: 50 Mission Points


    Do you want to Start?


    Yes | No.]


    Rayleigh answered Yes, and a momentter, all the sheets on the wall turned nk, indicating he had used up his once-a-week chance to do a Mission. The fact that he didn''t receive any memories meant he failed.


    "Hey brat,e down to the bar."


    Rayleigh heard the familiar voice of a red-bearded lumberjack, though the man was not next to him.


    He walked back down to the lower part of the Tavern over to where Red was minding the Bar and took a seat.


    Red handed Rayleigh a ss of Beer and said, "Everyone who has tried a 50 Point Mission so far has failed, so we decided to give you some details before you make another attempt. There is a big difference in difficulty between the Missions below 50 points in value and those 50 and above. We give less than 50 points for what are essentially kiddie Pocket Dimensions games that are simple and low in value. Missions valued at 50 Points and above are the real deal. In addition to the fact that they have their own ecosystems, they have wandering Field Bosses. None of you have a chance at killing one, so you can onlyplete a 50 Point Mission if you are able to run or hide from the Field Boss. Every ss can do this one way or another, but only when you''re strong enough. Since you failed, that means you''re probably not."


    Rayleigh had finished his Beer during that exnation and was actually excited. What kind of Battle Junkie doesn''t love a Field Boss? Of course, that was almost certainly why he died during the mission, so he''d have to restrain himself for the time being.


    Rayleigh returned the empty mug and said, "Alright, I''ll leave those Missions alone until I have the basics of Nen down."


    Red nodded, "Good luck with that. If any other yer tried what you did during the Exam, Illumi definitely would have killed them."


    Rayleigh smiled. There was a reason he picked the Jedi ss as his main. The Force was the only avable power system with built-in Plot Armor. That was metaknowledge, so he didn''t know it outside the Tavern, but he didn''t need to know it to use it, so it didn''t matter.


    Rayleigh still had over an hour before he had to return, so he looked around the Tavern and spotted Book_worm speaking with another woman.


    Rayleigh sat at their table and said, "Hello Book worm."


    She nodded back to him, "Swordsman. Did you try the Hunter Exam?"


    "Yep. I just passed."


    The girl next to Book worm rolled her eyes, "I didn''t hear about anyone passing."


    Rayleigh gave her a questioning look before Book worm introduced her, "This is Immortal Beauty."


    Rayleigh chuckled, "The girl who intends to woo Straw-hat Luffy?"


    The blonde-haired, blue-eyed bombshell of a woman who certainly deserved her nickname gave an adorable blush at her own shenanigans. Outside of the Tavern with her Metaknowledge sealed, she confidently dered in the General Chat and Pirate Chat that she would nab the Pirate MC and be the Queen of the Pirates. She could certainly contend with Boa Hancock for beauty, but Luffy was practically asexual and didn''t seem to feel attraction to anything that wasn''t cooked meat.


    Book worm herself had auburn hair and hazel eyes and was a cool, collected beauty. None of the yers had ugly characters, though there was always something toin about.


    Book worm changed the subject by asking, "Did you really pass the Exam?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, the ship''s captain told me the path to meet a guide, and I followed it. From what I can tell, none of the Pirate yers followed a path and met a guide."


    Immortal Beauty jumped back into the conversation, saying, "No way, why didn''t you help anyone else?"


    Rayleigh answered, "No one asked me specifically for help."


    Book worm asked, "Any changes in the canon?"


    "Gon still got Hisoka''s badge, but the 4th Trial was different for most of the other targets. I took the ce of old Martial Artist guy and the Bow using guy didn''t make it. Killua didn''t kill anyone, but gave up his final two matches and didn''t get the License. Gon and Hanzo yed out the exact same way."


    Book worm asked to confirm, "The Bow guy didn''t get in? If he doesn''t learn Nen, doesn''t that mean the Chimera Ants won''t learn Nen?"


    Rayleigh actually hadn''t considered that, but she was right. Hunters were not thatmon, and the Chimera Ants finding a weak one who knew about Nen and could teach them was a coincidence of its own.


    Immortal Beauty added, "They''ll still have Nen, they just won''t know the categories or the leaf test. It''s not like they''ll be that much weaker."


    Book worm nodded, "That''s right. Especially that cat-faced dude. His Nen ability was whatever he wanted at the time. Not knowing how to use it won''t stop it from just creating the abilities he wants."


    Ray nodded with a smirk. It would be a bit disappointing if the main antagonist suddenly became weaker. He turned to Immortal Beauty and asked, "What kind of Devil Fruit are you aiming for, or do you already have one?"


    She huffed a bit and answered, "I have the Slip Slip Fruit. With it, I''ll never need to use make-up, I''ll never get a single wrinkle, and I''ll never get fat." A majority of the information shared in the Tavern was sealed outside, so there was no great harm in sharing details over a ss of Beer.


    Book worm stated with a sigh, "I''m jealous." She always spoke with a straightced tone that no one could tell if she was being sarcastic or not.


    Immortal Beauty red at her, "Aren''t you the daughter of a Billionaire in the MCU?"


    Ray nodded since she had a point. It obviously wasn''t Tony Stark or anything, but those who knew her were aware that Book worm was born into an Uber Rich family, whose name she hadn''t told anyone yet. One advantage of choosing the MCU as your starting world before getting a ss was that you could get a really high-spec identity. One yer who started in the MCU was even born in Wakanda and intended to work with the other yers to take it over.


    You could get just about any normal identity when transferring to the MCU for free, but a super high-spec identity like that cost a lot of points, so even though MCU starters would be dyed in training their sses, they had their own advantages.


    Book worm asked about the Hunter Exam and Rayleigh answered each question. Immortal Beauty eventually realized that Rayleigh was telling the truth and asked if he could teach them Nenter. Rayleigh said he would if they encountered each other in the future. Book worm hoped to take him up on that so she could just quickly visit the Hunter World to unlock her Aura Nodes and return to the MCU to train at her own pace.


    The girls had to leave soon after, and Rayleigh hadn''t seen anyone else he wanted to talk to in the Tavern, so he returned as well.


    The next morning, Menchi opened Rayleigh''s door without knocking and threw a card at him. It was no bigger than an ID card and made of ordinary paper, like an ID, withoutmination, but had a blue background, two Xs on the front, and included a vast amount of security emblems. The only real difference between it and a ying card was that it was about four times thicker.


    Rayleigh caught the card, and the one-star gourmet Hunter asked, "Are you sure you don''t want to be a Gourmet Hunter? I heard you wanted to be a Hunter to get stronger. I could teach you a thing or two."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Learning from you just to get stronger wouldn''t be sincere. I''ll cook for whomever and whenever I want. As for getting stronger, I''ll find my own path."


    Menchi sighed and said, "That''s a shame. Gourmets are a stubborn bunch of people, so I know you''d make a good one. Just look for me in the Hunter Association if you ever change your mind." With that and a shrug, she turned around and left.


    Rayleigh didn''t feel any regret about turning down the teachings of a one-star Hunter. Following the Main Character was always the best way to get stronger, so he had no intention to leave his friend''s side.


    Rayleigh found Gon''s room and saw Satotsu passing Gon''s Hunter License to him. The newly awakened Hunter spotted Rayleigh and shouted, "Ray! What happened? Who didn''t pass?"


    Ray and Satotsu shared a look before mentally agreeing that Rayleigh would exin what happened. Ray got a chair and sat down.


    A few minutester, Gon asked with some anger, "Why didn''t you stop Killua when he was leaving?!"


    Rayleigh answered honestly, "I''m not the type to try and change someone''s mind after they''ve made a decision. Killua was the one who decided to return."


    Gon argued, "But he ran away! He didn''t want to go back!"


    "Maybe not before. But then he made two friends that didn''t have any parents, and maybe he changed his mind on a few things."


    That caught Gon off guard. Killua did have parents. He had a mother, a father, and siblings. Neither Gon nor Rayleigh had any of those, so it wasn''t their ce to assume they understood how Killua felt about his family.


    Gon said, "I want to see Killua."


    Rayleigh wasn''t going to question where the MC wanted to go, so he nodded and said, "You can ask his brother then. We''re all supposed to go to a lecture about the License and stuff like that."


    Gon nodded and got out of bed. He was still wearing a cast from his broken arm, but it was a clean break and, ording to the doctors, would heal in two months. Rayleigh wouldn''t offer to heal it because Gon broke it by being an idiot.


    The pair made their way to the lecture hall, where Netero stood in front of a board and every new Hunter sat evenly spaced among the various desks.


    Gon quickly spotted Illumi, and though this was the first time he saw him without his needle-induced disguise, Ray''s description of him matched, and Gon walked right up to him.


    Gon asked, "You''re the one who said Killua didn''t have any friends? You should apologize."


    Illumi gave him a very, ''does notpute'' look and asked, "Apologize? For what?"


    Gon borated, "You don''t have the qualifications to be an older brother."


    Illumi asked with clear confusion, "You need qualifications for this?"


    Gon continued, "Let''s go find Killua. I don''t care if you want to apologize to him or not, just tell me where he is. That will be enough."


    "And what will you do after you find him?"


    "I''ll bring him back."


    "You make me sound like a kidnapper. He left on his own."


    "I don''t care. Killua is my friend. I''ll find him whatever the cost."


    "And the three behind you, do they have the same opinion?"


    Gon hadn''t noticed, but Rayleigh, Kurapika, and Leorio were already standing behind him.


    Leorio answered, "Obviously!"


    Illumi stated, "Well, I suppose it doesn''t matter if I tell you since you''ll never reach him. He went back home to Kukuroo Mountain. Our family residence is on top of it."


    Netero stated, "Well then, with everyone''s arrival, I dere the start of the session of information."


    The small man with the bean-shaped head emerged, holding a Hunter License. He stated, "This is a Hunter License. Contrary to what you might think, it''s just an ordinary card, except for the fact that it''s impossible to fake thanks to new techniques, but it''s an ordinary object in all other respects. That being said, it grants its holder many fantastic effects."


    The little bean dude began listing all the benefits having a Hunter Card gave its holder. Things like being able to travel to most countries that refuse foreigners and most ces dered forbidden. You could attend just about any event for free, and it worked as an unlimited travel visa.


    The introduction also included warnings, such as the fact that there were people who hunted new Hunters just to steal their Hunter Licenses. Selling one could get you several lifetimes'' worth of money. A duplicate would not be given if the card was lost, sold, or stolen.


    The next hour included a lecture on what it meant to be a Hunter and how being one differed from being a normal person. Things like how Hunters could avoid responsibility for killing in most cases and had ess to apletely different world than others.


    At the end of the lecture, the beam man summarized, "Everything else depends on you. Train a lot, believe in your abilities, follow your dreams, and progress in life. The seven people here are now registered as Hunters!"


    Netero then stated, "When you exit this building, you''ll all be a Hunter the same as I. We''ll be rivals, friends, and enemies. I hope everything goes well until our next meeting. On that note, I''m off."


    Netero left through the door, and though the next person left shortly after, Netero himself was nowhere to be seen in the hallway.


    Leorio, Gon, Kurapika, and Rayleigh took the same direction and started discussing their ns. Leorio directly pointed out, "Kukuroo Mountain? I''ve never heard of it. How about you?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. He had a full education, but that didn''t mean he knew the name of every mountain on every continent.


    Kurapika also shook his head and said, "No, but we should be able to find it on the inte."


    The building did have aputer room that had a dozen or so emptyputers to use, and the group made their way over there, but Gon spotted Satotsu and said, "I''ll meet you there," before running off to chat with Satotsu for a bit.


    Kurapika took a seat at an avableputer and turned it on while Rayleigh and Leorio watched from the side.


    High-endputers in this world all had an attachment one could swipe a card through. This was specifically for a Hunter License as many sites contained restricted information only Hunters could use.


    Hunters could actually get one for free if they had a permanent address and get free inte for theirputers and home. It wasplimentary with the License and paid for by the Hunter Association.


    Kurapika swiped his card on theputer and said, "Let''s start with Kukuroo Mountain."


    The inte pulled up a map that showed the various out-of-ce continents and had a dot where they were and where Kukuroo Mountain was located. They were on the South American-shaped continent, and Kukuroo Mountain was on the Africa-shaped continent. Oddly enough, the two were practically adjacent.


    Gon had returned and together with the rest, they read about the mountain and how to get there. ording to the website, Kukuroo Mountain was located in a location even tourists could travel to, and from their current location, they could reach it in three days.


    Everyone unanimously agreed to leave that day, but there was a problem. If they used their Hunter License to enter, they could stay as long as they wanted. Without using their License, they could only apply for a Tourist Visa which meant they could only stay there for two months.


    Why was this a problem?


    Gon stated, "I''d rather not use my License right now."


    Leorio sighed and stated, "You are being really stubborn."


    Rayleigh said, "It''s fine. There are people who track down newbie Hunters right? Might be a good idea not to draw their attention until we''re stronger."


    Kurapika nodded, "That''s a good point. Okay, I''ll apply for four Tourist Visas and the tickets."


    Once the trip was nned and tickets printed, Gon asked, "Hey, can you look for a Hunter named Ging?"


    "Sure. What''s his family name?"


    "Freecss."


    "Okay. Alright, found him. Let''s see. What?"


    The page he clicked on that was supposed to load Ging Freecss'' information only loaded a single line of text.


    [Person in Absolute Secret.]


    Leorio asked, "What does that mean?"


    Kurapika answered, "It means all information on him has been removed from the inte and ssified as Top Secret. That''s only possible for someone with as much power as the President of the Hunter Association and incredible wealth."


    Rayleigh chuckled, "Gon, it looks like finding your dad isn''t going to be easy."


    Gon''s expression was a mix of apprehension and excitement. Rayleigh understood. A challenge like that was something to look forward to.


    Everyone left the Hotel and grabbed a cab to the airport where another Blimp-copter took them to an airport on the adjacent continent. From there, they took a train to the region where Kukuroo Mountain was located and got off at the station, and had their Visas stamped. The massive mountain could be clearly seen in the distance and created a somber mood.


    Once they found the town at the base of the mountain, Gon directly asked a nearby produce vendor how to get to the Mountain.


    Surprisingly, the woman answered, "Kukuroo Mountain? To visit the Zoldyck family? There''s a regr bus that tours around the mountain every day andes with a guide. You''re crazy if you want to go to their residence, but if you''re really up for it, just take that bus."


    Rayleigh purchased a few of the local fruits from her before they found the Tour Station and paid for a ticket for the next tour. Apparently, their tour was called Terror Buses.


    The tour actually had a dozen normal-looking tourists with cameras and big smiles. There were also some thug-type characters who likely weren''t there for selfies.


    The tour guide did include a lot of interesting information. She stated that the Zoldyck family had a great-grandfather, a grandfather, a head of the house, his wife, and their five children.


    The tour bus drove directly up the mountain to what appeared to be a giant gate. The gate seemed to have multiple sets of doors within doors, seven total, each numbered.


    What was funny was that the tour guide allowed everyone to get off the bus and start taking pictures. For the front entrance of a nefarious family of world-renown assassins, they were apparently quite chill.


    The gate was actually quite a distance from the mountain''s highest peak, and ording to the guide, the wall the gate was part of circled the entire thing and was the private property of the Zoldyck family.


    That was more square mileage than any city Rayleigh had ever heard of, and that was basically just their yard.


    Gon directly asked the Guide, "How do you get inside?"


    Thinking it was just some nave brat, she answered, "Tell me, kid, were you not listening to what I just exined? If you go in there, you won''te out alive. That gate is known as the Door of the Underworld, as no one who enters it returns alive."


    One of the thug-looking brutes stated, "That''s just a bluff. They''re just a family of murderers no one has ever seen."


    A sword-carrying thug next to him continued, "I heard there''s a bounty of a hundred million for anyone who takes a picture of their faces."


    Leorio heard that and suddenly looked regretful as if he really wished he had taken a picture earlier.


    The thugs confidently walked up to a little security guard post next to the door and said, "I''m sure it''s just a rumor that got exaggerated into a legend."


    The man then ripped the door off the security guard post, lifted the old man into the air, and demanded that he open the door.


    The man refused but didn''t struggle when a key was taken from his coat pocket and fitted into a small door that looked quite out of ce on the side of the seven big doors.


    The thugs unlocked the door with the key, and the guard started grumbling something about being overfed.


    A few secondster, a brief set of screams was heard, along with some crunching, chewing, and slurping sounds.


    The door opened from the other side and a massive paw pushed out two corpses that had their flesh ripped off and the blood drained dry.


    No one questioned who they once were, but the normies among the tourists certainly screamed.


    The guard shouted to the one beyond the door, "The master forbid you to eat between meals! Don''t me me if you get fat!"


    The tour guide looked pleased and stated, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I suppose you have all now seen what happens to those who enter."


    The tourists shouted, "Let''s get out of here!" and ran back into the bus.


    The guide spotted Rayleigh''s group not returning to the bus and called out, "Hey! Hurry and get back on the bus!"


    Gon answered, "That''s okay, just leave. We''re gonna stay here."


    To which the guide, the guard, and every tourist returned apletely dumbfounded expression.


    After a bit of back and forth, the guide and other tourists left while Gon began to exin their presence to the guard.


    The guard then invited them for tea and took a smoke break.


    "So you guys are little Killua''s friends? It''s a pleasure to meet you. I''ve been working here for twenty whole years, and you are the very first visitors toe in peace."


    He took a long drag of his cigarette before continuing, "You know, as an employee, I probably shouldn''t say this, but this really is a sad ce. No one everes to visit. There''s an endless stream of ruffians of course, but.. Well, I suppose that''s normal for this kind of family. In any case, I can''t let you enter. That paw you saw belongs to Mike. He only listens to the Master and will kill all intruders. I can''t let you go in because he''ll definitely kill you."


    Kurapika asked, "If that''s the case, howe you are unharmed? You can enter, right"


    The guard took a sip from his tea and remarked, "Good catch. But you are only half right." He pulled out the key to the door the thugs used and said, "This is a special key for intruders only. When an intruder can''t open the door, they try to destroy it. To stop that from happening, they made a fake entrance specifically for intruders to use. Theye, threaten me, and I don''t resist; they take the key and are killed by Mike. I''m not really a guard. I''m a janitor responsible for cleaning up Mike''s messes.


    Kurapika put the unsaid pieces together and stated, "But in reality, the door has no lock!"


    The old man nodded, "That''s right."


    Leorio walked out of the guard station and over to the entrance to the main set of doors and started pushing. After a few moments of huffing and dragging his shoes along the stone, he said, "It won''t open!"


    The old man said, "That''s because you''re weak."


    "What?! I gave it my all!"


    "Look, this is called the Door of Verification. If you can''t open this door, you don''t qualify to enter the Zoldyck Domain."


    The old man took off his coat and pressed against the door. His muscles started bulging to reveal a highly trained physique.


    With a solid breath, he leaned forward and pressed open the lowest set of doors, before leaning back and allowing them to close.


    He turned back to address them, "As you can see, the doors close right away. Once you open it, you have to enter without pausing. It gets harder to open every year for me. When I can''t open it, I get fired, so I have to keep in shape. Mike won''t attack anyone who enters through the door of verification. Each side of the first door weighs two tons."


    Leorio asked, "First door?"


    The guard pointed up, "Yeah, there are seven doors total. The weight of each door doubles as the size changes, and it opens if the level of strength reaches the requirement to open the door. When Killua returned, he opened the third one."


    If they doubled, that meant each side of the third door weighed eight tons, so opening them both meant Killua could press more than sixteen tons, but less than thirty-two tons.


    The guard spoke up, "You should understand now. To enter this domain, you need some ability. Their world ispletely different from-"


    The guard dropped his cigarette when Rayleigh opened the third set of doors.


    Rayleigh didn''t know what his limit was, but ording to the doors, it was below 32 tons and above 16. He could work with that. His strength might be lower than Killua''s but it would not have been that much lower.


    Rayleigh said, "It''s not that hard to keep open,e on in."


    Everyone ran through the opening Rayleigh made and the Guard hesitantly followed them inside.


    Almost instantly, they spotted a massive creature that Rayleigh felt looked more like a werewolf than a dog. It''s eyes werepletely lifeless, and Rayleigh knew he would have no sess connecting to this creature using the Force.


    Gon regarded it with trepidation. He''d gotten a better sense for determining if someone waspletely unbeatable to him since getting his ass kicked by Hanzo, and this dog was not something he could survive facing.


    Rayleigh asked, "Can we see Killua?"


    The guard looked thoughtful before answering, "I don''t know. Let me try something."


    He returned through the door of verification where everyone followed back to the guard post.


    There he picked up a phone and began dialing.


    Kurapika asked, "Are you calling the residence?"


    "No, their attendants."


    Rayleigh asked, "Can I speak with them?"


    "Um, sure."


    The phone picked up, and Rayleigh put it on speaker.


    [Zoldyck attendant speaking.]


    "Hello, I''m Ray, here with Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio. Is Killua avable? We''re his friends."


    [Killua has no friends.]


    The man then hung up.


    Rayleigh pressed the redial button.


    [Zoldyck attendant speaking.]


    "Answer honestly; when Killua returned, did he specifically say he had no friends? If not, please don''t make assumptions."


    [Even if Killua had friends, how can you prove you are really them?]


    Rayleigh realized what the man meant and responded, "Hmm, I suppose that is a problem."


    Gon shouted, "What? Killua will recognize us!"


    Rayleigh replied to Gon, "Isn''t that exactly what someone pretending to be us would say?"


    [Correct. There are no limits to what a person would be willing to do to kill someone such as Killua. Anything you could use to prove your identity could be imitated. It is our job to protect our masters from any form of attack.]


    Rayleigh nodded. "Understood. Any risk is not eptable. But Illumi was the one who told us where to go, he was aware all four of us wereing. We''ll be here for two months. If you won''t allow Killua to see us without a thorough vetting, what if we go to you instead?"


    [If you can pass the Door of Verification, we can discuss it.]


    And with that, he hung up.


    Rayleigh looked back at the others. None of them could open the door yet.


    Gon said, "We''ll definitely do it!"


    The guard nodded and said, "You''re young. I think you''ll definitely be able to open the first door on your own in two months. Come with me, I''ll show you where you can train."


    He approached the door again, but Rayleigh said, "Wait, I want to try something."


    Rayleigh sat cross-legged in front of the Door of Verification and ced his hand forward.


    Theoretically, there was no limit to how much a Jedi could lift or push using telekinesis. In practice, it depends on how strong the mind is. Rayleigh''s will power had been trained for years, but he never put in dedicated practice towards telekinesis, just physical speed, so he didn''t know his limit.


    Rayleigh focused everything on the door to the point that everything else didn''t exist. In the entire world, there was just him and that door. He then pushed it open. There was no ''if'' he could push it. There was no doubt. It was a fact in his mind that he could open the door. He willed every bit of the Force he could muster to press against the door.


    To the disbelief of the assembled group, both sides of the fifth set of doors opened, meaning he had just pushed forward 64 tons of weight.


    Ray did not appear affected and said, "Go on in, I''ll follow you in a moment."


    The others cautiously nodded and walked inside. Rayleigh kept the door open as he got up and entered. Technically, he should have been able to push both sides of all seven sets, but his mind was not strong enough. That was fine with him. He had lots of room to grow.

 Chapter 21: Meeting the Zoldycks

    Chapter 21: Meeting the Zoldycks


    Chapter 21 Meeting the Zoldycks


    A short distance into the Zoldyck property was a charming three-story wooden cabin where all the guards lived when they were off their respective shifts.


    Rayleigh found the house amusing. Each door weighed 200 kilograms. The guest slippers weighed 20 kilograms. The cups and tes weighed 20 kilograms each. They were also given weighted vests, which started at 50 kilograms in weight but could be increased to 500.


    Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio spent the next two weeks running, climbing, and pushing themselves while slowly increasing the amount of weight they carried.


    During that period, Rayleigh started the next stage of his will power training.


    Jedi increased will power by strengthening their dedication to peace and the Force. Rayleigh obviously could not do that, but he was not out of options.


    Amongst the thousands of books he read in his past life, there was a single book that included a detailed and rigorous mental training regimen, and Rayleigh decided it was a good time to use it. It wasn''t that he hadn''t tried it before, but there was no effect until you reached a certain level of mental fortitude, and trying it before then was just fooling yourself.


    It was the r Training from Name of the Wind. In the book, r is the mental ability to hold a belief firmly enough that it affects reality. It was rted to a skill from the series, but its training would prove extremely useful for Rayleigh as well.


    r Training had six stages. Each required full mastery before the next stage could be started.


    The first was Absolute Belief, where you believe something is an absolute truth no matter what.


    After that is Contrary Belief, where you can believe that two things that are contradictory are both absolutely true at the same time.


    Then came Mental Division, where you could clearly think two or more different things at the same time.


    Following that was Mental Separation, where you could separate different thoughts into independent minds.


    Next was Mental Istion, where you could hide the thoughts of one mind from another.


    And the final aspect was Connection, where you believe things that are not connected are in fact connected.


    The magic system in Name of the Wind was unique, but r Training could easily be applied to hundreds of other systems, especially when it came to the matter of splitting the mind. Jedi were inherently bad at multitasking with the Force unless they had a lot of experience. Mastering the art of dividing his mind would allow him to easily perform multiple feats with the Force at the same time or strengthen a single action by focusing multiple minds on it at once.


    One might think Rayleigh was already on the level of Absolute Belief, but he knew there was still a way to go before he mastered that facet. Otherwise he would have been able to open the seven sets of doors.


    Rayleigh practiced Absolute Belief by cing a finger on a rock on the ground and imagining that when he lifted his finger, the rock would fall upwards. Without assistance, this was obviously impossible, which made it a good way to practice. He certainly looked odd sitting on the ground, cing and removing his finger from a rock over and over, but he didn''t care. The original practice was to hold a rock in the air in the belief it would stay aloft when dropped, but Rayleigh figured he might unconsciously use the Force trying that, so upside-down falling was a better method.


    It worked since the rock never moved as he wasn''t using the Force even subconsciously. The fact that it didn''t move did not matter. What mattered was how strongly he believed the rock would move, and that his belief would not shake just because the rock didn''t move any of the previous times.


    Rayleigh continued to train Absolute Belief while everyone else trained with weights. After ten days, Gon''s broken arm fully healed, and after fourteen days, Kurapika and Gon were able to force open one side of the two-ton door, while Leorio was able to open both sides at the same time after twenty days. Once Gon trained with his other arm a bit longer, he''d be able to do the same.


    With all four able to open the door, they bid farewell to the guard and entered the inner area of the Zoldyck property leading to the main house.


    The massive property had a worn trail up the mountain that was easy to follow, but a half hour of walkingter led them to a small wall with a dark-skinned girl the same age as Gon and Killua. She wore a suit, and the hand behind her back seemed to hold a weapon of some kind.


    Ray approached and said, "Hello, can you direct us to the Attendant''s quarters? I believe we are expected."


    The girl looked up and down the group a few times and said, "Okay. Follow me."


    Most of the attendants knew of their group, and Rayleigh had felt a number of presences spy on them over thest few days, so they were certainly expected.


    "One moment, I''d like a word with them."


    Everyone''s heads quickly turned to the side to spot the presence none of them felt a moment ago. The one who spoke was a slender woman wearing a beautiful purple Victorian-style dress and hat. Her face was covered in bandages except for her red lips, and her eyes were covered by a visor of some sort.


    Behind her was a short, ck-haired girl wearing a kimono who looked a little younger than Rayleigh and Gon.


    The woman looked over at Rayleigh first and said, "You''re Ray, right? I''ve heard about you and Gon from Illumi. Your manners are quite good for someone so young. We told Killua you were here about three weeks ago, and he requested we tell you this. ''I''m happy to hear that you came, but I can''t meet you right now. Sorry.'' I myself am Killua''s mother, and this here is Kalluto."


    Gon directly asked, "Why can''t Killua see us?"


    The woman answered, "He''s in istion. Killua struck me and his brother and ran away. But he regretted his actions and returned. His istion is self-imposed, and he has not decided when he will leave."


    Ray spoke up, "That''s fine. We can be here for another month, so we would like to wait until then. If he decides not toe out, then we can only leave."


    The woman stared at him in silence for a few moments. Rayleigh felt her desire to kill him spiking and vanishing at random intervals. This woman was nuttier than a peanut factory. If Rayleigh took any kind of defensive stance, he had no doubt she''d attack on instinct alone.


    Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio seemed to get the same impression, and none of them moved in the presence of this insane killer.


    She then turned to the attendant and said, "Canary, you may take them to the Butler''s quarters."


    The young attendant bowed and answered back, "Yes, mydy."


    Killua''s mother gave the group one more look before turning back. Killua''s sister gave them all an assessing nce, especially Rayleigh, before turning and following her mother.


    Only after the woman was gone did Leorio and Gon let out a breath of relief.


    Kurapika asked, "Rayleigh, how strong do you think she was?"


    "Very. Stronger than Illumi anyways."


    The attendant, Canary, asked, "You can feel thedy''s strength?"


    She was likely surprised because hiding your strength was essential for an assassin.


    Rayleigh shook his head, "No, I can feel the strength of her mind and used that to determine her strength."


    "I see. Please follow me."


    Canary led them along a side path that ended at a five-story mansion. One would almost think this was the Zoldyck Estate, but it was actually just where the Butlers lived.


    The front of the mansion had five butlers standing in front of the door. None were weak, but the strongest one stood in the middle and wore sses.


    Once their group approached, the butlers gave a polite bow and said, "Good evening. Madam contacted us and asked us to wee you as official guests."


    They were led inside and served some delicious tea. The one with sses introduced himself, "My name is Gotoh, the head Butler. Please make yourself at home."


    Rayleigh felt the resentment of a few of the Butlers. From what he could feel, they had been trained to serve the Zoldycks and only the Zoldycks, so this was the first time they had ever been instructed to receive guests.


    Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika couldn''t get a read on them due to their expressionless demeanors, but nheless felt awkward as they had nothing to do but wait until Killua came out of ''self-imposed istion.''


    Rayleigh asked, "Would you like to hear about the Hunter Exam with Killua?"


    The mood shifted from resentment to interest. Empathy was a very useful skill for a Jedi who wanted to deal with antagonistic groups.


    Though no one openly answered yes, Rayleigh continued, "Then you can get some more chairs for yourselves. So, Killua arrived at the site for the Hunter Exam a few minutes after I did. Seeing we were the same age, he approached me."


    Rayleigh retold the entire story of the Hunter Exam, focusing specifically on what Killua did. Gon and Leorio would pitch in at a few points, and Leorio took over during the fourth trial when they were separated and he met up with Killua first.


    The Butlers obviously had no interest in anything they did, but they were very keen to hear about every action Killua took. They looked especially proud when Rayleigh described the fight between Killua and Netero as well as Killua''s execution of the criminal in the Trick Tower. Leorio described all the horrible things the murderer did and said having his heart ripped out couldn''t have happened to a nicer person.


    Sometimes Gotoh would ask a question about some of the insane things Rayleigh did, and Ray answered each one honestly and even showed Gotoh his Lightsaber.


    Almost exactly when the story finished, the phone rang, and Gotoh picked it up.


    He spoke in hushed whispers for a moment before hanging up the phone. He then returned to the group and said, "Killua has left istion and is on his way here."


    Gon shouted with excitement, Leorio smiled, and even Kurapika revealed a smirk.


    Gotoh continued, "Since you entertained us with a story, how about we pass the time until he arrives with a game?"


    Without waiting for an answer, he flipped a coin into the air and seemingly grabbed it with both hands. "Now, which hand is the coin in?"


    Everyone pointed at his left hand.


    Gotoh revealed the coin in his left hand and said, "Correct. Let''s do it a little faster."


    He did it again, but his arms moved about three times faster. Still, everyone easily saw the coin get grabbed by the left hand and pointed it out.


    He revealed the coin once more and said, "Let''s get a little serious."


    He flipped into the air again, and his arms practically seemed to multiply due to the speed. Multiple afterimages of both hands grabbing the coin could be seen.


    When finished, he asked, "So?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Left hand."


    Gotoh flipped it again, and his speed tripled once more. Dozens of afterimages filled the air, his hands moving at a speed that Rayleigh was unable to match.


    "Which hand?"


    Leorio answered, "Umm, left."


    Ray, Gon, and Kurapika chose right.


    The coin was revealed in the right hand, and Gotoh smiled, "One down."


    He flipped it again, but this time there were no afterimages, only streaks of light impossible to make out with the human eye.


    Kurapika chose, "Right,"


    Gon and Rayleigh chose "Left."


    The coin was revealed in the left hand, and Gotoh said, "We''re down to two."


    Gon and Rayleigh shared apetitive look and smiled.


    Gotoh flipped the coin again, but thankfully his speed only increased marginally. Ray and Gon called out "Left," almost simultaneously, but Ray was a little faster.


    Gotoh seemed a bit impressed and said, "Let''s up the difficulty."


    Two more butlers appeared on either of Gotoh''s sides and with another flip of the coin, all three began exchanging their hands rapidly in the air.


    Gotoh then asked, "Who has the coin?"


    "Him, right?" Gon asked, pointing to the Butler behind their couch.


    Rayleigh added, "That was pretty sneaky of you to do a big flip like that."


    Thest flip of the coin didn''te back down, Gotoh flipped it harder, making it arc over their heads while distracting them with the multiple sets of rapidly moving hands.


    The butlers apuded their observation skills and a momentter, the door in the back opened.


    Gotoh hear the door and said, "It seems Killua has arrived."


    Gon looked excited and shouted, "Killua!"


    But the one who walked into the room was not Killua, but a bulky man built like a tank who had a roaring lifeforce like that of an exploding nuclear warhead. He had long silver hair, which matched Killua''s in color, and sharp eyes and features.


    Gotoh immediately stood up straight and bowed, "Lord Silva!"


    When the man''s name was spoken, an invisible pressure seemed to fall upon the mansion''s inhabitants. It fell equally on guests and butlers and didn''t seem intentional. The man''s presence was simply that strong.


    Silva Zoldyck, Killua''s father and the head of the Zoldyck family, waved his hands for the Butlers to leave. Not another word was required, and the reception room was empty save for the guests.


    Silva looked at Rayleigh and sat on the couch across from their group. He asked, "Do you have that assassin robot head? I''d like to see it."


    Rayleigh was somewhat able to mitigate the man''s pressure using the Force, but only because it wasn''t intentional. If the man was really trying, he doubted he''d be able to breathe, much less move. Rayleigh kept HK-47 in his backpack with the zipper open so the droid could continue to catalogue more information about this world, so taking him out wasn''t an issue.


    The head was ced on the table, and Silva regarded it for a few moments. He stated, "My name is Silva, I am Killua''s father. I have never met an assassin robot before, so I would like to ask you a question."


    HK-47 was unaffected by pressure and responded quickly.


    [Statement: What is it you wish to know?]


    "What do you think of assassins?"


    [Commentary: Assassins are a measure of the standard of any civilization. The higher the standard of the civilization, the higher the standard of the assassins within. They are a necessity for any world with any form of civilization. Without assassins, civilization will regress.]


    Silva nodded. He then looked up at Rayleigh and asked, "What about you? What do you think about assassins?"


    Rayleigh answered honestly, "I am not an expert, but I trust HK-47''s judgment. I''m only a pacifist because the nature of my abilities would negatively affect me if I harmed someone without a very, very good reason. However, my abilities are unaffected if I do not prevent someone else from harming another."


    "Oh? So you''re saying you cannot use your ability to move things with your mind to harm someone without suffering repercussions?"


    "That''s right."


    Silva nodded, "I see, I see." Rayleigh spoke the truth, and Silva could easily tell. He then turned to Gon and said, "What about you?"


    Gon answered, "I don''t really care what he does, as long as he does what he wants and is happy."


    Silva smirked, pleased with both answers. He turned to the side and said, "Alright, please take care of my son in the future." Without another word, he then got up and left.


    Only when his pressure was gone did everyone let out a sigh of relief.


    The door opened again, and everyone froze for a moment, thinking Silva or someone worse was about to show up, but everyone was relieved when they heard a familiar voice shout, "Ray, Gon!"


    Killua entered the room and then said, "Plus Leorio and Kurapika!"


    Killua then noticed the odd atmosphere andck of butlers. "What happened to you guys?"


    Ray gave a half-hearted smirk and replied, "Oh, we were just waiting for you. Hey, Gotoh! Killua''s back."


    Gon and the rest took Rayleigh''s silence to mean not to speak of Silva''s little interrogation. There was no point in bringing it up as it was apparent that Killua didn''t know his father was going to do it.


    Gotoh returned and greeted Killua. Though Killua was covered in bruises, no one wanted to say anything while they were still inside the Zoldyck property.


    Ray packed HK-47 back up, and Killua told Gotoh, "We''re leaving, don''t listen to whatever my mother says."


    Gotoh replied with a perfunctory, "I understand. Have a good trip."


    Killua seemed to want to get out as fast as possible, and Leorio, Kurapika, and Rayleigh had no problems leaving right away. Gon said something to Gotoh before rejoining the group and heading down the path back to the wall.


    Through the big door, the Guard was waiting for them in a limousine to take them down the mountain.


    Everyone got in, and the guard said with astonishment, "You actually made it. Did you see the estate?"


    Killua answered, "No, they waited for me at the Butler''s ce."


    The guard nodded, not really expecting them to have made it to the Zoldyck residence. He drove them down the mountain while Gon exined hisst conversation with Gotoh.


    Gotoh had shown the coin shuffle onest time, but even though Gon clearly saw the coin caught by the left hand, Gotoh revealed the left hand to be empty and the right hand to have the coin.


    They made it down the mountain, where everyone got off, and Kurapika exined, "He probably did something like this."


    Kurapika demonstrated the same motion, clearly grabbing the coin with his left hand, but revealing that his hand was empty and the coin was in his right hand.


    He exined, "Gotoh had two coins. One already in his right, and when he caught the one in his left, it slid down into his sleeve."


    Gon pouted, "That''s annoying!"


    Killua smiled, "He probably wanted to teach you that not everyone is as honest as you."


    Gon argued, "What about Ray?"


    "That''s a difference between honest and nave. Gotoh probably liked you both because he''s like that too, he hates that kind of thing."


    Killua then looked over at Ray and asked, "Why did you guyse here using a Tourist Visa?"


    Kurapika exined, "Gon didn''t want to use his License yet, and Ray said using it would get us targeted by License thieves."


    Killua sighed and asked Gon, "Well, I can believe that for Ray, but Gon, why didn''t you want to use yours?"


    Gon fished a badge with the number 44 out of his pocket and exined, "I won''t use my License until I''ve given this back to Hisoka by punching him in the face!"


    Killua replied, "Ah, you know where Hisoka is?"


    Gon gave an empty look which made Ray and Killua smile at him.


    Kurapika sighed and replied back, "I know."


    Leorio asked, "How can you know?"


    "Because he told me."


    Leorio stared at Kurapika for a moment before continuing, "You know, I''ve always wanted to ask. What did you and Hisoka talk about?"


    Kurapika exined, "During the match, he told me that he would give me information on the Spider. The Phantom Troupe is referred to as the Spider by those in the know. When I tried meeting himter for more information, he said, "I''ll wait for you on September 1st in Yorknew City." That''s how I know where he''ll be."


    It was still February, so September was a little over six months away.


    Killua asked, "What''s going on in Yorknew?"


    Leorio answered confidently, "Hehe, it''s the biggest Auction in the World."


    Kurapika nodded, "That''s right. Between the first and tenth of September, auctions containing both legal and illegal treasures from all over the world will take ce."


    Killua stated, "That does sound like a ce a bunch of thieves would show up."


    With that, Kurapika said, "I''m gonna leave now. I need to find a way to get to the auction and look for serious work as a Hunter."


    Leorio replied, "Yeah, I''ll return home. I need to study and pass the entrance exam for the private University I''m aiming for. Since I got a License, the Hunter Association will pay for my entire tuition."


    Gon asked, "You''re both leaving?"


    Kurapika answered, "We''ll all see each otherter. We''ll meet up on September 1st in Yorknew."


    Everyone returned to the train station and made their way to the airport where they separated.


    Killua said, "Now it''s just us three."


    Gon asked, "What are we gonna do?"


    Killua repeated, "What are we going to do? Isn''t it obvious?"


    Gon replied, "What? We''re not gonna have fun?"


    Killua looked at Gon like he was an idiot and asked, "Ray, what do you think we should do?"


    "Train to get stronger," was the immediate response.


    Killua nodded, "Right. Gon, do you really think you can punch Hisoka in six months as you are now? Ten years wouldn''t be enough!"


    Rayleigh countered, "Well, we''re both the types who get stronger with a good fight. Enough of those and he might stand a chance."


    Killua looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, "Do either of you have any money?"


    Gon shook his head, and Rayleigh answered, "I have a few million from selling the properties of my n."


    Killua said, "Well, we don''t want to use that, and I don''t really have a lot of money either. But I know a ce where we can fight and win money. Heaven''s Arena."


    Killua got a map and pointed to a location on the same continent but on the opposite side of their current location. "It''s here. We have enough for a ticket there, and we can earn plenty of money while there and train to get stronger."


    Rayleigh and Gon smiled. Money and good fights? Both shouted, "Let''s go!"

 Chapter 22: Heavens Arena

    Chapter 22: Heaven''s Arena


    Chapter 22 Heaven''s Arena


    The trio bought three tickets and boarded the next blimp-copter to the other side of the continent. Gon wrote a letter to his aunt Mito, and Killua and Rayleigh watched the cities and mountains go by.


    On their arrival, the view of a massive building could be clearly seen from the distance. The blimp-copter''s altitude was dwarfed by the sky-piercing structure.


    Killua introduced it, "Heaven''s Arena has 251 floors and is 991 meters tall. It''s the fourth tallest building in the world."


    Rayleigh asked, "Where are the other three?"


    Killua shrugged, "No idea."


    Gon looked disappointed, as they were both interested in seeing those.


    The city around Heaven''s Arena was rtively in, with only a fewrger buildings circling the tower while the rest of the area had residential housing, shops, and restaurants. Gon slipped the letter to his aunt into a mailbox before they headed over to the base of Heaven''s Arena. He''d been writing her a letter every other week or so.


    The line to enter the tower wasn''t difficult to find. It stretched around the entire tower and continued a few blocks further.


    Rayleigh asked, "Isn''t that too many people?"


    Gon stated, "There''s so many!"


    Killua answered, "They''re all here topete. Unlike the Hunter''s Exam which very few pass, Heaven''s Arena is open to all legal adults, and many matches are televised. Some get lucky and are matched with a weak opponent. Win enough, and you''ll get a lot of money. For those who love a good fight, it''s even better. The greater your skills, the better the opponent they match you with. It''s a paradise for battle junkies."


    Gon and Rayleigh had stars in their eyes.


    Killua noticed Ray''s excitement and asked, "How are you going to fight Mr. Pacifist?"


    Ray chuckled. "Being a pacifist just means I will avoid starting a fight or trying to enforce my decisions on others. I won''t kill if I can help it, but that doesn''t mean I can''t enjoy a fight."


    Killua asked, "So you''d be up for a friendly spar?"


    "Of course," was the immediate answer.


    Gon asked, "Who do you think would win between you two?"


    Ray answered, "If I don''t use my Lightsaber and Killua doesn''t try to kill me, he''d win. He''s stronger and has more experience in hand-to-handbat."


    Killua asked, "Why does it sound like you''re saying that trying to kill you makes it easier for you to fight?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Because it does. One of my skills, Battle Precognition, grants me insight into the future of my opponent''s attacks. It works a lot better if someone is trying to kill me by reading their killing intent. That''s how I responded fast enough to survive your brother''s attacks. He is way too fast for me, but his desire to kill me gave me enough warning to predict what he was going to do."


    Gon said, "But you''d win with your Lightsaber?"


    Rayleigh answered, "I can turn down the power on it so that it only shocks instead of burns, we can spar with itter and find out."


    Gon and Killua both looked excited. Killua would not believe Ray could beat him just because he had a weapon. That was a natural reaction, but there was a world of difference between a Force User fighting with and without a Lightsaber. Killua would learn this soon enough.


    After a few hours of chatting, they reached the front of the line, where a woman wearing a shirt and hat with the emblem of a fist weed them.


    "Wee to Heaven''s Arena. Please fill out this form."


    Once filled out, the woman entered their information into aputer and said, "Rayleigh Rush, you are numbered 2054. Gon Freecss, you are numbered 2055. Killua Zoldyck, you are numbered 2056."


    Due to Rayleigh''s penmanship and education, he actually filled out the form first while Killua was thinking up cool things to add to the Fighting Experience part of the sheet.


    The woman continued, "Please make your way to the first floor and find your arena when called. Thank you foring, and I wish you the best of luck!"


    The trio left the counter and headed for the first floor. Hundreds of men sat in bleachers while shouting for other matches to get more brutal. It had a very diator Colosseum vibe to it.


    Killua found a spot to sit while Ray and Gon sat next to him. He looked over the masses of meat pounding into each other with relentless vigor and said, "It''s been a long time, but nothing''s changed."


    Gon asked, "You''ve been here before?"


    "Yeah. My father dropped me off when I was six without a single jenny and told me to make it to the 200th floor ande back. It took me two whole years."


    Rayleigh sighed, "At least you got a lot of experience. I''ve trained a lot, but honestly speaking, I don''t have any real experience fighting other than two fights in the Hunter Exam."


    Killua looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "That''s fine. At least you didn''t learn any bad habits."


    One of the announcers called out, [Number 1973 and 2055,e to ring E.]


    Gon stood up, "Ah, that''s me!"


    He looked nervous. Hisbat experience was identical to Ray''s. He had two fights, one against the fake spider and one against Hanzo.


    Killua noticed this and said, "You passed the Door of Verification right?"


    Gon nodded.


    Killua continued, "Then just push your opponent with everything you''ve got."


    Gon looked confused and asked, "Really?"


    Ray and Killua both nodded. Gon headed down to his assigned ring, where a bulky man with arms thicker than Gon''s torso waited for him. The contrast between the two caused most of the audience to startughing and calling out how lucky the big guy was to get someone one-tenth his size.


    The referee stated, "On the first floor, we''re here to evaluate your level. You have three minutes to show us what you are capable of. Begin!"


    The massive brute charged Gon while reeling his fist back to deliver what would appear to be a bone-crushing blow. Gon didn''t move as he was approached and only ducked right as the man swung, leaving the fighterpletely open. Gon set his stance as if he were going to open the two-ton door and put all his strength into a pushing blow.


    The heavy opponent did not weigh anywhere close to two tons, and the speed of the strike lifted the man off his feet, where he flew backward and off the arena. It was like he had been struck by a wrecking ball.


    A momentter, Rayleigh was called to another match, and Killua was called to the one right afterward.


    Rayleigh''s opponent looked like a martial artist, but his strength felt hollow. As if he were a bodybuilder who saw a dozen kung-fu movies and decided to give it a shot because it looked easy.


    Rayleigh caught his punch, pulled him off bnce, performed a shoulder throw to get him off his feet, then spun the man by his captured arm twice before releasing him and letting him fly to the same wall where Gon had nted his own opponent.


    The man screamed the whole flight, but due to how Ray threw him, the man struck the wall rear first rather than head first. He wasn''t even unconscious from the impact, but his entire skeleton ached, and he was in no position to get up.


    Rayleigh looked over to Killua''s ring and saw that his opponent was already unconscious.


    Rayleigh''s ref typed a few things into a handheld printer and said, "You can go to the 50th floor." He printed out a ticket and handed it to him. This would be used to get his winnings from the counter on each floor.


    As Rayleigh took the ticket, he heard the crowd cheer for another match and looked over to see what the spectacle was. It turned out to be a kid, younger than they were, wearing a martial arts gi. He''d beaten someone evenrger than Gon''s opponent, and his ref told him to go to the 50th floor as well.


    Gon, Rayleigh, and Killua made their way over to the elevator. Rayleigh noticed another person approaching and held the door open for the shorter neer.


    Killua pressed the button for the 50th floor and said, "On the fiftieth floor and beyond, one win gets you ten floors up while one loss sends you ten floors down."


    The new arrival added, "I heard when you reach the hundredth floor, you get your own room!"


    Everyone looked at him, and he said, "Hello, my name is Zushi."


    "I''m Gon."


    "Killua."


    "I''m Ray."


    The door to the 50th floor opened, and they exited into the main hall. Zushi asked, "May I ask from which school of fighting you have learned? I am from the Shingen-ryu style of Kung Fu."


    "We don''t really have one," was the reply from all three.


    Zushi almost shouted, "What?! To be able to reach such a level without being guided. That''s really shocking to me. I have a long way to go."


    "Zushi, you did great."


    From the side was a young, sses-wearing man with a white button-up cored shirt that was only half tucked into his pants.


    Zushi gave a short bow and said, "Thank you. Eh, Master, your shirt is..."


    The man realized his sorry-looking state and quickly tucked in the remainder of his shirt before asking, "And who are those at your sides?"


    Zushi introduced, "These are Gon, Ray, and Killua."


    The man nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, I''m Wing. You know, I''ve been seeing more and more kids these daysing and going from Heaven''s Arena. Why are you three here?"


    Killua answered, "To be stronger and earn some money."


    Ray asked, "Where are those kids you were talking about?"


    "Why? Are they friends of yours?" he asked.


    Rayleigh answered, "I''ve never met them before, but Netero said he knew of some kids our age who were really strong, so I wanted to meet them too."


    Rayleigh had not met any yers since leaving Dyna Might and Glitter. He stayed in the General Chat rather than the Hunter Chat, so he didn''t know what any of them were doing. Many of the Pirate yers returned to the Pirate World, but since not a single Hunter yer took part in the Exam, that begged the question. Where were they?


    Wing nodded and replied, "Well, none of them are my students, so I don''t know a lot about them. In any case, be mindful of harming yourself and your opponents." Wing then walked off while Gon, Zushi, and Killua walked over to the counter to get their prize money for winning. Rayleigh felt a number of things were off about Wing, but it wasn''t the time to bring them up, so he ran over to catch up with the rest.


    At the counter, they were awarded 152 Jennies.


    Killua put the change in the adjacent vending machine and exined, "Win or lose, on the first floor, any match awards 152 jennies, the price of a drink. After that, losing gets you nothing. On the 50th floor, winning awards you 50,000 jennies."


    Everyone looked excited over that, but then Killua continued, "Victory on the hundredth floor awards a million. The hundred and fiftieth-floor awards ten million."


    Each number shocked their group more than thest. The total worth of everything on the ind Rayleigh supposedly grew up on in this world was only worth five million.


    Gon asked, "You''ve been here before, right? How much did you win from the 200th floor?"


    Zushi froze when he realized one of the kids next to him had been up to the 200th floor before.


    Killua answered, "Actually, I went home without ever fighting on the 200th floor, so I don''t know. But my victory on the 190th floor awarded me about two hundred million jennies."


    When it was obvious what their next question was, Killua quickly stated, "Hey, it''s all gone. I used it all to buy cake and snacks for four years."


    Ray, Zushi, and Gon all shared a look while thinking the exact same question. What the hell kind of cake and snacks did he buy?!


    Changing the subject, Killua said, "Let''s register for a match on the 50th floor today since none of us are injured."


    No one disagreed, and Killua led them to the waiting room.


    The waiting area for the fiftieth floor looked like a gym locker and was filled with tensed-out fighters brooding silently while sizing up everyone else in the room.


    Killua calmly sat on a bench and said, "If these are our opponents, this will be an easy victory. No need to get stressed out."


    Gon asked, "You think?" and Rayleigh nodded. Zushi looked even more nervous as Killua was speaking aloud, and the heated re of everyone in the room was now directed toward their group.


    Two at a time, fighters were asked to go to various rooms where they would be matched up. The losers fell to the 40th floor while the winners rose to the 60th, so no one returned after they were called out.


    [Rayleigh and Zushi,e to room A on the 57th floor.]


    Zushi looked even more nervous and said humbly, "It''s an honor."


    Rayleigh replied, "Same."


    As they left, Killua said, "Ray, we''ll all meet up on the sixtieth floor, so wait for us there."


    Zushi looked rather dejected at Killua''s absolute certainty in his own loss. Rayleigh was tempted tofort him, but since he didn''t n on losing, there was nothing to say.


    The pair made their way to the elevator, hit the button for the 57th floor, and made their way to that floor''s arena. Unlike the first floor, each floor from that point onward had fewer arenas andrger seating for each. The fiftieth floor had four arenas, and each had several hundred spectators. Audience members bought their tickets for specific matches or specific floors and just stayed there and watched all the matches they wanted to until they were bored. The arena made its profit off betting, tickets, and concession stands.


    Once both had climbed onto the arena, the announcer started.


    [Ladies and Gentlemen! We bring to you today an exciting matchup between two young geniuses! Don''t let their appearances fool you, they both passed directly from the first floor to the fiftieth in a single fight! If you''ll move your attention to the disy, we''ll show you a video of their first-floor matches!]


    There was a massive screen on both sides of the room, so anyone could watch them without turning their necks too much.


    The first video yed and showed Rayleigh''s match.


    [Rayleigh easily manhandled that fighter like an adult ying with a child!]


    The video then changed to Zushi''s match.


    [And Zushi''s Kung-fu technique allowed him to pulverize the giant that outweighed him by over 200 kilograms without a single injury!]


    On the video, Zushi apparently got into close range andnded a flurry of powerful blows. Each stunned his opponent, preventing him from countering, while Zushi continued to strike until the man copsed. Hended at least a dozen strong blows in a few moments and made the fight look a lot easier than it was.


    The announcer continued.


    [Ladies and gentlemen, who do you think will win? ce your bets now!]


    After a moment, the results came out.


    [Betting Results


    Rayleigh to win 2.5:1


    Zushi to win 1.3:1]


    Zushi looked very nervous, as it seemed everyone thought Zushi had a better chance to win.


    The announcer also spoke up.


    [Oh! ording to the results, our audience expects Zushi to be the winner! Does the master of Kung-fu look more reliable? Let''s find out! First of three rounds of three minutes. Begin!]


    Zushi took a serious stance, and Rayleigh noticed something interesting. Zushi''s lifeforce, no, his aura was circting. He couldn''t see it, but he could feel it secondhand through the Force. Rayleigh wondered howmon that was.


    Rayleigh approached at a normal speed and Zushi struck out. Rayleigh dodged, paying special attention to the strength of the punch. Oddly enough, it looked like the punch was normal. Zushi was stronger than a normal person and definitely had months or even years of intense training, but the might behind that fist did not appear outside the realm of his expectations. It seemed covering his body in aura did not greatly increase the might of his punch.


    Rayleigh struck Zushi''s shoulder with a twist of his palm, causing Zushi to cry out and copse.


    The ref shouted, "Clean hit and a down, two points!"


    The refs counted up the cool-looking parts of the fights for points, and you''d win if you reached ten points, even if your opponent was still standing.


    A down also meant to stop fighting until the opponent could get up or just stayed down.


    Ray walked away from Zushi with a calcting smile. That strike was enough to dislocate Zushi''s shoulder, but it didn''t. The aura Zushi was surrounding himself with didn''t increase his damage, but it did increase his defense. But why didn''t it increase his damage? Ray still had many questions.


    Since his arm wasn''t dislocated, Zushi was able to get up and return to his stance.


    Zushi tried to go on the offensive, but Rayleigh had no problem dodging his attacks. Rayleigh grabbed Zushi''s arm and pulled him out of his stance. His aura seemed to grant a lot of resistance to this, but it wasn''t enough as Zushi was hurled over Rayleigh''s shoulder and mmed into the ground.


    The ref called out a critical hit and down. Critical hits looked cooler than normal ones and were awarded three points instead of one. That and the down meant Rayleigh''s mted him four points, meaning he now had six. Four more, and Zushi would lose even if he could get back up.


    Zushi knew this too and changed his stance.


    Suddenly, the aura around Zushi made Zushi seem like he was much stronger and could not lose.


    This was not the first time he felt this. It was the same thing that Gourmet Hunter did when he stood up to her.


    Rayleigh didn''t back up, such a feeling in an actual fight ignited his fighting spirit. An unconscious smile appeared on his face, and Rayleigh shot forward.


    "ZUSHI!"


    Rayleigh stopped just short of striking Zushi''s chest with a palm blow. He looked behind him to see that Zushi''s master, Wing, had shouted at his disciple. Though his hard exterior quickly changed to shock when he realized what Rayleigh almost did.


    Rayleigh himself retracted his hand with some embarrassment. Opps. He almost did exactly what Gon did against that fake spider. Whatever Zushi did made him appear stronger than he actually was, and Rayleigh was about to match that perceived level with everything he had.


    The announcer made an awkward announcement.


    [Er, the encouragement of a spectator has brought a halt to the match. Let''s restart the match!]


    Zushi stopped using that intimidation thing, which killed Rayleigh''s motivation. Rayleigh knocked Zushi down two more times to get enough points to end the fight with a Technical Knock Out. Even though he used enough strength on thatst blow to crush a steel beam, the aura that surrounded Zushi seemed to also permeate his flesh and negate much of the damage, allowing Zushi to stand up even after Rayleigh''s strongest blow.


    Rayleigh headed up to the sixtieth floor and found Gon and Killua waiting for him.


    Killua asked, "What was the hold up?"


    Gon followed up with, "Was he strong?"


    Ray answered, "He used some interesting techniques, and I ended up having a bit of fun. Hopefully, there will be more strong guys like that on the other floors."


    Killua said, "We''re not going to reach the hundredth floor tonight and get our own rooms, so cash your winnings first and we''ll head out to find a hotel for the night. If we don''t find one before the sun goes down, there won''t be any left to find."


    Gon added, "They really give fifty thousand zennies!"


    Rayleigh nodded and cashed in his winnings before the trio headed down the elevator to head back into the city and find a room for the night.


    Rayleigh didn''t need a room or bed as he could make do with meditating, so they got a room with two beds, and Rayleigh spent the night meditating on the floor.


    The next day, they returned to the tower, but the matching took even longer than before, and they only had time for two matches, making it to the eightieth floor before they returned to their hotel. The next day they returned, and with another two victories, they reached the one-hundredth floor and each got their own room.


    Gon jumped onto the bed and shouted, "A room of our own! No more hotels!" to which Killua and Ray nodded. The Hotel rooms were loud, dirty, and stinky.


    Killua stated, "If you lose, you''ll also return to the 90th floor and lose your room. The 100th floor is like a ceiling. Everyone above wants to maintain their ce no matter what."


    Gon and Rayleigh took the advice seriously, and the next day, they started their matches with full concentration.


    Only to anti-climactically one-shot their opponents.


    After cashing their winnings, Killua sighed and stated, "It took me two weeks to reach the 150th floor when I came here."


    Gon replied, "Yeah but, you were six."


    Rayleigh added, "We are all literally twice as old as you were then."


    Killua conceded, "That''s true."


    Rayleigh asked, "Will they get a lot stronger? I haven''t seen anyone else use the skills Zushi used."


    Killua asked, "What exactly did he do?"


    Rayleigh described Zushui''s use of Aura to defend himself and that burst of aura to make himself seem like he couldn''t lose.


    Gon said, "I saw him on the TV a while ago, he''s still on the 50th floor."


    Killua stated, "Hopefully there will be more guys like that on higher levels. It sounds like he did what my brother can do."


    Gon asked, "Why not ask Zushi?"


    Ray felt something click into ce and said, "Yeah, let''s do that."


    He had been tempted to ask Zushi this whole time but felt the timing wasn''t right. Now that the main character brought it up, the timing seemed right.


    Rayleigh didn''t know if it was his sealed Metaknowledge, the Force, or abination of the two, but he''d been using that feeling to make sure he didn''t screw everything up.


    They took the elevator down to the fiftieth floor. Zushi usually wins on the 50th floor but loses on the 60th. He lost a match on the 60th the prior day and was waiting for his next match on the 50th floor.


    He wasn''t difficult to find, and Rayleigh asked, "Hey Zushi, how did you do that intimidation thing during our match?"


    Zushi politely answered, "Oh. Ren is one of the four principles of Nen Training. The four principles are the basis of every fighting spirit technique and rely on spirit elevation and its hardening. You start with finding the Ten, learning Zetsu, seeding in Ren, and reaching Hatsu. Together, these four practices form Nen. That''s all."


    Gon lookedpletely dumbfounded, and Killua nearly shouted, "I didn''t understand any of that!"


    Wing approached the group and stated, "Zushi, since when have you be skilled enough to teach others what I have taught you?"


    Zushi looked properly admonished, and Wing continued, "Ray, Gon, Killua, if you try to learn something from its parts, you''ll understand less than if you were told nothing at all."


    Killua summarized, "Half-knowledge is worse than no knowledge, right? But I still want to know. From what Ray described, that skill Zushi used is something my older brother uses."


    Wing asked, "Your brother uses Nen?"


    Killua answered, "I think so. Would you mind teaching us? Otherwise, we''ll have to discover it in parts, which, as you said, is dangerous for us."


    Wing seemed to consider it for a moment before replying, "Okay, here''s my address. Come over tonight."


    With that, he handed them a piece of paper on which he wrote his address and left with Zushi in tow.


    *Author''s Note*


    Reviews and stones fuel my will to write more chapters.

 Chapter 23: The Hunter System, Nen

    Chapter 23: The Hunter System, Nen


    Chapter 23 The Hunter System, Nen


    It was toote for another match, so the trio headed out of the tower for some dinner and arrived at Wing''s house afterward.


    Wing invited them in and entered teacher mode. He wrote five characters on the whiteboard and named them: Nen, Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsu. He then exined what each one meant.


    "Do I have your attention? Nen has the meaning of burning your soul, inming your spirit. The four major principles are part of a training curriculum for strengthening your will."


    Gon asked with some disbelief, "Will strengthening?" while Killua questioned aloud, "Training?"


    Wing pointed to each of the following symbols while exining their meaning.


    "That''s correct. This practice is called Nen of me. We''ll start with Ten, sometimes called Ten of Point. Ten means focusing your soul into a single point to increase your awareness of your ego and goals by removing extraneous thoughts. Zetsu means to trante that point into words, taking the focus from that single point of Ten and giving it a direction usingnguage. Ren means to temper those words into an expression through amplification, giving substance to the insubstantial. And Hatsu means to act upon that expression, using that substance as if it were real."


    He wrote a word next to each of the five characters to imply their meaning. Nen=me. Ten=Point. Zetsu=Language. Ren=Temper. Hatsu=Action.


    He then turned to Rayleigh and said, "Rayleigh, Zushi tempered his refusal to lose during his fight with you. Allow me to demonstrate. I will now perform Ren while holding the thought, ''I am going to kill you now.'' Are you ready?"


    Ray nodded while Killua looked a little skeptical and Gon looked intrigued.


    Wing continued, "I''ll demonstrate step by step. First, Ten. I concentrate my soul into a single point. Thenes Zetsu, you can express yourself verbally or mentally, whichever is your preference. The expression I''ll be focusing my soul on is, ''I will kill you.'' Thenes Ren."


    Wing suddenly released his lifeforce and covered himself in it. Wing felt like an existence that every cell in Rayleigh''s body told him to run away from or he would be killed. The same feeling was felt equally by Gon and Killua.


    Being in the presence of that aura badly affected him, but after experiencing it a few times, Rayleigh knew how to bypass it using Force Valor. Force Valor used the Force to control and direct the body, so the foreign instincts caused by Wing''s aura were ignored.


    Rayleigh didn''t budge, and Gon didn''t take a step back either. Gon was also a battle-junkie. The threat of death meant a good fight, which wasn''t something he backed away from. But since he didn''te to fight Wing, he was a little confused by the crossed-signals.


    Killua''s reaction was a bit more normal. Kinda. He had nted himself in the room''s corner, seven feet off the ground and close to the ceiling, with his arms and legs bracing either side of the corner and sweat dripping from his brow.


    Wing halted the effect and continued, "After Renes Hatsu, where I act upon my thought. Obviously, I''m not really going to kill you, so I won''t be demonstrating Hatsu. If your own will is strong enough, you can make your opponent back down without moving a single muscle using Ren. This shares the same basis as a bluff that can be apanied by a shout or yell which enhances the effect of Zetsu."


    Everyone turned to look at Killua, still clinging awkwardly to the wall. He dropped down with a huff and stood next to Gon.


    Wing continued, "Ren hardens that which is soft, and training it makes the user stubborn and more difficult to change. Training Ren can cause someone to lose the ability to correct an incorrect idea and grow out of an immature or improper mindset. Therefore, you should avoid using Ren until your souls have fully matured. That is why I shouted at Zushi not to use Ren. Right now, you boys and Zushi should be training your souls. If you wish to learn Nen of me, you should practice Ten of Point. If you master Ten of Point, you will no longer feel the pressure of another''s bluff."


    Killua was about to leave, but Rayleigh stopped him. He asked Wing, "So for Ten of Point, is it a requirement to shed all thoughts, or all but a single thought?"


    Wing answered, "Concentrating on nothing is useless, but a thought is toorge as well. A single thought contains many concepts, histories, ideas, and impurities. A perfected Ten of Point concentrates on one or more basic concepts into a single point free of irrelevant impurities."


    Ray asked, "How does concentrating on basic concepts increase self-awareness?"


    Wing smiled at the question and answered with a bit of enthusiasm, "Because it isn''t possible to concentrate on just any concept. Only a concept that is at the heart of your very being can ept your full concentration. Trying out various concepts and seeing which can take more of your concentration allows for self-discovery. Once you have found the concept or concepts that you can focus your entire being into, you will know yourself."


    Gon asked from the side, "What kinds of concepts?"


    Wing shook his head, "Words themselves each have too many concepts, so I can''t answer your question using any. You can only discover what is best on your own. Start by using words that have meaning to you and breaking them down into their most fundamental parts. It is fine if you don''tpletely understand the concept or concepts you choose as long as you can feel them and concentrate on them with everything you have. Mastering the Ten of Point ensures that what makes you unique will be the foundation upon which everything else is built. The strongest foundation is always yourself."


    Wing turned to Rayleigh and stated, "You asked some good questions. Have you done anything like this in the past?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, but used telekinesis to lift the room''s couch, TV, desk, nightstand, tables, chairs, refrigerator, and Zushi into the air. To Wing''s dumbfounded expression, Ray answered, "Something like that. I''ll share more the next time we meet." Everything and the iling Zushi were then carefully put back where they were. Rayleigh left without saying a word, followed by Killua and Gon.


    After getting a few blocks away, Killuaughed and said, "You showed that liar."


    Gon asked, "He lied?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Kinda. Everything he told us was true, but it wasn''t what we wanted to know. I doubt Illumi knows what ''Ten of Point'' is, and what Zushi used to defend himself against my attacks had nothing to do with a bluff. Every match Zushi lost on the sixtieth floor was a TKO. He hasn''t been physically defeated even once. As for Wing, from how he answered my questions, Nen of me is definitely a legitimate will-strengthening exercise, but if will power was all someone needed to use aura, all of us would be able to use it by now. As far as I could tell, nothing Wing said had anything to do with aura or lifeforce."


    Killua nodded, still a bit peeved that he reacted so badly to Wing''s intimidation when Ray and Gon held their ground.


    Gon asked, "But why did he lie?"


    Ray answered, "We are not his students, so he has no obligation to teach us. I suspect Nen of me is already quite valuable, so he passed that off as the real thing to distract us."


    Killua was still thinking over their interactions and trying to piece together Nen of me''s value. He then recalled a certain line and pointed out, "Hey Ray, why did you say ''the next time we meet''?"


    Rayleigh smiled, "Hehe, I saw that once we reach the 200th floor, Wing wille and teach us real Nen."


    Gon almost shouted, "Really?! That''s awesome!"


    Killua asked, "We only need five more fights, so that''ll only take us two days. Why then, and not today?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. He didn''t know. He was going to ask Wing directly if they could be his students tonight, since it''smon sense not to teach someone who isn''t your student. But then he saw a shatterpoint that showed him what would happen if he didn''t ask, so he remained silent instead.


    Gon pointed out, "If he''ll teach us when we reach the 200th floor, maybe he refused today because he didn''t think we''d reach it."


    Killua added, "But why would reaching the 200th floor make a difference?"


    Ray thought it over and asked, "Did you ever ask your dad why he said to return after the 190th floor and not the 200th? Maybe he knew something."


    Killua nodded and said, "Maybe, but my dad isn''t the kind of person you just ask questions to, so I never found out. You think the 200th floor has something to do with Nen?"


    Gon asked, "Maybe we''ll learn Nen on our own if we go to the 200th floor?"


    Rayleigh felt a twitch in the Force and said, "No, I don''t think that''s a good idea. Let''s just pass the 190th floor and wait for Wing."


    Killua asked, "Did you see something?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Kinda. I''m sure we''ll find out then."


    Gon shouted, "Yeah! Let''s get to the 200th floor!"


    Rayleigh was heavily tempted to just ask the Hunter Chat, but felt it shouldn''t be needed. You obviously couldn''t believe anything said inside. Besides, he was already riding the Main Character Express. Why take an unnecessary detour?


    Ray, Gon, and Killua did three back-to-back matches the following day before returning to their rooms. Ray had already convinced them of Nen of me''s value, and they both spent the night practicing Ten of Point.


    Rayleigh spent that night attempting to create a more potent will-strengthening exercise bybining the Ten of Point and r. Rayleigh had clearly spent enough time meditating that achieving the Ten of Point was not difficult. The concepts he chose to focus on didn''t have a word he could associate them with. Together, they had a simr feel to ''bnce,'' but also resembled ''payback with interest,'' and ''unrestricted, unlimited growth.'' He couldn''t describe it if asked, but thisbination was something he felt naturally able to focus his entire being into. Once he got familiar with the feeling of having his entire being focused into a single point, he could use that feeling of focus for r Training''s Absolute Belief. Once he mastered that, he could begin with Contrary Belief, using his single point of focus to absolutely believe two things that werepletely contradictory.


    r Training would probably make him go crazy, but sanity was highly overrated to begin with.


    The next day began early with a match on the 180th floor. Rayleigh''s opponent looked like a madman who had grown his nails out into long ws. Weapons weren''t allowed in these matches, so they could only use their bare hands. This guy got around that by sharpening his nails and applying a diamond-like enamel to them to ensure they were as hard as steel and could be sharpened better than most knives.


    The announcer spoke enthusiastically to the raucous audience.


    [Today''s match, we have Rayleigh Rush, who, just as his name suggests, has Rushed all the way from the first floor to the 180th floor without a single loss! But today may be the end of his streak, for he faces Bloodw! As you all know, every one of Bloodw''s losseses from disqualification due to his opponent''s gruesome Deaths! He has yet to actually lose a single match! How will our young Hero fare against the bloodthirsty killer?! ce your bets Now!]


    After hearing about his opponent''s ''glorious'' history, Rayleigh felt a need to try something. The w-fingered killer hunched himself over with a sinister smirk. The moment the ref called out for the match to begin, the man vanished from his position and moved to Rayleigh''s side at a blindingly fast pace.


    He shed at Rayleigh''s face with the clear intention of shredding through his eyes and shearing off his nose. Rayleigh dodged, but not enough. A trickle of blood dripped from his cheek.


    The announcer called out, [Rayleigh dodged! But he has received his first injury since his arrival in the tower! Was it a lucky dodge, or will this be the end of Rayleigh Rush?!]


    The murderer snickered and shed again. His shirt had sleeves with ck and white stripes. This was a trick Rayleigh recognized from an episode of Rurouni Kenshin. It made people misjudge the length of the man''s arms and fail to dodge.


    Rayleigh dodged again, and this time the tip of his nose was scratched. It would be very itchy until it healed, but he was used to itchy, so it didn''t matter.


    The man was no longer happy with these pitiful flesh wounds and shouted, "Dodge this if you can!" whileunching himself forward with both arms wide apart, ready to strike whichever way he dodged.


    Rayleigh did sessfully dodge, but another scratch appeared on his arm.


    The mannded and said, "You won''t dodge me again! I''ll rip your throat out, you little brat!"


    Rayleigh smiled. He felt something set itself into ce. Rayleigh showed his smile to his opponent and lifted a hand with three fingers raised. He said aloud, "Three times. That''s three strikes. You''re out."


    Without exining to anyone what he meant, Rayleigh vanished from the view of the audience and reappeared with his palm extended deeply into the murderer''s torso. An instantter, Bloodw was shot like a cannonball out of the ring, where he was harshly nted a foot deep into the nearby cement wall.


    The room went silent, but only for a moment. The audience practically exploded with apuse and cheering. Everyone loved the upset.


    Several medics went over to check on Bloodw, and one returned to the announcer.


    [Ladies and Gentlemen! What an explosive turnaround! Bloodw is alive, but only barely! His life isn''t in any danger, though, so Rayleigh has won and advances to the 190th floor!]


    Rayleigh scoffed. "Bloodw,'' or whatever his name really was, would live. He''d be fine and healthy. But the shatterpoint Rayleigh struck would ensure the man would never be able to use more than an average person''s level of strength. The microfractures he created in the man''s spine would never heal and would cause the worst kind of intense pain if he ever overexerted himself.


    Rayleigh was willing to take a bit of a loss of the Force''s favor from this little experiment if he was wrong, but the Force was silent on the matter, neither approving nor rejecting it. Why was it apathetic towards the excessively grievous bodily harm Rayleigh willfully inflicted on another using the Force? Because the man had given Rayleigh three injuries. They were tiny, but each one still counted as an injury.


    Even Buddha would not forgive three transgressions. There was a limit to even the Force''s patience.


    It was a little odd, but Rayleigh wondered if he had found a fighting style that worked for him. It seemed practicing Ten of Point had a good effect after all.


    Rayleigh signed up for another match and returned to the waiting room with Gon and Killua. He spent his time thinking about how to fight. If someone wasn''t strong enough to harm him three times, Rayleigh would fight to suppress them without great injury. If they were strong enough to injure him three times, he would have to focus on surviving the first three hits without getting crippled, and then he could go all out. All out with the Force was a lot. What he used when sparring with Netero didn''t qualify as all-out. He never imagined being able to go all out with the Force in a real fight. Pushing a gate or lifting a mountain, sure, but not during a fight.


    While pondering the details, his name was called out once more, and his next match was up. The next guy wasn''t a bloodthirsty killer, so Rayleigh won with points for a TKO and met Killua and Gon at the elevator. It was time to reach the 200th floor.


    Gon eximed, "I''m so excited! What do you think we''re going to find on the 200th floor?"


    Killua answered, "I can''t see into the future. Ask Ray."


    Ray helpfully answered, "Danger and a familiar face."


    Killua asked, "Who?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, having no idea himself. He just felt it was someone they knew. It could be Zushi or Killua''s father for all he knew.


    Out of the elevator was a hallway and a sign pointing toward the 200th floor''s registration desk. The trio entered the hall, but a few steps in, they were met by a wall of killing intent that felt almost physical.


    Killua panicked and shouted, "Who''s there?!"


    A woman walked into view from around the corner at the end of the hall. She said, "Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua, right? The reception is over here. Please register today if you wish to take part in matches on the 200th floor. You have until midnight to register. There are currently 175 candidates registered for the 200th floor. From this point onward, weapons and killing your opponent are allowed. And onest thing: no more rewards will be given. Fights are for honor and personal satisfaction only."


    Killua and Gon were still trying to determine if the killing intent wasing from the woman, but then a familiar face walked out from behind the corner at the end of the hall and into view.


    All three shouted, "Hisoka?!"


    The murderous magician was there, and they no longer asked where the killing intent that impeded them wasing from.


    Gon asked, "Why are you here?"


    Hisoka chuckled and answered, "Why so surprised? I love a good fight, and this is the holynd of fighting. Shouldn''t I be the one asking you why you are here?"


    Gon and Killua tensed up, but Hisoka continued jokingly, "Kidding. I was waiting for you. You purchased your tickets to get here online. It isn''t difficult to track others through their purchases. You were clever not to use your Hunter License, but that would only block the eyes of those who did not already have your names. Once I found out you wereing here, I boarded a private ne and came over. I actually made it here before you did. I knew you would make it here, to the 200th floor, sooner orter. But, as a senior, I need to teach you something. You see, it is still too soon for you to walk on this floor."


    Hisoka waved his hand, and the killing intent multiplied severalfold. It was unbearable. Being exposed to this kind of threat would cause a person''s internal organs to go into shock and their mind to copse. It could literally kill them from the pressure.


    Hisoka continued, "Come back another time, it''s too soon."


    Killuained, "Are you kidding me! We made it here on our-"


    Hisoka''s hand pointed at Killua, the pressure caused him to jump back. Hisoka calmly stated, "You won''t pass. Actually, you can''t. Well, at least you two cannot."


    Killua was unconsciously backing away while Gon was using his will to fight to ovee his instinct and press a half step forward.


    Rayleigh was fine. A strong Force user could endure fear-inducing mental effects without a problem, and the physical effects Hisoka''s presence had were ovee by using Force Valor to manually take control over all his organs.


    Hisoka seemed rather interested in Rayleigh, and he wondered if Rayleigh could make it through his aura. Rayleigh, however, had no intention of continuing on without Gon and Killua.


    As Gon tried to push himself another half-step forward, another familiar voice was heard from behind, "Don''t insist."


    Everyone turned around and saw Wing. He continued, "In front of his Nen, you have almost no defense."


    Everyone then turned to Rayleigh, who was calmly chilling there.


    Wing made a coughing noise and said, "You two, have almost no defense. Rayleigh seems to have his own means, but the two of you are like someone in a blizzard asking yourselves why it''s so cold. If you make your body and spirit endure any more of this, you''ll die."


    Rayleigh walked back and sarcastically asked, "Why do you say that? Can''t we just think, ''I''ll definitely pass,'' while walking forward? Isn''t that the Nen you taught us?"


    Wing coughed awkwardly again and said, "Well, I admit I lied. Look, I''ll exin the real Nen to you. First, let''s leave this ce."


    Gon turned over to the receptionist and asked, "If we don''t register today, what would happen?"


    It was a little after 8 PM.


    The woman answered, "If you fail to register for a match before midnight, you, Gon, and you, Rayleigh, would have to restart from the 1st floor. But, Killua has already refused registration once. Doing so again would be considered opposition to the registration, and he would be banned from registering for or fighting in Heaven''s Arena in the future."


    Killua asked Wing, "Will we be able to return before midnight?"


    Wing answered, "That depends on you."


    Rayleigh sighed, "That''s exactly what Chairman Netero said when I asked him if I could learn how to use Nen after I got my Hunter License."


    Wing looked a bit surprised at that, but then he smiled.


    They went down a few floors to the luxury suite-like room given to the high-floor fighters. They entered Killua''s room, where Wing spotted a decorative vase of fresh flowers and pulled the flowers out. He then stood a few feet from it and wrapped his aura around the flowers while making the aura feel like it was exploding before throwing the flower, stem first, at the vase.


    The flower pierced through the vase, causing the water within to start leaking. Wing did this several times with the other flowers, until every flower was returned to the vase. They were each still in pristine condition, but the vase had been clearly pierced through by each.


    Wing exined, "That''s Nen. Nen of Force, rather than Nen of me. It''s the ability to freely manipte lifeforce and aura. Everyone projects a small amount of aura from their bodies, but that is merely an uncontrolled leak. The technique to release and regte the aura within our bodies to outside our bodies is called Ten. Zetsu is the ability to separate yourself from your aura. Doing so seals your aura within your body, making it undetectable and unusable. This is also useful when you want to recover from exhaustion. Ren is a technique that allows you to amplify your aura."


    Wing covered his finger in aura and gave it that exploding feeling. He made Killua and Gon nervous, but it wasn''t like the previous time.


    He asked, "Can you feel this?"


    Killua answered, "There''s a pressure."


    Gon continued, "But it doesn''t feel bad likest time."


    Wing stated, "That''s because I''m not trying to kill you."


    Rayleigh technically felt it too, but he''d been relying on second-hand Force senses to feel aura, though it was more of a shadow or silhouette than an image.


    Wing stated, "Outliers like Rayleigh aside, the only way to defend against Nen, is to use Nen. You have to learn Ten to defend yourself from Hisoka''s Ren. If you try to defend yourself without Nen..."


    Wing ced his hand on the wall and concentrated his aura into a single spot. He then made it explode. Not like the feeling of an explosion Ray felt during someone''s use of Ren, but an actual release of power.


    The wall cracked from edge to edge and floor to ceiling as if a truck crashed into it.


    Wing continued, "Your body will be crushed under your opponent''s Hatsu."


    Everyone looked at Rayleigh for a moment. He admitted, "Yeah, I''m pretty sure I can''t survive that." He could use the Force to mitigate the symptoms of Ren exposure, but a direct attack was a direct attack. He might be able to do something with Tutaminis, the Force Art of Energy Control within the Body, but he''d need more practice.


    Wing nodded with just a slight look of relief at Rayleigh''s admission. He continued, "There are two general ways to awaken Nen. The deliberate way, and the aggressive way. Zushi trained the deliberate way. He worked hard and learned Ten in six months."


    Killua looked outraged and said, "That''s too long for us!"


    Wing nodded, "That''s why we will use the aggressive way. I will attempt to shock you into awakening. I will give your sleeping bodies a jolt so you can learn Ten more easily. I say your bodies are asleep, because your body''s micropyles are closed."


    Rayleigh asked, "Micropyles?"


    Wing answered, "Micropyles, sometimes called Shouko, Aura Openings, Aura Veins or Aura Nodes, are the numerous pores and pathways within the body that release aura. Because they are closed, the flow of aura within your bodies is stunted. Under normal circumstances, you would spend a lot of time meditating and discovering your own auras while slowly opening these apertures. Even Zushi required three months to locate and open all of his. However, I suspect you three could do it in a week. Or even sooner."


    Wing shook his head and said, "It''s a shame we don''t have enough time, so we can only do it this way. The aggressive way is highly frowned upon because if done by someone too weak or someone who has bad intentions, you could bepletely crippled."


    Gon said, "But you''re not weak, and you don''t want to hurt us."


    Killua added, "I prefer the quick and dirty way to begin with."


    Rayleigh stepped aside and said, "Actually, I''m curious about the normal way. You two can both do it this way. I''d like to try the deliberate way."


    Killua pointed out, "But you''d have to start over from the first floor."


    And Gon said, "And you wouldn''t be able to fight on the 200th Floor until then."


    Wing countered, "No, that''s actually a preferable method for Rayleigh and yourself, Gon. Killua is the exception because he doesn''t have a second chance. After registering for the 200th floor, you don''t have to register for a fight for three months. I''m going to train you three for as long as it takes before I let you fight on the 200th floor."


    Rayleigh said, "It''s fine if Gon awakens with Killua. I just want to learn how to awaken on my own." Like hell he was going to rely on someone else. Let the Main Characters cheat, he''d redo the Tower and get a few hundred million more zennies and morebat experience while achieving a perfect foundation for the new system.


    Wing obviously couldn''t hear Rayleigh''s inner monologue and stated, "That''s very mature of you, Rayleigh. Very well. Gon, Killua, go put on some t-shirts. I am going to ce my hands on your backs and inject you with my Aura."


    Rayleigh asked, "If getting injected with Aura is enough to forcibly awaken Aura, could you awaken Aura from receiving an Aura attack?"


    Wing nodded, "That''s exactly right. Many of the fighters of the 200th Floor awoke their Nen exactly like that. They arrived at the 200th floorpletely ignorant about Nen and received a powerful Aura attack in their first fight. The few that survived had their micropyles opened, though at great cost. They consider it a baptism."


    Killua asked, "Is that why you came and changed your mind about teaching us?"


    "Yes. That, and another reason. I called Chairman Netero after you left and heard all about you three. You see, Netero is actually the grandmaster of my school, Shingen-ryu style kung fu. He was the one who invented the Nen of me and standardized the Nen of Force. He didn''t specifically tell me to teach you, but it was obvious he would have been disappointed if I didn''t."


    Rayleigh added, "That exins why you talk like him."


    Wing smiled again at theparison.


    The reason was good enough for Killua. He and Gon stood next to each other as Wing ced a palm on their backs. A momentter, a weak surge of energy was forced into the pair. Immediately, their lifeforce seemed to be more outside their bodies than inside.


    The pair looked like they had been shocked. They started staring at their hands and the air around them.


    Wing exined, "That''s lifeforce. All your micropyles are open. You can see it, right? It''s because the countless tiny micropyles within your eyes are also open."


    Gon eximed, "It''s like water vapor. Water vapor escaping a kettle."


    Killua looked a bit panicked and stated, "It''s escaping from everywhere. Is this normal?"


    Wing calmly exined, "It''s lifeforce. If you continue to let it escape, you''ll be heavily fatigued."


    Killua asked, "So we''re screwed?!"


    Wing directed, "Use Ten of Point to focus your mind. Next, think of aura to be a liquid that surrounds your bodies. In your minds, imagine it as a halo that envelops and undtes."


    The pair closed their eyes and took a rxed stance. Rayleigh had no ability to see aura. Everything he knew was a second-hand impression from the Force. But from what he could sense, the lifeforce that was leaving their bodies like a running faucet was now circting in, out, and over the surface of their bodies.


    Wing looked both impressed and scared at the ease of their actions.


    He stated, "Open your eyes slowly, don''t lose focus. How do you feel?"


    Gon eloquently answered, "Like I''m covered in warm mucus."


    Killua exined using less vulgar terms, "It''s like wearing very light clothes."


    Wing nodded and continued to say, "Try to hold this image in your mind every day. When you get used to it, you''ll be able to use Ten even while sleeping."


    Wing then amplified his aura, using what Rayleigh now recognized as Ren. "Now I am going to channel some hostility and project my Ren. Before this, just staying in the presence of someone using Ren was painful for you."


    Killua nodded, "Yeah, I think I get your example of standing in a blizzard now."


    Wing continued, "If you can press through this, you can pass through Hisoka''s wall."


    Wing amplified his Ren to the same degree that Hisoka had used his own.


    Rayleigh was still able to bypass the symptoms with the Force, but now Gon and Killua were less affected as well.


    Wing magnified his Ren even further, but this only caused Gon and Killua to cycle their Ten quicker, allowing Wing''s Ren to flow around them.


    Wing halted his Ren and said, "You''re ready. Go on and register for the 200th floor. I''ll start Rayleigh on his deliberate awakening."


    Gon and Killua left the room, and Wing entered lecture mode.


    "There are three hundred and sixty-one primary micropyles in the body. Each is connected to one or more other primary micropyles, and each is also connected to dozens, or in many cases, hundreds, of lesser micropyles. There are over 9000 lesser micropyles in the human body, but they open naturally when the primary micropyles to which they are connected open, so we only have to focus on the primary ones. The first micropyle is the hardest to open and is considered the key to opening the others. It is located on the small of the back, the same spot I injected my aura into your friends at."


    Rayleigh asked, "How can I open it on my own?"


    Wing got up and thenid down on the ground. He then pushed himself up with his arms and did the equivalent of a pushup before also doing some kind of stretch.


    While remaining in that position, Wing stated, "There are a set of forms that can be repeated. You can only do them once a day, but doing them will slowly open your first micropyle. I will demonstrate each form once, so see how much you can remember."


    Wing slowly and deliberately did a total of twelve forms, each a variant of the push-up position. They seemed to be spine stretches of some kind.


    Wing then got up and looked at the clock. "I''ll return tomorrow afternoon to help you with the forms and start all three of you on the basics of Nen."


    Ray smiled as he left. It was time to break out the good ol'' psychometry. Since Wing touched the floor with his bare hands and arms while doing those stretches, couldn''t Rayleigh use psychometry to get a feel of his echo and use that to perform the moves?


    Right before Rayleigh could start, the door opened again. Gon entered with an awkward smile, while Killua was shaking his head.


    Gon eximed, "I signed up for a match tomorrow morning!"


    *Author''s Note*


    If you are wondering why I go into so much detail for these systems, it is partially for fun, and partially for inspiration. There are millions of good Naruto and Harry Potter fanfictions, but not nearly as many good Hunter X Hunter, Jedi, or One Piece Fanfics. Why?


    One part is that their power systems are confusing and intimidating. So one goal of mine is that readers of this fic will fully understand the power systems of these three sses and maybe be inspired to write their own fanfic in one of these underused worlds using this fic as a standardized measure for how to learn and train in those systems. I gave a detailed overview of the Force, so now it''s time to do the same for Nen.


    You can also just take my entire first chapter and create your own fic using that as a base.


    If you''re honestly not interested, feel free to skip the detailed exnations and world-building.


    Also, Reviews and stones are life.

 Chapter 24: The 200th Floor

    Chapter 24: The 200th Floor


    Chapter 24 The 200th Floor


    For a moment, Rayleigh considered asking why Gon did exactly what Wing told him not to do, but a quick look into his eyes answered that question. Gon was too fired up. Hisoka''s intimidation really made Gon want to fight. Completely understandable.


    Rayleigh asked, "So what happened?"


    Killua exined, "After we got past Hisoka, he said he wouldn''t ept a fight until Gon defeated someone from a group who had juste over. There were three guys there. Each looked like they had undergone that ''baptism'' Wing talked about. One didn''t have any legs and just hopped forward using a metal peg and a walking stick. Another couldn''t walk at all and was in a wheelchair. Thest was missing an arm."


    Rayleigh gave Gon a stare that was equal parts deadpan and equal parts amusement and asked, "So you saw exactly what happens to people who fight on the 200th floor without preparation, and you still signed up for a match with one of them right away?"


    Gonughed awkwardly, but he knew Rayleigh was just teasing him.


    Killua continued, "He signed up for a match with the one with the metal peg leg. ording to the receptionist, if you win 10 matches on the 200th floor, you can challenge a floor master and be one if you win. Apparently, there''s this thing-type deal that only Floor Masters can participate in with a prize or what-ever, but we''re not really interested in that."


    Rayleigh asked with a bit of amusement, "So you don''t want to be a floor master?"


    Killua shook his head, "Not really. I just want to fight some of those guys and Gon wants to fight Hisoka. What about you?"


    "I want to learn more about Nen. I don''t really care where I''m doing it."


    Gon and Killua smiled, both having a simr opinion.


    Killua asked, "So did Wing say anything about how you''re supposed to open your, what-ever they''re called, on your own?"


    Ray nodded andy down on the floor where Wing hadid and used Psychometry where Wing had just been.


    He used it to get a perfect impression of the set of stretches Wing had done, so Rayleigh said aloud, "Wing said to open the first one in the spine by doing these stretches."


    Rayleigh performed each stretch to the exact degree Wing had done. As he did each stretch, he felt a warm current coalescing onto his back. He continued to do stretch after stretch until the warm current became hot, and as he finished his final stretch, he felt the hot pressure release itself.


    Gon and Killua apparently saw something. Gon said, "Ah, there''s auraing from your back!"


    Killua stated, "Guess that''s one open. What about the others?"


    Ray didn''t answer, but took a moment to sense the lifeforce leaking from his spine and then took control of it. After doing so, he got up and answered, "Don''t know. Wing didn''t say anything about the others. I''ll ask him tomorrow."


    After getting up, Rayleigh asked, "So what''s it like being covered in aura? Can you make it stronger?"


    Killua and Gon looked at each other and tried a few different things. Ray could not see it, but he could feel their aura as it tried different things. After a few minutes, both got tired. Killua said, "Yeah, I got nothing. I have no idea how that Ren thing works. I guess we''ll just have to wait until Wing teaches us."


    Rayleigh added, "We can still use Ten of Point. Since it was invented by Netero, it''s probably very useful for Nen of Force."


    Gon and Killua shared a look and a nod, and all three found afortable seat to sit and meditate.


    The trio spent the night as such, and in the morning, Ray and Killua bought a ticket to see Gon''s match against the peg-legged guy.


    Rayleigh set HK-47''s head in hisp and took a seat next to Killua''s as the announcer started. This time, it was a perky young female announcer.


    [Today is the day of what will most definitely be a spectacr fight! Having just reached the 200th floor after an unbroken series of consecutive matches all the way from the 1st Floor! Thisd just couldn''t wait to enter the scene! Give it up for our newest addition to the 200th Floor, Gon!]


    [And his opponent, with four victories and only a single defeat in five matches. Guido! Are the contenders ready? Well then, let the match Begin!]


    The peg-legged man lifted his walking stick horizontally and swiped his other arm across its surface, releasing what appeared to be a dozen small tops, already spinning, from his sleeve and bncing them on the cane.


    The announcer called out [That''s it! Guido has put out his offensive Dancing Spinning Tops. It''s his specialty. He throws a dozen spinning tops that he maniptes to attack his opponent!]


    Guido swung his cane forward, throwing and scattering the tops in Gon''s direction while shouting, "Let''s go! Waltz of Combat!"


    Gon avoided the initial barrage, but the topsnded all around him and started moving rapidly.


    One top suddenly struck another and sent the second top flying into the air, directly toward Gon''s back.


    Gon''s wince of pain disyed the damage he had taken. The Ref noticed it too and awarded Guido a Point for the clean hit.


    [Gon received a terrible shock to his back! Gon is surrounded on all sides by the spinning tops! It''s the first time he''s been in such a situation!]


    Gon looked in every direction, trying to keep track of the bouncing tops, and looked very much like a cornered animal.


    Another top struck his back, and before he could brace himself, a third struck his head, sending him to the ground. Guido was awarded more points for each hit and two points for the down. He already had five points and only needed five more for a TKO.


    Killua asked from the side, "How are those tops always sent flying toward Gon?"


    HK-47 helpfully answered.


    [Analysis: Each Top acts like a ma for anything in proximity. While on the ground, they strike each other. Due to their ma-like nature, once one gets close, it will elerate toward the other, striking it with enough force to send it into the air. Once in the air, the standing Gon is the closest target, unless another top is also in the air.]


    Killua asked, "So he can just lie down?"


    [Negatory: Raising a fraction of a centimeter off the ground would be enough to direct themselves towards Gon.]


    Rayleigh already had some ideas, but asked HK-47, "How would you deal with Guido?"


    [Answer: Altering the smooth terrain to be less hospitable towards those tops would be advisable. Landmines can be ced, and Fragmentation Grenades could also be lobbed at the metal-limbed meatbag. If Gon had brought his Fishing Rod, he could have spread the fishing line on the ground, and nothing would have prevented the tops from tying themselves up. Alternatively, one could stand at the edge of the ring, and half the tops that attack would fall out of the ring on each attack and find it difficult to return. He would run out of tops eventually.]


    Rayleigh nodded, but stated, "Gon might figure that out, but he''s not there to win."


    Killua agreed, "Yeah, he''s just there to have fun."


    Gon got pounded a few times and even got ejected from the ring. He didn''t return immediately but examined the spinning tops from the safety of outside the ring for a few moments. The Ref started counting to ten, and by nine, Gon seemed to think of something. He ran back into the ring and ignored the tops. He charged directly to Guido to deliver a flying kick, but a moment before Gon made contact, Guido started spinning at what appeared to be close to three hundred RPM. The spinning man''s centrifugal force knocked Gon back over the tops and all the way back out of the ring. The hit was so strong, the announcer awarded it a Critical. Guido now had nine points. One more, and he''d win by TKO.


    Gon returned to the stage and closed his eyes.


    Killua reacted with panic, "What''s he doing?!"


    Rayleigh couldn''t sense him from that far away and asked, "What do you see?"


    "Gon stopped using Ten. In fact, he''s not using any aura at all! I think he''s suppressing itpletely."


    Ray understood why that was a bad thing. Ten was like covering yourself with pillows during a practice match. Gon had justpletely removed his defenses.


    It was obvious why this was bad. A single hit from someone using Nen against someonecking Ten to protect themselves usually meant getting crippled.


    Rayleigh sighed and said, "He''s probably not going to lose any limbs. If he gets crippled, I can put him back together."


    Killua remembered how good Rayleigh was at healing, but asked, "You''re not gonna do anything if he doesn''t get crippled, right?"


    Ray nodded, "As long as the damage isn''t permanent, he can keep any injuries he gets from being an idiot."


    Killua agreed but was inwardly relieved.


    With his eyes closed, Gon''s senses were enhanced. The unpredictable movements of the tops bouncing off one another tounch themselves at his position were clearly read, even whening from behind.


    The announcer went crazy, astounded that Gon was finally able to dodge the tops.


    Guido apparently had more tops than Rayleigh thought, as once it was clear that ten were not enough to pressure him, Guidounched a dozen more. Then another dozen. And another. After a full hour of Gon''s insane dodging, there were almost fifty tops shooting around the arena.


    Watching the scene, Rayleigh winced, and a momentter, Gon moved into a corner that Killua spotted. Unable to hold himself back, Killua shouted, "No! Not this way!"


    Gon realized toote that he had no way out and braced himself for the impact of a top shooting at him from the side. Gon used his arm to block, but the impact shot him out of the ring and broke his arm.


    Rayleigh sighed. A broken arm. Again. Could be worse.


    Though Gon could get up, the clean hit won Guido''s tenth point, awarding him the match''s victory by TKO.


    Killua and Rayleigh got up to meet Gon at the medic station he was being taken over to by the Ref.


    After the damage was diagnosed, Gon''s waist was securely tied up to hold together his cracked ribs and the three ces his arm had been broken were set before a cast was applied.


    Killua stated, "The Doctor said it will take four months for you to heal."


    Rayleigh added, "Thest time his arm broke, it healed in a week. This is a bit more severe, so I''d say a month or two at the most and he''ll be fine."


    Since Gon was being aplete idiot, he received no healing from Rayleigh. Instead, he got scolded for being an idiot until someone knocked on the door and Rayleigh answered it.


    Wing walked in and spotted Gon on the bed with his arm in a cast.


    Without a word, he walked up to Gon and gave a silent stare of disapproval.


    Gon started, "Wing. I''m sorry-"


    Wing pped him.


    Wing shouted, "I don''t want your apologies! What were you thinking?! You know exactly what happened to those who entered that stage without knowing anything, and you still went up on your own! It would not have been surprising if you got crippled!"


    Gon lowered his head, fully aware that Wing was right. In fact, Rayleigh had told Killua he could heal such things, but he had never mentioned it to Gon, so Gon had no reason to think Rayleigh could fix him if he messed up.


    Wing sighed at Gon''s genuine regret and said, "It''s really lucky it only ended up like this."


    Gon looked thoroughly reprimanded and asked, "Wing. I''m sorry. Please forgive me."


    Wing gave a hard stare and directly replied, "No way."


    Wing turned to ask Rayleigh, "Do you know how long the convalescence willst?"


    Ray answered, "A month or two at the most."


    Wing nodded. He turned back to Gon and said, "For the next two months, you are not allowed to study or practice Nen in any way. That''s your punishment. No fighting, and no practicing Ten. If you don''t respect this punishment, then I will have nothing to do with you anymore. Do you agree?"


    Gon gave Wing a firm stare and answered, "Okay, I promise!"


    He then gave a grateful nce at Ray over the fact that he gave Wing his own estimate of the recovery rather than the Doctor''s estimate of four months.


    Confirming that Gon had made his promise, Wing took out a piece of string. He tied it to Gon''s left hand''s pinky finger and said, "This is a wire of pledge. When you look at it, I want you to remember the promise you just made."


    Gon held up his hand to look at it and nodded, "Yes!"


    Wing confirmed the message was clear and turned to Rayleigh and Killua. "Both of you, pleasee with me."


    He left the room, with the boys following him out.


    They made their way over to some empty benches, where he had them sit down and asked, "What is your objective for being here?"


    Killua answered, "Well, it was to get some money. If we hadn''t met you and Zushi that is. Gon just wants to fight Hisoka. As for the reward of the 200th floor, I''m not really interested."


    Rayleigh noticed a few signals from Wing''s emotions. Wing seemed relieved that Gon and Killua had no interest in the 200th Floor. Did he want Zushi to have lesspetition? Rayleigh stated, "I have no interest in the 200th floor either. I''ll climb back up the tower for more money, but if I don''t find any good matches on the 200th Floor, I may not even fight. It would be better to just spar with Killua or Gon."


    Killua continued, "Gon isn''t as picky. He wants to fight Hisoka, but to be honest, this entire setup just seems to amuse him."


    Ray nodded and said, "Yeah, he''s just having fun."


    Wing looked quite worried. Gon''s match basically involved him dodging thousands of attacks strong enough to kill him for over an hour. What kind of beast does that kind of thing for fun?


    Killua and Rayleigh both noticed Wing''s hesitation.


    Killua interrupted the man''s train of thought, stating, "It''s toote. If you regret teaching us and want to stop, we''ll learn Nen from someone else or figure it out ourselves. Don''t think you''re responsible for us. We already knew about Nen from guys like Hisoka and my brother. Sooner orter we would have discovered it."


    Wing nodded. The confusion in his eyes was reced with resolve.


    "I understand. I don''t have any intention of stopping in the middle. Quite the opposite, I have tons of things to teach you both. Zushi is waiting for us at the Hotel, if you aren''t bothered exercising with us, you can join Zushi in practices while I instruct Rayleigh on opening his Aura Nodes."


    Killua seemed to consider it for a moment before answering, "No, it''s alright. I''ll wait until Gon has healed, and we can do it together."


    Rayleigh sighed. There was no point in getting ahead if he didn''t have someone to spar with at the same level. At least he''d have more time applying Nen of Point and r to his Jedi Training. He already finished Absolute Belief, so he could start on Contrary Belief which led to splitting the mind.


    Rayleigh said aloud, "I don''t want to get ahead without Gon and Killua, so just tell me where to go after opening that spot in my back."


    Killua gave an appreciative look, and Wing smiled at their friendship.


    Wing told Rayleigh, "We can''t get ahead of ourselves. You need to open the node on your back before we start on the others."


    Rayleigh turned around and uncapped the aura flowing out from his spine, pointing out, "Yeah yeah, I already did that. What''s next?"


    Wing looked shocked before bing concerned. He stated, "I said you can''t use those stretches more than once a day. Doing it more than once can damage your aura openings."


    Killua pointed out, "Ah, he only did it once. He showed us what you told him to do, and then that spot on his back opened up."


    Wing froze. "You. You opened it on your first try?"


    Rayleigh nodded. Thanks to Psychometry, he did it exactly the way Wing did, so he didn''t know if that helped or not.


    Wing seemed to mutter to himself for a bit before sighing. He took another look at Ray and seemed to psych himself up. "Alright, I''ll show you the path you have to open your remaining nodes. For the best results, they have to be opened in a specific order."


    Wing began pointing at specific locations on the body and naming the Aura Nodes for each. Killua found it interesting and stuck around for the exnation.


    Once he finished exining, he said, "Take your time and allow your aura to flow through this path, and your nodes will open up naturally. If you have any questions, you know where to find me."


    Rayleigh nodded and, together with Killua, turned back to return to Gon''s room.


    As an afterthought, Wing called out before heading off, "Although Gon cannot practice Nen of Force, he can practice Nen of me''s Ten of Point."


    The pair returned to Gon''s room and found that he already seemed to be meditating on Ten of Point.


    Ray and Killua took their own meditative positions, Killua contemting the Ten of Point while Rayleigh went over the Aura Node Path.


    Rather than concentrate on his aura, Rayleigh went over the path Wing had dictated again and again inside his head, without actually using it. Was Wing''s path the best one? Probably. Was there a better one? In his past life, he had read far too many Light Novels, and the concept of something better than the standard being discovered by the MC thanks to plot armor always appealed to him. He already created a Code no Force User had ever dreamed of. Why not try the same for Nen?


    Rayleigh emptied his mind and strengthened his awareness of his body using the Force. Control was about controlling the Force within the body, so what if he could use Control to analyze those closed aura nodes? What if he could use the Force to predict and direct his aura through the most perfect path? He wanted to try.


    Rayleigh got to work, essentially creating an autopilot program for the Force to run to make his body open the aura nodes in the most perfect way. One means of cheating he used was Self-Psychometry. Basically, he ced his hands together and used Psychometry on himself to gain an even greater depth of detail than standard observation could yield for internal observations.


    He had no idea if it would work, so he included the proper way as a n B. Basically, the Force would test out various paths using Precognition and Danger Sense to determine if those paths were a good idea or not, and if no alternative could be found, it would just use the standard way.


    After getting a good feel for it, Rayleigh turned his brain off and let the Force takeplete control of opening the aura nodes.


    "Woah," "Hey, you did it."


    Rayleigh''s consciousness returned when he heard Killua''s and Gon''s remarks.


    Rayleigh opened his eyes. White mist was pouring out of his body. Remembering Wing''s instructions, Rayleigh focused his mind and willed the aura to remain on skin level without escaping or dispersing. The aura on his skin blocked the release of more aura, keeping the remainder of his aura within his body.


    Overall, Rayleigh didn''t feel that much different. One downside of this method was that, because it waspletely automatic, he had no awareness of the order in which his nodes opened and didn''t know if he used the standard way or some secret way. It was fine in either case. He used the best method, even though he had no idea what it was.


    Rayleigh suddenly felt the emptiness in his stomach and asked, "How long was I out?"


    Killua answered, "Two days."


    Gon added, "It was weird. Aura would randomly pop out like a little geyser from your body and then close on its own."


    Rayleigh got up and started stretching. He didn''t know if two days were fast or slow and neither did Gon nor Killua. He knew he would have gone faster if he didn''t try to get fancy, but at least this way there would be no regrets and he wouldn''t lose sleep over what could have been.


    Heading for the door, Rayleigh said, "I''m gonna do the tower again."


    Killua said, "Don''t bother losing on purpose. I asked about it, and you only get a prize for your first victory on floors above 100. The only way to reset is to start the tower over again, so there''s no point in losing on the 190th floor and winning on the 180th floor over and over."


    Gon and Ray both stared at Killua in disbelief that he had actually thought of such a dishonest method. Killua turned away in embarrassment and stated, "What, it''s not like you would not have thought of itter."


    Rayleigh chuckled before heading out. He wanted to get a feel of how aura worked with the Force and experiencing it against opponents who weren''t holding back was a good way to experiment.


    Rayleigh registered on the first floor again and got matched up with someone who really didn''t belong there. What was worse was the fact that the dude actually started insulting Rayleigh, trying to put him down with the worst type of trash talk imaginable. It was so pathetic, Rayleigh''s urge to test Aurapletely died, so he ended the match with the opponent nted on the opposite wall.


    The Ref looked at theputer in his hand and stated, "You went all the way to the 190th floor? You can just go back to the 190th then."


    Rayleigh shook his head and said, "Something happened, so I can''t fight as I did before. Let me start on the 100th floor so I can adjust."


    It wasn''t a lie, exactly, and the Ref took it as the truth, so he gave Rayleigh a ticket for the 100th floor where Rayleigh made his way up. Because there were fewer fighters on the upper floors, it wasn''t hard to get three matches a day, so Rayleigh nned to catch up to the 200th floor in 4 days.


    During that time, Rayleigh focused entirely on his Aura and the Force.


    Aura was a force produced by his cells, given form by his mind, and given direction by his will. It wasn''t all that different from the Force on the surface, but they were truly iparable. The Force contained aspects of the minds of countless lives, both living and dead. Those who connected to it could be affected by these lives if they made a haphazard connection.


    Aura waspletely personalized. It originated from the self and was only affected by the self.


    What was interesting was not how aura interacted with the Force, but how the Force changed when he opened his Aura Nodes.


    The Force existed within Rayleigh and outside of Rayleigh. When he opened his Aura nodes, he found that the Force within him would leave his body through these nodes, but the Force outside his body would enter it. This made the Control aspect of the Force more difficult to use, but vastly expanded the Sense and Alter aspects, strengthening them both.


    Jedi trained to use the Force within their bodies. They didn''t really move it, they just used it. The Force was like a pile of tiny lightbulbs inside their body. They could control which ones turned on and which turned off and what color they changed to. But the lightbulbs didn''t move. Rayleigh''s Force now moved with his aura. As his aura flowed, so did the Force within his body.


    This opened up entire worlds of possibilities. All Force Techniques rely on the Force staying motionless within the body and in the area. What could a Jedi do if the Force actually moved?


    There was something else Rayleigh discovered he could do. That trick that Gon figured out during his match with Guido, where he closed all of his aura nodes to prevent his aura from distracting his senses. That was called Zetsu.


    It didn''t take long to figure out how to emte it, but Rayleigh found his Zetsu had two levels. The first was the same as Gon''s. It locked down the aura within the body, preventing it from leaking, being used, or even being sensed within the body. But Rayleigh had another level. In the first level, the Force within his body returned to a motionless state like it was before he opened his aura nodes. But if he increased the effect, reaching what he considered the second level of Zetsu, something unbelievable would happen. When Rayleigh reached his second level of Zetsu, he waspletely cut off from the Force.


    Being cut off from the Force meant having no Psychometry, no Danger Sense, no Precognition, and no Force abilities of any kind. What else did it mean? It meant he could do whatever he wanted and the Force would not be bothered in the least. The Force had gone from being a possessive and crazy girlfriend to being a casual and sexy friend with benefits.


    Thankfully, his natural strength and speed without the Force were still very impressive. He didn''t use the Force to open the third door of Zoldyck''s gate. Once he reached the 200th floor, he''d start using the Zoldyck Family Training Weights again while in Zetsu. Killua exined to him the actual way to use them, so he''d be able to use them properly and allow his strength to catch up to Killua''s without hampering his speed.


    When Rayleigh reached the 200th floor, he didn''t meet Hisoka. No, he saw Guido and the pair Gon and Killua described, the one without an arm and the one in the wheelchair.


    The one without an arm smiled and said, "Well, well, well. How lucky are we?"


    The trio approached, ready to muscle Rayleigh into epting a match with one of them as soon as possible.


    "Hey. He''s ours."


    A quiet voice came from further down the hall, causing the trio of cripples to freeze up.


    The one in the wheelchair turned around andined, "Hey! You can''t have him just because you''re the same age. That''s not fair! You didn''t say anything about the other two."


    A different voice echoed down the hall, followed by slow but assured footsteps, "We''re calling this one now. Unless you want to fight us for it?"


    Guido didn''t speak, but his grip on his walking stick tightened for a moment before he turned away and hobbled off. The other two followed without another word, though grumbles ofint could be heard.


    The first kid to walk into view had a wide frame. Wide shoulders and stout legs and arms. He wasn''t fat, it was obvious his body wasposed of dense muscles. He had sandy blonde hair and wore a crooked smile.


    The second kid didn''t smile and had gray hair. He was skinny and much taller than a soon-to-be twelve-year-old ought to be.


    Anding from the back, thest kid had white hair and looked quite average standing behind the other two.


    Rayleigh shook his head and smiled as he walked over to the approaching trio.


    Seeing that the muscr one seemed to be the leader, Rayleigh held out a hand of greeting and said, "Hi, I''m Swordsman."


    His hand was taken and given a strong shake before he was answered back with an unmistakable English ent, "Nice to meet you. I''m Springheeled Jack. And these are Armory and White Knight."


    *Author''s Note*


    Although Rayleigh is staying with Gon and Killua, that doesn''t mean the plot will be exactly the same. The whole point of throwing in 99 other OCs is to prevent the story from getting dull. Ray will only stick with the MCs during the Hunter Arc. Not sure if he should part after greed Ind or after Chimera Ants. He''d probably get killed by the Ants...

 Chapter 25: The Players Arena

    Chapter 25: The yer''s Arena


    Chapter 25 The yer''s Arena


    The broad-shouldered youth and hispadres took Rayleigh to a restaurant only fighters from the 200th Floor could ess and told him to order whatever he wanted.


    The menu looked good, and the scent of spices in the air gave away the high-rated chefs performing their art in the kitchen.


    After getting their orders, the one who called himself Springheeled Jack asked, "Are you a Pirate or a Jedi?"


    He was obviously referring to his first ss. Since they were paying the bill for this nice meal, Rayleigh politely answered, "Jedi."


    The white-haired yer dubbed White Knight asked, "Didn''t you take the Hunter Exam? Did you actually pass it?"


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "Yeah. It was pretty easy."


    Knight asked, "How did you find it?"


    Before Rayleigh could speak up, Jack stated, "Hey, does it matter? Do you still need a license?"


    Knight considered it for a moment before shaking his head.


    Jack added, "White Knight was the only Pirate who didn''t return to the Pirate World after the end of the Hunter Exam. We found him and made a deal."


    Rayleigh guessed aloud, "You teach him Nen, and he teaches you the Pirate system when he learns it?"


    Jack looked surprised at the urate guess, but only for a moment. It wasn''t that hard to piece together.


    The tall, gray-haired one called Armory asked, "So you already learned Nen?"


    Rayleigh answered honestly, "Only Ten at the moment. My friends and I are learning it together, but our teacher said he would not teach us anything else for two months and said to spend that time doing mental exercises."


    Jack frowned directly at that. He asked aloud, mostly to himself, "Two months to learn the basics? That''s 1 in 100,000 Talent. They can''t be the main characters, can they?"


    Seeing that there was some misunderstanding, Rayleigh added fuel to the fire by stating, "One of them failed the exam and the other only won because two of the three strongest guys in the exam were merciful. Apparently, there are people to take the Exam as young as 10 years old, much less 11."


    In a number of aspects, Rayleigh was very much like Wing. He didn''t directly lie, but he was willing to give truthful information to misdirect others.


    Armory asked, "Do you n to teach Nen to any other yers?"


    Rayleigh shrugged. "No one has asked me, but I haven''t exactly advertised that I know it."


    White Knight rolled his eyes and said, "You didn''t tell anyone you arrived at and passed the Hunter Exam either."


    The food was delivered, and the group devoured it like hungry beasts. Then they ordered another helping.


    Rayleigh asked, "Why do you care if I teach anyone Nen?"


    Jack answered, quite honestly, "We want to keep our advantage for as long as possible. It won''t remain a secret forever, but we want at least one more year. So what will it take for you to keep quiet about Nen for a year?"


    Rayleigh answered, "What can you give me?"


    Armory answered, "Do you know what privileges a Floor Master gets?"


    The receptionist had told him when he signed up, "A chance to participate in an event of some kind?"


    Jack nodded, "It happens every two years, and it''s going to happen next year. The event itself is highly valued, as participation will make us much stronger."


    Armory added, "We''ll help you be a Floor Master. There are twenty-one Floor Masters and we know the strengths and weaknesses of most of them. Agree to our proposal, and you can join us, be a Floor Master, and take part in the event with us."


    White Knight chipped in, "Their parents know a lot about Nen and are better teachers than whoever you probably have."


    Jack gave a side re that told Knight to remain silent.


    Now Rayleigh understood. These guys learned Nen from their parents, and like Killua''s parents told him to beat the 190th floor and return, these guys have parents who probably gave insider info on the benefits of the events on the tower.


    Rayleigh shook his head. "I''m not interested." If the Main Characters didn''t even take part, how good could the event be?


    Rayleigh then said, "But I''m not unreasonable. How about this? If any of you three beat me, I''ll promise not to teach anyone Nen for a year."


    Jack asked, "Here?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "No, the Tavern. I already used my time up today, so how about we all go there tomorrow, 8 PM?"


    Jack smiled and said, "Deal."


    Rayleigh left the table while Jack took care of the bill.


    The Tavern had an Arena function where yers could basically fight to the death without consequences. It cost some Mission Points to use, but not many. Since Rayleigh brought up the idea, he''d pay the Mission Points himself.


    He had not even thought about teaching Nen to others. He told others in the Tavern that he would if he could, but he couldn''t remember everything he said outside the Tavern because the conversation heavily involved Metaknowledge. Now that someone else had brought it up, he could take a moment to actually consider it. It didn''t matter if he won or lost, he wouldn''t be able to teach anything useful for a year anyways, but he wanted an all-out fight against someone who already knew how to use Nen.


    After finishing up his meal, Rayleigh went down a few floors to a Gym built into the tower and put on a few hundred kilograms of weights before using his Second Level Zetsu to cut his bodypletely off from the Force and Aura. He then proceeded to run as fast as he could for as long as he could before copsing.


    One advantage of Zetsu was that remaining in Zetsu elerated the healing process, so he could do this kind of physical exercise more and more often.


    Rayleigh spent the next day chatting with Gon and Killua while exercising and practicing Contrary Belief. He would imagine at the same time that a rock on the ground was getting light enough to float while also imagining that it was getting heavier and heavier. It was awkward and felt like he was splitting his vision, seeing things with one eye independently of seeing things with the other. Continuing this exercise for a while would naturally lead to enabling one to split their own mind and be capable of thinking different things at the same time.


    Once every step of r training wasplete, he could return to this step with both his minds and use Contrary Belief with both, leading to his two split minds splitting again into four different minds, each capable of independent thought. Perhaps he could even go further.


    At 8 PM precisely, Rayleigh mentally entered the Tavern and soon spotted the adult versions of Springheeled Jack, Armory, and White Knight.


    As an adult, Jack looked even bulkier, like he could wrap his arms around a tree and squeeze it to splinters. Armory appeared refined, whereas Knight appeared heroic.


    While he was sizing them up, he was being sized up in turn. Though Rayleigh considered his brown hair and brown eyes in, his sharp features stood out like a drawn de, regal and imposing.


    Jack directly stated, "You''ll fight White Knight first. He''s been learning Nen for a month already, and since he has 1 in 10,000,000 Talent, he already has the basics down."


    The group headed to a hall beneath the stairs to the second floor. At the end was a door with a que. [Arena. Challenge yers or Figures from various worlds.]


    Challenging a yer was cheap but only worked if they agreed. If you had enough points, you could also challenge figures you knew about from various worlds. A yer could pay to fight Captain Ginyu or Sage Mode Madara Uchiha if they had enough points. No one was strong enough to fight anyone interesting, so this feature had not been used much by the yers yet.


    Rayleigh opened the door and entered, followed by the others. If he closed the door, the space would separate, and they would enter a different version of that room if they opened it after he entered and closed it.


    The new space was a bit smaller than a high school gymnasium, but that was just the basic setting. Every yer had explored it at least once. There was a massive square tform of white stone with an illuminated area in the middle. In front of the tform was a Terminal one could use to change the settings of the Arena, set the challenge parameters, or spar with a significant fictional character. The only problem some yersined about was the limits on who they could choose to face.


    To the chagrin of many, Metaknowledge was Sealed in the Arena. The upside of that was that all the fighting experience and memories gained within the Arena were perfectly tranted to your Character. But for those who want to fight, they could only fight those they knew about. So Rayleigh could fight Hisoka, Netero, Master Dyanameez, or even Yoda, but he could not fight someone he didn''t know while his Metaknowlegde was sealed. Fighting someone for the first time was also more expensive the less you knew about the person. So paying to fight Yoda, someone he''d never even met, would be far more expensive than paying to fight Netero, someone he knew a few things about and even had a mock spar with.


    Rayleigh selected the standard fight, either till death or until one fighter gave up.


    Rayleigh then entered the ring and waited for his opponent.


    White Knight approached the stage and stopped for a moment. Rayleigh couldn''t see it, but Knight had just received a pop-up asking him to confirm if he was going to participate in this match.


    Knight agreed and jumped onto the stage, opposite Rayleigh.


    The bodies of both yers glowed for a moment. They suddenly reverted from their adult selves to their twelve-year-old bodies. You could only use the Arena using your actual age.


    A ten-second countdown appeared, giving both yers time to remove items from their Inventory and prepare themselves.


    Rayleigh removed his Lightsaber but not his melee shield. This fight was to have fun, not hide behind a shield.


    Knight did not take out any equipment from his inventory, instead, a white substance with a shine poured out of his hands and covered his body before shaping itself into something resembling armor.


    The only substance that came to mind when Rayleigh looked at it was wax, and the only reason he thought it was wax was because Knight suddenly developed a cowlick on the top of his head, which now burned with a small me, making him resemble a candle.


    The armor formed around him and finished hardening. In addition to the armor, he also had spiked extended gloves and spiked tform shoes, granting him height and a longer reach.


    Almost every inch of him other than his eyes, nose, and joints was covered in wax shaped like an elongated suit of Knight''s armor.


    Knight then smashed his spiky mitts together, and the ng that rang out sounded more like steel than wax.


    The countdown reached zero, and White Knight''s aura surged over his body and into his wax.


    He then jumped forward to m his spiky fist into Rayleigh''s position.


    The spectators saw White Knight jump up and smash his fist into the ground. Pulverized stone shot into the air, and dust momentarily covered the stage.


    The Arena shed twice, signaling the end of the match.


    When the dust settled, the observing Jack and Armory were dumbfounded.


    Rayleigh was fine, he had dodged the attack with minimal movement, and his blue Lightsaber was extending into White Knight''s chest. The wax around theser sword was dripping madly.


    Both yers were surrounded by light and returned to their starting positions in their 21-year-old forms.


    White Knight eximed, "Dammit! Is that thing really that hot?! I heard Jedi hadser swords but I didn''t think it would actually go through my wax like an actual hot knife through butter!"


    He was whining, but it was somewhat excusable.


    Rayleigh asked, "How hard is that wax supposed to be?"


    Armory answered, "As hard as steel. At least most swords can''t hope to cut through it. He even strengthened the wax further with his Nen."


    Springheeled Jack patted Knight''s shoulderfortingly and said, "It''s fine. Devil Fruits often have weaknesses, but they usually have more strengths."


    White Knight continued pouting, "Easy for you to say. Won''t every Jedi have one of thoseser swords?"


    Though the question wasn''t for him, Rayleigh answered, "No. Most yers have to choose between easy masteries or a Lightsaber rather than both. Though everyone gets one eventually, and they might be able to use Mission Points to turn it into an Inventory item at some point."


    Springheeled Jack said, "I''m next."


    Rayleigh returned to the Terminal and paid for another round, same conditions.


    The pair entered the ring and waited as the countdown initiated once more.


    Springheeled Jack did not take out any weapons or anything, but his aura was ring brightly. Rayleigh couldn''t tell if it was on the same level of Hisoka, but it was at least in the same ballpark.


    Rayleigh flexed his Ten, protecting himself somewhat from the intimidation factor caused by someone''s Ren.


    The moment the countdown reached zero, Rayleigh turned away on instinct as a fist passed by where his head had been. Only after Jack flew past him did he notice the sound of the crack of the stone floor that shattered when Jack jumped at Rayleigh''s position.


    Before Rayleigh could turn, Jack was already on his way back, having reached the wall and literally bouncing off.


    Rayleigh guarded himself with his lightsaber, forcing Jack to evade around it by twisting his body. However, once he was past the Lightsaber, he extended his fist to strike from what should have been an impossible-to-attack position. Rayleigh''s battle precognition saved him again, and this time he got a good look at his opponent mid-attack.


    Jack''s calves to the ankle and forearms to the wrist had been reced with coiled metal springs.


    Jack could practically cross the room and bounce back before Rayleigh could react. He was moving faster than Rayleigh could, but not faster than Rayleigh''s Battle Precognition-assisted senses allowed him to dodge. After three dodges, Rayleigh understood Jack could only move in straight lines and swiped his Lightsaber into Jack''s path, but Jack did something unexpected. He flicked his spring-loaded wrist to throw his fist to the side before causing it to return to him in midair. The act of doing so altered his trajectory, neatly dodging Rayleigh''s strike and aiming once more for an opening, forcing Rayleigh to dodge again.


    Jack stopped bouncing around and jumped over to the other side of the ring. He shook his head and said, "Man, you''re the first person to dodge me so easily. Guess I need to move faster."


    His calf springs and forearm springs startedpressing. Aura seemed to converge into the springs, giving Rayleigh a strong sense of danger. Jack then started rotating his wrists. They spun around slowly, furtherpressing the springs.


    Once everything seemed loaded, Jack shouted, "Dam Breaker!" whileunching himself forward. Hispressed arms shot out, his fists breaking the sound barrier due to moving faster than the crack of a whip.


    Rayleigh didn''t bother to dodge. His Battle Precognition told him Jack would alter his course to strike wherever Rayleigh shifted to. Both of Jack''s fists were like cannonballs. Even if Rayleigh used his Lightsaber to cut one, the other would pass through his body like it was made of Styrofoam, turning him into a meat paste. If he tried to strike both, they would use the stored torque from when he spun them around to shift out of the way. Even if Rayleigh sessfully cut them both, it wouldn''t greatly reduce their momentum.


    Jack would lose an arm or two but win the fight. This was the advantage of the Arena. Injuries didn''t matter, you really could go all out.


    If this was before Rayleigh opened his Aura Nodes, this would have been game over, but the Force in his body was freely exchanging itself with the Force in the room, granting him far stronger control over the Force around him. This meant Alter Aspects of the Force, like Telekinesis, were greatly strengthened when he used Ten.


    Rayleigh could not stop or greatly divert the two iing cannonballs, but he could nudge them to the sides. Before Jack''s mighty fists reached Rayleigh, they suddenly distanced themselves from one another, giving Rayleigh room between their paths to just stand there safely.


    Jack noticed Rayleigh''s telekinesis a moment toote. He did not have any form of precognition at the moment, or he would have been able to counter this. He tried twisting his hands, but the torque he applied took into ount Rayleigh dodging left or right, allowing him to easily move them further left or right. It didn''t ount for Rayleigh staying in the middle and having to move them closer to the center.


    The pair of fists passed harmlessly around Rayleigh and Jack was wide open. Jack actually closed his eyes as Rayleigh passed by; he didn''t want to see his own bisection as Rayleigh''s Lightsaber split the man length-wise in two.


    The Arena shed twice, and both yers returned to their starting positions


    Rayleigh asked aloud, "Was that a Devil Fruit or Nen thing?"


    Jack didn''t seem dismayed. He actually had a smile on his face and was even lost in thought. Rayleigh shook his head with a smile. It seemed he was not the only battle junkie in the room.


    Armory answered for him, "He has the power of the Spring Fruit, acquired from a Devil Fruit Trial Pass. He only used Nen to enhance the strength and speed of the springs."


    Rayleigh looked over to the gray-haired man and asked, "I thought you both were Hunters, not Pirates."


    Armory answered amicably, "You can take the Trial for a Devil Fruit even if you have not unlocked the Pirate ss as long as you paid for the Trial Pass. Pirate is both of our Secondary ss. After getting a Devil Fruit''s power from clearing a Trial, we simply went to the Pirate World to unlock the ss which also granted the Devil Fruit''s abilities. Then we came back."


    Rayleigh asked, "So you have one too?"


    Armory replied back, "You don''t? Devil Fruits are very powerful."


    Rayleigh smiled and challenged back, "Show me."


    Rayleigh paid for a third match, depleting the remainder of his Mission Points. He''d have to do a bunch of 45~49 Point Missions or hopefully figure out Nen and get strong enough to do the 50 Point and above Missions.


    The countdown started once more. Jack eventually came out of his internal thought processes and stood with Knight at the side to watch. Although they each had lost, both had confident smiles on their faces as to the oue of the current match.


    Rayleigh took out his lightsaber once more and Armory''s aura red from his body. Then it did something weird. His aura solidified into what looked like iron sand. The sand didn''t float around like particte matter either, it globed together strongly and floated in the air while shaping itself. The various floating lumps took the shape of various weapons, and before the countdown reached zero, Armory was surrounded by floating shields, knives, and spears.


    Once the countdown hit zero, the hardened weaponsunched themselves at Rayleigh''s position. Rayleigh used his own Telekinesis to block it, but the blocked weapons shifted back into sand and seemed to slip through his conscious grasp of them. That was a problem.


    Telekinesis was not an invisible hand that stretched out. It was taking a concept and altering it with your mind. The concept, ''the flying knife'' could be identified and targeted, allowing him to will the target identified as ''the flying knife'' to move or stop. But what if the concept became immaterial? How could he stop a flying knife if there was no knife?


    Rayleigh gave up on Telekinesis and ran. He swerved to avoid the flying weapons and charged toward Armory, intent on slicing through that metal shield.


    The moment he approached, he felt an intense sense of danger and stopped before backing up. The problem was that he didn''t see or sense where the danger originated from.


    He did see the weaponsing from behind and returning towards him though.


    When Rayleigh felt a pull on his Lightsaber, he understood that Armory seemed to be acting like a ma. He had no way to pull the Lightsaber from his hand, but he could pull, push, and shape the maic sand around him.


    Rayleigh dodged several more times, but he had no way to attack Armory. Every time he got close, he sensed that impending danger but was unable to identify what it was.


    A hrious thought urred to Ray and almost made him break his concentration. Wasn''t this almost exactly what happened to Gon with Guido?


    At least Rayleigh had a better-quality of opponent.


    Rayleigh asked aloud, "How long can you keep this up?"


    Armory politely answered, "For as long as I want. Maintaining the Maic Sand doesn''t cost much Aura after it''s made, and the Maism is powered by the Ma Fruit, not Nen."


    Well, that meant he couldn''t wait him out. One downside of the Arena was that it still held to the rule that you could only spend two hours a day in the Tavern. Knight''s and Jack''s matches hadn''t taken very long, but they still only had a little over an hour. Besides, ending the match like that would leave a sour taste in Rayleigh''s mouth.


    He didn''t know what the danger was, but he had confidence in his own abilities. If he charged forward for an exchange of blows, he could end Armory before dying himself.


    With this in mind, Rayleigh waited for an opening. He stayed a few meters away from Armory, and eventually Armory sumbed to the temptation to attack Rayleigh with the metal shield he kept in front of him, doubling the amount of sand used to fight and doubling the number of weapons.


    Rayleigh moved at his fastest speed to strike. The ever-present rm of danger ringing in his senses was ignored as he aimed for the head.


    Armory then did something Rayleigh certainly did not expect. He held up his hands and blocked the Lightsaber. Theser sword stopped a centimeter from Armory''s hands, both together, pressing with an invisible force against the iing Lightsaber. Rayleigh''s strength should have overpowered him, but Rayleigh noticed toote that Armory had metal beneath his sleeves. He likely encased his body in metal and hardened it into a statue, granting him the strength not to bend under Rayleigh''s attack.


    Armory smiled, "So it really is a sma sword."


    The danger screamed at Rayleigh, he tried to jump back, but felt numerous stabs of pain throughout his body before he could get any distance.


    Rayleigh looked carefully at the wounds. He didn''t see or sense what was piercing him. Blood dripped down from invisible weapons that had embedded themselves into Rayleigh''s body.


    The weapons locked his movements, preventing him from dodging the des that finished him off a momentter.


    The Arena shed twice, and Rayleigh and Armory returned to their starting positions.


    Rayleigh smiled and sat down. "I lost." He turned to Armory and asked, "How did you do that?"


    Armory answered, "Aura can be used to enhance things like the strength of Jack''s springs or the hardness of Knight''s wax. It can transmute itself into other substances, other forms of energy, or matter itself. I''m something of a Transmuter, and something of a Conjurer, so I can easily create Maic Sand with my aura that can be perfectly controlled by my Ma Fruit''s abilities. As for how I made my sand invisible? You''ll find outter as you learn more about Nen."


    Rayleigh frowned. He wanted to know now, but he wouldn''t give Armory the pleasure of one-upping him again by being asked.


    The group left the Arena and spent thest hour chatting while drinking their free beers.


    Rayleigh asked Jack, "You looked like you knew he was gonna beat me before the match started."


    Jack nodded with a smile, "Armory is a genius. And I don''t mean talent. He''s a fucking mastermind ying chess. Every move you made since you got up there was made for you." He then turned to Armory and added, "But I didn''t think the bastard would block your Lightsaber with his hands."


    They were out of the Arena, so Metaknowledge had returned, but inside the Arena, the idea of blocking a Laser sword with an electromaic field was a ballsy one.


    "I didn''t know if it would work, to be honest," Armory admitted.


    Rayleigh sighed, "That''s probably why it worked. Battle Precognition works somewhat off the intent of the opponent."


    Rayleigh asked, "Why are you called Armory and not Mao?"


    Armory shrugged. "I couldn''t think of Mao. Even though the MCU doesn''t have mutants, all Marvel knowledge is sealed, so I didn''t even think of him. Instead, I just thought I could have every weapon and armor that existed, so I''m a human armory. It doesn''t matter since I''ll be walking down the same path regardless."


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "Still better than Springheeled Jack."


    Jack shouted back, "What did you say?!"


    Ray answered, "I mean, you don''t have springs on your heels. They''re on your ankles."


    Jack countered, "Springheeled Jack isn''t a name I made up, it''s an old urban legend from Ennd about a man capable of jumping over walls. Besides, once I master the use of my Devil Fruit, I won''t just be able to turn my arms and legs into springs. I bet if I awaken it, I can turn every body part and cell into a spring. You think I''m fast now? Just wait. And if I can learn that Air-Walk trick from the Pirate World, I''ll be able to do even more! I won''t need walls and will be able to fight in the sky!"


    White Knight added, "My dad in the Pirate World is a retired Cipher Pol officer who knows the Six Techniques. I have those as an Easy Mastery, so once I''m strong enough, he''ll teach me, and then I can teach you."


    Jack smiled brightly, shouting, "Alright!" Outside of the Tavern, they would not recall the knowledge of the Six Techniques, Rokushiki, but since they already arranged that they''d teach Nen to White Knight in exchange for him teaching them, they should be able to learn it without needing to ask.


    They chatted until their two hours were up and returned to the Tower. Rayleigh''s Character spent the time meditating, and now he''d get back to r training. He hoped toplete Contrary Belief and Mental Division within a month, then Mental Separation and Mental Istion in two months.


    It was true that Rayleigh lost to Armory because he couldn''t sense the invisible weapons, but it was also because he was outyed. Jedi had difficulties multitasking. If Rayleigh could properly split his mind, he''d be able to perform twice as many tasks with the Force. He could even do the same thing he read about in a Light Novel and have one mind dedicated to using the Force to enhance his body while using the other to sense the surroundings and use the Force to alter the environment.


    In any case, it would make him stronger than he is now. In a sense, he was thankful for his loss. It urately pointed out his weaknesses and how he could improve. He''d have to think about visiting the Arena more often in the future.


    *Author''s Note*


    Every yer is having his or her own adventure, and most have their own teacher or guide instructing them on how to get stronger, so it''s not an easy thing to simply encounter them wandering around. That being said, there will be a group of them in Greed Ind and they will be mini-rivals for Ray''s group during the GI Arc since they will all be stronger and more experienced. Biscuit may torture them lightly.


    I am powered by reviews and stones.

 Chapter 26: Hisokas Match

    Chapter 26: Hisoka''s Match


    Chapter 26 Hisoka''s Match


    Rayleigh refrained from practicing Ten or using his Aura for the next month to make sure he didn''t get ahead of Gon and Killua. Instead, he devoted his time entirely to Weighted Zetsu Training and r Training. Every week he''d perform a 45 Point Tavern Mission and asionally hang out with Springheeled Jack and the others in the Tavern. He never asked their names even though he could easily look them up. He knew what to call them. To boost the effect of his Zetsu training, he only entered the Tavern physically. Around lunch time each day, he''d leave Heaven''s Arena and find a location without cameras or witnesses to physically enter the Tavern from, so he could eat a very nutritious meal within.


    By the end of the first week, his r Training had progressed, naturally enabling him to have two separate trains of thought simultaneously. The next step would be to separate the various thoughts into separate minds by isting the thoughts of one train from the thoughts of another. This required one train of thought topletely ignore another train of thought. It was somewhat simr to having two people in the same room, both singing, but being so engrossed in their own songs that they didn''t even notice the other person in the room.


    From what Rayleigh knew, other than Jedi, the only other ss with mental defenses was the Wizard ss. They had something called lumency, but it was not what the yers thought it was.


    Within the Tavern, Wizards groaning about lumency being a rip-off were always present. Many a fanfiction had equated lumency to the Mind Pce Technique from Sherlock Holmes, but the two had nothing to do with each other. lumency was basically a fancier version of acting. ording to those who got the Easy Mastery of lumency, the skill allowed the user to create a character, a false persona within the mind that seemed exactly like a real one. Those who observed the person would only find traits of the character, not the actor himself. A skilled lumens hadyers of characters, making perceptive individuals capable of seeing through others believe they saw the real beneath the mask when the so-called real was just another character, another mask.


    lumency was useful for mental defenses because it allowed the user to create a false target for mental attacks, but it did not organize the mind, grant eidetic memory, or make the user smarter. Simr to the belief that Wandless Magic was easy to learn, the ''truth'' about lumency brought waves ofints and groans from the yers who thought they could use its Easy Mastery to be geniuses without putting in the effort.


    Rayleigh learned these things from the whiners in the General Chat. Most of the things yers learned about other sses came from theiners.


    Rayleigh kept lumency in mind when practicing his r. In the future, he might need to iste information from one of his minds and use it to block powerful mind readers or mental attacks.


    Ironically, he ended up making a Mind Pce for himself in order to progress Mental Separation. Having two thoughts in the same room wasn''t separate, no matter how hard he tried, so he had to expand the concept of his mind into something muchrger, much firmer. Rayleigh''s Mind Pce ended up being abination of all the Temples Rayleigh stayed at on Tython, but primarily the Temple of Force Skills.


    The Temple of Force Skills had a different Force Skill depicted on the wall of every room, and Rayleigh had used Psychometry on each while there and had a crystal clear memory of those rooms, making it easy to create such an image in his mind. Since the original Temple already separated skills into rooms, it was easy to keep those skills in those rooms and only slightly harder to make new rooms with different pieces of knowledge depicted within. Instead of books and libraries, his knowledge was carved in detail into the walls of each room. Techniques were carved into reliefs and statues, while memories were made into murals.


    Upon thepletion of his Mind Temple, he alsopleted Mental Separation. His various trains of thought could explore or renovate different areas of his mind pce while remaining unaware of what the others were doing. Of course, the separation had to be intentional. Separating the thoughts just allowed two trains of thought to ur without interrupting each other. The separation of the thoughts into individual tasks could be undone at any moment.


    Rayleigh figured that the only reason he seeded was thanks to the Game''s mental mechanic which allowed yers to hide their past lives. It was very simr to the act of separating thoughts. During separation, your mind without your past life memories would think one thing, while your mind with your past life memories would think another. It was only thanks to this experience that he was able to replicate this unusual feat.


    After a month, two significant events urred in the Tower. Gon''s arm healedpletely, and a well-known fighter was scheduled for an uing match. If it was anyone else, the trio probably wouldn''t have cared, but the fighter in the uing match was none other than Hisoka!


    Killua and Rayleigh stood in line for over an hour to buy their tickets. Killua insisted on buying one for Gon, saying that watching a fight was not the same as studying Nen, and that Wing would allow it.


    The ticket price was 150,000 Jennies. The only reason they could easily purchase one was because the fighters on the 200th floor could buy them in advance before sales opened to the masses and the scalpers who''d buy up all the tickets before reselling them at a premium.


    With Hisoka''s uing match, the details of Hisoka''s past matches became easily known.


    ording to others the pair asked, Hisoka had eleven matches in Heaven''s Arena. Three were losses, and of his eight victories, six were outright killed. What was more interesting was that those three losses weren''t to strong fighters, but matches he simply didn''t show up for. At a fight he actually went to, he''s never lost.


    ording to Springheeled Jack, Hisoka had gotten to the 200th Floor before they did and was one of the strongest fighters. He wasn''t just famous, he was infamous. His presence at the Hunter''s Exam this year reportedly caused several Hunter yers who hadn''t yet obtained a license to wait a year in order to avoid Hisoka''s attention.


    When Rayleigh told them he already had the predator''s interest, they both gave him heavy looks of pity and rmended staying away from him. They even said he should leave the Hunter World if Hisoka''s interest grew any further.


    When Rayleigh and Killua returned to Gon''s room with the tickets, the pair saw him standing on his arm, castpletely removed, testing to see how much stress his arm could handle and checking if it was fully healed.


    Gon even hopped a few times on his arm before getting up and stating, "I think I''m fully healed."


    Rayleigh sighed and said, "Let me check. You probably should have let me check before you removed the cast."


    Gon smiled but presented his arm for Rayleigh''s inspection. It only took a moment to confirm that not only had the bones been mended, but even the location of the mend was harder than normal, confirming it was fully healed.


    Rayleigh didn''t exin his findings and just stated, "Yeah, you''re good."


    Killua, unable to believe it, asked, "What are you made of?"


    Rayleigh mumbled to himself, "Plot armor and charisma."


    Neither heard his statement, and Killua pulled out his own ticket for Hisoka''s match and the one he got for Gon.


    "These weren''t easy to get. His matches always sell out, and we only got these because we had ess to the ticket counter reserved for fighters on the 200th floor."


    Killua then went on to exin what they learned about Hisoka''s previous matches and the hype behind the current one.


    "Listen to this, in all eight of his matches, his opponents have only ever gotten four points off him. What''s better is that three of those points were achieved by a single fighter, and it is that fighter that Hisoka is up against again. It''s a Rematch against the strongest person Hisoka ever faced! And what''s more, it''s definitely gonna be a death match!"


    Killua continued, "If you go, you''ll definitely be able to analyze his techniques against a real opponent."


    Gon asked, "But what about my promise to Wing?"


    Killua argued, "You''re only watching the match, not using Ten."


    Ray added, "We should probably ask Wing to make sure."


    Neither they nor Wing had a cellphone, but he was usually found on the 50th Floor watching Zushi, so it didn''t take them long to find him.


    When asked if it was okay to watch the match, Wing answered, "No way! Watching this match is another way to learn about Nen."


    Gon waved his arm around saying, "But I''m fully healed. Rayleigh confirmed it."


    Wing nced at the string tied to Gon''s finger for a moment before shaking his head. "The two-month time limit wasn''t just for your convalescence but as a punishment for jumping into an incredibly dangerous situation. Recordings of the Match will be avable, so we can watch and analyze it once your punishment is over."


    Gon looked thoroughly chastised before nodding. Seeing this, Wing walked back over to the TVs to watch another of Zushi''s fights.


    On the day of the fight, every TV in Heaven''s Arena had experts talking about the uing match.


    Although Hisoka was a legend, his opponent''s record was even better. Given the title of the Warrior, the man named Kastro had ten fights on Heaven''s Arena''s 200th floor. His very first match was a loss against Hisoka, where he underwent the usual Nen Baptism, but the remaining nine fights were all consecutive victories. The fact that this was clearly a revenge match contributed to the match''s hype. Kastro did not want to be a Floor Master without clearing away the shame of his only loss by defeating Hisoka for his tenth victory.


    Rayleigh and Killua sat on a bench, sipping soda and juice and watching an interview Kastro had conducted only a few minutes before.


    On TV, Kastro stated, "If I didn''t think I had a chance of victory, I would not have made this challenge to begin with. I''m going to show everyone that in the two years since my loss, I have be a new man."


    Killua sipped his juice and stated sarcastically, "Really modest, isn''t he?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "Words are empty, so it doesn''t matter."


    Killua replied, "Maybe." Then he looked a little mischievous. "Hey, you want to check? Is he really that good, or is it all talk?"


    Rayleigh got up and tossed his empty can into a trash can on the opposite wall.


    The pair made their way to the room fighters could use to wait for their matches. There was a guard blocking the entrance into the hall leading to it, but Killua tossed a stone to the man''s side to get him to turn his head, and Rayleigh and Killua sped past his perception and were down the hall before he turned his head back.


    The pair came to a door, and Killua peered through a viewing ss to see inside. He whispered, "He''s there, sitting in front of the TV."


    Rayleigh looked through the little ss opening and saw the same man from the TV, apparently sitting there, watching his own interview on another TV.


    "Can I help you boys?"


    The pair quickly turned around and saw Kastro standing behind them, apparently the one who asked the question. Both were shaken.


    Before he spoke, Rayleigh''s senses did not pick him up at all.


    The pair instinctively turned back to look into the room they were peeping into earlier but didn''t see Kastro sitting there.


    Killua seemed to be freaking out internally. They were clearly looking at Kastro through the window when this man bearing the same appearance spoke up behind them, and the Kastro they were looking at was now gone.


    Nothing about that made sense.


    Rayleigh had seen freakier things and was less affected. He quickly recovered and answered Kastro''s question, "We were curious to see someone who was willing to fight a Death Match with Hisoka. We all took the Hunter''s Exam with him and know a little bit about how terrifying he can be."


    Kastro nodded, "So you came to size me up, huh? What are your impressions?"


    Killua recovered a bit and answered, "Definitely impressive."


    Rayleigh answered, "I don''t know enough about Nen to judge."


    Kastro smiled at Killua''s remark but frowned at Rayleigh''s. It was obvious that Rayleigh didn''t have confidence in Kastro''s victory but was too polite to say anything or lie.


    Kastro looked back over to Killua and said, "Your Zetsu is pretty good, but you should erase your presence before getting to this floor instead of down the hall. A presence like yours vanishing is more noticeable than having a presence the whole time."


    He turned to Rayleigh and added, "Your friend didn''t even bother to hide his presence, so I guess it didn''t matter."


    Killua looked over at Rayleigh and scowled, but only for a moment. Rayleigh always intended to speak with Kastro, so there was no point in hiding.


    Killua changed the subject by asking, "How did you do that?"


    Kastro obviously knew what Killua was referring to and replied, "Sorry, I can''t tell you. We may fight each other someday."


    Killua shook his head, "I don''t have any intention of fighting for the position of a Floor Master."


    Kastro smiled and opened the door that the pair was standing in front of and re-entered the waiting room, stating, "I''ll see you at the Battle Olympia," before closing the door.


    Killua scoffed a bit at the fact that Kastro didn''t believe him when he said he wasn''t interested. He turned to Rayleigh and asked, "Did you see how he did that?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Kinda. Do you want me to exin it now, or do you want to be surprised when you see it during the match?"


    "Tell me now." Killua wasn''t the most patient person.


    The pair started walking down the hall, and Rayleigh exined, "The Kastro we saw in the room was real while the other was a fake. The one in the room hid when we turned away, and the one who snuck up on us was probably invisible to our senses before making its presence known. When Kastro felt our presence, he probably had that fake stand in the hall and made it invisible, waiting for us. You got pranked."


    When Rayleigh turned away to see the duplicate, his Force senses did not miss Kastro getting out of his seat and hiding his presence while his duplicate had their attention. The fact that it was a fake was something he could sense using the Force. The fake had lifeforce, but no Midichlorians, so he was something made of aura, not a living person.


    As for how the duplicate became invisible, Rayleigh figured it was the same trick Armory used to make his maic sand invisible. It wasn''t a specialty of his, but an ability all Nen users might have ess to.


    Killua looked shocked before he turned pissed. Rayleigh almost thought he could see steaming from the top of his head.


    Killua actually thought for a moment that Kastro was so fast, he could get behind them while Killua was still looking at him. The exnation of how Kastro did it was weird but made far more sense than Killua missing someone moving from in front of him to behind him without seeing it.


    What was worse was that this was clearly a prank. Kastro sensed them and prepped a prank for them just to mess with them and make himself look cooler and more mysterious when his skill was more of a gimmick.


    Rayleigh added, "I don''t care about the fake, but I do want to know how he sensed us from all the way over there. That would be really useful."


    Killua nodded. An assassin being found so easily was an insult, so Kastro''s ability to spot them was something to consider. It made them both more eager to learn about Nen.


    Rayleigh and Killua arrived somewhat early for the match, but the seats were already packed. Thankfully, they were numbered, and the seats they paid for were good ones. Gon''s ticket was between them, and Killua certainly didn''t want to give or sell it to a stranger, so Rayleigh just got out HK-47''s head and set it on the seat so he could record and analyze the match himself.


    Both fighters arrived on stage as the minutes counted down to the start of the match. Hisoka dressed lightly, his vest had ying card suits sewn into the front and back, and his wrists and ankles were tied with lengths of cloth.


    Kastro wore a long shawl that covered most of his body and simple colors. The contrast between the color palettes of the fighters alone showed how diametrically opposed they were to each other.


    On the stage, Kastro stated, "I must thank you, Hisoka. Without the Baptism you gave me, I would not have be so strong."


    If that wasn''t arrogant enough, he then called out, "I must warn you. In the nine matches I fought since my defeat to you, not once did I go all out. All in order to train to finally beat you."


    Rayleigh said aloud to Killua, "If you train while holding back, you only get skilled in holding back. Not something to brag about."


    Killua nodded. Holding back was fine to train minor skills, but real skill was gained from all-out fights against someone who could make you go all-out.


    The match began, and Kastro charged forward; his arm seemed to concentrate aura into it, and he leaped forward to chop at Hisoka''s head.


    The Magician ducked beneath the attack, only to receive it where he had dodged.


    Killua asked, "How''d he do that?"


    Rayleigh guessed, "His fake is still invisible, ovepping his attack with the original."


    Killua added, "So the fake can hit that hard?"


    Hard was right. Hisoka was nearly sent to the floor with that hit, only bracing himself at thest second. His wandering eyes confirmed that he didn''t see the invisible fake and that he was confused about how an attack he dodged still managed to hit him.


    The Ref awarded Kastro a point, and Kastro dered, "Fight for real Hisoka. Don''t hold back. I''ve changed a lot in two years."


    Hisoka answered, "Whether or not to hold back. I''m the one who decides that."


    Kastro gritted his teeth and charged forward once more, "Then decide!" He attacked again, and once again, Hisoka dodged. But once again, he still received a hit.


    Killua asked, "Why is he using the fake like that?"


    A professional assassin could think of a few ways to use an invisible doppelganger that matched you in strength. Using it to hit with a dyed version of the same attack your main body used was not one of them.


    From the seat between them came a helpful robotic answer.


    [Conjecture: Perhaps he is hiding the nature of his ability to amend some apparent weakness. Further analysis is required.]


    Hisoka continued to analyze Kastro''s ability himself by receiving various hits. At one point, the fake made itself visible in front of Hisoka while the original hid behind it and moved into Hisoka''s blind spot while the fake attacked. When Hisoka blocked the fake''s attack, the real one kicked Hisoka from behind as the fake vanished.


    Most of the crowd didn''t even notice when Kastro separated from his fake and only saw Kastro attack Hisoka from the front, then vanish as Hisoka was attacked from behind.


    The attack was so unexpected, Hisoka was sent cleanly to the ground, awarding Kastro a Clean Hit and a Down. With the first Clean Hit awarded, Kastro now had 4 points.


    Hisoka''s face was bloodied, but he seemed quite happy. He was feeling the same thing that Killua had earlier. He clearly saw Kastro was in front of him, then Kastro was also behind him, and the one in front was gone.


    The announcer and the audience went crazy, unable to believe the teleportation-like feat they believed they saw.


    Hisoka tried to figure out the trick aloud, but Kastro was losing his patience and interjected, "I won''t wait any longer. In my next attack, I''ll take an arm from you."


    Kastro took a stance with his hands apart, resembling a set of jaws.


    Several fans of Kastro shouted, "He''s finally showing it! The Bite of the Tiger!"


    Kastro then charged forward, but abruptly stopped when Hisoka did something none of them could imagine.


    Standing without taking a defensive stance, Hisoka had his left arm extended, literally presenting it for Kastro to ''bite'' off.


    Seeing the confusion on Kastro''s face, Hisoka smirked and exined, "Here. I''m giving it to you."


    Kastro only hesitated for an instant, but in that instant, he split off from his double again, his fake approaching Hisoka while his original approached from behind. The fake suddenly vanished, and to the onlookers, it looked like Kastro teleported from in front of Hisoka to behind him.


    Kastro shouted, "I''ll take the right!" and with a single motion, Hisoka''s arm, halfway to the elbow, waspletely severed.


    Hisoka grabbed his severed right arm with his left and got some distance before calmly dering, "Now I see. The secret of your strength is your double."


    Kastro smirked, "That''s right. You got it."


    Removing whatever made it invisible, a second Kastro appeared in the ring, right behind the original.


    Killua asked, "Why did he make it visible?"


    [Observation: The manner in which Hisoka stressed that he could see implied that he can now see the doppelganger. The angle of Hisoka''s head also indicates that he was looking directly toward its location. Analysis. A technique exists that allows one to see the invisible. Once Hisoka knew the doppelganger was invisible, he started using that technique. Kastro is aware of this technique. After being found out, Kastro had no further reason to maintain his doppelganger''s invisibility.]


    Rayleigh added, "That must be why Kastro put so much effort into hiding the nature of his ability. The moment Hisoka figured out it was invisible, he could negate it."


    Killua asked, "So Nen can make invisible stuff, but you can also use Nen to see invisible stuff?"


    Ray answered, "It looks that way." If he learned that technique, he''d be able to see those hidden things that even his Force Senses couldn''t locate.


    Although the fact that his doppelganger existed was known, Kastro''s confidence didn''t waver. It was still two against one after all.


    Hisoka seemed unconcerned. In fact, he seemed quite pleased with himself for figuring it out.


    Kastro didn''t like Hisoka''s confident smile and dered, "Will you remain arrogant when I take your left arm?"


    Hisoka continued smiling while ying with his severed hand and answered, "Maybe."


    Hisoka then bit down on the flesh of his severed arm and ripped it off with his teeth. For obvious reasons, this action unsettled everyone in the room and probably caused a few people to shit themselves.


    Rayleigh was the only one smiling. Hisoka really deserved his title of Magician. Kastro was pretty good at making people look at one thing while he hid his presence and did another, but Hisoka was on another level when it came to misdirection. While holding everyone''s attention with the flesh in his teeth, he removed a handkerchief from beneath the wrappings on his arm.


    Hisoka smiled and flicked the handkerchief in the air, making it look to everyone like it appeared out of nowhere. He let the handkerchief fall on his severed arm and flipped it over, so the arm was now hidden under the handkerchief.


    Hisoka then dered, "Shall I show some of my skills? I''m actually a Fortune Teller."


    Hisoka then threw the handkerchief into the air. For some reason, the arm shot like a bullet to the roof, and a deck of cards hidden within the handkerchief scattered in the air.


    Even Rayleigh''s eyes didn''t catch the movement of the arm toward the ceiling, he only felt it using the Force. It was still there for anyone to see if they looked up, but Hisoka had everyone''s attention, and it looked like Hisoka''s arm had turned into a deck of ying cards.


    Hisoka then yed a game. He said, "Pick any card you see here and choose a number from it."


    Rayleigh found it impressive that every single cardnded face up. Were they double-sided?


    Hisoka continued, "Are you ready? Take that number and add four. Then multiply by two. Subtract six. Divide in half. Then subtract the number you started with."


    Everyone in the audience seemed to be doing math in silence for a moment before Hisoka dered, "That number you have in your head. I know what it is."


    Hisoka then plunged his hand into the stump of his right arm. The pain was clear on his face, and several members of the audience threw up.


    Hisoka then appeared to pull out a ying card he probably already had on his palm and show it off, saying, "It''s one, right?" The bloody card in his hand was the ace of spades.


    Everyone who didn''t understand basic algebra went crazy thinking that Hisoka knew the number in their heads. Unsurprisingly, that was most of them.


    Hisoka then said, "Your souvenir," and tossed the ace toward Kastro. He knocked it away, thinking Hisoka had gonepletely crazy. He then sent his doppelganger to take Hisoka''s left arm.


    Once again surprising everyone, Hisoka gave a repeat performance and presented his left arm for Kastro to take.


    This time, Kastro didn''t even pause before continuing.


    Everyone''s attention was on Kastro''s doppelganger and Hisoka. So Rayleigh naturally looked up. He was the only one to spot the moment when the arm on the ceiling rocketed down.


    The doppelganger that charged forward cleaved off Hisoka''s left arm, but also received the attack of the severed right arm that seemed to shoot down from the ceiling. Rayleigh wondered how Hisoka got the arm to attack like that, but then he noticed that the arm was not aiming at Kastro, it was aiming at the handkerchief on the ground that Kastro had just stepped over.


    After the arm struck Kastro, the handkerchief then seemed to jump from its ce on the ground and fly toward Hisoka''s right stump. Hisoka''s severed right arm followed it and seemed to attach itself perfectly back to his stump, while the handkerchief covered the wound and seemed to vanish over the arm while hiding the wound.


    Rayleigh was likely the only one who was looking at this. Hisoka''s left arm had just been severed and was flying in the air. Hisoka timed the trick perfectly so that no one would pay attention to what he did with his right arm as their attention was on his left. Perfect misdirection, as expected of a Magician.


    While everyone was looking at the falling arm, the doppelganger vanished from the attack it just received.


    Hisoka casually said, "It really was the double that attacked. And here I was nning on nting you into the floor if you attacked me yourself with my right arm."


    It was only at that moment that everyone realized Hisoka''s right arm was back. The handkerchief covering it somehow looked like skin, so even the injury was perfectly hidden.


    Understandably, the entire crowd was shaken. Even Killua looked shocked.


    The announcer repeated the word "HOW?" four or five times, unable to process what they were looking at.


    Hisoka was obviously pleased. Kastro had given a disy that made people scratch their heads, but Hisoka''s performance had everyone truly bbergasted. He boldly answered the confused announcer, "It''s one of my tricks. Can you figure it out?"


    Hisoka took a confident step forward, his left stump still dripping with blood and his left armying on the ground.


    Even with such a wound, Kastro unconsciously stepped back when Hisoka stepped forward.


    "What''s going on with you?" Hisokaughed. "Are you scared? You don''t understand the trick, and you''re surprised. Hehe, that''s the basics of magic. The ability to make a double is wonderful. But now I understand the trick. It isn''t difficult for me to imagine what you''re going to do next and figure out how to counter that."


    Rayleigh frowned at Hisoka''s statement. It wasn''t arrogance. To Hisoka, it was a simple fact that he could now predict Kastro''s moves. If that was true, it meant Hisoka was a genius. A true genius.


    Hisoka continued, "It''s a pity. You could have be a skilled Nen user. It was only because of this that I let you livest time. Allow me to read your fortune. You are going to sink into insanity and die."


    The statement clearly shook Kastro up. Fallingpletely for the provocation, Kastro and his copy jumped toward Hisoka tounch a two-pronged attack.


    Hisoka turned to look at the real one, causing the original Kastro to abort the assault while his copy tried in vain to attack Hisoka on its own.


    Hisoka leisurely exined while dodging the copy''s attacks, "The image your copy holds doesn''t change. The drops of my blood on your own clothes don''t appear on the copy."


    The doppelganger went harder on offense to keep Hisoka''s attention while the original Kastro prepared another use of Bite of the Tiger, this time aiming for Hisoka''s head.


    Kastrounched himself at Hisoka who didn''t bother taking a stance to dodge the imminent decapitation. It was at that moment that the severed left arm that had been lying on the ground shot like a rocket and struck Kastro''s chin directly.


    Kastro wobbled from the hit, and the doppelganger fighting Hisoka vanished.


    Rather than take advantage of the off-guard opponent, Hisoka picked up his severed left arm and walked away.


    Kastro tried to steady himself, but Hisoka calmly stated in an almost lecturing tone, "It''s useless to struggle. You received a direct hit on the chin. You won''t recover your mind for a while. Oh, and it will be useless to dodge this next attack."


    Hisoka waved him off while walking to the end of the stage.


    The dozens of ying cards littering the ground were then lifted into the air and shot toward Kastro one at a time.


    Kastro started panicking and tried to recreate his double so it could take the attack for him, but Hisoka leisurely continued his lecture.


    "Your double won''t be able to help you dodge. You can''t materialize it anymore."


    Several cards struck and pierced into Kastro''s left arm.


    Hisoka exined, "To materialize your double, you need a lot of concentration."


    More cards pierced Kastro''s right arm.


    "It''s a very hard task to make a thing asplex as a human being appear and make him move freely. It''s so hard that the necessary strength to reach it made you forget your other skills."


    Kastro''s eyes were lifeless, dozens of cards had already pierced into his chest, torso, and legs.


    Hisoka finished, "That''s what I refer to as insufficient memory. The superfluous use of your memory is the reason for your defeat."


    Hisoka''s exnation was finished as he stepped off the stage, and Kastro copsed to the floor. A count wasn''t required, Kastro was dead.


    The audience exploded in apuse at the insanity of the match, and Rayleigh and Killua got up. Rayleigh packed up HK-47 and said, "I''m gonna go see Hisoka. Wannae?"


    Killua looked at Rayleigh like he was crazy and said, "No way! Go on your own!"


    Rayleigh smiled and did exactly that.


    It didn''t take much effort to make his way to the medic station Hisoka had gone over to. What surprised him was that it wasn''t a doctor with him, but a young, pink-haired woman.


    Rayleigh didn''t hide his presence, so both were looking at him as he entered.


    Hisoka smiled, "Oh ho? Why have youe over?"


    Rayleigh answered, "I wanted to check if you needed healing."


    Hisoka recalled Rayleigh healing Killua during the Hunter Exam and asked, "Can you perfectly repair severed limbs?"


    Rayleigh honestly answered, "Theoretically, yes. In practice, I''ve never done it before."


    Hisokaughed, "Hehehe, so you wanted someone to practice on. Amusing. But I already have an expert."


    The pink-haired woman asked, "Who the hell are you?"


    Rayleigh answered, "A friend."


    The woman then turned incredulously to Hisoka and asked, "You have friends?"


    Hisoka chuckled, "So it seems. Why don''t you show him how a professional does it?"


    The woman shrugged and removed a needle from the pincushion on her glove. Her aura surged and she seemed to pull a fine threat from the aura on her finger and pass it to the needle.


    She instructed, "Erase the aura around your left arm first. We''ll stop the bleeding."


    Hisoka did as instructed, and blood started gushing from his left stump. The woman''s arm quickly circled around Hisoka''s stump, and the threading from her fingers was tied around it, halting the flow of blood.


    The woman then held Hisoka''s severed left arm with one hand, and her fingers started weaving at an impossible-to-perceive speed through the space between the severed arm and the stump.


    The speed far exceeded what Rayleigh saw the Zoldyck Butler do, and it looked like several hundred illusionary hands were doing precise work in the same space.


    After only a few seconds, she released Hisoka''s severed arm and said, "I''m done." The arm fell, but hung beneath the stump by the attachment of several thousand threads. The woman then made a pulling gesture, and the threads attaching the stump to the arm retracted, pulling the arm perfectly into ce.


    She stated aloud, "Veins, bones, and flesh, everything works again at 100%."


    Hisoka started flexing the fingers of his no longer severed hand and said with great appreciation, "Nice work."


    She replied by handing him his other severed arm and saying, "Right arm this time. You hold it."


    Performing the same impossible feat as before, she reattached the other arm.


    Hisoka smiled and said, "Impressive as always. I think I may get injured in the future just to have the pleasure of seeing you work."


    The woman tly stated, "It''s twenty million for the left arm and fifty million Zennies for the right one. There are still lesions from the damage, so you''ll have to heal yourself after."


    Rayleigh added from the side, "I can take care of that."


    Hisoka asked, "Really? Then by all means."


    He presented his right arm to Rayleigh without any concern.


    Rayleigh grabbed the arm and confirmed the damage and how the woman fixed it. He turned to her and said, "You are an artist."


    She nodded confidently and said, "It''s good that you know."


    She really was. It took a special mind to be able to mend like that. All the wounds were still there, but her threads perfectly aligned every injury in such a way that it would heal the fastest.


    Rayleigh started using Dark Transfer. Most of the negative effects of the skill only applied when using it on Force Users, so there wasn''t a problem using it on Hisoka.


    The fissures and cracks he perceived through the force on the wound were deep, but the cracks were also thin thanks to what the woman had done. It took some effort to draw in the Force to gently fill in the cracks, but it was doable.


    With Rayleigh''s healing, every severed segment neatly reattached itself. The severed nerves worked because of how perfectly the woman realigned them, but there was a difference between realigning and reattaching.


    In about two minutes, the severed was connected, and Hisoka''s arm was fully healed.


    Rayleigh let go and said, "Realigning everything is the hard part for me. As long as the pieces are all there, I can put them back together."


    Hisoka flexed his arm, and even the woman examined it. She said, "You didn''t use Nen."


    Rayleigh shook his head. "I only just started learning Nen."


    Hisoka added, "Interesting, no?" He then presented the other arm.


    Rayleigh took it and said, "This way you won''t need to cover it with a handkerchief."


    Hisoka asked, "Oh, you saw that?"


    Rayleigh added, "It was funny how you stuck your hand to the ceiling and no one looked up."


    Hisoka proudly dered, "If their attention is not where I want it, I wouldn''t be a very good Magician, no?"


    Rayleigh nodded in agreement.


    The woman stood to the side, staring at Rayleigh''s work, trying to figure out how he was healing Hisoka.


    Rayleigh finished, and the woman asked, "Is there a limit to that?"


    Rayleigh answered, "I can''t rece what is lost, and I can only heal tissue damage. I can''t heal curses and stuff like that."


    Curses were a thing for the Jedi too. Tissue damage was seen using Shatterpoint as fissures and cracks he could fill in with the Force using Dark Transfer. But Curses were not seen as fissures he could just fill in, so he had no way to affect them with Dark Transfer.


    The woman shook her head and said, "That''s a shame. Nen removers are really rare."


    The woman then headed for the door and said, "Well, I''m leaving."


    Hisoka asked, "Already?"


    "You''re already healed, I''m done here." She then turned back and said, "Oh, almost forgot. There''s a job. Every member of the troupe without exception is to arrive in Yorknew before the 30th of August."


    Hisoka asked, "Will the Boss be there?"


    The woman answered, "Probably. If you don''t show up again, the Boss could punish you." With those words she left.


    Rayleigh didn''t ask any questions about a conversation he wasn''t a part of, but his subconscious told him to remember it.


    Hisoka then turned to Ray and asked, "So what do you want in return for this? Ah, let me guess. You have a question?"


    Rayleigh nodded. "Yeah. I somewhat guessed what you did, but I did have one question. You used Nen to make stuff fly around from one target point to another, right? And you made your Nen invisible, the same way Kastro made his doppelganger invisible. My question is, why didn''t Kastro do what you did to see the invisible Nen you used to perform your own trick?"


    That was the only thing that didn''t make sense. Kastro used a trick to make his doppelganger invisible. So why didn''t he check for invisible things himself? Unless Kastro had brain damage, it didn''t make any sense.


    Hisoka started chuckling for a few moments, seemingly pleased with the question.


    He borated, "The technique to see hidden Nen is called Gy, you''ll learn it easily enough at some point. The problem is that Gy, like all Nen techniques, requires a certain amount of concentration to use. Kastro''s doppelganger simply used up too much of his concentration. He could not use Gy and his doppelganger technique at the same time. He invested everything into that technique and gave it all kinds of features like the invisibility you spoke of, thinking it would make him strong enough to beat me, but in doing so he lost the resources needed to see through my trick. That''s why I chose such a trick to perform in the first ce. Had he been capable of using Gy and the doppelganger at the same time, I would have fought in a different manner."


    Rayleigh had HK-47 in his backpack, and the droid was recording all of this. The limits of what could be done and what could not be done were important to prevent yourself from heading toward a dead end and winding up like Kastro.


    Rayleigh said, "Thank you. See you around."


    Hisoka smiled andughed as Rayleigh left. Theugh continued and got creepier as Rayleigh got further down the hall, causing him to increase his pace a bit. It was probably just Hisoka messing with him, but he wasn''t going to take any chances.


    *Author''s Note*


    Ah, how long. In any case, this chapter has a lot of important aspects. One problem I''ve seen in a LOT of Hunter X Hunter fanfics is that the MCs have too many Nen abilities which are way tooplex. Hisoka only has two Nen abilities, both of which are very simple, but infinitely flexible. Of course, even Hisoka''s abilities have limits. Did you know his Bungee Gum has a limit of 10 meters? It can reach the height of the roof in the arena, but not any further. This means he can''t go Spidermanning, but the restriction also probably strengthens the gum as well.


    In any case, it is better to have a few simple but flexible techniques over an assortment ofplex techniques. Plenty of Hunter X Hunter Fanfic writers didn''t pay attention to Hisoka''s lecture during this fight and didn''t understand that Nen has limits.


    Remember, Reviews and Stones=Fuel

 Chapter 27: Ren of Force

    Chapter 27: Ren of Force


    Chapter 27 Ren of Force


    Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua were invited to Wing''s house on the two-month anniversary of Gon''s punishment, and each was excited.


    Killua was slightly peeved at Rayleigh because thetter imed that he knew how Hisoka did all his tricks, but he refused to exin it to him.


    Why? ording to Rayleigh, he also ruined the surprise for Kastro, so Killua should figure Hisoka out himself.


    Hisoka''s match had given the assassin more questions than answers, so he was eager to finally learn about Nen and figure out what could be done with it.


    Wing weed the trio and said, "Starting today, you''ll train with Zushi. Gon, you kept your promise during those two months, right?"


    Gon smiled and presented his string-tied pinky finger. "Right. It''s thanks to this string. I was tempted a bunch of times, but each time I looked at the string, I calmed down."


    Wing smiled, "That''s because I put my Nen in it."


    Gon looked surprised and asked, "Really?"


    Wing answered, "No, that was a lie," making everyone cringe at the terrible joke.


    Killua could not help but bring up, "How do you know he kept his promise? I mean, he could have said whatever he wanted to."


    Gon was less than pleased Killua was throwing him under the bus for the sake of curiosity, but Wing still answered. "Because of the string. Let me show you. Gon, it''s been two months, but how about you show us your Ten."


    Gon closed his eyes and took a natural stance. A momentter, his aura covered his body. What was impressive was that, although the aura was shrouding him, it didn''t dissipate away from him. It formed a thickyer around him like wearing a half dozen sweaters.


    Wing turned to Zushi and asked, "What do you think?"


    Zushi answered, "It''s great! His aura is stable, and the flow is smooth, soft, and calm. He is really strong!"


    Gon was ted and shouted, "I did it! I was afraid I forgot."


    Wing said, "It''s like swimming or riding a bike, it''s not a skill that can be forgotten once learned. Of course, it takes a lot of effort to improve it."


    Gon countered, "But how did mine improve? I did it faster and easier than before, but I haven''t trained at all."


    Wing smiled and answered, "That''s the result of training Ten of Point this entire time. As you can see, your effort is never wasted. Now, show me your hand."


    Gon presented the hand with the string-tied pinky and gasped when he noticed it. The string broke in multiple ces.


    Gon asked, "How did it break?"


    Wing pushed up his sses and answered, "I tied it in such a way that if you used Nen, it breaks."


    Rayleigh grabbed Gon''s hand and took off the string so he could examine it. He hadn''t looked at it before, but now he noticed that the string had tiny inscriptions on it. Rayleigh asked, "Can I learn to do this?"


    Wing answered, "It''s called Divine Script, or Inscription. It grants what it is written on Nen-like properties, but can only grant the properties of the Nen of the person who writes it."


    He continued, "I only know how to make an Inscription that makes something durable but breaks in the presence of Nen. It''s basically a cheap trick."


    He turned to a bookshelf and said with a smile, "I do have a few journals you can look at if you want to try figuring it out." The mischievous way he said it made everyone in the room recognize the offer as a prank, but Rayleigh feigned ignorance and said, "Yes, please. I''ll return them if I can''t get anything out of them."


    Wing gave a smile filled with humor and shook his head.


    Killua changed the subject by asking, "Wing, you saw the match between Hisoka and Kastro, right?"


    "Yes."


    Killua continued, "How did Hisoka do all of that? Rayleigh said he knows but refuses to say anything. Can we do all of that?"


    Wing turned to Rayleigh and asked, "Oh, you know how he did it?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yep," but didn''t borate.


    Wing smiled and turned back to Killua, "As for your questions about what he did and if you can do it, let''s start with the first. Gon, have you seen the match on tape?"


    Gon shook his head, and Wing produced a DVD and inserted it into hisrge TV.


    The match started, and after a few minutes, Hisoka threw his arm into the air from under the handkerchief and revealed the ying cards that fell to the ground.


    Wing paused at that moment and asked, "So, do you see it? There are wires of auraing out of his left arm."


    Rayleigh asked, "TVs can show Nen? I thought Nen was supposed to be hidden from the public."


    Wing replied, "The video of this fight cannot be purchased outside Heaven''s Arena. And only those from the Tower and in the local area can purchase the Fight on Pay-Per-View. And most importantly, this TV is very expensive. It was actually built using Inscriptions, so Nen can be seen from the videos it shows."


    Killua stated, "But I can''t see anything!"


    Gon added, "Me neither."


    Wing nodded, "Yes, Hisoka is using a technique to make his aura imperceptible. It''s a high-level application of Zetsu called In, which means Hide. Thanks to this In, even if the opponent is very strong, he won''t feel or see Hisoka''s aura."


    Rayleigh interjected, "Is that what Kastro used to make his Doppelganger invisible?"


    Wing nodded, "Yes, though Kastro could also make it appear and disappear when he wanted, so the addition of In was superfluous."


    Wing continued, "The technique to see through your opponent''s In is called Gy, which means Focus. Using Gy requires focusing your aura while using Ren on your eyes to enhance the countless tiny micropyles within, granting you the ability to see even hidden Nen. This will be the first exercise for you three. You are tasked with learning Ren and Gy, then seeing if you are capable of seeing through Hisoka''s In."


    Zushi asked, "Three? What about me?"


    Wing answered, "You should already be able to use Gy. Come here and show us your Ren."


    Zushi released a strong breath to acknowledge his teacher''s order and stood before the TV while taking a strong stance. He then used Ren.


    This was the first time Rayleigh got a visual look at someone''s Ren. White Knight covered himself in wax and Springheeled Jack moved too fast to see, so those didn''t count.


    With the micropyles in his own eyes opened, Rayleigh could clearly see the aura being ejected from Zushi''s aura nodes. Unlike his expectations, though, it didn''t disperse into the air. Around the outer edges of his strong, bursting aura was a calmer aura that held the explosive aura around Zushi without dispersing. It was basically Ten, which meant that Ren required bursting out the aura over the body while holding Ten at the same time on the fringes.


    Normal Ten increased defense, but not offense. This Ren technique clearly had offensive properties as well.


    What was more impressive, was that this Ren was far stronger than what Rayleigh felt back when he fought Zushi on the 50th floor. Rayleigh said, "You''ve gotten a lot stronger in thest few months."


    Zushi was unable to respond, as holding Ren appeared to be very taxing for him.


    Wing stated, "Now concentrate your aura into your eyes."


    Zushi grunted, "Right," and the explosive aura was slowly concentrated to Zushi''s upper body, while the aura being released by the lower body was halted. The concentration continued to Zushi''s head and eventually, aura was fully concentrated onto Zushi''s eyes.


    Wing tapped on the TV and said, "Do you see the auraing from Hisoka?"


    Gritting his teeth, Zushi held his concentration with all his might while answering, "Yes!"


    Wing added, "How many lines do you see?"


    Zushi''s eyes moved around the screen and answered, "Thirteen, I think."


    Wing replied, "Almost, but you''re close."


    Zushi then released the tension in his body and started hyperventting. Rayleigh could see how such a technique would be difficult to use in conjunction with the use of a Doppelganger.


    Wing smiled, "You''re making great progress, Zushi."


    After getting a few breaths, Zushi replied, "I really did see it! Thank you, teacher."


    Wing added, "Notpletely. All of your Ren must be entirely concentrated in your Gy. Once it is, you''ll have reached the level required to break through the In of Hisoka. As long as you continue to practice, you''ll be able to fight while using Gy."


    Wing turned off the TV and lectured, "Gy is the ssic technique to use against unknown opponents because you cannot hope to be the winner in a fight without understanding what your opponent is able to do. So, back to the first question Killua asked. Once you have worked on Ren and learned Gy, you''ll be able to find the answer to how Hisoka used his Nen to fight. As for the second question, if you can all do the same thing, the answer is yes, but also no."


    Wing borated, "Hisoka''s abilities were created with Nen. Can you create the same ability using Nen? Yes. But it will never be as strong as the same technique when Hisoka uses it. Why? Because Nen is heavily dependent on the person."


    "Let''s say I know exactly how to replicate Hisoka''s technique. Let''s also say Hisoka spent five years mastering it. In order to master it to the same degree as Hisoka, I may take ten years, twenty years, or I may never master it to the same degree. Copying someone is never a good idea. You should find something that suits you the most."


    "Your Nen shoulde from yourself, not someone else. What do you want? What are you afraid of? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do there? These questions will give form to your Nen."


    Rayleigh asked, "Isn''t that how you described the process for practicing Ten of Point?"


    Wing nodded with a smile. "Exactly. The concept or concepts thatprise the single point on which you can focus your entire being are the best foundation for your Nen. But that isn''t something you''ll have to worry about now. Getting ahead of yourself without a strong foundation is the worst thing you can do for your future. In any case, we''ll start now. First, all four of you, show me your Ten."


    Rayleigh fully opened his aura nodes while cycling it through him. He kept a strong image of his aura as a pressurized diving suit. It surrounded him and kept pressure on his skin, keeping the rest of his aura inside him even though his aura nodes were open, while also protecting him from the outside using that pressure.


    Killua''s Ten wasn''t all that different from Gon''s, but Rayleigh''s was noticeably stronger.


    Killua used, "Hey, I thought you weren''t practicing."


    Rayleigh sighed, "I only practiced once after opening my aura nodes. But it can''t be helped. I''ve been meditating daily since I was four."


    Wing asked, "Is that about your telekinesis?"


    Ray nodded, "Yeah, it''s something everyone on this ind I was born on could do."


    Wing nodded and looked over to Killua, "It won''t take you long to catch up, so don''t worry."


    After confirming everyone''s Ten, Wing returned to lecturing about Ren and stated, "Now, before we continue, I want to remind you of the warning I gave you about Ren. Although I said it was about the Ren from Nen of me, it was actually the Ren from Nen of Force. Do you remember what I said?


    Rayleigh answered, "Ren makes people stubborn, so if you have bad habits or bad ideals, training Ren makes it more difficult to correct those bad habits and ideals."


    Wing nodded with a smile. "That''s exactly right. This is the inherent danger of training Nen that everyone must face. If a person learns Nen too early or when they have an improper mindset, they will harden that mindset every time they train Ren, making it difficult or, in some cases, impossible to grow out of. Because of this, you will find that many people who learned Nen too early or from a poor teacher may be unbnced or immature."


    Killua asked, "What about us?"


    Wing smiled, "I believe you''ll be fine. Nen of me''s Ten of Point is the best way to train to mature the soul and prevent impurities from stubbornlytching onto your psyche. With a mature soul, bad habits you have or acquire in the future won''t be difficult to remove as you gain more experience. The better your Ten of Point, the smoother your aura when you use Nen of Force''s Ten of Shroud. I can tell from the smoothness of your aura that you have all been diligently practicing Ten of Point for thest two months. Although it has dyed your training, it has also given your soul a solid foundation, which is immensely beneficial for your future training."


    Wing then returned his attention to the Ren character on the whiteboard and continued, "Now, the Ren from Nen of Force means Enhance. Ren is a technique to amplify your aura, basically a stronger version of Ten. Now, I''m sure you are wondering how that amplification urs?"


    The trio nodded, though Zushi already knew.


    Wing continued, "The first step is umtion. Using the focus from Ten of Point, you must visualize your aura being built up within your body. Imagine every single cell in your body gathering power. This is the umtion stage. Ren is the act of forcing that umted aura out of your body without letting it disperse."


    Wing walked to the whiteboard again and drew a stick figure with multiple arrowsing out. Then he drew a circle around it. He stated, "While forcing your umted aura out, you must also maintain Ten to prevent the aura from simply dissipating. The umted aura that has been forced out will move much faster and act with greater force than the aura that naturally flows out during Ten."


    He then drew arrows of the aura bouncing off the inside of the circle of Ten and back to the body, then back to the circle of Ten.


    Wing exined, "Without maintaining Ten around your aura, your Ren will onlyst for as long as you can force out your umted aura. As long as you maintain a strong Ten, the fast-moving aura will continue to maintain itself around you like so." More arrows were added to depict the aura bouncing back and forth between the stick figure and the Ten circle.


    "Your own aura cannot harm you in most circumstances, so the fast-moving aura will harmlessly bounce off you while being trapped by your Ten. You can think of it like starting a fire and keeping it close to you to prevent it from going out."


    He then started writing on the whiteboard. "The quality of your Ren is decided by four things. How much aura you can umte. How fast you can force that umted aura out. The strength of your Ten, which prevents your forced-out aura from dissipating. And your control."


    He wrote down each on the whiteboard. umtion Quantity, Speed of Emission, Ten Strength, Control. He then turned to Rayleigh, "Knowing this, how do you think Gy is performed?"


    Rayleigh considered it before answering, "After forcing out your umted aura, minimize the volume of your Ten that contains your forced-out aura, and keep minimizing its volume and its location until your forced-out aura is only bouncing back and forth between your eyes and ayer of Ten around your eyes. Does the concentrated aura strengthen the micropyles in your eyes or act as binocrs?"


    Wing answered, "Both. Good job catching that." Wing then turned to Killua and asked, "Which of these four things do you think determines the strength of your Ren?"


    Killua answered, "How fast you force your aura out of your body."


    Wing smiled and continued to Gon, "Why do you think how fast the aura is forced out determines the strength?"


    Gon answered, "Uhh, because going faster means hitting harder?"


    Though simplistic, the answer was correct. Wing circled the line Speed of Emission and said, "Exactly. The amplification Ren grantses entirely from the speed of your aura after it has been forced out of your body. How much aura you can umte and how well your Ten bounces your aura back will increase your Ren''s duration, but not its power."


    Rayleigh asked, "What if you use Gy on your fist?" Although Wing said the speed at which the aura was forced out determined the strength of the Ren, wouldn''t concentrating Ren into a small area, forcing all of that fast moving aura into a single space raise the power as well?


    Wing looked surprised for a moment before answering, "That''s called K, but you need a much stronger foundation to use it. Feel free to practice it once you''ve mastered Gy, but you are a very, very long way from using such a thing in a fight. Of course, as long as you continue to work on your foundation, you''ll be able to use it one day."


    Rayleigh asked, "What''s the longest someone has ever maintained Ren?"


    Wing didn''t mind the curious questions, as they showed how interested Rayleigh was. Wing answered, "I''m not sure, but I know there was a time Chairman Netero maintained Ren for a couple of days while exploring a very dangerous ce."


    Zushi nearly shouted, "WHAT?! NO WAY!"


    The trio had not used Ren yet, but from watching Zushi, they knew it was difficult. Maintaining it even for a few seconds was hard, much less for a full day.


    Killua asked, "How long can you maintain Ren?"


    Wing answered, "About half a day is my current max. Fighters ssified as decent can maintain their Ren for half an hour. Fighters ssified as skilled can maintain their Ren for three hours. And Fighters ssified as experts can maintain Ren for a full day. I''m about halfway to being considered an expert."


    Zushi copsed, his eyes lifeless, as if he had his soul removed from his body.


    Wing ignored the dramatic reaction and continued, "First we''ll start with umtion. Although you can try to fill your cells with normal aura, that is not the best way to do so. Shingen-ryu kung fu uses Nen of me as a basis for this. Instead of umting normal aura within your cells, you should focus on aura which matches yourself. When you focus on the concepts that you use for your Ten of Point, while using Ten of Shroud, the aura that matches or has close resonance with your core concepts will stay inside your body, while the aura that does not match or resonate with your core concepts will stay outside your body. In this way, you can umte only the aura that resonates with who you are at your core."


    Wing continued, "This serves several purposes. Aura that resonates with the concepts that make up your core values is easier to absorb and force out, leading to a stronger Ren. But more importantly, if you always contain umted aura that matches the core concepts that make up your Ten of Point, your body will naturally shape that umted aura without your input and subconsciously create prototypes of what may be your aura abilities in the future."


    "First, we will practice umting an aura that resonates with your values. Then we will practice forcing that aura out. Andst, we will practice forming Ten around that aura to prevent it from leaking out. All three are done using highly focused visualization, so first, you need to create an image within your mind strong enough to direct your aura. The focus from Ten of Point is essential for this."


    Everyone, minus Zushi, gave an affirmative grunt and their practice began.


    Wing demonstrated everything once and gave examples of images and concepts they could use for visualizing the umtion of aura, the expulsion of aura, and the trapping of the expelled, fast-moving aura. Zushi had woken up by then, and Wing had everyone practice until they could correctly perform umtion and expulsion at least once. After making sure the trio understood the foundation, Wing let them go home. Rayleigh asked to borrow those Journals on Inscription before leaving, though.


    Zushi returned with them because he usually spent more time in Heaven''s Arena than not. He was already on the 90th floor, but had not broken through to the hundreds and didn''t have his own room yet.


    Killua looked over at Rayleigh and asked, "Do you think you can get anything out of those journals?"


    Rayleigh nced at Zushi, making Killua aware that Rayleigh didn''t want to answer in front of him. Instead, Rayleigh answered, "I''d like to try."


    Zushi said, "I had a look at those a few months ago. I couldn''t understand a single page."


    Killua invited Zushi to Gon''s room on the 200th floor so they could keep practicing. Zushi''s Ren wasplete, and they only knew the steps, with none of them having seeded in holding it yet.


    Zushi agreed to help them, and they continued practicing. Rayleigh, Killua, and Gon all found a roadblock on thest step, forming the Ten.


    Ten was essentially wrapping a wet nket around a leaking pipe to prevent all of the water from leaking out, then wrapping that nket in cellophane to keep it from dripping. When you opened your aura nodes to release your aura without Ten blocking it, the aura would escape the area around the body and note back. The aura that Ten kept around your body would then prevent more aura from leaking through your aura nodes. But that was the thing, a fully formed Ten blocked aura from escaping the aura nodes due to the saturated presence of aura already outside those aura nodes. Ren required forcing the aura to escape the aura nodes really fast, but the presence of Ten drastically slowed down the aura the moment it was expelled from the aura timing was critical. If you initiate Ten to stop the aura from escaping too soon, the forced-out aura would slow down the moment it left the body and not amplify anything. If you initiate Ten to stop the aura from escaping toote, then the forced-out aura would escape the boundaries of your Ten and note back.


    After each failed attempt, they had to umte their aura again, but getting the timing right was just a matter of practice, of trial and error, so they eventually got the timing down a little before sundown. The trick was to start with Ten, allow it to break for a moment by slowing down the cirction of aura around the body to disperse the saturation of aura, then force out the umted aura and immediately speed up the Ten''s cycle speed to build it back up and strengthen it. The unsaturated aura did not slow down the expelled aura, and as long as Ten was re-initiated before the shot-out aura escaped, it would bounce off the interior of the Ten and sessfully form a sustained Ren.


    After seeding in the timing in three consecutive practices, Gon dered, "Yes! Finally." While Killua nodded and added, "It wasn''t easy to slow down the Ten and find the perfect timing."


    Gon nodded back but stated, "But concerning power, we haven''t reached Zushi''s level yet."


    Rayleigh said, "We probably need to strengthen the visualization of the aura being forced out."


    From the side, Zushi panicked and dered, "No! It''s fine! Resting is also important, I suggest we stop here today."


    Killua argued, "Oh, it''s alright, I can go on."


    Zushi firmly stated, "No, rest between practices is very important."


    To the empathic Rayleigh, Zushi''s actual reason for halting was crystal clear. His confidence would shatter if he witnessed their Ren surpass his in a single day, so he wanted them to stop while his own was still slightly better, or else he''d probably cry.


    They would all be meeting back up at Wing''s house the next day anyway, so it didn''t really matter.


    As they were using Gon''s room, both Rayleigh and Killua left with Zushi when the practice ended and walked Zushi to the elevator.


    Once the door closed and Zushi was on his way out, Rayleigh asked, "Do you want to take point, or should I?"


    Killua looked surprised, but only for a moment. He sensed some bad intentions directed at Zushi, so he intended to follow him and make sure he got home safely.


    Killua answered, "I''m trying to cut back on killing, so how about you take the lead, Mr. Pacifist."


    Rayleigh nodded, and they both entered the adjacent elevator.


    *Author''s Rant on Ren*


    I hate Ren. The author is inconsistent on how it works and how it is trained. In the beginning of the Greed Ind Arc, neither Gon nor Killua can hold Ren for 2 consecutive minutes. Then they train for two months, and they can hold it for 30 mins. And after Kite gets Chimera Ant''d, Biscuit returns and trains them for a month and then they can perform Ren for 3 hours. The author does not know how Ren works. In the Anime and Manga they literally skip 80% of the exnation for how to use it just so people can''t point out the inconsistencies. Every single other technique is exined in detail except for Ren! I had to make up the theory that matched the 20% the author gave, and I am happy with what I came up with because it matches just about everything.


    What I hate more about Ren is how 100% of fanfics that use Nen have their MCs figure Ren out without a teacher. If you could just figure Ren out, why didn''t Gon figure it out in his match against Guido? He figured out Zetsu without being taught, but he couldn''t figure out Ren. Ten is considered an ability. The ability to open your Aura Nodes but keep your aura from dissipating. Ren is aplex Technique that requires more than one specific visualization to perform and an understanding of the theory. You might be able to figure out how to umte aura in your body after a while, and then figure out how to expel it, but not without days of trial and error!


    Yes, I know I just said that the author never exined how Ren works and I am mad that fanfic authors also skip how it works. Ranting doesn''t have to make sense.


    *Rant over. For those who didn''t stop reading at the rant, here''s the rest of the Chapter.*


    Killua''s assassin training allowed him to move unnoticed by most, and Rayleigh couldbine his normal Zetsu with Force Stealth to suppress his presence, making him as unnoticeable as Killua.


    As the pair suspected, Zushi was being followed by those with less than good intentions.


    The fighter from the 200th floor, the man with a single arm, approached Zushi from behind.


    Those capable of seeing aura would witness a ghost-like arm of aura emerging from the man''s side. The hand expanded until it wasrger than Zushi, and in an instant, it stretched forward and grabbed him.


    Rayleigh watched this from afar, not feeling any killing intent from the man.


    Once the hand restrained him, Zushi was unable to move, talk, or even breathe. A few secondster, he fell unconscious.


    The peg-legged Guido then approached, along with the one in the wheelchair. Wheelchair boy took one of Zushi''s shoes and passed it to Guido.


    It wasn''t difficult to figure out what was going on.


    Before they could pick up Zushi, Rayleigh appeared and said, "Don''t touch him."


    Killua then approached from the opposite side.


    Rayleigh got a read on their emotions and surface thoughts. He had a few options. He could shut them down, go along with them, or have some fun.


    He couldn''t shut them down, they had not hurt him or anyone else yet. And it certainly was not in his nature to just go along with bullies. That meant there was only one option remaining.


    Rayleigh said, "You guys just want a win right? You''re in luck. Neither Killua nor I have any interest in bing a floor master. So let''s make a deal."


    The one missing an arm asked, "Oh? What kind of deal?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Killua and I will sign up for a match with each of you and let you win. In exchange, you don''t do this kind of thing again, and you leave Gon out of it."


    The one in the wheelchair asked, "Why leave him out? What if we want more than two wins?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Gon is already in big trouble with our Teacher for fighting Guido. There is also someone he has to fight on the 200th floor, so another loss to Guido and a loss to both of you would deny him that fight." You were kicked off the 200th floor once you lost four matches, after all.


    Killua added, "Though if you just want a normal fight with Gon, that''s fine too, but you need to wait until our Teacher gives the go-ahead, which is at the end of the month."


    The guy with a single arm answered, "If you both are willing to be our opponents, we will agree to this deal."


    The wheelchair guy added, "Wait. It''s not that we don''t trust you, but let''s register right now."


    Killua and Rayleigh exchanged nces and nodded. Killua replied, "That''s fine, but in exchange, I don''t want to do this kind of thing again."


    Killua put Zushi on his back, and they returned to Heaven''s Arena together to register for some matches.


    Rayleigh signed up for a match with the one-armed guy to happen the following day. Apparently, his name was Sadoso. Rayleigh then signed up for a match with Guido a few weekster and with the Wheelchair guy a few weeks after that. His name was Riehlvelt.


    Killua''s matches were about the same, but his match with Sadoso was after Rayleigh''s. Killua''s next match would then be with Riehlvelt second and Guidost.


    Once everything was signed, Killua and Ray took the still-unconscious Zushi back down the elevator to return him to his house.


    On the way back, Killuained, "It''s really annoying to not be able to kill people. Got any words of wisdom, Mr. Pacifist?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "The paths we take in life are filled with trials. If we choose to ovee these trials rather than avoid them, we can be stronger. Of course, sometimes you don''t get to avoid them and must choose between different trials. Killing them all is a trial, but not killing them is another trial. Which one will make you stronger by oveing, only you can decide."


    Killua frowned, "Okay, now you''re just talking like an old geezer."


    Rayleigh shrugged and replied back, "I have never watched a single cartoon, yed with a normal toy, or had a birthday party lots of people were invited to. I''m not an old man, but I''m not a kid either. I suspect the same is true with you and Gon. It''s why hanging out with you is so awesome."


    Killua actually blushed a bit at that before turning away to hide his smile.


    Trying to change the subject, Killua pointed out, "I''m surprised you offered to give each of those guys what they wanted."


    Rayleigh smiled, "Is that what it looked like? I said we would both lose to them if they left Gon alone."


    Killua frowned and asked, "You expect them to try this with Gon?"


    Rayleigh nodded and replied, "Gon is probably signing papers for various matches right now. That''s why they took Zushi''s shoe."


    Killua looked to the side and noticed for the first time that Zushi was, in fact, missing a shoe. He could guess that those jerks would use it as a message and a threat toward Gon. A shoe instead of a severed finger in a box.


    Killua then guessed, "So you never had any intention of losing on purpose. You knew they would break their promise."


    "That''s right."


    Killua asked, "But what if they try to take Zushi the next time and force you to give up?"


    "Wing won''t let there be a next time. If we didn''t take this matter into our own hands, he would have. Remember how he felt when he showed us his, ''I am going to kill you,'' impression? You think someone like that is really a pushover?"


    Killua certainly remembered that and shook his head.


    They knocked on Wing''s door and Rayleigh exined what happened after he answered.


    When Rayleigh exined how Sadoso squeezed Zushi unconscious, Wing let slip a moment of killing intent that made Killua understand that those idiots were really getting saved by Rayleigh.


    Wing calmed down and took Zushi inside before returning to the door and thanking the pair for taking care of this matter.


    Wing asked Rayleigh, "Are you confident in fighting Sadoso?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah. Other than Telekinesis, I have a few other things I can do with my abilities that I''ve never had a chance to try out on someone. Now that I have a willing test subject, it would be incredibly rude to refuse his voluntary assistance."


    Rayleigh was told in the Tavern to keep his Force abilities to a minimum until he got his Hunter''s License. What he used when sparring with Netero was just the tip of the iceberg. After all, Rayleigh hadn''t memorized the entire Temple of Force Skills for nothing.


    Killua was surprised at this side of Rayleigh, but Wing just nodded with approval. Wing was actually quite vindictive when it came to othersying their hands on his students.


    The pair returned to their rooms in Heaven''s Arena and Rayleigh got out the Journals. There were two reasons Rayleigh had confidence in understanding them. First, he knew over forty differentnguages, taught to him through Impartation by Master Viz. No matter how Divine Script was formatted, it would probably have simrities with some of them. But more importantly, these journals were handwritten. Rayleigh didn''t need to understand a single word. By using Psychometry on each page, he could directly read the memories and intentions of the one who wrote it.


    Of course, he had a match tomorrow, which meant he needed to practice Ren. Thankfully, his split minds had developed to the point he could use one to practice Ren and the other to read the Journals using Psychometry. And that was how Rayleigh spent his night.


    *Author''s Note*


    I know no one likes mid-story author notes, that was just a prank to keep you on your toes and probably won''t happen again.

 Chapter 28: The Power of the Force

    Chapter 28: The Power of the Force


    Chapter 28 The Power of the Force


    Rayleigh sat in the 200th floor''s waiting room, silently preparing himself for his match against the one-armed Sadoso. His anticipation was reminiscent of someone who had never yed DnD for the first time, waiting for their first-ever game.


    This would be the first time in Rayleigh''s life, either of them of course, he''d be using the fun parts of the Force, the parts that could be mistaken for magic in another setting. There were many major and minor reasons he denied himself such practices while on Tython, but they boiled down to two in particr: practicing the basics was more important, and any skill he devoted time to learning and mastering may end up useless in the future.


    Every single skill within the Force was ssified into one of three categories: Control, Sense, and Alter. The might of any skill used by a Force Practitioner was determined by two factors: mastery of the skill itself and mastery of the overall branch of which the skill was a part.


    Rayleigh had memorized the entirety of the Temple of Force Skills, but he never practiced anything outside of what the Jedi taught him and skills such as Shatterpoint and Dark Transfer. The only exception was Force Muffle, the skill he invented by studying the Silent Desert.


    Why was practicing the basics more important than devoting time to any single skill? Because Rayleigh had the Easy Mastery for each of the basic branches! If he devoted time to mastering a single skill, he would only get stronger in that skill. But when he spent his time mastering the basics, he was mastering everything. Rayleigh''s possession of the Easy Mastery for every branch meant his progress in mastering the fundamentals was eight times faster than it should have been. With his Chosen One Midichlorian count, he was learning them faster than a Padawan apprenticed to Grandmaster Yoda.


    This brought up the main point of the second reason not to practice them. Any practice Rayleigh devoted to a skill would be useless if he didn''t need it in the future or if he created a better skill. Yes, that was his n. With the exception of Shatterpoint and Dark Transfer, every other skill was just a technique, and he may either grow out of it or find something better. The fact that he invented Force Muffle proved he had the talent necessary to create his own abilities.


    Even if there were skills he would definitely use, there was no great harm in dying his study of them. Because his fundamental foundation was always getting stronger, theter he began to study a technique, the easier it would be to learn. Would a Jedi Master learn a new technique at the same rate as a Jedi Padawan? Certainly not. And though his connection to the Force was only at the early stage of a Jedi Knight, his fundamentals granted his Force abilities the strength of a veteran Jedi Knight.


    But, did all of that mean Rayleigh was okay with patiently waiting until the time was right to learn them? NO! Of course not! Rayleigh was just a kid with a biological kid''s brain and brain chemistry. Past life memories or not, he wanted nothing more than to gain superpowers, show them off to everyone, and be the coolest kid in the Universe!


    Every single day on Tython, the knowledge of how to perform all of those amazing and fantastical skills sat in the back of his head, tempting him to practice them. A single day couldn''t hurt, right? Maybe an hour, or perhaps just once. Such was the nature of thoughts he dealt with every hour of every day. Why didn''t he sumb?


    It was because of that abomination of a robe that Rayleigh wore, the itchiest thing in the Universe, (at least in his mind). The Iron Will n required never removing the Itchy Robe and not scratching the itches it caused him every second of every day.


    When Rayleigh was tempted to learn the techniques, though he clearly knew it would be inefficient to do so, he was able to stop himself thanks to the Iron Will he gained. What''s more, the constant temptation also added to the difficulty, so not sumbing would strengthen his will even further.


    But now, things were different. He already unlocked the Hunter ss. He knew the basics of the Hunter System. He may not know the fancy high-level skills, but he knows that the foundation of everything is just different applications andbinations of Ten, Zetsu, and Ren. All of which he now understood the theory behind. It was time to work on merging the two systems. Every reason to prolong the wait to learn them could now be reasoned around.


    Of course, there was a small voice in the background iming it might be better to wait until the Pirate System was unlocked and understood. That voice was promptly eaten by a Terentatek and erased from his memory. Yes, now was a perfect time, no reason at all to dy any further, no reason whatsoever.


    But honestly, it really was the best time. The limitation of Force Valor, Enhance Speed, and Enhance Strength was already clear. Should his physical body exceed the strength these techniques could provide, they would be worthless. He needed to experiment, figure out how to stack his abilities, and see which techniques could be directly added to his repertoire and which he''d need to adjust or invent himself.


    One promising candidate was Force Stasis. It was a technique that created a telekic lock around the target, halting their movements. What was better was that even if the target was strong enough to overpower the lock, said lock would not break, only bend. As long as Force Stasis was continuously applied, a weak target would be left immobile and a strong target would at least be slowed down to some degree.


    The only reason Rayleigh hadn''t used this technique before was that it was a very high-level technique that required his entire attention and concentration to use. The moment he released his concentration, the lock would fade. But now, such a thing was not a problem.


    Rayleigh was perfectly able to split his mind. In fact, he''d already started practicing to divide the divided minds further. What was his limit? He didn''t know. What he did know was that there were uncountable advantages to having multiple independent minds. The simplest is that Rayleigh could actually devote one mind to meditation while his other controlled his body and did day-to-day tasks. Meditating 24 hours a day? How overpowered was that? Especially since there were skills that could only be used during meditation, like irvoyance. Rayleigh could potentially maintain irvoyance at all times, always seeing everything around him.


    It was even more broken when it came to battle-rted Force Skills. Veteran Jedi Masters were capable of multitasking with the Force inbat due to their experience and the strength of their connection. What was interesting was that to such a Jedi, doing multiple things with the Force did not tire them out anymore than doing a single thing of the same difficulty would for someone who was unable to multitask.


    The Force was not a mana pool that depleted with each spell that was cast. What did that mean? There was no potential limit to how much a Jedi could do with the Force at the same time. With multiple minds, each capable of independent thought, each mind could potentially use the Force on its own. They could perform different tasks or the same task. Was an opponent too fast? Use Force Stasis. Still too fast? Have another mind use Force Stasis. Still too fast? How many minds do you have?


    Of course, fighting by slowing down your enemy has its limits and would not work on everything. It was still better to strengthen his base abilities than to devote so much effort to hampering his opponent.


    And Force Stasis was only one of the contenders. Force Crash, Mind Trick, Force Whirlwind, Soft to Hard, Force Slow, Force Wound, Fear, Lightning, Drain, Crush, and Illusion were all battle skills he had never used before but knew the theory behind.


    Among them, Force Slow also had promise. It was considered a dark side technique if overused, but the base use of the skill only clouded the target''s mind. It didn''t physically slow the target as Force Stasis did, it hampered the target''s ability to think and react, slowing their reflexes and thoughts. When the Jedi used it, they called it Force Exhaustion to prevent themselves from looking like hypocrites, even though it was the same skill.


    Most of how these skills were viewed by the Jedi were imparted to Rayleigh during his lessons with Master Dyanameez. The actual Temple of Force Skills in the Silent Desert was built long before the splitting of the Jedi and the Sith, and skills from both the Light Side and Dark Side were found within. Unsurprisingly, arge majority of the skills he found were also not rted to battle. Telepathy skills, mental skills, and meditation skills made up the majority of the rooms that had skills carved into the walls. He didn''t need them now, but the ones that strengthened the mind would be useful in the future. Once he reached the limit of splitting his mind, he could use the esoteric techniques to strengthen each fragmented mind to the point they could be further split and strengthened again for an endless cycle.


    Now Rayleigh just had to figure out how to get as much mileage as he could before his test subject ran away. How strong were Sadoso''s Ren and Ten? How would Ren and Ten affect advanced skills like Force Stasis or basic skills like Force Hold and Force Push? Would Sadoso''s Nen Aura Arm be affected by Force Whirlwind?


    Rayleigh couldn''t hurt him using the Force as the Force wouldn''t appreciate it, but anything that did not cause physical pain, damage, or distress was fair game. Fear might be okay if used just once. How would Sadoso react? Could Fear be stacked with the intimidation effect of Ren? Ren''s normal intimidation was resisted by Ten. Could Ten resist Fear, or would it have an effect?


    So many questions, and so few chances to practice, but he had to be fair to Gon and Killua. Rayleigh did not think Sadoso would stick around once Rayleigh was done with him, and he couldn''t do the same to the Wheelchair guy and Peg-legged man before Gon and Killua had a chance to have some fun with them, so he''d probably only get to fight Sadoso and maybe wheelchair guy after Gon and Killua kicked his ass, but he doubted it.


    Oh well, it wasn''t his way to ask for more when he should just appreciate what he already had, and thankfully, the time for the match was about to start. Rayleigh got up and made his way toward the stage. Let the games begin.


    The announcer called out, [Ladies and Gentlemen of Heaven''s Arena! We have another exciting match for you from the fighters of the 200th floor! On one side, we have Sadoso, with a record of five victories and only a single defeat! On the other side, we have a first-time fighter of the 200th floor, Rayleigh! In Rayleigh''s time fighting his way up Heaven''s Arena, he has never lost a single match, but this is his first match on the 200th Floor. Will his record be maintained, or will the young warrior be defeated like so many others? ce your bets now!]


    Rayleigh wanted to give Killua his money so he could bet on Rayleigh''s victory, but each person could only bet so much, and both Killua and Gon bet the maximum on Rayleigh''s victory, while Wing wasn''t interested and Zushi was not allowed by his teacher to gamble. Unfortunately, fighters were not allowed to bet on themselves, at least without a proxy.


    The crowd was bustling, and Wing, Zushi, Gon, and Killua all had seats. Rayleigh even noticed Hisoka, Springheeled Jack, Armory, and White Knight in the audience. Now that he had his Hunter License and knew a thing or two about Nen, he could give them a show. Even if no one understood what he did, Rayleigh could im it was Nen, even if no one saw him using Aura while he yed around.


    From the other end of the arena, Sadoso said, "Go ahead and make it look good, kid."


    Rayleigh then remembered something that had slipped his mind. Sadoso still thought Rayleigh was going through with losing on purpose.


    Rayleigh used Force Muffle to prevent his words from being heard by anyone but Sadoso and said, "Ah, my loss was contingent on you leaving Gon alone. You didn''t hold up your end of the bargain, so I''m not going to lose."


    Sadoso''s face looked like a porcin mask normally, but Rayleigh''s admission broke that expressionless visage and clearly hit a nerve. He replied, "You don''t have to lose on purpose. You''re still going to lose."


    Rayleigh added, "I''m really not. In fact, since you broke our deal. You should go ahead and give up now, that way I won''t have to fight you."


    "Was that supposed to be a joke? A kid like you thinks he can win?"


    "I don''t, ''think,'' anything. I''m not going to lose. It really is better for you and everyone else if you just give up now and save us all the trouble."


    "Your jokes are getting annoying. I''m going to squeeze you until you pop!"


    Rayleigh shrugged at the threat, "Are you sure you don''t want to give up? Last chance."


    Sadoso shouted, "Enough!" He then turned to the ref and said, "Start the match already!"


    The ref argued back that there was still a minute before the match started. He saw Rayleigh speaking, but over the roar of the crowd, he wasn''t able to hear what he said for some reason, but it didn''t matter.


    Rayleigh hid his smile. What was going to happen to Sadoso would be, unpleasant. He had to at least give him a chance to surrender peacefully. And he did. In fact, he gave him three chances. He felt something click into ce, and now, as long as Sadoso was not physically harmed, what Rayleigh did to him with the Force was just what he hading.


    The ref kept his eyes on the clock, and once it was time, he got out of the way and shouted, "Begin the Match!"


    The armless sleeve of Sadoso''s left side fluttered violently as arge aura hand extended out of it on arge arm of aura. Rayleigh dashed to the side as the ws of the aura hand scraped the arena''s floor.


    The announcer shouted, [Oh! And our newest Fighter dodges Sadoso''s Invisible Hand! But how long can he keep this up?]


    Sadoso sneered, and the aura arm faded from view, truly bing invisible.


    Even Rayleigh''s Force senses could not detect aura under the effect of In, but now he wasn''t defenseless. Even if he could not see it, he could use Sense Danger and Battle Precognition to detect the spikes in Sadoso''s killing intent to determine when he was going to attack. Like right now.


    Rayleigh jumped to the side again, dodging another w. He ran to Sadoso''s side and used Ren. Eachponent of Ren requires visualization to get your aura to amodate the effect. Rayleigh''s mental image for expelling aura from his cells was the Cellr Breathing from Toriko. In the Manga, Toriko, the protagonist, could make his cells breathe. He could even make the cells on his skin exhale so quickly that his strikes would be propelled like a jet fighter craft. Ray''s image for his Ten was a calm sea. No matter how strong the wind, it could not reach into the depths of the sea. It would always be bounced back. These two images of cells that could exhale aura at the speed of a Jet-Fighter''s exhaust and a sea that could bounce back any degree of wind meshed quite well and allowed him to form a strong and solid Ren.


    Now he just needed to use Gy. Rather than dedicate his entire Ren to Gy, Rayleigh did something else. There were many seas, and some met others without mixing. Using the image of multiple seas, Rayleigh divided his Ten, making a separate internalyer of Ten, and concentrated that into his eyes. It was like forming a bubble around the upper half of his body within his Ren and then having the bubble shrink until it was concentrated just over his eyes. The remaining excited aura spread throughout his Ren, halving its strength, but it was better than beingpletely without it. Rayleigh used the image of a sea concentrating into a pair of thick binocrs to shrink his internal Ten into position just above his eyes.


    As he suspected, Sadoso''s In was not at the level of Hisoka. Wing told Zushi, someone whose Ren was still a notch higher than Rayleigh''s current Ren, that he needed to put all of his aura into Gy to seepletely through Hisoka''s In. But with Sadoso, using just half was enough to break his In.


    The process of forming his Ren and Gy took about three seconds, and in that time, Sadoso had erged his ghostly hand five-timesrger than Rayleigh himself. The moment he finished erging it, he pressed forward, the massive wing directly at Rayleigh.


    Rayleigh dodged, of course, but a second, smaller hand and arm extended out of the side of the hand he just dodged and quickly snatched him before raising Rayleigh into the air.


    [Oh my! The Young Warrior''s quick dodges have failed! He is now firmly within the grasp of Sadoso''s invisible hand! No one has ever gained victory after getting caught, is this the end of the young Fighter?!]


    Sadoso squeezed but noticed Rayleigh''s Ren was up. He said, "That''s odd. I thought you would have used Gy. No matter. How long can you keep it up?"


    Rayleigh understood Sadoso''s strategy with that. For those who could not use Gy, they would just have to dodge the invisible hand. For those who could, he''d trick them with that double-hand stunt since using Gy usually meant you weren''t using Ren to defend yourself. Rayleigh doubted he pioneered using Ren and Gy at the same time, so this strategy would only be useful against newbies. Once Sadoso caught them, it would be a match between how long he could maintain that hand and how long the victim could maintain Ren if they were lucky enough to have it when caught, since activating it while caught was likely quite difficult.


    Rayleigh doubted his half-powered Ren wouldst longer than Sadoso''s aura hand, but he''d already had enough fun. Ray just wanted a bit more experience fighting a Nen user, even if it was a weak one, before he started ying around.


    Rayleigh had been using one mind to maintain Ren and another to maintain Gy. Since he allowed himself to get captured, he didn''t need to maintain Gy anymore, and that mind was freed up to do as he pleased. Even if he did nothing, he could not lose. Force Valor could be used to make sure his organs continued to function while being squeezed, and he could use Breath Control to ensure he didn''t pass out even if he was deprived of oxygen for a few minutes. Sadoso''s constriction was not enough to break anything, he was like an anaconda, constricting until his opponent passed out but unable to do much more. To be fair, it worked against opponents of the same level, but Rayleigh was above him before he even entered the tower.


    First Test: Force Slow. The Force existed within everyone, and the Alter Aspect of using it entailed using the Force outside of your body as if it was within your body, essentially acknowledging that separation was an illusion and we are all one. Rayleigh imagined himself as Sadoso, and then imagined the Force gathering within his mind like heavy syrup being poured into a well-oiled machine, or stuffing mounds of cotton into an engine block. The dark side aspect of this skill required imagining the target as a part of yourself you hated and despised, a weakness to be removed or eliminated. That, however, could be reced with empathy, though doing so required feeling as the target felt. Empathy is a universal means of connecting one mind to another, as social species are rarely capable of blocking an empathic connection.


    The invisible hand dissipated, and Sadoso staggered as if he had just gotten motion sickness, causing his senses to spin around for a moment.


    Second Test: Force Whirlwind. This was a multidirectional Force Push centered around an axis that also lifted the target off their feet. It was physically harmless, but usually rendered the target incapable of doing much until they fell down.


    Sadoso was suddenly lifted into the air and began to spin around. He tried to maintain his bnce, but his slowed reactions prevented him from remaining upright, and in the next moment, he was sideways while still being spun around.


    The announcer was loving it. [Unbelievable! Through some unknown means, our young Fighter has been freed from Sadoso''s Invisible hand! And now, the one being caught in some unseen force is none other than Sadoso himself! What an upset! Will Sadoso''s five-time winning streak end today, or will he ovee this challenge and take another victory?!]


    Third Test: Ren Vs Telekinesis. Simr to how an amateur would have difficulties using Gy and Ren, Sadoso did not use Ren whileunching that aura hand of his. Rayleigh released the effect of Force Whirlwind to allow Sadoso to fall and gain his bearings.


    [That''s a down! Two points for Rayleigh Rush!] Since Sadoso didn''tnd on his feet, the Ref decided it was a down and awarded the relevant points.


    Sadoso''s humiliation at being on the opposite end of the match''s manhandling turned into anger the moment hended on the ground. He turned over and got up while Rayleigh casually said, "Ready for Spin Time Round 2? You should probably defend yourself."


    Sadoso''s anger turned into fear and he immediately used Ren.


    Rayleigh then used Force Push with enough strength to blow him out of the ring. Sadoso suddenly slid back, but turned his body as the push seemed to slip past him. He was only pushed back a few meters.


    Forth Test: Force Stasis. Rayleigh imagined the space around Sadoso had been solidified by Rayleigh''s Telekinesis, holding every single molecule in ce. A proper use of Stasis should have stopped someone''s movement entirely, making them as motionless as a statue. Instead, the effect on Sadoso who still had his Ren up was lesser. Sadoso was able to wiggle himself around, struggling to move within the space created by his Ren. It seemed Stasis could not fully prate his Ren, but his Ren could not break the Stasis either.


    [What is this?! Sadoso has been frozen in ce, bound by another invisible force! How the tables have turned! Is this how Sadoso will end, defeated by the very move he has always used to gain victory, or will his expertise grant him insight into breaking through this unknown hold!]


    Rayleigh required an entire mind to maintain Stasis, but since he had one to spare, that didn''t stop him from doing other things. Rayleigh walked up to Sadoso as the man continued to struggle, his Ren getting weaker. Reapplying Stasis froze the shrunken space further and was done whenever Ray felt like it. Once Sadoso''s own Ren ran out, he''d be a statue.


    Sadoso obviously knew this, his struggle was visible to the entire crowd, his expressionless mask shattered as his gritting teeth were visible for all to see.


    A few secondster, Sadoso''s Ren lost steam and became a normal Ten. He was almostpletely frozen in ce, his Ten only providing enough room to shake himself. Unlike Sadoso''s own technique though, Rayleigh''s Force Stasis did not harm the target. Someone under the effect of Stasis can still breathe and blink, but is unable to twitch even a single finger until the Stasis is removed.


    What was interesting was that, unlike aura, what Rayleigh was doing was actually somewhat visible to the audience. Everyone saw a rippling field of air over the surface of Sadoso, making it clear that he was under the effect of some strange technique.


    Rayleigh then pulled out a sharp kitchen knife.


    [Rayleigh haspletely frozen Sadoso in ce, and now he has brought out a knife! As you know, weapons and even killing are allowed on the 200th floor. Will this be the end of Sadoso?]


    Fifth Test: Fear. Simr to Force Slow, Fear required connecting to the target and instilling him with Fear. While one of Rayleigh''s minds held Sadoso in ce with Force Stasis, the other envisioned itself in Sadoso''s ce and imagined bing more and more frightened.


    Rayleigh held up the knife and slowly walked over to Sadoso. He said aloud, "You really should have given up when I gave you a chance. Then again, you really should not have broken our deal. I know that such a person cannot be trusted, but I don''t want to kill Guido and Riehlvelt. It''s okay though, I''ll just make an example out of you. Then they will know what it means to get on my bad side and will be a little wiser in the future. Be a better person in your next life, okay?"


    Rayleigh said each word without a trace of hostility or anger, like he was talking to a good friend. He also raised his knife bit by bit, higher into the air with each word. Even those unaffected by Fear were given the heebie-jeebies. It''s safe to say that Sadoso was feeling much worse. His entire body was shaking. In his eyes, the knife was clearly the reaper''s scythe. Every word Rayleigh spoke hammered hopelessness into his heart. Though unable to move or even open his mouth, his eyes were trembling nonstop as Sadoso witnessed the knife raise into the air, its tip pointed directly at his eyes.


    Sadoso''s eyes and everything else stopped moving. Rayleigh released Stasis and Sadoso fell to the ground, drooling and clearly unconscious.


    Rayleigh stuck his tongue out and said, "Kidding."


    The ref came over and confirmed Sadoso was unable to continue the match, awarding Rayleigh his first victory in Heaven''s Arena.


    The crowd exploded, and a single burst of killing intent made its presence known before it was suppressed. Rayleigh turned to Hisoka and politely waved. The magician waved back, his smile, wide and creepy as always.


    [What an astounding match! What a fantastic performance! What will Rayleigh show us in his next match? There''s only one way to find out, make sure you return during that time and see for yourselves!]


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes at the announcer as he left the stage. He didn''t even know if there would be another match.


    In any case, he was satisfied.


    Force Slow was usable even when Sadoso was using his aura arm and even had the added benefit of disrupting his use of aura.


    Force Push and Force Stasis were unable to properly form a solid grasp while Sadoso was using Ren. If the same was true for Ten, he did not know yet.


    He was unable to test if Fear was usable during Ren, but at least confirmed it worked under Ten.


    Conclusion: Force Push and Force Whirlwind are not terribly viable, while Force Stasis and Force Slow have potential. Force Fear requires more tests.


    Something about the use of Ren made any form of telekic hold slip off. He guessed it was due to the Force that existed within the targets. Although none of them were force-sensitive, normal humans did have a Midichlorian count between two thousand and seven thousand. When Rayleigh used his aura, his Force moved around. Perhaps this urred with others as well, meaning aura techniques contained weak Force attributes. This would exin why a Force skill could be blocked or hampered by someone not using the Force.


    It also meant that even if someone could not use the Force, if they had high-level mastery over Ren, they could defend themselves with an approximation. A strong Ren could allow them to slippletely out of Force Stasis, but it would at least slow them down marginally unless their Ren was simply overwhelmingly powerful.


    He''d have to ask Wing about the methods Nen users used to defend themselves from mental attacks, because Slow and Fear may be more effective than stasis against higher-level fighters. No, that wasn''t true. If Rayleigh was unable to invoke any fear in the person, he could not use the Force to amplify it. If someone fought using instinct or had an incredibly strong or fast mind, slowing down their thoughts would be useless. Indeed, regardless of the circumstances, going up against high-level fighters would require strengthening his own abilities rather than reducing the abilities of others.


    For now, it was time to return to Wing''s house. The next match was Gon''s rematch with Guido in a week. The next day would have Killua against the Wheelchair guy, Riehlvelt, and Rayleigh would fight what, if anything, was left of Guido the day after that. If he hadn''t run away by then, Killua would fight Guido the day after that, and then Gon would fight Riehlvelt the next day. Rayleigh would then fight Riehlveltst.


    The 200th floor only held a single match a day, and other than Rayleigh Vs Sadoso, the remaining three-on-three fights were set to ur once a day, every day, for the following eight days starting next week. Rayleigh doubted the crowd would get what they wanted. Sadoso would never enter the ring again, and Gon was quite mad at Guido, so it was anyone''s guess if there would be anything left of him after their fight for Rayleigh to meet in the ring. Riehlvelt would definitely fight Killua, and probably fight Gon, but Rayleigh wasn''t going to bet that the wheelchair-bound Nen user would show up for their match after what he saw him do to Sadoso and what Killua and Gon would do to him.


    What did that mean? It meant that this was probably Rayleigh''s first andst fight in Heaven''s Arena. That was fine with him. ording to Springheeled Jack, most of the other fighters on the 200th floor, besides Hisoka, were decent human beings, so other than those three who target rookies, there were no other good targets to practice his Force abilities on. Again, that was fine. He still had to finish learning the basics of Nen.


    The group arrived back at Wing''s house, and Wing said, "Rayleigh, although I''m quite confused, I''m also very impressed with your abilities."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "None of those tricks would work on someone much stronger than I am. Wanna see for yourself? That thing where I made Sadoso immobile is harmless, so I can use it on you without doing any damage."


    Wing looked intrigued and said, "Oh, then please."


    Gon, Killua, and Zushi also stood to the side, looking with interest.


    Rayleigh used Force Stasis on Wing, and a shimmer of waves looked like it was surrounding him. Wing suddenly used Ren and the telekic lock was easily pushed aside. He then started moving, though slower than normal, as if he were underwater.


    Wing then intensified his Ren, making it far stronger. He was then able to move around far more freely.


    As an additional test, Rayleigh used Force Stasis with his second mind. Wing''s movement became noticeably slower, but not by much. Stasis only reduced his movement by about 5% when he went all out using Ren, and the secondyer increased that reduction to 7% or 8%. The effects did not fully stack because Rayleigh wascking experience doing such things for now.


    Wing then nodded to Ray as the signal to stop, and Ray released both uses of Force Stasis while Wing stopped using Ren. Wingmented, "I see what you mean, though, against an opponent of the same level, that can still prove useful."


    Killua added, "He didn''t even break out hisser sword."


    Zushi asked, "You have aser sword?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah. Though Netero was able to block it with a rubber ball."


    Wing smiled at that. "Well, we are getting a little off-topic. I saw that Rayleigh was able to use Gy during the match. How about you two?"


    Killua answered, "Yeah, can you show us that video of Hisoka''s match again?"


    Gon nodded, also eager to ''see'' how Hisoka performed those magic tricks.


    Wing nodded and yed the video once more.


    Rayleigh also used Gy and confirmed a few things. When Kastro desired, his doppelganger could be invisible. Ray was also able to see how Hisoka had been ying with Kastro from the moment Kastro took Hisoka''s right arm.


    Hisoka created wires of aura from his left arm and connected them to the thirteen spade-suited cards he had scattered as a distraction while throwing his arm into the air. When he tossed the Ace of Spades to Kastro, he also tossed the connecting wires that had been attached to the cards to Kastro, while also connecting a line from Hisoka''s left arm to Kastro''s chin.


    Andst, there were two more lines of aura, one from the severed right arm stuck on the roof to the handkerchief, and one from the handkerchief to Hisoka''s right stump.


    As for how all the tricks worked? The aura stuck firmly to whatever Hisoka connected it to, but Hisoka could control the stretchiness, sticity, and how sticky it was. He could remove the stickiness and toss it somewhere, and he would make it stick to that. If it was stretched out, he couldmand it to remotely retract. From what he could see, the retraction applied an immense amount of force, allowing something that was being retracted toward something else, like ying cards or a severed arm, to strike with incredible power.


    Killua used his Gy to count every line of aura sessfully, and just like Rayleigh, deduce its properties and effects.


    Rayleigh''s first question was if he could cut it with his Lightsaber, but since Hisoka would be a floor master with one more victory or leave the tower with one more loss, he would not fight Rayleigh no matter how much he wanted to since he already promised a match with Gon.


    In any case, after confirming they had seeded in learning Ren and Gy, Wing instructed them to practice Ren and Ten until their matches. While at Wing''s, Rayleigh practiced Ren and Ten with one mind while meditating with another. At his apartment in the tower, he used Psychometry on the Journals with one mind while practicing Ren with the other.


    Divine Script was unlike anynguage Rayleigh had learned, but that didn''t mean he waspletely unfamiliar with it. It just so happened that Divine Script had a lot inmon with Force Calligraphy. Force Calligraphy was not a style ornguage, it was a method to allow the Force to guide your writing and how to express the Force through the stroke of a brush.


    Divine Script was simr. There wasn''t anguage you could read aloud, there was a technique you could use to write your Hatsu down and impart what you wrote on the properties of your Hatsu. As for what Hatsu was, it was just a fancy way of saying customized Nen ability. Sadoso''s aura arm is considered a Hatsu. Hisoka''s stretching aura strings are considered a Hatsu. Kastro''s Doppelganger, etc.


    Rayleigh would spend the week ensuring he got the essential points before returning the journals and decided not to tell Wing of his aplishments, though he''d tell Gon and Killua if they asked. He wouldn''t be able to use it until he had a Hatsu of his own, or at least an idea of one.


    The days passed, and soon it was the rematch of Gon Vs Guido. As Rayleigh predicted, Sadoso had left Heaven''s Arena. The stage would forever be a reminder of his death, and he''d never be able to fight within again.


    On the fourth of June, Gon once more stood in the arena facing the peg-legged Guido. What surprised many in the audience was that this time he had note unarmed.


    The announcer was the same woman from their prior match and sounded quite excited.


    [The Revenge match we''ve all been waiting for is about to begin! Guido Vs Gon. In his first match three months ago, Gon was sent to the Hospital! This time, he does note empty-handed. For the first time in Heaven''s Arena''s History, we''re going to see a Fishing rod used as a weapon. What kind of strategy has Gone up with and will it be of any use? Let''s Find out!]


    The ref began the match and Gon charged forward without giving Guido time to breathe.


    Before Gon could approach, Guido activated his Ren and started rapidly spinning. Thest time Gon touched that, he was sent flying outside the arena, this time he approached it more cautiously.


    What Gon did not expect was that, even while spinning, Guido was somehow able tounch his tops. In fact, he was able to rapidly fire them like an automatic machine gun directly at Gon''s position.


    This time, however, Gon was not unprepared. Gon used his Ren at full power, the immense force of the nen-powered tops struck the barrier of Gon''s explosive Ren and each and every one of them shattered!


    Guido''s attack waspletely ended, but as long as he kept spinning, Gon would also have difficulty attacking. Guido didn''t have to maintain Ren at all times after all, just when Gon attacked.


    Gon then cast his fishing rod, letting the line fly over and strike Guido. Unlike what many were expecting, the line''s hook did not catch Guido''s spinning clothes, as the peg-legged man used Ren at the moment of impact to ensure the hook bounced off without catching anything.


    Gon then reeled the line in. What no one in the audience expected, was that the tiny hook on the end of the line caught the edge of the stone tiles on the arena floor. These tiles were quiterge, and this tile was the very one Guido was spinning on. Gon used all his strength, and the tile beneath Guido was lifted off the ground by the tiny hook. Guido wasunched into the air and unable to maintain his spinning technique or evennd on his peg leg.


    Gon stood above him a moment after Guidonded and readied his fist. Before Guido could voice his surrender, Gon mmed said fist down, causing arge crack to be heard. The crack was not Guido, however, but the metal pole Guido used to stand. Gon had snapped it with a single punch. Gon then promised Guido, "If youy a hand on Zushi one more time, it''s your face that will be punched. And I won''t be holding back!"


    The following day had Killua''s match against Riehlvelt, as Sadoso''s withdrawal had caused the matches to be held earlier. The moment the match started, Killua jumped over the gap between the fighters and attempted tond behind the wheelchair-bound fighter.


    Before Killua couldnd a Ren-enhanced punch, Riehlvelt''s wheelchair burst forward at incredible speed, perfectly avoiding the strike.


    Before Killua could prepare for another assault, Riehlvelt pulled some weapons from hiddenpartments in his wheelchair. A pair of whips. Riehlvelt then swung them around like mad, his wheelchair approaching Killua. The length of the whips and wildness of the assault caused his whipping attack to fill up nearly a quarter of the arena. It seemed his n was to either chase Killua out of the ring or get lucky with a strike after cornering him.


    What was funnier was that Riehlvelt started monologuing about how he was now invincible.


    The face Riehlvelt made when Killua casually caught the heads of both whips made Rayleigh want this match on DVD. It was priceless.


    But that shocked expression quickly turned to glee as Riehlvelt flipped a pair of switches on the handles of the whips. The cackle of electricity was heard as Killua was being lit up from the shock he was receiving. Riehlvelt imed someone who caught his whips would receive a jolt of one million volts. Rayleigh wondered if he had capacitors in the handles.


    Though clearly getting shocked with enough voltage to send any man unconscious, Killua had not passed out. In fact, he didn''t even look like he was receiving damage. To prove this, Killua yanked the whips up, causing Riehlvelt to be flung into the air from gripping them too tightly.


    Killua''s strength was immense, and Riehlvelt had been flung all the way to the roof. His problem was that since his legs were crippled, he had no good way to orient himself in the air andnd safely.


    Killua teased him and asked if he needed help, to which Riehlvelt screamed, "PLEASE HELP ME!"


    Killua, being the kind and thoughtful person he was, easily and safely caught Riehlvelt before he hit the ground. Oh, and Killua was still holding the one million-volt whips. The moment he was safely in Killua''s arms, he was also heavily zapped by his own weapons and promptly passed out from the shock.


    Guido''s match with both Killua and Rayleigh was not held as the peg-legged fighter had withdrawn from the matches, epting a loss.


    Both Guido and Sadoso had a single loss from their Baptism and their three further losses to Rayleigh, Killua, and Gon meant they were both out of the Tower. At first, Rayleigh felt he might be able to fight Riehlvelt, but then he discovered Riehlvelt had another loss before he met them other than his Baptism. After losing to Killua, he had three losses, and if he didn''t beat Gon, he would not be able to fight Rayleigh.


    For obvious reasons, Rayleigh was not expecting to see the man again after today.


    Riehlvelt arrived on stage fully prepared to meet Gon. Before the match even started, he already had his whips ready, and the moment the ref dered the start, Riehlvelt started whipping like crazy.


    Gon did not approach him. Instead, he walked over to the side and bent down. He then lifted one of the arena''s giant stone tiles directly off the floor and threw it at Riehlvelt.


    The wheelchair-bound man was obviously not expecting this. He used a burst of aura to shoot his chair forward to dodge, but in doing so, he fell into Gon''s trap. Riehlvelt could onlyunch himself forward in the direction he was facing, something anyone was easily able to see. And he certainly could not maintain his fancy whip movements while being propelled forward.


    Gon had already jumped, and the moment Riehlvelt''s propulsion ended, Gon hadnded in front of him and had taken Riehlvelt''s wrists tightly within his grasp.


    Gon apparently had massive grip strength from years of fishing, and he used it to squeeze Riehlvelt''s wrists hard enough for the man to release his grasp on both whips.


    Gon then took the whips up himself and flicked them at Riehlvelt, coiling the pair around Riehlvelt''s neck.


    Gon looked at the handles for the whips and asked aloud, "The buttons to turn these on are here right? And this one turns the power up to the maximum? Ok, maximum power, and turning, On!"


    Riehlvelt panicked, the memory of being fried yesterday still clear in his head. In fact, it was so clear, he suddenly passed out again, even though Gon had not actually turned on the whips. Gon poked his tongue out, and the crowd cheered for his victory.


    The only thing left to do at Heaven''s Arena was for Gon to face Hisoka, but first, they needed toplete their studies on Nen and learn more about Hatsu. With the limitless potential he had and the bright future before him, Rayleigh felt like he could do anything. At least until he saw a new message in the General Chat.


    [Hercules: Holy Sh1t! In the Finals of the World Martial Arts Tournament, someone just blew up the F*cking Moon!]


    Okay, he couldn''t do that.

 Chapter 29: The Six Nen Categories

    Chapter 29: The Six Nen Categories


    Chapter 29 The Six Nen Categories


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: I''m sorry, could you repeat that? I think there was a typo.]


    [Bone_Wizard: If you are going to troll, please try something more believable.]


    [Book_worm: Did the finals take ce on the moon or something?]


    [Hercules: This isn''t a joke! Jackie Chun just blew up the moon!]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Yeah. I watched the match too. Moon is gone. I''m gonna pass out now.]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: Hahaha! Jackie Chun is the lowliest of my followers. My power can destroy the whole Universe! Much less some pitiful moon.]


    [Daniel_Rogers: Umm.. I''m in the Warrior world and yeah... The moon is gone.]


    [Swordsman: How did the moon get destroyed during a martial arts tournament?]


    [Ninja_Lord has signed in.]


    [Dragon_Chef has signed in.]


    [Demon_Hunter has signed in.]


    [Wild_King has signed in.]


    [Titan has signed in.]


    [Ninja_Lord: I heard that someone blew up a moon?]


    [Dragon_Chef: I''m pretty sure that can''t happen.]


    [Hercules: Here''s what happened. The suspected Warrior MC made it into the finals of the World Martial Arts Tournament. He was getting his ss kicked by Jackie Chun and was about to lose. Then he looked at the moon and turned into a four-story-tall ape monster. To beat him, Jackie Chun formed a bright ball of energy in his hands and then shot it like aser. The suspected MC turned back into a 12-year-old when the moon was gone.]


    [Wild_King: Your MC is a were-ape?]


    [Dragon_Chef: Jackie Chun?]


    [Ninja_Lord: What''s the MC''s name?]


    [Daniel_Rogers: I think he''s referring to a Ki Attack.]


    [Hercules: Goku Son.]


    [Dragon_Chef: Goku? Oh. That''s not good.]


    [Ninja_Lord: What''s a Ki Attack?]


    [Wild_King: You don''t believe him do you?]


    [Demon_Hunter: He''s definitely trolling you.]


    [Dragon_Chef: Son Goku, since family namese first in that culture, would be another way of saying Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. A Mythical figure capable of changing shape, growing huge, and fighting gods. He had a divine staff and flying cloud.]


    [Hercules: Oh? Goku did actually use a golden flying cloud during one of his matches.]


    [Daniel_Rogers: A Ki Attack is where a martial artist concentrates their energy until it is so dense it can exist outside of the body, then fire it as an attack. The most well-known Ki Attack is the Kamehameha Wave invented by Master Roshi.]


    [Swordsman: Who cares about the MC. Tell us about this Jackie Chan.]


    [Dragon_Chef: I believe he said Jackie Chun.]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: Jackie Chun is one of my weakest disciples. All who prostrate themselves before me shall receive unlimited power!]


    [Hercules: I''m pretty sure he''s using a fake name. He actually looks like Master Roshi, the guy Daniel was talking about and the attack he used to blow up the moon was the Kamehameha. Except he is wearing a wig. Goku imed to be a student of Master Roshi, and so is another fighter who made it into the semi-finals before Jackie Chun beat him.]


    [Wild_King: So the master snuck into the tournament in a wig to beat down his disciples to make sure they would not get a big head?]


    [Lord_of_Madness has signed in.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: What''s this I hear about someone blowing up a moon!]


    [Swordsman: Quiet, the adults are talking.]


    [Hercules: I never thought about it that way, but you''re probably right. I''m definitely gonna find and ask Master Roshi if I can be his disciple. Goku used a weaker Kamehameha wave in the fight, so Roshi is definitely teaching it!]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Count me in. The temple I''m in is all talk. I''m already stronger than the adults but they refuse to fight me cause they know they''ll lose. Time to leave.]


    [Bone_Wizard: Should I go? Ninjas only teach how to be sneaky and the wizards are only teaching how to point your stick at things and inconvenience them. Neither can blow up a moon.]


    [Ninja_Lord: Unless you have high Warrior Talent, I doubt it will matter. Jackie Chun, or Master Roshi, or whatever is probably a powerful fighter in his prime.]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: I heard he is 300 years old.]


    [Hercules: Master Roshi is a really really old man.]


    [Ninja_Lord: ...]


    [Swordsman: How many of you attended the Tournament?]


    [Hercules: Four yers, including myself.]


    [Book_worm: How do you know they were yers?]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: Because every yer who fought in the tournament wore a majestic disguise!]


    [Ninja_Lord: YOU ACTUALLY WENT OUT IN PUBLIC WEARING THAT?!]


    [Hercules: I''m ashamed.]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Didn''t have a choice. Got a feeling that I could not sign up using my own name.]


    [Hercules: Same here. When I went to sign up, I got a really strong feeling I had to fight wearing... That. instead of going without a disguise.]


    [Dragon_Chef: What the hell are you talking about?]


    [Miracle: Oh, you mean THAT. I didn''t know everyone had one.]


    [Demon_Hunter: I am confused. What are they all talking about?]


    [Ninja_Lord: I guess every Ninja, Wizard, and Warrior has one. No. I won''t say more than that. Do. Not. Ask.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Soo... What is it?]


    [Miracle: ...]


    [Hercules: Changing the subject, it''s obvious the Warrior is the strongest ss.]


    [Book_worm: Warriors should be nerfed.]


    [The_Spiffing_Brit: Nonsense. The Warrior is a perfectly bnced ss with no exploits at all. Why don''t we all have a chat and drink a nice cup of some lovely Yorkshire Tea?]


    [Hercules: You''re here too? Me, Panda, Brit, and Skullcrusher all attended the Tournament and used our Chat Names.]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: My majestic attire is ck and silver with a cracked skull mask and an awesome broken skull on my cape. Hercules was yellow and white, with a white wrapping around the lower half of his face and a big H on the back of his cape. Panda''s disguise was ck and white, he had a panda mask and panda face on his cape. And Brit''s color scheme was like the Union Jack, the British g. He wore a cloth mask and on the back of his cape was a steaming cup of Tea.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Your costumes have capes?]


    [Hercules: Excuse me. I have a skull to crush. Be right back.]


    [Dark_Lord_Skullcrusher: Puny mortal! You shall-]


    [The_Spiffing_Brit: I do believe that is going to leave a mark.]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Agreed.]


    [Swordsman: So did he win? Jackie Chun or Master Roshi or whatever.]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Actually, he just did. Goku still had some energy after turning back to normal. They almost had a double-KO, but Roshi got up first and dered himself the Champion!]


    [Miracle: I wonder if I could kill Voldemort with aser like that?]


    [Dragon_Chef: Who is Voldemort?]


    [Miracle: The big bad of our setting. He can kill anything with a single spell.]


    [Bone_Wizard: Yeah, rather than learning to blow up moons, it might be better to just get really good at that Instant Kill Spell.]


    [Wild_King: You have an instant kill spell?]


    [Titan: Is there any way to defend against it?]


    [Miracle: Maybe...]


    [Swordsman: So how big are the moon fragments? Won''t those rain down and destroy the? Shouldn''t you get out of there?]


    [Miracle: Ah, he''s right. Run!]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: RIP Warrior World.]


    [Hercules: Ah, actually, I don''t see any fragments.]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Yeah, I don''t see anything.]


    [Swordsman: It''s in the middle of the night, of course you don''t see anything.]


    [Hercules: No, the sun is still out.]


    [Swordsman: Was it a full moon?]


    [Hercules: Yes.]


    [Book_worm: Then it has to be nighttime. A moon is only Full when it is opposite the sun from the Earth. So a full moon only rises after the sun sets. How can you have a full moon in the day?]


    [Hercules: Nope, it was full. The sun is almost setting, but it''s still in the sky. The moon was pretty high up too, well above the horizon.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: Your moon was retarded then. It deserved to get blown up.]


    [Kung_Fu_Panda: Hey, that''s a low blow. Apologize to the moon!]


    [Book_worm: What moon?]


    [Daniel_Rogers: Maybe our moon was smaller and closer to Earth. The sun is mostly set right now but it''s still there. If the moon was smaller and closer, that might exin a few things.]


    [Hi_I''m_Paul: It exins how stupid your moon was. RIP Retard Moon.]


    [Dragon_Chef: If it was a lot smaller and a lot closer, then it might show up as full at dusk instead of night.]


    [Book_worm: That''s not how it works.]


    [Swordsman: If that was the case, Lunar Eclipses wouldst a long time, be moremon, and there probably would never be a sr eclipse.]


    [Daniel_Rogers: I''ll check it out and see.]


    [Lord_of_Madness: So what happened?]


    [Hercules: So it''s like this.]


    Several other yers from other Chat Rooms entered the General Chat, and a few other Warriors confirmed theck of the moon''s presence in the sky.


    There were multiple arguments about if such a thing could be possible, but details were conflicting.


    Rayleigh could not be sure if it was a hoax but would keep it in mind. What would he do if a moon-destroyingser was shot at him? Well, even if he could not move at the speed of light, he could probably dodge it before it wasunched using Battle Precognition and Danger Sense.


    Various braggers showed up which gave other yers more info about other sses. The wizards apparently had a One-Hit-Kill spell. Rayleigh wondered if his Lightsaber could deflect spells and Warrior Lasers.


    Pretty much every yer with high Warrior Talent intended to train under Master Roshi, so a number of Wizards and Ninjas left their world and went to the Warrior World.


    Rayleigh tried not to let it bother him. He was a 20 Talent yer, he already had fullprehension of his first ss and was on his second. He had the highest Talent for both Hunter and Pirate to stack it will his Supreme Jedi Talent. His limit shouldn''t be weak. Still, he could not deny the sense of urgency he felt. He needed to devote more time to mind split training. Thankfully he already finished understanding the journals he borrowed from Wing and didn''t need to spend more time reading them.


    The day after theirst match, Rayleigh and the rest returned to Wing''s house and Rayleigh returned the journals. He did not say anything, but Wing likely assumed he got nothing from them and didn''t ask any questions.


    Wing got out his familiar whiteboard and began the day''s lecture. "Today we will finally begin to train Hatsu, but first, a review of the fundamentals."


    Wing wrote on the board, Ten=Shroud, Zetsu=Null, Ren=Enhance, Hatsu=Act.


    Then he exined, "Ten is the ability to build up and keep up a shroud of aura after opening your aura nodes to their fullest. Doing so allows the flow of aura, makes your body harder, increases your defense, and significantly slows the effect of aging."


    Moving on, he continued, "Zetsu is a technique used to nullify your Nen Aura. It is effective for concealing your presence and recovering from extreme fatigue."


    "Ren is a technique to create an especially strong aura, enhancing your Ten to a much stronger degree, and is the source of power for many Nen of Force Techniques."


    "And finally, Hatsu is the release of your aura after boosting it with Ren. These four elements are known as the four major principles, and are critical to the mastery of Nen of Force."


    Wing pointed to each as he exined before erasing the board, "You havepleted your studies on the first three, and once you master Hatsu, you will have learned the final basic principle of Nen of Force. After that, you will need to personally work on developing your own Nen style."


    Wing then drew a hexagon on the whiteboard, "Hatsu is the technique by which you control your Nen. It is the culmination of Nen of Force and there are six distinct categories."


    At the 12 ''o clock position on the hexagon, Wing wrote ''Enhancer,'' and below that, ''Strengthen Objects or self.''


    At the 2 ''o clock position, he wrote, ''Transmuter,'' with the caption, ''Can alter aura quality.''


    The 4 ''o clock position had ''Conjurer,'' written over ''Can manifest aura into objects.''


    ''Specialist'' was written in the 6 ''o clock position and ''Special aura not under the other five categories.''


    At the 8 ''o clock position Wing wrote, ''Maniptor,'' with the description, ''Can use aura to control objects or creatures.''


    And the 10 ''o clock position on the hexagon had ''Emitter'' with ''Can propel their aura,'' written under it.


    After naming each category and giving a brief description of what they were, Wing continued, "The key to developing a good Hatsu is deriving a power that suits your needs while keeping in mind the category you havepatibility with."


    "There are two things which determine the category which suits you. Everyone is born with a predisposition toward one of these categories. That is the first part. The second is the experiences you have gained throughout your life. Combined, these determine which of the categories suit you the most. Although rare, it is possible for life experiences to change which category suits you the most."


    "If you attempt to learn an ability that does not fall within your Nen disposition, you will find it very difficult. The closer another Nen category is to your own, the higher yourpatibility with it. For example, if you fall under the Enhancer disposition, you can learn techniques which enhance things very easily." Wing pointed to the top of the hexagon at Enhancer. But then he pointed to the two categories on either side of Enhancer and continued, "Someone with the Enhancer disposition can also learn abilities which fall under the Emitter and Transmuter categories. Not as easily as they can learn Enhancer abilities, but still not with particr difficulties."


    Wing then wrote numbers next to each category. 100% next to Enhancer, 80% next to Emitter and Transmuter, 60% next to Maniptor and Conjurer, and 0% next to Specialist.


    "These represent how much effect training each category has, specifically for an Enhancer. For another Category, you can just imagine it being turned. The exception is Specialist. If you are not a Specialist, you will always fail to train in an ability that falls outside these categories, though there is always a chance a Maniptor or Conjurer may turn into a specialist."


    Rayleigh raised his hand and Wing pointed at him, giving him a chance to ask his question. Rayleigh asked, "What kind of things fall out of any category?"


    "Hmm, well, what would you call the ability to shrink someone or yourself? How about an ability that lets you see into the future? I knew a Maniptor who could control others but turned into a Specialist who could merge his flesh into someone to possess or strengthen them. What about an ability that directly removes or affects the senses? Specialists arepletely unpredictable and many are very formidable. But every category has the potential to be very powerful with the right training."


    "Let me give you some examples you are familiar with. Guido is an Enhancer. He enhanced the strength of his tops, making them hit with far greater force than they should have. However, he alsomanded them to seek out targets, that''s maniption, which, as an Enhancer, he had limitedpatibility with."


    "Next is Sadoso. He is a Transmuter and transmuted his aura into arge arm he could use to grasp and squeeze things. But moving the arm would require Maniption. For a Transmuter, Maniption training is only 40% as effective as Transmuter training as it is on the opposite end of the chart."


    "Next is Riehvelt. He is an Emitter and used his wheelchair to channel his nen through and propel himself around using that chair."


    "As for Kastro, hmm. The strength of his Bite of the Tiger was wonderful, so he was certainly an Enhancer. But his doppelganger ability required materializing the doppelganger and manipting it, which is abination of Conjuration and Maniption, two poorlypatible abilities for an Enhancer. He must have trained incredibly hard to achieve that technique, but lost in the end because the technique wasn''t strong enough."


    "Andst we have Hisoka. As you saw, Hisoka can turn his aura into a gum-like substance, that is pure Transmutation."


    Rayleigh asked, "If Guido and Sadoso were so poorly attuned, why were they pretty strong?"


    Even though they got wrecked, the group had a number of wins before Rayleigh''s group and not all of them were rookies.


    Wing considered it before answering, "It has to do with the state of their bodies. Guido basically turned himself into a top. This gave him greaterpatibility with tops. Sadoso lost his arm and used his aura to make a new one. Since he was just making something he used to have, it would have been easier. If your ability rtes to something that means a lot to you, it will be much stronger and can counterbnce poorpatibility. Of course, it is best to have an ability that means a lot to you and matches yourpatibility. Hisoka''s ability is a perfect example. Kastro''s Bite of the Tiger was likely an Enhancement of a martial art technique he spent years mastering, so that was also very powerful."


    Killua asked, "How can we tell what category we are mostpatible with?"


    Expecting this question, Wing picked up a wine ss from a nearby table, a bottle of water, and a single leaf. He poured the water from the bottle into the ss, getting it as full as possible without it actually spilling. Then he ced the leaf on the top of the water where it floated.


    Wing said, "The Shingen-ryu Style teaches this method, Water Divination. This is also how we teach the mastery of Hatsu."


    Wing ced his hands around the ss and said, "We ce our hands around it like so and use Ren. The category we are mostpatible with will cause a specific change, and we can use that to know what category we belong to."


    Wing then used Ren. He did not touch the ss, but the nearly overflowing water suddenly started to actually overflow and drip over the rim of the ss.


    Everyone watching was certainly surprised, his aura had somehow made more water in the ss.


    Wing calmly exined, "The quantity of water has changed. It is a sign of being an Enhancer, and shows I have an affinity for Enhancer category techniques."


    Everyone wanted to be the first to try, so rather than argue, they decided on the order using Rock-Paper-Scissors. Rayleigh won first ce, Gon second, Zushi third, and Killua gotst ce.


    Rayleigh ced his hands at the sides of the ss and used his Ren. After a moment, the water started dribbling over the edge of the ss. A far, far weaker effect than Wing''s, but it was still an increase.


    Zushi eximed, "So you''re an enhancer like Teacher."


    Rayleigh didn''t answer but got out of the way for Gon. When he used Ren, an identical scene urred, and water started dripping from the ss.


    Killua asked aloud, "You''re both enhancers?"


    Rayleigh and Gon turned to each other and shared a smile.


    Zushi was next. After using his Ren for a few moments, the leaf on the surface of the water started wiggling a bit.


    Killua pointed out, "Oh, it''s moving?"


    Wing stated, "The leaf moving means Maniption."


    With a few ''ahhs'' and ''oohs,'' Killua stepped up and used his Ren. After a few seconds, nothing happened. Killua tried harder for a bit, but his Ren died out after holding it for as long as he could.


    He looked up at Wing and awkwardly said, "Nothing happened. Does that mean I''m not good at anything?"


    Wing smiled and replied, "Of course not. Try tasting the water."


    Everyone stuck a finger inside and tasted a drop. Rayleigh pointed out, "It tastes like someone added a pinch of sugar."


    Gon added, "Yeah, it''s a little sweet."


    Wing exined, "The taste of the water changed. That''s a sign of a Transmuter."


    Killua smiled, "Cool."


    Wing nodded, "Now you all know which category suits you best. Next is your Hatsu training. In order to create an eptable Hatsu, you must be able to strengthen the effect of your Ren on the ss to a certain standard. Have more watere out, move the leaf more, or make the water sweeter. Only once the effect has reached a certain standard can it be considered that you have mastered the Basics of Hatsu training."


    Rayleigh asked, "How would the other categories look in Water Divination?"


    Wing answered, "If the color of the water changes, that indicates the predisposition of an Emitter. If some impurities form within the Water, that''s the indication of a Conjurer. Other changes such as the temperature of the water changing, the water bing heavier or floating out of the ss, or the leaf catching on fire would all be considered the sign of a Specialist."


    Once the lecture ended they all returned to their respective apartments to train.


    From what Rayleigh understood, his aura had a slight tendency to enhance things. Through trial and error, he had to figure out how to make that aspect of his aura more pronounced. Only once his aura''s ability to enhance things reached a certain level would it be suitable for him to use Enhancer Hatsu. That''s what this training was for.


    As for what he would enhance, that was obvious. He had plenty of options in fact. The top priority would be to enhance his speed. He could also enhance his strength. Perhaps he could enhance his lightsaber''s ability to cut. It was already quite good at cutting, but what if it could be better? Netero had stopped it with a rubber ball after all. There was certainly room for improvement.


    In order to aplish any of that, he had to bring out the Enhancer property of his aura to its fullest.


    Rayleigh checked out his Easy Masteries and re-confirmed one he always had but had never understood how to use.


    [Enhancer Proficiency: Speeds up the advancement of the Enhancer Training regimen. Requires greater Ren and Sh Proficiency to Unlock.]


    What irked Rayleigh a bit was that it was still locked. So his Ren was not good enough for Enhancer training? Maybe augmenting the effect of Water Divination was not even considered Enhancer training. And what was Sh?


    Rayleigh opened up the Point Store and scrolled down to the Hunter Section.


    [En Proficiency: 1500 Mission Points


    Sh Proficiency: 500 Mission Points


    K Proficiency: 2000 Mission Points


    Ken and Ry Proficiency: 3000 Mission Points]


    Rayleigh had no idea what any of it meant except for K which was basically Gy on your fist. If you purchased an Easy Mastery Technique, you would have the knowledge to learn and practice the technique. But that only happened after you unlocked it. That meant if Rayleigh learned Sh and rose it with his Ren, eventually that Enhancer Proficiency would unlock and he would know what the Enhancer Training regimen was.


    The problem was that, even though 500 was actually quite cheap, he really should not waste his points on something if he didn''t even know what it was. He saved about 830 points but was reluctant to spend them. He decided to write the terms down and go back the next day to ask Wing what they all were. Maybe he could ask what the Enhancer Training regimen was as well.


    In any case, it was time to start practicing. He could not hold Ren for longer than 20 seconds at the moment, so he would also be using this time to practice prolonging how long he could hold his Ren. He had a long way to go, but at least he had a direction.


    *Author''s Note*


    Rayleigh was an Enhancer type in his previous life. Not like Gon, but closer to Wing. That''s why he knew to get Enhancer Easy Mastery but didn''t purchase the ability to choose what category he is. I did my best to write his personality to be like an enhancer, so it wouldn''t just seem like I was cheating. Some have been saying he is good at plotting, and although he is good at short-term ns, he never makes long-term ns, so you can''t really consider him the plotting, maniptive, and calcting type as those are NEVER without long-term ns. He is just really smart from his Jedi training, but that doesn''t change the fact that he is simple and direct.

 Chapter 30: Fighting Hisoka

    Chapter 30: Fighting Hisoka


    Chapter 30 Fighting Hisoka


    Rayleigh left Wing''s house the following day and returned to Heaven''s Arena while deep in thought.


    He had lied to Wing, telling him that he heard about En, Sh, K, Ken, and Ry from other Nen users on the 200th floor and directly asked what each of them was.


    Wing exined that each was an advanced usage of Nen and well above what Ray could learn at the moment, but seeing Rayleigh''s earnest look, Wing relented and exined what each could do.


    Along with Gy and In, skills such as En, Sh, K, Ken, and Ry were advanced applications of the four major principles.


    En means circle. It was basically arger Ren that had a more refined application of Ten holding it. Enpletely gives up on defense in exchange for area coverage. After ejecting aura from your aura nodes, you maintain arger Ten, still blocking the aura from escaping, but at a reduced speed.


    When you use Ren normally, you constantly feel an irregr pressure on your skin, like thousands of raindrops are falling on every bit of you at every moment. It feels even weirder when you concentrate the aura while using skills like Gy.


    The expansion of the Ten while using En reduces the physical sensation of Ren. If done properly, the physical sensation of En bes a 100% uniform gentle pressure. In that state, the entire area of your En basically acts as an extension of your skin and senses. The instant anything enters an area covered by your En, it''s like it is touching you directly, disturbing the uniformity and giving you the exact details of where it is. It works simrly to radar or echolocation using aura waves, but is far more sophisticated and sensitive.


    You cannot be considered to have learned En unless you can extend your En for more than two meters and hold it for more than a minute. You cannot be considered to have mastered En unless you can extend it more than fifty meters.


    Sh means Enfold. It is a technique to alter your Ten to include not just your body, but the equipment you held and used. Ten strengthens and protects the user''s body, and using Sh extends that strengthening and protection to the weapon the user is holding, using it as an extension of their own body.


    Rayleigh certainly had an interest in this technique, as this may have been how Netero blocked Ray''s Lightsaber with a rubber ball. What if Rayleigh used it on his Lightsaber?


    But ording to Wing, unlike a normal Ten which, in theory, could be maintained indefinitely even while you slept, maintaining Sh would cause aura to be lost as the item gaining the protection was not a natural part of the body and the aura covering it would leak no matter how strong of an image you held to maintain the Ten around it.


    K means Temper. Although Wing once said that it was basically using Gy on your fist, it was actually moreplicated than that. In addition to using Gy on your fist, you also had to use Zetsu on the remainder of your body while only keeping a single channel for all of your aura to only exit and get expelled through the aura surrounded by thepressed Ren.


    Ken means Fortify. Wing imed it was simr to what Rayleigh did in Heaven''s Arena against Sadoso, but required an additional step. In addition to using a second inner Ten to form Gy while using Ren, you have to use a third inner Ten to concentrate more aura into another part of the body, basically using a weaker K.


    Ry means Flow. It is the technique for smoothly changing where your aura was concentrated while using Ken.


    From what Wing told him, skilled Nen fighters always fought using Ken. In order to defend yourself, you had to use Gy to see how much aura your opponent devoted to each attack and then you would have to use Ry to appropriate enough aura to defend against their attacks, and then use Ry again to shift your aura from defense to offense to strike them back.


    As always, Wing harshly warned Rayleigh about the dangers of getting ahead. The only reason Wing was willing to give him these details was because he remembered how Rayleigh waited with Killua for Gon to heal and was willing to unlock his aura nodes the traditional way, showing that Rayleigh was not the type to rush headfirst into something without thinking.


    With his new information in hand, Rayleigh knew that he didn''t need to pay Mission Points to learn Sh. From the fact that it was rtively cheap, Rayleigh figured it would not be too difficult to learn. Of course, just as Wing said, Rayleigh would not start practicing Sh until he finished his Hatsu training.


    The four major principles were called such for a reason. If Rayleigh tried getting ahead without a strong enough foundation, he''d end up going backward or crippling himself and needing to start over.


    Hatsu training had to be mastered so he could align his aura to the Enhancement Characteristic or he''d never be able to use the full power of Nen.


    For the next month, Rayleigh had a new routine. In the mornings he would use the Heaven''s Arena Gym while wearing the Zoldyck Family Adjustable Weight set in Zetsu until he couldn''t move. Then he would leave Heaven''s Arena and get a very nutritious meal from the Tavern. The remainder of the day would be spent in his apartment using Ren on a ceramic cup of water for as long as he could hold it, recover, and use Ren again on the cup of water to try and make the overflow characteristic more apparent.


    Rayleigh did check and confirmed that he did not produce water, he basically expanded it without increasing the mass or temperature. If he used Ren to overflow a cup of water and left it alone, the remaining water would eventually shrink back beneath the rim by the same amount of volume that overflowed out of the cup.


    This was annoying as it meant Rayleigh had to refill the cup every time it shrunk since storing aura back into the cells after each use of Ren took longer than the time the water remained expanded.


    Getting your Aura to strengthen the properties of the attribute you were mostpatible with was little more than a long series of tests using trial and error. You would try something, see if it worked, and if it did not, try something else. The problem was that whether or not it worked was not so easy to tell. At least for most people. Thankfully for Rayleigh, he was blessed with bothmon and umon sense.


    If Rayleigh thought a distinct feeling, impression, concept, or thought would help, he would focus on that while using his Ren and make the water overflow from the cup. Then when it shrunk, he would refill it and do so again. And again. He would do it ten times in total. Beneath the cup was a bowl that collected the spilled water. After ten uses and once the water hadpletely shrunk back to normal, Rayleigh would pour the water from the bowl into a measuring cup and document how much water had spilled out, andpare it to the base sample to see if it was actually higher or not.


    While doing all of this, his second Mind was busy using Contrary Belief and had just aboutpleted it. Once it wasplete, he would work on isting the newly split minds from each other using his Mind Pce. Then he would use one of the new minds to perform his daily routine while his current mind would get to work splitting itself as well. The third mind would spend all its time meditating to further strengthen his connection to the Force.


    In the meanwhile, Rayleigh had also done five 45~49 point Tavern Missions during those weeks and now had over 800 points saved up. He had an idea for how to use it but would wait until he had a full grasp of the basics.


    The reason Rayleigh focused so much on his Knock-Off Parallel Will ability from that Reincarnated as a Spider Anime was because, even if it slowed his training now, it would multiply his training speeds in the future. It wasn''t like each mind could only do a single thing. Even individual minds could multi-task on the normal day-to-day stuff. Of course, unlike that skill, his minds would not each have their own set of personalized memories in the long term. It wasn''t like he kept his mind split 24/7. The act of separating the thoughts from each mind had to be done manually. Once it was undone, all memories converged. This was how he was different from someone with multiple personality disorder or a schizophrenic. At the end of the day, there was just a single him.


    Using his own systematic method of testing and measurement, Rayleigh''s progress in his Hatsu was considered quite good, or at least he thought so. Once his Ren was used, the water in the cup between his hands increased in volume by about sixty percent and formed a mini-geyser that shot up into the air.


    In that month he had also sessfully split both of his originally split minds. He could now maintain four independent minds at once. Since he only needed one for day-to-day stuff and one to meditate at all times on the Force, he was going to have both of the remaining two try to split themselves together but failed miserably. For some reason, he could not properly train Contrary Belief with multiple minds at the same time, so he had to split them off one by one. A slight inconvenience, but eptable. He was still young and as long as he didn''t reach a hard cap on the number of minds anytime soon he would be satisfied.


    Hmm. For rification, he decided in the future to refer to each mind as a Will, since he was ripping off Parallel Will anyways. Conceptually speaking, calling it Parallel Wills instead of multiple minds held a stronger image since he knew exactly what he was stealing the idea from, and having more Wills sounded cooler and less crazy than having more minds.


    At the end of the fourth week, the deadline Wing had everyone practice until Rayleigh and the rest returned to Wing''s ce to show off their progress.


    Another round of Rock-Paper-Scissors decided who would go first and Gon beat Rayleigh this time. One would think having the Force would allow Rayleigh to win every time, but Gon had Main Character Instincts, so even with a cheat like the Force, Rayleigh only beat him at Rock-Paper-Scissors one out of every two times.


    Wing ced a wine ss on the table and Gon got to work. Unsurprisingly, the moment his Ren was used, the water gushed out from the top. The ss also cracked from the pressure. While Wing and Gon cleaned up the spilled water, Rayleigh got a ceramic mug from the kitchen and filled it with water before bringing it back for his own test. He did not bother putting a leaf on the top.


    Wing noticed this and said, "Uh, Ray-"


    But Rayleigh ignored him and used his Ren, causing another geyser to appear, simr to Gon''s in size. Though since he used a ceramic mug instead of a wine ss, the cup did not break.


    Wing froze up for a moment before coughing, "Eh, hmm. Well done, but... Nevermind. Can you please get a wine ss for Killua and Zushi?"


    Rayleigh did not understand the difference between using a ceramic mug for this test and a wine ss and neither did anyone else but Wing. Ray didn''t really care though and returned to the kitchen to get a ss and refill it for Killua since he wouldn''t break it while using his Ren.


    Wing had cleaned up the spilled water and Rayleigh set the new water-filled ss on the table. Since the leaf was not a part of this test, it was not ced back on the top.


    Killua approached the ss and used his Ren for a few seconds.


    Everyone reached over and got a drop on their finger before licking it.


    It was sweet. Very sweet. Rayleigh wondered how many sweets Killua had eaten throughout his life to make the water he touched so sweet.


    Gon eximed, "Woah, it''s like honey!"


    The water was exchanged out and Zushi was next. Zushi used Ren for as long as he could hold it, clearly sweating from the intensity once he finished. The leaf wiggled around more than it had the first time Zushi tried four weeks ago, but the effort he put into it seemed far more demanding than Ray, Gon, or Killua''s, as none of them were sweating at the end.


    Wing nodded and said, "That''s enough Zushi. You''re making excellent progress, but you''re not there quite yet."


    He then turned to the trio and said, "All three of you have passed. One more thing. Rayleigh and Gon, you have both passed the secondary Hunter''s Exam."


    Rayleigh asked, "What''s that?" while Gon replied, "Huh?"


    Wing exined, "The acquisition of Nen is the first condition to be a Hunter. The reason is that professional Hunters have a certain prerequisite for strength before they can be considered real Hunters. Common Hunter activities include stopping criminals, catching poachers, protecting clients, and exploring dangerous regions. Those without a basic foundation in Nen are not considered real Hunters. But since Nen can be a destructive force when used by the wrong people, it is dangerous for this Exam to be known to the public."


    Killua asked, "That''s why you said Netero wanted you to teach us. At least Gon and Rayleigh anyways."


    Wing answered, "That''s right Killua. And do not hesitate to retake the main exam next year. You won''t have any problems passing. I can assure you that you now possess all the necessary qualities of a Hunter."


    Killua looked a bit embarrassed at the praise and answered, "Maybeter, if I feel like it."


    Gon asked, "Hey Wing, do you know how everyone else who passed is doing?"


    Wing nodded. "Hanzo and Kurapika have finished their own Nen training as well. Killua''s brother and Hisoka already fulfilled the requirement before taking the exam. Leorio has found a teacher, but ns to begin learning Nen after he passes the Entrance Exam for his Medical University."


    Gon smiled that everyone had found their own paths.


    Before seeing them off, Wing stated, "Onest bit of advice. In your match tomorrow, don''t push yourself too hard."


    Gon nodded back, "Right!"


    Killua and Ray shared a weak smile. Gon had signed up for a match with Hisoka for the next day. Rather than tell him to do his best, try to win, or suggest any strategies, Wing basically said, ''since you''re going to lose anyways, don''t do anything that puts you back in the hospital.''


    Of course, just because Wing didn''t give him any strategies, didn''t mean Rayleigh and Killua could not.


    In Gon''s room that night, the trio sat together and brainstormed.


    Killua first pointed out, "He''s not gonna go all out at first. He didn''t use his Nen against Kastro until after he got a read on Kastro''s abilities and limits."


    Gon nodded, "That will be my chance to punch him in the face!"


    Ray asked, "Any thoughts about what to do afterward?"


    Gon considered it and answered, "Well, I''ll figure it out!"


    Ray and Killua sighed. Ray added, "Wing said that the strongest Nen was one that adhered to who we are, and from that perspective, Hisoka''s Nen is extremely strong."


    Killua asked, "You mean it perfectly suits him?"


    Ray replied, "That''s right. His sticky Nen is like his personality. Adhesive, almost stalker-like. He allows his prey to get away and grow stronger only because he knows he can get closer anytime he wants. Once he has his target in sight, he won''t let it get away. That sticky Nen is practically an extension of his personality. His other Nen, the one he used to make that handkerchief look like skin, that also matches his character. He only lets you see what he wants you to see."


    Gon asked, "So there''s no way to run?"


    Ray nodded, "That''s right. He''s an experienced predator. If you are far away from him, it is only because he allowed you to get that distance. Something he can remove anytime he wants."


    Gon asked, "So you think it''s better to remain up close?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Not really. But there is no way to beat him from a distance. If you remember the Kastro fight, Hisoka never actually took a single step toward Kastro, nor did he throw a single punch. He allowed Kastro to move around and using the retraction of that Nen of his to attack. The further you are from him, the easier it will be for him to use his Nen to attack you."


    Gon nodded, "Yeah, that''s right. I can''t do anything about that Nen, but if I stay close, I won''t have to."


    Killua shouted, "Are both of you crazy?! He''s obviously much stronger up close!"


    Gonughed awkwardly and Rayleigh shrugged and stated, "In this fight, Gon will be at his weakest at a distance and strongest upfront. Even if the same is true for Hisoka, it''s better to lose at your strongest than at your weakest."


    Gon nodded vigorously, eyes shining in anticipation.


    Killua looked back and forth between the Enhancers and grumbled, "Dumbasses. Why can''t you just let Gon borrow your lightsaber to cut his Nen?"


    Rayleigh shook his head and got out his Lightsaber before cing it on a table. "This thing weighs four kilograms."


    Killua asked, "Eh? Really?"


    Gon asked, "Is that a lot?"


    Killua answered, "A normal sword weighs less than two kilograms with lighter ones barely heavier than a single kilogram."


    Ray added, "And that''s if I use it. If someone else uses it, well. Give it a try. Killua first. Don''t cut anything off."


    Killua had honestly been wanting to try it for a while which was why he offhandedly suggested Gon use it, so he didn''t hide his bright smile when he picked it up and flicked the switch to enable the de. Killua appreciated it for a moment before he stood up and swung it, but the smile on his face broke the moment he did. "Eh?"


    Killua tried to swing it again, but there was obviously a problem. He was swinging it too slowly. Killua''s physical strength and speed were on the same level as Rayleigh, give or take a bit, so he knew he should be able to swing it as fast as Rayleigh did. But he could not.


    Gon noticed this and asked, "What''s wrong?"


    Killua swung it a few more times and said, "It feels heavier when I swing it. What''s wrong with it?"


    Before giving him an answer, Rayleigh said, "Turn it off before passing it over and let Gon try."


    Killua did so and Gon took the metal handle and flicked the switch, enabling the blue and white de once more. Gon''s arm and grip strength were far higher than a normal kid''s from the years of fishing up giant fish, so he knew how to hold something tightly and how to swing it.


    Gon gave it a few experimental swings, but just like Killua, it seemed to move a lot slower than it did when Rayleigh used it.


    Rayleigh then got up and motioned for Gon to pass it over. Gon turned it off and tossed it, which Rayleigh caught. He then turned it on and swung it at the blindingly fast speed the pair had seen him use in the past.


    Rayleigh then turned it off and stored it away. "It''s kind of alive and matched to me. If someone else uses it, it will fight back, which is why it seemed heavier and slower in your hands. In my hands though, it can actually move even faster than if I was just carrying a four-kilogram metal handle."


    Killua asked, "Is that why you said you could beat me if you had that thing? It makes you stronger?"


    "Pretty much," he answered.


    The group then diverged into lighter topics until it was time to get some sleep. They, or at least Gon, had a big day tomorrow.


    The next day, Rayleigh, Killua, Wing, and Zushi sat in the audience, with HK-47''s head in Rayleigh''sp. When Rayleigh could not take HK-47 to Wing''s house, he would exin every one of the Nen lessons for HK-47 topile for future reference.


    Rayleigh and Killua got in line to buy tickets at the moment they became avable since Hisoka''s matches always sold out rapidly. Since Hisoka allowed Gon to choose the time and ce, the tickets only went on sale after Gon set it up and Killua and Rayleigh were in line the moment the match was announced.


    The announcer called out, [Gon Vs Hisoka, the long-awaited final match of Hisoka is finally here! Gon hase to the arena today without his fishing rod. He has a single defeat and three victories and appears to be in good health. Hisoka has nine victories and three defeats! If he wins, he will be able to challenge a Floor Master. If he loses, he''ll have to start over from the very first floor! BUT! Hisoka has never lost a fight he attended. Will his legend of invincibility continue?]


    The ref called out, "Fighters ready? Begin!"


    Gon charged forward, intending to deliver a punch to Hisoka''s face as soon as possible. Hisoka casually twisted to the side, avoiding the swing, and then twisted back to deliver a hard counter.


    Gon withstood the hit and jumped back up to give a rapid-fire assault of strikes, each toward Hisoka''s face. Hisoka dodged each with the slightest margin before countering with a palm strike. Gon dodged the palm, but in doing so was open to receive Hisoka''s kick which sent him into the air.


    Gon endured the hit once more andnded on his feet before charging again, this time trying to take Hisoka''s back.


    Without turning, Hisoka dodged the strike from behind and countered, but Gon ducked beneath the rising strike and tried tond an uppercut which Hisoka tilted away from. Hisoka then tilted back while delivering a strong strike to Gon''s side.


    Gon clenched his teeth and endured, leaping forward once more to deliver a fury of his fastest blows. But while trying for speed, he sacrificed dexterity, making the attacks easier to read and dodge, also making it easier to counter.


    Gon realized his mistake and returned to his normal pace, but started adding various feints to each barrage. He moved around, up, down, and side to side while trying to trick Hisoka''s perception to grant himself an opening, but still received a strong blow every couple of moves for his troubles.


    At one point Hisoka added a feint of his own that Gon misread and ended up receiving a punch to the face.


    The ref called out, "Clean hit! One point for Hisoka!"


    The announcer was amazed, [Such an impressive session of attacks and defenses! I didn''t have time to say a single word!]


    Hisoka smiled and stated provocatively, "Hehe, is that it? I haven''t taken a single step from this position since the start of the match."


    Gon looked frustrated for a moment before charging forward again. This time he gave a series of back-to-back feints to get Hisoka into a defensive stance, then he actually took some distance and bent down to the stone floor.


    In a repeat performance of his fight against the wheelchair guy, Gon lifted the massive stone tile off the floor and over at Hisoka. However, instead of letting it reach him, Gon struck it with all his strength, reducing the massive tile into a dozenrge fragments.


    Hisoka defended himself by shattering each fragment that approached him, but Gon had entered Zetsu and hid behind one of therger fragments that went around him. When all the fragments hit the ground, Hisoka still did not see or sense Gon''s presence.


    Hisoka noticed toote that Gon jumped out from behind the stone fragment and was out of position to dodge. For the first time in the match, Gon delivered a fist to Hisoka''s face.


    The ref called out, "Critical hit! Two points for Gon!"


    Although it was a good punch, it had been made from a state of Zetsu and Hisoka did not receive any real damage. The announcer noticed theck of damage and began to discuss the validity of the awarded points.


    While they were wondering if it was a good hit, Gon and Hisoka confused everyone by casually walking up to each other where Gon handed Hisoka a circr badge that Hisoka then took before they distanced themselves again.


    The announcer then intelligently called out, [What the hell just happened?! I don''t understand a thing!]


    Hisoka then began to chat, "What did you learn about Nen?"


    Gon answered, "All the basics."


    Hisoka replied, "I see. You are an enhancer, aren''t you?"


    Gon looked flustered, "How did you know?!"


    Hisokaughed, "Haha, got you."


    Gon asked, "But how did you guess?"


    "Well, I made up my own way to tell." Hisoka pointed directly at Gon and said, "Enhancers are simple and pure!"


    The moment Hisoka pointed at Gon, Rayleigh used Gy.


    Killua noticed this and used Gy as well before sighing at what he saw.


    Rayleigh agreed. Hisoka stuck Kastro with his Nen when he tossed the Ace of Spades toward Kastro. So he probably had to point at whatever he connected it to. Hisoka had just pointed at Gon, but thetter was too distracted by what Hisoka was saying.


    Hisoka continued, "And I''m a transmuter, unstable, and a liar. Transmuters and Enhancers have goodpatibility as opposites attract. We can get along well, but you have to be careful. What a transmuter values is always changing. At one moment you are their treasure, and the next, you are their trash."


    Hisoka then took an offensive stance and continued, "So, don''t disappoint me Gon."


    This time, Hisoka charged forward. Gon barely had a moment to react before the Magician was in front of him and that moment was not enough to dodge the elbow thrust Hisoka used to knock Gon into the air. Before Gon evennded, Hisoka was behind him and delivering a palm thrust at Gon''s back. This shot Gon back across the stage and Hisoka followed every step of the way.


    As Gon bounced down the stage, he saw Hisoka right behind him about to deliver a kick. Gon used his flexibility to barely tilt out of the way to dodge the strike. Good thing too, the kick dug deeply into the arena''s stage and lifted the tile in front of Hisoka''s foot cleanly off the stage where it flew into the audience, crushing and probably killing several.


    Although Gon dodged, he was out of position for another and received a downward double fist m from Hisoka, sending him to the floor with enough strength to crack the stage.


    Although Gon got back up right away, the Ref called out, "Critical hit for Hisoka! Two points awarded. The score is now 3 to 2!"


    Gon gritted his teeth. His entire body was probably still shaking from all the hits he''d taken and he had to take a moment to brace himself.


    Hisoka said, "Well, are youing?"


    Gon was about to respond when he realized something and suddenly used Gy, spotting the string of aura extending from Hisoka''s finger toward Gon''s cheek.


    Gon gritted his teeth and charged Hisoka, knowing that it was his only option. He jumped forward but Hisoka bent backward like he was ying a crazy game of limbo, allowing Gon to jump right over him. Hisoka then twirled himself around and Gon stopped falling over Hisoka and was suddenly drawn back toward him.


    Hisoka stopped spinning and waited for Gon''s figure to approach where he mmed Gon''s face into the floor.


    Hisoka calmly dered, "I call it Bungee gum. It shrinks and extends depending on my will. You can''t escape."


    The ref called out, "Critical Hit and Down! That''s three more points! 6 to 2 in Hisoka''s favor!"


    The ref asked if Gon could continue and Gon dered, "Of course!"


    Hisoka stated, "Pop Quiz. If you answer correctly, I''ll let you hit me once. When did I attach my Bungee gum to you? A. During the Elbow hit. B. During the clean hit. Or C. During the Critical hit?"


    Killua and Rayleigh sighed. Gon seemed to be thinking hard for a moment before answering, "It was C. When you hit me with both of your hands!"


    Hisoka replied, "Wrong. The answer was D. When I exined my aura personality analysis."


    Gon clenched his teeth for a moment, and as if predicting what he was thinking, Hisoka added, "If you had used Gy during my exnation, you could have dodged my aura. But.. What about A. B. and C?"


    Gon looked startled at the point Hisoka was making.


    Hisoka smiled at this and borated, "That''s right. I can affix my Bungee gum even while fighting. But I can only affix it while using In when my opponent has their guard down. Usually, I just affix it when I strike someone. After that, it doesn''t matter if the aura is visible or not, does it?"


    Gon understood that there was no way to avoid it. Rayleigh never once gave any advice on avoiding it either, and now Gon understood why. Hisoka could probably affix his Bungee Gum to someone if they punched him and he blocked it, so there was no way to avoid getting it attached unless you were a long ranged fighter or used a weapon that could counter his Bungee Gum.


    Gon charged forward once more, hard determination in his eyes.


    Hisoka appreciated that look. In fact, it seemed he appreciated it too much. The moment Gon approached, Hisoka''s killing intent surged.


    Gon was clearly disturbed by the immense killing intent Hisoka disyed, but a battle Junkie does not flee from killing intent. On instinct, Gon went all out and smashed Hisoka''s face in. Fear still pushing him forward, Gon did not allow himself to stop and continued to deliver blow after blow.


    Hisoka appeared to be distracted, he was unable to dodge the hits, probably struggling against his own killing intent and the desire to kill Gon then and there.


    Thankfully for Gon, Hisoka won against his urged and decided now was not the time. He retracted the Bungee Gum from Gon''s face toward Hisoka''s fist to pull Gon and throw him away. He allowed his Bungee Gum to extend before he retracted it again. From the audience, it looked like Gon had been pulled away from Hisoka, and then partway through his fall, he was suddenly pulled back in.


    Hisoka then delivered another strong hit, but Gon was ready for it and braced himself.


    The ref called out, "One Critical for both sides! And one down for Hisoka! 9 to 4 in favor of Hisoka!"


    Gon quicklyined, "Hey! That wasn''t a down!"


    Many members of the audience agreed it was an unfair call, but by the rules of Heaven''s Arena, the Ref could award points as they pleased during a match. They might get fired afterward, but their calls during the match were valid nheless.


    Hisoka''sughter turned Gon''s attention from the ref back to the magician. Hisoka called out, "Inattentiveness is your worst enemy Gon. Look to your right."


    Gon looked to his right as a chunk of stone flew from his left and smacked him in the head.


    Hisoka corrected, "Oh, sorry. I meant my right. Your left. While you wereining, I affixed my Bungee Gum to that stone and shrank it."


    Gon gritted his teeth as the Ref called out, "Clean Hit for Hisoka! That''s Ten Points. Hisoka Wins by Technical Knock Out!"


    The battle junkie asked with bewilderment, "It''s over?"


    Hisoka answered, "You made great progress, but you need more practice. If you fought me ten more times, you might be able to give me an interesting match. But that''s only if we fought in Heaven''s Arena. So, I won''t fight you here anymore. Next time, we''ll fight in the real world with no rules and risk our lives."


    Rayleigh and Killua met up with Gon who was upset about the ruling. Rayleigh said, "The Ref probably did it on purpose. He didn''t want to see you killed by Hisoka, so he was awarding as many points as he could to end the fight as soon as possible."


    Killua said, "Yeah, Refs can do that apparently. A lot of people bet that Hisoka would win ten to nothing, but they lost money on you."


    Rayleigh smiled, "I suppose that counts as a victory."


    Rayleigh then turned to Gon and asked, "So what do you want to do now? I''m gonna keep training, but I don''t need to do it here."


    Gon answered, "I''m gonna go back home and see Mito."


    Killua asked, "Why don''t wee with you then?"


    Rayleigh nodded, interested in seeing Gon''s home as well.


    Gon asked, "Seriously?"


    Killua answered, "Yeah, I''d like to meet Mito."


    Rayleigh said, "You lived on an ind right? We can easily train there for the next two months and meet Kurapika at Yorknew afterwards."


    Gon smiled and said, "Alright! Let''s go!"


    The trio said their goodbyes to Wing and Zushi and made their way to the airport.


    On the way there, Rayleigh mentally entered the Tavern. He saved today''s entry for something special. Rather thane in physically and order food, there was just one thing he wanted to do. Rayleigh headed down the hallway next to the bar and saw the familiar que.


    [Arena. Challenge yers or Figures from various worlds.]


    Rayleigh entered the yer''s Arena and closed the door behind him.


    Instead of setting the stage to its default, Rayleigh changed it to Heaven''s Arena 200th Floor for 50 Points and selected a character to fight for 500 points before walking up on the stage.


    Yes. Although Rayleigh was willing to wait for Gon so he would not get ahead, that did not mean he would allow Gon to get ahead of him. And deep down, Rayleigh truly wanted to be on that stage. Thankfully, he could have the best of both worlds. The price for a fighter was not actually determined by their strength, but by how much you knew about them. The less you knew, the more expensive the fight. This was because all experiences from the fight transferred over. You could fight someone in the yer''s Arena to learn how to fight them in real life. Rayleigh had seen Hisoka fight twice and use all his Nen techniques. He obviously did not know all of Hisoka''s fighting styles, but the price of fighting him was cheap because those two Nen abilities were really the only ones Hisoka had and since Rayleigh knew about them, he was not paying to learn.


    He did check, fighting Netero would cost 3500 points and Ging Freecss would cost 15000 points. Not because one was stronger, but because he had a lot more information on Netero than he did Ging. Though Ging could be much stronger for all he knew.


    On the stage, a Ref materialized and Rayleigh returned to his twelve-year-old form while Hisoka materialized on the other side of the ring.


    Hisoka pointed out, "Ah, now this is a match I''m looking forward to. Do not disappoint me."


    Rayleigh pulled out his Lightsaber and enabled it as the ref started the ten-second count.


    "Begin!"


    Seeing the threat of Rayleigh''s Lightsaber, Hisoka did not stay put as Rayleigh charged forward and shed at his position. Instead, he imitated Gon by kicking up the massive stone tile between them toward Rayleigh''s direction.


    Rayleigh knew breaking it would only give Hisoka more ammunition, so he used the Force to stop it in mid-air.


    Hisoka noticed this and shattered the tile himself.


    Rayleigh had just foreseen this using Battle Precognition and pressed all the rubble forward to bombard Hisoka, but the Magician shattered all the rubble directed at him while dodging around the rest.


    Ray used Gy and confirmed multiple bits of rubble behind Hisoka were connected to his fingers using that Bungee Gum of his.


    Hisoka noticed Rayleigh using Gy and flicked his fingers forward. As the rubble was slingshotted towards Rayleigh, Hisoka ran to the side and fired his Bungee Gum at Rayleigh.


    The shot of Nen was blocked by Rayleigh''s Lightsaber which effectively burned through the Bungee Gum. Rayleigh quickly calcted the vectors of the flying debris and charged Hisoka. The Magician would not be able to pull the rubble to intercept Rayleigh at this angle.


    Hisoka dodged to the side and elerated the retracting rubble so that it would strike Rayleigh in the back.


    Without looking, Rayleigh cut through the Bungee Gum cords connecting Hisoka to the rubble and leaped forward again to strike the magician.


    Hisoka''s smile turned devilish. The moment Rayleigh''s lightsaber seemed to cut through him, his afterimage vanished. He had suddenly moved at a speed he had not shown even against Gon.


    Rayleigh used Gy again and saw that Hisoka had shot a line of Bungee Gum to the ground and attached it to his waist. He retracted it to pull himself away from the strike to dodge faster than his muscles could react.


    Hisoka called out, "Wonderful! But how well can you dance?"


    Hisoka spun around, strings of Bungee Gum spreading from his waist, arms, and legs all around him.


    "I call this, Bungee World."


    Rayleigh suddenly had the impression he was a fly trapped in a spider''s web. That single twirl sent lines of Bungee Gum all over the arena. Most of it was ck at the moment, but Hisoka could retract it at any second.


    Rayleigh leaped to the side to cut some of the lines, but Hisoka used lines of Bungee Gum stretched out from his position to behind him to pull another stone tile off the floor and slingshot it at Rayleigh.


    Because he anchored himself using his Bungee Gum from the other side, the slingshot effect was even stronger and Rayleigh had no time to dodge to the left or right. So he jumped.


    His Danger Sense red the moment he did. At the moment Rayleigh was unable to see Hisoka due to the stone tile blocking his view, Hisoka used his other arm to pull up and throw two more tiles. It didn''t matter where Rayleigh dodged.


    The two stone tiles were thrown even faster than the first and actually mmed into each other, shattering apart and spreading debris all over the field.


    Rayleigh used the Force to cling to one of the fragments and stole a page from Gon''s book by using Zetsu and Force Stealth to make his presence vanish.


    This Hisoka was apparently an up-to-date one as he looked around for the ambush he knew wasing and spotted it in the form of a flying lightsaber heading toward his neck.


    Before he could dodge, three applications of Force Stasis were applied at the same time, freezing him in ce.


    Hisoka could not move but was still pulled to the side an instant before he would have been beheaded.


    Although Force Stasis should have solidified the air around him, it did not prevent his Bungee Gum from pulling him and all the solidified air around him to safety. He still had dozens of strings attached to his waist in every direction.


    Hisoka used his Ren to press against the Force Stasis to regain his mobility. Against Hisoka''s Ren, Rayleigh''s three stacks of Force Stasis barely slowed him down and didn''t have enough of an effect on his Bungee Gum to matter, so Rayleigh released the effects. Skills like Force Slow would not affect an instinctive Genius like Hisoka and Force Whirlwind would be useless to someone who could anchor himself to the ground.


    Hisoka''s smile grew deeper. "Wonderful. But you''re not going to beat me from a distance."


    Rayleigh knew he was right. Rayleigh''s Force Precognition could allow him to dodge Hisoka''s wild attacks, but it would not give him an advantage in attacking.


    Rayleigh charged forward once more, making sure to cut every line of Bungee Gum he passed by to make sure Hisoka could not pull anything from behind him.


    Hisokaughed at Rayleigh''s charge and spun himself around again. This time, all the rocks and debris around him were lifted off the ground and spun like a mad tornado. Rayleigh''s Lightsaber could cut through stone, but if the piece was toorge, cutting it just turned one stoneing at him into two stones.


    Instead of cutting the stones, Rayleigh tried to keep up his Gy and dodge the stones swinging at him from the side while cutting each line of Bungee Gum connecting them to Hisoka.


    Rayleigh''s Danger Sense red once more. Hisoka already had a swarm of rocks swinging toward Rayleigh. He didn''t need to keep spinning, so he charged Rayleigh himself.


    Rayleigh backflipped over the rocks and pointed his Lightsaber at Hisoka to keep the clown at a distance, but the Magician''s creepy smile never wavered.


    When Rayleighnded, Hisoka stated, "I see. You can sense danger, can''t you?"


    Rayleigh did notment, keeping his Gy open to watch for tricks.


    Hisoka smiled, "Keeping your Gy active only helps to see what you are looking at. And if you only sense danger, I just have toy a trap that is not dangerous."


    Hisoka pulled a card from his sleeve and charged forward again. Rayleigh felt a strong sense of danger and jumped to the side, but Hisoka''s course didn''t change. An instantter, Rayleigh''s feet were pulled out from under him back toward Hisoka.


    He looked down and saw a bunch of Bungee Gum had been thrown on the ground at some point. There were no stringsing from it and Rayleigh had not been able to keep up his Gy during every second, so he missed when it was thrown and hadn''t looked at it when using Gy.


    Rayleigh had stepped it in and it stuck to him, now it was pulling him back.


    Rayleigh swiped at Hisoka with his Lightsaber, but the Magician elerated the pull to cause Rayleigh''s swipe to miss the timing and the card in Hisoka''s hand passed through Rayleigh''s neck an instantter.


    The arena shed twice and Rayleigh returned to life. Paying the extra for a Heaven''s Arena match had been pointless. There were no points. Rayleigh countered Hisoka enough to make him go all-out and only a single attack was necessary to end the fight.


    Still. Rayleigh''s smile hadn''t stopped. He certainly learned a few things about himself.


    He had not thought about it before, but Battle Precognition and Danger Sense had a lot of weaknesses. Battle Precognition was primarily used to defend, not attack. Danger Sense did not go off if a trap did not harm him on its own.


    Thankfully, he learned many things as well, things he hadn''t known about. While using Gy, Rayleigh could see Hisoka''s Shatterpoints. But they looked different from what he was used to. Shatterpoints were not just physical weak spots. They also included weak points in someone''s style and even mentality at times.


    If Rayleigh could get more experience reading weak points using Shatterpoint and Gy, he could make up for theck of offense Battle Precognition assisted with. In any case, the match was Mission Points well spent. He learned the basics of Nen and learned its potential against someone who truly knew how to use it. Of course, Rayleigh did not know if that was Hisoka''s real strength. Did he have any more secrets? The only way to know would be to get stronger, challenge him again, and see if he could kill him. Either way, it would be fun.


    *Author''s Note*


    I''m skipping most of the Spiders and Yorknew arc and going to Greed Ind after that.

 Chapter 31: The Secret of Ging Freecss

    Chapter 31: The Secret of Ging Freecss


    *Author''s Note*


    Since I have to write further than the Manga, I''ll be making some educated guesses about certain things. Noints; I like my idea.


    Chapter 31 The Secret of Ging Freecss


    Due to its small and out-of-the way nature, there was no aircraft that could take the trio directly to Whale Ind, so they took the next flight as close as they could and boarded a ship the rest of the way.


    Although Gon wanted to impatiently rush over to see Mito the moment the ship arrived, Rayleigh had other ideas.


    Rayleigh asked, "Gon, did you call and tell her that you wereing?"


    Gon answered, "No, I wanted it to be a surprise."


    Rayleigh replied, "Then please direct us to the nearest market. I doubt Mito has enough groceries to feed all of us for very long, so we should stock up and bring some over. I''ll see if I can cookter."


    Gon said, "Mito will want to cook first, but yeah, some groceries would be a good idea."


    That was how Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua ended up heading up a hill to a lonely house that sat atop it while carrying multiple grocery bags. In Rayleigh''s opinion, if you show up uninvited to someone''s house, you should always bring food.


    As they got closer, Gon noticed a young woman near the back of the house hangingundry out to dry and eximed, "Mito!"


    Gon ran up to her and gave her a hug, which the woman returned with a warm smile. Then her smile turned stern. "If you''re going toe back, let me know! I haven''t prepared anything!"


    Gon said, "Anything is fine. We even brought groceries."


    Mito looked over toward Ray and Killua and softly smiled, "You two must be Rayleigh and Killua. Thank you for taking care of Gon. Come on, let''s get that inside."


    Mito opened up the groceries and saw plenty of fresh fruits, meats, seafood, vegetables, bread, flour, and spices.


    Mito nodded, seemingly thinking of a number of recipes she was now fully stocked for, and said, "Alright, take a bath before supper and change your clothes. I''ll wash them."


    Gon replied, "Okay, I''ll do itter."


    Mito instantly countered, "Now! You have ten seconds."


    Gon rushed off with Killua and Rayleigh to take a bath. They all got out their spare clothes while Gon tossed the ones they were wearing in a basket and showed them where the bathroom was.


    Killua asked, "Is she always like that?"


    Gon awkwardly answered, "Most of the time."


    After finishing a bath and changing, Mito had already started dinner. Rayleigh offered to help, but Mito declined, saying he was a guest who had just arrived.


    Dinner was a seafood stir-fry with steamed veggies.


    Over dinner, Mito asked, "So how was the exam? Your letters didn''t give any details about it."


    Gon replied, "It was pretty difficult for me at least. Ray passed without a problem."


    Ray stated, "Having aser sword helps."


    Killua and Gon nodded solemnly.


    Gon continued, "Only four hundred even made it to the exam site, and of them, only six passed."


    Gon then got out his Hunter License and showed it to Mito, "Look, this is my Hunter License."


    Mito took it and said, "Huh. Looks ordinary." She then experimentally bent the thick card as if to snap it which made Gon panic, "What are you doing?!" To which she replied, "Just joking."


    Gon quickly took his card back and gave her a look that said he did not believe her at all.


    There were still several hours of light, so Gon took the pair outside and began giving them a tour of the ind.


    "This is a bear-fox territory, and this is also where I met Kite."


    Killua asked, "Think he''ll show up?"


    Gon shook his head, "No. Female Bear-Foxes hate the scent of humans, so if I met him, he''d get into a fight with his wife. Since he is the protector of this forest, it wouldn''t look good to the other animals if he was friendly with a human anyway."


    Gon pointed out, "This is where we used to y with each other."


    The trio then noticed an irregr sounding from a nearby pond and went to investigate. They saw a small pile of fish on the ground, apparently ced there by someone or something they had just missed.


    Killua pointed it out and said, "I guess that means, ''Wee home,''" to which Gon smiled brightly.


    They made a small bonfire and roasted the fish while Gon told them about all the crazy things he did on the ind growing up.


    Killua asked, "So what are you gonna do now?"


    Gon answered, "Like Rayleigh said, we can rest and train here until the end of August and then head to Yorknew. Although I don''t need to meet with Hisoka anymore, I might be able to find out something about my father since I bet there will be a lot of Hunters there."


    Killua said, "I''m jealous. I don''t really have anything I want to do."


    Rayleigh said, "So find something. There are different kinds of Hunters. You can meet them, learn about them, and see if any have a life you''d find interesting. Or find something else to do."


    Killua asked back, "What about you? You always say you want to get stronger, but why?"


    Rayleigh answered, "There is something I want. I heard only the strongest can get it. I''m not even sure what I''d do with it if I got it, but knowing that only the strongest can get it, I want to give it a shot."


    Gon asked, "What is it?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "Freedom."


    Gon and Killua looked at each other in confusion. Rayleigh wasn''t the type to lie like that, but neither of them understood how that worked. Wasn''t he already free?


    The Tavern only blocked Metaknowledge; details about how Missions worked and the Final Mission were not considered Metaknowledge, so those who passed the Tutorial knew what was possible and how much a single yer could win.


    It wasn''t that Rayleigh wanted to do anything in particr with the Universe if he won. It was just that he didn''t like the idea of someone else getting it and basically bing his God. He didn''t want others to be able to dictate his fate. He wanted to be free to do whatever he wanted, be it cooking food, making friends, exploring, or having fun.


    It was fine even if he didn''t win. Losing in such a game with all the advantages he had just meant someone else wanted it more. If he lost after giving it his all, then he''d ept it. But until that day, he would not take a step back or bow down to anyone. Not a yer, not the Force, not the Tavern, and not god.


    Killua said, "I get that. I have lots of things I don''t want to do. Like staying home or taking over the family business."


    Rayleigh replied, "Don''t let HK-47 hear you say that."


    Gonughed, "That robot is funny. But Killua. You and Rayleigh are my first friends. It''s fun hanging out with you guys. The only person my age on the ind is a little girl named Nouko. All my studies were through Home School."


    Killua replied, "Yeah, me too. I was locked up forever, training assassination skills."


    Rayleigh added, "Same here. The first time I met someone my age was a day before the Hunter Exam. The ce I grew up had elders who basically tried to teach you how to be a monk. They all died four years ago, so I''ve pretty much been alone ever since."


    Gon said, "So we were all lonely, huh? Then let''s just stick together! We''ll go to different ces, I''ll look for my father, Rayleigh can train, and you can look for something you want to do! It''ll be fun!"


    Rayleigh added, "Works for me."


    Killua nodded, "Yeah, that sounds good. Until I find out what I want to do, I''ll help you with your search and train with Rayleigh."


    Rayleigh sensed someone approaching from behind. It was Mito, who apparently had no problem entering the territory of the Protector of the Forest carrying a basket of food.


    Neither Gon nor Killua noticed since she was a solid zero on the danger presence scale. The only reason he even noticed was that one of his Wills was practicing irvoyance, so seeing everything around them was a given. Before Rayleigh could say something, Killua asked aloud, "By the way, what''s your mother doing?"


    Gon thought about it for a moment. "My mother. That''s harder to talk about than my father. Mito raised me, so I would feel bad asking her about it. If I hadn''t met Kite, I wouldn''t have wanted to know about my father either."


    Killua chuckled, "You probably would have be a Hunter even if you didn''t meet him."


    Gon smiled. "I heard from my grandma that both of my parents died in an ident, butter I heard my father was alive. As for my mother, well. My mother is Mito."


    Killua nodded. Wanting more when you already had something so good was wrong on so many levels. He said, "I wish I had a mother like Mito."


    Gon smiled, "She''s the best. Though a little naggy."


    Rayleigh replied, "Nagging is how you know they love you."


    Gon nodded and said, "Mito loves me a lot," to which everyoneughed.


    Since Rayleigh sensed Mito was not approaching, he asked, "She might get worried if we stay out all night, when are we going back?"


    Gon answered, "In a few minutes. I just wanna look at the stars for a bit longer."


    Mito returned upon hearing that, and the trio returned not long after. Some futons were brought out for Killua and Rayleigh, who went to sleep while Gon went to chat with Mito.


    The next morning, Gon showed Rayleigh and Killua a metal box Mito gave himst night. Apparently, Ging gave Gon to Mito years ago, along with a small metal box, and said to give it to Gon if he ever became a Hunter.


    Killua took the box in hand and, after inspecting it, asked, "How do you open it?"


    Gon answered, "I don''t know. I tried to open it, but nothing worked."


    Killua asked, "Should Rayleigh get out his Lightsaber?"


    Gon shook his head rapidly in the negative.


    Killua continued, "Can I try forcing it?"


    "Sure. I tried too."


    Killua tried twisting the metal box, gritting his teeth, and using every bit of strength he possessed. The metal box didn''t distort or bend even in the slightest.


    Killua stated, "Okay, this thing is not ordinary. You wanna try?"


    Killua passed it to Rayleigh. Rather than force it open, Rayleigh used Psychometry. He saw the box being kept by Mito, asionally thrown away and recovered by Gon''s grandmother, and eventually being assembled by someone who looked like an older version of Gon.


    Rayleigh passed it to Gon and said, "It''s made with Divine Script, like that string Wing tied to your finger. Use Ten."


    Gon did so, and a momentter, the box red with bright light and broke apart into metal rods that surrounded an ornate lockbox.


    Killua picked up one of the small metal rods and examined it, seeing the Inscription written on one side of each piece. "How''d you know? Was that another psychic thing?"


    Rayleigh then realized he had never actually shown them his Psychometry before. "That''s right, I can read the history of an object; it''s kind of like watching a movie of the past, but backward."


    Ray turned to Gon and said, "Mito threw this thing away like a hundred times."


    Gon gave an awkwardugh.


    Ray continued, "I saw someone who looked like Gon, but older, ce the Inscription and assemble the box. This thing is on another levelpared to that string Wing used."


    Killua asked, "Wait, you understood those journals you borrowed from Wing?"


    "Yeah. But I can''t use it until I have a proper Hatsu."


    Gon picked up the ornate box that fell out of the metal box. It had a slot on the bottom, and Gon pulled out his Hunter License and inserted it, causing the box to open.


    Inside were three objects. A memory card, a tape cassette, and an ornate ring.


    Gon pulled out the ring first and said, "Look, it has some Inscription on it too." He then handed it to Ray, their resident expert.


    Rayleigh used Psychometry again while deriving the meaning of the inscription.


    "Hmm. That''s interesting. You wore this ring when you were a baby, but not for very long. Ging didn''t make this either, someone else did. I don''t get the Inscriptions. They are not rted to Enhancer Nen abilities, at least."


    Inscriptions were basically someone writing their Hatsu into an object. Rayleigh could somewhat decipher Inscriptions written with Enhancer attributes because they were his type and pretty simple. This thing was not simple.


    Gon said, "Then let''s listen to the tape."


    Killua said, "Let''s copy it too."


    Gon got out a cassette tape yer and a nk tape, inserting Ging''s tape on one side and the nk tape on the other, setting one to copy the other as the first yed.


    Gon pressed y, and a voice was heard.


    [Hey Gon. So, you became a Hunter too. I need to ask you something. Do you want to see me? If you do, keep listening, if not, press stop.]


    No one moved, of course.


    [You do, huh? One more question. Are you prepared? Hunters are selfish people. They leave things behind for things they want. If you are searching for me just because you feel you want to see me, I suggest you press stop now.]


    Gon didn''t move even with this. His mind had been made up.


    [Hehe. You want to see me that much, huh. Well, I don''t want to see you. Frankly, I don''t know how I could. I gave up being your father to be what I really am. Selfish, right? It will be at least ten years before you listen to this. But during that time, there are things that will never change. I am what I am. So, as you''re listening to this, I''ll be doing crazy things. If you really want to see me, then find me. But as I said before, I don''t want to see you. I''ll run when I know you''re close. Catch me. You''re a Hunter too, right?]


    Killua scoffed, "Your father isn''t easy to deal with."


    Gon nodded, "Yeah."


    Killua moved to turn off the cassette yer, but Gon stopped him, "Wait, it''s not over."


    [Ah, right, I forgot one thing. About your mother. If you want to know, keep listening, otherwise-]


    Gon stopped the yer.


    Killua asked, "Are you sure? There might be a clue."


    Gon answered, "No, there wouldn''t be. I don''t want to know. As I said before, my mother is Mito."


    Suddenly, the cassette yer, which had stopped, started rewinding the tape. Not only Ging''s tape, but the nk tape that was copying it was rewinding too. Aura was being emitted by the cassette yer.


    Killua and Gon freaked out. The only way for that to happen was if Ging applied some sort of conditional Nen to the tape that could activate even ten yearster.


    Then the cassette yer started recording. Killua stated, "It''s recording over his tape! He''s trying to erase his voice!"


    Gon and Killua tried to stop the yer, unplug it, and break it. Rayleigh sat to the side with his backpack in hisp.


    The cassette yer continued recording until Ging''s tape waspletely overwritten.


    Killua looked over to Ray, just chilling there, and asked, "Why didn''t you help?"


    Rayleigh shrugged and unzipped his backpack, revealing the familiar head of HK-47. He said, "HK, did you record everything?"


    [Statement: Of course, Master. Would you like a yback?]


    "Not now, but thank you."


    Killua sighed with relief, "Oh, he can record stuff too? Nice."


    Gon said, "Cool. But what did Ging have to go that far?"


    Killua answered, "He didn''t want to leave a trace of himself. You can find out a lot from someone''s voice, though since Rayleigh knows what he looks like, that''s kind of pointless. I think the main reason is Nen. What if there was someone who could derive information of someone from their voice? In that case, we can use that recording to find out more about Ging. Hey Ray, wanna try that Psychometry thing with the tape?" he asked while tossing it over.


    Rayleigh did so, but oddly enough, he saw nothing. That was a first. "I don''t know how, but Ging erased the records of this thing. I can''t see anything with it."


    Killua added, "Maybe a Nen ability can do that? He''s really formidable."


    Gon then eximed, "Wait! I got an idea!" He went over to his own pack and, after rummaging around for a moment, pulled out a Hunter License, but it wasn''t his own.


    Gon said, "Kite left this on the ind when he visited. I asked during the Hunter Exam and heard that this is Ging''s License!"


    That certainly surprised him. Rayleigh said, "Cool, let me see it."


    Gon handed it over, and Rayleigh used Psychometry. Unlike when he used it with the box, he took his time. A lot of time. After about ten minutes, Rayleigh finished and opened his eyes.


    Gon noticed this and said, "Hey, Killua left to go to the toy store. He said that the memory card was for a Joy Station or something and went to buy one. What did you find?"


    Rayleigh said, "Quite a bit. I even saw a vision of where he is right now."


    Gon eximed, "Really?! Where?"


    Rayleigh answered, "He''s sitting on the head of a baby dragon two hundred timesrger than he is. That dragon is sitting on the head of an adult mother dragon ten thousand timesrger than he is. And that mother dragon is currently flying through the sky with dozens of other dragons of the same size. When your father said he was currently doing crazy things, he was not joking in the slightest."


    Rayleigh then said, "I also know his secret. It''s a pretty private secret, though, and one he has definitely never told anyone. Knowing it probably won''t help you find him. Do you want to know?"


    Gon nodded, "Yes!"


    "Do you want to hear about it now or wait until Killua gets back?"


    "Umm, let''s wait."


    Rayleigh nodded. He certainly was not expecting Ging to have a secret like that.


    Killua returned a half hourter with a Joy Station, and Gon quickly dragged him back into the room so Rayleigh could share Ging''s big secret.


    Rayleigh started with, "First of all, this is just a guess because he has never said anything about it or really given anything away that could let others discover his secret. But some things about Ging don''t add up, so I''m more than fifty percent certain I''m right on this because it exins all the things that don''t make sense about your father."


    Killua said, "Alright already. Enough with the hype. Just tell us."


    Rayleigh smiled and said, "Alright, Ging''s big secret is... He is a reincarnator."


    Gon stared dumbly, and Killua asked, "What? You mean he is the reincarnation of someone else?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Yeah, someone strong, someone from the past, someone who was an expert on Nen. No idea who. The thing is, I don''t think all of his memories properly transferred over. The reason he left Whale Ind was to search for the missing pieces of his past. I also got the impression he was waiting for something, but I don''t know what. So while he''s waiting, he''s just going around doing whatever he wants."


    Killua asked, "Are you serious right now?"


    "It''s the only thing that makes sense. Ging had never had a teacher since obtaining his license. He just seemed to start using Nen on his own, as if he knew how to use it and had been learning it the whole time. Ging went directly from Whale Ind to the Hunter Exam, so he could not have learned Nen before that."


    Gon asked, "So what did he do?"


    "Well, it looked like he did everything he could to fund an expedition to certain ruins tied to his past life somehow. The thing is, even when he found the answers he was looking for, he apparently decided that he had more fun looking for the answers than he did finding them. I don''t think he really cares about his past anymore, he is just using it as an excuse to search for whatever he wants, a direction to walk forward, and have fun along the way."


    Killua asked, "Anything else we should know?"


    "Yeah. One of the reasons he put some distance between himself and Gon is because where he wants to go will be too dangerous for someone who is ordinary to follow. This test to find him is a safety precaution. If you can''t catch him when he is just having fun, doing nonsense, you have no right to follow him when he marches through the gates of hell."


    Gon asked, "Where?"


    Ray shook his head. "Don''t know. It''s not like he told anyone any of these things. I''m just piecing together actions and intent into reasonable assumptions. He took Kite as his disciple and gave him this card. Also, you were right about your mother, nothing about her will help you find him." Rayleigh didn''t tell him anything else about her because he knew Gon didn''t want to know. Besides, unlike with Ging, Rayleigh had no right to give away her secrets if he wasn''t asked for them.


    The only reason Rayleigh could figure out the reincarnator thing was that Ray was a reincarnator himself. He knew what to look for. Of course, Ging was not a yer. This was just Ging''s setting in the world. Although it wasn''t simple, reading Ging''s past using Psychometry was still easier than reading something from 30,000 years ago.


    Killua asked, "Then do you know about this memory card?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "I think so. Ging and his friends made a game and titled it with each of their initials. It''s called Greed Ind. He made it using techniques and knowledge from his past life. It''s basically a Nen Training System."


    Gon asked, "It''s for training Nen? Did he make it for me?"


    "He probably thought of you while making it. I don''t know more about it. Even the stuff I''m telling you is mostly guessed from bits and clues I''m piecing together here."


    Killua asked, "How can you train Nen in a game?"


    Rayleigh answered mysteriously, "Only one way to find out." He wasn''t going to ruin everything for Ging.


    Killua frowned and set up the Joy Station and inserted the memory card. As Rayleigh said, the memory card had saved data for Greed Ind. The card was actuallypletely filled with it.


    Killua copied the data from the card onto another card and they tried to search for copies of Greed Ind, but no results were found.


    From going up Heaven''s Arena, Gon and Killua both had about 400 Million Zenny in savings. Rayleigh went up twice and has about 800 Million. But from what they could see, the game was not for sale anywhere.


    ording to Rayleigh, "There are only 100 copies of the game, and I don''t know how to find any of them."


    Killua didn''t have a better idea and called his brother. Not Illumi, but the weaker one he beat up when he ran away. Killua offered the copy of the Greed Ind Save Data in return for more information, and his brother informed them that several copies were going on sale at the Yorknew Auction.


    After hearing this, the trio discussed their options.


    Killua said, "If we want to buy a copy, we''ll need a lot more money."


    Gon asked, "What should we do to get more?"


    Killua answered, "I don''t know, inte stock trading?"


    Rayleigh snorted. He said, "I don''t like doing this because I feel it''s cheating, so I''ll ask you first. Do you want me to look into the future and see how to get a copy?"


    Killua asked, "You can do that? Do it!"


    Gon added, "Yeah."


    Rayleigh could almost hear the ghostly voice of Leorio say, ''What are the winning lottery numbers?!''


    Rayleigh smiled at that and closed his eyes. He used all four Wills for this and entered deep meditation.


    After a few hours, Rayleigh began to see images. He saw Kurapika fighting a hulking brute. He saw him speaking with Hisoka. He saw Gon and Killua trying to get some bounties for money and getting in over their heads. He saw them get captured and traded for someone. He saw the Yorknew Auction and Greed Ind. He saw someone buying every copy. He saw Gon and Killua speak with that person. He saw an audition. He saw the pair pass after showing off their Hatsus. He saw a contract they had to sign. He saw them both end up on Greed Ind. He didn''t see anything after that.


    It was the next morning when Rayleigh opened his eyes to process what he saw. That was not the future. He was not in it. So what was it? Suddenly, he understood something. Something that had always left him puzzled and even wary of the Force.


    Up to this point, Rayleigh was under the impression that when he allowed it, it was the Force that controlled his body to move faster or anticipates danger. This entire time, he thought it was a stranger controlling him like he was an Arcade Fighter and the Force was the guy with the quarters at the joystick. He was wrong.


    The one at the joystick, the one controlling him when he allowed the Force to run things, wasn''t the Force, or at least not the whole thing. It was himself. The higher part of his mind that was always connected to the Force was himself. Why was that important? Because that self could ess his sealed Metaknowledge!


    What he saw was not the future, it was Metaknowledge that trickled down from his higher, unbound self. He''d found a loophole! The Tavern only sealed the Metaknowledge in his body! His higher mind which was a part of the Force was unaffected!


    Though, it was only useful if he stayed with the Main Characters. Once he left them, future knowledge of what they would do was not going to be useful to him. He could only ess maybe one percent of one percent of his actual Metaknowledge, but it at least gave him a direction.


    But that was not the most important thing. Rayleigh never really trusted the Force. How could he? It wasn''t him. If the Force wanted to sacrifice him and he went along with its will, he was screwed. But now he knew better. The one he allowed to control himself when he gave himself over to the Force was just a version of himself that was strongly connected to the Force and could see further and more clearly than he could. It was still him.


    Now that he knew he could actually trust the Force, connecting to it would be a lot smoother and easier.


    In any case, it was time to give Gon and Killua an update.


    He found the pair and said, "I know what we have to do to y Greed Ind."


    Gon asked, "Really? What?"


    Rayleigh smiled, "Train hard and be stronger!"


    Killua rolled his eyes. "Really? How does that work?"


    "I saw that a single guy will be buying up every copy of Greed Ind at the Auction, but not to y himself. He will hire others to y it. We have to meet him, convince him to let us try, and then pass an audition. If we are strong enough, we''ll be chosen and can y."


    Gon shouted, "Alright! You''re amazing, Ray!"


    Killua smiled, "I''m game. So what kind of training should we do?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Isn''t that obvious? Hatsu training!"


    *Author''s Note*


    For those wondering where I got the Ging Secret idea, I have one question. Who taught Kite the Reincarnation Technique that allowed him to survive being killed? It was obviously an ability based on Post-Mortem Nen, but if such a thing were easy, everyone would do it. Ging directly admitted that he taught Kite how to develop Crazy Slots and admitted that he knew Crazy Slots had a mode that probably had something to do with his revival. It was a subtle reference, as if that mode had nothing to do with Ging, but did it really have nothing to do with him?

 Chapter 32: Hatsu Training

    Chapter 32: Hatsu Training


    Chapter 32 Hatsu Training


    There was about a month and a half between the current date and when the trio decided to head to Yorknew to meet with Kurapika and Leorio. Since they had a nice, quiet ind to themselves, Rayleigh''s suggestion of developing a Hatsu was well received.


    Reaching a mutual consensus, the trio started their Hatsu training on different parts of the ind, wanting to outmatch their friends to see who could develop the best one.


    Of course, they didn''t spend all their time training. Every evening they returned to Mito''s house. Rayleigh convinced her to allow him to cook every once in a while and they would have a healthy feast before returning to Gon''s room.


    Killua convinced Rayleigh and Gon they had to ''research'' video games to get ready for Greed Ind so he purchased a few for the Joy Station and some extra controllers. In order to ''get ready'' for Greed Ind, the trio ''researched'' video games every night before going to sleep.


    The Hatsu Rayleigh desired to create was something to augment his speed. Basically a faster dash. He already had Force Dash but wanted something faster and preferably something he could use to attack.


    Force Dash itself is a skill that is difficult to master and has certain restrictions that coincide with the Jedi Code. It allows its user to move at speeds the body should not be capable of through the use of Force Puppetry, but has a w Rayleigh considers a massive weakness, though it is not seen that way by the Jedi. Someone cannot use Force Dash to attack. Not even a Jedi Master. The Force Puppetry aspect of Force Dash allowed a user to move without relying on their nerves and muscles, but giving up the reliance on these meant that you could not dictate your own actions in detail. So You could not use Force Dash while swinging your lightsaber or throwing a punch. It was useful for travel and running away, not fighting, very in line with the way of the Jedi.


    That, and skills such as Force Dash, Force Valor, and Enhance Attribute: Speed all had limits. They were not hard limits, but there were certain points where a hundred extra years of practice would only see minor improvement overall.


    Rayleigh''s goal had always been for a Lightspeed Lightsaber-wielding Swordsman build. So what if you could blow up a moon. So what if you could kill anyone with a single spell. If he could attack before his opponent and dodge anything that came at him, wouldn''t he be invincible? Even Hisoka needed a moment to set up skills such as Bungee World. If Rayleigh was fast enough, he could strike the Magician down before he could react or set anything up.


    Speed was determined and limited by three factors. The speed at which muscles contracted. The speed at which nerves ryed instructions. And external factors such as air resistance and terrain.


    Rayleigh''s Hatsu would address the first factor. The Enhancement Characteristic his aura applied could be used to reinforce his muscles, increasing their tensile strength, thus increasing the speed at which they could retract. With his currently well-trained body, the upper limit he could withstand for muscle enhancement should allow him to retract his muscles at a speed faster than the speed he''d do so under the puppeteering effect of skills like Force Valor or Force Dash.


    But this was only a single factor. He wanted to remove all three limits.


    The next step required creating a new Force Technique. Though he would not have to create it from scratch as it was already built into several different techniques, he just had to strip away the extra parts. The Force''s ability to direct nerves faster than the body could manually direct them was not something Rayleigh could use his aura to replicate. Even if he spent years figuring out how to enhance the speed of his nerves, it would never be instantaneous.


    Allowing the Force to directly control the nerves to fire them at a rate faster than physiologically possible was built into a few skills, but primarily, the Light Side skill Force Valor, and the Dark Side skill Force Rage. The difference between the two was who was issuing the directions. When using Force Valor, the user dictated what they wanted, and their body pretty much went into auto-pilot Force-assisted puppeteering. The Force would direct the body to move in how was best to achieve the user''s intentions. This of course had a limit in that the user would find it difficult to ask the Force to guide the body to perform tasks that went against the Will of the Force.


    Force Rage on the other hand did not seek direction and guidance from the Force, but moved the body directly through the user''s own intentions. Force Rage converted emotions into rage and used that rage to tap into the Dark Side. The power of the Dark Side was then used to overwrite the guidance of the Force and then puppet the user''s own body by their own intentions. The stronger the emotions, the faster and stronger they could make their own body through this Dark Side Self-Puppeteering.


    Technically, Force Rage was a powerful technique that did not share the limits of Force Valor. A master of Force Rage could exceed a Jedi Master in speed and strength as the limits of Force Rage were only determined by the amount of emotions the user could convert into rage. But the skill was powered by the Dark Side, and the Dark Side could not be used without the price of feeding yourself to it. Rayleigh''s goal would not be achieved if he had to feed himself to something, piece by piece, every step of the way on what may end up being an endless journey.


    Now even though Rayleigh would not use the power of the Dark Side to power his strength and speed, he did not need it. He only wanted the fundamental part of Force Rage, the part that allowed him to direct his nerves through the Force, bypassing the nervous system and not relying on auto-assisted Force Puppeteering.


    This piece of the skill allowed its user to sendmands directly through the Force to his body but did not use the Force to assist in powering those actions. For obvious reasons, this skill did not exist as a stand-alone as it was useless. Even if you could send directions using the Force, instantaneously to the correct nerve, the body would have no way of keeping up with the directions without the Force-assisted Puppeteering powered by either the Light Side or the Dark Side. Rayleigh on the other hand could use his Hatsu to power it. A Hatsu which could potentially move him faster than the limit of Force assisted Puppeteering.


    Of course, all of that was easier said than done. Even Force Rage still used the Dark Side of the Force and the person''s instincts to auto-correct their high-speed movement. The skill Rayleigh intended to implement would only take direction from himself. This was necessary as the Auto-correct from Force assisted Puppetry corrted to the movement granted by the Force. Rayleigh would not be moving using the Force. In order to bypass the limit, he had to remove all the safeguards and benefits of the skill other than speed.


    The new skill, something he called Force Program, formed a series of instructions for the body to enact in a specific order. In essence, Rayleigh really was turning himself into an Arcade Fighter. Pressing specific buttons would cause certain actions and the speed he could perform them was limited only to how fast he could press the buttons.


    Because he was not using the auto-assistance of the Force or the manual control of his brain, but directly sending signals to his body using the Force, the act of creating a Program was more difficult than learning to walk. Thanks to his experience in stealing Master Dyanameez''s Lightsaber Combat forms, this was something he had experience in.


    Onceplete, a Force Program basically existed as a GIF in his brain of himself performing the action. Once selected, the Force wouldmand his muscles to move in the order contained within the GIF at the speed the GIF performed them. Of course, this only worked if the muscles had a way to keep up with the movements.


    Force Program had several downsides and upsides. The first and most obvious downside was the fact that every execution of a specific Force Program would be identical, not taking into ount changes in the terrain, the position of the target, or any other factors. He also had to be in the correct starting position when he initiated the program. Without any form of auto-correct, he could run head-first into a wall, trip over a pebble, or get himself killed. This meant he had to create different Programs that took into ount as many possible variables as he could or he would be extremely limited in a fight.


    The most obvious upside was that this was already the peak of speed. By removing every single restriction and safeguard, the speed at which nerves were sentmands to fire was closer to instantaneous than any Jedi Master or Sith would ever reach. Even the small distance it was frompletely instantaneous would be closed through practice and mastery of the technique.


    Another less obvious upside was that using the Force tomand his nerves, but not power his muscles and movement, was barely considered a use of the Force. If Force Valor was a bucket of water, and Force Rage was a tub of water, then Force Program would be a drop of water. The Force was picky with what you did with it, but such a small usage of the Force barely registered. Unlike when he used Force Valor to enhance his speed and fight, if he just used actions created using Force Program, the Force would pay significantly less attention. This meant as long as he didn''t actually kill someone, the Force wouldn''t really care. Even killing would not be a big deal as long as he had a good or at least neutral reason for doing so. Maiming would probably be fine.


    That took care of the second factor, but Rayleigh also wanted to deal with the third. When Rayleigh moved at his fastest speeds using Enhance Attribute: Speed, Force Valor, or Force Dash, the air in front of him often felt like a wall of cotton being pressed against him at all times. He wanted to remove that wall.


    The inspiration for how to do so came from the manga, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. The MC had a specific skill he created to defeat the heroes so that his evil mistress would not be stopped and could destroy the world. The skill was called, Air Space Control: Babylon.


    Babylon used telekinesis to thin the air around him to make him faster while making the air around his opponents denser to slow them down. Rayleigh already had a skill that could solidify the air around a target to slow them down, Force Stasis. Rayleigh wanted to make a skill that would, in effect, create a vacuum tunnel for Rayleigh to pass through.


    Solidifying air using telekinesis was not the same as making it denser or thinner, so although he could use parts of Force Stasis, he would not be able to use it as a base. Thankfully, he had another skill that made for a perfect base for such an atmosphere-controlling skill. Force Muffle.


    Force Muffle controlled the air around him to negate the passage of sound. It was not a huge leap to take the principle of air control from that skill and apply it to making the air in front of him thinner.


    In its prototype stage, Vacuum Tunnel would create a cylinder of space extending from him that he could move through which had a lower density of air. Once he got used to it, he could advance the prototype to something more, like making the air behind him denser and using the difference in pressure to propel himself forward.


    The best part about Vacuum Tunnel was that, since he used Force Muffle as a base, he could ensure that he would not cause an annoyingly loud sonic boom once he reached the point he could break the sound barrier while traveling within it.


    Such a skill had downsides of course. Extended usage of Vacuum Tunnels meant less air to breathe. He would need to use Breath Control during prolonged usage to prevent himself from passing out due tock of oxygen.


    With his Hatsu, Force Program, and Vacuum Tunnel, he was certain he would be able to far surpass his previous speed.


    Thankfully, training such aplex skill only needed one thing. A hill. Gon''s home of Whale Ind looked like a whale sitting on the water, and the hump of that whale was a veryrge, perfect hill for Rayleigh to practice on.


    Running downhill was easy on the muscles, but hard on the nerves. Eventually, you reached a speed where your nerves could not keep up with your legs. So Rayleigh sprinted downhill over and over again to create the image of how fast his legs would be going once he exceeded the limit of his nerves. This was necessary as he could not use the image of Force Dash, since Force Dash''s puppetry-assisted speed did not use muscles properly. So he needed an image of how his muscles actually moved and worked when moving at speeds beyond what his nerves could take him.


    Running uphill was easy on the nerves, but hard on the muscles. Rayleigh would maintain his Ren while sprinting uphill as fast as he could while maintaining the image of his aura enhancing his muscles to make them retract faster. This simple action would allow his aura''s enhancement attribute to be naturally applied toward his movement speed.


    These two exercises would create the prototype pieces of his Hatsu and Program. Vacuum Tunnel required meditation and insight to create, but Rayleigh''s multiple Wills meant he could do so while training. One of his Wills controlled his body and focused on creating his Hatsu. One paid attention to his movement downhill and focused on creating his first Program. One meditated on creating the skill, Force Tunnel. And thest was practicing Contrary Belief to split itself. It would split in another week or so and by the time they went to Yorknew in a month and a half, Rayleigh was confident he would be able to split the next one as well and have six Wills.


    A week after they arrived, tragedy struck. At least for Gon. When Mito learned the trio spent every night ying video games, she gave Gon six textbooks and twenty workbooks.


    Gon was homeschooled, but unlike Rayleigh, Gon had notpleted his entire educational coursework. Mito insisted that Gon catch up with the coursework he had missed out on for thest six months and also insisted that he continue with his coursework after he left.


    When the issue of maintaining contact came up, Rayleigh suggested Gon set up a Home Phone at the house.


    All cell phones in the Hunter World worked off call forwarding. In order to use a cell phone, you needed a Home Phone your calls could be forwarded to and from. As for getting a cell phone, they''d look for a good one at Yorknew. Neither Killua nor Rayleigh had a permanent address, so they''d rely on Gon until they could set up a Home Phone themselves. Neither would set one up on Whale Ind since it might draw the wrong kind of attention.


    Killua actually had notpleted his full coursework either, since his tutge focused more on killing people than it did history and science. The only physical sciences Killua was fully versed in revolved around electricity, chemistry, and biology which equated to torture, poison, and how to kill effectively.


    This tragedy eventually spilled over to Killua and Rayleigh. Although Killua did not have to, Mito''s judgmental stare of disappointment ended up getting Killua to study with Gon. Rayleigh paid for a backstory that included a full education, so he already knew everything, but he wasn''t going to y video games by himself, so he became a tutor for his friends and tested them on asion.


    At the end of a month, two weeks from the day of their departure, Rayleigh had a working prototype. Rayleigh''s speed-enhancing Hatsu only took a week to make. Vacuum Tunnel took two weeks, so only became usable a week after he already created his Hatsu. The next two weeks consisted of trial and error while taking his speed further and further until he reached the limit his Hatsu could take him.


    On the first day, he just used his own nerves, Hatsu, and Vacuum tunnel together. He was very pleased that this was already faster than Force Dash and Force Valor, at least for movement speed in a straight line.


    But he knew that although this speed had reached the limit of his nerves, it did not reach the limit of his Hatsu-enhanced muscles, so he created a Program that would direct him faster. It wasn''t too difficult. He found a t road that was rarely used and ran at his fastest speed using his Hatsu and Vacuum Tunnel a few dozen times. He then created an image of himself running at that speed and then sped it up, using that as the Program.


    Using Force Program felt weird. It was aplete disconnect between the mind and body, turning a series of movements into an independent autonomic response, separate from input from the brain other than the initiation of the program. His senses were still there and he could overwrite the program by taking manual control, but using it was still weird.


    Unsurprisingly, he epically failed twenty times in a row before his first sess. And even that was more of a lucky fluke. If it wasn''t for the fact that his Ren protected him from the road, he would have turned himself into roadkill several times over due to the speed his flesh scraped itself against the ground.


    Rayleigh''s first breakthrough was made by simplifying the act of moving forward. Instead of moving each leg every step of the way, he created a series of movements that could be considered consecutive forward leaps. Then he simplified it into a single leap that could be repeated as many times as it took to traverse the distance.


    Leaping was much simpler than walking. The forward momentum was an auto-correct all its own and would keep him bnced, like how a fast-moving bicycle went forward even if you took your hands off the steering bar.


    Hitting the ground hard enough to leave an impression would take care of the problem of ground level. If he stomped hard enough, it didn''t matter what angle the ground was when he ced his foot on it. It would be the angle he needed it from the force of the stomp when he took his next step.


    After creating a Program for forward movement, he then needed to create programs for turning, for jumping, and for side-to-side movements. He needed to turn himself from a 2-D Arcade game into a 3-D tforming game and needed a program for each movement. Taking the lessons he learned from his trial and error with forward movement, he created simple, but repeatable programs for other movements that could be used together to travel over somewhatplex terrain.


    He made a program for moving forward, turning softly, turning hard, and made variants of everyone that took into ount differences in elevation and terrain. He would not be able to sprint through a jungle or along treetops for the moment, but he''d get there eventually. Over the course of the two weeks, he was able to fine-tune to Programs and get ustomed to their use so that he could, rtively speaking, run around most of Whale Ind before needing to stop for air.


    Of course, once he had his technique finalized, he had to really put it to the test. Rayleigh went to the Tavern and headed for the second floor to pick a Mission. He was going to try a 50 Point Mission.


    He returned to the same Mission he once failed.


    [Trailzer!


    Find a path to the mountain.


    Reward: 50 Mission Points.


    Do you want to Start?


    Yes | No.]


    After answering Yes, the space whited out for a moment before his senses returned. As always with Missions, he was at his Character''s Age.


    He clearly remembered Red telling him that 50 Points and up were real Missions, not the kiddy games they''d been ying up to this point. he also remembered Red telling him there was a Field Boss.


    His Mission was not to kill the Field Boss, so even if he could, he would not. If he felt confident enough to kill it, it would be better to find a Mission specifically to kill it and get awarded points for doing so. Going off Mission was a waste of time.


    The moment Rayleigh arrived, he initiated Zetsu and Force Stealth to reduce his presence to nothing. Normal Zetsu did not block his ability to use the Force, so he could still use skills like Force Stealth and Force Valor while in Zetsu.


    The next moment, Rayleigh nced around and found a nearby tree and jumped to the top of it while using Force Muffle to mask his sound and Breath Control to halt his breathing and slow his heart rate.


    Now that he was somewhat hidden and had a high vantage point, he could look around. The fog that made up the sky was mostly golden but was slowly turning purple. For some reason, pocket dimensions had a day and night cycle where the sky was golden and bright during the day and dim and purple during the night. Once he started the mission, he knew he had 4 hours toplete it.


    Looking around for a bit, Rayleigh spotted a wide mountain range that stretched beyond the limits of his sight from one end of the horizon to the other.


    In every prior pocket dimension Rayleigh performed Missions in, looking into the distance would eventually show a wall of golden or purple fog, the end of the pocket dimension. But now, he could not see the end, meaning this pocket dimension was likely farrger than the tiny ones he did Missions in before. This made sense. The exnation for pocket dimensions was that they were born when a universe failed to form and broke apart. Obviously, there should be some big ones. What he did not expect was that the Missions he had done before were in pocket dimensions the size of a grain of sandpared to the one he was in now.


    The mountain looked about thirty miles away and the region was very rocky. At the moment at least, he did not see the Field Boss. That was fine. He was here to test his prototype, not fight. That was why he had not made any programs that used his Lightsaber to attack yet. He wanted to make sure the foundation of the skill was usable before he built further upon it.


    However, just because he was not there to kill anything, did not mean he''d be running straight to the mountain. A Trailzing Mission was exceptionally dangerous because it meant he was exploring an area that the Tavern only had an estimate of and not hard data. Running from his current position to the mountain would award 50 Points, but if he actually mapped the region a bit to locate the safe zones and danger zones, he''d get bonus points. Rayleigh''s Psychometry could be used to gain information from a touch of the ground without needing to actually put himself in danger, so these were the Missions he liked the most.


    Rayleigh remained on the tree for a few minutes. He didn''t expect a giant monster to sense his arrival and find him right away, but there was no point taking chances. He would certainly feel extremely awkward if he died for no reason and had no memory of his testing during the Mission.


    No giant monster appeared, so Rayleigh returned down the tree and touched the ground, initiating his Psychometry.


    The first thing he noticed was the presence of several species of monsters. In addition to human-sized ugly monsters, the Tavern referred to as Hobgoblins, there were also monsters that moved like a boar but were the size of a bear. He should be able to outrun them if he met one. He didn''t sense any traces of the Field Boss though.


    Rather than run directly to the mountain, he chose a direction parallel to the mountain and started running, searching for a well-used path that led toward the mountain. yers willing to take 50 Point Missions would have no problem dealing with Hobgoblins, and trails used by them usually avoided the same things yers wanted to avoid, so Hobgoblin paths were great for reference when determining danger. If he found a path and a Hobgoblin Vige, he''d get more bonus points.


    Rayleigh used his new skill, something he named Overdrive, to move through the uneven terrain without faltering or falling. The trick was to brace the ankle and heel to always stay level even when standing on uneven terrain. As long as such was included in the Program, he would not twist or sprain his ankle and fall t or trip. The remainder of the difficulty was in the timing. Since each movement was not really a step forward but a leap forward, he had to initiate the start of the next program at the right instant, just before he reached the ground. Depending on which foot hended on, the elevation, the direction he was moving, and the stability of the terrain, he had a different Program for each.


    It was very much like a video game.


    At the moment, Rayleigh''s speed over irregr terrain was about 150 kilometers per hour, a little over 90 miles per hour. Far from his goal of breaking the sound barrier. There were three reasons for this. First, he was jumping too much. To simplify his movement, he was spending more time with his feet off the ground than on the ground. Next, he was not initiating the start of the next program immediately after the end of the prior one. The small dy between each step added up. And next, he was not used to it. All three problems were expected and based on ack of experience. As Rayleigh continued to run, his speed became faster and faster.


    Rayleigh stopped on plenty of asions when he felt he spotted some tracks and used the time to breathe and use Psychometry. He found a few Hobgoblin tracks, but only of lonely hunters, not groups. Rayleigh knew from experience that following the trail of a single Hunter was a waste of time. They could wander for days, so tracking the trail of one would eat all the time he had for the mission.


    After running for a half hour, he turned around and ran back to the starting location. Even though he did not find anything, he used Psychometry enough to map the habitats of a number of monsters, including the giant boars and a few others like giant snakes and rats. There were still no insects, but big pocket dimensions seemed to have their own ecosystems. Though it wasn''t like the creatures inside were actually boars, snakes, and rats. That was just his closest approximation. The giant boar thing looked like a tumor-infested shaved bear. The rats were cat-sized ugly lumps with serrated teeth. And the snakes did not have scales and were more like sentient purple tentacles or long slugs with mouths that expanded andtched onto prey before trying to wrap their mouth around the prey entirely to swallow it whole. He''d definitely need a beer when this Mission was over.


    He reached his starting point in only ten minutes since he didn''t stop to use Psychometry and was getting better at using Overdrive.


    It still wasn''t as fast as he wanted. Imagine driving a car with wheels that only performed a single rotation every time you pressed a button. So instead of keeping your foot on the gas pedal, you had to press that button over and over. The car would only go as fast as you pressed the button, and while pressing the button, you also had to steer. That was what it was like using Overdrive while running, though Overdrive was obviously moreplex since he had dozens of different buttons and if he pressed the next one too early, toote, or pressed the wrong one, he would crash.


    Still, none of these ws were impossible to get around. This was still a prototype, after all, a proof of concept. And as a proof of concept, it worked. Theoretically, it had no limit. So what if he could not push the button super fast? He could just train to leap further with each use. Once he got used to judging the terrain, he''d be able to predict which button to press next faster. Once he became experienced in judging which button to press next, he could mentally press lines of buttons sequentially instead of one after another. It was the difference between 1 then 2 then 3 then 4, and 1234. Eventually, he''d be able to press lines of buttons at the speed he was pressing a single button now.


    The only thing he found he was missing was a way to see further ahead. Once his Ren was strengthened, he could add Gy. Once he got the hang of strengthening the aura on specific parts of his body instead of his entire body, he could use K and Ry to maximize the enhancement of his muscles to further increase his speed. At that point, he suspected he might be able to break multiple folds of the sound barrier if his muscles didn''t explode.


    Even now, Rayleigh was only using a normal Ren since this was still just a prototype. When he started creating Force Programs for high-speed attacks, he would start partitioning his aura to his legs and arms to further enhance the speed of his movement and Lightsaber swing.


    Rayleigh started traveling parallel to the mountain again, but in the opposite direction. About five minutes into the run, the Field Boss found him.


    Rayleigh''s danger sense picked up the threat to his life, but there were no monsters on the ground. A quick lookup revealed the source of the danger.


    An ugly wyvern-like monstrosity was flying through the air at an impressive speed toward his location. It had a round head, arge jaw, and massive, pterodactyl-like wings.


    Seeing the challenge, Rayleigh smiled. That certainly exined why there were no camps near the mountain, it was this thing''s territory.


    Not seeing any point in further exploration this far from the mountain, Rayleigh turned and ran toward the Mission''s objective. Unsurprisingly, the wyvern was not able to keep pace. It was certainly fast, incredibly fast, but it had to travel through the air, while Rayleigh''s Vacuum Tunnel bypassed the air.


    Rayleigh didn''t know if this thing killed him in hisst attempt or if he ran away and hid from it until the Mission ran out of time. Either way, this time would be different.


    Since he was getting ahead of it, every couple of minutes, Rayleigh would stop, catch a breath, and use Gy to get a closer look at the flying monster. It was still chasing him even though it should know that it would not catch him. This was useful information. yers were essentially surveince drones, so everything Rayleigh saw would be known by the Tavern. He hoped getting more info on the Field Boss would be worth more bonus points.


    Because of the flying field boss, there was no safe path from the starting location to the mountain, so Rayleigh did not look for one. If there was a safe path he would have gotten more points for finding it, but since there was not, he would get his points by getting more details on the Field Boss.


    Thankfully Rayleigh did not have to climb the mountain, just reach the base of it. Maybe explore the base a bit to look at the color of the rocks to check for the presence of valuable minerals. That too would increase his bonus. If he did have to climb the mountain, his current Programs would not afford him the speed to outrun this flying monster, something he''d have to changeter.


    [Mission Complete. Would you like to return to the Tavern?


    Yes | No.]


    Thepletion pop-up appeared the moment Rayleigh arrived at the base of the mountain. He still had about half a minute before the Field Boss arrived, so he used Gy on the mountain, the rocks around, and picked up a few rocks near the base and smashed them against each other. Once the wyvern arrived, Rayleigh then started using Overdrive to run parallel to the base of the mountain. He still had 2 hours. Why would he stop now?


    Rayleigh eventually found himself back in the Tavern, his hand on the now nk paper.


    [Trailzer! Completed


    Awarded 50 Points


    Awarded 90 Bonus Points]


    Rayleigh smiled. Bonus points were not easy to get, so earning nearly double the Mission''s value worth of points was a great haul.


    "Hey brat,e here."


    Rayleigh heard Red''s voice from the bar. Was he there when Rayleigh went to take the Mission? He didn''t recall.


    Rayleigh headed down the stairs to the bar and Red handed him a ss of Beer which was gratefully taken. Regardless of how much of a battle junkie he was, being chased by an ugly wyvern for two hours still grated on his nerves.


    Red stated, "Two things I need to tell you. First, most of your bonus points came from what you observed on that mountain. There was evidence of some valuable data you got lucky enough to spot. That ugly flying puppy was just a low-grade Field Boss we''ll probably put a 90 Point Bounty Mission to hunt in the future. Getting chased around by something like that isn''t something to brag about, so don''t get cocky. Next, about that loophole, you think you found."


    Rayleigh froze up. Was the Tavern going to lock his memory of what he found? He didn''t want to get tangled up with the Phantom Troupe!


    Red stared him down and watched him squirm for a moment before chuckling. "It''s not a loophole. Metaknowledge is sealed to prevent everyone from doing the same thing. There are plenty of ways around this which are allowed, so you''re fine to keep doing what you''re doing."


    Rayleigh asked, "Wait, that''s okay? What about changing the plot?"


    "Hmm. Well, to your first question. Yes, it is okay. All Jedi yers have the potential to do it. Wizard yers can also ess their Metaknowledge through Divination, which some will figure out when they take that elective and find out that what they are predicting is Harry Potter Canon instead of Harry Potter''s actual future. It''s basically an Easter Egg, and only happens if you try to predict the future of the Main Characters, so this is also a way to confirm who is a main character and who is not."


    Rayleigh asked, "So if a Jedi tries to predict Anakin''s future, they will see Darth Vadering into being in a world without the yers?"


    "Yup. Though none of them are even close to strong enough in the Force to see that, and by the time they are, it will probably be toote. You are the only exception, but since Anakin''s future is Metaknowledge, you won''t remember to check and won''t spoil it for everyone."


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes. "So Anakin is screwed?"


    Red answered, "Pretty much. Your second question, about changing the plot, is a bit tricky to answer. Every world has something which will happen, and nothing any yer can do will change that. Any action to prevent it will be met with an action that causes it to happen again. Those are, Goku dying in the fight against Raditz. Kaguya tsutsuki getting revived. Voldemort being brought back to life. The Ant King dying after his fight with Netero. Ace getting killed in the Summit War of Marineford. And Anakin falling to the Dark Side along with the execution of Order 66."


    Rayleigh asked, "Why?"


    Red lifted an eyebrow and stated, "I ain''t answering the why for each. Pick one."


    "Umm. Why does Goku have to die? Some yers should be stronger than Raditz at that point."


    Red nodded, "Most likely, but if any yer wants to learn Kaio-Ken, they can only learn it from Goku after Goku dies and is brought back to life. yers who die in Dragonball can''t get revived by the Dragonballs since we bring them back to life and erase their previous character. So the only way for yers to learn Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb is to learn them from Goku once he returns to life after training with King Kai. There are also good reasons for the other events that have to happen, but I don''t feel like exining them all to you. Be happy with what you got."


    With that, Red got up and left to attend to the other yers. Rayleigh finished his ss and found a table with familiar faces to chat with. He had a lot to think about and he was going to Yorknew tomorrow.


    *Author''s Note*


    Yes, I''m stealing Killua''s Godspeed before he makes it. I justified doing it with the introduction of Programs from the earlier chapters. Rayleigh will be ensuring Gon and Killua get stronger faster than canon, but this will be bnced out by other yers in Greed Ind.

 Chapter 33: Drama at Yorknew

    Chapter 33: Drama at Yorknew


    *Author''s Note*


    For those who could not understand thest chapter, that''s fine. I only go into technical details once for an ability. You don''t need to know HOW it workster. Also, for those who don''t like that Rayleigh may get messed up by a YingYang Lightsaber, please note that Rayleigh''sprehension of the Force is nowhere close toplete. He needs more stimulus to learn more about it. More character development. The YingYang Lightsaber is nice for me since it gives a straightforward means of character development. When Rayleigh truly understands the Force, there will be no more limits on what he can do with it.


    Chapter 33 Drama at Yorknew


    The first of September was a big day for Rayleigh and some other yers as well. Wizard yers currently attending Wizard School started their second year today. yers from most schools had a fine first year, but yers attending Hogwarts ended up fighting a troll, a Cerberus, and the shade of a Dark Lord if they could be believed. Other than proximity to the Wizard MC Harry Potter, attending Hogwarts didn''t seem to grant a better education than the other Wizard Schools avable.


    Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua arrived at the airport and unanimously decided to just start wandering around. As one might guess from the name, Yorknew was a massive city that would take weeks to fully explore, and the mishmash of technology and culture made it all the more interesting.


    Gon wanted to check out the marketce and see how different it was from the one on Whale Ind. Killua wanted to check out the arcade. Rayleigh was fine with both but fully intended on eating every meal at the best restaurant they could find so he could steal some more recipes.


    First, they had breakfast at an old fashion pancake house that had great reviews. Rayleigh had blueberry, while Gon and Killua both got chocte chip pancakes. Five stars, they were delicious.


    Gon beat Killua in Rock-Paper-Scissors so they decided to head to the marketce before the arcade. Plenty of stalls sold junk they collected while others sold tourist crap, knick-knacks, and electronics. One stall waspletely filled with cell phones.


    Gon approached the cell phone vendor and asked, "What kind of phones do you have?"


    "Haha, I have everything for everyone! If you don''t have a phone, I have the perfect one for you. If you already have a phone, I have a better one for you! Lookie here. This one is the Systex Deluxe. It has a slide-down keyboard. Then we have the Commander Seven. It is as thin as a card and has a built-in map for finding friends and ces."


    Gon looked interested in thetter, but before he could reach out for it, a familiar voice called out, "Don''t get that one. It can''t be used in most countries and it''s really fragile."


    Gon turned back and said, "Leorio!"


    The eighteen-year-old who looked like he was in histe twenties replied, "Yo," before looking over the selection from the cell phone vendor. He picked one up that looked like a hercules beetle and said, "I rmend the Beatle, the number seven model. It''s pricy and a little heavy, but is durable, has a 48-hour battery life, can be used worldwide, trantes over 200nguages, and from it, you can watch and record TV."


    Killua looked surprised at all its features and eximed, "Really? Gon, get that one."


    Gon nodded and Leorio cracked his knuckles and walked up to the retailer. For some reason, Rayleigh felt he heard boss music in the background. He attributed it to ying too many games on the Joy Station over thest month.


    Leorio started haggling with the seller. Offers and counter-offers exchanged back and forth with extreme determination. Leorio''s loud voice and skillful bargaining drew the interest of a crowd. The seller continued to refute offered prices as impossible and imed his own were reasonable and already great deals, but Leorio wasn''t having it.


    In the end, a 200,000 Jenny cell phone was purchased for 110,000 Jenny. When the seller finally epted the price, the gathered audience erupted into apuse. Rayleigh wondered for a moment if Leorio was actually the main character.


    As they walked away, new phone in hand, Killua stated, "You went overboard."


    Gonughed and said, "But thanks! I saved a lot of money!:


    Leorio nodded sagely, "Haggling is a basic tool of negotiation. If I tried harder, I could have gotten it for even less. I got the same phone myself for 80,000. When the seller tells you to get out, that''s when the real negotiation starts."


    Rayleigh worked in customer service in his previous life, so he had no intention of apuding Leorio for what he did to that poor man. He also pitied the miserable person Leorio purchased his own phone from and mentally gave his best wishes to the unfortunate soul from which Leorio purchased his next phone.


    Changing the subject, Leorio asked, "Have you guys learned Nen?"


    Killua answered, "Of course."


    Gon added, "Yeah. You were gonna learn after your med-exams, right?"


    Leorio pushed up the sunsses he always wore and said, "I already learned it."


    Rayleigh replied, "Is that so? It''s about lunchtime, so let''s find out over some food. You heard of any good ces around here?"


    Leorio nodded, "Yeah, there''s a really famous Bistro a few blocks away. I was nning to eat there anyways."


    Gon jumped up, "Then let''s go!"


    Said Bistro was quiterge and Rayleigh and Gon both sniffed around for a bit before entering. The smells within confirmed the chefs knew what they were doing and they found an empty table.


    After looking over the menu and ordering, Rayleigh asked Leorio, "So what did you learn about Nen?"


    Leorio confidently answered, "Nen is the ability to hold your aura around your body after opening your aura nodes."


    Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua all smiled and shook their head.


    Seeing something was wrong, Leorio asked, "What?"


    Killua answered, "Leorio, that''s just Ten. Only one of the four basic principles."


    Rayleigh exined, "Besides holding Ten, the other three involve hiding your aurapletely, amplifying your aura, and using your aura for a personalized ability. How''d you learn just Ten and not the other three?"


    Leorio awkwardly answered, "Well, one of my Professors learned I became a Hunter and passed me some papers that exined how to open my Aura nodes."


    Gon asked, "You mean those stretches?"


    Leorio nodded and Killua asked, "How long did it take you to open them?"


    Leorioughed and said, "About a month and a half. My Professor said I was pretty fast, a one in a hundred thousand talent!"


    As heughed, Gon, Killua, and Rayleigh shared a look and a nod. They decided not to tell him that Wing said they could have done it in a week and Rayleigh did it in only two days.


    After the meal, they spent the rest of the evening at the city''srgest arcade and after dinner, headed for a hotel with Leorio in tow.


    At the rooms and out of earshot of random pedestrians, Killua told Leorio what they found about Gon''s father while leaving Rayleigh''s part in the acquiring of information out of the exnation.


    Leorio asked, "So you need to y the game but it costs 8.9 billion Jenny?"


    Gon said, "Yeah, but the Official Hunter site said its ssified as something that is easy to get."


    Leorio asked, "Wait, really?"


    Rayleigh replied, "Yeah, cause all you need is money."


    Leorioughed at the simplicity of it and added, "I told you, money is everything."


    Killua countered, "No, there are lots of things money can''t buy."


    Rayleigh added, "Leorio isn''t that far off. Your parents don''t ept favors and treasures for contracts, right?"


    Killua looked thoughtful, "That''s true." The fact that someone as powerful as his father still moved for something like money meant money was still quite powerful when you had enough of it.


    Leorio told the trio what he knew about Yorknew so they would have an idea about the area. Over the next two weeks, various Auction houses would open to the super rich and certain areas of the city would get incredibly busy. The first few days held most of the Underground auctions, where Crime Families and Mafia Dons bought and sold things you''d never find in an open market. The following few days held the legitimate auctions that sold treasures which could be purchased legally.


    Leorio said, "The Southernpiece Auction House is the most prestigious of all the Auction Houses. While most Auctions are held once, that ce holds an Auction for five days."


    Killua nodded, "Yeah, that''s the one the Hunter Site said will be selling a few copies of Greed Ind."


    Rayleigh added, "ording to the website, a guy named Battera always buys every game that is sold and hires Hunters to beat it. We''ll meet him at Southernpiece and get him to agree to let us y."


    Leorio nodded, "If he buys every game, then getting money to buy it yourself would be pretty pointless. But for this n to work, you''ll need to get into the Southernpiece Auction House."


    Gon nodded, "Let''s go there tomorrow and see how to get in."


    The group nodded at that before chatting a bit more. Rayleigh exined the theory behind each of the four principles of Nen while disying each of them. Leorio might take a year or two to create a Hatsu, but it was better than nothing.


    After they finished chatting, everyone went to their own rooms. As usual, Rayleigh spent the night practicing his Ten and Ren. He was still a long distance from being able to sleep in his Ten, but was making progress. Due to all the Hatsu practice he''d been doing, he could hold his Ren for 10 minutes. If he used Overdrive, he could run at about 300km/h for 3 minutes before he needed a break to store more aura into his cells and breathe. During that 3 minute duration, depending on the terrain, he could travel about fifteen kilometers.


    Rayleigh knew this was not how Anime Characters trained. Anime Characters could fight faster than the speed of sound without training their heart, muscles, tendons, and blood vessels. Anime Characters also got winded after a single intense fight. Rayleigh thought, ''Nope, not me. I''m gonna be the sh with a sword. A hundred back-to-back fights or a thousand will be no problem. I can''t teleport, so I''m gonna train myself to the point that even if they send an army at me, I will still be standing after everything else is in pieces.''


    Overdrive was basically an exercise. It was the fastest he could move without his Nen Enhanced Muscles tearing themselves to shreds. Even if the Nen somewhat protected them, they were still damaged from long uses of Overdrive which made him faster when they healed. Because of this, he intended to make sure he spent at least a couple of minutes in Overdrive every other day, using the off days to fully recover. In this way, slowly but surely, his foundation would steadily increase.


    Once his foundation was to his liking, he''d createplex attack moves that boosted his battle speed to the point those Anime Characters could move. As for the reason he did not do so now? It was because he didn''t know any swordsmanship.


    The Lightsaber Forms were based off Force Puppeteering and the characteristics of a Lightsaber. Actual swordsmen with actual swords moved fast without relying on the Force. Ray needed to learn how that worked before he created anyplex fighting styles or he would just be wasting his time.


    Rayleigh intended to save Tavern Points for a while and use them to buy an identity in the Pirate World and train under a swordmaster. Preferably one who knew the Pirate Power System. Learning swordsmanship under such a person would grant him the strongest foundation.


    Of course, he would still be on the lookout for Nen using swordsmen and see if they could answer a question or two.


    On September 2nd, the group headed out to explore more markets. Gon discovered a few treasures using Gy which Leorio proceeded to haggle for. Every time Leorio stepped forward to negotiate a price, Rayleigh could swear he heard Boss Music ying in the background. They each got some treasures, including a lumpy wooden chest filled with actual treasure that Rayleigh purchased. He didn''t open it since he didn''t have anything to do with it, for now, so it sat in his room without Leorio or the rest knowing about its contents, something he only knew thanks to Psychometry.


    On the 3rd, the group headed to the Southernpiece Auction house and learned the rules. In order to participate, you have to purchase the Auction''s catalog for 12 million Zenny. The catalog also acted as a ticket which allowed up to five people to attend the auction, thus clearing their requirement to be there and meet Battera.


    After Rayleigh purchased a catalog, they split up to do their own things in the city. Gon returned to the marketce, Killua went to the arcade, and Rayleigh just wandered around. Later that evening, Rayleigh spotted a familiar face sitting in the crowd. It was the woman who treated Hisoka with Nen string. What was interesting wasn''t her though, it was the man next to her. He had a sword.


    It was wrapped up, but Rayleigh recognized a swordsman when he saw one. They satzily at an outdoor food court as if they were waiting for someone.


    Rayleigh walked up to the pair and directly said, "Hello there."


    For some reason, both seemed to get ready for battle. His Force Danger sense told him directly that he would die if he did something stupid.


    The woman looked at Rayleigh for a moment and asked, "You were that kid who healed Hisoka?"


    The one with the sword asked, "He knows Hisoka?"


    The woman shrugged, "They are friends."


    The swordsman gave Rayleigh an measuring nce before lowering his battle intent a tiny bit. Apparently someone who called Hisoka a friend was still pretty dangerous. Rayleigh would not disagree with that sentiment.


    The swordsman asked, "What do you want?"


    Rayleigh directly asked, "I want to know if you know any ce I can learn to use a sword. I want to be a swordsman."


    Before he could answer, the woman spoke up, "Do you know a Nen user that uses a Chain?"


    Rayleigh honestly shook his head. He did see a single image of Kurapika against a hulking brute of a man, but that image did not have any chains. Rayleigh really did only ess about 1% of 1% of his metaknowledge with those few images and everything else was a guess.


    The man turned to her and asked, "Do you think he has anything to do with the chain guy?"


    "My instincts says he might. But I''m not sure."


    The guy with the sword stood up and looked around before sighing. He then looked back at Rayleigh and said, "I don''t have a master or anything, I''m self-taught. How about this? Follow us and I''ll give you a little lesson."


    Rayleigh replied, "Alright."


    The guy with the sword looked over at the woman and stated, "I can see how he would end up as Hisoka''s friend."


    Rayleigh could tell that was an insult rted to hisck of danger awareness. What they didn''t know was that Rayleigh''s danger sense told him exactly what was possible and what was not, so he didn''t fear anything that they came up with.


    The pair left for a car which Rayleigh happily jumped into to the confusion of the pair. The guy with the sword asked the woman, "You met him before right? What type is he?"


    "Probably an Enhancer, but said he was just learning Nen when I saw him a few months ago. What was weird was how he healed Hisoka''s severed arm. I reconnected the muscles and tissue, but this kidpletely removed the damage, as if Hisoka never lost his arm."


    "With Nen?"


    "No, he didn''t use any aura. I''m not sure how he did it."


    "Huh. That''s kinda cool."


    From the back Rayleigh replied, "Thanks."


    The car stopped not long afterward at what appeared to be an abandoned part of the city. Another woman, this one in a business suit, came out and asked, "Who''s the kid?"


    The thread user stated, "Hisoka''s friend. But I think he might know the chain guy."


    The new arrival walked up to Rayleigh and put her arm on his shoulder. Instinctively, Rayleigh cut off the connection between his current life and his past lives. Doing so also sealed his extra knowledge, so even the images he gained of the Canon History were gone.


    The woman asked, "Do you know a guy who uses chains?"


    The moment she asked, something funny happened. Rayleigh''s vast Mind Pce had a visitor. The woman standing in front of him was now inside his Mind Pce, looking around in a daze. Once this was detected, all six Wills showed up and said, "Hello there." at the same time.


    The woman looked like she had just been zapped and quickly removed her hand from his shoulder.


    The guy with the sword gave her a weird look and asked, "Does he know the chain guy?"


    The woman hesitated for a moment before answering, "No. But this kid is messed up in the head."


    Rayleigh smiled cheekily at her.


    The thread user nodded, "Well, he is Hisoka''s friend."


    The sword guy shrugged and unwrapped his sword. "Okay, a deal''s a deal. I''ll show you a few things. First, let me see what you can do."


    Rayleigh got out his Lightsaber and found a head-sized rock on the ground. He gave it to the sword guy and said, "Toss it into the air and I''ll cut it when it falls," before taking a few steps back, standing about five meters from the sword guy.


    Seeing this, he tossed the chuck of rock about ten meters into the air where it came to a stop and returned to the Earth.


    When it was about a meter and a half from hitting the ground, Rayleigh used Overdrive, ignited his Lightsaber, passed the falling rock while cutting it, and deactivated his lightsaber. Overdrive only really controlled his legs, so he could use his arms freely while moving as long as he didn''t lose his bnce.


    None of them seemed impressed with Rayleigh''s speed. The sword guy thought for a moment before stating, "Well, you are notpletely hopeless. I can see why you''re asking for someone to teach you though. You really don''t know a single thing about swordsmanship."


    Rayleigh nodded, epting the fact for what it was.


    The sword user picked up the sliced rock and examined the cooling side that was still quite hot from the Lightsaber that passed through it. He looked a bit interested but seemed to stop caring a momentter. He handed the rock to Rayleigh and said, "Now you toss it. I''ll show you how it''s done, just once."


    Rayleigh nodded with a smile. He activated Gy and also used the Force ability, Enhance Attribute: Sense, to raise his vision to the maximum before tossing the rock into the air.


    The swordsman moved faster than Rayleigh had, about three or four times faster. Rayleigh was confident he could reach that speed in the future. What was special however was how he reached that speed. Rayleigh''s forward motion just used a specific set of muscles to move him straight ahead. Seeing how it was really done, he understood that he was literally thinking too linearly.


    The swordsman started by rotating his heels to twist his stance, then extended his legs while twisting his waist while rotating his shoulder, twisting his wrists, and extending everything else at once. This was how a real swordsman moved, by twisting and extending every joint in the body at the same time to add up all the small movements into a single lightning-quick movement.


    Rayleigh''s eyes were shining, and not just from the Gy.


    Seeing how his skill was appreciated, the swordsman smiled lightly. He then asked, "Hey, do you want to join our group?"


    The other women gave him a stare but did not stop the offer. They saw his potential and heard he could heal. The woman who got a peek into his head knew the brat wasn''t normal, but no one in their group was, so it didn''t matter.


    Rayleigh asked, "Is Hisoka in that group?"


    The thread user answered, "Yes."


    Rayleigh then answered, "Then no thanks. I''d rather spend the rest of my life as far from Hisoka as possible."


    The trio stared at him for a moment in silence. The sword user was the first to startughing. The thread user and mind walker also started chuckling. At least now they understood him a bit. Rayleigh only acted as Hisoka''s friend to avoid getting killed by him.


    The sword user said, "The boss has a rule that members cannot fight each other, so he wouldn''t be able to fight you."


    Rayleigh still shook his head. "I still can''t for now. I''m going to y Greed Ind for a while with my friends. Not sure what I''ll do after that."


    The sword user then stated, "What if I didn''t take no for an answer?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "Then I would try my best to run away."


    The sword user smiled, "How about a race then? You run, I''ll chase. If I catch you, you reconsider."


    Rayleigh asked, "Do I get a head start?"


    "I won''t move until you are one hundred meters ahead of me."


    Rayleigh smiled and answered, "Okay. Don''t move" He then walked up to the sword user and touched his shin. Rayleigh was not using any aura, so no one knew what he was doing.


    Rayleigh then turned and used Overdrive to run. Half a secondter, the sword user was at his side, about to grab him. Before he could, he suddenly stopped, crashed to the ground, and screamed. He felt like his bone had been pierced with a needle.


    When Rayleigh used Gy, he could now see Shatterpoints, so he applied some Force to one on the swordman''s leg, an old injury probably, and the moment the man put some pressure on it, the injury seemed to return. It would heal quickly since Rayleigh barely did anything, but it would prevent the swordsman from keeping up with Rayleigh''s Overdrive.


    It only took a few seconds for Rayleigh to return to the crowded part of the city and use Zetsu and Force Stealth to make himself unnoticeable. One benefit of having boring brown eyes and brown hair was that it was easy to just be another face in the crowd, even if he was a kid.


    Later that night, everyone gathered back together and met up with Kurapika.


    Kurapika seemed rather lost. While their group had been running around and having fun, he had been quite busy. On the night of Sept 1st, an underground auction was robbed by the Phantom Troupe. Kurapika exined the fight he witnessed and his kidnapping of the brute Rayleigh saw him fight.


    When Kurapika told him of his chains, Rayleigh obviously put two and two together.


    The brute killed his boss and escaped, but Kurapika met him the following night and killed him on his own.


    And just an hour ago, the Phantom Troupe tried to rob the auction house again. It seemed that Killua''s father and grandfather were hired to kill the leader. Kurapika was actually disappointed to say that the Phantom Troupe had apparently been wiped out. They were all dead.


    Killua directly asked, "How did you get strong enough to beat that muscle guy? Didn''t you start learning Nen when we did?"


    Kurapika exined, "That''s because of the Condition and Pledge. You state a condition, a limitation, and then make a pledge to keep to that condition. This has a multiplying effect on the strength of your Nen. My Condition is that I can only use my Chain Jail offensively against members of the Phantom Troupe. My Pledge is that if I ever use it on anyone else, I will die. On my heart, there is a small, materialized chain of my Nen that will automatically kill me if I break my condition."


    Rayleigh stated, "So you are giving up all of your offense for every battle in the future against anyone else in exchange for absolute offense against the Phantom Troupe?"


    Kurapika nodded, "That''s right. Though I can still use my other chains, my Chain Jail cannot be used on anyone else."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "That doesn''t seem to be enough. How are you able to use different Nen Categories so well as a conjurer?"


    Kurapika answered, "When my eyes turn scarlet, I be a Specialist. I developed a Nen ability using my Specialist Aura called Emperor Time. While in Emperor Time, I can use every category of Nen at 100%."


    Rayleigh asked, "At what cost?" Such an ability did not add up in the slightest, there had to be a cost.


    Kurapika smiled at his insightful friend and answered, "Every second I spend in Emperor Time costs one hour of my lifespan."


    The remaining friends looked horrified by that revtion, but Rayleigh nodded. Now it added up. Kurapika didn''t just make himself a Phantom Troupe Hunting Specialist, he also burned his life when he fought them. Instead of multiplying his Nen, those two extremely costly techniques stacking together increased the power of his Nen exponentially. No wonder he could kill someone at Hisoka''s level with the same amount of training as Gon, Ray, and Killua.


    Since the Tavern could revive someone if they died, he''d have to ask how that would work if a yer tried it.


    Rayleigh was also quite interested in Kurapika''s abilities. His Chain Jail ability, the one limited to only members of the Phantom Troupe, forced the troupe member Kurapika bound with it into a state of Zetsu. He could even use In to make it invisible since it was made of Nen. Since the muscle guy Kurapika fought was physically the strongest, that meant this strategy would work on any of the other members of the Phantom Troupe as well. What was interesting was that although the limit Kurapika ced on this chain meant he could only use it to attack members of the Phantom Troupe, he was free to use it to defend himself from attacks from anyone.


    Kurapika also had a chain he could use to pierce someone''s chest and wrap a chain around their heart that ended in a de that stayed permanently affixed within their chest. Kurapika could create a Law while doing so and if the victim broke thatw, the de would pierce their heart and kill them. This chain could be used against anyone, but could only be made when he was in Emperor Time as it required Materialization, Emission, and Maniption to create such a thing.


    Rayleigh wondered if he could break it using Shatterpoint.


    Kurapika also had a Dousing Chain he could use to find people and determine if someone was lying, a Healing Chain he could use to recover, and a Chain he could use to steal someone''s Nen ability and put them into a state of Zetsu while the ability was borrowed. The catch was that each of them required Kurapika to be in Emperor Time to use them.


    The fact that Rayleigh met members of the Phantom Troupe was something Rayleigh would not tell Kurapika unless he was asked.


    From his interactions today, Rayleigh''s empathy told him that the Phantom Troupe members were selectively apathetic. It meant they didn''t care about anyone who was not close to them, not even the teeniest tiniest bit. To those they care about, they could probably be considered good people and close friends. To those they had no connections to, they were the most evil and heartless of devils. Rayleigh had zero intention of ever joining them.


    The only thing he''d gain from such a partnership was a good fight. Rayleigh had no doubt that''s all some of them really wanted. The material possessions they stole were just excuses to fight against the strong people protecting them and the strong people who came after them for the thefts. But Rayleigh didn''t need them for a good fight. He had the Tavern''s Arena and an endless supply of dangerous Missions.


    After discussing a bit more, Gon asked, "Hey, you said you got some of the eyes of your n back right?"


    Kurapika nodded, "Yes. I will recover every set of stolen eyes and return them where they belong."


    Killua added, "You think the guys who had those ones might have had more?"


    Kurapika answered, "It is something I''ve considered, but the sellers of the underground auction arepletely anonymous."


    Gon eximed, "Ray can help!"


    Kurapika looked at Rayleigh and asked, "How?"


    Seeing where this was going, Rayleigh exined, "I can use Psychometry to see the history of every living person who touched something."


    Killua asked, "Can you use it on people?"


    Rayleigh exined, "I can on dead body parts, but it''s different for the living. If I use Psychometry on someone who is alive, I just see their current health and weaknesses. Trying to look into the past of a living person with Psychometry gives me a headache. I can''t use it on myself either. It causes a weird feedback loop which turns everything into static."


    Kurapika said, "The eyes are in a container. If the container has not been changed, then perhaps you can find something."


    Rayleigh nodded and Kurapika left the room with Rayleigh in tow over to where the Scarlet Eyes he purchased at the auction were stored. Gon, Killua, and Leorio stayed since they weren''t needed.


    The hallway they arrived at was filled with dogs that gave a cursory nce at Kurapika before leaving him alone. Kurapika knocked on a door and stated, "Squ, I need to check on the Scarlet Eyes."


    An older man opened the door. Through the crack, Rayleigh could see that his room was also filled with dogs.


    The man named Squ looked at Rayleigh before turning to Kurapika and asking, "Who is he?"


    Rayleigh answered for him, "A specialist who can see the history of an object through touch. Kurapika was concerned the item may be a forgery and paid for an expert to check them out."


    The man gave Kurapika a raised eyebrow but Kurapika just said, "He just needs to touch it."


    Kurapika''s stare wasn''t something those who knew him could just refuse, so he relented and opened the door. When Rayleigh entered, the man said, "These dogs will tear you to shreds if you try anything stupid."


    Rayleigh shrugged without responding and looked into the room. Besides the dogs, the only thing that stuck out was a pair of ss tubes with two scarlet-colored eyes floating within.


    Rayleigh gently touched the ss and used his ability. He learned quite a bit.


    Rayleigh asked, "Kurapika, you said the Phantom Troupe was dead, right?"


    "Correct. I saw their bodies myself."


    Rayleigh added, "I''d bet fifty Jenny those bodies will vanish within 24 hours."


    Kurapika frowned and asked, "Why is that?"


    "Because these are a forgery made with Nen. They are a copy of the originals and will vanish in 21 hours. That''s 24 hours after they were made. If the person who made these fakes are a part of the Phantom Troupe, they likely made fake corpses as well."


    The dog user said, "What?! You can''t be serious!"


    Rayleigh ignored him and said, "There''s more," but instead of saying it within earshot of the dog guy, he left the room and Kurapika followed, a frown still on his face.


    Once they were away from all the dogs, Rayleigh exined. "I saw a bit of the future when I touched it. Before I tell you what I saw, can I ask if you are working with Hisoka?"


    Kurapika answered, "He wants to fight the boss of the Phantom Troupe."


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "Alright, so if nothing changes, six members of the Phantom Troupe, not including Hisoka, wille here tomorrow. The one who made that fake can track it. They will find you and kill you."


    Kurapika had seen enough demonstrations of Rayleigh''s abilities to know that he was likely telling the truth.


    Rayleigh asked, "Do you want to handle this yourself and die, or do you want some help?" If Kurapika just wanted to die, Rayleigh wouldn''t stop him. He also would not offer help unless he was asked.


    Kurapika remained silent for a few moments before answering, "Please help me."


    Rayleigh nodded, expecting such. "I won''t fight your battle or give you a n. But I can give you the information I have. They will track you down using the eyes tomorrow evening. I don''t need to tell you how you can use that. You know that Hisoka wants to fight the boss and that he is not one of the sixing tomorrow. I don''t need to tell you how you can use that. I was able to get details on four of the five others besides the boss. The tall male uses a sword. He is extremely fast, but straightforward and seems easy to fool. Likely an Enhancer. The woman with a ponytail is a transmuter who can turn her aura into thread and seems very formidable inbat. The taller blond woman in a business suit can take information from a person''s mind through physical contact, she doesn''t seem to be a particrly strong fighter. The short male with hair covering his face is particrly weak. He is the one who created the copy and he is needed to track it. Thest is a woman with sses. I don''t have any information on her."


    Since Kurapika now asked for his help, Rayleigh told him everything he knew. It was the Phantom Troupe''s bad luck to encounter him, so he knew about those three and he knew about the Nen Copier from his Psychometry on the eyes. Rayleigh would not assist in making a n or the actual fight, but the information was more than enough to change the future.


    Kurapika nodded after a moment, clearly making a n after memorizing everything Rayleigh said.


    The pair returned to Kurapika''s room but did not tell the others about the Phantom Troupe or the mayhem that would happen the next day.


    As if the city knew what was toe, the 4th of September called for rain the entire day. Gon, Rayleigh, and Killua stayed in their Hotel and watched TV as the drama unfolded, out of sight, out of mind. On the fifth, Kurapika visited Rayleigh''s room. Rayleigh was happy his friend was still alive.


    Rayleigh asked, "What happened?"


    Kurapika sighed. "It was as you said. After you left, Hisoka contacted me and told me the corpses were fakes. I told my boss that I had a contact in the Phantom Troupe and that they were alive and woulde for the eyes. He let me take them to set up a trap. Hisoka agreed toe, apparently finding someone to take his ce in disguise ahead of time. ording to Hisoka, the boss stole the ability to predict the future from my client and used it. Something in the prediction gave away my connection to the eyes which was how they figured it out. If you hadn''t seen into the future to counter that prediction, I would probably have died."


    Kurapika continued, "I rented the top five floors of the hotel and set the eyes on the top floor. When they arrived at the top floor, everyone but the boss fell through a trap five floors down. Hisoka remained on the top floor and fought their boss while the others tried to climb back up to the higher floors. Some traps I set in ce took them down one by one. The information you gave was very helpful, I took out the Sword User and Thread User first. The girl with sses made a vacuum that sucked in the traps I made, but by then, it was only her and the other two. As you said, neither of them was a strong fighter. I was able to kill them all."


    Rayleigh asked, "What about Hisoka?"


    Kurapika remained silent for a few moments. "He won. The boss is dead. Hisoka said he was going to fight the other members and would give me the stolen eyes if he didn''t get himself killed. I also confirmed that the Boss''s daughter really did lose her ability, but she gained it back when the boss was killed."


    The pair remained in silence for a few minutes before it was broken by Kurapika. "Thank you."


    Rayleigh shook his head. "Remember. No one is the viin of their own story. Everything happened for a reason. I don''t know why the Phantom Troupe decided to kill the members of the Kurta n, but I doubt it was as simple as it seems. I don''t know if one day you''lle to regret your decision, but I hope you don''t die before you find out."


    Kurapika didn''t answer, he just got up and left the room. Rayleigh doubted Kurapika would visit Gon or Killua to inform them about what happened.


    The rain continued until the next day and only let up on the 6th. It was time to head for the Auction and get themselves to Greed Ind.


    *Author''s Note*


    For those wondering how much the yers can change the canon, this should give you a clue. Why did Kurapika survive? I literally flipped a coin. But with all the information Rayleigh gave him and Hisoka''s help, this doesn''t seem like something that could not happen, especially since a prediction did happen which said 6 Spiders would die.


    A Battle Between Fortune Tellers. When the Spider Boss used the stolen Prediction ability, he predicted that Hisoka would fight the boss and six spiders would die. Due to the prediction, the boss gained information that changed the course of the future, so that only one spider died. Rayleigh''s Shatterpoint gave him his own prediction and he used that to change the future back to what it was before the Spider Boss wrote those predictions.


    This will not be thest time multiple guys who can see into the future use predictions against one another to battle for the future, but no one has to worry about that for a while. Time for Greed Ind!

 Chapter 34: Greed Island

    Chapter 34: Greed Ind


    *Author''s Note*


    Rayleigh didn''t ask for Nobunaga''s sword because he likely died holding it and Rayleigh indirectly caused that death. Learning from it would have been awkward, and Kurapika would have buried the sword with the swordsman.


    Chapter 34 Greed Ind


    As the most prestigious auction house in Yorknew, the Southenpiece Auction House had multiple stages that were auctioning different items at once. On the 6th, only one copy of Greed Ind was being sold, and that auction took ce in Hall B.


    Using the purchased catalog for ess, the trio entered the auction house and made their way to Hall B to wait for the notorious game to be up for sale.


    All three wore perfectly tailored suits they purchased on the third, so even though they were quite young, they did not stand out more than any of the other assembled super-rich.


    After finding some open seats near the back, they sat down and waited for Battera to reveal himself from among the crowd. After he purchased Greed Ind, the trio would follow him out and ask to y.


    The hostess for the auction was a beautiful young woman in a ck, silk dress. She stood center stage and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, wee. All the items you will find in the hall have special characteristics. And in turn, we can say that those who have gathered here are also special."


    A peal of lightughter rolled through the halls at the backhandedpliment.


    She continued, "Your presence here is indisputable proof that you are real collectors with a single goal in mind and are proud of it. I encourage you to take part in the auction to acquire the item you have in mind without a thought to the views society holds of you."


    The remarks were met with apuse. Adding fuel to the wealthy''s pride ensured that it would burn brighter than their concern for the state of their bank ounts.


    The first round of auctions began, and Rayleigh lost interest the moment a fossilized doodoo was ced on the stage. Was this supposed to be a metaphor that these rich old fools were literally spending their money on crap?


    Rayleigh opened the catalog of items to be sold today and perused the selection. ording to the page, the current piece of crap being bid on was not for disy but contained certain supernutrients useful for certain nts. In other words, if you had a treasured nt, this could be broken open and used as the ultimate fertilizer. Rayleigh still felt it was a metaphor for selling crap, though.


    After about half an hour, a joystation was brought out and put on disy.


    The hostess exined, "This auction continues with the mysterious game, Greed Ind. Please watch the central screen." Arge video disy showed a close up of the gamestation. There was no power cord or any cord at all, but the power light still glowed, showing it was still online. The hostess continued, "Some of you may have noticed, but this console doesn''t use electricity, but a mysterious energy." She then snapped, and a heavily muscr man with a massive sledgehammer approached the center stage from the side. To the shock of the audience, he lifted his hammer and smashed it into the pedestal the joystation sat on top of.


    The pedestal cracked and crumbled to pieces, but the joystation remained unharmed. Those who had their aura unlocked could see an aura surrounding the game, protecting it from damage.


    The hostess continued, "Do you see? Even after that, it suffered no damage! The console is a normal joystation. It should have been smashed to bits, but thanks to the energy used to run it, it is protected against external attacks as long as the yer is within the game."


    She then brought over some cords and plugged them into the joystation, allowing the monitor to show what the joystation was disying. The only thing that popped up on the screen was the image of a man and the words, ''Now ying.''


    She continued, "This man is currently ying. He is inside of the game, and the screen shows only this. Only the yer who is inside can see what really happens in the game. Now let me exin how these games were acquired by Southernpiece to sell to you today. You see, this man is a Professional Hunter. He owned seven copies of Greed Ind. ording to hiswyer, he stipted that if he did notplete the game after a certain period, all the copies in his possession would go up for sale. Now, let''s start the bidding at 1 billion Jennies!"


    Someone shouted, "One point one billion!"


    Rayleigh shouted, "One point five billion!"


    The next person called out, "Three billion!"


    Gon and Killua looked over at Rayleigh like he was crazy. Ray responded with an innocent, "What? If no one else had bid, we had enough."


    Killua rolled his eyes, and Gon started smiling at his friend''s silly antics. All their moneybined did add up to a teensy bit under 1.6 billion, but there was no way the game would sell for that low, so Rayleigh was just being cheeky.


    The price had already gone up to 20 billion.


    Battera revealed himself and the only other person bidding was a fat young man Killua gave a weird look too.


    Rayleigh asked, "You know him?"


    Killua sighed and turned away, "Yeah, that''s my older brother, Milluki."


    From his tone, Rayleigh and Gon could tell they were not close, and neither brought it up any further.


    It seemed that Milluki only brought 25.5 billion, since Battera won with a bid of 26 billion.


    This was the only copy of Greed Ind being sold today, so after the bid was won, Battera left the hall, and the trio of twelve-year-olds followed him out.


    Down the hall, there was something resembling an executive lounge, and Battera made his way there with his bodyguard, a man with imposingly sharp features and a well-trimmed goatee who the trio suspected was a skilled Hunter.


    Rayleigh made the approach with Gon and Killua behind him. "Hello there. We are Hunters and would like to participate in thepletion of the game."


    Several weaker bodyguards got up to stand between Rayleigh''s trio and Battera. One of them harshly stated, "Brats! Mr. Battera is a very busy man and has no time to y around with children."


    Rayleigh pulled out his Hunter License, and Gon followed, doing the same. Killua felt a bit awkward that he could not do so as well, but he stood confidently next to them, which gave the false impression he was a Hunter too.


    The guard who spoke up examined the License and seemed dumbfounded.


    Battera motioned for the formidible facial-haired bodyguard to apany him as he made his way over to the trio of kids. Said bodyguard nced at the Hunter Licenses before turning to Battera and giving a nod.


    Battera stated, "Getting a License at your age is impressive, and the fact that you managed toe here means you are not ordinary. But that''s not enough. It''s true that I employ Hunters toplete the game, but I''m very strict on selection, and at the moment, we''re just selecting those who may be able to enter. The number of yers is limited, so I cannot employ you."


    The trio exchanged concerned looks. Rayleigh had no idea what to do since he only saw an image of Gon and Killua speaking with Battera and did not see what they said.


    Gon spoke up, "Why is the number of yers limited? The catalog said that the number of yers is unlimited."


    Battera exined, "The number of participants is unlimited; that''s true, but you need to save your game data, correct? For that, a memory card is needed. On that card, only one person can be saved. If a multi-piece adaptor is used, each game can hold a maximum of eight memory cards, allowing only eight yers per game."


    Gon looked shocked and turned to Ray and Killua, "That''s right, the memory card''s 30 game files were all Greed Ind!"


    When they checked out the memory card Ging left Gon, it showed 30 different files, allbeled as Greed Ind. They did not think that 30 different saved files were actually only a single save file, meaning one memory card only meant a save file for a single person.


    Gon wasn''t exactly whispering, so when Battera heard this, he asked, "Say, how do you know about that?"


    Gon honestly answered, "Actually, we own a saved file of Greed Ind."


    Rayleigh was tempted to add that it was left by the game''s creator, but he''d only do so if necessary, so he kept quiet to see how this yed out.


    Battera was rather astounded at that, so he asked for rification, "You''ve already yed Greed Ind?!"


    Gon replied, "No, we only have the saved data."


    Battera looked thoughtful for a moment before stating, "You saw it too, right? When the console is on, it is protected by something. It is possible to insert a memory card, but it is impossible to remove one unless the yer is dead. There is one exception: if you have a certain item, you can remove the memory card associated with your save file from the joystation. If your memory card is authentic, you should also have this item."


    Rayleigh nodded, "You mean the ring? Yeah. We have that."


    Battera nodded, seemingly convinced. He said, "It seems they have met the required qualifications to take part in the test." He motioned for his goateed bodyguard to step forward.


    The man gave the trio a look before stating, "Age is just a number if you are a Hunter. I''ve seen kids your age who got their own License years ago, and they are making progress in the game. They are exceptions, because those who are too weak will die in that game. Let me see if you are also exceptions. Show me your Ren."


    Rayleigh asked, "Does Hatsu work?" He saw Gon and Killua passing by showing Hatsu, not Ren.


    The man looked surprised for a moment before nodding. "You are new Hunters right? The expression, show me your Ren, just means show me your strength. Hatsu is fine of course."


    Gon stepped forward first and made a fist. He formed a strong Ren and then quickly condensed it to his fist, forming a K that felt stronger than a wrecking ball.


    The man nodded before turning to Killua.


    Killua spread his arms out, and a powerful current of electricity was channeled from one hand to the other. He then turned his palms away from each other, and dozens of shining currents of electricity flowed from his fingertips around him and into the ground.


    The man nodded again, which signaled Killua to stop before he turned to Rayleigh.


    Ray used his Ren and then enabled the projection his Lightsaber from his Inventory, causing it to appear in front of him and making it look like he used materialization Nen. He then ignited the Lightsaber.


    The bodyguard examined the glowing de and asked, "How strong is that?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Pick up thatmp and use Sh on it."


    Seeing where this was going, the man unplugged a deskmp and used Sh, covering themp with his Ten to multiply its defense. Rayleigh then chopped through it with his Lightsaber. This man was strong, but he was nowhere close to Netero, so his Sh could not stop a Lightsaber.


    Rayleigh then disabled the projection of his Lightsaber, returning it to his Inventory toplete the illusion that it was a materialized item.


    The confused looks of Gon and Killua were not noticed by the assembled guards.


    Battera looked over at his bodyguard and asked, "Well, Tsezguerra?"


    Tsezguerra nodded, "Yes. They are certainly exceptional. They are not strong enough to beat the game, but they won''t die a dog''s death and have the potential to be stronger. It''s safe to let them y."


    Battera smiled, "Good." He turned to another guard and said, "Get three copies of the contract," before stating to the trio, "Read and sign the Contract if you wish to y. On September 10th, I will be holding an audition for more yers. As you have already passed, you just need to show up with the contracts signed at Tarsetol Station at 5 PM on the 10th."


    The guard from before returned with three stacks of freshly printed paper and handed them to the trio.


    Gon and the rest thanked Battera and Tsezguerra before heading out, contracts in hand. Once they were out of ear-shot, Gon and Killua turned to Rayleigh andined, "Hey! That wasn''t your Hatsu!" and "You cheated!"


    They were not mad that Rayleigh tricked Battera and Tsezguerra, they were mad that Rayleigh didn''t show his Hatsu so they could not determine if their own was better.


    "Making my lightsaber appear and disappear is something I can do once a day anyway," Rayleigh exined. "And my Hatsu just makes me fast, I''ll show youter."


    Gon said, "No! You gotta show us today!"


    Killua was also giving Rayleigh a stare that said, ''you''d better,'' which Rayleigh surrendered to.


    They ran to an abandoned part of the city and demonstrated their Hatsus to each other. Gon used his K punch and destroyed the foundational pir for one of the buildings with one blow. The trio then had to run away when half the building copsed. Gon was actually too exhausted to move, so Rayleigh had to grab him before running out.


    Although tired, Gon looked over at the half-destroyed building and gave a V-sign for victory.


    Killua asked, "That was the thing where you use Gy with your fist, right?"


    Gon nodded, "Yeah, I called Wing for an idea and he said Enhancers are best at enhancing simple stuff into super moves. He gave me a hint at how to use it by telling me to use everything at once."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, Wing said that was called K. The theory behind its strength is that the concentration of Ten reinforces the amplification of Ren. Basically, you use Zetsu while using Ten to ensure that the only auraing out of your bodyes from a single location. If this location is also where you are concentrating your Ren like when you use Gy, the two concentrations further reinforce each other. For an Enhancer, the amplification effects would be magnified even further than if another category used it."


    Killua understood Rayleigh''s exnation and nodded, but Gon looked a bit confused at the theory even though he was the one who just used the technique.


    Killua then showed off his lightning and exined, "I can use electricity to transform my own aura into electricity. Then, simr to how we store aura in our cells to use to power Ren, I can store the transformed aura in my cells like a capacitor and use it at will."


    Rayleigh asked, "But you need an external source of electricity to convert your aura before storing it?"


    Killua answered, "For now."


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "Cool. I''ll show off my Hatsu too then."


    Rayleigh took a starting stance and used Overdrive.


    Gon and Killua barely saw him speed off into the distance before he stopped, turned around, and ran past them. He repeated this several times, running past them each time so they could get a clear look at his speed.


    After ending his performance, Rayleigh said, "I think Killua''s Hatsu is the coolest. But that''s probably because Gon and I just enhanced normal stuff."


    Killua countered, "But Gon took down a building, and you were really fast."


    Gon argued, "Killua''s was really cool, but so was yours, Ray. How did you go that fast? I''m not sure I can go that fast."


    Rayleigh exined his Hatsu, Force Program, and Vacuum Tunnel in the simplest way he could. Gon had steaming out of his head by the end of it, but Killua looked thoughtful. He asked, "Do you think I can use that Program thing using electricity in ce of my own nerves?"


    "Yeah, but you''d have the same problem with the visual side as I do when using it to travel long distances, so we''d need to figure out how to see further and more clearly so we can react in advance."


    Killua nodded, now having a lot to think about.


    None of the three could agree on who had the coolest Hatsu, each iming the other two had a cooler one, so they settled on a tie. Rather than return to the city though, they decided to spend the remaining four days training.


    Rayleigh had already gone over the contract, which was pretty straight forward with only three parts: You may die or get injured, and Mr. Battera is not responsible. Mr. Battera keeps anything you bring out of the game if you win. And if you win, you are awarded 50 Billion Jennies.


    None of them really cared that much about the money. It cost more than that to hire Killua''s father for a single job, but Rayleigh was interested in the items inside the game.


    The Reincarnator''s Tavern had a feature that allowed one to convert something they found in the real world into an Inventory Item that was identical to the real thing. Many yers wished to take advantage of this, but doing so was not simple.


    One yer had the bright idea to find a Devil Fruit in the Pirate World and turn that into an Inventory Item, giving that yer 1 fruit a day to give to someone else to eat and grant Devil Fruit Powers to. The Tavern told him that doing so would only work the first time unless the person who ate it died. A single Devil Fruit can only give powers to a single person, regardless of whether or not it looks like someone took a bite from it. Besides, only those from the One Piece World and yers with the Pirate ss had a constitution that could get powers with a Devil Fruit, so it was pointless to take to another world and give to a human that was not a yer with an unlocked Pirate ss.


    Since Rayleigh had seen some of what Ging did to create Greed Ind, he knew that it was a real ce and the items could potentially work off the ind. So the question was, could he turn any item into an Inventory Item?


    Before heading off to Greed Ind, the party said their goodbyes to Leorio and Kurapika. Kurapika also informed Rayleigh of something that was a bit worrying. When Hisoka returned to the location where the remainder of the Phantom Troupe hid, he only found the person who had taken his ce waiting for him there. When the one who could make Nen copies of items died, all of the items he made for their base disappeared, informing the Troupe that he was dead. They scattered at that point, leaving behind the stolen loot. Hisoka returned the Scarlet Eyes as promised and left to search for the remaining Troupe members.


    Kurapika was still feeling weak, a side-effect of his fight a week ago, so he did not go with Hisoka to kill the troupe members who fled. Instead, he remained with his client. When his boss heard that Kurapika''s client, the boss''s daughter, had her Fortune Telling stolen by the Phantom Troupe but then returned when Kurapika essentially killed them, Kurapika got a promotion. He intended to use it along with the Fortune Teller to find the rest of his n''s eyes before hunting down the remainder of the Phantom Troupe.


    On September 10th, the trio arrived at the Tarsetol Train Station. The only train at the station at 5 PM had several guards, and in order to board, you had to hand over a signed contract and confirm a reservation. Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua didn''t actually give their names at the time, but their reservation info used images of their faces taken from security cameras in the Auction Hall.


    The train took a few hours to take them to their destination, where they boarded a bus heading into a secluded forest. Their final destination looked like an old, abandoned castle that was the private property of Mr. Battera.


    Tsezguerra, the Hunter with the excellent goatee, escorted them through the castle to the lower dungeon while exining, "Though this is an old castle, it still has the most up-to-date security and surveince systems money can buy. Do not try to explore or enter any area outside the path if you wish to stay alive."


    It was at the base of the castle, in what was certainly once a well-used dungeon, that Tsezguerra gestured to an ancient wooden door, iming, "Here we are," before opening the door.


    When the door opened, everyone saw a room filled with joystations, each connected to a monitor.


    Tsezguerra exined to the twenty-two assembled members, "The consoles don''t work independently, meaning whichever console you use to enter the game, the location of your arrival is the same. We''ll distribute a memory card to those of you who have not brought your own. Once you insert it, the game will begin. Before that, you have to decide the order of passage. When you enter the game, there is a stage for the exnation of the rules, but only one person can be on that stage at a time. The exnation onlysts a few minutes, but with twenty-two of you, it will still take about an hour for everyone to arrive."


    They all yed rock-paper-scissors together to determine the order of arrival, with the participants who yed the hand with the fewest uses winning each round.


    Gon won first ce. Rayleigh got sixth. And Killua got eighteenth.


    Tsezguerra told Gon, "You brought saved data and the ring, correct?"


    Gon nodded and answered, "Ah, that''s right."


    Tsezguerra stated, "Then slip the ring on first, then insert the memory card before using Ren over the joystation."


    Rayleigh said, "Stay at the starting location until we get there," to which Gon nodded back.


    Gon slipped on the ring, inserted the card, and used Ren, while surrounding his hands over the joystation. Doing all of these fulfilled certain conditions, which caused Gon to be teleported away.


    Tsezguerra pointed at the disy screen connected to the joystation Gon used and said, "When we see the message, now ying, disyed on the screen, the next yer will be able to enter."


    After three minutes, Gon''s screen said, "Now ying," and had a picture of him above it. The next participant chose another Joystation and one by one, each teleported off until it was Rayleigh''s turn. He turned back and exchanged smiles with Killua before he inserted a memory card he purchased earlier into the same adaptor Gon used and initiated his Ren around the joystation.


    Rayleigh felt himself teleport and arrived instantly in an octogonal room. The room only had a single door, but before he used it, he examined the markings on the wall. They appeared decorative at first nce, but Rayleigh recognized them as Divine Script. Many of the systems in this game used Divine Script to amplify the Nen of the Game Masters who created it, even the rings the yers wore were covered in Divine Script.


    That being said, this Divine Script was clearly written by someone who specialized in emission, so Rayleigh could not make heads or tails of it. After another nce, he opened the door and walked down another hallway filled with Divine Script and entered the main room, where one of the five Game Masters was stationed.


    Seeing him arrive, the young woman wearing a metal helmet covered in divine script said, "Wee to Greed Ind. May I please have your name?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Swordsman."


    The woman typed a few things and a ring materialized in front of him. She said, "I will now exin the rules. Mr. Swordsman, do you want to hear the exnation?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yes please." Everything the woman said was basically setting up the required conditions for the game to work.


    The woman smiled before answering, "In this game whoever has the ring can use two spells. Book and Gain. To use the first spell, please put on the ring and say the word, Book. Once put on, the ring cannot be removed until you have exited the game."


    Rayleigh took the floating ring and ced it on his finger before saying, "Book."


    A book appeared in front of him in a small burst of smoke. It was veryrge and had the feel of a binder for trading cards, something that really made him nostalgic.


    The gamemaster exined, "All the items you find in the game can be converted into cards. This book is used to store the cards. The goal of the game is toplete the book. Please open to the first page."


    Rayleigh did so. Like a card-carrying binder, the pages had nine slots each for ying cards, but each page was made of hard stic and was not see-through. Each slot was also numbered. The inner cover of the book had a spot for card 000 and the first page had slots for cards 001 through 009.


    The woman continued, "There aren''t any cards inside yet, but as you can see, each slot has a number. Each slot only epts the card with the right number. Those are imposed slots. Please turn to the end of the book."


    Rayleigh did so. The book had sixteen pages. The first eleven were all imposed slots, but the remaining five pages did not have numbers on them.


    The GM exined, "Those are free slots. Any card can be inserted into a free slot. There are 100 imposed slots, numbering from 000 to 099, and forty-five free slots. You mustpletely fill out the imposed slots to win the game."


    "Now, let me exin the second spell, Gain. In this game, you will find many items. When you obtain an item, it will automatically transform into a card that you can ce in your Book. If the item has a number of 099 or less, you can put one of them in the corresponding empty imposed slot. If not, you can only ce it into a free slot. The second spell is used by taking an item card from your Book and saying the word, Gain. This will revert the card back into an item."


    "Now please remember, when you obtain an item, it always turns into a card. But once an item has had Gain used on it, the item can no longer be changed back into a card. The exception to the first rule is if a card has reached its limit. Most items have specific limits as to how many can be changed into a card. If you obtain an item and it does not automatically transform into a card, that means the limit for card transformations has been reached."


    "The second thing you must remember is that an item in card form only maintains card form for sixty seconds once it is in your possession. If you remove a card from your book and do not return it to your book within sixty seconds, the card will revert to an item. The same is also true if you obtain an item, it turns into a card, and you do not ce it in your Book within sixty seconds. In that situation, it will revert back from card form into item form and cannot be turned into a card again."


    "Please be careful about that, as filling up the imposed slots is the top priority. And finally, the most important thing to keep in mind. If you die, your ring and book will be destroyed. Now, without further ado, you may enter the game. You have been presented with the bare minimum of information. More detail is at your disposal within the game. Try to find it. Good luck on your quest, and please exit through the stairs to your left."


    There was a downward spiraling staircase a few meters left of the GM, so Rayleigh walked over and headed down. The stairs led below the floor of the elevated building to the open air. The building itself was in a massive, grassy ins and sat on seven pirs.


    "Hey Ray," Gon called out from where he sat against one of the pirs holding the building up, beneath the shade and out of the sun.


    Rayleigh walked over and asked, "So, do you feel the guys watching us?"


    Gon nodded, "Yeah. But I can''t see them."


    Rayleigh shrugged, "If we can sense them looking at us from so far away, they kinda suck, so I''m not really worried about them."


    Gon nodded as Rayleigh took a seat next to him, and they waited for Killua. Ray explored the book, and the only interesting thing about it was an interface of some kind in the back with a spot that looked like a card could be slotted within.


    Participant after participant came down the stairs, and after half an hour more, Killua came down and spotted the pair waiting for him.


    Looking at the grassy ins, Killua seemed surprised. "A prairie huh? I can''t even see the shadow of a town from here."


    Gon pointed out, "But everyone is heading in the same direction."


    Rayleigh stated, "Yeah, but that''s just where we''re being watched from."


    Killua pointed and said, "Yeah, that way and that way, right," eliciting a nod from Gon and Ray.


    Gon asked, "So where should we go?"


    Killua suggested, "Let''s decide on three."


    On three, Gon and Ray pointed in one direction, while Killua pointed in the other. With the decision of the majority, they headed in the direction Gon and Rayleigh chose.


    Killua asked if Gon obtained any cards to start with but received the same answer: that Ging just said to have fun. He looked over to Rayleigh and asked, "Any suggestions on how to win?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Ging told the other GMs how to make it, but wasn''t too involved in the process of making it himself. Plus, any information I get using Psychometry has a problem."


    Killua asked, "What''s that?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "It fades really fast unless I use it, practice it, repeat it, or write it down." If Rayleigh held a sword, he would know how the person to whom it belonged used it, but if he didn''t practice that with his body, the feeling of how the person used it would fade away and be forgotten when he released the sword.


    Gon asked, "Wait, so the stuff you saw about Ging is mostly forgotten?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, but that''s fine with me. I used to use Psychometry all the time. If the unused stuff didn''t fade on its own, my head would have exploded by now."


    Killua said, "That''s fine. Figuring it out ourselves is more fun anyway."


    Gon nodded back, "Right!"


    After walking for about an hour, the sound of something piercing through the sky, like a jet fighter passing overhead, could be heard. The trio looked up, and instead of a jet, they saw a mass of light streaking toward them. A momentter, it reached the ground in front of them andnded safely, revealing a young man with a book floating in front of him.


    The new arrival looked around, as if he didn''t know where he was before speaking up, "The prairie near the starting point. So, this is your first time in the game."


    Killua asked, "How''d you know, we could be returning yers."


    The man smirked and said, "Perhaps." He turned the pages in his book to the back and picked up a card before cing it in a slot in the back of the book without saying a word. He smiled and said, "Swordsman, Killua, and Gon, eh?"


    Gon asked, "Hey, how did you know our names?" Though he did turn to Rayleigh and wonder why he used the name, Swordsman, instead of his real name.


    The man snickered, "How indeed." The card he seemed to have ced in the back of his book vanished in a puff of smoke. He seemed to ponder his next move before picking up a card from the back page and saying, "Trace On. Attack On Swordsman."


    A beam of light shot out from the card and aimed itself at Rayleigh. Although Rayleigh didn''t remember the details of the cards, he did recall that there were no harmful cards, so he didn''t bother to dodge.


    The light struck Rayleigh, causing him to glow for a moment before the light vanished.


    The man looked pleased with himself before he found that he was unable to move a muscle. He waspletely frozen in ce.


    Rayleigh walked up to the man and said, "Well, that wasn''t very nice at all."


    Killua demanded, "What did you do to him?"


    Rayleigh stated, "He can''t move or answer. Let''s check out his book."


    The man used Ren but the Force Stasis applied to him was a lot stronger than what Ray once used on Guido. He trusted the Force a lot more now and used multiple Wills to apply a few stacks of Force Stasis.


    Seeing the situation, Gon and Killua walked over, took the frozen man''s floating book from him, and started rifling through it. Rayleigh took out his own book and, page by page, took every card from the man''s book and ced it in his own.


    Gon said, "That feels like cheating."


    Ray replied, "I just want to y with them and figure out how they work. I''ll sell the rest once we reach a city."


    Killua added, "Besides, this guy only has a few cards in his imposed slots anyways, he''s really weak."


    After every card was taken, Killua asked, "What should we do with this guy?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "Let''s ask."


    The man''s Ren onlysted a minute or so before petering out. He was really too weak.


    Rayleigh released Force Stasis, allowing the man to move once again. The now cardless man immediately fell backward and started scooting away from the trio like a retarded crab. He turned to get up and ran as fast as he could while screaming.


    Gon asked, "Didn''t you want to know what he did?"


    Rayleigh looked through the cards the man donated to him and said, "I think I already figured it out. Check out these three cards."


    He pointed at three cards the man had a few copies of. These were not item cards, they had symbols in the bottom right corner which item cards did not. That, and they were each numbered over 1000.


    [1017 Collision: F-200


    Fly to the location of a random yer the caster has not met.]


    [1001 Peek: G-200


    View contents of target yer''s free slots]


    [1027 Trace: E:90


    Current location of one target yer will be avable at all times. (Effectsts until yer leaves the game.)]


    Rayleigh exined, "This is the one he used to find us. It was just a random encounter. This is the one he used to figure out our names. I saw him insert a copy of this into the back of his book. And this is the one he used on me."


    The man had a few other spells in his possession as well.


    [1009 Return: G-380


    Allows caster to fly back to a previously visited location.]


    [1015 irvoyance: D-70


    See all card data of the target yer.]


    [1019 Drawbridge F-200


    Protect once against a short range regr spell from another yer.]


    [1033 Cling: C-50


    Complete data of one yer''s restricted slots will be avable at all times. (Effectsts until yer leaves the game.)]


    [1037 Recycle F-170


    Allows an item converted from a card to be changed into card form once more. (Limited to cards of rank below C.)]


    [1021 Mug B-30


    Take one card at will from target yer.]


    The sun was setting, but none of the trio felt tired. They''d continue walking and discussing the ''donated cards'' until they reached a city and began their new adventures in the game.


    *Author''s Note*


    It begins.


    For those wondering if Rayleigh''s Dark Transfer can destroy indestructible items made by Nen, the answer is, "If the item''s conditions for indestructibility does not automatically refresh, then yes." Dark Transfer is the ability to see cracks within an object or person and oversaturate those cracks with the Force, causing them to expand and destroy the object or person. It can destroy anything that does not automatically fix itself.


    So within the game, the Book and Ring are indestructible, since their existence condition in the game is, ''the yer is alive.''


    Another example is Knuckles'' Hakoware Potclean. That thing''s indestructibility is based off, ''the target is being lent Knuckle''s aura.'' As long as the target possesses the aura lent to him by Knuckle, Potclean''s indestructible condition constantly refreshes itself. When Potclean has lent more aura than the target possesses, Potclean turns into a little demon that forces the target into Zetsu for a month. While in Zetsu, Knuckle''s aura is still within the target. 30 days is probably just how long it takes for Knuckles'' aura to naturally disperse. So the little demon''s invincibility condition is still, ''Knuckle''s lent aura is inside the target.'' If Rayleigh got hit with Potclean, he could use Zetsu to prevent himself from being lent more and push Knuckle''s aura out using the Force. Then he could destroy Potclean. Even if Potclean turned into the demon, Rayleigh could do the same and just force all of Knuckle''s aura from his body using the Force, then he could use Dark Transfer to destroy the little demon.


    So destroying items made indestructible by Nen depends on how the item was made indestructible. If someone made a robot bodyguard that bes indestructible if the person was attacked, Rayleigh could destroy it as long as the man was not getting attacked constantly. Any form of indestructibility that is initiated by a single, non-consistent action, can be destroyed by Dark Transfer.


    It won''t matter too much. In order to make something unable to be destroyed, it usually needs the limit, ''unable to harm others.'' With the exception of Kurapika''s Chain Jail, which isn''t truly indestructible, every Nen ability that involves actual indestructibility in the series was unable to physically harm others. Other extreme limits are also usually required. Potclean''s requirement of freely giving the opponent the user''s aura ispletely ridiculous if you think about it, and it only works on those who can''t kill Knuckle before Potclean lends more aura than the person''s current amount.


    Only bringing this up because games have lots of indestructible things. There are monsters on Greed ind with the indestructibility condition, ''has not been struck in obvious weak point.'' Basically, "Achilles'' Heel indestructibility". Those cannot be killed by a Lightsaber, but Shatterpoint will reveal their weak spot. Most indestructible things won''t have constantly refreshing conditions, so Rayleigh will be able to break unbreakable walls and such, but likely won''t need to during Gamey.


    Reviews and Stones = Motivation to write more chapters really fast.

 Chapter 35: The Prize City of Antokiba

    Chapter 35: The Prize City of Antokiba


    Chapter 35 The Prize City of Antokiba


    As the sun rose on the morning of the next day, the trio finally spotted a city in the distance.


    It was very quaint actually. No buildingsrger than three or four stories, plenty of space between each, and lush greenery all around. There were neither asphalt roads nor vehicles, so it looked very much like an idyllic countryside town nestled in the base of a green valley.


    Once they reached the main street loaded with vendors and shops, they spotted arge banner hanging from one end of the street to the other. [Wee to the Prize City of Antokiba.]


    The bustling vista had numerous people walking around and no one could tell who was a yer and who was a local until you spoke with them, saw them bring out their Book, or spotted the Ring on their finger.


    Neither Gon nor Killua was aware of the true nature of this ce, so the liveliness and ''realism'' had the pair in awe.


    Along most of the walls of the various buildings were posters, each asking for thepletion of a task with the promise of a reward, likely a card. The problem? Each reward sounded weird and none of them had any clue if it was a good card, an imposed slot card, or something worthless.


    One poster for example asked the reader to locate a missing dog, and the reward was the Statue of the Cursed Goddess of Fortune.


    While aimlessly wandering, Gon spotted a building with the word Tournament Schedule and eximed, "Look over there!"


    The remaining pair nced over and saw the same billboard over the building. It had a list of twelve different tournaments, one on the 15th of each month, and the prize for each.


    Gon''s eyes immediately gravitated toward the Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament scheduled for the 15th of September.


    When he pointed it out, Killua mentioned, "We don''t know if the date is the same here."


    Gon walked over to someone looking at the same billboard and politely asked the date, and was answered with today''s date of the 11th of September, confirming that the date inside and outside the game was the same.


    What was interesting was that their trio was not the only new yers gathered around the billboard. Several other familiar faces that passed the audition were standing around, showing the same interest in the billboard and the events listed within.


    The Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament''s prize was an item called the Sword of Truth, and since it was a safe looking means of acquiring a card, the trio agreed to stay in Antokiba until the 15th and participate.


    On Rayleigh''s insistence, the first stop of the trio in Antokiba was the Card Shop. After looking at the various spell cards donated from the random encounter, the trio''s interest was peaked and they wanted some spell cards too.


    On the way to Antokiba, they yed with and used the various spells avable to figure out how they worked and some of the game''s mechanics.


    One of the weird things about the game was that just about everything turned into a card. When you acquire an item, it turns into a card. But the process of acquisition was very loose. Gon literally picked up a rock on the ground and it turned into a card. If he did not put it in his Book within a minute, it turned back into a rock.


    Rayleigh wondered if Gon had OCD about certain things because he didn''t like his Book being so empty and he ended up collecting a lot of rocks.


    Upon arriving at the trade shop, their hopes and dreams were shattered by a single sentence from the cashier. "Spell Cards are only sold in the City of Magic, Masadora."


    All three started regretting ying with the spell cards earlier, having no idea that they were so hard to acquire.


    There were still many aspects of the Spells they did not understand, and when they asked the employee, he didn''t have any idea about how Spell Cards worked either.


    The yer that kindly donated his cards had a bunch of useless ones and only a few imposed slot cards, so Rayleigh sold them all to the trade shop for the local currency. What was the local currency? A card carrying a picture of a Jenny note bill. What was weird about them was that if the card was held by a yer without it being inserted into a Free Slot for longer than a minute, the card transformed into a normal Jenny note bill. Why was that weird? Because the currency only had value in its card form, and it only turned into a Jenny note bill once it was in the possession of a yer for longer than a minute. The ''NPC''s didn''t have this problem.


    There was a way around filling your Free Slots with Jenny Note bills. The Trade Shop owner stated, "If you don''t want your money to be stolen, you can leave it with me."


    Gon overheard the offer and said, "Oh, that''s a great idea."


    Killua seemed more skeptical and asked, "Do we have toe back to you to retrieve the money, or can we pick it up in any city?"


    The employee answered, "Only me of course, because I''m the one with your money."


    Rayleigh still decided to agree since they would be there for a few days. He kept enough money for food expenses in his Free Slots and the trio headed off for a restaurant. Thankfully, the restaurant was thoughtful of new yers. It was called Dopff au Moulin, Caveau de Riquewihr, and within was a contest with a prize. A gigantic te of spaghetti half their size was brought out. If they could finish the whole thing in half an hour, it was free, and they were awarded a Card called Galgaida


    The trio began eating, but Killua looked for more information from the chef and asked, "Sir, do you know how many will participate in the monthly tournament?"


    The chef politely stated, "Haha, instead of wasting time talking, you''d better hurry up and finish. As for the tournament, I think this month is special. Most tournaments only have about ten participants, but September''s Tournament is when anyone can win and sometimes has over a thousand participants. I''ll be taking part as well."


    Rayleigh found that interesting. The NPCs also took part in tournaments.


    Gon and Killua tried asking a few more questions, but for a majority of them, the NPC replied to the question with, "What''s that?"


    Even with the ongoing conversation, Gon finished in 10 minutes, Rayleigh in 11, and Killua camest by finishing in 12 minutes.


    The NPC took the empty tes and returned with three identical cards in hand.


    [1217 Galgaida: F-185


    This fish when cooked, tastes delicious.]


    The card had a picture of a very ugly fish, but the card''s subtext had Rayleigh''s inner chef interested.


    Rayleigh asked, "What does the F-185 mean?" The Trade Shop Employee refused to answer without getting paid to do so.


    This NPC was nicer. He replied, "Ah, you''re foreigners. The Letter on the right is the card''s acquisition difficulty. From lowest to highest it goes from H to A to S to highest, SS. The number next to that letter is the limit to how many of that item can exist in Card form. And the Number on the left is the card Number."


    Since they finished the spaghetti, they intended to leave as it would have been free, but as they headed for the exit, the chef said, "Wait, the pasta was free, but the drinks were not. Five sses of sodas are 1700 Jennies please."


    Rayleigh turned to the Free Slots in his Book and handed the Chef the card form of a 2000 Jenny note and said, "Keep the change." Since every bit of currency took up a ce in the Free Slots, it wasn''t worth it to ept change back.


    The trio wandered around the city, looking for more information and possible Quests to pass the time until the Tournament in four days. Their exploration was interrupted by the sound of an explosion a few streets down.


    On instinct, Gon and Rayleigh turned to head toward the source of the explosion, with Killua only being a half step slower. A small crowd had quickly gathered around what appeared to be the corpse of a somewhat familiar adult male. The trio had seen him earlier. He was one of the yers who entered the game with them and observed the tournament billboard at their side with a few others. It was difficult not to tense up at this realization. They hade from the same starting point and arrived at the same destination, but with only a slight deviation between them, one had encountered something that killed him while they took only a slightly different path. How close had theye to death?


    Killua asked someone who had already been there, "What happened?"


    The local exined, "His body just exploded. There was a bang from the inside, and then he was like this."


    Rayleigh frowned at theck of detail. He was about to step forward and use Psychometry on the corpse, but it started glowing and a momentter, it vanished. Ray sighed at that. He supposed it didn''t matter.


    "Hey, you three are newbies, right?"


    From behind, a man with a ring on his index finger called out to them. He looked scruffy and would fit right in among a group of homeless vagrants.


    Rayleigh answered honestly, "Yep. What of it?" He didn''t think being a newbie was a big deal.


    The man looked a bit surprised at the straightforward deration, but he continued his line of questioning, "Then I guess this is the first time you''ve seen someone get killed. Don''t worry about it being a spell card, what killed that guy was definitely a Nen ability.


    Gon asked, "Who killed him and why?"


    The man exined, "The guy who killed him is a notorious yer killer called the Bomb Devil. Every one of his victims is killed just like that guy. As for why, it''s because of the Card Limit. You know about that, right?"


    Killua nodded, causing the man to continue, "Plenty of cards have already reached their maximum conversion limit, preventing others from getting them andpleting the game. If a yer dies, you can''t get their cards, but if they have a card that reached the limit and it gets destroyed when they die, then others can get that card again. For yer killers, the fewer yers are in the game, the better their own chances of winning."


    Rayleigh saw about a hundred and one holes in that theory for why the Bomber killed him. The man had just gotten here, so he had no experience and no cards and probably wasn''t a threat. Why kill him?


    The scruffy man continued, "The best way to y safely is to have strength in numbers. Ours is thergest group in the game, and we never kill. Why don''t you join us? We know a sure way to clear the game."


    Rayleigh and Killua asked skeptically, "A sure way to clear the game?"


    The man nodded confidently, "Come with me if you''re interested, my buddies are over there."


    Rayleigh gave a half-smile and said, "We''ll hear you out."


    Gon looked over to Ray and asked, "Are you sure?"


    Ray nodded and said, "We wanted to gather information, they won''t be able to recruit anyone without giving some. Free information, right?"


    Killua added, "Good point."


    The man clearly heard Ray''s words and rolled his eyes, "You don''t know how terrible this game really is, but you''re not wrong. For first-timers like you, listening to our exnation is valuable on its own."


    The man walked over to the center of the city while the trio followed. The meeting ce had rows of stone seats around an empty stage which made Rayleigh wonder if this was where the monthly tournaments were held. Seating on the weathered seats were more familiar faces, recruits from the audition who came with them into the game and chose this direction instead of the other.


    The scruffy man who brought them ended up being a leader type. He addressed a few unfamiliar faces and asked, "So, is everyone here? What about those guys you were speaking with earlier?"


    The man he addressed answered, "They tly refused, didn''t even want to listen to me."


    Not seeming surprised, the scruffy dude answered, "I see," while a skinny dude with sses asked, "Shall we begin?"


    The scruffy dude nodded and addressed the assembled newbies, "A yer was just killed over there, I''m sure you all heard the explosion. He arrived at the same time you guys did."


    Rayleigh added, "It was that buff looking guy in a t-shirt with ck hair and sharp side-burns."


    A few of the others nodded at the description, that man''s side-burns were quite memorable.


    The skinny dude with sses stated, "First, let me clear up a few things thate to mind. If he got killed by an explosion, then it was not a spell that killed him. There isn''t a single spell inside the game that kills or injures people. In total, there are 40 different kinds of spells. Attack, Movement, Defense, and so on are included. The spells some of you may have been attacked with are information gathering spells like Trace and Cling. To the person who cast the spell, those grant them information on the location of the yer and what cards he has."


    The man''s tone changed from soft to hard as he continued, "This is a big disadvantage for those afflicted. If they discover you have obtained a good card, they can easily find you and take the card whenever they want. And that''s the best case scenario. If you struggle, they may just take it by force or just kill you outright."


    One of the newbies, a cocky looking man in a cheap looking suit stated smugly, "I won''t let myself get killed that easily."


    The skinny dude replied, "If you have confidence that someone who can ambush you with full preparations any time of any day for the rest of your stay on Greed Ind is not a threat, then, by all means, you can ignore him."


    Rayleigh let slip a smile of his own at that since that was exactly what he intended to do. So what if that random encounter guy knew his location? Would he have the balls toe back? Rayleigh honestly hoped so. He would certainly appreciate another donation of cards.


    The smug looking punk on the other hand wilted at the description of such a scenario, his confidence crumbling.


    He continued, "The man who was killed over there was killed by a yer Killer called Bomb Devil. We know he uses either maniption Nen or Emission Nen, but frankly, we know very little about him. This game came out over ten years ago, but without getting cleared, the situation keeps getting worse and worse."


    Another of the recruiters started exining, "In this game, there are three ways to acquire cards. Can you guess them?"


    Gon answered, "Get it yourself!"


    Ray added, "Trade for it."


    And Killua finished with, "Steal it."


    The man nodded to the three kids and continued, "You three are pretty clever. There are a few other ways, but those three are the main ones. The problem is that most yers have given up on the first and second methods. Most yers who try to acquire cards only resort to stealing, and the reason is that after ten years, many Imposed Slot cards have already reached their maximum conversion limit."


    He shrugged and said, "Even if you are the best Hunter in the world and can get every single card with your own strength, what are you gonna do when the item you receive doesn''t change into a card? How are you gonna beat the game?"


    "In such a situation, if no one with the card you want will trade, what are you going to do? This is the problem many of the Hunters are facing, so more and more Hunters are resorting to beating up yers, forcing them to take out their book and then just taking all their cards. The ones who refuse may be killed, but if they have the card you have an item of and they die, the item will turn into a card, benefiting you anyways."


    The scruffy guy picked up there, "More and more yers are turning to violence and theft because they''ve given up on gaining the cards through their own strength or because taking it is just easier. Our group wants to put an end to this situation. We''re gathering teammates to end this game, and we''d like your cooperation."


    The cocky guy from before asked, "And how will you get the cards needed to beat the game? You''re just gonna steal them from other yers yourself, right? Aren''t you the same as them?"


    The leader dered, "That''s wrong! We won''t use violence. We can take the cards we need without harming anyone."


    The guy in the cheap suit asked, "Oh, how are you gonna do that?"


    Another yer, one who had not spoken up until now stated, "Spells. You''re going to take them with spells, right?"


    The scruffy guy nodded, "He''s right. We are going to use spell cards. But we''re not simply going to use them, we''re going to monopolize them. Just like Item Cards, Spell Cards also have a limit on how many can exist on the ind in the Books of yers. Our n is to use the free slots of arge number of members to obtain a monopoly on the Defense Spells. In total, we need 1900 free slots, whiches to about 45 yers worth of Free Slots, but ideally, we would have 70. Right now, we have 53 members, and almost 800 defensive spell cards."


    The sses guy added, "Our group also has gathered 67 Imposed Slot Cards, missing only 32 left to finish the game."


    The scruffy guy added, "We already know who holds the cards we do not. We don''t need to fight them. Once we have achieved a monopoly on the defense spells, we can just keep trying to steal the cards we need until it works. The targets will run out of defense spells eventually and won''t be able to get anymore."


    The sses dude continued, "70 yers and 1900 cards is just the ideal, but we''re going to start aggressively collecting cards once we have 1300 cards. This will likely be our final recruitment. We only need a month to get the cards we need. Then it will only take two months to fully deplete the defense cards of our targets and get the cards we need from them. That means we n to finish the game in three months."


    The scruffy leader stated, "So now I ask you. Are you in or out? Let''s put an end to this massacre game together. I can assure you, there is no other way to win."


    sses guy added, "All the yers I''ve met havee to the same conclusion: Even if you chase after cards, you''ll have them taken from you sooner orter. It''s because taking cards from others is how the game was designed. But, with our strategy, the gathered cards kept by our teammates are hidden away in safe ces. This means the chance of cards being stolen is zero and we have a guaranteed way of getting cards from everyone else."


    Several of the assembled newbies asked questions about their cut, contribution, and how to get rid of the effect of cards applied to them.


    One by one, most of the newbies epted the offer, until the scruffy looking leader asked the trio of Gon, Killua, and Ray. "What about you guys?"


    Rayleigh could already sense Gon''s frustration at everything the men were saying. That, and Ray''s instincts were telling him not to join under any circumstances. He stood up and said, "Thanks for the offer, but we''ll figure out our own way to y."


    Gon stood up and stated, "Right, we''ll y with our own abilities."


    Killua added, "I''m with them," and the trio left.


    Once they were out of earshot, Rayleigh said, "Gon, you remember I''m empathic right? What has you so pissed?"


    Gon stopped, took a few breaths to calm down, and stated, "Sorry about that. It''s just, those guys. They were saying that Ging designed this game for massacre and robbery, just bad things. I want to enjoy this game, like Ging said. When the game started, I didn''t think this would be a joy ride, but I also felt that this wasn''t scary or anything. I thought that everyone ying would actually be enjoying the game. The bad parts aren''t the game, but the people willing to hurt others to get cards."


    Rayleigh smiled, "Pacifism at its finest."


    Killua snorted, but countered, "You gotta remember, this is a Hunters Only Game. I actually approve of the way the game has been setup-"


    Gon interrupted, "But-"


    Killua continued, "Except the killing part. Ray''s right on this one. There''s no need to kill. But what if two yers wagered a card, andpeted against each other for it, winner takes them both? Wouldn''t that be okay?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah. As long as both parties agreed and you didn''t try to just bully them."


    Gon agreed, "That''d be ok."


    Killua then stated, "That can also be a form of robbery since it isn''t a trade and you''re not getting it from the source. But that''s still ying the game. And the group strategy was bound to happen eventually. Anyways, forget those guys, let''s just enjoy this game to its fullest."


    Rayleigh was tempted to add that the group was probably going to die. The feeling telling him not to join was a pretty big clue on what would happen if he did. That, and the sses guy gave him Aizen from Bleach vibes. Good natured, slicked back hair, reasonable and intelligent, and sses to boot?


    Plus, it didn''t make any sense why the Bomb Devil would target a newbie who didn''t have a single card. It would be better to target members of that card collecting group, not newbies. If no one knows who the Bomb Devil is, he could have attended one of the group''s recruitments at one point and know their n. So why didn''t he target them? Why target a newbie which would scare many new yers into joining the group?


    It didn''t take a genius to put two and two together, but he wouldn''t put a target on his back by pointing it out in public.


    He was tempted to tell Gon and Killua, but before speaking about info that could get you killed, he had one of his Wills use irvoyance on the area to check if anyone was listening in. Surprisingly, there was someone. Sitting on a roof observing them from a distance was a young woman with pig-tails and a dress.


    Her presence was zero and Rayleigh only spotted her using irvoyance, so Gon and Killua continued to chat, unaware that every word was being listened in on.


    Gon said, "Killua, Rayleigh, thanks for staying with me. I''m really happy I met you guys."


    Killua turned away and said, "Don''t say embarrassing things like that," and Rayleigh replied, "Friends don''t have to thank friends for stuff like that, Gon."


    Gon smiled back as they continued their exploration of the city.


    The young woman observing them had an evil smile, like a trickster finding the target of their next prank.


    The next four days passed with a smallpetition between the three. Each would try one of the random quests avable and get the prize. If it wasn''t an Imposed Slot Card, they would sell it and see which one was worth the most.


    To their dismay, everything was weird crap. The quests at least showed the names of the prizes so you at least had an idea what you were getting, but interesting names did not always mean a good prize. A Three Eyed Mask sounds cool, but its effect prevents the wearer from sessfully asking a girl out on a date. The Ruby Wrist-guard sounds exotic, but the effect increases your chance of getting lost while wearing it. And Rayleigh would never speak of the Legendary Brown Pants. Why someone would award such a thing he would never know. He could not think of a single use for an item with that effect except for giving it to someone he didn''t like.


    Rayleigh figured some items might be linked to Chain Quests like the one to get Goron''s Big Sword in Ocarina of Time, but he couldn''t find a single quest that required the prize of another quest to start.


    In the end, he figured the only prizes worth anything were probably just the ones from the monthly tournaments. After selling the cards they got, Gon had the most money, and they used it to buy a nk map of the ind and the directions to the Magic City of Masadora.


    Ray had no idea how Gon won. The items he got consisted of an Antique Clock, a Non-Beckoning Cat, and Someone''s Colored Paper.


    Rayleigh spent most of his money on food items and cooking utensils, all of which were conveniently in card form. That made it useful to carry before setting up camp, but none of the items would be able to return to card forms after he set up camp. Still, it was better than carrying a backpack to the ce they intended to setup camp at.


    On the fifteenth, Gon, Rayleigh, and Killua participated in the Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament. Rayleigh actually defeated Gon and faced Killua in the finals. Killua rose an unclenched fist to make it look like he''d be using paper or scissors, so Rayleigh used scissors to win or tie, but the hand that met Rayleigh''s was Killua''s other hand in the form of rock.


    Killua was announced the winner and Killua gave a double piece sign. Guessing if the opponent would use paper and scissors or rock by checking if the fist was clenched or not clenched was a trick Gon taught them both. If the opponent''s fist was clenched while being thrown down, it was probably rock or paper, so you should choose paper. If it was not clenched, it was probably paper or scissors, so you should choose scissors. You''d either win or draw every time.


    Killua faked this out by throwing an unclenched right hand down before pulling it back and showing his clenched fist in his left hand.


    The ref handed Killua a sword with some writing on it. The moment he took it, the sword turned into a card. Killua said, "Ray, Gon, look at this."


    [083 Sword of Truth: B-22


    Splits in two anything and anyone deceitful. In trials, it''s a criminal''s worst nightmare. The sword will shatter when used to cut something true, but will regenerate if stored in its scabbard for one day.]


    The card''s number was less than 100, so it was their first imposed slot card.


    The moment they walked out of the tournament ground, they easily felt the eyes of dozens of yers.


    Killua asked Rayleigh, "You gonna do your psychic thing?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. "No point in showing off until we have more cards."


    Gon said, "But I don''t want them to just take it without a fight."


    Killua nodded, "It''s okay. I have an idea."


    The trio discussed their n for a few minutes before continuing on to see how it would work.


    The first yer to show up made the word dork appear in the mind of anyone who saw him. Rayleigh unconsciously felt that the guy seemed a bit pitiful. He pulled out his book and the trio did the same and opened it.


    The loser said, "Thief On. Attack Killua, take the Sword of Truth from his imposed slots!"


    The card didn''t vanish or turn into a beam of light, it just stayed in his hand.


    The man panicked, understanding what this meant.


    Although they didn''t want to waste spell cards, the trio eventually decided to y around a bit more and learned a few interesting facts about the spells. First, if a yer has their book open and it contains at least 1 defensive spell, then attack spells will not strike automatically. The spell will actually wait fifteen seconds before going off, giving the defending yer time to use the defensive spell against the attacker. Because of this, Rayleigh gave Gon and Killua a copy of 1019 Drawbridge, a single use spell that defended against regr spells. The guy who donated his cards to Rayleigh actually had five of them. Unfortunately, he didn''t have any spells that defended against Attack Spells.


    Attack spells also only worked if the target was within 20 meters of the caster.


    Killua, Gon, and Rayleigh shrugged and started walking away again. The man did panic when he thought that Killua had a defensive card, but then he thought that maybe Killua didn''t know how to use it or had one that wasn''t useful against Thief. His anticipation came to nothing however when the fifteen seconds came to an end and his card popped without attacking Killua.


    The man copsed to his knees, "No! You just won the tournament! I know you have that card!"


    Killua didn''t turn around but said, "Just because it''s an Imposed Slot card, doesn''t mean I have to put it in my imposed slots."


    Seeing this, someone else came out and said, "Better for me, this card targets the Free Slots. Pickpocket On. Attack Killua."


    The trio shook their head and kept walking. Once the fifteen seconds were up, loser number two''s Pickpocket card shined brightly and a light shot from Killua''s book into the man''s hand. Heughed and looked at the card before freezing up. "A Rock?!"


    Killua said, "Gon, Ray, and I all have forty rock cards in our free slots." That was an outright lie, but unless they had arge number of Pickpocket cards to randomly take each one, they''d never be able to confirm it.


    Another loser showed up and said, "Rob on. Attack Killua, take the Sword of Truth from his Free Slots!"


    After another 15 seconds, the card popped, failing to work.


    Gon turned and smiled back, "No one said we had to put the card in Killua''s Book."


    Thest loser looked broken, but another group of yers showed up. This time, none appeared to be losers.


    One said, "From using Peek and Fluoroscopy, I know that Sword of Truth is in Swordsman''s Free Slots. He also has five stones, lots of cookwear, several food items, a few normal spells, and two Drawbridge Spell Cards, but those only protect from normal spells, not attack spells."


    Another said, "Don''t even think about escaping." He turned to the rest and said, "Let''s decide who goes first with rock-paper-scissors."


    Ironically, the actual Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament to decide who got the Sword of Truth had just begun.


    Rayleigh was tempted to remove the card and use Gain on it or secretly pass it to Gon or Killua, but several Hunters seemed to be waiting for him to do just that so they could attack or fight him. One-on-one, Ray had some confidence against guys at that level, but there were eight Hunters, and none of them seemed like they would go down easily.


    Rayleigh epted the situation for what it was and didn''t fight back. Sometimes if you get robbed, the best thing to do is to give them your wallet. He wasn''t Martha Wayne. Besides, if he destroyed the card, even if he could get away with it, the assembled yers would not appreciate it and he doubted they would let bygones be bygones.


    Gon seemed pissed and Killua was annoyed, but neither decided to fight.


    The one who won the game used Rob on Rayleigh and since he didn''t have a spell card to defend himself, the Sword of Truth left his Book and made its way to a Pro with a fuzzy hat.


    Deciding not to mind it, the trio decided to leave the city and find Masadora. Of course, first, they had to head to the trade shop to withdraw their money.


    The Employee they paid for directions to had also informed them that along the route from this city to Masadora, they would encounter bandits and monsters. Both of which had the trio very excited.


    The moment they left the city, a voice called out from behind, "Wait for me!"


    The pig-tailed girl in the dress ran daintily from behind. She''d been following them for a few days now and Rayleigh had snuck a peak at her using Gy at one and came to a startling conclusion. She was too strong.


    Rayleigh could not urately measure someone using Gy, but he could see Shatterpoints, the cracks where lines of weakness and fragility met. Therger and the more numerous the Shatterpoints, the weaker the person. This girl''s Shatterpoints were tiny and the lines connecting them showing how fragile she was were thinner than hair. Rayleigh had never seen such tiny Shatterpoints and thin lines of weakness. He was confident she could kick their asses.


    Still, although she had a mischievous vibe, it wasn''t malicious. She intended to mess with them, not hurt them. Probably a hobby or something.


    She spoke softly, "Please let me apany you."


    Killua directly rejected, "Ah, sorry. The answer is no."


    She looked frantic and asked, "But why?"


    Killua answered straightforwardly, "Because you''d be a hindrance," before returning to the road and starting to run along the route to Masadora.


    Rayleigh could feel the woman''s irritation, but it was her fault for trying to look weak.


    Rather than punch Killua''s face in, she decided to continue her charade and ran after them, "Wait for me! I promise I''ll make myself as inconspicuous as possible!"


    Rayleigh smirked. He wondered how much he could annoy her before she decided to give up on pranking them.

 Chapter 36: Biscuit Krueger

    Chapter 36: Biscuit Krueger


    Chapter 36 Biscuit Krueger


    ording to the Trade Shop''s Employee, getting to Masadora required crossing a mountain range 80 kilometers north of Antokiba. After passing over that, they would spot an enormouske, and if theke''s shore is followed northwest, they''lle across Masadora.


    The Employee also warned them that there was a hide-out of bandits in the forest between Antokiba and the mountain and that even if they managed to get past the bandits, the other side of the mountain range was filled with monsters.


    Needless to say, avoiding the bandits and monsters was thest thing on the trio''s mind as they made their way through the dark forest.


    As the terrain grew more rugged on their venture, Gon turned to the pair and asked, "What do you think we should do about her?"


    He was referring to the woman who had been on their tail the entire journey, keeping within shouting distance of the trio without getting lost.


    Killua answered, "Just ignore her. When the bandits appear, we''ll shake her off."


    Gon asked, "Isn''t that cruel?"


    Rayleigh snorted, "None of us are strong enough to protect everyone we meet. She doesn''t look like she needs protection anyways."


    Killua added, "That''s right! She''s also a Nen User, so if it gets dangerous, she can just run away."


    Only sometime after thest light of the sun had hidden from the world had they made their first encounter. Six individuals wearing masks, light clothes, and weapons came out from behind the trees and charged forward.


    The trio took a fighting stance as the bandits jumped into the air, seemingly ready to pounce on the group.


    But instead, theynded in front of the trio, performed a sliding bow, and shouted, "Please Help Us!"


    Rayleigh didn''t sense any danger, so he answered, "Um, sure. What do you need help with?"


    The bandits took the trio to their camp and showed them to a room with a sick child. He exined, "It''s a local disease of the ind. It changes from a low fever to a high one and in the end, it''s fatal. It takes a month to kill those who are infected. To stop the fever, you need to take medicine, but the medicine onlysts a week, so you have to take more. The medicine is really expensive and we don''t have any money. Our members are all suffering from the illness, so we can''t do bandit activities anymore. As it is now, my son will die in two or three days!"


    The homely woman next to the boy asked with tears in her eyes, "Could you generously donate some money?"


    Rayleigh asked, "How much do you need?"


    She answered, "We''ve already raised some, but we still need 450,000 Jenny."


    Ray, Killua, and Gon shared a look. That was 95% of all the money they had together.


    They figured this would reward them with a card, so they all agreed since it wasn''t hard to get money.


    They got out their books and handed the bandits their money.


    The bandits then said their children would die from the cold, but the bandits didn''t have any clothes the size of the ill kids. They ''coincidently'' were the same age and size as the trio, so they offered their extra clothes to the bandit''s kids.


    Then the bandits said they were hungry and werepletely out of food and all the utensils had been sold. Without food, the children would die from hunger. Since Rayleigh ''coincidently'' had lots of food and cooking wear in his book, he donated what he had as well.


    After emptying out their books of just about everything, the bandits thanked them profusely. And nothing else. The bandits did not reward them with anything. They got nothing at all. Nada. Zilch. Zero.


    If it wasn''t for the fact that Rayleigh confirmed using Gy that the bandits and kids really were sick and weak, he would have thought those bandits were really high-end con artists to rob them of everything without fighting.


    The woman in the back observed everything and seemed highly amused, though she didn''t show it on her face.


    After leaving with nothing but their undershirts, shoes, and pants, Killua raged, "Damn that sucked!"


    Gon agreed, "Yeah, they got us bad. We lost everything."


    Rayleigh said, "Easye, easy go. I doubt we''ll have the same problem with the monsters. If they turn into cards when we beat them, we can sell them at Masadora and get money for spell cards."


    They were over the mountain and were heading down the other side when the forest ended and barren terrain of rocky outcroppings extended as far as the eye could see.


    Moments after stepping into the rocky area, seven giant multi-story tall cyclops appeared from behind the rocks into view.


    Without waiting for the tiny trio, the closest one smashed a city bus-sized club at them, forcing them to scatter.


    Rayleigh used Gy and saw something very interesting. The monsters did not have a single line of weakness or shatterpoint on their bodies, only a single massive one on their eyes. It wasrger and deeper than any shatterpoint he''d ever seen. Even without using the Force, anyone could kill these guys hitting that thing.


    Rayleigh wondered if the monsters worked off the Achilles'' Heel Principle. Invulnerability on 95% of their body in exchange for absolute weakness in one part.


    In any case, he doubted his lightsaber would cut these up, so there was no point in bringing it out.


    Rayleigh was tempted to take them all out using some fancy moves but noticed something rather interesting.


    One of his Wills maintained irvoyance and kept watch on the woman following them. As Gon and Killua started fighting the cyclops, she seemed to be assessing them. Her emotions flicked from annoyance to interest and back.


    Feeling this, Rayleigh knew exactly how to mess with her. Fully knowing that the cyclops could only be defeated by hitting their eye, Rayleigh enhanced his legs and jumped at the closest cyclops, where he confidently headbutted the cyclops'' chest.


    The headbutt harmlessly bounced off, and the woman watching him had a sudden spike of irritation and annoyance.


    Rayleigh yed clueless and shouted, "Headbutting doesn''t work!"


    Gon smashed his fist into the face of one of the cyclops, but he didn''t deal any damage with that either.


    Rayleigh dodged a few more attacks and ran up to the top of one of the rocks before running over it at his fastest speed and extending his arms and legs to use his weight to body m his chest against thergest cyclops. Due to the weight difference, he bounced harmlessly off its chest again and the spike of irritation he felt from the woman erupted. She was gritting her teeth and clenching her fists, calling Rayleigh every insult she could think of.


    It was then that Killua kicked one in the eye and caused it to pop into a card. He took out his book to ce the monster into a Free Slot and Rayleigh and Gon both struck the eyes of the nearest cyclops once they saw how Killua beat one. All the monsters turned to cards and were ced into the trio''s free slots.


    Killua gave Ray a weird look, so Rayleigh used Force Muffle to prevent his words from being heard by the woman and said, "I''m just trying different things. This is a game, so I wanna have fun."


    Gon smiled while Killua rolled his eyes but didn''t hide a small smirk.


    They walked a few more steps in before a building-sized, six-legged ck spotted smander walked over a rock and spotted them. As if mimicking Rayleigh from earlier, it leaped into the air over the trio to use its massive size to smash the trio. They ran to the closest rock to jump off it into the air and onto the smander''s back where they tried attacking it, but none of the attacks had any effect and the smander rolled and almost squished them. A few ineffective attackster and they gave up and ran away.


    Rayleigh''s Gy saw that one of the ck spots was actually its weak point, so he avoided that while attacking everywhere else using ridiculous means like biting it and performing a flying elbow drop.


    Once they lost it, Killuained, "What the hell! No matter how much we attacked it, nothing happened!"


    Gon added, "Maybe they forgot to give that one a weakness?"


    Rayleigh said, "No, it definitely had a weakness. We just need to learn how to find it."


    Killua nodded and they continued on. The woman following them looked at the Smander for a bit and struck the weak spot directly, turning it into a card and examining it for a moment before continuing to tail the trio. With the exception of Rayleigh, the other two didn''t even know she was still following them. Not that it was entirely their fault. Without using irvoyance, Rayleigh wouldn''t be able to sense her either. Jedi shouldn''t be able to use irvoyance like this without meditating, but Rayleigh could have one of his Wills meditate and use irvoyance on the go.


    Their next encounter was with a ck puffball that jumped from its position off Gon''s face.


    Seeing his friend get attacked in the face, Killua looked worried until Gon said, "I''m fine, it didn''t hurt me at all!"


    It may not have hurt, but it was bouncing around them so fast it looked like there were three or four of them all bouncing around them at once.


    All three could clearly see it, but when they tried to grab it, they always just missed it.


    For some reason, the ck puffball only hit Gon''s face.


    The woman was still following them and getting more and more irritated, so Rayleigh didn''t use the Force and kept aiming where it was instead of where it was going to be. They continued trying to catch it for ten whole minutes before it ran away.


    They encountered a horse that shot white and red bubbles, a sharp-fanged worm, a floating jellyfish thing, a swarm of hos, some slimes, and another of those big smanders.


    Against everything, Rayleigh yed around while making it look like he was making foolish decisions. He didn''t stand out though since Gon and Killua were actually clueless and also just tried various things which usually failed.


    The woman''s irritation had long since reached its peak and was slowly condensing into resolve. If it wasn''t for the fact that she didn''t have any malice, Rayleigh would have been concerned she was resolving herself to kill them.


    Rayleigh still had some spells for Movement that he obtained from the random encounter when they first entered the game. The Movement Spell cards he had only let you go to ces you''ve been. If the woman had any malice, Rayleigh would have immediately taken out a spell card and used it to get them all back to Antokiba. Pranking a prankster was one thing. Risking the lives of his friends was something else entirely.


    A suit of armor started walking toward the trio, Killua eximed, "Oh," while Gon added, "This looks like a strong one."


    Rayleigh added fuel to the fire and said aloud, "Maybe we''ll have to run again."


    "GY!"


    Killua and Gon turned back to see their stalker, both surprised to see that not only was she still following them, but she was also actually shouting at them.


    The woman shouted again, "Hey! Don''t look away! Use Gy! Can''t you at least use that?"


    Gon, Killua, and Rayleigh used Gy and spotted a current of invisible aura extending out from the suit of armor.


    The woman then shouted, "You see it now? That armor is just a puppet. Even if you attack it, there won''t be any effect!"


    Killua and Ray kept the armor''s attention while Gon ran around the rock to find the source of the aura. A momentter, the suit of armor crumbled and Gon brought out a monster card, showing that the creature was called a Radio Rat.


    The woman approached while Killua and Rayleigh kept a watchful eye on her. Rayleigh kept his senses open to ensure she wouldn''t try anything, but he had a good feeling.


    When Gon returned, she asked, "You can use Gy. Why didn''t you use it before I told you to? I''ve been watching since the start, and with the exception of THIS IDIOT!" she roared while pointing harshly at Rayleigh, "The rest of you haven''t used it even once!"


    Instead of getting insulted, Rayleigh chuckled while Gon and Killua didn''t have a good answer.


    She asked, "You forgot, right?" Then she extended a finger, and on instinct, Rayleigh used Gy and saw that her aura had formed the number 1 in the air above her finger. She seemed angry that Rayleigh used Gy right away but angrier that neither Gon nor Killua used it. She shouted, "What are you waiting for?! Buddha?! USE GY!"


    Gon and Killua did so and the woman asked, "What did you see?"


    Ray just smiled as Gon and Killua answered, "The number one."


    The woman noticed Rayleigh didn''t say anything but sighed, her resolve hadpletely taken shape. She said, "All right. From now on, each time I put up this finger, use Gy right away and loudly tell me what you see. And when you feel a suspicious atmosphere, always use Gy. When you look off into the distance, use Gy. When you see something unfamiliar, use Gy. I want you to be able tounch and use Gy naturally and instantly. That''s the basics of fighting using Nen. Understanding stuff like that can only be acquired with experience."


    The woman then pointed at herself and said, "From now on, I''ll be your coach. I''ll even do it for free. In exchange, I want you to do exactly what I tell you."


    Rayleigh smiled. So that was the feeling he''d been getting from her. This definitely happened in Canon. This woman was the real deal and she was offering free training? Banzai MC Train! This is why you stick with the MC!


    Killua on the other hand did not understand how strong this woman was and shouted, "Who do you take us for?!"


    A few seconds after everyone released their Gy, she extended a finger again and Rayleigh used Gy, shouting, "Five!" a tenth of a second before Gon shouted the same thing.


    The woman nodded and pointed at Killua, "Right, do 200 push-ups. Whoever is the slowest gets punished."


    Killua gritted his teeth and shouted back, "Are you making fun of me?!"


    Rayleigh decided now was a good time toe clean. He stated, "I should probably point out that she is not currently lying and she is much stronger than all three of us put together."


    Gon asked, "Really?!"


    Killua gave the woman a second look. She didn''t look it, but he didn''t doubt his friend. He turned to Ray and asked, "Why didn''t you say anything earlier?"


    Ray smiled, "She''s been watching us the whole time and got mad when I did something stupid, so I spent this entire time messing with her."


    The woman asked, "Wait, you behaved like an idiot on purpose?! To fool me?!"


    Rayleigh calmly answered, "It was just a prank. Like how you approached us with a prank in mind, Ms, ''Please let me apany you. I promise I''ll make myself as inconspicuous as possible.''"


    Killua asked, "You knew she was lying from the start?"


    Rayleigh answered, "She''s been following us on and off in Antokiba since the 11th. I''ve been keeping an eye on her though, but she wasn''t being malicious. I figured it was just a hobby."


    Gon asked, "Why didn''t you tell us?"


    "Tell you that someone stronger than any of those scrubs from that group recruiting for yers was stalking us for a prank? The only way to fight pranks is with a bigger prank! Besides, I don''t mind liars. I think they''re funny."


    Killua remembered when Rayleigh told him the same thing during the Hunter Exam.


    The woman''s anger had turned into interest at this point, "You really spotted me from the very beginning huh? And that''s why you messed around?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, I can use irvoyance to see around me without aura and sense emotions, so I saw you the whole time and noticed you got angry when I yed around and got back at you for trying to prank us using that against you."


    She asked for rification, "But you''re willing to listen to me now?"


    "Yep. I can tell you''re sincere and really, really strong."


    She asked, "How strong do you think I am?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. "No idea. But I can see a person''s weaknesses if I try, and well, you don''t really have any. I''ve never seen something like that before, so it''s reasonable to assume you''re really really strong."


    Gon looked amazed, "Really? No weaknesses?"


    Rayleigh added, "Looks that way. Anyways, I''m Rayleigh Rush. I''ll be in your care."


    Gon introduced himself as well but Killua said, "Wait, we already have a teacher and we don''t know anything about this woman! We can''t just train under any random person, no matter how strong they are!"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "She is skilled and sincere. Wing would probably be alright with it."


    The woman asked, "Wing? Are you talking about anky guy who wears sses, always falls asleep, and has his shirt improperly tucked in no matter how many times you remind him?"


    Gon answered, "You know him?"


    The woman smiled, "Know him? He''s my student. My name is Biscuit Krueger, a pro Hunter. I started learning Nen at 17, and that was 40 years ago. I have gone further in that domain than any of you. You can call me Bisk."


    She talked to herself for a moment, "Time sure does fly by, so he already became a master huh?" She then asked the trio, "So you are also Hunters?"


    Gon answered, "Ray and I are."


    She asked, "And the Hidden Exam?"


    Gon replied, "All of us passed."


    She looked nostalgic for a moment, "Ha, it''s been so long since I was an examiner." She then looked at Killua and said, "I''m the master of your master, so it shouldn''t cause any problems."


    Seeing that Rayleigh already agreed and that Gon seemed on board, Killua relented, "You certainly have the disposition of a teacher. If your story is true anyways."


    She smirked and said, "Stubborn one, aren''t you? But I don''t mind that kind of character. But.." She took out her book and removed a card from the free slot and showed the trio. It was the ck puffball monster, apparently called Hyper Puffball.


    She exined, "This is a D-Rank card. The fact that you could not get this card is not the problem. The problem is that many other people in the game could get it easily. There are lots of people stronger than you in this ce."


    Rayleigh''s Danger Sense spiked as someone in the distance had the desire to kill him and the will to act upon it.


    Bisk calmly said, "Sit, get out your book, and chat casually, there''s an enemy at my back."


    The trio sat down and Biscuit said, "Don''t try to locate his presence, you''ll transmit your nervousness."


    Rayleigh said, "It''s fine. He is 100 meters behind you. Alone. And fully intends to kill us all."


    Biscuit looked at Rayleigh and added, "You really can see without aura huh? That''s useful. What else can you see?"


    "He has a pair of what appear to be custom-made scissors. Even though he is slowly stalking closer, his fingers are already positioned to use them, so he likely fights using those scissors."


    She asked, "And you sensed his intent to kill?"


    Rayleigh answered, "If someone wants to kill me, I''ll know. It''s why I didn''t try to run from you when I knew how strong you were."


    Killua asked, "Can you tell how strong he is?"


    "No." Nen relied on amplification, so while someone didn''t amplify their strength, guessing their max strength before a fight was inurate. With the Force he could somewhat tell how strong a person''s mind was and use that to get a ballpark estimate, but he couldn''t do so through irvoyance. Skills like Shatterpoint also only worked using his eyes.


    Biscuit said, "He released his bloodlust for an instant before reeling it in. Since he reeled it in when it looks like he has easy prey, he is experienced and very skilled."


    The woman seemed to be in teacher mode while exining the theory before asking the trio, "What do you think we should do?"


    Gon said, "Stick together."


    She asked for rification, "Why?"


    Ray answered, "Why else erase his presence unless he is not certain he can kill us all? If the difference between us was thatrge, he could charge forward and kill us even if we knew he wasing."


    Biscuit nodded, "Correct answer. But we''ll do it a bit differently. I''ll go that way and you three will go over there. After 500 meters, double back. He''ll definitely follow me."


    Rayleigh took out a Return Spell card and handed it to her. She epted it and put it into her binder. There was no real way of determining the killer''s strength, so this was a good n B.


    She then closed her book and pped Killua''s face. She got up and shouted, "If you really think so, that''s fine! I can''t take you three anymore! Good bye!"


    Rayleigh got up and shouted, "Fine! Good luck going back to Antokiba without any spell cards you moron!"


    She shouted back, "Idiot!" without turning around.


    Ray got up with Killua and Gon while heading in the opposite direction. Killua was muttering aint while Gon was figuring out that this was an act.


    Once out of earshot, Killua said, "That girl is really fast. I was ready to move in an instant, but I felt the pain on my cheek and didn''t even see the hiting."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah. I didn''t exactly see the future, but I got a good feeling that she''ll help us get a lot stronger."


    A few stepster, Ray said, "He''s going after her, let''s head back."


    They hurried back but kept to the side, keeping out of sight and in Zetsu so as not to be spotted.


    The man stood across from her, scissors in hand. A lock of hair had been cut from one of Biscuit''s twin tails and was being held by this crazy barber.


    Rayleigh used Gy and said, "It''s fine. He''s stronger than any of us, but not stronger than she is."


    Killua and Gon calmed down and confirmed they would not have to assist her.


    The crazy murderer said aloud, "Hehe, if I eat the hair I cut with my favorite scissors, I can learn every single detail about a person." He brought the lock of hair to his mouth and started chewing on it while using his Ren, showing that this seemed to be a Hatsu of some kind.


    The man thenpletely froze. He shook for a bit before calming himself and putting his scissors into a holster of some kind. He said, "As a warrior, I''m interested in a fight."


    Biscuit chuckled, "Looks like you''re not just a mere cannibal. Fine with me."


    The pair each took a stance and the scissor guy made the first move with a lightning-quick palm thrust at Biscuit''s head. She tilted back just a little while turning her ankle to pivot her body to the man''s side as the strike passed over her. She then grabbed the man''s arm, pulled it to get him off bnce, twisted it with a jerk to cause the man to start spinning in the air, and as he fell, she struck with a thunder-like palm blow at the man''s back, bending him severely as he fell and rupturing a few of his organs. The man was unable to get up and his mouth only opened for a moment to release the blood that filled his stomach.


    He was still alive, but only barely.


    Rayleigh approached and Gon and Killua followed.


    Biscuit looked over to the trio and asked, "You saw? How much of the battle did you watch?"


    Gon answered, "We got here before he ate your hair."


    She nodded, "I see. If he was a game character, he would have changed into a card after getting defeated. As for the level of acquisition difficulty, it''d be about a D. You''re lucky to have Rayleigh, otherwise, if you''d met him alone, it would have been game over. But are you going to continue to rely on him?"


    It was obvious she was trying to hype them up and make them want to be trained.


    Gon asked, "Bisk, why did youe to the ind?"


    "Me? To clear the game. There is an item I want. Imposed Slot card number 81, Blue. What about you?"


    Gon exined their situation and the identity of his father.


    Biscuit seemed thoughtful, "Ging Freecss, huh? Don''t know him but I know of him. I have no idea where he is either. Netero once told me that among Hunters, there aren''t more than five like him in the world."


    Rayleigh wondered if Netero had any hidden meaning in that. Was he referring to Ging''s strength as a Nen user? Or were there four other Reincarnators that Netero knew about?


    With that, Gon and Killua both fully agreed to learn under Biscuit''s tutge.


    Biscuit approached the scissors guy and said, "Take out your book."


    He did so and Biscuit took all of his cards and ced them into her book. She then said, "I''m offering you a chance. You have two weeks to avoid the attacks of these three. If you manage to survive, you''re free to go. If you get injured to the point you can no longer move, I''ll kill you."


    The man asked for rification, "Just avoid their attacks? And whatever happens to them is fine, just avoid their attacks?"


    Biscuit answered, "Yes, exactly. The only rule is that you must stay in this area. If you leave, I will kill you."


    Biscuit then turned to the trio and said, "If you can''t beat him in two weeks, you''ll be punished."


    She turned back to the scissors guy and said, "You''re Binolt, the ck List Hunter right?"


    Seeing him nod, she turned to the trio and said, "His favorite dish is the flesh of 20-year-old girls."


    He corrected, "22-year-old."


    With that, any bit of mercy the trio had was promptly squashed.


    Biscuit walked off to the side and said, "Begin!"


    *Author''s Note*


    For those who forgot, Biscuit''s original intention when seeing Gon and Killua was to break up their friendship. My guess is that she wanted to y the cute little girl act and get them to develop a crush or something and then have them fight over her or y with them to get them to fight against each other and destroy their friendship. The fact that she thought she could do so implies she has probably done so before. But she abandoned that n upon seeing all their untapped potential.


    In other news, No more Yinyang DarklightSaber


    Other than bnce, it became obvious that there is no good reason to get Rayleigh a Yinyang saber and when I tried writing a justifiable way to do it, it kept looking over-extended and ruined the ''as realistic as practical'' vibe I''m trying for. So I gave up.


    Now Rayleigh''s Lightsaber is still going to get the power of two devil fruits, just not Light and Dark.


    As for how that works and what two fruits he''d get, what do you think would happen if Rayleigh stabbed ckbeard in the Heart with a Lightsaber made from his aura using the original Kyber Crystal WHILE ckbeard was in the middle of absorbing Whitebeard''s fruit? Can''t say it''s impossible for it to happen, right?


    At first, I didn''t like the Tremor Fruit on a lightsaber because breaking things with a sh was not very Swordsman-like. Then someone pointed out that I missed something. The Tremor Fruit is not about breaking, it is about amplifying damage using vibration. So...


    Dark Vibrosaber that can slice Logias and cut through space! Here Ie!


    Remember: Reviews and Stones= Motivation to write chapters faster.

 Chapter 37: Biscuits Nen Training

    Chapter 37: Biscuit''s Nen Training


    Chapter 37 Biscuit''s Nen Training


    Rayleigh used Gy to see therge shatterpoints all over their assigned opponent''s body. A single hit to that big one could put him down, but doing so was easier said than done. The cannibal was filled with cracks but he was far from broken.


    While Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua observed the murderer from a distance, the man himself set his hand over his wound.


    Biscuit shouted, "What are you waiting for? He''s measuring the recovery capacity of his wounds! And you''re just gonna let him do that?"


    This caused all three to take a stance. She was right. Every second they gave him was an advantage, and in a real fight, giving an advantage to your opponent wasn''t any different from harming yourself.


    Killua was the only experienced killer among the three, so he moved first. Without making a sound, he approached from behind to strike Binolt''s neck, but the instant Killua was close, the murderous barber''s scissors struck out. Killua stopped in time and stepped back. In time to avoid losing his eyes, but not fast enough to avoid a cut on his cheek.


    The exertion caused Binolt''s damage to worsen, causing the man to cough blood. Rayleigh and Gon approached at the same time, but a pair of scissors in both of the murderer''s hands shed out at where they would have been if they didn''t stop.


    Although Binolt wasn''t moving, none of the three could get in range to attack him without getting shed by his scissors. Rayleigh sensed a threat of death if he tried using Overdrive, so that was shelved. Overdrive''s speed sacrificed defense, so he''d be walking right into an attack if the opponent could defend faster than Rayleigh could finish him.


    Of course, that was only the case if Rayleigh didn''t have his lightsaber out. But Rayleigh had no intention of using it in this situation, and the same was true for his Melee Shield. Using them in training like this would drastically reduce its efficiency.


    Gon used his K on a nearby massive rock, crushing it into smaller boulders, and picked one up. He then charged Binolt with it, threatening to crush the man if he was unable to slice through the boulder to attack Gon.


    Binolt had no choice but to jump out of the way and Gon eximed, "Yeah! As expected, his scissors can''t cut through a huge stone!"


    Rayleigh stated aloud, "That''s obvious Gon. As everyone knows... Rock. Beats. Scissors!"


    The tense situation petered out and everyone stared and gave a simultaneous deadpan at Rayleigh''sme statement. Rayleigh wondered where that cricket chirping in the background came from since there was nothing here for crickets to eat.


    Ignoring Rayleigh''smeness, Killua picked out a boulder alongside Gon and started circling the cannibal while throwing said boulders at him from a distance and going back to pick up more.


    If Binolt''s body weren''t a wreck, he could likely punch or kick the boulders into pebbles, but his current state made intense physical exertion damaging.


    Rayleigh used Ren to enhance his muscles and speed and approached Binolt to strike. The first scissor attack was predicted and dodged by Rayleigh, and before Binolt could strike a second time, a boulder tossed at him from behind forced him to jump to the side to dodge. Rayleigh used the opening to close the distance and grab Binolt''s arm for a takedown, but the man''s scissors opened and he tilted his wrists to angle the open scissors toward Rayleigh''s fingers to cut them off. Rayleigh released his grip before the scissors closed and cut his fingers off and pull back while Killua and Gon struck out from behind.


    Binolt turned to sh the pair, but Rayleigh had been expecting this so his retreat was actually a feint. Ray struck out to hit the man''s back in the same location Biscuit struck him with an open palm blow to worsen the existing damage. The murderer dodged by tilting his body and delivering a back kick, but he was not in the right stance to deliver any power, so Rayleigh dodged it and moved closer for another hit. Binolt turned again toward Rayleigh to sh his neck, but Rayleigh was already backing up while Killua and Gon came back from behind.


    Binolt jumped to the side and ran toward a wall so he could keep his back to it. Getting surrounded like that wasn''t doing him any favors.


    Gon and Killua picked up some more boulders and Rayleigh continued with his attempts at hit-and-run tactics. He still had not struck the man yet, but it was only a matter of time. Even if he never hit him, the pressure he was putting on the man would build up and Gon and Killua constantly throwing boulders at him would keep him from staying in one location.


    It only took about fifteen minutes for Binolt to slip up, allowing Rayleigh to grab both the man''s arms from behind and for Killua to approach for the killing blow.


    Before he could kill him, Gon shouted, "No, wait!"


    Rayleigh could guess what wasing, so he tossed Binolt to the side while Killua asked, "What''s wrong Gon?"


    Gon answered, "Let''s stop here. There''s still time left. From now on, we do it one on one."


    Rayleigh added, "Yeah. I''m not satisfied with three-on-one against an injured opponent. Let''s keep going until we can at least take him on, one on one."


    Killua gave the murderer a calcting look before nodding in agreement. There was no gain to be made from killing him at the moment.


    Rayleigh sensed Binolt''s desire to kill him increase, so he looked over and told the cannibal, "Sit down and rest, because you are not going to beat us in your current condition."


    The man looked like he wanted to argue but then decided to remain silent. Rayleigh gave him the strangest feeling of any of the three. He never actually harmed him, even in the slightest, but his actions pressured him greater than the other two''sbined. Gon and Killua rarely approached him without a boulder in hand, but Rayleigh did so without the tiniest bit of fear again and again.


    Binolt sat on one side of the area while the trio sat on the other. Gon and Killua closed their eyes to sleep while Rayleigh crossed his legs and meditated. His Lightsaber had been at his side the whole time, ready to be used, so he didn''t have to take it from his Inventory to ce it in hisp to start meditating. Although one of his Wills usually meditated all the time, it still was not as good as meditating with his Lightsaber in hand.


    Binolt did not sleep. There were even a few times when he tried to get up and ambush them in their sleep, but the instant he moved, all three opened their eyes and stared at him, as if daring him to try it, forcing him to sit back down.


    Since Biscuit wasn''t a part of their group when they encountered the bandits, they didn''t request anything from her, so she still had food and water stored in her Book for everyone to eat for the next few days.


    Each day, everyone would fight Binolt for hours, one on one until they beat him, give him a chance to rest, then switch. After that, they let him recover and heal himself to let him be stronger for the next day.


    Binolt went aggressively on the offense, but the trio was getting used to his fighting style, so even though he got faster every day, their reaction time was improving as well, allowing them to keep up.


    After a week, Binolt had just about fully recovered. Rayleigh was the first to fight with him. The fight took about four hours before Rayleigh could pin him to the ground. Rayleigh never actually damaged him. He used palm strikes and nerve jabs to stun and suppress, but not damage. He was working on a fighting style to use against people he didn''t intend to kill since he needed one if he was going to fight without his lightsaber.


    Killua fought him the next day and beat him down in a fraction of the time since Killua didn''t mind hurting people.


    Binolt was allowed a night to recover and Gon fought himst. His fight was even faster than Killua''s, dodging on instinct and closing in quickly to deliver blow after blow, umting damage until Binolt had no choice but to give up.


    Binolt looked at the trio, not with hatred, but envy. He had seen them grow and knew that this was a talent far above his own. Although Binolt gave up, Gon didn''t kill him, Killua wasn''t inclined to kill him, and no one would waste time asking if Rayleigh was going to kill him.


    Biscuit asked Gon, "Are you sure? He''s a first-ss serial killer and cannibal."


    Gon answered, "Yeah, but he taught us a lot."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, it''s not like anyone asked us to hunt down criminals and I don''t know any of the people he killed." For all he knew, every person Binolt killed and ate was a jerk, so it didn''t matter to him. When he thought of how the meddling Jedi would think of his choice, the expressions he imagined them making brought a smirk to Ray''s face.


    Biscuit sighed and told Binolt to leave. The man said, "I''m leaving Greed Ind. Goodbye." He obviously had a lot on his mind.


    It took nine days for them to all reach the level they could defeat Binolt so theypleted their task of finishing in two weeks.


    Biscuit asked Rayleigh, "Why did you fight like that?"


    Rayleigh answered, "I want to develop two fighting styles. Killing is easy, but I want to develop a suppression fighting style as well."


    Biscuit asked, "Oh? You already have a killing fighting style? Show me."


    She got into a fighting stance and Rayleigh felt an intense sense of danger from her.


    He replied, "Okay, but give me a moment." He took out his lightsaber and extended the de before shing it through a nearby rock. The rock was cut cleanly, showing a sh mark glowing with heat.


    Rayleigh exined, "Anything thates into contact with my lightsaber at full power will instantly heat up to around twenty-five thousand degrees Celsius, pretty much-turning anything it passes through into a liquid or gas. But I can adjust it so that the arc wave energy contained within is only strong enough to stun or zap, without maiming."


    Rayleigh used the force to disassemble his lightsaber in mid-air and turned down the powercell while changing the alignment of the internal parts before reassembling it.


    Once it was a single piece again, he shed it against the same rock but it bounced off since rocks don''t get stunned or harmed by something with the electrical strength of a taser.


    Biscuit nodded, understanding that even though the power was reduced, it would be considered her loss if it hit her since it would not be reduced in a real fight.


    Rayleigh used Overdrive and Biscuit dodged to the side of the predetermined path he used and out of the lightsaber''s attack range. Since predetermined paths didn''t work, he just used his aura to enhance his muscle speed and went all out. Biscuit neatly dodged every move, moving the instant his muscles contracted.


    Rayleigh wondered if he could fake her out. He was moving at his fastest speed, but her observation skills allowed her to guess how he would move before he actually did, giving her the time needed to dodge his attacks without difficulty.


    Rayleigh had never considered doing so before, but he wondered if he couldbine Force Valor and his muscles to fool her observation.


    Rayleigh''s Nen-enhanced speed was actually a little slower than his Force Valor-enhanced speed, and using them together would not stack. If a car that maxed out at 150 mph was being pulled at 200 mph, putting the pedal to the metal would not make it go faster than 200 mph. The only reason he used his muscles was to train them since their potential was faster than Force Valor''s.


    But watching Biscuit dodge his attacks from observing his muscles, he wondered if he could use Force Valor to attack in one way while using his muscles to attack in another. Instead of stacking them with parallel force vectors, use one to alter the other. He never noticed before, but an advantage of Force Valor''s Puppeteer Fighting was that his muscles didn''t bulge before moving because he wasn''t truly using them, so his movements could not be predicted from basic observation.


    Rayleigh shed down on Biscuit using his muscles but used Force Valor to twist his body.


    Biscuit dodged the downward sh, but the follow-up was not predicted and her remaining twin tail got cut when she hastily dodged after bending backward.


    Biscuit twisted her fingers around the burnt hairs. Even the weakened lightsaber was enough to burn through hair. She didn''t wear an angry expression and said, "Oh? Let''s see your defense now."


    Rayleigh''s danger sense told him that although she looked like she didn''t care, she was definitely angry.


    Rayleigh used his lightsaber to set a guarded stance but Biscuit used K while making a knife-hand strike to swat the sword away.


    Rayleigh backed up but Biscuit kept moving forward to keep him at close range. She followed him for two seconds, keeping him from putting his guard back up while swatting his sword away at every turn with knife hand strikes strengthened by K. It was then that Rayleigh''s danger sense went into full red alert.


    Five of Rayleigh''s six Wills used Force Stasis on Biscuit at the same time to hold her in ce and strike, but her Ren had been up the whole fight and her K enhanced Knife-hand moved through the restrained space easily.


    Her knife-hand changed to a palm which stopped a bit before striking Rayleigh''s chest, buting into contact with the intense pressure of the K was still like taking a sledgehammer blow and sending Rayleigh flying back to strike the nearby stone pir.


    Rayleigh couldn''t breathe, but that was normal when the diaphragm was struck, so he didn''t panic and used Force Valor and Breath Control to manually operate his lungs to get some fresh air and assess the damage. Biscuit had held back a lot but his chest still had plenty of microfractures. Since Force healing used his own lifeforce, he wouldn''t bother and just let it heal naturally. He could still augment his own recovery speed and be healed by tomorrow.


    Biscuit, Gon, and Killua approached and confirmed he was fine.


    Biscuit assessed, "So you can only sense danger after I make the decision to harm you?"


    Gon asked, "What do you mean?"


    Killua answered for her, inferring, "She broke his guard but he didn''t sense any danger because she wasn''t going to attack him. Only after she decided to attack him did he notice the danger."


    Gon asked, "But would what she did work if his Lightsaber was at full power?"


    Biscuit made another knife-hand K and shed it against the stone, making an even more destructive cut than Rayleigh''s lightsaber.


    She said, "If I actually touched it, Rayleigh said it would have shocked me. My aura prevented it from touching me. Rayleigh also said that at full power it only heated things up if it came into contact with them. So as long as his Lightsaber can''t get past someone''s aura, it can''t burn through them."


    Rayleigh said, "Let''s find out." He disassembled his Lightsaber and put it back into its normal configuration before turning it on.


    Biscuit used K on her hand and pressed against the Lightsaber without burning herself. For a moment. She then retracted her hand and said, "It does seem to burn through the aura, so if you keep it in constant contact or use an actual slicing motion to extend the duration of contact like an actual sword, you may be able to get through someone''s aura."


    Rayleigh nodded. He would certainly keep that in mind. Biscuit''s K was like a jawbreaker and his Lightsaber was like a pressure washer. Constant contact could slice through it, but momentary contact was not enough to get all the way through and reach the core. Slicing motions would assist in prolonging the duration of contact.


    Biscuit continued her assessment, "I don''t normally approve of practicing a second fighting style before mastering a first. Why not use one over the other?"


    He exined, "My Lightsaber boosts all my abilities that are not based on Nen, so I am at my strongest while using it, but a Lightsaber is overkill in most situations."


    Biscuit shook her head. "Maybe the ones you''ve had until now. Don''t think that will be the case in the future. Since it is your stronger style, remember to never neglect training with that over training in a weaker style."


    Rayleigh nodded. He wasn''t sure K could block a lightsaber, but seeing it happen confirmed he may have been subconsciously looking down on other power systems. That wasn''t entirely his fault. Even if he did his best to avoid it, he was still influenced by the Jedi''s belief that the Lightsaber was the greatest, end-all, beat-all weapon. Seeing it countered by a technique any Hunter could learn confirmed that the Lightsaber was just another weapon. A useful, still very badass weapon, but still just a weapon. Unless he could upgrade it. Something to think aboutter.


    Biscuit then addressed the trio together and said, "We''re running low on supplies, so we''ll head to Masadora to stock up."


    This got everyone excited, so Biscuit held up a finger to get their attention and said, "Well, the monsters have been pretty weak so far. As long as we follow the trade shop guy''s directions, nothing should happen to you. We''ll try to avoid encounters as much as we can."


    Rayleigh noticed that Biscuit was keeping her finger up and used Gy, spotting a nine floating above her finger. Rather than point it out, he raised nine fingers out of sight of Gon and Killua.


    Gon still hadn''t noticed and said excitedly, "We''re finally gonna get some new spell cards!"


    Killua said, "Yeah, but we''ll need some money first."


    Both turned back to Biscuit and saw she still had a finger raised, waiting for the pair to notice.


    They both used Gy and shouted, "Nine!" but Biscuit shook her head, "That took way too long. Push-ups, both of you."


    Gon asked, "What about Ray?"


    She answered, "He raised nine fingers so as not to give it away."


    Killua red at Ray who only returned an innocent smile. The pair got down and started doing push-ups while Killua muttered, "traitor."


    After they finished a few hundred push-ups, Biscuit pointed in a direction and said, "Masadora is thirty kilometers that way, we should be able to get there in three hours."


    Gon asked, "How do you know?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Because, at certain times when everyone was asleep, she would head off on her own."


    Killua asked, "How''d you notice?"


    Biscuitmented, "I wondered if you were actually meditating. Can you fully rece meditation with sleep?"


    Ray nodded, "Yeah. My non-aura abilities are based on the mind."


    Biscuit asked, "Do you mind telling me about them?"


    "Sure." The trio didn''t run through the rocky area as doing so would get the attention of monsters. They only picked up the pace when they werepletely out of the mountains and had reached theke.


    Rayleigh exined the basics of the Force and his abilities. This of course opened a lengthy session of Q and A about what else he could do.


    At one point Biscuit added, "When you have the time, practice that Tutaminis thing as much as you can. If you can use it to move aura, then you can use it to remove your opponent''s aura from your body. A lot of Emission and Maniption Hatsus rely on imnting your own aura into the body of an opponent to achieve a certain effect. The ability to offset energy damage is very useful as well."


    Rayleigh nodded. He was fully aware that Tutaminis was a very overpowered skill after a certain level of mastery. It allowed a Jedi to use the Force within their body to direct and control energy. Rayleigh could use it to control the temperature of his body, so no matter how hot or cold it was outside, he would not freeze or burn. It made the Silent Desert and the frozen mountain that the Temple of Martial Arts were situated on livable.


    The only reason he did not specialize in it was that it was used primarily for defense and energy attack-based offense, neither of which were a part of Rayleigh''sbat style. Once his style had a strong enough foundation though, he''d be including everything into it.


    Masadora was a somewhat cartoonish city built within a massive wall that surrounded the whole thing. All over the city were floating, colorful structures, and just about everything within was round.


    Although Gon and Killua wanted to find a shop that sold magic cards, Biscuit had them look for a department store first.


    Just like in Antokiba, every item was sold in card form. Because it would revert into an item sixty seconds after being picked up, all card-form items were encased in stic within the store. The stic was removed after the card was purchased.


    Rayleigh sold the monsters that he sessfully defeated and bought cooking wear and foodstuff. Although the rations Biscuit gave them weren''t bad, he still liked cooking the food himself, since Force Cooking was another way of meditating on the mysteries of the Force.


    Gon and Killua asked around and confirmed the location of the store that sold spell cards.


    Once their purchases at the department store wereplete, Biscuit said, "Alright, let''s go back to the stony region we were at before!"


    Gon and Killua looked shocked. They had also sold the monster cards in their possession, but they wanted to use the money they got to buy spell cards.


    Gonined, "What about spell cards?"


    Biscuit countered, "Everyone has a Return card in case of an emergency, and none of us have any high-value cards worth stealing. So what is the use of spell cards right now?"


    Killua regretfully admitted, "That''s true."


    Biscuit said, "Alright, let''s run all the way back. This time we''ll get there in two and a half hours."


    After returning to their starting area, Biscuit opened her book and took out some cards. "Gain." With a poof of smoke, they turned into a single wheelbarrow, three shovels, three shlights, and a few lengths of rope.


    After the trio examined the gear, Biscuit stated, "Now, let''s go back to Masadora."


    The trio gave her a somewhat incredulous expression since they had juste from that direction.


    Expecting this, she pointed at the rock in front of them and said, "But, this time we''ll take a straight route. And I mean that literally."


    Rayleigh asked, "So... Dig through the mountains?"


    Biscuit smiled, "That''s right."


    Rayleigh thought about it and asked, "Can we use Sh?"


    Biscuit asked, "Oh? You know about Sh?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "I asked Wing about it. I haven''t practiced any of them yet, but he did tell me the basics of En, Sh, K, Ken, and Ry when I told him I heard about them from another Hunter."


    Biscuit nodded and asked for rification, "And you said you didn''t practice any of them yet?"


    "Nope."


    "That''s fine then. And yes. You can use Sh. You were supposed to figure it out on your own. I didn''t expect you to know of it already."


    Gon and Killua asked, "What''s Sh?"


    Rayleigh exined, "It''s what Netero used on that rubber ball when he blocked my Lightsaber. You extend your Ten to not only cover and protect yourself, but an item you are holding as well, strengthening the item and increasing its defense. But unlike a normal Ten which you can theoretically maintain indefinitely, the use of Sh will cause aura to leak."


    Gon asked, "Do you think Sh can be used to block a Lightsaber?"


    Biscuit answered, "Netero''s Ten is probably as strong as my K, so his Sh blocking Rayleigh''s lightsaber doesn''t surprise me at all."


    Rayleigh turned to Biscuit and said, "Since I use a weapon, I wanted to practice Sh for a while, I just wasn''t sure if my foundation was good enough yet."


    Biscuit confirmed, "That''s fine. And after what you''ve gained from fighting Binolt, you''re ready."


    It only took a few moments for the trio to get the hang of Sh. The usage of Ten was little more than instinct and visualization, so altering Ten just required more visualization. Rayleigh visualized that he was armoring the shovel. As someone who yed more than a few video games in his past life, the concept of upgrading a seemingly innocuous item into a battle-ready weapon was an easy-to-grasp concept.


    Their aura sessfully surrounded their shovels and the Sh enveloped tool passed through the hard stone as if it was made of sand. The trio quickly made a huge hole and tunnel, moving the dirt and rocks out of the way and as the tunnel grew deeper, they started using the wheelbarrow.


    They made fast progress, but petered out after half an hour, panting with exhaustion.


    Killua said, "Dammit, this is really tiring. Let''s just use Sh when wee across a really hard rock."


    Gon didn''t even have the energy to answer, he just nodded back.


    Rayleigh on the other hand shook his head. "You guys can. I really need to master Sh."


    Killua didn''t reply but waved him off as a crazy person.


    They rested until they recovered their energy and returned to digging. Rayleigh used Sh until he was barely out of aura and then took charge of moving the dirt and rocks with the wheelbarrow until his aura recovered.


    They continued this until nightfall. The terrain wasn''t an actual mountain they had to pass through. It was just a forest of multiple giant stone pirs, so they broke through one after another, making it a few hundred meters before the sun went down and Rayleigh made dinner.


    Before they could rest, Biscuit set up a rope and pulley attached to a rock and made them hold one end while the other was above their head. If they released the rope, the rock would fall and hit their head.


    Biscuit exined, "You''ll sleep like this from now on. Releasing the rope is not allowed. Plus, I''ll cut the rope with this knife. This is to keep you alert at all times."


    Killua seemed okay with this and Rayleigh could meditate while gripping a rope without a problem. Gon on the other hand dropped the rock multiple times that night, granting him several bumps in the morning.


    Rayleigh made the meals and this routine continued for a few weeks. Each night the stone above their head was reced with a bigger one. The first time Biscuit cut the stone above Rayleigh''s head, it didn''t fall. It just stayed there, hovering above his head. Biscuit seemed a little peeved at that, and he responded by giving her a cheeky smirk before lowering it down and tying it up with more rope, and cing it back up with the Force.


    As a consequence of being cheeky, his rock was reced with a boulder that weighed twice as much as he did the following night. The only reason it did not weigh more was that its weight would pull him up if he held the rope.


    Rayleigh responded to this challenge by having one of his Wills use Telekinesis to keep the rock up the entire night, without bothering to hold the rope.


    The next night, Biscuit countered by recing it with an evenrger boulder. Rayleigh didn''t mind. He had never actually thought of using prolonged telekinesis as an exercise while meditating.


    At the end of the week, Rayleigh didn''t even have a rope, he just meditated using one of his Wills and used four other Wills to hold four boulders, while the sixth Will, as always, was splitting itself. By the time they reached Masadora, he had seven Wills and was working on an eighth.


    Upon reaching Masadora, Biscuit said, "Good job. Now go back to the starting point again."


    Gon, Rayleigh, and Killua shouted, "Again?!"


    Biscuit continued, "This time, you''ll get monster cards along the way from all the monsters of this region that you''ve met so far. None of them are beyond your basic strength, so if you cannot defeat one, observe and analyze the enemy. Think about ways to attack him while fighting. It''s all about the strength of your martial insight. I won''t give any hints, so figure out how to beat the monsters on your own."


    Rayleigh said, "Let''s make it apetition. Whoever gets all the monsters in the region first, gets one favor from whoeveres inst ce."


    Biscuit said, "You''ll only harm yourself if you rece your battle instincts with those abilities of yours, so use them as little as possible."


    Rayleigh nodded. He could use Shatterpoint and Telekinesis to make short work of almost every monster here, but that would ruin the point of the training.


    Killua said, "I''m in. If Ray won''t use his psychic stuff, I can beat him."


    After making base camp, the trio split up and went in search of monsters. Rayleigh found that big smander first. He was able to use Gy without using Shatterpoint. Without relying on Shatterpoint, Rayleigh fought it while using his basic observation skills to find the area the big gecko tried to protect. It was subtle, but the massive monster always tried to face Rayleigh with its right side. Rayleigh used his Ren-enhanced strength and speed to smash a rock wall above the monster causing a bunch of rocks to fall over it.


    The smander moved around the falling rocks to ensure a certain spot didn''t get hit, revealing its weak point. Once he was certain, Ray jumped onto the monster''s left side and stuck one of its spots, causing the monster to pop into a card.


    Rayleigh then turned to look over to where Biscuit was observing him in the distance and waved the card at her with a smile.


    She nodded back at him and left to keep watch over the other two since Rayleigh obviously didn''t need a babysitter.


    Rayleigh smiled. Even though he would not use the Force to help him beat the monsters, that didn''t mean he would not use it to find them. He used irvoyance and found a few in the distance. He intended to fill up all his free slots with monster cards. He could then use Overdrive to head to Masadora and sell them for money ande back for more. His instincts told him that now was not the time to buy spell cards, but to umte as much money as possible.


    Each monster had a specific attack pattern, defense pattern, and weakness.


    The Fanged Worm was an ambush attacker that always kept a part of its body in the ground. Lure it out with a feint, dodge the ambush, and pull it out to get the card.


    The Box Jellysquid stunned with its floating tentacles, but one of those tentacles did not attack, and pulling on it turned the monster into a card.


    The Ho Swarm was led by a specific ho that looked almost identical to the others and hid within the swarm. Attacking that one specifically turned it into a card and defeated the swarm.


    The n Slimes were immune to attack, but only the outeryer. You could actually dig through the outeryer of slime to reach the inneryer and attack that to defeat it, but it was almost impossible to even notice that the slimes had twoyers.


    The Hyper Puffball was easily caught as long as you noticed the pattern it bounced and predicted where it would be.


    The only monster Rayleigh had trouble with was the Bubble Horse. It shot out red and white bubbles. The white ones could be touched without popping if he was using Ten, but the red ones always popped when they touched him, but did not pop when they touched anything else. A simple test confirmed he could in fact touch the red ones if he used Zetsu, so that confirmed that the red ones popped on someone''s aura while the white ones popped on everything else.


    The problem was that instantly shifting between Ten and Zetsu dozens of times in a few seconds to avoid popping any of the bubbles was not simple. If he popped a single one, the Bubble Horse somehow became much faster, as if it scaled its speed to his to always outrun him. The only way to catch it was to approach it without allowing a single bubble to pop off him.


    Without seeding in catching the bubble horse, Rayleigh returned to base camp and made food. He discreetly showed his Book to Biscuit and told her he''d stop by Masadora to sell them and see which was worth the most.


    She agreed and asked him to inform her when he found out so she would also know which monster was the most valuable.


    After selling the cards, he confirmed the Hyper Puffball gave the best reward, so while training with the Bubble Horse, he always kept a look out for Hyper Puffballs to collect for money.


    After a week and a half, Rayleigh captured the Bubble Horse and Biscuit confirmed that he had obtained one of each monster, but they agreed not to tell the other two.


    The next day, Killua captured the Bubble Horse and said, "I won! Haha!"


    Biscuit kindly burst his bubble, stating, "Sorry, Rayleigh got the Bubble Horse yesterday."


    Killua fell down to the ground and cried out, "Noooooo!"


    Rayleighforted him and said, "At least you didn''t getst ce."


    Killua sighed, "That''s true."


    Gon got the Bubble Horse three dayster.


    Once everyone had gotten one of every monster, confirming they had the basics down, Biscuit said, "Next we''ll practice defensive skills."


    She made a fist and used K before asking, "How would you defend against this?"


    Rayleigh knew the answer, so he remained silent to see what Killua and Gon would say.


    Gon answered, "We could use K to block?"


    Biscuit replied, "You are somewhat correct. Rayleigh, since you already know from Wing, please exin Ken and Ry."


    Rayleigh nodded and turned to the pair before exining, "Ken is basically aplex Ren. Ren is where 100% of your excited aura covers 100% of your body. Ken changes that. You create individual Tens within your Ren, partitioning out different amounts of aura to different parts of your body. Like when we first learned Gy, we needed all of our aura to use it. But now we have more aura and only need to focus some of it into our eyes, not all of it. Ken is the same principle, it is the use of Ren while distributing different amounts of aura to the body."


    Rayleigh used Ren and concentrated his aura into his legs. "My Hatsu is basically Ken, with the aura focused into my legs to increase my speed."


    He dispersed his Ren and continued, "Ry is the act of changing how the aura is distributed while keeping Ken active. Like changing it from having my aura mostly in my legs to mostly in my arms. One of the biggest differences between Ken and Ren is that you must be using Gy at all times. So if you don''t have enough aura to use Gy and have some left over, you can''t even use Ken."


    Biscuit nodded, "Correct. Ren is just the fundamental principle, while Ken is an advanced practice. However, I don''t want you using any form of distributing other than maintaining Gy for the moment. Technically, you don''t have to maintain Gy as it uses Aura and lowers your defense, but it''s not a bad idea to start practicing it now since that leads nicely into practicing Ryter. Rayleigh, you''re up first. Use Ren and guard against my punch."


    Rayleigh took a stance and did so. Biscuit didn''t move, just maintaining the K as a threat. Rayleigh kept up his Ren for 15 minutes before petering out. That was five minutes better than his best after training his Hatsu for a month on Whale Ind.


    Killua and Gon were able to hold their Rens for about 9 minutes apiece. Rayleigh was somewhat ahead because his Hatsu practice was based on distance and speed, so he kept his Ren up and practice Ren more than they did. Keeping up and using Sh for as long as possible also helped. Now that Rayleigh had a trainer, he didn''t feel the need to keep at Gon and Killua''s pace anymore. Especially if there were other yers on the ind.


    From that day on, holding Ren for as long as possible was added three times a day while using Sh to dig through the mountains was maintained for the rest of their time. Biscuit would asionally leave them to hunt some high-value monsters or gain some information in Masadora.


    After two weeks, Gon and Killua could both maintain Ren for 30 minutes.


    "From today on, we will be training for real fights and practicing Ry. We''ll start with the fifty-fifty Ken Stance. Outside of using Gy, half your aura will be maintained around the rest of your body while the other half will be focused into your fist."


    Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua copied her stance and used Ren and Gy while partitioning half their aura into their fist.


    "Good. From there, right hand 70%. Body 30%. Good. Feel it out, you don''t need to hit the exact values. Left foot 80. Body 20. Head 60. Body 40."


    After half an hour, they ended the training and Biscuit said, "We''ll do this three times a day. After you rest, we''ll do today''s second set and try some sparring. Gon and Killua will spar while Rayleigh will fight with me."


    After they recovered, Biscuit said, "We''ll go over there so as not to disturb you two," and led Rayleigh out of their line of sight before saying, "Don''t hold back for their sake. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses."


    Rayleigh shrugged, not surprised to see that she figured out that Rayleigh was subconsciously trying to match the pace of the other two. Gon and Killua took more than ten seconds to change the distribution while using Ry. Rayleigh was matching their pace, not using his own.


    Rayleigh sparred with Biscuit using Ry and Ken, slowly increasing his speed. Ry was all about the visualization of flowing movements. For someone who meditated and practiced Force Calligraphy, visualization of flowing movements wasn''t difficult.


    It only took half a week to reach top speed and a full week to reach above what Biscuit considered the novice level.


    Rayleigh spent the remaining time until Gon and Killua caught up practicing the act of stacking Force Valor and his muscles against each other. He''d felt like an idiot for not seeing this earlier. It was true that using his muscles and Force Valor to do the exact same thing did not stack as he''d only achieve the faster speed, but if he didn''t stack them, but used one against the other, it opened an entirely new fighting style. The best way to stack them was to use them perpendicrly. Devote his muscles to using his strength in one direction while applying the Force to move his strength in a perpendicr direction to have a movement thatbined both forces. This reduced the loss from parallel usage to zero to enhance the force vectors by the highest degree. Of course, this had the added benefit of screwing with anyone predicting his movement using their eyes to gauge his muscles. He could even use Force Valor to slow himself down to really mess with people trying to guess his speed. HK-47 always did say that Rayleigh needed more tricks while fighting.


    Moreover, Rayleigh wanted to use Ry to strengthen his individual legs and alternate with each step. His goal really was to be a lightspeed swordsman and he had to start somewhere. Since he was an enhancer, using Ken to partition individual muscle groups, bones and tendons further increased the limit of how fast he could move using Force Program without breaking into pieces.


    For now, he was incorporating his Deception Force Aura , Ken and Ry into a new Alchaka and Lightsaber routine. It would serve as a temporary base for his fighting style and be useful as an all-around exercise until he found something better.


    Killua and Gon were able to use Ry at their full speed in two weeks and reach the novice level, meaning they could move into the next stage of training.


    "This will be thest level, specific type training. Gon and Rayleigh are Enhancers and Killua is a Transmuter. It''s fine to just study your own type, but then you''ll be inflexible and the training is not very efficient either. The ideal form is that of a bell. You focus mainly in your own category while also training in the two neighboring categories. Training and understanding your neighboring categories will help you learn your own category faster as well. First, we''ll start with Enhancer training, Level 1. Stone Breaking."


    Biscuit had gathered piles of fist-sized stones from the mounds of dirt they dug out during Sh training and ced them together. She exined, "Level one consists of using Sh over the rock and using it to break other rocks. You clear this level when you can break 1000 stones in a day."


    Everyone got a rock and began their training. Gon''s broke after 150 rocks, Killua''s at 190, and Rayleigh''s at 230.


    Gon asked, "Why is even Killua better than me?"


    Killua smiled, but Biscuit actually gave a thoughtful look before answering, "I suspect Killua is a Dual-Type, Transmuter and Enhancer."


    Killua asked, "What does that mean?"


    She exined, "Some Enhancers are better at Emission than Transmutation, and some are better at Transmutation than Emission. But there are also Enhancers that are just as good at Transmutation as they are Enhancement, but are quite bad at Emission."


    She wrote up the familiar Hexagram of Nen affinities with percent next to each. 100 above Enhancer, 80 above Transmuter and Emitter, and 60 over Maniptor and Conjurer. She exined, "This is only a general exnation, but most don''t fall exactly on the top of any category. Some lean toward one side or another."


    She put a dot between Emitter and Enhancer, very close to Enhancer, and rewrote the numbers. Enhancer still had a 100 above it, but Emitter had 85, and Transmuter had a 75.


    Biscuit exined, "Outside your main attribute, everyone can have something of a bias toward one of their neighboring attributes over the other. As for Killua."


    She erased the dot and the numbers and put a dot dead center between Enhancer and Transmuter. Transmuter still had a 100 above it, but instead of a 90, Enhancer also had a 100 above it, while Emitter had a 55 and Conjurer had 75.


    "Dual-Types are exactly between two categories and can use the second category as well as their first. So Killua can use Enhancer Hatsus as easily as Transmuter Hatsus."


    Killua eximed, "Alright!," before he excitedly asked, "So can we do the Transmuter training now?"


    Biscuit shook her head firmly, "No. A basic rule of specific type training is to only train one type per day. Also, when training a different type the following day, only train the type adjacent to it. For example, Killua could train one a day in the order, Enhancer, Transmuter, Conjurer, Transmuter, Enhancer, Transmuter, or just go back and forth between Enhancer and Transmuter. But you cannot do Enhancer Training after Conjurer Training or vice versa. The same is true for Rayleigh and Gon when changing from Emitter Training to Transmuter Training. You can only go from either of those to a day of Enhancer training. Understood?"


    All three nodded.


    Biscuit put her finger up a few times during the lecture, but Rayleigh usually called it first while Gon and Killua tied for second ce, so neither had to do push-ups since no one technically came inst. After tying for the third time in a row, Gon wanted to beat Killua and they just did Rock-Paper-Scissors.


    Gon won and Biscuit gave a lecture on the martial uses of Rock-Paper-Scissors.


    Rayleigh used the time to open his Menu and check his Easy Masteries for something interesting.


    [Enhancer Proficiency. Speeds up the advancement of the Enhancer Training regimen.


    Level 1: Stone Breaking: Use Sh over a rock and reinforce the hardness of the rock to break 1000 other rocks in a single day.


    Level 2: Requires mastering Level 1 to Unlock.


    Level 3~10 Locked]


    After his training with Biscuit, the prerequisites for Enhancer Proficiency had finally unlocked. What did this mean? It meant that his mastery in the application and advancement of the Enhancer Attribute would now advance eight times faster than normal. There wasn''t much of a difference on the first day, but after this, he''d be advancing much faster. Since the Easy Mastery even exined the levels, he could advance all the way to level 10 without needing someone to exin how it worked. Of course, he doubted level 10 would be as easy as Level 1.


    After hearing about the martial applications of Rock-Paper-Scissors, Gon got the idea for his Hatsu. His K would act as Rock. He would transform his Aura into a de and use that for Scissors. And he would shoot a nen projectile to use for Paper.


    Rayleigh wanted to make an aura de that could slice through the aura defense of others. He wanted to enhance the sharpness of the de and maybe send flying shes.


    While discussing various possibilities with Biscuit about Hatsus and their training methods, Biscuit brought up the day''s date and the fact that it was close to New Year. This also made them realize that Killua needed to get out of the game to take the uing Hunter''s Exam. Thankfully, this year it was held a few days after the New Year.


    To figure out how to leave the game, they headed back to Masadora and learned of a port that could let them leave. The guy at the port imed he might help if they bribed him, so Killua punched his face in, turning the man into a card that acted as the pass to leave Greed Ind.


    Killua gave his cards to Gon and Rayleigh before departing.


    After Killua left, Biscuit showed Gon and Rayleigh the level 1 Transmuter Exercise, changing the form of your aura into the shape of numbers. Level 1 wasplete when you could make your aura change from zero to nine within five seconds.


    To make it a challenge, she insisted they do so while running.


    They intended to return to the rocky area after returning to Masadora, but on the way there, the trio heard the sound of something flying at them from the sky.


    Rayleigh called out, "Book," before the new arrival evennded, but mostly as a bluff. If the man tried to use any spells on him, he''d just be donating his cards to him in the end.


    The man who arrived however was somewhat familiar. It was one of the people who joined the game at the same time he did, one of the members who joined that group of yers who said they would beat the game in three months. Huh. It had been about three months since then, hadn''t it?


    He looked at the trio and asked, "Wasn''t there someone else with you?"


    The man had what appeared to be a bomb on his shoulder and it was counting down.


    Rayleigh said, "Let me guess, sses guy was the Bomb Devil?"


    The man actually looked quite shocked at Rayleigh''s guess and asked, "How did you know that?"


    Rayleigh gave his best Sherlock impersonation and answered, "Elementary my dear fellow. The only reason to blow up a new arrival is to scare the other new arrivals. Blowing someone up and scaring others to join arge group would not benefit the bomber unless he was a part of the group."


    "But how did you know it was Genthru?"


    Rayleigh figured that was the sses guy''s name and answered, "That was a guess, I''m just naturally suspicious of charismatic guys in sses."


    The man shook his head, unable to believe that this kid noticed something so easily that he had missed it.


    Gon said, "Wait, you mean one of those guys who tried to recruit us was that bomber guy?"


    The new arrival exined, "Yes. Let me tell you what happened." He gestured to his shoulder and said, "I don''t have much time."


    *Author''s Note*


    Who to save and who not to save?


    I considered saving Battera''s wife so that he would not ask for the reward forpleting the game, but that won''t work. Battera wants two cards. He wants Angel''s Breath to heal whatever problem is with his lover, and he wants Witch''s Rejuvenation Potion to make himself younger. It was his n to give up everything and start over, a new life with her. I might be able to justify healing the woman with Dark Transfer, but I cannot justify making a man younger using the Force since there is no good way of doing so.


    Since Battera can''t be happy, then I won''t put any effort into making him happy. This arc has been the same up to now, but things changeter. Hisoka is hunting the Spiders, so none of them are in the ind. No Hisoka changes a lot of things, all of which have a lot of consequences. Look forward to them.


    K Vs Lightsabers


    It is canon that the Bomber uses K to defend his hands while making explosions. If K can protect against an explosion, it should be able to defend against a baton. There are exceptions, but in general, Lightsabers are not hot. They heat up what theye into contact with. So if you don''te into physical contact with a Lightsaber, it would burn you. Though there is still a limit. Even aura burns. Blocking a baton with aura is easier than blocking a sharp sword due to weight, pressure, and surface area, so he''ll be changing his lightsaber''s shapeter.

 Chapter 38: Killuas Hunter Exam

    Chapter 38: Killua''s Hunter Exam


    Chapter 38 Killua''s Hunter Exam


    The Hunter introduced himself as Abengane and exined what happened to their group and the abilities of Genthru, the Bomber.


    He had two abilities, the first of which was called Little Flower. It caused an explosion in his hand, but only when he grasped something. This implied he could not make an explosion punch or use this ability at anything but close range. The requirement to ''Grasp'' the target limited Little Flower''s flexibility, but an added restriction would also increase the skill''s power to make it more effective.


    The second ability, Countdown, had even more requirements. Genthru had to touch a person and say the word Bomber, probably while injecting them with his aura. Then, if the person he injected his aura into heard a full exnation of Bomber''s abilities from himself, the aura would be an actual bomb, like the one currently on Abengane''s shoulder.


    In order for the Bomb to be removed, the person with Genthru''s aura had to touch Genthru and say, "I caught the Bomber."


    Over the course of thest few months, Genthru ced a Bomb in every single member of their group and once they collected enough Imposed Slot Cards and Spell Cards, he exined his abilities, activating Countdown. Apparently, he imed he would defuse the bombs if they gave him all their cards.


    Abengane exined how, since their group only used spell cards to steal, they did not have many proficient fighters, so most of them didn''t even think about fighting until it was toote. Apparently, Spell Cards can''t stop a yer from using the Leave Spell Card to escape the game world to the real world. Leave is a Regr Spell and although there are Defensive Spells that can protect a yer from being targeted by Regr Spells, those only affect the yer using the Defensive Spell. There is no Spell Card to stop a yer from casting a Regr Spell on himself.


    Rayleigh wondered if he could destroy that Bomb with Dark Transfer. Since the Bomb had a destruction condition, it was removable. He could probably use Dark Transfer to inject the Force into the cracks he saw on that Bomb and break it without setting it off, like opening a door using a lockpick. Though such was only possible because it had a destruction condition. Breaking something without a destruction condition using Dark Transfer was like using a lockpick to open a door without a lock. It wasn''t impossible, but not advisable on an explosive door.


    If the man asked for his help, he''d consider it, but he wasn''t going to advertise that he could do something.


    Hypothetically, if he told the man he could remove the bomb and the man used a spell card to take him to their hideout, would Rayleigh remove all the Bombs? Not for free. He''d probably ask for the same thing Genthru asked for. But what then?


    Most likely, after the bombs were removed, they would renege or attack him. Even if they didn''t, Genthru would certainly find and try to kill him for getting in his way. Because one could use spells to see who they met, there was no way to save them using a mask to hide his identity.


    Before he left, the man asked, "If you have the chance, avenge us. Or at least try to prevent him from finishing the game."


    He used a spell to head out, iming he would inform others of Genthru''s capabilities before he died.


    Once he was gone, Rayleigh said, "He won''t die, don''t worry about him."


    Gon asked, "You mean that Bomber guy will really defuse the bombs?"


    Rayleigh snorted, "Hell no. But that guy didn''t give off the vibes of someone who was going to die. If he was certain he was going to die, he would have given us his cards. Instead, he left. Biscuit, did you notice the timer on that bomb?"


    Abengane exined that the timer started at 4000 and went down once with each beat of the heart.


    Biscuit considered it for a moment before eximing, "Ah! It was too slow! You''re right. For someone who knew he was going to die, he was way too calm."


    Gon looked even more confused, "So was he lying?"


    Biscuit shook her head, "No, he definitely wasn''t lying, but he should have a n to save himself."


    Gon asked, "Then why can''t he save everyone else?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "He has his own reasons and already helped us with that info. In any case, let''s head to Masadora."


    Biscuit asked, "For spell cards?"


    Rayleigh added, "And confirmation. If they don''t get a new stock of cards, then they are alive and everything is fine."


    The trio used the Return Spell Card to travel to Masadora and wandered around for an hour before heading to the spell shop. Unsurprisingly, the shop had just received a massive stock of spell cards.


    Biscuit and Rayleigh had been hunting every valuable monster they could find and selling them for Money cards, and Rayleigh felt now was the time to spend it all on spell cards.


    Between the three of them, they were able to get over one hundred twenty spell cards, filling up most of the 135 Free slots they had between them.


    Many of the cards they got looked pretty rare, so they ran away back to the monster-infested area before they started looking over them.


    [1035 Fortress S-10


    Cards inserted in slots on target Imposed Slot page are permanently protected against stealing and destruction spells as long as they remain in the slots (Free Slot pages cannot be chosen).]


    [1026 Holy Water A-20


    Protects the yer ten times from attack spells from other yers. This card is immune to steal and destruction spells.]


    They ended up getting two copies of Fortress and one Holy Water along with all kinds of attack spells, defense spells, and movement spells.


    Seeing that it was a rare, S Rank card, Biscuit wanted to sell it, but Rayleigh countered, "Sell it for what? We use money to buy spell cards anyways."


    Gon asked, "Should we use it? It can protect against anyone stealing a card."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "It only protects against Attack Spells like Pickpocket, Thief, and Mug. See this card?" Rayleigh pointed out one of the other spells they had gotten.


    [1018 Levy B-25


    Take one random card from each yer within a 20m radius.]


    Rayleigh continued, "This one is a Regr Spell, so it can bypass Fortress. Though It can still be blocked with Drawbridge since that card protects against Regr Spells. Besides, Fortress can only be cast on a single one of the nine imposed slot pages we have, so there is no point in using it before we have a good card to protect." If someone used Levy to steal a card, then as long as the target yer had a defense card and their book opened, they would have fifteen seconds to use a spell like Drawbridge to prevent the spell from going through. This also meant if you could cast it discreetly and distract your opponents for fifteen seconds, you could peacefully steal their cards without fighting.


    Rayleigh went over the various cards and could pretty much guess how they worked and countered each other.


    The card he was most interested in was one they got five copies of.


    [1011 Clone D-70


    Change into one random card from target yer''s imposed slots (if the opponent has no imposed slot cards or the card limit was at MAX, the transformation fails and "Clone" disappears).]


    As long as you were in a group, you could have a friend with a single Imposed Slot card and use this card on that friend to duplicate imposed slot cards. This way if they found an Imposed Slot card with a cool effect, they could copy it and use the copy.


    After looking over the cards, Biscuit asked, "Do you think we should use any of them?"


    Rayleigh said, "First, I''d like to check something. Biscuit, please try to use Trace on Gon."


    They only had one copy but Trace allowed someone to know where someone else was.


    Biscuit had the copy in her book and took it out, the moment she did, Rayleigh used Force Muffle on the area around them, creating a dome of silence.


    Biscuit tried saying, "Trace On," but no sound was heard. Rayleigh removed the dome of silence and said, "Let''s see if it worked." Gon had his book out and cards like Defensive Wall which could be used to block attack spells, so the card in Biscuit''s hand would take 15 seconds to go off, giving time for Gon to defend himself.


    After fifteen seconds, the Trace Spell Card did not go off.


    Understanding what was happening, Biscuit returned the card to her book and said, "So if someone is muted with that ability of yours, they can''t use spells."


    "At least not aloud. In any case, since I can defend myself from attack spells like that, I''ll keep the valuable cards in my book and use ckout Curtain."


    [1025 ckout Curtain F-200


    Use to protect oneself against the effects of "Peek" and "Fluoroscopy".]


    Peek was the card that allowed anyone who met them in the past to use and know everything in their free slots. Fluoroscopy was the same but was instead used to check their Imposed Slots. ckout Curtain was also a continuous card and its effect would remain until someone used either card on him.


    For the next few days, Biscuit had them practice their Nen attributes. Since Gon and Rayleigh were both Enhancers, they used the same routine of a day for Enhancer Training, a day for Emitter Training, a day for Enhancer Training, a day for Transmuter Training, and so on, always going back to Enhancer Training before moving to either Transmutation or Emission Hatsu training.


    Level 1 for Transmuter Hatsu Training was changing the shape of your aura. It was in fact the same thing Biscuit did when she made numbers over her finger. The training required manipting the shape of your Ten so that the aura gathered over a part of your body and changed into a shape. Level 1 of Transmuter Training was finished if you could make every number from zero to nine in five seconds. Biscuit insisted they do this training while running.


    Level 1 of Emission Hatsu training involved separating the aura from your body and moving it away from you. This required altering your Ten into multiple separate locations.


    Hatsu training was basically the advanced version of the Water test, figuring out how to add the attribute into your Nen to make the effect more pronounced.


    During the Enhancer Hatsu training, Rayleigh surprised both of them bypleting level one after only a few days. While Gon could only use one rock to break about 300, Rayleigh had already grown capable of using one rock to break a thousand rocks of the same size.


    Compared to that, his progress in Emitter and Transmuter Training wasckluster. He was further along in Transmuter training than Gon, allowing him to form the shapes of zero through nine in twenty seconds while Gon was still at the forty-second mark. Gon on the other hand was much better at the Emitter training, already able to separate his aura and send it at a distance while Rayleigh was still having trouble keeping his aura from going out after separation.


    It wasn''t that Rayleigh''s imagery of separating his Ten was weaker than Gon''s, it was that his talent for Emission was lower than Gon''s, so he was having more trouble applying the Emission Attribute to his aura than Gon was. This was also why Rayleigh''s Enhancer Proficiency was so powerful. It allowed him to advance the training of applying his Enhancer Attribute to his aura eight times faster than someone else of the same talent.


    And although Rayleigh considered his progress with Emission and Transmutation slow, that was rtive. Ignoring Rayleigh''s progress in Enhancer Hatsu Training that even Biscuit imed was perverse, everything else was proceeding at an excellent pace ording to the veteran trainer.


    They didn''t spend all their time on Hatsu training either. Ten was trained using shovels while digging more mountains using Sh. Zetsu and Ren were trained when Gon and Rayleigh sparred with each other using K and Ry. In essence, all four of the basic principles were trained equally. Biscuit was absolutely adamant that they never neglect their basics, since all their power originated from the basics. This was especially true for Enhancers like Gon and Rayleigh.


    When Rayleigh finished Stone Breaking, Biscuit moved him to the second level of Enhancer Hatsu practice, Boulder Breaking. It was simr to Stone Breaking, but used a smaller rock to break arger rock. As for how difficult that was? Rayleigh''s rock broke on the third rock.


    ording to Biscuit, after Boulder Breaking was Rock Cutting, where you hardened a sheet of paper to the point it could slice through rock. After that was Steel Cutting, where you sliced a piece of steel with a sheet of paper. Then came Ice Cracking, where you used a clump of ice to smash a rock. She didn''t know what came after that. Each stage was hundreds of times harder than the previous, and few if any ever made it past Steel Cutting. She only knew levels 1 through 5 of every category except Transmuter, which she knew eight levels of and was on level seven herself.


    Enhancers did not simply enhance hardness, that was just the simplest way of using the Enhancement Attribute. They could also enhance Sharpness and other things. This pleased Rayleigh since sharpening his aura was exactly what he wanted to do.


    It was around this time that Rayleigh decided to close the General Chat and open the Hunter Chat Room.


    Over thest few months, he''d been staying in the General Chat to hear about the random stuff that happened across the various worlds. The yers who attended Hogwarts were having some problems with something turning students into stone statues. No one knew what it was yet.


    The Warrior yers who asked for training from Master Roshi were all epted by him, but learned why he epted everyone very quickly. He used them asborers for extra money. They plowed fields with their bare hands and delivered food up and down various mountains. It was true that they were getting stronger, but Roshi was also getting paid.


    The Ninja yers actuallyined the most. The ones who stayed in the Vige finally graduated from Ninja Academy and were full-fledged Ninjas with the rank of Genin. They were grouped together and given a strong Ninja leader and tasked with Missions. The problem? These Missions were terrible. Digging potatoes, babysitting, helping an olddy do her grocery shopping, etc. The mostined about Mission was one where some nobledy''s cat kept running away and they had to catch it without harming it. The only reason most of them had not run away yet was because the pay was at least going to them, unlike Roshi''s students, and they would soon be able to rise in rank from Genin to Chunin after they passed an uing exam.


    The Jedi yers usually had good stories of alien worlds and dangerous conflicts that made the adventurous yers jealous. Jedis all had their own spaceships and took their Padawans to others when assigned Missions, so the Jedi yers got to see the wonders of the Universe while everyone else was doing the equivalent of ying in the mud.


    Stories and info from the General Chat were usually fun or at least semi-interesting, but since the Hunter Exam was rolling around, the Pirates would be returning to the Hunter World, and now would be a good time to change it over. ording to Biscuit, the Exam this year was set to start Jan 7th. She knew this as she was asked if she wanted to be an examiner a few months ago, but she declined as she intended to tackle Greed Ind.


    Since Rayleigh didn''t want to hear from the whiners looking for the Exam, he only entered a few minutes before the Exam started.


    [Swordsman has signed in.]


    [Swordsman: Did anyone make it to the Exam this year?]


    [Glitter: I''m here. Where are you?]


    [Invisible Man: I''m here. Can''t you see me?]


    [Justice: You''re not still wandering outside are you?]


    [Dragon Chef: Hey Swordsman! You need directions?]


    [Demon Hunter: The entrance is on the top floor of the tallest Hotel. Keep breaking open doors until you find one with a person and demand that person take you to the Exam Site.]


    [Lightning Lord: No one''s falling for that again.]


    [White Knight: Swordsman isn''t there. He passed the Examst year.]


    [Glitter: You actually passedst year?]


    [Swordsman: Where''s Dyna Might?]


    [Justice: He left yesterday. Spent all dayining since the fake ID he purchasedst year didn''t work to register for the Exam this year.]


    [Dragon Chef: That idiot had to run back to Pirate World since he was being chased by the authorities after making a scene.]


    [Lightning Lord: What happened in the testst year?]


    [Swordsman: We jogged, boiled an egg, descended a building from the top down, yed tag, then had a tournament where the loser advanced.]


    [Dragon Chef: What kind of egg?]


    [Glitter: Are you being serious?]


    [Demon Hunter: That does sound like a standard Hunter Exam.]


    [Swordsman: Tarant-Eagle egg. Texture of caviar, slight spiciness. 9.1 out of 10.]


    [Green Lantern: Hunter Exams are weird. 10 out of 10, would not rmend.]


    [Justice: Did you see the Main Character?]


    [Dragon Chef: Now I''m getting hungry.]


    [Swordsman: There were two others our age who participated in that exam. One passed, and the other failed. But apparently, kids showing up for the exam is normal.]


    [Invisible Man: Did the one which failed have silver hair?]


    [Dragon Chef: Yeah, that''s the silver haired kid. He certainly feels stronger than the rest.]


    [Swordsman: Yep. Silver hair.]


    [Glitter: If you made itst year, why didn''t you say anything?]


    [Swordsman: Dyna Might never asked me specifically for help. You probably assumed I never made it. How''d you guys get there this year? Did someone find the entrance or did someone meet a Guide?]


    [Dragon Chef: I met a guide and he showed me. Everyone who came with my help now owes me a favor.]


    [Justice: As long as it is not illegal.]


    [Invisible Man: Anyone we should watch out for?]


    [Swordsman: May the Force be with you.]


    [Justice: You''re a Jedi?]


    [Invisible Man: Oh, the Exam is starting.]


    [Dragon Chef: Haha. Slug five people and take their tags, huh? I like this guy.]


    [Glitter: I''ll just- What was that?!]


    [Lightning Lord: He''s fast.]


    [Invisible Man: Don''t mind me. I''ll just stand in the corner.]


    [Swordsman: Let me guess. Silver hair guy?]


    [Glitter: Yeah. He hit the back of my neck, or tried to. I''m indestructible, so I''ll just wait until he gets tired.]


    [Invisible Man: Wow. Look at him go. Is that the Hunter Power System? He''s moving like a blur.]


    [Dragon Chef: He doesn''t hit that hard. I''ve had stronger mosquito bites. Everyone else is going down with one hit though.]


    Rayleigh smirked. Killua seemed to be trying to take out all thepetition, but the Devil Fruit Users were not going down so easily.


    [Justice: He''s not that fast. He just got into a fight with Lightning. Lightning is a Logia User with what I''m guessing is the Lightning Fruit.]


    [Glitter: Is it safe to turn my head? I''m still solid diamond at the moment and can''t turn my neck to see.]


    [Invisible Man: I''ve already collected five tags from some of the guys he knocked out. No one can see me, so I''ll just stay here until everyone is done.]


    [Swordsman: What about you, Justice?]


    [Dragon Chef: Justice is knocking out some of the remaining people on his own and taking their tags. Guess he doesn''t want to take the tag of someone knocked out by someone else. From how their attacks are going through him, I''m guessing Justice is a Light Man Logia User.]


    [Invisible Man: Everyone is mostly down. Oh, that silver haired guy gave up on fighting Lightning.]


    [Justice: Hahaha. Dragon Chef scared him off.]


    [Swordsman: He tried to fight Dragon?]


    [Invisible Man: Tried. His strikes didn''t do anything. Then Dragon red at him and he ran to the other side of the room and looked like he pissed himself. Ah, Dragon is negotiating with him.]


    That surprised Rayleigh. Thest time that happened was before Killua learned Ten and Wing used Ren to intimidate him. Considering the speed he''s moving, Killua is definitely using Ren, so how did Dragon intimidate him? Does it have something to do with his devil fruit, or is it something else?


    [Invisible Man: Yeah! The fighting is over!]


    [Demon Hunter: So is this guy the main character?]


    [Green Lantern: What''s his name?]


    [Glitter: We''re not telling you.]


    [Lightning Lord: Go find your own main character.]


    For the next couple of minutes, the yers and Killua collected the tags of everyone who got knocked out and proceeded to the second round of the Exam. They were led to the roof of the building and got onto a Blimpcopter where the second round would be held.


    [Dragon Chef: Not what I was expecting. But I was hungry anyways.]


    [Glitter: What is wrong with these people?! Why is this a part of the Hunter Exam?]


    [Lightning Lord: Didn''t swordsman say they ate a boiled eggst time? Why is this so different?]


    [Justice: What? You don''t like meatbuns?]


    [Invisible Man: For someone who can turn into a literal diamond, you don''t seem very tough.]


    [Dragon Chef: If you insult the meatbuns, I will drop you into the ocean.]


    Rayleigh had a hard time not cracking up. The second round required the participants to eat twenty high calorie meat buns. If you couldn''t finish or puked, you failed. There were several ways to pass even if you didn''t have a massive stomach.


    [Invisible Man: Is that cheating? Lightning''s mouth is glowing. He''s burning the buns into ash in his mouth without swallowing.]


    [Dragon Chef: Are you really one to talk? Just because you made those meat buns invisible when you pretended to eat them, doesn''t mean I can''t smell them.]


    [Swordsman: How''s the suspected MC doing?]


    [Justice: He''s munching them all with ease.]


    The second round concluded. Glitter and Invisible Man failed to eat all their meat buns, leaving Killua, Dragon Chef, Justice, and Lightning Lord as the only remaining participants.


    The 3rd round was held the following day. The Blimpcopter took them to an abandoned city and told them there were a hundred dogs in the city. The rules were that if a dog got within three meters of a Hunter, they failed. If a Hunter harmed a dog, they failed. If they left the city, they failed. And the third roundsted three days. Because there was no way to make a three meter barricade around them, they had to keep moving away from the dogs which all had their scent.


    At least, that''s how it was for the two Logias and for Killua. Dragon Chef was able to keep the dogs from approaching him without running away. No one failed the 3rd round and after that was the 4th and final round.


    [Dragon Chef: Which one should I challenge? Any good cooks?]


    [Swordsman: There was a Gourmet Hunterst time by the name of Menchi. Though it''s up to you if you want to challenge a Gourmet Hunter to a cooking battle.]


    Thest round had the contestants meet ten Hunters. In order to pass the Exam, they could pick a Hunter and challenge them to something. It could be a fight, a race, a tennis match, a round of checkers, or a game of rock-paper-scissors. Netero hinted that each of the Hunters was great at one or more things. It was a test of insight to see if you could spot or at least guess the weakness of a Hunter and be better than a Hunter in at least one thing.


    [Glitter: Darn. I could have challenged someone to a staring contest. I can go forever without blinking.]


    [Invisible Man: No one can beat me at Hide and Seek.]


    [Demon Hunter: You should challenge the Hunters to a swimming contest.]


    Menchi was not there so Dragon challenged one of the Hunters to a cooking contest. That man was not a Gourmet Hunter, but he was a good cook. Not as good as Dragon Chef though, so he got the first victory and his License.


    The Pirate yers made of Light and Lightning respectively then challenged two slow looking Hunters to a race and won. Killua challenged a random Hunter to a game of Darts and beat him easily, also getting his license.


    [Dragon Chef: Hey, Swordsman, where are you?]


    [Swordsman: I''m ying a game right now, so I can''te over for the moment.]


    [Lightning Lord: Does this world have good games?]


    [Swordsman: This one is a Hunter Only game you can only y after learning the fundamentals of the Hunter Power System.]


    [Glitter: Oh? Teach me!]


    [Justice: Can you tell us about the Hunter System?]


    [Swordsman: Not for a few months. I lost a bet to Armory and the terms said I can''t teach anyone the Hunter System for a few more months.]


    [Demon Hunter: Are you ying Greed Ind?]


    [Swordsman: Yep.]


    [Poison King: Small world. Got any Imposed Slot Cards yet?]


    [Swordsman: Nope. I got lots of spell cards though.]


    [Green Lantern: We''re looking for 036 Recycling Room, 073 Night Jade, 080 Levitation Stone, 082 Staff of Judgement, 084 Pdin''s Ne, and 090 Memory Helmet.]


    [Justice: Why are you getting items in a game?]


    [Demon Hunter: Because you can convert things from this game into inventory items.]


    [Swordsman: Is that worth it?]


    A yer can convert an item from a world into an inventory item with enough Mission Points, but the condition of the item did not reset when the item''s projection was turned off and on. So if someone turned a fully fueled spaceship into an Inventory Item, it would run out of fuel eventually and you could not refuel it by turning the projection off and back on. If the ship was damaged or destroyed, turning it off and on would not get you a brand-new ship. Because of this, it was considered a waste to convert items besides essential items like Wizard Wands and Jedi Lightsabers.


    [Demon Hunter: If you have the Spell card, Fake, use it on a Rock card to make 036, Recycling Room. Then you can decide if it''s worth it.]


    Rayleigh did in fact have the spell card Fake in his Binder. He picked up a stone on the ground, turning the stone into a card. Then he used Fake on it to turn it into Recycling Room so he could see what it did.


    [036 Recycling Room S-10


    Put something broken in this room, and it will be repaired as good as new 24 hourster. The door must not be opened until the time is up.]


    Huh. That was pretty interesting. As long as the room itself didn''t break, it could be used to repair any other Inventory Items that could fit in the room. Still couldn''t use it on a spaceship, but repairing broken wands, lightsabers, or other interesting items would be invaluable.


    [Swordsman: Wow. I''ll keep a lookout for it.]


    Rayleigh knew this was not a game. This was the real world. The Items in this Game were not fake items. They were made using ancient techniques from Ging''s past life and would work just fine outside this ce. If Rayleigh found any good items, he''d certainly check the price for conversion if there was a way to repair the items if brokenter.


    Killua should be returning soon and with their current level of skill, they would likely start collecting cards soon. It was time to start ying the game.


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry for the dy. Was sick for a bit and had no motivation to write. Back to normal now, and will try to make up for it to get back to 2 chapters a week.

 Chapter 39: The Game Begins

    Chapter 39: The Game Begins


    Chapter 39 The Game Begins


    From what Rayleigh gathered from the Hunter Chat, the Hunter Examsted five days, and he expected Killua to show up two to three dayster.


    Gon wanted to wait at the location yers arrived, but Rayleigh imed he''d be able to sense when Killua got there and would pick him up then, so there was no sense waiting. It was a bold im, but one Rayleigh hadplete confidence in. Gon and Killua may not be Force Sensitive, but they had been his friends for thest year, and he''d be able to sense if their circumstances changed, even from a distance.


    On the morning of January 15th, Rayleigh sensed Killua''s return to Greed Ind and said, "Killua''s back."


    The trio did not stay in the mountainous regions and had in fact taken to exploring the ind and going from city to city to expand their map and increase the locations they could arrive at through spell cards.


    Gon cried out, "That''s great, let''s go see him!"


    Rayleigh shook his head and took out a card.


    [1013 Origin D-65


    Make target yer fly to the game starting point.]


    He continued, "This card will only get one of us there, so I''ll use this to get him and an Apany to meet up with you guys."


    [1039 Apany F-130


    Fly the caster and all yers within a 20-meter radius of the caster to the location of the target city.]


    Biscuit said, "Let''s meet up in Antokiba. Today is the monthly tournament and it''s about time we start collecting cards.]


    Gon jumped for joy at that. The training was good but monotonous, so finally getting to y the game his father made was something to look forward to.


    Rayleigh held up the card and said, "Origin On," and a field of energy surrounded him and pulled him into the air in a massive arc over the ind. Rayleigh kinda wished the energy field was more see-through and less opaque so he could see everything from high in the sky, but he didn''t make the system so he had no right toin about it. He did wonder though how Ging and the game''s other creators handled air traffic and prevented nes and blimpcopters from flying over the ind.


    The energy fieldnded softly and dispersed, granting Rayleigh another view of the vast grassy ins that surrounded the starting area. He turned to look at the elevated hut that was the starting room and saw Killua descending the staircase.


    "Hey, did you have fun?"


    Killua jumped down the stairs and shook his head, "Not gonna ask me if I passed and got my license?"


    Rayleigh replied, "Unless Illumi was an Examiner, I can''t see a decent reason for you not to pass."


    Killua looked thoughtful for a moment before a visible shiver traveled down his spine, "Don''t even joke about things like that."


    Ray chuckled and continued, "Besides,st year youined that the exam was too easy and no fun. So I was curious if you had fun this time."


    Killua looked around and said, "Well, before I get into that, where are Gon and Biscuit?"


    "They are waiting for us in Antokiba."


    Killua asked with a bit of guilt, "Wait, were you waiting for me this whole time?"


    "Nope. You and Gon are my best friends. That means more to a guy with psionic powers like me, and I could tell the moment you got back. Gon did actually want to wait here this whole time though."


    Killua sighed with relief, "Oh, that''s cool. I tried finishing the Exam really fast so you would not have to wait for me, but it didn''t go as nned."


    "That''s life. In any case, we got a bunch of spell cards, so open your book and let me give you some defensive ones before we meet up with the others."


    "Great, let''s see what you got." Against someone with some skill, you could only defend against spells with spells, though someone who could mute an area like Rayleigh was the exception. Rayleigh passed over some cards for movement, defending against attack spells, and defending against regr spells. Killua''s book was empty at the moment because they did not know what would happen to the cards in someone''s book if they left the game.


    As they transferred cards from one book to another, Rayleigh asked, "So what happens to cards in your book when you leave?"


    Killua answered, " ording to the NPC girl, cards in your Free Slots are deleted, and cards in your Imposed Slots stay for ten days, 240 hours, and are also deleted if you do not return."


    After Killua''s book was loaded enough to protect him, Rayleigh took out a card and said, "Apany On. Antokiba," and another field of energy surrounded them and shot them into a short arc over the ins to the City of Prizes.


    There were still a few hours to kill until the monthly tournament started and the city would get a lot more crowded at that point. The moment they descended, Gon shouted, "Wee back Killua! How was it?"


    Killua shook his head again, "Not what I was expecting."


    Rayleigh stated, "I hear a good story in there, let''s head for a good restaurant first."


    No one was against this idea and they did have some money left over since they could only buy the amount of Spell Cards as they had empty Free Slots.


    Once they found a table at a good barbecue ce, Killua told everyone how he passed the Exam, but also about the weirdos who took the exam with him.


    "I tried to take everyone out in the first Exam. I figured I could pass right away if I was the only one who made it to the second Exam, but there were a bunch of odd guys our age. One of them could turn into lightning. Thanks to my Hatsu, He couldn''t hurt me, but I couldn''t hurt him either. There was another guy that was even weirder. All my attacks passed right through him. Both of them could move faster than anything I''ve ever seen. Then there was this girl. She turned into a diamond statue. There was even this guy I didn''t even notice. He turned himselfpletely invisible. Andst, there was someone who didn''t even react to any of my attacks. He didn''t hit me back or anything, but nothing I did phased him. And then, well, at one point... Never mind."


    Gon asked, "Did all those guys know Nen?"


    Killua shook his head, "No. I used Gy and confirmed none of them had their aura nodes opened. Though I couldn''t even see that invisible guy using Gy until he turned visible."


    Biscuit seemed to be deep in thought, so Rayleigh asked, "How were the other exams?"


    Killua summarized, "Easier thanst year. Since the first Exam involvedbat, the other exams did not. The second Exam had us eat twenty big meat buns. The diamond girl and invisible guy failed that one. Next, we had to hide from dogs in an abandoned city for three days. I barricaded some stairs and stayed on a roof. The Exam after that one was thest one. Netero showed up with some Hunters and said we each had to challenge one of them to something and win. I picked a Hunter and Challenged him at Darts. The two fast guys challenged two Hunters to a race. And that strong guy challenged one of them to a cookingpetition."


    Rayleigh asked, "Was he better than me?"


    Gon and Biscuit both looked interested in that. Ray''s Force Cooking always made a perfect meal and added emotions as savory vors.


    Killua answered, "I don''t know, I didn''t get to eat any. But the Judges who ate the food said it was delicious."


    Rayleigh nodded in understanding. Though they can be considered friends, he and Dragon Chef could also be considered culinary rivals.


    Biscuit finally added her two cents, "Those kids were all the same age as you, right? They probably came from the Misty Inds."


    Killua asked, "What are those?"


    Biscuit borated, "West of the main continents, there is a vast area in the sea where the weather is strange and the people are stranger. To enter that region, you have to pass through arge region of mist, so the area itself was named the Misty Inds. People from that area can develop strange powers."


    Suddenly, Rayleigh discovered something incredibly weird. The term, Misty Inds, was familiar to him. He''d heard about it before when studying World Geography. But that was only the case for his Hunter Identity. In the room which contained all his knowledge from all his lives, the Misty Inds were a foreign concept. How was that possible?


    Gon started exining the details of the Bomber to Killua and what happened after Killua left, but Rayleigh stayed quiet and asked a question in the Hunter Chat.


    [Swordsman: What are the Misty Inds?]


    [Dragon Chef: Heard about that already? Lightning Lord, Justice, and I all contributed Mission Points to pay for a backstory that exins Devil Fruit Users.]


    [Lightning Lord: Were the Misty Inds already a thing?]


    [Swordsman: No. I think it got retconned. My Hunter Identity remembers studying the Misty Inds in the past. But my actual identity does not remember my Hunter Identity learning about the Misty Inds when I first got here.]


    [Justice: So memory modifications affect the memories of our yer Characters, but not our actual memories.]


    [Lightning Lord: That''s good to hear. Those Wizards have Memory Changing Spells, so it''s a good thing those won''t work on us.]


    [Dragon Chef: Of course, they won''t work. This entire thing is pretty much a DnD campaign. We are both the yer Characters and the yers. Even if our yer Character gets modified, the yer using that Character obviously won''t get affected.]


    [Demon Hunter: We are Self-Aware yer Characters.]


    [Poison King: Did any of you actually y DnD in your old life?]


    [Swordsman: Unfortunately, no. Like 99% of my generation, everything I know of DnD, I learned from Memes.]


    [Armory: I was a DM once.]


    [Swordsman: We should get together and y a game.]


    [Armory: No. If none of you know how to y, I''d have to exin everything. I will only DM a game if you agree to use premade characters instead of trying to make your own. It''s from an original session I made for new yers.]


    [Poison King: That takes all the fun out of it.]


    [Armory: What if all of those Characters are awakened House Cats raised by a Crazy Cat Lady Druid that lives in a mysterious city filled with secrets? She fed them magic cat food to awaken them, but the Crazy Cat Lady was killed under mysterious circumstances and the session starts with the party of felines wanting to investigate what happened and avenge her?]


    [Demon Hunter: You have my attention.]


    [Lightning Lord: Are one of those builds a Wizard Cat wearing a small Wizard Hat?]


    [Armory: Of course. He gets Mage Hand right to make up for ack of thumbs.]


    [Justice: Do you have a Pdin House Cat?]


    [Armory: Yes. The build includes a blessing thatpensates for the fact that cats can''t wear heavy armor.]


    [Swordsman: Is there a Barbarian Cat?]


    [Armory: Yes. That one is based on Dex-Starr from DC''s Red Lantern Corps. He wears a cursed cor of rage that causes every roll based on Strength to use Charisma instead, but every roll that directly needs Charisma uses Strength and has a negative 10 due to the blood that constantly drips from his mouth.]


    [Demon Hunter: That would get around the STR requirement for Barbarians.]


    The conversation quickly devolved into random tidbits and memes about Dungeons and Dragons from their past lives.


    The Antokiba tournament this month was ping pong and you needed a partner. Rayleigh had never yed Ping Pong before while Killua and Gon seemed far more interested, so he stepped back and let thempete and destroy thepetition. How easily they won did not surprise him. What did surprise him was the award. It seemed that the Prize for each Monthlypetition was a specific Imposed Slot Card of A Rank or lower. The card they won this month was actually a D Rank card, but it was a very special D Ranked card.


    [084 Pdin''s Ne D-60


    A yer wearing this will reflect curses cast upon him, and be able to undo curses ced on cards he touches.]


    Gon asked, "What does this mean?"


    Killua suggested, "Let''s ask in the shop."


    The group agreed and headed over to a card while Rayleigh looked around. Rayleigh spotted a few familiar faces from the time they got the Sword of Truth, but this time none of them stepped forward to steal their prize. It was obvious that their group would not make the same mistake twice and taking the card from them just using spell cards would not be possible without a lot of luck.


    The card shop worker asked for a payment of 30,000 Jennies before answering, but they were not poor like they had once been and easily handed it over.


    The card shop employee then exined, "Curses refer to attack spells. For example, if a yer uses a Pickpocket Spell on you, then a random card in that yer''s free slot will be ced in your own free slot. If you touch a card that has been converted into another card with Clone, Mimic, or Fake, then touching it while wearing this Ne will revert the card back into what it originally was."


    At the shop employee''s simple exnation, both Killua and Gon were excited, since this meant that if they used it, they would be safe from attack spells.


    They wanted to use Gain on the card, but then they would lose the ability to count it toward their own Imposed Slot cards.


    Rayleigh brought up two points. "Nope, we can definitely use it. First, let''s put the card into Killua''s book."


    Rayleigh then took out a spell from his own book and said, "Clone On. Target Killua."


    [1011 Clone D-70


    Change into one random card from target yer''s imposed slots.]


    After waiting fifteen seconds for the spell to go off, the card in Rayleigh''s hand changed into a copy of Pdin''s Ne.


    He then said, "Gain," turning it into an actual ne.


    Andst, he passed over a spell card to Gon.


    [1037 Recycle F-170


    Allows an item converted from a card to be changed into card form once more. (Limited to cards of rank below C. If the applicable card limit is already at MAX, "Recycle" disappears without converting the target item.)]


    Ray continued, "Although it''s an imposed slot card, it''s a D ranked card, so we can use Recycle on it. This way we can both wear one."


    Gon looked excited. He put the Recycle card into his book and took the card back from Killua and used Gain on it.


    Killua asked, "Should I get one as well?"


    Biscuit shook her head, "No, we should save Clone cards for better items, and between Rayleigh and Gon, they can hold all the cards we need."


    Rayleigh replied, "Gon can hold the imposed slot cards and defense spells. I''ll take the attack spells and Zenny cards."


    Rayleigh then asked a question in the Hunter Chat.


    [Swordsman: Hey Greed Ind yers, do you still need Pdin''s Ne?]


    [Green Lantern: Nope. I gave you a list of all the good cards, but we already have some of them already. Pdin''s Ne is easy to get. There are two spell cards that can change any A rank Card into any D Rank card of your choice, so no one needs to get it from the source.]


    [Swordsman: So what cards do you actually need?]


    [Demon Hunter: Recycling Room, Floating Stone, and Staff of Judgement.]


    [Poison King: If you have a Pdin''s Ne, save some points to convert it into an item to take with you.]


    [Swordsman: Why?]


    [Green Lantern: Because it doesn''t only work on Greed Ind Spells. The Wizards have a Curse that can instantly kill you right? What happens if you wear the Pdin''s Ne and get hit with that spell?]


    [Swordsman: There is no way that would be true.]


    [Demon Hunter: It is. Imposed Card Slot number 024 is called Hypothetical T.V. It is basically that ''What If'' Machine from Futurama. The only catch is that, outside of Greed ind, the Pdin''s Ne will degrade every time it reflects a spell, and it will definitely break after reflection of that instant kill spell and won''t reflect it if the ne is heavily damaged before someone uses the spell on you. But as long as we have the recycling room, we can fix it if it is broken or damaged.]


    [Swordsman: Cool.]


    [Lightning Lord: So how can we y this game?]


    [Poison King: Learn the basics of the Hunter Power System, then get a copy of Greed Ind or find someone who has a copy.]


    [Swordsman: I''m ying using a copy owned by a rich guy named Battera. What about you?]


    [Demon Hunter: Personal connections. I didn''t have to sign a contract to y and I''ve never met Battera, if that''s what you''re asking.]


    [Green Lantern: Poison King and I are using Demon''s copy.]


    Rather than get back to training, Biscuit informed the trio that it was time to start collecting cards.


    "We''ll split into two groups. Gon and Killua are in the first group, while Rayleigh and I are in the second. Every day, I''ll give you two a pair of rumors I''ve heard on a way to get an Imposed Slot Card and you''ll each do one. Rayleigh and I will try to find more rumors on imposed slot cards and try a few ourselves."


    With that, Gon and Killua headed off, leaving only Biscuit and Rayleigh. Being the observant one, Rayleigh of course asked, "And the real reason you asked me to help?"


    Biscuit confirmed, "If you have psychic powers, you can make people more agreeable to certain requests, right?"


    Rayleigh didn''t deny it, "That''s right."


    Biscuit asked, "What are the limitations?"


    Rayleigh considered it before answering, "It''s easy to affect someone who is on autopilot and difficult to affect someone who consciously makes every decision."


    "What does that mean?"


    Rayleigh borated, "You know how when a person is in a routine, they enter a state where everything bes automatic, and they can evenck a memory of what happened?" It was like a person who drives to work every day along the same route for ten years suddenly finding himself at work without actually remembering the drive there.


    Biscuit nodded in understanding, as any adult would fall into autopilot more often than not.


    Rayleigh continued, "When a person is on autopilot, they aren''t consciously at the wheel, so I can steer the direction of their thought without them even noticing. However, I cannot make someone do something that is impossible for them to consider." If someone is driving to work, he could make them take a detour or maybe turn around, but he could not make them drive to the other side of the country.


    Biscuit considered the ramifications and nodded, "So the person''s actual strength doesn''t matter, just their mindset when you approach them? Good enough. Can you give a demonstration?"


    Rayleigh nodded. He knew that Biscuit liked to use the helpless little girl act to get info from others, so he walked around for a bit before spotting a strong-looking guy walking in their direction on the street. He said, "Do your thing on him first."


    Biscuit sped her hands together and made her eyes watery. She lowered her posture and stepped into the target''s path before asking, "Please sir, do you know how I can get an imposed slot card I can trade to get back home?"


    The man sneered, obviously uncaring about Biscuit''s plight. Rayleigh connected to the man using empathy and the Force, allowing him to feel what the man felt. Rayleigh felt the man thought Biscuit was lying since this guy was wiser than the usual fools Biscuit targeted. Rayleigh said from the side, "You believe she needs help, a few words won''t cost you anything."


    The man''s feelings changed. Rayleigh made himself feel that Biscuit was telling the truth, and that he should help her. Then he used the empathic connection to swap the man''s feelings for what Rayleigh felt. The man didn''t even consciously hear Rayleigh''s words.


    The man''s expression changed to something a bit dull as he repeated back, "It won''t cost me anything." Then his expression returned to normal and he said, "Well, I heard there is a treasure hidden at the bottom of theke near Masadora. The richest guy in the city will reward you with an Imposed Slot Card if you give it to him. Good luck."


    With those words, he walked around the pair, not caring about the exchange in the slightest.


    Biscuit nodded, "That was interesting. How does it work?"


    "Connect to the target using Empathy to feel what they feel and think what they think. Change your own feelings to something else and impart a statement. Then use the empathic link to alter their feelings to match your own while imprinting that statement into the person and cementing the statement using the new feeling."


    Biscuit replied, "That''s surprisingly gentle for what amounts to mind control."


    Rayleigh shrugged, "It''s not really control though. It''s closer to guidance through forced empathy. I can''t make someone feel something I can''t make myself feel, and I can''t make someone do something I would not do." At least he couldn''t with Mind Trick and he had no intention of using the other forms of mental domination he learned about in the Temple of Force Skills.


    "Well, then, do you want to check out the rumor?"


    Rayleigh nodded and used an Apany card to take them to Masadora. In addition to buying some more spell cards, the pair ran over to the massiveke.


    Biscuit asked, "How long can you hold your breath?"


    "If I''m not doing anything intensive? Several hours. Swimming? An hour."


    "Is that another psychic thing?"


    "Yep, breath control. Allows me to force my organs to work using minimal oxygen


    Rayleigh removed his shoes once they reached theke and dived in. This was a game, so the bottom of theke would not be a difficult ce to find. It only took a few minutes of swimming to actually locate the area where the ground went deep, and Rayleigh didn''t even have toe up for air before swimming to the lowest point and finding an ornate vase on the bottom of theke. Ray picked it up, but this turned it into a card which forced Rayleigh to book it to the surface. He made it in half a minute and called out for "Book," in time to ce the card in his free slot before it permanently turned back into a vase. If the Quest was like all the others in this game, the Vase would not be epted if it was not in card form.


    Rayleigh swam quickly back to the shore where Biscuit was waiting for him.


    "That was quick. Find it already?"


    Rayleigh opened up his book and together they peeked at the card.


    [231 Magnate''s Vase C-90


    This vase belongs to the shipping magnate Biscotti. Return it to him for a reward.]


    Biscuit nodded, "That simplifies things. Let''s ask who Biscotti is and get the reward."


    The first Masadora city guard they asked knew exactly who Biscotti was and where to find him. The pair found the city''s financial district and got a meeting with Biscotti where Rayleigh presented the card.


    The old balding man in a striped suitughed when he saw the card and said, "This is great. It fell off my yacht when I was partyingst week. To find this, I think you have what it takes to be a sessful businessman. Here. Take this."


    He passed a card to the pair which Rayleigh examined for a moment before cing it into an imposed slot.


    [045 Fledgling CEO B-30


    Warm this magic egg in your hand for three hours a day for one to ten years, and you will be a top CEO when it hatches. The stronger your desire during incubation, the sooner it will hatch.]


    The pair left and used Contact to hear from Gon and Killua. Both had gotten their assigned cards, so the pair used Apany to head to Masadora. Gon got number 90 Memory Helmet, by helping someone find something they lost while Killua and Gon were both able to do the second task and each got a copy of Number 25, Risky Dice.


    Since they were finished, Biscuit led them back into the Monster area where they could hunt for more monsters to sell to use the money to collect more spell cards. They also spend some time on Ken and Ry sparring and Gon and Rayleigh showed off the fruits of their training over the week Killua was gone.


    Gon showed off the progress on his Rock Paper Scissors attacks. Rock was his K. Scissors was an Aura de. And Paper was a projectile attack.


    Rayleigh primarily worked on making an aura de and his was longer, stronger, and more reliable than Gon''s. Gon''s aura de could slice a twig three out of ten times. Rayleigh''s could cut a branch, ten out of ten times. Though Gon could shoot a ping pong-sized aura ball using Emitter Hatsu, and Rayleigh was unable tounch flying Nen shes at the moment.


    While observing Gon''s techniques, Killua asked, "Why do you have to shout Rock Paper Scissors? You arepletely giving the attack away."


    Rayleigh answered for him. "No, he should keep it that way. First of all, he can use it as a bluff. Second, calling the name uses the Zetsu aspect of Nen of me, meaning Language. If he says the word or attack name aloud, it strengthens the image and makes the attack stronger than when not doing so. If he mixes in some feints, switches, and bluffs, he can make it work pretty well."


    Biscuit nodded, "He''s right. Wing taught you guys Nen of me right? Every aspect of that should be considered when making a Hatsu. Calling out the technique''s name every time you use it may sound like something from a cartoon, but if you can get away with doing it, then go for it since that will definitely make the technique stronger."


    Gon asked, "Ray, do you have a name for your techniques yet?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. "I call my Speed Enhancement Technique Overdrive, but I have not named my aura de or flying aura sh. Once I get the hang of it, those will be basic techniques. I will only name my super moves, otherwise, I''d have to shout, "Flying Aura sh," with every swing of my de when fighting long range."


    Biscuit asked, "What about you Killua? Did you think of any techniques yet?"


    Killua got out a pair of metallic yo-yos and said, "I have a lot of techniques I want to try, but I was thinking about incorporating these."


    Seeming to guess what he was thinking, Biscuit said, "I see. Thesebined with electricity. That''s a very good idea. It''s a very good weapon too."


    Killua seemed to nce at Rayleigh for a moment before stating, "I needed a long-distance weapon."


    Biscuit smiled at the rivalry before getting them to return to the basics. No matter what they did, she always had them devote time to the basics since they were the foundation and source of strength of everything.


    The next day, Killua and Gon went off on their own again and Biscuit had Rayleigh try for a card she heard about. A crazy witch was looking for a research assistant to help concoct something, so Rayleigh had to read through dozens of books for specific references to help her out. Or at least that''s how it would have been for others. The books were real items that other yers used to do the exact same mission, so he easily used Psychometry on them to look up the same page the others found and wrote everything down.


    He returned with all the relevant information which the old witch referenced heavily while concocting her pills. The pill creation was a sess, and the crazy witch gave a bottle of the pills to Rayleigh as thanks for his assistance. Like everything, of course, the pill bottle turned into a card.


    [064 Witch''s Love Potion B-30


    Kiss a pill and have your intended drink it, and he or she will fall in love with you. One pillsts one week; one vial contains 500 pills.]


    Rayleigh did ask if the woman needed further assistance, but she said, "I don''t have the main ingredient for the Rejuvenation Potion or Diet Pills I wish to concoct. Find them and you can help me further." The Rejuvenation Potion required some kind of alchemic gold and the Diet Pills needed a grass he had no idea about. He''d ask the store clerks or other NPCs for the informationter.


    Rayleigh met up with Biscuit who got more information on other cards and Rayleigh even gave her the info he found from the old woman. They met up with Gon who got a Beetle card from punching a big tree and Killua who got a Gold Dust-producing girl card he got by sneaking into a heavily trapped mansion and breaking her out.


    In two days they''d gotten six cards, not including the Pdin''s Ne two of them wore. It was a good start and a way to show that it was finally time to start ying this game for real.


    *Author''s Note*


    I doubt anyone wants a heavily summarized adventure of how they get 55 cards, and most readers probably don''t want a heavily detailed adventure for the acquisition of every card when they really want to get off the Ind to the Chimera Ant Arc andter to One Piece. So I''ll do a few card adventures next chapter and get right into Razor''s Fourteen Devils and try to have that chapter out by the weekend.

 Chapter 40: Cardcaptors

    Chapter 40: Cardcaptors


    Chapter 40 Cardcaptors


    While Gon and Killua sparred under the watchful eye of Biscuit, Rayleigh stood before a metal workbench filled with tools, his disassembled Lightsaberying in pieces over it. At the side of the Bench was an electronic screen that showed everything on the bench and its status.


    This bench and the apanying tools made up Rayleigh''s Lightsaber Customization Kit. Any adjustments he made to the Lightsaber would appear on the screen at the end of the Bench and he could choose to apply those changes to make them permanent or remove previous changes. Because his Lightsaber was an item purchased during Character Creation, it reverted to its original form when it was disabled and re-enabled. The same was not true for items acquired during gamey and converted into Inventory Items using Mission Points. Such acquired items did not revert to their original condition every time the projection was enabled but carried over the existing condition the item had when its projection was disabled.


    The reversion of a Character Creation Item had many benefits, but there were also hidden downsides. One of them was that a weapon could not be easily upgraded. Any changes made would revert back after disabling the projection and re-enabling it. The Lightsaber Customization Kit was a way around this. It connected to the Inventory System that reverted items and all changes made appeared on the screen at the bench''s side. The yer could select any of those changes and add them to the projection, meaning that those changes would remain after the item''s projection was turned off and on. Changes made could even be removed using the Bench as well.


    It even worked on other items, like the Zoldyck Family Adjustable Weight Set and HK-47''s head.


    There were two things Rayleigh usually used the bench for, modifying his Lightsaber, and umting the effect of Force Weapon.


    Force Weapon was a Je''daii skill that is not taught by the Jedi, though some had learned it and figured it out themselves. It allows a Force Practitioner to empower and strengthen an item with the Force. Ancient Je''daii used this on swords to make them far more powerful before Lightsabers became mainstream. This practice was mostly abandoned by the Jedi for two reasons. The first is that Force Weapon was a skill that used the Force to change the material world to benefit the user. This goes against the philosophy of the Jedi. The second, and more realistic reason, is that Force Weapon was the predecessor to Dark Side Alchemy, used by the Ancient Sith to not only strengthen weapons, but pervert them into dangerous and monstrous abominations, at least ording to the Jedi.


    Rayleigh learned of Force Weapon through the use of Psychometry on the tools in the Forge, the area of Tython where ancient Je''daii once forged their own des andter made their own Lightsabers.


    Using Force Weapon on a Lightsaber was not an innovative or new idea to the Je''daii, in fact, it wasmon sense. It allowed a Je''daii to connect strongly to the Lightsaber and even channel the Force through it manually.


    Rayleigh would use Force Weapon on his Lightsaber at all times and used the Bench of the Customization Kit to ''Save'' his progress.


    Doing so, however, did not require taking his Lightsaber apart. Today he was trying something new. Because any changes he made could be kept or erased, Rayleigh could use the Lightsaber Customization Kit to test certain configurations or upgrades to see how they affected his Lightsaber. Today, he was testing the application of Divine Script.


    Since Rayleigh''s Enhancer attribute Hatsu training had progressed from amateur to novice, he felt it was time to try applying Divine Script to his Lightsaber.


    Divine Script was not inscribed with a chisel or pen. You had to gather your aura into your finger, apply the Hatsu attribute, and then swipe your finger over the area using aplex variation of Sh to impart the aura while holding a strong image of the desired effect in your head. The aura automatically adjusted itself into the specific symbols that set themselves into the material. Usually. Sometimes they broke apart or destroyed the material.


    The effect of Divine Script could only fall into the category of Hatsu that was applied. Thankfully, Enhancer attribute Nen had a lot of practical applications and was quite easy to usepared to other categories.


    Rayleigh''s first attempt, which didn''t destroy his Lightsaber Casing or break down, enhanced the strength of Rayleigh''s Ren when he held the Lightsaber. It was a decent start. His following sess upgraded the Ren Enhancement to enhance his Overdrive Hatsu, allowing his muscles to contract even faster and grant him even greater movement speed. The effect was marginal though, and he could not easily stack the enhanced speed with Force Valor, so it was not as good as just using Overdrive and stacking it normally with a perpendicr use of Force Valor.


    At the moment he was trying something new. He wanted to enhance his Force abilities by directly interfacing the Divine Script with the Lightsaber''s Kyber Crystal. Once the crystal exploded, he had to turn off the projection and could not continue experimenting for 24 hours, so he tried his best not to make the kyber crystal explode.


    Thankfully, it only exploded three times during his testing phase. He was eventually able to figure the trick to allowing the Kyber crystal to take in aura. He just had to use Ren while using Force Weapon. Doing so not only strengthened the connection he had to the physical casing of the lightsaber, it also allowed his Kyber Crystal to assimte his aura. Once it assimted enough, the Kyber Crystal was considered a part of his body, and was no longer damaged by his aura. This was only possible since Kyber Crystals were considered alive, and this one matched him 100% since it was provided by the Tavern that literally created his body and this whole Universe.


    Although Rayleigh had seeded in his attempt to integrate Divine Script into his Kyber Crystal, he had not seeded in enhancing any of his Force techniques. Today was another attempt.


    "Hey, Ray! Are you done yet?"


    "Yeah, we''re gonna get some more cards!"


    Gon and Killua''s cry meant they finished sparring and that today''s experimental period was over. None of today''s attempts had any value, so he didn''t save any and directly disabled the bench''s presence while reassembling his Lightsaber and cing it on his hip.


    Rayleigh ran back over to the group and said, "What''s today''s mission?"


    Biscuit exined, "It''s a treasure hunt," before taking a card out of her book and saying, "Gain," turning the card into a dusty map.


    She exined, "I used the spell card Guidepost to find out where number 82, Staff of Judgement was located."


    That had Rayleigh''s interest. He had told Biscuit the names of the cards that other yers were looking for.


    [1030 Guidepost E-120


    Give away locations of the chosen number.]


    Guidepost told you where to look to find a specific card. From there, you just asked the locals about the card and either found some correct information that led to gaining the card, or incorrect information that led to a different card or a dead end.


    Rayleigh didn''t think the yers on the ind should be weak, so why had it taken so long for them to find Staff of Judgement?


    Biscuit rolled out the map and exined, "There were like twenty NPCs selling fake versions of this map all over the city and each had multiple versions. I found out from another yer that the one who sells the real map is an old pervert and doesn''t even advertise that he has it. Obviously, I was able to get the map from him without any problems." She seemed quite proud of herself.


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes and sighed. That was stupid, but it wasn''t his fault the other group didn''t have any girls.


    Once she unrolled the map, the trio discovered an obvious problem.


    Killua was the first to point it out. "Um, Biscuit, are you sure you didn''t get ripped off? This thing is worthless."


    Rayleigh didn''t speak up, but he didn''tpletely disagree either. The map was vague and didn''t have any reference points. One side seemed shaded in a bit while another had some badly drawn circles with an X in the middle. Even if the map was urate, they didn''t know the region the map pointed to!


    Biscuit huffed and said, "Says you. I was able to convince the NPC to tell me exactly where this is. It''s on the east side of the forest on the other side of the mountains."


    Gon asked, "You mean the forest with those bandits?"


    Biscuit replied, "Exactly. We just have to cross over the mountain again from this side and follow the edge of the forest. This shaded area here is the forest, so the map points to an area outside the edge. As long as we keep following the edge, we''ll be able to find the area that matches the rest of the map and locate the treasure!"


    Gon, Killua, and even Rayleigh jumped up in excitement at that. What kind of soon-to-be thirteen-year-old didn''t like a treasure hunt?


    Although the others could not use Overdrive, it wasn''t difficult for them to copy Rayleigh''s muscle enhancement to boost their own speed, so it didn''t take them long to cross the mountains and see the edge of the forest. Rayleigh was tempted to see the bandits again. He already had an idea of how to get a card from them, but it wasn''t the time. Something told him that if he tried it too early, it would be game over.


    It had been a month since they started collecting cards. Each city on the ind had a specialty that required a certain field of skill. The City of Gambling, Dorias, had a Casino that relied on luck or skills that enhanced luck. Killua was able to convince Rayleigh into using the Force to cheat every single game to rob the Casino blind of every valuable card. How did Killua convince him? With the Risky Dice. Killua directly stated that if Rayleigh didn''t use his abilities to win, then Killua would use a copy of Risky Dice to win.


    [025 Risky Dice B-30


    A twenty-sided die with one skull face and 19-star faces. When you roll a star, great things happen, but rolling the skull will be bad enough to cancel out all the previous great events.]


    The Die was rather impressive and as powerful as it was dangerous. The luck-adjusting effect was void if Rayleigh used telekinesis on it, so you could only let it roll naturally and he couldn''t predict if it would hit a Star or a Skull. Why was this a problem? From what Rayleigh felt, the line, ''bad enough to cancel out all previous great events,'' was not limited to great events granted to the roller of the dice. It included everyone who used it on Greed Ind.


    If Killua rolled a Skull, Rayleigh had no guarantee he could save him. Rather than risk his friend''s safety, Rayleigh was willing to use the Force to screw over arge number of NPCs for the Imposed Slot Cards they possessed. Though Rayleigh drew the line at gambling just for money and he refused to get any duplicate cards, even if they could be traded or sold.


    Was it annoying? Yes. Was he doing it for a moral code? No. It was just that he would lose the trust of the Force if he abused its power to cause a noticeable impact on the world. At the moment at least. He was pretty sure that one day he''d figure out how to use the Force however he wanted to, but for now, he''d toe the line without crossing it.


    Besides the City of Prizes, the City of Magic, and the City of Gambling, thest specialty city was the City of Love, Aiai. Unsurprisingly, it was a fully immersive dating game simtor where a majority of the quests involved unrequited love and clich encounters. Rayleigh was able to make full use of Force Empathy to get a good chunk of cards from that location with Biscuit''s help.


    In addition to cards they acquired directly, they also got a few duplicate cards from other sources they traded off. Rayleigh didn''t understand why, but when acquiring an Imposed Slot card, some let each of them get a copy, while others only let them get one copy. And even for the former, when their group tried to get more than four copies, the others would not turn into cards even though they doubted the cards had reached the max transformation limit.


    Including cards they had gotten through trade, they had already gotten sixty-six imposed slot cards. And soon they would find number sixty-seven.


    With the use of Rayleigh''s irvoyance to look over the area from above, it didn''t take them long to find a region somewhat matching the crude drawing on the map.


    Rayleigh pointed it out stating, "This looks like the area."


    Biscuit, Killua, and Gon climbed onto the nearby rocks to get a clearer view of the area and came to the same conclusion beforeing to the approximate location of the X on the map marked.


    Gon asked, "Where is the treasure?"


    Biscuit opened her book and took out a few cards, "Gain," turning them into a familiar set of shovels. "Start digging."


    Rayleigh grabbed one and broke the dirt first, but the moment he did, the ground rumbled and shook. Everyone took a battle ready stance and looked around on full alert. It seemed the Treasure Hunt was not a simple one.


    Four of the massive rocks around them started vibrating and cracking. What was more unusual was that they also seemed to be rising. Boulders and pebbles alike fell from the rising stones to reveal the rock golems hidden beneath, one for each trespasser.


    Unsurprisingly, Gon shouted, "First to beat his wins!" before jumping to the fifteen meter bipedal rock that had risen next to him.


    No one had anyints, though they knew that Gon''s words were to Rayleigh and Killua. If Biscuit wanted to, she could easily destroy hers before they did, so she was not a part of this minorpetition.


    On instinct, they each used Gy to check the aura distribution of the Golems. Rayleigh spotted shimmers of aura that appeared and vanished like sparkling lights. ording to what he learned from other monsters, that meant that most of the aura was beneath a surfaceyer of dirt and it used that to hide its strengths and weaknesses from prying eyes.


    That might work on others, but Rayleigh bypassed the countermeasure using Shatterpoint and spotted a critical weakness on the back of the Golem''s shoulder. Rather than try to get behind it or bring it down, Rayleigh took some distance from the towering golem and focused his Wills. This thing was big and from what he could see from the fights of the others, it was rather nimble for its size. But when moving via walking, it was slow. Slow enough to give Rayleigh enough time to focus his Wills onto it.


    While Gon and Killua struck various points on the Golems that seemed to reassemble themselves when damaged and Biscuit yed around with hers, Rayleigh had started lifting his several ton target into the air. Once it was about twenty meters in the air, he spun it around so that it wouldnd on the back of its shoulder and let it drop. This only worked since the Golem''s aura wasn''t on the surface. Aura tended to make targets slippery when holding them with telekinesis.


    The other three saw Rayleigh''s antics and took cover before his opponent crashed into the ground with a thunderous rumble that shook the surrounding area and nearby forest. The golem tried to adjust itself as it fell like a cat, but Rayleigh had maintained control over its orientation leaving it no choice but to collide with the ground on its most vulnerable part.


    The Golem shattered into pieces, leaving Rayleigh the winner. Gon and Killua both looked over with a pout, and Biscuit used the moment they weren''t paying attention to get behind her own golem and strike its weakspot, causing it to shatter into pieces as well.


    The Golems turned into A-Rank Monster cards which Rayleigh and Biscuit collected to sellter. The pair climbed up one of the rocks and took a seat to watch Gon and Killua continue the fight with their own Golems. Though the pair saw that Golem fell on its torso, it wasn''t easy to tell the difference between the front and back of a misshapen rock man while it was falling, so they still didn''t know the exact location of the golem''s weakness.


    The pair fought for another minute, testing and dodging. The Golem swung its arms quickly and nimbly, allowing it to attack them from just about every angle and neither was strong enough to block the hit without breaking a few bones. Dust billowed in thick clouds, blocking their vision with every heavy m of the golem''s stone fist into the ground. Eventually, the pair discovered that not only did the Golem always try to face them, but always favored one side to strike them. With their lessons from Biscuit and experience hunting other monsters in this game, they were able to deduce the Golem''s weakpoint to be on their back, on the opposite side from what usually faced them.


    Gon found the weak point first, mostly from luck. Killua struck his Golem''s lower back while Gon chose the upper back and hit the weak spot on the shoulder. His golem crumbled and Killua''s followed shortly after.


    Killuained, "I never catch a break."


    Gon replied with a tease, "It''s okay, you came in fourth ce!"


    Killua shouted back, "That''sst ce!"


    Rayleigh added, "Well, Gon started fighting a second before you did and you broke the golem a second after he did. It''s more of a tie, really."


    Biscuit stated, "You all did very well, but now it is time to dig up the treasure!"


    Rayleigh jumped back down and picked up his shovel before returning to the location he dug up before. Gon and Killua quickly joined him, shovels in hand. If any of them had any doubt that this was the legitimate location of a treasure, those doubts were dispelled when the Boss Monsters emerged.


    Once they dug a few meters into the ground, they found a treasure chest Gon opened it to reveal a blue stick that looked as if it was made of bone. The end of the stick had a finger bone, the middle had a misshapen arm bone and some kind of tiny rib cage, and the base had some miniature malformed skull.


    After picking it up, it turned into a card.


    [082 Staff of Judgment A-15


    Raise this staff in the air while calling out the name of someone you want to punish, and cmity will befall the one of you who hasmitted more bad deeds, the target or yourself.]


    Rayleigh said, "I kinda wanna use it on that Bomber guy."


    Rather than argue, Gon stated, "Use a Clone Card first."


    Killua emptied his Book''s Imposed Slots into everyone''s Free Slots and they ced Staff of Judgement inside so Biscuit could use the Clone Spell on it to create a duplicate.


    Once the copy was made, Rayleigh said, "We''ll do itter. Now is not the time." This was a feeling he got from the Force. He had a feeling that time would be sooner rather thanter though.


    The original went into Gon''s book while the copy went into Killua''s. Since Gon and Rayleigh wore Pdin''s Ne, any card made using Clone would vanish if either touched it, so the card had to stay in someone else''s Book. Sure, he could take off the ne, but it was better to be safe and prevent any idents.


    It was at that moment that Rayleigh''s book appeared and an electronic voice sounded out. [A yer has used Contact against you.]


    The remaining trio gathered around the book as a voice sounded out from it, [Hey Swordsman, it''s Kazusuuru.]


    That was the guy with the fuzzy hat who initially took the Sword of Truth from Rayleigh in Antokiba. Since then, they had made a few trades.


    Rayleigh asked, "Looking for a trade? We got a few more extras."


    From the book, he answered back, [Thanks for the offer, but we''ll postpone that talk forter. Can you guys meet us with us? We have some things to discuss.]


    Rayleigh asked, "What kind of things?"


    [A group of yers is about to clear the game. It''s a group of three people led by someone named Genthru. Have you heard of them?]


    Rayleigh calmly answered, "Yes. Them we''ve heard of."


    From the other end of the book, the fuzzy hat wearing Hunter stated, [We contacted other groups and we''re meeting in the rock quarry two kilometers east of Masadora. Even if we''re just exchanging information, it''s worthing.]


    Rayleigh stated, "We''ll be there, when''s the meeting?"


    [Nine PM. See you then.]


    The call dropped and Gon couldn''t help but shout, "Damn that guy! We can''t let him win the game!"


    Rayleigh said, "We won''t. Do you guys wanna use Apany or just run over?"


    Gon answered, "We don''t need to waste a spell card for this, let''s run over."


    Rayleigh nodded, "When everyone is gathered, let me do the talking. Negotiating is my specialty."


    It didn''t take them too long to run over the mountain and back to the stone quarry. Rayleigh''s group wasn''t the first at the site, so they went to the side and sat down.


    Rayleigh used the time to meditate and formte a number of ns. While spying on the possibilities, Rayleigh whispered to Gon and Killua, "Don''t ask a single question, no matter how curious you are."


    Eventually, all the groups assembled and Mr. Fuzzy hat spoke up, "Thank you for gathering here. As I told you with Contact, Genthru''s group is about toplete the game. We checked the Rankings earlier and they presently have 96 Imposed Slot Cards. We need to think of a counter attack."


    Rayleigh gave a reminding nce over to Killua who looked like he was about to ask a question, but elected to remain silent on Ray''s stare.


    The man continued, "The only cards they are missing are number zero, number two, number nine, and number seventy-five. Number Zero can only be acquired once the other ny-nine are assembled, so that''s three types. If we manage to get a monopoly on the maximum transformation limit of one of those three cards, we can prevent them frompleting the game."


    After a round of discussions, several yers used the spell card List, to figure out which card was possible to get a monopoly of. The List Spell told the user how many copies of an Imposed Slot card existed in the various books of yers. ording to the results, no yer had number 2, three yers had number 9, and five yers had number 75.


    Getting a monopoly meant holding every copy of the transformation limit of a card, so they could only choose number 2 which no one had yet. Using the spell card Guide Post, they determined it was in the Port City of Soufrabi.


    Although it was a long shot, they all agreed to head to Soufrabi using Apany to search for clues on the card''s location.


    There was no limit on the number of people that Apany could take to a location, so a massive white field surrounded them all and shot into the sky.


    Afternding, the groups split up to look for clues, leaving Rayleigh and the rest to themselves.


    Killua was the first to speak up, "Hey, why did you say we shouldn''t ask questions? I wanted to know how those guys knew about the Bomber''s Cards."


    Gon added, "And couldn''t we have told them about the Bomber''s abilities?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. "Nope. We don''t need to collect any more cards."


    Killua guessed, "You want to target Genthru?"


    Rayleigh confirmed, "Kinda. I want to lead him into a trap, we just need the right bait."


    With that, their group headed into the port city to ask around. No one really expected to hear anything since this wasn''t the first time some of them hade here for this very reason, but surprisingly, today they were getting very different answerspared to before. After a few minutes of asking around, most of the groups confirmed that people were willing to speak about the card they were looking for, number two, Plot of Beach. The previous asions those assembled asked the same questions to the same people, but they didn''t get any answers at all.


    Some of the more experienced yers even found a person who seemed to know exactly how to get it, and they all gathered around the young woman who seemed very depressed.


    "I can probably tell you guys about it." She looked the group over for a bit before continuing, "Pirates control this town. It is said that somewhere in this area of the ocean is a submerged cave called the residence of the sea god. The plot of beach you''re looking for is said to be the entrance to the Sea God''s Residence. Various treasures are said to sleep there, but those rumors attracted fifteen pirates. They are Razor and his fourteen devils. If you can drive those pirates away, I''ll tell you the location of the Plot of Beach."


    The group agreed of course, but before looking for the pirates, they assembled together to discuss what was going on.


    "It''s scary how much progress we''re making. I spoke with that same girl thest time I was here and she didn''t say anything like that."


    One of the more observant members of the group pointed out, "There are fifteen pirates. There are sixteen of us. Maybe that''s the reason?"


    Another borated, "So because we came in a group of fifteen or more, we triggered the condition?"


    The others in the group agreed and figured they did so bying here in arge group using apany.


    To the side, one of the solo yers said to himself, "Quite nasty."


    Finding the location the pirate hung out wasn''t hard, it was a bar built into a warehouse and the door was open. Everyone entered and scanned the location, but the only people inside, even the bartender, were thug looking fellows wearing stupid looking hats.


    The fattest, stupidest looking one noticed that they were being examined and stated, "What do you want? We''ve reserved the whole bar today, so go away!"


    Behind him, a smaller looking one said, "Hehe, we reserve it every day though."


    Mr. Fuzzy Hat stepped forward and calmly exined, "We came to talk to you. Could you leave the town?"


    The Stupid hat wearing pirates looked stunned for a moment before they startedughing.


    One remarked, "It''s been a long time since Ist heard those words."


    Anothermented, "Aren''t the bones of thest guy still rotting on the beach?"


    The big bozo stepped forward, "I''d like to do the same thing to you right now."


    He got up into Mr. Fuzzy Hat''s face and tried to be intimidating. "The only one who can make us leave is our boss. If you wanna meet him, you gotta prove yourselves."


    He took a high proof alcohol he''d been sipping from and poured it around himself in a circle before taking out a lighter and tossing it into the spilled booze to light it and make a circle of fire.


    He took a sumo stance and said, "Make me leave this ring and I''ll let you meet the boss. The fight starts once you entered the mes. I don''t care how many of youe at once."


    From the yer''s own group, a somewhat muscr guy stepped forward. "Making him leave the ring sounds easy to me. If it''s a fight of strength, you can trust me with it since I''m the reinforcement type."


    The man flexed his muscles and charged his Ren. His aura looked like bubbling water that built up into arger shape. Gon, Biscuit, and even Killua looked at the man in disdain for taking so long to build up such a poor excuse for a Ren.


    The grunt charged into the circle of fire and tried to tackle the sumo, but he wasn''t able to push him back a single step before the sumo wrapped his arms around Mr. Muscles and lifted him up. The man''s legs were squirming around as the sumo walked to the edge of the ring and kept his opponent over the open me.


    The fire rose up and caught the man''s shoe, setting it and his pant leg on fire and causing him to scream in pain and shout, "I give up!" His shouts of pain didn''t elicit any sympathy from the stupid hat wearing sumo-pirate. Instead, his sadistic smile only turned more twisted.


    Gon jumped over and punched him in the face. Mostly because he wanted to, but also to get him to release the guy from his grasp.


    Gon shouted, "He said he lost. Why didn''t you let go of him?!"


    The sumo exined, "Didn''t you hear the rules you little punk? You lose when you leave the circle! He didn''t leave the circle, so he didn''t lose. It doesn''t matter what he said. Oh, and you entered the circle to hit me and left. So you lost too."


    Gon looked down and realized his mistake. Before he could ask for another shot, Rayleigh ced a hand on his shoulder and nced at Killua who knew what to do. Gon understood the hidden meaning, to let Killua handle it.


    Killua asked, "Hey old guy, Can I have a try?"


    "Haha, whatever you want little brat," he answered back with a confident smirk.


    Instead of walking into the ring, Killua walked over to the bar counter and picked up some high proof alcohol before saying, "I''ll pay for thister."


    He snapped off the top before vanishing from ce and appearing next to the sumo-pirate. Before said sumo could react, Killua had poured the alcohol onto him and set off a spark between his fingers.


    By the time Killua had jumped down, the man''s face waspletely on fire.


    Several other pirates saw this terrifying scene and ran over, but Killua shouted, "Don''te! The match isn''t over yet."


    His predator''s gaze froze the pirates in ce, preventing them from helping their fellow pirate.


    Probably from hearing what Killua said, the sumo rolled out of the ring while screaming in pain. The others ran over to him to smother the mes and wipe the alcohol off his face


    The sumo didn''t seem to inhale any mes, but he did receive at least second degree burns on the soft tissue of his face. Such burns took a long time to heal and remained painful the whole while.


    Said sumo looked back over to Killua as if he wanted to rip him to pieces and charged forward, but another pirate delivered a flying kick to the sumo, knocking his charge to the side.


    Said pirate eximed, "You made a promise, so keep your cool." He then turned to the gathered yers and said, "Follow me. You''ll meet the boss."


    *Author''s Note*


    Some areining that there isn''t a lot of dialogue anymore between characters. Sorry, but this part of the arc, anime or manga version, doesn''t really have a lot of dialogue outside the training since most interactions are short. I''ve already got ways around that which wille up in the next chapter.

 Chapter 41: Razor and his 14 Devils

    Chapter 41: Razor and his 14 Devils


    Chapter 41 Razor and his 14 Devils


    The silly hat-wearing pirate led the group of yers outside the bar and past the city to arge facility with a built-in lighthouse.


    If Rayleigh had just used Psychometry on Ging''s Hunter License, he would have recognized it as a node for nen transmissions throughout the ind, but unless he purposefully tried to retain it, most of the knowledge Rayleigh obtained using Psychometry faded shortly after using it. If it didn''t, his head would be packed with thousands of lifetimes worth of knowledge by now and probably caused brain damage. That meant he didn''t recall the identities of the Game Masters or the details of the important quests, so this was all mostly new to him.


    The other pirates followed the group as they were escorted from the bar to the lighthouse and entered the facility with them as they were led into a massive space within that appeared to be a veryrge, very clean gymnasium.


    Unsurprisingly, everyone using the ce wore a stupid hat. Everyone except for one person, someone who seemed exceptionally strong and dangerous.


    They were led to this person who looked over the new arrivals and asked, "Who are these guys?"


    Their pirate guide answered honestly, "Guests. Seems they want us to leave."


    The pirate leader, the only man who didn''t wear a stupid hat, stated, "Oh? Then we''ll hurry on to the main topic. Let''s have some duels. Fifteen representatives from each side will fight. One person, one win. The group that gets eight victories wins, but we choose the fighting style. If your group wins, we will leave the ind. Is that okay?"


    One of the yers spoke up, "I have a question."


    "Go ahead."


    He continued, "What happens if we lose?"


    The pirate who didn''t look like a pirate politely answered, "Nothing in particr. We just ask you to return where you came from."


    The other yers gave each other an assessing look before agreeing, "Let''s do it."


    Surprising most of them, the pirate leader stated, "The Battle Theme is Sports. Each one of our members has a favorite sport. They will all challenge you."


    The burnt sumo loudly eximed, "Okay! I''ll fight that stupid brat! Come here! We''ll finish out sumo fight!"


    That actually stunned Rayleigh for a moment. He really was a sumo? The guy who was six times wider than Killua certainly had the build for it, but hepletelycked the mental aspect of it. Though they were pirates, so Rayleigh figured he shouldn''t outright judge them forcking professionalism.


    Killua smartly replied, "Let''s wait. I''d prefer to fight after our team has seven victories."


    The fire-scarred sumo seemed more than a little pissed at Killua''s rejection, but another pirate walked over and said to him, "Calm down and cool your head a little." He wrapped some tape around his knuckles and said, "I''ll be the first fighter. My theme is boxing."


    He walked over to a boxing ring in the corner and jumped in before stating with some provocation, "So, who''s gonna fight me?"


    The ring was elevated enough for those looking at it to ignore the Divine Script written into the ring. Rayleigh only needed to nce at it to figure that it was based on Emission Hatsu, though he couldn''t decipher the exact effect.


    Before anyone could volunteer, the pirate leader stated, "I think you already know, but each yer can only fight once. You cannot take part in more than one game."


    Mr. Fuzzy hat asked, "Can we use Nen?"


    The boxer pirate eximed, "Of course. We''ll use it a lot."


    Another of the yers walked up, stating, "Okay, then I''m going."


    The man was offered some boxing gloves he graciously took before the pirate put on his own gloves and asked, "Do you know the rules of boxing?"


    The confident yer replied, "You have to knock down your opponent with your fist, right?"


    The Pirate leader corrected, "Yes, but here, there are special rules. You can use tools, but only if theye from your Nen."


    Some of the yers were surprised that such a ruling. It wasn''t difficult for a Materialization Nen user to create a gun or worse, so such a thing seemed far too advantageous.


    The pirate added fuel to the fire by stating, "Don''t worry, I only fight with my fists. Allowing weapons if only for your sake."


    Rayleigh considered the rule and understood that it meant he could not use his Lightsaber, since it was not made of Nen. Still, it wasn''t like he couldn''t use other things.


    The pirate leader took the role of a ref and stated, "Three minutes per round. The fight goes on until a yer is knocked out. Fight!"


    For some reason, the challenging yer showed a level of cockiness that seemedpletely unearned. He stated brazenly, "I guess I understand why you chose boxing as your challenge." He then shot his fist forward though he was on the other side of the ring from the pirate. A shot of aura came out from the yer''s glove and streaked forward. The pirate bent to the side and the shot of nen grazed passed him, but the minor contact with the pirate''s cheek it made drew blood.


    The cocky yer stated, "Nice dodge. It''s impossible to stop it if you''re not prepared in advance. I''m positive you''re an Emission user too, right? Fighting within a confined area while keeping your distance from your opponent. There are no better conditions for an Emission user."


    The yer then leaned forward and took a stance while eximing, "You only made one mistake. There are stronger Nen users than you, like me!"


    The yer released a flurry of jabs, each imparting a shot of aura that rammed into his opponent. At the same moment, the pirate performed an uppercut, and Rayleigh got to see what the Divine Script actually did.


    In a single moment, the cement of the pirate''s arm changed from in front of him to right below the yer''s chin as the uppercut was performed. Not expecting it in the slightest, the cocky yer didn''t even see the perfectly positioned fist that magically appeared directly below his chin and struck up hard enough to shake the man''s brain like a pinball machine.


    The pirate boxer received the heavy barrage of aura blows and went down while the yer remained standing. The pirate''s fist returned to its original cement almost instantly after the uppercut. Everyone but Rayleigh''s group was preupied with the flurry of aura jabs and didn''t even notice the uppercut.


    When the yers saw the boxer go down, they eximed, "Yeah! Easy victory!"


    Rayleigh countered to the crowd, "No. He lost."


    Before Rayleigh even finished stating his observation, the yer was already crumbling and hit the ground the moment Rayleigh said the word ''lost.'' It was clear that the man was not getting back up for a few minutes.


    The pirate on the other hand quickly got back up. Unlike his opponent who took his attack without any kind of defense, the pirate actually had the awareness to use Ken to block the aura attacks and defend himself.


    The pirate leader did a ten count but stopped to ask his pirate, "Can you continue?" to which he answered, "Of course." The hatless pirate continued his ten count. With the yer not getting up before the count of ten, the pirate leader dered, "End of the fight. That''s our first victory."


    Mr. Fuzzy hat walked over to Rayleigh and asked, "What happened?" Since Rayleigh was the one who spoke up, they figured he saw what happened.


    Rayleigh exined, "The pirate''s fist changed its position in the ring at the moment he performed an uppercut. Your friend was so focused on attack, he didn''t put up any defense when a fist appeared below his chin and rattled his brain with a quick but heavy strike."


    The yers seemed impressed, not only with the ability disyed but at the easy-to-understand analysis given by Rayleigh.


    Another pirate stepped forward with a ser ball in hand and stated, "I''m next. The game is ser ball bouncing."


    Considering the quality of the assembled yers, the chance of winning eight matches was zero. Killua whispered to their group, "Lose on purpose so we don''t show off what we can do. We''ll try againter."


    Biscuit agreed, "Right, it''s better this way." Biscuit herself then stepped forward to participate in the ser bouncing game.


    The ser pirate eximed, "Oh? A little girl like yourself? Take care not to get hurt."


    Biscuit asked innocently, "Get hurt? It''s just bouncing a ball. Right?"


    The pirate chuckled before exining, "Well, let me exin the rules. The winner is the one whosts the longest. You can attack your opponent with Nen, but you can''t touch your ball or the opponent''s ball with your hands. The battle takes ce within this room. If your ball touches the floor, you''ve lost. Same thing if your ball is touched by one of your allies."


    Gon, who was terrible at deceiving people, directly looked at Rayleigh, likely thinking the same thought as the rest of them. ''How badly could Rayleigh screw his opponent over using rules like this with his telekinesis?''


    The pair started, but to the surprise of everyone who didn''t know her, Biscuit missed her first bounce. With the ball hitting the floor, she lost right away.


    Killua then stepped forward and said, "I''m next," before looking at the burnt sumo and stating, "Wanna go for it?"


    The angry sumo stepped back into the ring and exined the rules once more. He even bragged that, as long as Killua didn''t leave the ring, he could thrash him as long as he wanted to ording to the rules.


    The hatless pirate leader acted as ref again and started the match, but the moment the sumo charged forward, Killua dodged and ''identally'' stepped out of the ring, immediately losing the match to the raging chagrin of the shouting sumo pirate.


    The pirate leader called aloud, "Ring out. That''s our third victory."


    Two others had to hold the fat pirate from charging Killua who smirked cheekily at him, but the small nce from the head pirate cooled the sumo''s temper and rendered him quiet.


    Various games were yed by the remaining pirates with consecutive losses, even from the yers who tried to win.


    Somewhat disappointingly, the remaining contests didn''t have any gimmicks as interesting as the divine script in the boxing ring. That made sense in a way. Such a formation would need to be made by the person using it, so the boxer wrote it using his own nen. Did that mean every pirate was also a master of divine script? Of course not. The first guy was the exception, not the rule.


    For the remaining games, the pirates were simply more skilled that the yers who matched against them. Using the built-in bowling alley, the bowling pirate scored a respectable 267 while his opponent was an embarrassment to watch.


    The free-throw-shooting pirate made thirty shots before the yer even made twenty, winning that match.


    The wrestling pirate was a pure Enhancer and a level stronger than the yer who challenged him.


    Their seventh loss was in a Ping Pong Game, and Razor stepped forward for the eighth game of volleyball.


    Neither Gon nor Rayleigh participated in any of the matches.


    Without any suspense, Razor defeated the yer and calmly stated, "That''s our eighth victory. We''ve won."


    The pirate who led them into the facility approached and said, "Please go back to where you came from. We''ll keep doing as we please in this town."


    With that polite telling-off, the assembled yers were taken out of the facility built into the lighthouse where they gathered together to discuss their thoughts.


    A series of short conversationster and the various groups parted ways. They had no intention of trying again since their goal was achieved. There was no way for the Bomber to get the card; if someone did get it, it would only make them a target.


    One by one the groups left until it was only Rayleigh''s party and one other who stayed.


    Rayleigh asked the man, "What about you?"


    He answered, "Same as you. Try to gather strongpanions and get the card. The others are mistaken, it''s best to get the card as fast as possible if we want to clear the game."


    Killua pointed out, "If you can win one of those games then we have five at the moment. We need three more to win."


    The man nodded, "My name is Goreinu. There are a few of those games I can win easily."


    Rayleigh and the rest introduced themselves as well before Goreinu continued, "Hopefully we can get some guys who don''t want the card or will ept one copy as payment."


    If you used Fake to make a fake copy of Plot of Beach, you could see the card and confirm it had a max transformation limit of three. So other than the original, you could use Clone or simr cards to create two copies. Goreinu obviously wanted one, so that meant they only had a single copy remaining to use as payment for hiring more capable yers.


    Rayleigh stated, "Let''s find a restaurant to discuss this, I''m hungry."


    No one argued with getting some food so after a bit of wandering using their noses to guide them, the group found a nice seafood restaurant with tables overlooking the ocean and continued their discussion after getting a seat and cing an order.


    Goreinu asked, "Do you know any yers we could invite?"


    Killua countered, "What about you? Do you have any teammates?"


    "If I did, I wouldn''t havee here alone."


    Gon asked aloud, "What about Binolt? Think he is still around?"


    Killua asked, "How would we know?"


    Goreinu stated, "If you put Long Range Regr Spell cards like Peek, Fluoroscopy, or Contact into the slot in the back of your book, it gives you a list of everyone you''ve met that you can cast the card on. You can actually remove the card after looking through the list without casting it, so you can use that to see the names of those you''ve met. When you do so, there is either a white dot or a dark grey dot next to their name. If there is a white dot, they are still in the game. If there is a dark grey dot, then they have either left the game or are dead."


    Gon ced a Peek spell in the back of his book and watched as a list of names popped up before going through them until he found Binolt. The dot next to his name was dark grey.


    Gon and Killua began discussing those they''d met and their names with Goreinu, but it was mostly a dead end. The only names they were familiar with were either too weak or yers with too much baggage to be worth it. Goreinu was surprisingly knowledgeable about many of them.


    Rayleigh stated, "I might know three guys and their strength shouldn''t be weaker than ours at least."


    Biscuit asked, "Oh? Someone we met on the ind?"


    Ray shook his head. "We''ve never met them before. Give me a moment. I shall use a mysterious means to ask them."


    Rayleigh then turned to the open Hunter Chat Room box and left a message.


    [Swordsman: Hey guys. I need help getting card 002. If you help out, you can get a copy and I''ll pay you with a copy of 082 Staff of Judgement.]


    [Poison King: Really? You got the staff?]


    [Demon Hunter: What kind of help?]


    [Green Lantern: You''re not trolling, right?]


    [Swordsman: Getting 002 requires eight strong yers. There are five already. Need three more. If you agree, you can meet the Hunter World Main Characters.]


    [Demon Hunter: The Main Characters? Are they strong?]


    [Swordsman: Would you like to find out?]


    [Dragon Chef: Hey Swordsman, you''ve been traveling with the Hunter Main Characters this whole time?]


    [Swordsman: Since thest Hunter Exam.]


    [Justice: And you kept it all to yourself. How sneaky.]


    [Puppeteer: I approve of the sneakiness.]


    [Demon Hunter: Alright, we agree to help out. We''ll meet you in the City of Magic in an hour.]


    [Swordsman: See you then.]


    Rayleigh stopped looking off in a random direction while the others stared at him with confusion and interest. Ignoring thetterpletely he stated aloud, "They agreed to help."


    Killua was the first to ask, "Who are they?" He didn''t ask about the mysterious means since Ray would not have been purposefully vague if he was going to tell them anyways.


    Rayleigh answered, "Remember those weirdos you fought in the Hunter Exam? It''s three more guys like that."


    Biscuit asked, "Are they trying to clear the game?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Not exactly, though they do want certain cards. They want Staff of Judgement."


    Gon eximed, "That''s why you made a copy of it!"


    Rayleigh nodded. It was lucky they found it or it would make negotiating more of a pain.


    Killua asked, "What about the other seven participants?"


    Rayleigh said, "We''ll make a copy of number 086 and use that."


    Gon opened his book to check the card Ray referred to. It was one of the Imposed Slot Cards they already had.


    [086 Quiver of Frustration A-11


    You can cast as many "Leaves" as you have arrows. Ites with 10 arrows, and one will be used each time you cast "Leave."]


    Biscuit looked at the card in Gon''s book and nodded. That would work. Plenty of yers wanted to leave the ind, but weren''t strong enough to beat up the ticket guy or never found a Leave Spell Card. It wouldn''t be difficult to find seven losers who would do anything to get out of the game and get them to fill in the spots for a chance to escape.


    After finishing their seafood the group headed for the City of Magic to meet up with their new partners.


    The moment they arrived, Rayleigh turned his head to the side and spotted a trio of kids their age. The one who stood between them had ck hair and brown eyes. He seemed to be the strongest. The one to his right actually had grey hair and was squinting for some reason. And the remaining one had brown hair and blue eyes and a cocky expression.


    Noticing where Rayleigh was staring, the others of his group looked over and spotted the three kids as well before walking over.


    Rayleigh introduced themselves. "Hi. I''m Swordsman. This is Gon. He is the son of the game''s creator and wants to beat the game to find a clue to hunt down his dad. This is Killua. He is a retired professional assassin. This is Biscuit, our teacher. And this is Goreinu, the extra."


    Everyone ignored Goreinu''s crestfallen face at the introduction and looked back and forth between the kids and Ray with interest, wondering why he introduced them like that.


    The ck-haired kid stepped up and said, "I''m Demon Hunter. This is Poison King. And this is Green Lantern."


    Killua asked, "You guys chose weird nicknames too?"


    Demon Hunter looked over Killua for a moment before answering, "Pretty much. I heard about you from Lightning Lord. You remember him from the Hunter Exam, right?"


    Killua looked confused for a moment before realizing they were probably referring to the guy who could turn into lightning.


    Before the conversation could be led into more awkward questions, Rayleigh exined the situation to the trio.


    Demon Hunter nodded and asked, "Alright. How do you want to y this?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Safely. Give up six of the first seven matches, give up the Razor Match, and win the rest. Worst case scenario, it takes us two attempts. We''ll recruit people who can lose the matches from our side."


    Gon quickly interjected, "Wait, you want to lose the first matches? But we can win them!"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "You are too trusting Gon. They are pirates. We should prepare for the worst."


    Green Lantern arrogantly stated, "You said Razor yed Volleyball? I could beat him with both hands behind my back."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "If we can''t win one of the first six, you can try. Otherwise, we''ll stick to this n."


    Green Lantern looked like he was about to argue but was stopped by a hand gesture from Demon Hunter who said, "You''re paying us, so you make the call. However, if it takes more than one attempt, we''ll be asking for an additional fee."


    Rayleigh nodded, "As long as the reason for the failure of a previous attempt is not on your side, that can be discussed."


    Demon Hunter held out a hand and Rayleigh took it for a shake.


    From behind, Poison King asked, "So when are you gonna attack?"


    Rayleigh answered, "We''ll recruit some guys to fight the first few rounds tomorrow and if we get seven right away, we''ll do so that night and meet back up here and use Apany to head to the port city."


    Plenty of yers praying for a Leave hung around Masadora since this was the only ce you could buy magic cards anyways.


    Gon asked, "Hey, why are you guys ying the game? I''m looking for my dad, but what about you?"


    Demon Hunter gave a pensive expression before answering, "My dad told me to train here for a while. Poison King and Green Lantern''s parents know my dad and they agreed to send them with me. Our parents are all Hunters and my dad owns a copy of Greed Ind."


    That answer satisfied the group, but Biscuit seemed more than a little thoughtful by it.


    The groups separated with Goreinu staying in Masadora to see if he could look for the extra yers himself.


    Biscuit asked, "So what''s the n? You seemed to have something in mind?"


    Rayleigh nodded and admitted aloud, "I got a bad feeling every time Gon wanted to check out those Bandits in the woods. I think they''ll give us a good card, but after they do, we''ll be attacked for it. So we''ll gather the seven yers, then get that card, quickly return to Masadora, and then all go to the Port City and fight the pirates. After that, we''ll have two cards they need, so they''ll definitely attack us. They should attack Demon Hunter''s group as well."


    Killua said, "That''s sneaky of you to drag them into this, but if those guys are as strong as the weirdos from the Hunter Exam, we might be able to beat them if we work together."


    Rayleigh scoffed, "If things go bad, I''ll just cut off their arms and legs." He wasn''t going to let his friends get hurt.


    By the morning of the next day, Goreinu had sessfully gathered seven scrub looking guys with the promise of using Leave on them if they helped get a card for them.


    That afternoon, Rayleigh and the group headed for the forest north of Antokiba and met back up with the Bandits. Unsurprisingly, they were all still sick. Rayleigh asked if they were willing to put their faith into his hands, and since he had given them just about everything he had thest time they met without receiving anything back, they were willing to do so. Each of the Bandits turned into a card that was essentially cursed. One by one, Gon and Rayleigh picked up each card and the effect of Pdin''s Ne went into action, removing the curse on the card, changing the Sick Viger Cards into Healthy Viger cards.


    Once every bandit was cured, they all reverted back into bandits and celebrated. The head bandit presented Rayleigh with a box and said, "Thank you so much! Take this as proof of our gratitude."


    Rayleigh opened the box and it revealed a gemstone ring that sparkled for a moment before being turned into a card.


    [075 Wild Luck Alexandrite A-20


    Its owner will get to have once-in-a-lifetime experiences, though you cannot choose whether they''re for better or for worse...]


    Rayleigh put it into Gon''s book and immediately used the S-Rank Spell card, Fortress, on the page the card was in. With that, no one could steal it directly.


    [1035 Fortress S-10


    Cards inserted in slots on target Imposed Slot page are permanently protected against stealing and destruction spells as long as they remain in the slots (Free Slot pages cannot be chosen).]


    Keeping to the n, they returned to Masadora and met up with Goreinu and the sevenme yers along with Demon Hunter, Poison King, and Green Lantern.


    With a quick use of Apany, they returned to the port city and made their way back to the Lighthouse where Razor and the Pirates were held up. Rayleigh wondered if they expected them to return the next day.


    *Author''s Note*


    They will be finishing the game earlier than canon. In canon, the only reason Bomber didn''t attack them right after they got the card was plot armor. Seriously. He could literally tell that big guy was injured. Hell, with the exception of Biscuit, they were all injured. The reason he imed didn''t attack was because he thought the big guy had some hidden cards. (which he didn''t) and wanted to y it safe. But without the big guy, there''s a 100% chance he wouldn''t wait.


    Technically, if the game finishes this early, the rich guy hiring them might have been in time for his girlfriend not to die, but I''m killing her off anyways, since there is no Kite or Chimera Ant Arc if they don''t get the cards.


    Her sacrifice is, as Dumbledore would say, For the Greater Good!


    I am powered by stones and reviews.

 Chapter 42: Dodgeball

    Chapter 42: Dodgeball


    Chapter 42 Dodgeball


    "We need background music."


    Killua looked at the oddly named Green Lantern and asked, "What are you talking about?"


    "You know, epic background music. This is a game, and we''re going into a boss battle, right? Where''s the epic background music to bring up the mood?"


    Rayleigh suggested, "You can ask the leader of the pirates if he can put something on."


    Rayleigh knocked on the door to the warehouse built into the lighthouse that was the Pirate''s base/gymnasium.


    Other than Rayleigh''s group, Goreinu, and Demon Hunter''s trio of yers, they had seven scrubs recruited as ce holders. Each was told they wouldpete in a game and could immediately forfeit. Since travel-type effects could not be used wisely indoors, they would wait at the side until the games were over, and Rayleigh would use arrows from the Quiver of Frustration to cast Leave on them, allowing them to exit the game.


    The warehouse doors were wide open, so they re-entered the building and walked down the only pathway through the hall that led to the gym.


    Razor had already sensed their approach and walked over to the group. "Oh? So soon? Since we have some unfamiliar faces, I''ll exin the rules once more. Fifteen representatives from each side will fight. One person, one win. The group that gets eight victories wins, but we choose the fighting style. If your group wins, we will leave the ind. Is that okay?"


    Although this was a real living person, he was still maintaining his identity as an NPC, so he dutifully repeated every line of the rules just as he did yesterday.


    Rayleigh answered, "Of course. Who is first?"


    Boxer boy from the night before called out, "I''m up."


    Rayleigh looked over the scrubs who came with and motioned for one of them to go up. The nervous extra gulped before nodding and walking into the boxing ring at the gym''s corner.


    Theck of a will to fight annoyed some of the yers, but Rayleigh''s empathy told him that this man was scared and tired. Like many of the other scrubs, this guy had been in this game for years, unable to move forward or backward. Someone had cast the spell on him that let the caster permanently know if this guy got any good cards, so anytime the guy tried advancing in the game, he was ambushed and robbed. This happened time and time and time again. His spirit had been well and truly smashed, and he never wanted to see another card for the rest of his life.


    As before, the boxer exined the rules, but the moment Razor stated for the match to begin, the yer said, "I give up!" and jumped out of the ring.


    The boxer pirate was understandably confused, but Razor looked thoughtful before stating, "Due to forfeit, that''s our first victory."


    The second match was won by the bowling pirate via forfeit against the next assigned scrub. The same happened with the Free Throw Pirate.


    A fourth pirate did not step forward right away. It was obvious what the yers were doing. They would lose the first seven matches so they could win thest eight. Although they were pirates, the three who won by forfeit did not look happy. These so-called NPCs had been waiting here since the game''s conception ten years ago, doing nothing but practice this whole time for a chance to prove themselves. They wanted to win against someone worth beating. As expected of pirates, they started arguing.


    Razor ended the argument by stating, "Those who won a match yesterday will go first, so those who didn''t even get to fight can go afterward. Bopobo, you''re up."


    The sumo pirate gritted his teeth in silence and slowly walked over to the sumo ring. Before getting there, he looked over at Killua and shouted, "Get over here, you damn brat! Unless you scared and gonna go home and cry to your mamma!"


    Killua shook his head with a smirk but didn''t move. He motioned for one of thenky extras to step forward. A single look into the guy''s eyes made everyone know he would run at the first chance, and there was nothing the sumo could do to stop him.


    Seeing that his chance for revenge waspletely denied to him, the fat pirate did the unthinkable. He took off his silly pirate hat. Now he was just a burnt fat man.


    The burnt fat-man threw said hat to the ground and said, "Fuck this! I ain''t followin'' no more of yer directions! From now on, you''ll let me do what I want."


    With fire in his eyes, the former sumo pirate stepped closer to Killua, his fingers twitching threateningly with each step. He said, "Listen squirt, get yer ass outside. This burn hurts every time I look at you."


    Killua obviously wasn''t scared in the slightest. His mother was far more terrifying than this guy. For rification, Killua asked, "Outside? I''m not ying your game though."


    Two pirates tried to hold the fat man back and caution him, but the hatred in his eyes burned even brighter. He shouted, "Fuck this Game! The Game is over! I''m gonna kill you right now you fuckin'' brat!"


    Observing from the side, Razor stated calmly, "That''s a breach of contract. You''re going back to jail, Bopobo."


    Bopobo spit at the ground in front of Razor and asked with venom, "You think so? I''m done with this piece of shit game!" He then turned to the other pirates and shouted, "Who''s with me?! This bastard is dead meat if we gang up on him. Then all we gotta do is use a boat or somethin'' and escape from this ind!"


    From the side, Razor calmly condensed a ball of Nen above his hand. Bopobo would have seen it if he was looking at him, but he was actuallymitting mutiny with his back turned to the captain.


    The moment Bopobo''s rant concluded, the ball of Nen in Razor''s hand was smashed toward Bopobo''s head. The former pirate didn''t even have time to react before his skull did a remarkable impression of a watermelon getting hit with a baseball bat.


    Gon, Killua, and the yers tensed and got into battle stances while the remaining scrubs looked like they were about to shit themselves.


    Not bothering with their expressions, Razor stated to the remaining stunned pirates, "You''re severely punished when you break the taboo. Didn''t I tell him that?"


    The pirate who tried to restrain Bopobo nervously answered, "Yeah... You did..."


    Razor shook his head with a wry smile. "Hm, idiot probably thought I wouldn''t kill him."


    Killua observed the corpse. He was probably surprised it didn''t turn into a card. He asked Razor, "Is that okay? He''s dead, but what about the sumo match?"


    There were only fifteen pirates in total, including Razor, and Razor had already stated that each person could only fight once.


    Razor answered, "Hm? Ah, about that. Oh well. You can have the win for that one."


    Killua shook his head and pointed at the scrub who had walked toward the Sumo ring earlier and said, "But he was the one who was going to fight, shouldn''t he get the win?"


    Razor looked at the extra who was going to take part in the sumo match. Just meeting Razor''s gaze made the man shriek like a little girl for a moment. Razor ignored it and said, "That''s fine, he can get the win."


    Rayleigh smiled at that. This way, even if they lost the Razor Match, they''d have eight wins total, so they''d seed in getting the card.


    The pirates were still rather stunned, and none had moved save the one Razor addressed earlier. The pirate leader addressed two others and told them to take Bopobo''s corpse away and clean up the blood and brains.


    Seeing ack of care for his former subordinate''s death, Gon eximed, "Why did you have to kill him? You were friends, right? What did he do that was so bad you had to kill him?!"


    Gon wasn''t actually expecting an answer since NPCs rarely answer questions outside their field of interest, so Gon was rather surprised when Razor answered, "Homicidal burry, homicidal rape, at least eleven counts total."


    Gon asked, "What? But.."


    Rayleigh decided he might as well say it now. "Hey Gon, I didn''t want to spoil it for you earlier, but since we''ll be ending the game soon, I should probably mention that Greed Ind isn''t in a virtual space. It''s a real location, and most of the inhabitants are real people. Hunters can get custody of criminals in some cases, so some of the people here are criminals serving time under the authority of a Hunter."


    Gon eximed, "What? No way! Why didn''t you say anything earlier?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "Ging didn''t want it spoiled."


    Razor watched this interaction from the side and asked, "Hey? Did you say your name was Gon? Are you Ging''s son?"


    Gon turned to Razor and asked, "Yeah. Do you know my father? If this is in the real world, is he somewhere on Greed Ind?"


    Razor smiled and released his aura. Every one of the scrubs fell to the ground as their legs gave out from the pressure Razor was giving off. Though it looked like he was getting ready for battle, Razor still sounded calm as he said, "If youe, don''t hold back. That''s what I was told by your dad."


    He looked over the group again and said, "You guys nned on giving up the first seven matches and winning thest eight right? But since we just gave up the sumo match, you could even give up the match against me and win if your members are strong enough. If that''s the case, let''s change things up a bit. I''ll y the next game, and the theme is Dodgeball."


    Razor''s nen dispersed and formed nine humanoid figures. Each appeared to have razor-like teeth and wore silly ck hats that covered the top half of their heads. The shape and sizes of the figures varied, and each had a number on their chest and hat that went from zero to seven.


    Razor continued, "Choose eight yers from your side. The winning side gets eight victories."


    Killua nearly shouted, "What?!"


    Demon Hunterughed aloud, "Ha! So that was the reason."


    Gon gave a quick look at Rayleigh who seemed unbothered by the turnaround. Rayleigh had no idea what was going to happen, but his sealed metaknowledge insisted on him not spending the good yers before Razor''s was unexpected, but not unwinnable. Now it was all of their best against one guy. The problem was that guy was very, very strong.


    Green Lantern stepped forward and asked, "Can you turn on a stereo or something for some background music? You''re the final boss right? Shouldn''t there be some badass background beats?"


    Razor smiled and said, "Sorry, we didn''t build a speaker into the gym."


    All of the yers looked a bit depressed at the revtion. Even Rayleigh was disappointed. Though he would never tell them, he had always wanted to y Dodgeball to the song, ''Can''t Touch This.''


    The dodgeball court was the same size as a tennis court without the, and eight yers joined one side while Razor and his nen figures stood on the other. Once they were all gathered, Razor exined the rules.


    The game would start with seven members on each inner court and an eighth member standing in the opponent''s outer court. There were four areas, yer''s inner court, opponent''s inner court, yer''s outer court, and opponent''s outer court. If a ball moved from one court into another and hit someone in the inner court, if the ball was not caught before it made contact with a different court, that person in the inner court was out and moved into the outer court surrounding their opponent. A team won if the other team''s inner court was emptied.


    If a ball that was thrown into a different area hit more than one person and no one caught it before it hit the ground or left the area, everyone the ball hit was out. The only exception was that, after hitting someone, if the ball crossed the court and hit an opponent who didn''t catch it before it hit the ground, then only the person it hit after crossing the court was out.


    Green Lantern asked for rification, "So if you catch the ball, the person who threw the ball isn''t out? The only way to get out is to be hit by a ball thrown by someone else and not catch it?"


    Razor answered, "Yes, though if you bounce the ball back at someone from your side of the court and it hits them and they don''t catch it, then they are out."


    Rayleigh asked, "And if you throw a ball at someone, it bounces back to your side of the court, and someone on your side catches it, the person who it hit first is still out?"


    "That''s right, because it crossed to a different area without being caught by someone in your area."


    The yers were fine with that. Most of them yed Dodgeball in their past lives with the rule that if your opponent caught your throw, you were out. Ack of this rule actually made things easier.


    The next rule was that once per game, someone who was outside of the court could call a Back toe into the court. This could be done at any time as long as there was at least one other person on the court.


    The game started, and Gorienu volunteered to stand behind Razor''s team in the opponent''s outer court.


    The nen guy with the number zero acted as the ref and asked for one yer from each side toe up. He would toss the ball up, and both sides would have a chance to get it.


    Rayleigh stepped up before anyone else could. The nen yer with the number six stood before him, this was the tallest one.


    The ref called out, "The throw-in will signal the start of the match, ready? Go!"


    He threw the ball into the air, but Rayleigh stayed put. The number six nen guy didn''t bother to catch the ball or jump up, in fact, he leaped backward to rejoin the others in a formation.


    The ball came back down, and Rayleigh caught it and looked over at Razor. Thetter said, "I''ll give you the first serve."


    Rayleigh tossed the ball up a few times to get a gist of its weight. It was actually a volleyball, not the round, hollow, red rubber dodgeballs of his previous childhood. It was also made with special materials, and Rayleigh doubted he''d be able to put a scratch in it using anything but his lightsaber.


    Still, Rayleigh wanted to see how much stronger he''d gotten and this was a good chance. Rayleigh tossed the ball high into the air and reeled it back a fist. He concentrated most of his aura into his fist with the remainder going into his muscles to make them tougher. The moment the ball came down, Rayleigh smashed his fist into the ball which soared forward toward Razor''s head. Razor caught it with both hands and slid two meters back.


    Rayleigh sighed. It was worth a shot. The other seven didn''t matter. If they couldn''t get Razor out, the game would not end well.


    Demon Hunter shouted, "Was that all you had?"


    Rayleigh shrugged. He had specialized in speed, not strength. He was confident he could throw faster than anyone else in the group, but his strikes may not be the hardest. If Razor could catch his throws, then he could catch anyone else''s.


    Green Lantern walked up and shouted to Razor, "Hey, aim that right here. I won''t move a muscle." He stood up straight and put both hands behind his back.


    Razor seemed more amused than angry at the tant provocation and had no problemplying with the twelve-year-old child''s confident request.


    Razor reeled back and threw the ball directly at Green Lantern. The ball had all the force of a cannonball and was saturated with Nen.


    Rayleigh couldn''t easily affect the forward momentum of the ball with telekinesis, but he felt that shifting it to the side would be easy, and he could probably block it if he went all out.


    The ball crashed into Green Lantern with a deafening boom, but Green Lantern didn''t move the tiniest bit.


    In fact, upon closer observation, one would see that the ball had not actually touched the brown-haired yer. It stopped directly in front of him, having impacted something that looked like a thick, green pane of ss that materialized between him and the ball.


    The ball imparted its momentum and looked like it was going to bounce back, but Rayleigh found that after imparting its momentum, the Nen on the ball heavily dispersed, so he had no problem using telekinesis to keep the ball where it was so it would not bounce back to the other side of the court.


    Seeing the ball hover in front of his barrier, Green Lantern uncrossed the fingers he kept behind his back to disable the green pane of ss and pick up the ball just as Rayleigh released control over it.


    Rather than throw it, he tossed it to Demon Hunter and said, "Your turn."


    Rayleigh added, "Don''t bother with the extras. He''ll use the Back after getting hit, so Razor needs to get hit at least twice for us to win."


    The ck-haired Demon Hunter stepped up and said, "At least twice huh? Well, I can get one of them. Great Creation. Homing. Charging. Cannon."


    Arge, cannon-like device appeared on the ground with a puff of smoke. On the back of it was a wheel. Demon Hunter walked in front of it and pushed the volleyball into the cannon''s mouth and asked the ref, "Since this is made of Nen, it''s not against the rules, right?"


    The ref with the number zero on his face answered, "As long as you are only firing the ball, then it is allowed. Using Nen weapons to attack without the use of the ball is a vition."


    Demon Hunter nodded and then walked to the back and started turning the wheel. He said, "I doubt half power is enough, so I''m going all out. You''ll have to take care of the second shot yourselves."


    Killua asked, "What is that?"


    Poison King answered, "Didn''t you hear the boss? It''s a Homing Charging Cannon. Boss''s Great Creation can create anything using three or less words. Since it''s homing, it can''t be dodged. He is charging it right now using his aura."


    Demon Hunter did in fact look like he was getting more and more tired as he continued to turn the wheel behind the cannon. It seemed he was directly transferring his aura into the cannon and amplifying it. Since a crank-powered charging and energy transfer system had a lot of conditions, like only working if you had the time to do so, then it would be appropriately powerful.


    Without a single sign of warning, the cannon abruptly fired the volleyball at Razor. It was even faster than Rayleigh''s shot But Razor wasn''t at an ordinary level. He took the impact while bending back and jumping. The force of the impact was absorbed and turned into rotational motion as Razor did three backflips beforending safely. The ball had risen halfway to the roof, but looked like it was going tond in Razor''s court, giving them more than enough time to catch it.


    At least that was what it looked like until the ball was quickly pulled from where it was toward Rayleigh who caught it before their opponents could react.


    The ref shouted, "Razor made contact with the ball but the ball crossed into the other court and was caught by the opponents. Razor is out!"


    Without taking a step, Razor calmly stated, "Back."


    The ref eximed, "Razor has used his team''s Back and shall remain in the inner court."


    The cannon vanished into a puff of smoke, and Demon Hunter lookedpletely wiped. Rayleigh asked, "How are you doing?"


    He answered, "I''ll recover."


    Green Lantern stood next to him, obviously intending on protecting him in the case of any approaching dodgeball.


    Rayleigh asked, "Hey Lantern, can you make one of those on the other side of the court?"


    "Yeah. What do you have in mind?"


    "Ricochet foot shot."


    "Gotcha." He looked at the targets and said, "Aim for number six''s hip, and I''ll take care of the rest."


    Rayleigh threw another super shot. The ball looked like it was heading for Razor, but suddenly shifted to the side toward the number six nen guy. An instant before it hit, a barrier appeared, and the ball bounced off and came at Razor from the side.


    Unfortunately, no matter how sneaky the feint was, Razor still reacted fast enough and turned in time to catch the ball that was about to hit his foot.


    Biscuit approached Rayleigh and said, "He''s using En. You''re not gonna sneak anything past him and any bounced shots won''t be strong enough to send him flying."


    Gon then said, "I''ll take the next hit."


    No one argued, but what Razor did next was surprising. He ordered two of his nen guys out of the inner court where they met up with the nen guy already in the outer court and stood in a triangle formation.


    Killua asked, "Can they do that? Ray didn''t even hit them."


    The ref said, "yers can voluntarily exit the inner court and enter the outer court, but they cannot return to the inner court upon doing so."


    Seeing that they were now surrounded by a formation, the group inwardly tensed up. There was a reason Rayleigh had avoided sending any of the nen guys out and only targeted Razor, but Razor made it pointless and sent them out himself.


    Razor said, "You guys have been having a lot of fun at my expense. It''s time for the counterattack to begin."


    Razorunched the ball at one of the nen guys surrounding the inner court. With Razor standing in front of them, they formed a square around the yers and passed the ball around them over and over. The moment one had it, it was passed to the next, and the next, and then back to Razor who passed it back to the first. The speed of movement made the ball incredibly difficult to track, and what made it weirder was that it was spinning.


    Rayleigh could adjust the course of a straight-thrown object, but a spiraling object greatly resisted any movement to the side. It would be fine if it were a long throw, but the distance between each nen guy was too small for his telekinesis to have a great effect.


    Rayleigh pondered for a moment how the momentum and spin were maintained through the passes, but concluded that it was a skill built into the Nen men by Razor.


    Rayleigh suddenly felt a sense of danger from the side and used abination of Telekic Push and Ken to push away the threat while strengthening his guard. The heavy push did in fact manage to reduce the force by half, allowing his stance to take the remainder of the energy and catch the ball directed at him from the side sessfully.


    Gon shouted, "Alright Ray!" while Killua shouted, "Nice catch!"


    Rayleigh then stood at the head of the court and allowed the ball to float in front of him. "Gon. Give Razor your best regards."


    Gon nodded and stepped forward. Only strength could take down Razor and since Rayleigh''s strength wasn''t enough, only Gon could do it.


    Since Rayleigh was only holding up the ball with telekinesis, Gon could strike it with all his force without worrying about holding back.


    "Rock. Paper. Scissors.." After starting his chant, his aura focused into his fist and amplified further. Then it seemed to amplify again. Rayleigh rolled his eyes internally. This was Main Character power, right here. Still, Rayleigh said, "Have you been skipping meals? Is that all you got? put some oomph into it!"


    Unsurprisingly, Main Character Power kicked in again and the concentrated aura reinforced itself to another level under Ray''s provocation. Standing next to Gon was like walking on the sun.


    Razor''s eyes widened like he was looking at a monster. The yers had various expressions, but most of them had wry smirks as they too recognized main character power. Biscuit and Killua both just smiled.


    Gon shouted, "ROCK!" and smashed the ball with his fist. It didn''t fly as fast as Rayleigh''s blow, but all the aura Gon used was fully transmitted into the volleyball, granting it greater momentum and power.


    Razor could have dodged. After all, this was dodgeball. If it was another person, he might have. But this was Ging''s son, and dodging the confrontation wasn''t something he could do here, as Ging specifically asked him not to hold back.


    Since a soft bounce-up wouldn''t work due to Rayleigh''s telekinesis, Razor put all of his force into deflecting the ball back where it came, directly at Gon.


    Gon braced himself for impact, but was disappointed when a barrier appeared in front of him, stopping the ball in its tracks.


    Rayleigh gave Green Lantern a peace sign before using telekinesis to pick up the ball.


    The ref shouted, "Razor is out."


    Although Razor was no longer in the inner court, the game was not over yet. There were still four nen guys in the inner court. If any of them got the ball, they could pass it back to Razor in the outer court. From the inner court, Razor could only throw from the front. From the outer court, he had more freedom and could be even more dangerous.


    Killua walked up and said, "It''s my turn next."


    Rayleigh passed Killua the ball, and he wound up to throw. The remaining Nen yers were those numbered four, five, six, and seven.


    Killua threw a fast ball at number five, but before the ball could strike him, the remaining four nen guys merged into a single massive nen guy with the number 22 on his chest and head. Nen guy 22 was rather bloated and absorbed the impact from Killua''s toss without taking a single step back. He then tossed the ball to Razor.


    Killuained, "Are they allowed to do that?"


    The ref answered, "Yes. Merging is allowed, and so is splitting. But he cannot split into more than four people, and if he gets Out while merged, all four are out and the game is over."


    Razor stood behind the group and threw the volleyball with all the power of a cannon shot. Everyone''s focus waspletely on Razor.


    Green Lantern made another barrier to block the trajectory, but the ball was thrown with a sideways spin causing it to bend in flight around the barrier. Biscuit jumped out of the way as the ball passed by her to the opponent''s inner court.


    The bloated number 22 received the ball with a great bounce and sent it flying back toward their own court. It looked like it was going toward Gon, but it maintained that same sideways spin. Rayleigh knew where it was actually going and jumped to push Green Lantern out of the way before the ball struck him from behind after curving unexpectedly toward him.


    The ball continued flying until it was caught by Razor once more.


    The ref said, "yer Biscuit is out!"


    Everyone looked over and saw that, although Biscuit had dodged the throw, her dress was torn, and clothes counted when it came to dodgeball hits.


    Killua frowned and looked over to Poison King and asked, "Anything you can do to help?"


    Poison King shrugged before replying, "I''m sure you can guess what I can do from my name. It''s not particrly useful in this setting."


    In this dodgeball game, you could only attack your opponent with the ball. If you could attack with anything, Razor could just make the same nen ball he used to kill Bopobo and try to ughter them all. So even if Poison King could make poison, using it on Razor would be a vition of the rules.


    Green Lantern said, "I got him this time," and stood up before Razor. At that distance, he could only throw straight.


    Razor didn''t know how strong those barriers were, but if he didn''t take this guy out, he''d lose, so he went all out. Number 22 divided back into Four, Five, Six, and Seven. Five, Six, and Seven dissolved into aura within the inner court. One, Two, and Three in the outer court also dissolved into aura, leaving only number Four in the opponent''s inner court and Razor in the outer court. All the dispersed aura was absorbed back into Razor.


    The ref said, "Numbers Five, Six, and Seven have voluntarily left the inner court and may not return."


    Razor charged up the volleyball with everything he had and threw it straight at the Barrier user.


    Green Lantern smirked confidently. Perhaps there was a force that could break his barrier. But this certainly wasn''t it. The barrier formed between Razor and Green Lantern and took the impact of Razor''s throw without the slightest problem. Poison King then picked up the ball and threw it at the remaining yer, number Four. The Nen yer was unable to catch the ball that struck him before it hit the ground.


    The ref shouted, "Number Four is Out! The match is over. Team Ray Wins!"


    Razor smiled and walked over to their group. "We have lost, so we''ll leave the ind as agreed."


    Rayleigh asked, "Where will you go?"


    Razorughed and answered, "I''m not really leaving. That''s just the setting." He then turned to Gon and said, "You have some questions, right?"


    Gon nodded and walked over.


    Rayleigh approached the extras and said, "We''re gonna rest here for a moment before heading out, then I''ll cast leave on all of you, okay?"


    The extra scrubs looked extremely relieved at that.


    Rayleigh then took out his book and approached the yers. "You guys need the staff in item form or card form?"


    Demon Hunter answered, "Item form is fine."


    Rayleigh removed his Pdin''s ne before taking out the Staff of Judgement and saying, "Gain." This was a copy, so the card would be destroyed if touched while wearing Pdin''s ne, and all the yers wore one.


    Before handing it over to Demon Hunter, Rayleigh held the staff in the air and said, "Genthru." Sparks of lights shined around the staff for a moment before dimming.


    Demon Hunter said, "That''s bold of you. Are you sure you''ll be okay?"


    He asked since Staff of Judgement was not the safest item to use.


    [082 Staff of Judgment A-15


    Raise this staff in the air while calling out the name of someone you want to punish, and cmity will befall the one of you who hasmitted more bad deeds, the target or yourself.]


    Rayleigh replied, "I have never killed anyone in my life, have never harmed an innocent, and Genthru is the Bomber guy that killed a lot of people. In any case, if you want to stick around to get your copy of Plot of Beach, we''ll probably encounter him since he needs that card and one other we have."


    Demon Hunter smiled, "How unfortunate for him."

 Chapter 43: The Final Battle of Greed Island.

    Chapter 43: The Final Battle of Greed Ind.


    *Author''s Note*


    Bet you weren''t expecting this.


    Chapter 43 The Final Battle of Greed Ind.


    Razor said he''d leave the lighthouse for a few hours, and if they wanted to get the card, they''d have to return to the girl who gave them the quest at that time. If they dyed or tried to wait too long, the pirates would return to the warehouse anyways, and they''d have to do the quest all over again.


    After using the Quiver of Frustration to cast Leave on all the extras, Rayleigh led the group over to the woman who asked them to get rid of Razor and his fourteen devils and told her that the pirates had been defeated and chased from the lighthouse.


    Hearing this, the woman started walking to the lighthouse, presumably to check if their word was good. Upon seeing that the structure was empty, the woman entered anyway and found the stairs to the top of the lighthouse.


    The woman exined, "It''s always darkest under the lighthouse. The entrance to Poseidon''s Cavern was right in front of them this whole time, in this very lighthouse."


    Once they reached the top, they saw a view of the whole ocean and the coastline extending into the distance. The woman picked a window and bent half over the side to reach something on the outer wall. When Gon and the rest peeked over another window to see what she was doing, they noticed that she was pressing a hidden switch.


    The bright ray of the lighthouse condensed into a line and pointed at a specific location off the coast.


    The woman looked out the window and seemed rather nostalgic for a moment before she continued, "The beam of light makes a spot on the ocean floor where the underwater cave will be. But unlike the rumors, there was never any treasure. It''s a Holy Cave and only a few select fishermen knew of its location. That legend about the treasure is nothing but an exaggerated myth."


    The woman leaned against the window and shook her head with a sigh. "Of course, Razor''s pirates didn''t believe this. I always wanted to tell them the truth, but they''d just think I was lying. Not that I ever could. It''s a holy ce to us. Those of us who were born from the ocean cannot do anything that would defile it."


    Gon looked mncholic about the situation, but Killua and Rayleigh rolled their eyes at his reaction since this was just a video game scenario and no one actually died.


    The woman finished, "I can finally look out at the sea again. The sunrise, the ships docking, and the ocean surface reflecting a rainbow of colors. To me, this ocean view is better than any treasure."


    And with that line, the woman vanished in a puff of smoke and turned into a card.


    The card was quickly ced into Killua''s Book Goreinu and Demon Hunter both used Clone with Killua as the target. Since his Imposed Slots were empty save the card, both copies of Clone turned into Plot of Beach.


    As the card was taken from Killua and ced in Gon''s book, Goreinu suggested, "Since you have the original copy, you can use Fake to transform it into another card. That way if someone checks the contents of your book, it will look like a different card and you can hide the fact that you have it."


    That was only true for the original. If an original card was turned into something else using the spell card Fake, it would revert back if touched by someone wearing Pdin''s Ne. But if a card copied with Clone was touched by someone with Pdin''s Ne, it would be destroyed. So only this method of hiding cards could only be done with originals, not copies.


    Rayleigh shook his head. "No need. Why collect the other Imposed Slot cards when the collectors cane to us? Now we have the perfect bait. You might wanna stick around for a bit before heading off Goreinu."


    Goreinu paled a bit at the implication. Since his copy could not be hidden with Fake, he was an easy target the moment he was on his own.


    Rayleigh then asked Demon Hunter, "Want to stick around for a bit and see the effects of Staff of Judgement?"


    Demon Hunterughed and answered, "You Jedi are really good with negotiation. Yeah, alright. Let''s see what happens."


    Killua asked, "You are really sure Genthru will show up to take our cards?"


    Biscuit answered for him, "Why wouldn''t he? We look like easy pickings, right?"


    Gon gritted his teeth and said, "Genthru is mine."


    The yers collectively rolled their eyes at the main character and Biscuit said, "You probably won''t be able to take him on your own, so Rayleigh will be your backup."


    Ray nodded and replied, "I''ll use telekinesis to hold him in ce when he tries to use Little Flower, so you can use that chance to hit him. Though I will cut him into bite-sized pieces if you let your guard down."


    Rayleigh''s Force Stasis could, for the moment, be negated through the use of a strong Ren over the whole body, but ording to Biscuit, when Genthru used Little Flower, he had to concentrate a lot of aura into his hands to protect themselves from the impact of his own technique. This meant less aura over the rest of his body, making him more vulnerable to Force Stasis.


    The group left the lighthouse and casually walked out of the port city. Everyone maintained battle readiness.


    Right on time, a shot of energy descended from the sky carrying three yers andnded before them, one of whom was the familiar sses-wearing schemer.


    The man poured out his killing intent and said, "Hello there kiddies. Why don''t we make a deal? You give me Wild Luck Alexandrite and Plot of Beach, and I guarantee that you''ll keep your lives."


    Gon shouted, "There''s no way we''d agree to that, you bastard!"


    Rayleigh calmly replied, "How about this? We all take out our books and kick the crap out of each other. The winner gets all the cards in the loser''s books."


    Genthru and hisrades all shook at the suggestion. They couldn''t help it. Each one startedughing. Not that Rayleigh could me them. The only adults were Biscuit, someone skilled at looking defenseless, and Goreinu, who already looked like he would run at his first chance. The rest of their group consisted of six twelve-year-old children. They were about as intimating as a stuffed teddy bear.


    Gon''s patience wasn''t high enough to wait for the viins to stopughing and continue their threatening monologue. He directly jumped over to smash Genthru''s face in.


    The seasoned killer opened his palm and positioned it to grab Gon''s face, but before Gon came into range, he felt as if both of his arms and torso were being held in ce by multiple vice grips.


    Gon hadplete faith in Rayleigh''s abilities and did not waver in his charge. Using the opening Ray provided, Gon avoided the outstretched hands and smashed his K covered fist into Genthru''s face.


    Genthru''srades also had faith in their friend and didn''t move to defend him. Neither expected the upset as their response to Gon''s straightforward charge was tough harder, not put up their guard.


    Killua and Biscuit attacked the pair and Ray kept pace with Gon''s charge to cover his friend''s back while the other trio of yers watched with amusement. Green Lantern had already gotten out a card that turned into a bag of popcorn.


    Rayleigh had long since formed his eighth Will, but the ninth was proving very troublesome to form. He knew it was better not to rush though since forcing something without understanding the consequence was a recipe for disaster. Still, that meant in a fight he had eight separate minds to use simultaneously. He only needed one to move his body so the other seven could be used to stack multiple instances of Force Stasis or use other skills together.


    Rayleigh had one use irvoyance to pay attention to the surroundings, one to use Battle Precognition to recognize any danger in advance, one to use Force Valor to make his body move fast enough to keep up with the fight, and three others to use Force Stasis on Genthru to prevent him from attacking or defending while Gon pummeled him.


    Rayleigh also kept his Lightsaber in his hand to amplify his connection to the Force and to use it if needed.


    It only took Genthru a moment to understand that someone was using a method of control to impede his movement, so he used a full-body Ren to break free of Ray''s restrictions and dodge Gon''s next blow, and prepare to counter. However, Rayleigh mixed up his Force Stasis with random bits of telekinesis to shift Genthru''s bnce, cause him to miss Gon, or cause him to fail to dodge. Gon had no problems making use of them and continued to pound his face in.


    From an outside observer, it looked like Genthru was an amateur fighter getting his ass kicked by a twelve-year-old, but that wasn''t true in the slightest. It was just a terrible matchup.


    None of the Force Skills Rayleigh frequently used caused any damage. What they did was impede or hold the opponent while predicting their next action in advance. Such skills shone brightest when used in tangent with another fighter who was willing to inflict injuries on his opponent. I''ll hold him, you punch. And since Genthru had no way to stop Rayleigh''s interference, he could only try to outguess the choices of half a dozen independent minds creatively messing with him.


    Of course, Rayleigh could allow Genthru to damage him three times. Then he could use abination of Force Stasis and Telekinesis he came up with to twist the Bomber''s joints into pieces without the Force caring. But Genthru wasn''t the type of person you want to give even a single free shot to, much less three free shots and Gon wanted to smash Genthru''s face in personally.


    At this point, Genthru was actually panicking. He epted that he hadpletely misread the situation and that these kids were a serious threat. Gon was someone he considered an amateur at moving his aura, but his own level was brought down to Gon''s due to Rayleigh''s interference, leaving him no way out. Like all sessful killers, Genthru was a prudent man and didn''t consider it cowardly to run away and ambush his targetter.


    Genthru got some distance and said, "Book!" causing his book to appear. He picked up a card from his free slots and tried to use the Return Spell, but no sound came out of his mouth. Rayleigh had just used Force Muffle on him.


    Gon used the opening to smash Genthru''s face into the ground. Gon immediatelynded next to it and smashed his face in three more times.


    Rayleigh shouted, "Gon, stop!"


    Gon held his fist back when he realized that Genthru was knocked out. If he killed him, all his cards would vanish. Gon was still inexperienced at threat recognition and continued to beat Genthru down because he thought the man was still a danger to his life when he wasn''t. It was something to work on.


    Rayleigh continued, "Let''s finish this quickly. Get out your book, we''ll move all the cards from Genthru''s into yours before he wakes up."


    Gon had calmed down already and agreed. Biscuit and Killua were still fighting, but neither was trying to win. Dying the opponent until the cards were transferred was the win condition.


    One by one, Rayleigh flipped through each page of Genthru''s Book and passed over every card that Gon didn''t have in his own book.


    Rayleigh smiled quite broadly when he saw the first page of Genthru''s book. This really was a cmity for the Bomber. Two days ago, they learned that Genthru needed cards 002, 009, and 075. But now, on the first page of his book, number 009 was there. This meant that Genthru really did only need numbers 002 and 075. Unfortunately, all his hard work was now for nothing.


    The final card, number 099, which Gon did not have was skipped for the moment. Rayleigh continued to turn Genthru''s book and found some other good things, like two more copies of Angel''s Breath.


    [017 Angel''s Breath SS-3


    She cures one person of all wounds and ills, restoring them to perfect health. She will only appear once.]


    Such things were nice to have.


    After taking everything of value from Genthru''s book, thest card was ced into Gon''s Book.


    At that moment, a ringing sound came from the books. Even those without their books out found that their books had suddenly appeared. From the book, a familiar woman''s voice sounded out.


    [Attention all yers! As of today, there have finally appeared yers who have collected 99 cards in their imposed slots. Tomemorate this event, in ten minutes there will be a trivia game open to all yers on Greed Ind. There are 100 questions in total! All questions will be on the cards within the Imposed Slots. The yer with the highest score will win a prize. The prize is card no. 000, Ruler''s Blessing! Everyone please open your books and wait a few minutes.]


    "Genthru!" Bomber''srades got past Biscuit and Killua and ran toward Rayleigh and Gon once they realized they had been duped.


    Rayleigh motioned for Gon to step out of the way as they found the brutalized Genthru and checked to make sure he was still alive.


    They took a calm expression only for a moment when they found his pulse, but that calm turned into rage when they understood the state of theirrade.


    "YOU BASTARDS!"


    Rayleigh charged the pair and like Genthru, they were caught off guard by the momentary use of Force Stasis, preventing either from properly dodging the Lightsaber directed at them. In a single move, both of Genthru''srades were screaming in pain, clutching the seared stump where one of their arms used to be.


    At that moment, half a dozen shes of light descended from the sky, and numerous groups that had met Gon before used Apany to find him before the Quiz started. What they found when they arrived was the infamous Bomber on the ground and hisrades screaming in pain with their severed arms on the ground.


    Killua and Biscuit came over, and thetter got some ropes from her Book and used them to tie up the Bomber''s trio.


    The beaten and dismembered state of the killer trio dissuaded some of the more adventurous yers from trying anything hazardous to their health. Especially since Rayleigh kept his Lightsaber extended.


    Demon Hunter didn''t care about the threat. He walked up and politely asked, "Can I make a copy of Floating Stone and Recycling Room?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Sure, but you owe me a favor for both." Rayleigh had always considered the possibility of Demon Hunter fighting them for the cards. Demon Hunter was well aware of this and used it to force a settlement in order to obtain what he desired. Jedi weren''t the only ones capable of negotiation.


    With Gon''s permission, the card was moved from Gon''s book into Rayleigh''s and Clone used on it before the process was repeated with the other. Unfortunately, although they could make a copy of Recycling Room, they could not make a copy of Floating Stone. This implied that this card had reached its imposed slot limit.


    Demon Hunter sighed and said, "Guess we''ll be staying here a bit longer. See youter, Swordsman. And Gon, good luck finding your father."


    It was a general rule ofmon sense to befriend the Main Character, and since they avoided a fight, they intended to leave a good impression with them.


    Some of the surrounding yers approached and said if they won the Quiz and got no. 000, they would sell it to Gon for 2 billion. For a chance at quick money, none of them left even though they had no chance of getting the cards from Gon''s group.


    Biscuit wanted to end the game, so she said it was a good idea to pool their knowledge, but Gon and Killua refused and wanted topete with each other and see who would get a higher score on the quiz.


    Unfortunately for them, they had no chance at victory. The team that correctly acquired the most cards on their own was Tsezguerra''s group. If someone didn''t intend to cheat, they certainly would have won first ce. Rayleigh, however, fully intended to cheat. He decided the game would end today, so he briefly used Psychometry on every single card before he transferred it from Genthru''s book to Gon''s. His multiple minds were busy retaining the details of the cards since the Quiz for 000 was one of the things he knew wasing from the info he stole from Ging''s Hunter License.


    From their open books, the announcer started the quiz.


    [The questioning will now begin! The first question! About Patch of Forest, what was the name of the old man with the vital information?


    A. Hira


    B. Hida


    C. Hiso


    D. Hiyu


    E. Hima]


    Although it was multiple choice and you could select the answer from the back of the book, it was designed so that guessing the correct answer without having gotten it yourself would be nearly impossible.


    One by one, the questions continued. Those who got a copy of the card, traded for it, or stole it, had no reliable way to answer the questions other than a one-in-five random guess.


    At some point, a fellow wearing a massive cloak approached the bound Genthru and touched his shoulder for a moment before walking away. Rayleigh smiled. He knew that guy was still alive.


    After 100 questions, the final announcement was made.


    [It''s over! Now I''ll announce the name of the person who got the highest score! The highest score was 100 points out of a total of 100!! The name of the yer who achieved this is... yer Swordsman!]


    Gon and Killua showed expressions of joy and dismay. Joy at having the 100th card, and dismay at losing the quiz to Rayleigh.


    The surrounding yers lightly apuded. No one asked who Swordsman was when there was only a single person carrying a glowing sword among the gathered contestants.


    A small bird flew from overhead carrying a little envelope. It dropped it above Rayleigh so he could catch it and open it to reveal a card.


    [110 Ruler''s Invitation SS-1


    A letter which extends a warm invitation to visit the game''s capital city, Limeiro. A visit to this city''s castle is also included.]


    Gon and Killua looked at the card and said, "Only one person can go."


    Rayleigh handed the card to Gon and said, "I''ll meet up with Battera and ask him what three cards he wants. You can go meet the game''s creators and ask about your dad."


    Gon argued, "But you won it; shouldn''t you go?"


    Ray shook his head and said, "Not interested. I only did the quiz to prevent Tsezguerra from winning the final card."


    Killua looked at the card and said, "I''ve never been to Limeiro, though," and Gon added, "Neither have I."


    Biscuit stated, "Rayleigh and I have. I''ll take you both there and head for the arrival area to wait for Rayleigh when he returns."


    Rayleigh transferred all the cards from his book to Biscuit''s slots before using one of the two remaining arrows from the Quiver of Frustration on himself to cast Leave.


    Casting Leave doesn''t immediately send you out of the game, it sends you to the Way station, where you can select from a list of nodes to exit the game from. You did not have to specifically choose to exit from the same location you entered from. Still, Rayleigh chose to exit from the castle he entered from and appeared in front of the joy station he chose.


    He didn''t remove the Memory Card since he would be returning soon. Instead, he left the basement room and made his way up the stairs until he found a security guard.


    "Hey, we just beat Greed Ind, I need to speak with Battera."


    The man got out a radio and spoke into it for a bit before stating, "Follow me."


    Rayleigh was led by the security guard into the castle''s living space and a vast guest hall with somefy couches and a lot of tacky art and furniture.


    It took a full hour of waiting until someone entered the room. It wasn''t Battera. In fact, his outfit screamed Lawyer.


    The man sat down opposite Rayleigh and asked, "First, please give me your name and when you entered Greed Ind."


    "Rayleigh Rush. September 10th ofst year."


    The man pulled out several sheets of paper and looked through them before locating the name.


    "Ah. Here we are. And you say you have finished the game?"


    "That''s right. All 100 cards have been collected. I came to ask what three cards Battera wanted to take back."


    Thewyer remained silent in response to the posed question. Instead, he brought out a few more stacks of paper and said, "That won''t be necessary. You can sign here, here, and here."


    Rather than take the offered pen, Rayleigh read over the contract that was still warm from the printer. In essence, it said that Mr. Battera was breaking the terms of the contract. However even if he broke the contract, he still had to pay 40 Billion of the offered 50 Billion reward.


    Rayleigh asked, "Where is Mr. Battera? What happened?"


    Thewyer looked down the hall for a moment before sighing. He answered, "The cards he wanted were not for him, but for another who had resided in the hospital for some time now. Two days ago, her lifeline ceased. Mr. Battera has no more use for the cards and will not take them, but even if he breaks the contract, he is still required to pay 40 Billion Zennies."


    Rayleigh confirmed that the contract stated everything exactly as he said and signed it.


    Thewyer confirmed the signature and said, "Once the game is confirmed to have been beaten by our third party, the total amount of 40 billion Jennies will be deposited into your ounts."


    Rayleigh shook his head. "I was a part of a group of four under the name Swordsman. Please deposit 10 billion into each of the ounts for myself, Gon Freecss, Killua Zoldyck, and Biscuit Krueger. They all entered on the same day I did. In addition, if I may make a suggestion. If Mr. Battera wants nothing more to do with the games, please donate ownership of the consoles over to the Hunter Association."


    Thewyer got out the paper from before and marked down the three other names. Each yer provided a bank ount for the winnings if they won, so they already had ess to the banking information.


    In the game, it was possible to determine which yers were with others, so it wasn''t like a random person could im to be in Gon''s group. Besides, no yer knew that Battera didn''t want the cards before this point, so no one would have thought up the idea of pretending to be the winners. Even if they did get fooled, thewyers had full confidence in getting the money back. To them, 40 Billion wasn''t much.


    Once everything was done, Rayleigh headed back down into the basement, found his Joystation, and used Ren over it to initiate the teleportation.


    Again, he found himself in the starting zone, where he greeted the Game Master and headed down the stairs to meet Biscuit.


    She asked, "What cards did he want?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "None of them. He changed his mind. We can keep the cards."


    "What?! What about the money?!"


    Rayleigh smiled, "He is still paying most of it, 40 Billion total. I already asked thewyer to divide it equally, so once they confirm we have beaten the game, you''ll have ten billion zennies transferred into your ount."


    Biscuit looked like she was going to cry. "Really? You''re so nice! I''m d I met you guys."


    Ray smiled and said, "By the way. Some of those cards Genthru had every copy of to make sure others can''t get one. If you wanted to use one, I swear I will never speak of it."


    Biscuit knew what he was talking about right away.


    [065 Witch''s Rejuvenation Potion S-10


    Each pill makes you physically younger by one year. You will retain all knowledge and memories. Beware, as you will die if you take more than your age. One vial contains 100 pills.]


    Rayleigh even turned around so that Biscuit could take the card from her book without him seeing it. Genthru had nine in his Free Slots and one in his Imposed Slot to ensure no one else could get the card.


    Rayleigh honestly had no idea if Biscuit took the pill bottle and some of the pills or not. That was her secret forever more. Due to her transformation technique, she could get away with taking as many as she wanted without anyone noticing. While she was making her decision, Rayleigh used the copy of Angel Breath on himself. Biscuit was surprised to see him do so and asked, "Why''d you use that?"


    Rayleigh answered, "The card description says it cures all wounds and restores to perfect health. I have no idea if any of the crazy stuff I did when I was younger caused some permanent damage, so why not use it to be sure? I do feel lighter."


    Biscuit considered it and decided to use thest copy for herself as well. If anyone had damage from a misspent youth, it was her.


    The pair would keep this a secret between themselves and after settling up, they headed for Limeiro and met up with Killua outside the castle.


    Gon returned after half an hour and said there would be a parade for them all. He also showed them the gold case they could put three cards into and take back to the real world.


    That was when Rayleigh revealed to the group that Battera didn''t want the cards anymore, but was only paying them 40 Billion instead of 50.


    They all still had a lot of money from Heaven''s Arena, so they didn''t care too much about the money. The cards, on the other hand, were something they were interested in.


    Gon asked, "So what cards do you want?"


    Biscuit said, "Blue! I want Blue!"


    Gon then asked Rayleigh, "What about you?"


    Rayleigh looked thoughtful. That was the question. The only card he was really interested in was Pdin''s Ne for its ability to reflect curses. Since this was technology and not a virtual game, that meant that the ne could even work on attack spells outside of Greed Ind.


    At first, he intended to just convert the ne directly into an inventory item, but the cost of doing so was 5000 Mission Points. Even with all the Missions he''d done sinceing to this world, he only amassed 3252 points at the moment. That meant if he wanted to get the ne, he''d either have to stay here and collect more points, or take it off the ind so he could have more time to collect Mission Points.


    Rayleigh answered, "I really like Pdin''s Ne."


    Gon then turned to Killua, who shook his head and said, "I''m not really interested in any cards. What about you?"


    Gon smiled, "Well, actually..."


    The parade was held that same day, and the group of four sat on a float that carried them through the capital city to the cheers of the various yers and NPCs. At the end of the parade, a great feast was held in the castle, where there was drinking, karaoke, dancing, and merriment of every kind.


    After the party ended and farewells were shared, the group of four headed for the waystation to leave the game.


    Since they didn''t need to see thewyers or Battera, they left the game from a node near a town Biscuit was familiar with.


    When Gon arrived, he looked around for a moment in a daze. He then lifted his ring and said, "Book."


    Rather than the now very familiar book, a gold case appeared containing three cards.


    [022 Toraemon A-22


    A beast on the verge of extinction has a habit of stuffing things in its 4-D pocket. You never know what kind of treasures it could have picked up.]


    [081 Blue SS-5


    A unique blue jewel. Itsposition does not correspond to any known mineral, so it was given this name to mean "a gift from space."]


    [084 Pdin''s Ne D-60


    A yer wearing this will reflect curses cast upon him, and be able to undo curses ced on cards he touches.]


    Biscuit picked up Blue and said aloud, "Gain," turning the card into a deep blue, sparkling, iridescent marble with an otherworldly shimmer and shine.


    She squealed, "Oh! I''m in heaven! What should I name you? Star-chan? Blue-chan? Doesn''t Blue-chan sound good? Yep, that''s your name now."


    Ignoring their crazyrade, Rayleigh took out Pdin''s Ne and used Gain on it as well before wearing it.


    He checked to see if the cost of conversion remained the same and found something very interesting. Now that he was out of the game, the cost of converting Pdin''s Ne into an Inventory Item he could take to other worlds was now 2500 Mission Points. Taking it out of the game cut the price in half. He swore never to reveal this to the other yers.


    The trio then looked over the third and final card with a sigh.


    Of course, they had the idea of filling Toraemon''s pocket with items and turning it into a card to smuggle extra items out. They were directly told that a Toraemon that appeared when Gain was used would have an empty pocket, and everything ced in there would be lost.


    So the card was useless, it was just there for fun. And something more.


    Everyone looked expectantly at Rayleigh as he picked up the third card from the golden case. The moment he did, the card''s appearance changed.


    [1039 Apany F-130


    Fly the caster and all yers within a 20-meter radius of the caster to the location of the target city (limited to cities previously visited) or target yer (limited to yers previously met inside the game).]


    That''s right, it was a duplicate made with Mimic.


    [1010 Mimic A-20


    Transform a card into a copy of a target card that the caster already owns (it fails if target card''s transformation limits is already exceeded)]


    They could only ce an Imposed Slot card into the golden case, so they used the spell card Mimic to transform an Apany Spell card into an Imposed Slot Card. When a card transformed with Fake or Mimic was held by a yer wearing the Pdin''s Ne, it reverted back into the original card.


    Gon came up with the idea. In the list of people Gon has met, the very first name on the list was Nigg, an anagram of Ging. Rayleigh already told Gon that Ging once took Gon into this game, so it wasn''t surprising to see Ging in the list of people Gon met. What Gon wanted to try, was using the Spell card, Apany outside the game to take them directly to Ging''s location.


    Of course, Gon could have done the same with Maic Force, but that card only takes a single yer to the target. ording to Gon, he wanted not only to meet Ging, but also to show off his best friends to him.


    Hearing such a sweet thing, both Killua and Rayleigh cringed while inwardly smiling. Biscuit started crying at how beautiful their friendship was.


    Gon asked, "Do you want toe with us to see Ging?"


    After collecting herself, she replied, "No, I have other things to do. Besides, I have no interest in a man who already has a son. If I keep following you guys around, I''ll start to feel like a mom."


    Gon smiled back and said, "Alright, take care of yourself."


    Rayleigh said, "Have fun with your hobbies."


    After the final farewells, Gon took the spell card and said, "Apany On, Nigg!" causing a field of energy to surround them and send them high, high into the sky. Far higher than the spell had ever done before.


    Mountains, oceans, and continents passed below them before theynded on a grassy field in front of ake. Sitting on the edge of theke was a hooded man with a fishing line.


    Gon asked, "Ging?"


    The man turned around and removed his hood to reveal a skinny man with slender features and long hair. "Isn''t that Gon? You''ve grown up huh? So what are you doing here?"


    Gon shouted, "KITE?!"


    The man named Kite took out the fish he had caught and cooked them over a campfire while Gon exined what happened.


    Kite stated, "Ah, now I remember. Ging was using a fake name when I saw him in the game. I forgot what name he used."


    Rayleigh said, "He called himself Nigg, but it looked like he pranked Gon. The spell card that should have sent us to him, instead, sent us to you."


    Kite looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding and saying, "That sounds like Ging."


    Gon steamed, "Ahhh, he tricked me... How mean."


    Killua added, "And I thought we''d finally see him this time."


    Kite asked, "So why don''t you tell me about your adventures?"


    Gon began to exin his adventures with Killua and Rayleigh adding bits and pieces here and there. As they chatted, Rayleigh considered his next step and remembered that it had been one year since his promise not to teach Nen to any other yers. It was time to umte a few favors.


    *Author''s Note*


    For those wondering if someone really could get the money from Battera without winning the game themselves, Tsezguerra did the exact same thing. The only thing he did for Gon was dy the Bomber for a few days and in exchange, he took 36 billion of the 40 billion Battera gave for winning, even though there was no physical evidence that Tsezguerra had anything to do with Gon winning the game except hearsay. Well screw that guy. While Tsezguerra dyed the Bomber, said Bomber went on a killing spree and massacred loads of yers. All of their lives were the cost of that several day dy.


    Oh, and Biscuit did want the Witch''s Rejuvenation Potion in canon, but since she didn''t have a copy, she couldn''t use it herself before leaving the ind. So yes, she did take a few pills. I don''t know how many. I won''t ask her because I don''t want to die.


    Rayleigh will be skipping the first part of the Chimera Ant Arc and show up during the second part. After a lot of drafts, I''ve found this is the best way to handle the canon without plot holes and get to the action.

 Chapter 44: The Life of a Hunter

    Chapter 44: The Life of a Hunter


    Chapter 44 The Life of a Hunter


    Kite was a chill,id-back guy with a slender frame and long hair that made it hard to guess his gender if seen from the back. Despite this, It only took a few moments to understand that he was stronger than the three of thembined.


    What gave away the difference in ability was Kite''s skill in observation. The moment he saw them, Rayleigh felt that his entire existence had been urately weighed, measured, and cataloged. He didn''t know all of Ray''s secrets, but he likely made a number of inferences that would have been rtively close to the truth.


    It wasn''t just Ray either. Killua, Gon, and everything around them were perfectly observed by this Hunter, and the threat status of each was recognized at all times.


    This sounds simple, but it is not. Rayleigh doubted the man''s physical senses were actually superior to their own, especially Gon''s, but Kite''s experience andprehension allowed him to urately use his observations to a far greater degree than even Rayleigh could use the Force. This was not a matter of ability, but skill, and Kite''s was simply higher than their own. Not that it mattered. Kite was a friendly sort and would have taken well to them even if they had not been his mentor''s son and that son''s friends. But seeing as that was the case, he automatically treated them like close friends without visibly raising his guard.


    ording to Kite, they were in a forest in the country of Kakin, in the middle of the Asian continent. Kakin had been doing arge number of industrial expansions in thest few decades, and it had caused noticeable changes in the surrounding environment. Kite and a few others were being paid to discover any new species that had arisen due to these changes and study the behavior of the new species. The information gathered would be used to create a predictive model of the forest to determine possible future changes.


    Rayleigh was the only one who understood the actual syntax of Kite''s exnation, while Gon and Killua just understood that Kite was looking for new species.


    Kite''s team had already found more than the minimum number of required specimens and still had a month left on their contract. If they found just a few more species, then they would actually get paid double the original contract as the higher number of species would grant a far more urate model.


    When the team asked if the trio of kids wanted to look for new species with them, all three eagerly agreed.


    Rayleigh used the chance to ask for pointers from Kite. Since they were working for free, they needed somepensation, right? Kite easily saw through this but had no problems with it and gave them a few lessons.


    Rayleigh felt that the skill to process your senses and obtain urate and detailed information was probably the cornerstone of being a Hunter, and Rayleigh wanted to learn everything he could from Ging''s student before the end of the month. As for what to do after the end of the month, Rayleigh already had an idea.


    Rayleigh always kept the Hunter Chat open and knew that several of his fellow yers were having trouble with Nen because they either didn''t find a teacher or because the teacher was a jerk. It was time to speed things up a bit.


    [Swordsman: In one month, I''ll give a crash course in the Hunter Power System to anyone who is interested. As for the cost, you''ll owe me a favor.]


    [Lightning Lord: That sounds suspiciously like a trap.]


    [Dragon Chef: I''ll show. I''ll also vouch for Swordsman.]


    [Justice: Isn''t Swordsman the first guy who told everyone about the Tutorial Mission?]


    [The Invisible Man: I want to learn! But I have nowhere to stay! I''m broke!]


    [Glitter: Aren''t you just stealing food and sleeping in mansions you''ve snuck into?]


    [Poison King: He should name himself Invisible Pervert.]


    [Swordsman: I''ll rent out a Hotel that serves breakfast and dinner and a bunch of rooms for a month for anyone who ising.]


    [Demon Hunter: You''re really gonna teach them, huh?]


    [The Invisible Man: Hey! Don''t try to talk him out of it! I don''t want to wait until next year to try that stupid Hunter Exam again just for a license.]


    [Dragon Chef: As long as you don''t make me bow to you and call you master. Thest three guys I''ve found to teach me Nen all insisted that I call them master. I told them to f* off and the pansies refused to teach me.]


    [Lightning Lord: The only guy I found keeps saying I''m not ready. That jack a* is a weak piece of s* and knows I''ll be able to kick his a* once I learn the power system! If you really teach me, I promise I''ll make it up to you.]


    [Swordsman: Alright. It will start on May 7th andst until June 30th, so an eight-week course in the city of Yorknew. I''m telling the General Chat too.]


    Rayleigh wondered why he didn''t hear anything from Armory, White Knight, or Springheeled Jack. Were they not logged into the chat or were they no longer in the Hunter World?


    [Swordsman has signed in.]


    [Swordsman: Hey guys with the Hunter ss. I''m giving an 8-week course on the Hunter Power System from May 7th to June 30th. Everything you need to know about what it is and how to use it.]


    [Lord of Madness: Yes! I''ll be there!]


    [Book worm: How much?]


    [Pacifist: I''ll see if I can get that time off from my Master.]


    [Immortal Beauty: Are you serious?]


    [Swordsman: The cost is a favor in the future. I''ll be renting out a Hotel with breakfast and dinner served daily, so you won''t even need to pay for an ID or money.]


    [Dark Lord Skullcrusher: No matter how hard you train, you stand no chance against my invincible power.]


    [The Spiffing Brit: Two can y at this game. I shall also freely divulge the great and powerful secret to bing an overpowered warrior.]


    [Kung Fu Panda: It''s just back-to-back limit-breaking training.]


    [Ninja Lord: Be careful. A favor owed is not a simple thing.]


    [Immortal Beauty: Aren''t you the guy offering everyone on your continent free lessons so that they will owe you a favor?]


    [Miracle: Not anymore. He left the Ninjas and is in Wizard School with us now.]


    [Ninja Lord: I still return every summer.]


    [Immortal Beauty: You want every Ninja to owe you a favor but you are trying to stop every Hunter from owing Swordsman a favor?]


    [Book worm: I remember that Ninja Lord was one of the first to try the Tutorial Mission but never told anyone about it, unlike Swordsman.]


    [Lord of Madness: That''s right! Who in their right mind would trust an untrustworthy ninja!?]


    [Ninja Lord: Fine. Ignore my advice. Your funeral.]


    Rayleigh honestly didn''t care how many people showed up. He just needed a few to help him develop his Hatsu. He also wanted to spar with some of the yers and bounce ideas off them. The fastest way to learn what you don''t know about something is to try teaching it to someone else and letting them ask questions. Even if you can''t think of a question you don''t know the answer to, someone with a different perspective might be able to.


    The reason he said to start in Yorknew on May 7th was that the group had already agreed to return there before May 5th. Everyone left their valuables in safe deposit boxes in Yorknew before going to Greed Ind, so going back to retrieve things like their Hunter Licenses was a must. They technically should have gotten them before using the magic Apany Card, but Gon was too excited and didn''t want to wait. Besides, Killua had his new Hunter License with him, so he could take care of things if they got weird.


    The other reason was that Gon''s 13th birthday was May 5th and they wanted to celebrate in Yorknew as there were many ces in the big city to have fun.


    Ray, Gon, and Killua did their best to learn everything they could from Kite while putting their new skills to the test by searching for new species. The actual searching part was not that difficult. It was the research part that wasplex. Anyone can take a picture of an unfamiliar species. Actually observing the species to determine their behaviors was something entirely different.


    Kite exined, "The trick is not to obsess over every detail, but to figure out which details are important. The size and shape of the feet tell us the terrain the species usually travels through. The cement of the eyes shows if it hunts or is hunted. The length of the limbs shows dexterity and movement speed. Color determines the mostmon environment. But it''s not just about the physical species itself. Pay attention to the debris on the species, such as dust, mud, foliage, pollen, fur, etc. Did you notice that the winged rabbit you saw earlier had bits of fur near its mouth that were not it''s own? That fur matched a species of climbing rat in the area, so we can tell that the flying rabbit probably hunts and eats climbing rats."


    His lessons were incredibly useful and precise. Even Gon and Ray who lived in a forest for years were learning new things every day. His lectures didn''t just include animals. He gave precise lessons on nts and details on how to tell what food was edible and what was not. They were quite far from civilization, and every meal was plucked from the forest itself.


    When Ray showed off his Force Cooking, Kite showed him multiple tricks on how to cook some of the more unfamiliar things. Although Force Cooking could direct him to the best vor, that was only if he could reach it. Out in the wild, he could only boil or roast foods, but Kite taught him how to use some means to quickly dry foods, different ways of using rocks as makeshift pans or utensils, and how some raw foods mixed to produce memorable vors.


    Rayleigh''s dishes became very popr, and the group asked on multiple asions if he could just stay with them forever. He declined, of course. Cooking was just a hobby for him.


    It was a very good month for the trio since, for the first time, they got to experience what it was to be a Hunter. To explore and discover. To use their talents and abilities to make their ce in the world. Of course, it only took half a day for it to be apetition among the three. This was because the name of the species'' they discovered would be recorded with the species, so every species they discovered would literally leave their mark on the world, something any child would be incredibly excited over.


    Gon got ahead quickly, but Rayleigh''s use of Force Enhance could be used to enhance his senses to match or even exceed Gon''s own, so he quickly caught up. Killua was inst ce, but he was very good at finding insects and small creatures that hid since his natural observation skills leaned more in that direction.


    At the end of the month, Gon and Rayleigh both found seven new species, while Killua found six. Killua actually found three in thest week and looked like he would catch up, but time ran out. Gon had Protagonist Luck, so Rayleigh wasn''t upset that he only tied, even though Rayleigh should technically be better than Gon at this kind of thing due to the Force.


    They also learned about hundreds of different nts and animals, their environments and habits, and how everything worked together to form their ecosystems.


    Overall, it really was a great month. The group eventually returned to civilization and drove to Kakin''s National Environmental Agency to hand off the collected data and receive their payment.


    The man who collected everything was ecstatic. "Great work! Really great work! This is worth more than what our agency has collected in thest two centuries! I only wish we could pay you more."


    Kite amiably replied, "It doesn''t matter. It was fun doing it."


    "Hoho, but I can at least rmend you to the agencies of other countries that need simr projects done. I know for a fact that there are plenty of them who have not updated their own ecological records in decades."


    He passed over the documents that were signed to confirm payment andpletion of the job. Kite took the papers with a smile, but the man then added thoughtfully, "You know, I heard something you might be interested in. The Southern Peace Auction House recently announced they had a part of some amazing life forms. It seems to be from a creature no one has ever heard of before, and they are offering a reward to any Hunter who catches the specimen the piece originates from so they can sell it."


    Kite hummed thoughtfully. "Well, we are on our way to Yorknew. Can you tell them we want a look at it?"


    "Of course, no problem at all. And it''s been a pleasure doing business with you."


    The pair shook hands before everyone headed out.


    Although the Asian continent was quite far from the continent Yorknew and the Southern Peace Auction House were located on, getting transportation from anywhere to just about anywhere was too easy for a licensed Hunter, and they arrived at Yorknew on May 3rd before entering the same site the trio had once entered to watch the sale of Greed Ind.


    Gon and the rest retrieved their belongings from their safe deposit boxes, including Ging''s Hunter''s License, which he apparently left with Kite many years ago. Kite had told Gon to just return it to Ging himself when he found the man, since Ging imed he didn''t even need it.


    Since four members of their group had a Hunter''s License and they had been rmended by a reputable government, the auction house had no qualms about showing off the acquired specimen. In fact, they hoped the experienced Hunters would tell them more about it.


    The piece itself was contained within a sealed case and appeared to be the forearm of a creature that had an exoskeleton. It resembled a bug limb.


    Due to weight and oxygen limitations on Earth, creatures with exoskeletons could never reach above a certain size unless submerged in water. But this was not Earth, and this forearm was longer than a human''s, implying the creature it originated from should berger as well.


    As everyone made their observations, Kite asked, "Do you think you could give us a small part to analyze?"


    The employee considered it for a moment before answering, "We aren''t supposed to give it to strangers, but since you came so highly rmended, we can hardly refuse. Oh, and if you get your hands on an albino ponytail cat, please let us know."


    Rayleigh spoke up, "I can read its past if you let me hold it."


    Everyone turned to Rayleigh for a moment, clearly surprised that such a young kid had such a coveted ability.


    Gon spoke up, "He can do it! He was able to tell us all kinds of things about Ging just from holding his Hunter''s License."


    Kite could tell they weren''t lying, so he looked over to the man as if to ask if it was okay. The employee replied, "Very well, but only for a few minutes, and you must tell us what you discover."


    Rayleigh nodded, and the man left for a moment to get a key to the arm''s case to open it. Two finger-like segments were removed to be further analyzed, and the arm was handed to Rayleigh to use psychometry on.


    Rayleigh held the arm for a few seconds and heavily frowned. To those watching, it was obvious he did not like what he was seeing.


    After a few tense minutes, Rayleigh sighed and returned the arm to its ce in the ss case before asking, "Give me two rolls of paper, two meters by three meters, an ink pot, and an ink brush. I''ll draw exactly what this thing looks like for you."


    The employee replied, "Oh? Wonderful. Please wait one moment."


    For a ce that sold the most unusual items in the world, some big pieces of paper and a brush were mundane things to ask for.


    Arge roll of paper was carried out by an employee with a massive physique, and a brush and an ink pot were set next to it. Rayleigh unrolled the paper until he had enough and started drawing. Considering his skill in calligraphy, making an ink portrait was an easy task.


    After a few minutes, an imposing-looking insect was drawn onto the paper. He drew two images of it, one from the front, and one from the side. Unlike most insects that had three segments, one after the other, this insect''s third segment jutted out from the back, creating a bnce that seemed to allow the creature to walk upright. And unlike other insects, it had two arms and two legs in addition to the thorax jutting from the back.


    Kite asked with audible concern, "Is this life-sized?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Yep, one-to-one ratio. She was in the ocean for a while before she washed up on some coast, where her arm fell off. I don''t know where, though, since the arm was taken back by the tide before it made its way to the coast off Yorknew. That was about four weeks ago."


    No one recognized the creature''s species, and Rayleigh didn''t know what to call it either. It wasn''t like the creature knew the name humans had assigned it or something.


    Rayleigh asked, "Can I buy that arm for 350 Million? You can have the paintings to use as references, but I''d like the arm myself."


    The employee looked over the ink painting with interest. It was actually very elegant and fearsome and seemed a lot more interesting than a severed bug arm. They were looking for the whole species anyway, they couldn''t sell an arm. That was why they were offering a reward to Hunters who could find the rest of it.


    The man countered, "350 million isn''t enough."


    Rayleigh upped the offer, "How about 950 million."


    "No, we expect to get more than that if the arm were auctioned on its own."


    Rayleigh shook his head and said, "The creature this fell from was heavily wounded. There is no guarantee that it hasn''t already died and been eaten elsewhere. Anything you could do to preserve the arm would degrade its value, and without preservation, it will rot on its own anyway. 1.5 billion. Final offer."


    The man was more than a little surprised at Ray''s negotiation skill, but the offered price was far greater than they had already spent and if the artwork was left, they''d still have something to show those interested in searching for the specimen. Compared to the longshot chance of obtaining the creature, this was a far more reasonable deal. "Very well, I''ll bring up the paperwork."


    As the man left, Gon asked, "Why''d you want that thing? Is it that interesting?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Not really. But it might be usefulter."


    Kite could tell there was something he wasn''t sharing, but decided not to ask about it for the moment. Bringing up information that increased the item''s value while still inside the auction house was not a wise move.


    The arm was soon packed up, and the payment was received. Once the group was out of the Auction House, Killua directly stated, "So spill, what''s with the arm?"


    Rayleigh answered, "The arm itself has no value at all. What I''m interested in is where the arm came from."


    Kite asked with interest, "Where did ite from?"


    Rayleigh stopped, looked Kite dead in the eye, and answered with a single word. "Outside."


    Kite''s eyes visibly widened at that. As Ging''s student, he knew more about the unknown than many others would.


    Seeing that Kite knew what Rayleigh was talking about, Ray asked, "Are there any parties that should be notified?"


    Kite answered, "The Hunter Association for a start."


    Rayleigh replied, "I''ll write up a report on the relevant details and give it to youter so you can escte it."


    Kite nodded seriously. This was a muchrger matter than he initially thought.


    Killua picked up on the verbal clues, but it was Gon who directly asked, "What are you talking about?"


    Ray answered, "The bug came from what is essentially another world."


    Kite added seriously, "And the presence of that world is not generally known to the public, so it''s best to keep quiet about it."


    Rayleigh nodded and had a sudden urge to just leave the Hunter World. How else could you feel when you discovered you essentially lived in a fishbowl? The bug came from outside that fishbowl and lived there for a long time before being tossed inside by the guys who took care of the fishbowl. Ray didn''t know why. Before this, he didn''t even know there was an outside world. He doubted anyone would tell him if he asked, so Rayleigh wanted this arm since his psychometry let him learn a lot about the outside world from it without needing to ask anyone.


    The samples taken from the arm showed that the closest match was from something known as a Chimera Ant Queen. Though, apparently, a normal Chimera Ant Queen is about ten centimeters long and looks like a really big, really ugly termite. The problem is that Chimera Ants change greatly depending on their diets, so they usually look simr to the insects around them. The queen incorporates the traits of those she eats into the next generation, so Chimera Ants tend to be the strongest insect in any area after just one or two generations and are considered a ss One Dangerous life form to be quarantined or eliminated if discovered.


    All of this information, including pictures taken of Ray''s drawing of the Chimera Ant Queen, was escted to the Hunter Association, which took the initiative to locate the specimen and make sure it didn''t start eating humans.


    On May 5th, they celebrated Gon''s Birthday and Kite and the rest of the crew were invited to the party. Ray rented a room out of a fancy arcade with plenty of games that even Hunters would have fun ying, and they had a feast and cake. Presents weren''t needed, they just had fun.


    After taking a day off, they got back to work. ording to the tide data, they guessed a few locations that the Chimera Ant Queen arm might have been washed up from and checked to see if there were any sightings of a giant bug in any of those locations. There were none, but one of the possible locations, a country called NGL, was a ce where there was not the tiniest bit of technology, so they received no reports from there. What was worse was that said country imed to live together with nature, so if there was a giant bug that was eating people, it would not have been a crime to report, since that was basically just another aspect of nature.


    As the only location they could not get any reports from, and since there were no reports in any other area, a simple process of elimination deduction could be used to guess the Queen was there. Due to this, Kite and his crew elected to head to said country to investigate, and Gon and Killua volunteered toe along as well.


    Rayleigh, on the other hand, said, "I have some stuff I need to do here for two months. I''ll meet back up with you guys in July."


    Gonined, "What, no way."


    Killua asked, "What kind of stuff?"


    Rayleigh answered, "To be honest, a bunch of stuff I''ve been putting off for too long rted to my sword. Plus, no tech is allowed there, right? I''d get in trouble if I brought out my Lightsaber, and I''ve been needing to modify it for a while using stuff I don''t have on me."


    Before Gon couldin anymore, Killua held him back and said, "Alright, you gotta do what you gotta do."


    Rayleigh also looked back at Gon and said, "We''ll spar when I get back, so if you ck off, I''ll kick your butt."


    Gon replied with a confident smile, "No way, I''ll definitely beat you."


    To that, Rayleigh turned to Killua and asked, "Please look after him and make sure he doesn''t get any more head injuries, he''s delirious enough as it is."


    Killuaughed, and Gon shouted, "I''m not delirious!" which caused Ray tough.


    Kite watched this scene from afar with a smile before their group headed out to the airport to fly to the country closest to the NGL.


    Rayleigh made his way to a 5-Star Hotel, where he had already rented out three whole floors, each with ten rooms. Each room included aplimentary breakfast and dinner that could be ordered whenever and delivered to the room. They''d have to figure out lunch for themselves. He also rented out arge conference room they could all gather in so he could teach them together.


    He was looking forward to meeting whoever showed up.


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry for the wait. To prevent plot holes, I had to make sure certain events naturally happen on certain dates so I needed to write a big timeline for my version. The Chimera Ant Arc relied on a lot of coincidences to make sure no one important died and throwing another variable without killing everyone is not easy, but I have it down now and will try to release more chapters faster.

 Chapter 45: An Expensive Lesson

    Chapter 45: An Expensive Lesson


    Chapter 45 An Expensive Lesson


    The Force was a fickle thing and how one connected to it varied greatly and depended on their own understanding andprehension. Rayleigh''s connection to the Force was as unique as his code, and how he could interact with it had rules that needed to be followed.


    ording to hisprehension, the best position was that of a teacher, but there was more to it than that. Teaching others would strengthen his connection to the Force, but there was a hidden trick that few would understand or grasp. It was the so-called, ''owe a favor.'' The debt of a student to the teacher.


    Why would Rayleigh ept such a thing as payment? Every yer was twelve or thirteen at this point. Even if they had the memories of adults, they had the personalities of children due to their brain chemistry, and the promise of a child was worthless.


    The reason was simple. Rayleigh didn''t want them to return the favor. He wanted them to remain in his debt. Every yer that ''took advantage'' of him would find themselves in an awkward position in the future.


    Rayleigh had yet to fully work around the limit of the Force''s dislike of violence against others. He could bend the rules or break them if someone wounded him three times, but that was worthless in most situations. That was where this debt came in.


    What if someone who owed him a favor turned against him? What if someone he was a teacher to betrayed him? What if someone he assisted freely tried to harm him? The Force had a great deal of patience, but there were some lines that should not be crossed.


    If anyone he taught turned against him before repaying that favor, he could go all out against them from the start.


    So this lesson would strengthen his connection to the Force by taking on the role of a teacher. It would allow him to go all out against those shameless enough to ''take advantage'' of him in the future, and it would give him a lot of benefits from those who actually decided to repay the favor in kind.


    One such favor he was looking for was information about the Pirate Power System. He suspected that a number of Pirates had already learned it, with the primary suspect being Dragon Chef. If he could learn how to use it from Dragon Chef, then he would not need to look for a teacher once he left for the Pirate world.


    All three were excellent reasons, but honestly speaking, it was the first that was the most important. Even with his monstrous connection to the Force, meditating on his code was not enough. Action means more than words, and furthering his connection to the Force was not possible without doing, what was essentially, putting his money where his mouth was.


    In his mind, the Teacher was the highest attainment a Force User could reach. So how could he reach the highest connection to the Force without actually teaching?


    He would even suggest that some of the yers who had not awakened their Jedi ss do so by going to some random in the Jedi world anding back. This would unlock their Jedi ss and allow him to use Impartation to convey his lessons through the Force as a Teacher would do to a Youngling or a Master would do for their Padawan.


    He wouldn''t skimp on the lessons either. Besides making him a poor teacher, that would also lower the debt they owed him. Unless it was repaid with something substantial, he would prefer it if no one was capable of fully repaying his lessons so it would be a debt they were unable to pay off for the rest of their lifetime.


    Yes, he had be the American Education System. Putting their students in debt forever.


    But on a more serious note, he also wanted to help them get stronger so he could learn their strengths. Rayleigh''s Character build was simple on the surface, so he wasn''t afraid of others countering it. What did concern him was the more ambitious and talented yers.


    By teaching them from the basics, Rayleigh would learn the Talent level of every student, learn which Nen Category they belonged with, and get a feel for the direction of their Hatsu.


    Every yer knew that eventually, they would bepeting with one another. By gaining all of this information in advance, he would be head and shoulders over many of hispetitors.


    It was a win-win-win-win scenario. The only potential problem was that he fully expected the students to get rowdy and misbehave. It would get annoying for him since he was basically responsible for them as long as they were in the Hotel. But if they were jerks, at least he''d know now rather than in the future, so even that information was valuable.


    [Swordsman: I''m on my way. Anyone there yet?]


    [Book worm: I''m here. Why did you book our group under, Troublemaking Teens?]


    [Dragon Chef: Because he knows not to ask for a miracle. And I''ll be there in a half hour.]


    [The Invisible Man: I''m here already. Can''t you see me?]


    [Lightning Lord: That wasn''t funny the first time you said it. Stop spamming the chat with it.]


    [Wonder Woman: I got here this morning.]


    [Swordsman: Alright. Do whatever or order room service if you want. I rented a conference room we can all gather at once everyone has arrived.]


    [Captain Jack: Will there be rum?]


    [Lord of Madness: What will you do if the rum is gone?]


    [Pacifist: I''ll be there in an hour. Only Madness, Gambler, and I were able to make it from the Jedi yers.]


    [Gambler: Are there any good casinos in Yorknew? Asking for a friend.]


    [Swordsman: How many Pirate yers are showing up?]


    [Dragon Chef: Not that many, just some captains like Titan, Jack, and myself along with some loners who aren''t on anyone else''s crew like Wild King.]


    [Lord of Madness: Did you think it was a trap?]


    [Dragon Chef: Not from Swordsman, but my crew still has training to do and can''t waste their time.]


    [Swordsman: Want to have a Chef Showdown while waiting for everyone?]


    [Dragon Chef: YES! Who will be the judges? We need three of them.]


    [Book worm: I volunteer as tribute.]


    [Pacifist: I''ll judge.]


    [Lightning Lord: I''m hungry, let me judge.]


    [Wonder Woman: I wanna do it!]


    [Dragon Chef: Toote WW. Book worm, Pacifist, and Lightning Lord will be the judges.]


    [Swordsman: Hey judges, pick a theme. I''ll buy the main ingredients.]


    [Lightning Lord: Chicken.]


    [Book worm: There must be chocte.]


    [Pacifist: I''m good with anything, but I''ll be impressed if it is healthy.]


    [Dragon Chef: Something healthy with chicken and chocte huh?]


    [Swordsman: I''ll get two chickens, one for each of us. What kind of chocte do you need Dragon?]


    [Wonder Woman: Dammit! You''re making me hungry!]


    [Dragon Chef: 87% cacao.]


    [Wonder Woman: Stop it already!]


    [Lord of Madness: I can already smell it.]


    Rayleigh stopped to pick up some super dark chocte for himself and Dragon Chef and some good chickens. The remainder of the ingredients could be acquired from the Hotel''s Kitchen. It was a 5 Star Hotel after all in a major city filled with rich people. The pantry would not becking.


    After picking up the main ingredients, Rayleigh returned to the Hotel via cab and spotted a lean, Asian teen with messy ck hair and a button-up shirt left unbuttoned so that the physique beneath could be easily seen. There seemed to be at least one tattoo on his chest and on his arm. He stood near a bench with a wide smile once he saw Rayleigh.


    Sitting on the bench next to him in the Hotel''s reception area was a demure-looking Caucasian brte girl with a bob-cut hairstyle and sses who did not bother looking up from the book in her hands on Ray''s arrival. Next to her was a teen that appeared to be of African descent and his eyes were on Rayleigh from the moment he entered.


    Across from that pair was another Caucasian boy with sandy blonde hair. This one, Rayleigh could actually feel, meaning he had a strong connection with the Force, meaning he was a yer that was trained in the Jedi arts.


    The Asian teen approached and pped Rayleigh''s shoulder before he practically shouted, "Good to meet you in person Swordsman!"


    Rayleigh replied, "You too Dragon Chef." He tossed him a thawed chicken and a few bars of super dark chocte. Dragon Chef caught them all and opened one of the bars before sniffing it and taking a small bite. "Good stuff. This''ll work."


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "To the kitchen." It took a few minutes and some payments to get permission to use the kitchen and ingredients, but it wasn''t busy at the moment so they relented once enough Zennies were paid.


    It took about two hours to finish cooking and unsurprisingly, Dragon Chef won, though both dishes were dered delicious. Dragon Chef just knew how to use dark chocte better than Rayleigh did and Force Cooking couldn''t help him close the gap of pure experience.


    By the time the impromptu contest finished, everyone had arrived, so Rayleigh told them all to gather in the conference room to start the first lesson on the Hunter Power System.


    Sixteen yers showed up in total.


    Three from the Jedi ss, Lord of Madness, Pacifist, and Gambler.


    Twelve from the Pirate ss, Dragon Chef, Lightning Lord, Justice, The Invisible Man, Glitter, Wonder Woman, Immortal Beauty, Captain Jack, Titan, Wild King, Crow, and Stoner.


    Book worm''s main ss was actually Hunter, but she started off in the MCU, so she has zero training and only came to get the awakening of her Primary ss out of the way.


    Ray expected at least half of them to never pay him back, which worked for him. The more they owed him, the less the Force would care if he went all out on the day they fought.


    Rayleigh introduced himself first, "I''m Swordsman. You can probably look up my name but I won''t give it to you and I won''t ask for yours. I''vepleted my training in the Jedi Power System and just need to focus on getting it stronger and I''ve justpleted the basics for the Hunter Power System. I''m hoping that in exchange for some quality lessons, one of you might be willing to impart some knowledge of the Pirate Power system or share some skills or secrets you know of."


    Lord of Madness was actually the quickest to respond, "Wait, how the fuck did youplete your Jedi training without a Master?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Lots of Holocrons and eight years of training on a saturated in the Force."


    That was not urate of course. He had never found a single Holocron in all his time on Tython, but his use of Psychometry was as good as a Holocron so it didn''t matter too much.


    Lord of Madness nodded at that though, since he knew the value of a good Holocron. Every Sith yer would make sure to buy a Holocron on Character Creation because they could not expect a Jedi to teach them Dark Side techniques.


    Rayleigh continued, "The first step of the Hunter Power System is awakening your aura. The entire Hunter Power system, called Nen, is based on the usage of aura, also known as lifeforce. There are two ways to awaken your aura. Manually, or with assistance. Manually means internally exploring your body to locate every aura node and opening them one by one which can take anywhere from a week to several months depending on your Nen Talent. Is there anyone who wants to awaken it manually? If not, I can assist you."


    A tanned beauty with long ck hair, Wonder Woman, asked skeptically, "What exactly does this assistance mean?"


    Rayleigh answered, "I inject my aura into your body in a way that forces all of your aura nodes to open. Of course, if you don''t trust me to do so, you can open your aura nodes manually."


    Dragon Chef stated, "I''ll go first."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Not just yet." He walked over to a duffle bag that was already in the corner of the room and dragged it to the center before opening it. Inside were dozens and dozens of rolls of white medical gauze.


    He said, "In order to prevent your aura from escaping after your aura nodes have been opened, you need to learn Ten. This is the easiest way to learn it for those who don''t meditate every day. Wrap your entire body in this gauze. Tight, but not tight enough to restrict movement. Keep it on until tomorrow. Walk around with it. Getpletely familiar with the feeling of being wrapped up."


    A dark-haired Caucasian teen, Stoner, asked aloud, "Are you retarded or something?"


    Rayleigh ignored the insult and continued, "This means can be used by others without needing to exin the theory behind Ten. Do it or don''t, but I won''t be opening any aura nodes until tomorrow."


    Most of the yers went along with it and soon, the room was filled with mummies. Even the Jedi went through with it even though they probably would not have any issues with Ten.


    After everyone was wrapped up, Rayleigh began his lecture on the four major principles of Nen. Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsu.


    He exined each one in detail and provided multiple examples of imagery that could be used to sustain each one.


    The first lesson was just the foundation for the basic principles, so he did not go over the advanced applications or answer any questions on different types of Hatsus. That wouldeter.


    The next day, Rayleigh opened the aura nodes of every yer, one by one after they removed their wrappings. He could have used the chance to do something nasty or sneaky, but he had no intention of stooping so low. His goal was the top, and he would not reach it by sabotaging others.


    As Rayleigh predicted, the yers who wrapped themselves in gauze for a day easily applied Ten as they only had to make their aura feel like the gauze that they still remembered the sensation of. Several of the more clever yers understood the value of this training. Though stupid looking, the gauze really did make the process of figuring out Ten a simple and natural matter.


    Two of the five yers who refused to put on gauze, Wonder Woman and Crow, ended up nearly passing out from exhaustion as they had trouble forming their Ten, and most of the aura in their bodies left due to the opening of their aura nodes and ack of Ten to prevent the rest from leaving.


    Luckily for them, the entire day''s lesson was about the usages of Ten, how to strengthen it, and different means of visualization to try out. The lesson included details like the fact that allowing your aura to flow within and around the body without letting it escape strengthened natural defenses while promoting longevity and health. Both of the fallen yers were up and about by the end of the lesson.


    After the second lesson was over, most of the Pirate yers intended to physically leave for the Tavern to travel to the Jedi Gxy. If they did not n on creating a group over there or learning from a Jedi, they could pop over just to unlock their Jedi ss and spend the day chatting with the Jedi yers in the Jedi Chat Room until they could return to the Hunter World via the Tavern tomorrow.


    Rayleigh spent the remainder of the second day after the Pirates left sparring with Pacifist. The pair turned the power on their Lightsabers down and sparred for a few hours, getting a feel of the other''s skills while sharpening their own.


    Rayleigh''s Lightsaber skills came from his Alchaka, something created from the old and new, while Pacifist used Form III to defend against everything Rayleigh threw at him. Or at least he did most of the time. Rayleigh was a lot faster than Pacifist, to the point the traditionally trained Padawan could not believe Rayleigh had never formed a Master-Apprentice Force Bond.


    Unsurprisingly, Pacifist tired himself outpletely before Rayleigh did, though it was still good exercise, and both had made a friend.


    Pacifist asked, "I don''t know anything about the Pirate Power System and I doubt I know anything you don''t, so how can I repay you for these lessons?"


    Rayleigh considered it for a moment before answering, "Eventually, I might return to the Jedi Gxy, but I''m stranded on the Tython. If you can arrange for me to get picked up and taken back to civilization, then any debt you owe me can be considered wiped clean."


    Pacifist nodded, "Tython. Got it. I''ll keep it in mind and get the coordinates."


    Rayleigh told him it was on a hyperspacene connected to Monasta, a in the inner core worlds that was opposite the gctic center of Coruscant, which Pacifist would remember forter.


    Rayleigh smiled with satisfaction. That was already a good start. The Jedi yers would eventually be able to get their own spaceships, so having one pick him up would literally open new worlds for him. After all, if he truly wanted to master the Force, he needed to return eventually.


    The other yers returned the following day, each with a vibrant presence in the Force, showing that they had unlocked their Jedi ss.


    Rayleigh spent the next week on guided meditation tips which covered both the strengthening of Ten and strengthening the connection to the Force. After finishing the day''s Nen lesson, he was asked to give a crash course in the Force.


    Rayleigh summarized, "The Force is basically a High School filled to capacity. Within are many groups divided into cliques such as the jocks and bullies, the nerds and members of the Chess Club, the goth kids, the band geeks, the posers, the cheerleaders, etc. And of course, there are the teachers. How you connect to the Force will decide which group you connect to. The Jedi connect to the Nerds and Teachers. The Sith connect to the Goths, Bullies, and Emo kids. Connecting to a group causes that group to grant you its specialty, but the more you connect to a group, the more it affects you due to the nature of conformity. Basically, if you connect to the nerds, you be nerdy. If you connect to the bullies, you''ll be a bully."


    Lord of Madness added, "Unless you have the Immunity to Personality Change attribute."


    Rayleigh pretended he knew what that was by continuing, "If you feel that will help, you''re fine, but don''t expect the Goths to give you full ess to their mighty gothness unless you paint your nails ck and start using ck eyeliner."


    Lord of Madness replied, "Ha! Do you think I wasn''t aware of that? You can get around that using the greatest Power System from The Lord of the Mysteries; Acting! As long as I act the part, I can get the powers of the mighty goths by acting like a Goth without actually bing Goth. After all, it''s just an Act!"


    Crow asked, "What the unholy fuck are you two smoking right now?"


    Stoner added, "And can I have some?"


    This caused half the group to eitherugh or roll their eyes. Stoner was named not because of his fondness for grass, but due to a Devil Fruit power he had which allowed him to manipte stone, the aptly named, Stone Stone Fruit.


    Justice asked, "What are the specialties of the Jedi and Sith? What do they each gain from connecting to the Force?"


    Rayleigh answered, "The Jedi connect to the Force using theirprehensions and gain knowledge and wisdom from the Force. In a fight, this grants things like precognition and you can even directly manipte your body using information gained from the Force to autocorrect your forms and movements. The Sith connect to the Force using their emotions which grants power. The more emotion you feed into the Force, the more power it grants you. There are upsides and downsides to both, but more downsides when overusing either. The power granted by the Dark Side damages the body, forcing you to need more of it to maintain your strength. The knowledge granted by the Light Side cannot be used without prudence, or it will cause a great unbnce which will force a harsh correction."


    Justice asked, "What do you mean by correction?"


    Rayleigh considered an example before exining, "If a Jedi saw the death of a person, they are taught not to intervene. Death must be epted. So most Jedi ignore the content of Force Visions of the Future unless it affects them personally or affects arge group. So, taking this as an example. Let''s say you see someone is going to die. You do everything you can to save them. But most likely, the actions you have taken will cause harm to others and may not even sessfully prevent the death you saw. Worst case scenario, they die in a worse wayter and everything you did to save them is now a crime on your head. That is what I mean by harsh correction."


    Pacifist added, "Swordsman is correct. The Jedi do not necessarily see death as a bad thing, so they won''t act in most cases to prevent death, only suffering."


    Gambler shook his head, "Every lesson from the Jedi can''t be taken at face value. They want everyone to be emotionless forever since strong emotions can lead to the Dark Side."


    Lord of Madness shouted, "It''s a fucking Cult! They brainwash everyone and those who don''t drink enough of the cool-aid literally get exiled to fucking farms to live the rest of their lives shoveling shit!"


    Dragon Chef asked, "What path do you take Swordsman?"


    Rayleigh smiled, "My own. The Sith have a code that strengthens their connection to the Dark Side. The Jedi have a code that strengthens their connection to the Light Side. I don''t use either code. I made up my own."


    There was a moment of silence before Lord of Madness shouted, "That''s a fucking great idea! Hell yeah! I''m gonna think of something badass!"


    Pacifist and Gambler also looked very thoughtful. The idea of making up their own code had never urred to them either. It was certainly food for thought.


    Book worm asked, "Is there a way to connect to all the cliques at this metaphorical high school?"


    Rayleigh shrugged before replying, "If you can think of a way to make friends with the bullies without alienating the nerds or vice versa, feel free to try. There are some Dark Side and Light Side skills that the other side can''t use. Just like how some cliques are diametrically opposed to others, connecting to one aspect of the Force tends to alienate you from another aspect. You can connect to the teachers but that would alienate the bullies. If you connect to the cheerleaders, that would alienate the goths. And if you try to connect to the band geeks, the posers would want nothing to do with you. That kind of thing."


    Of course, that was exactly what Rayleigh was trying to do himself. He was trying to get close to the whole of the Force at once so he could use all its power. If he seeded, it would grant magnitudes more power than either the Light Side or Dark Side which really only connected to one aspect of the Force. The risk was that he had to be extremely careful until his connection was strong enough. It would be slow going, but it would be worth it.


    Pacifist asked, "Which clique do you think is the best?"


    Rayleigh answered, "The teachers, but everyone has problems."


    Lord of Madness asked, "So you''re in the Jedi camp?"


    "Oh hell no," was the immediate reply.


    Pacifist asked, "You did not grow up on Coruscant, so what problem do you have with the Jedi?"


    Rayleigh replied, "They are willfully ignorant hypocrites."


    Lord of Madness shouted, "YES!"


    Pacifist rolled his eyes before ignoring the outburst and asking, "Please exin."


    Everyone leaned in a bit to listen since it seemed like Rayleigh''s understanding of the Force was pretty solid.


    Rayleigh borated, "The Jedi acknowledge that death is natural and do not move to stop it, yet if ordered by another to stop it, theyply. The problem with the Jedi is that they should never have be the dogs of the Republic."


    Justice added, "There is a simr problem in the Pirate World. The Marines are ordered around by pieces of trash that don''t care for thew."


    Book worm stated, "Reminds me of Fullmetal Alchemist with the rtionship between the Alchemists and the Military. Alchemists would make good teachers, but are the dogs of the military and the evil Fhrer."


    Pacifist countered, "But it was the Republic that passed thew which required the Jedi to enforce peace."


    Rayleigh argued, "They should have refused and allowed the Republic to create their own armed forces."


    Dragon Chef asked with surprise, "Wait, that Gxy doesn''t have armed forces?"


    Lord of Madness quickly answered, "Nope.s in the Republic are allowed a small force to defend themselves from things like pirates and gangsters, but there is no unified inteary defense force."


    Pacifist added helpfully, "They don''t need one. The Jedi are sent torge conflicts to assist with negotiations."


    The silence in the room was broken by the heartyughter of Lightning Lord, Dragon Chef, and Titan. They were all experienced and understood what kind of shit show could happen in such an environment.


    Lightning Lord added, "Sounds like the making of a great party. Hope I get an invite when it starts."


    Lord of Madness nodded, "I already figured out a few means to get some private ships of my own. If you got the crew and I''ve got the ship, we can discuss a partnership."


    The African yer consented, "We''ll talkter."


    After a week of lessons, everyone had a basic Ten and could use Zetsu, so it was time to start practicing Ren. Rayleigh went through numerous theories and applications of Ren helping everyone figure out an image that would best assist with helping them store their aura in their cells so it could be releasedter to power and sustain their Ren. It took a few days for everyone to get that right and another few days for it to be decently strong.


    Next, they were taught Gy, the ability to concentrate their aura into a single body part. Once everyone seeded at least partially, they moved on to the Hatsu lessons.


    "Hatsu is basically an attribute your aura possesses that can be strengthened. If this was a pokemon game, it could be considered your elemental type. At the moment, the innate attribute of your aura for most of you is incredibly weak, too weak to use. You''re basically typeless. So the next step of training is to strengthen the attribute of your aura. Once the attribute is strong enough, you can use it to directly create a superpower, or use it in conjunction with the specific usages of the other three major principles to create a superpower. Remember, every aspect of Nen is derived from the four major principles."


    Rayleigh then exined the Water test, but brought everyone one by one to another room to use it, so no one else but him would see their Hatsu type. He wasn''t surprised when Dragon Chef, Titan, and Wonder Woman were all Enhancers. There wasn''t a single specialist, but Rayleigh figured those who wanted the Specialist Hatsu probably had Hunter as their primary ss anyways.


    After everyone did the water test, he brought them all back and exined the six possible Attributes and their connection to each other.


    Rayleigh even gave examples, "What do you think Kuwabara and Yusuke from YuYu Hakusho would be?"


    "A transmutation type and an emission type?" This was an obvious answer since Yusuke had his Spirit Gun and Kuwabara transformed his spirit energy into a spirit sword.


    But Rayleigh corrected, "Nope, they were both enhancement types. Yusuke was an enhancer with emitter leanings while Kuwabara was an enhancer with transmuter leanings. Their shy attacks were great, but their true power was their ability to enhance their own strength just from willing themselves to be stronger and their incredible self-recovery capabilities. Only the Enhancement type has self-recovery abilities like that."


    Immortal Beauty asked, "Would Kurama have been a maniptor then?"


    "Yes, a maniptor with emitter leanings. He projected his aura and used it to control nts that were outside his body."


    Dragon Chef startedughing, "Then wouldn''t Toriko be an enhancer too? He can also transmute his aura into forks and knives and emit his aura by shooting those forks and knives."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Toriko is actually a perfect example of the bell curve of Hatsus. In order to master your own category, you should also put some development into the side categories as well, though you can''t do anything with specialist, so that can be ignored."


    Rayleigh continued, "So, let''s try to list off every power you can think of and we''ll determine which category it would be in and how it would be trained."


    Everyone''s eyes shined at this. Their child''s heart was on full disy. He was literally teaching them how to create their own superpower. No child in their right mind would not want to participate in such a conversation.


    This included Rayleigh as well of course. It was time to use these guys to develop his second Hatsu.


    *Author''s Note*


    Reviews and stones give me power.

 Chapter 46: Creating Superpowers

    Chapter 46: Creating Superpowers


    Chapter 46 Creating Superpowers


    Wonder Woman was the first to speak up and directly asked, "How would you get Superman''s powers using Nen?"


    Rayleigh considered it for a few moments before answering, "Well, Superman can be considered an Enhancer with Emitter leanings. As for how to get that much power, you''d have to be creative. Maybe you could use Transmutation to turn your aura into sunlight. Then if you master this, you could do the reverse and turn sunlight into aura." Rayleigh knew Killua could charge himself using external electricity, so the theory was viable.


    The conference room turned ssroom had a nice big ckboard which Rayleigh walked up to and drew a stick figure with a cape and then drew a circle around him. "I can only imagine it working conditionally. First, it would only work while holding Ren," he gestured to the circle around the stick figure which represented Ren. "Ren dissipates on its own, but if you could turn sunlight into aura, then your Ren would not dissipate, but continually get stronger under the sunlight. The stronger the Ren, the greater the defense and offense of the user, so as long as you could hold it, you could theoretically reach a terrifying level of strength. And since you could also turn your aura into sunlight, you could use that aura to create energy beams, like Superman''s Laser Vision, from concentrated sunlight beams. You might even be able to emit your aura behind yourself to propel yourself forward to reach superspeed and fly."


    Several of the yers already had shining eyes. A blueprint on how to be superman was in front of them. Who wouldn''t want to achieve it?


    But unfortunately for them, Rayleigh continued, "However, you likely would not be able to achieve such power without a lot of restrictions."


    Rayleigh had already exined limitations, restrictions, and vows. He exined how cing conditions on your Hatsu granted it greater strength in exchange for restraints. Rayleigh asked, "What kind of restrictions do you think you''d need for this to work?"


    Justice answered first, "Well, like you said, you''d have to use Ren, so it would not grant a base increase in physical stats, only boost Ren. And maybe it can''t be used unless exposed to sunlight."


    Rayleigh wrote the suggestions down and underlined the second one, "Yes, only working in sunlight is a harsh requirement, but such a requirement would definitely boost the effectiveness. What else?"


    Several other suggestions came and were written down. The end result could theoretically work to make one as strong as Superman but it would be much easier to counter. If anyone thought to use this build, everyone in the room would know exactly how to beat them.


    Other characters from Anime, Mangas, TV shows, and DCics were brought up one after another. Figuring out how to obtain the power wasn''t that hard. The tricky part was figuring out the restrictions needed to boost the power without crippling it.


    One of the best examples ended up being the Fullmetal Alchemist. Such a power would work by emitting your aura into an object and then manipting it to change into another form.


    The first restriction was that you needed to p your hands first to form a circle before each use. Next, you had to inject your aura into the material to be changed through physical contact with both hands, and do so right after the pping motion. Changing the form and structure of the material consumes aura present in the material. Changing theposition or element consumes some aura but also causes some aura to be stored within. The stored aura would slowly deplete itself and theposition or element will change back upon full depletion. Changes are only possible with matter that contains the user''s aura. And as an optional restriction, the user cannot make changes to biological materials, only inanimate materials.


    Next, the greater the change from the starting material to the ending material, the more aura would be consumed. Andst, the less your understanding of the starting material and ending material, the more aura would be consumed.


    When listed, the conditions for activation were actually incredibly harsh, but those harsh conditions would greatly strengthen the Hatsu''s power. The best part was that the harshest limitations could be removed by gaining a thorough understanding of the material you intended to use. A geologist would easily be able to change any rock into any form as long as the mass didn''t have to be changed. A metallurgist would be able to easily manipte metal.


    Of course, none of them were geologists, metallurgists, chemists, or physicists, and Rayleigh doubted any of them would use this build that had such a high requirement of theoretical data to use properly, especially because it wasn''t that strongpared to some other possibilities. But still, it was a good example of how to get a great power with reasonable restrictions.


    The next few weeks consisted mostly of theoretical lessons with question and answer sessions, followed by more lessons on the Force.


    Once a student was able to use Ren and started on the Hatsu training, the rest of it was just knowledge and application. Although none of them could use it yet, Rayleigh introduced the advanced applications of Nen and the theory behind how each of them worked. He taught In; how to make your aura invisible to others not using Gy. He taught En; how to create arge but thin Ren which acted as radar to sense any and all presences. He taught Sh; how to apply Ten to external items. And he taught K, Ken, and Ry and gave demonstrations on them all to show how Hunters battled.


    He also made sure to exin, "Every single Hatsu requires a lot of training, so under no circumstances should you make multiple Hatsus that can''t be used together. It''s best to have only two or at absolute max, three Hatsus, and if you have three, one of them had better revolve around basicbat. A good Hatsu is simplistic in form but versatile in use."


    Rayleigh spent a whole day on that lesson to make sure they didn''t go crazy with Hatsu creation. That was also when he started working with individual yers on their Hatsu concepts.


    Rayleigh exined, "The most important thing about a Hatsu is for you to have a strong image for it and a strong connection to it. If you like something, you can incorporate it when making a Hatsu. If you try to make a Hatsu associated with something you have no strong connection to, expect mediocre results. Like if you are not actually a fan of Superman, I doubt you''ll be able to use his build."


    One of his funnier lessons was the ss he called, "Naming your Special Moves!" In that ss he emphasized how shouting the name of a skill when using it would absolutely increase the power of the Hatsu. You could even make the act of shouting the special move a restriction for the Hatsu since that would strengthen it even further.


    At the moment, Rayleigh had one Hatsu, Overdrive. It was a overall speed enhancing Hatsu that would allow him to physically move and react faster. Although it was just a prototype, the foundation wasid and it would grow stronger over time as he practiced more and more.


    He had an idea for two more Hatsus, and unsurprisingly, both would further enhance hisbat abilities. Rayleigh didn''t believe in rounding his character. What was the point of spending so long to create a strong foundation if he didn''t intend to build something on it worthy of that foundation? Instead of building a shopping mall with a hundred stores, he''d rather build a massive tower with a hundred floors, piercing into the sky to reach a height no one else could match.


    During the following few weeks, the training became more personalized, but there would still be a meeting in the conference room every day to discuss various subjects like the Hunter World, Jedi Gxy, and Pirate World.


    Everyone was naturally shocked when Rayleigh exined that they were essentially in a fishbowl in this world.


    "What the hell does that mean? How could this world be contained like that?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, but answered, "No idea. But every continent has the same time zone, remember? Some yers thought it was because this world is t, but the truth is, this world is massive. I have no idea how massive, but if every continent is in the same time zone, then this''s circumference must be at least twenty four timesrger than Earth''s. We would be less than insects out there." The Chimera Ant that was tossed into the fishbowl from the outside was just a weak and puny ant in the outside world. How strong would the real powers outside the fishbowl be? It gave everyone the feeling of a Cultivation Light Novel, where after the world was explored, it would be revealed that the previously known world was just a tiny prefecture of somethingrger.


    The Pirates gave Rayleigh some useful information in exchange for this, but it was mostlymon knowledge in the Pirate World. Apparently in the Pirate World, there is a Mad Scientist called Vegapunk. He was said to once have a student who was crazier than he was. This student sessfully replicated several Devil Fruits in a way that no one had ever done before. But a group came and stole these copies and destroyed theb, killing the student. Even Vegapunk was unable to perfectly copy his student''s process without the notes andb, so what he did could not be done again.


    This was the backstory for why the yers had copies of Devil Fruits when only one of each should exist. There were even instances where the owner of the original fruit found out and became very antagonistic toward the unlucky yer who shared the same fruit. But there were also lucky yers taken under the wing of the original fruit holder and taught how to use it firsthand.


    Even without Rayleigh, there were plenty of interesting conversations between the Jedi and the Pirates.


    Pacifist asked, "Have you gotten in trouble with the Tavern for any crimes you''vemitted?"


    Titan, a brown haired, light skinned teen that looked European answered, "I haven''t, though I know of some yers who came close. One of them said they were about to kill some random viger or something that was cowering in a corner and he got a warning from the Tavern. So he let her go. I''ve fought and killed, but I''ve never gotten a warning, and the fact that I cane and go from the Tavern as I please means it''s fine. I think it only matters if you are going to harm some defenseless innocent."


    Justice nodded thoughtfully, "Basically, don''t harm people you have no good reason to harm."


    Dragon Chef replied, "That''s right. If a yer robs a house and the inhabitants run away, the Tavern doesn''t care. If a yer robs a house and an upant picks up a weapon and attacks you, the Tavern doesn''t care if you kill him. But if you kill someone who has no blood on their hands and is not a threat to you without a reason, the Tavern won''t let it slide."


    Captain Jack added, "And even the reason can be flexible. If you be a bounty hunter and your bounty target is an innocent man who has never hurt anyone, the Tavern won''t care because you are after him for the bounty. Basically, there just has to be a reason. Killing someone for no reason at all is what the Tavern looks out for."


    Lord of Madness asked, "So if someone is a rude jackass who deserves to be set on fire, the Tavern won''t care if I set him on fire even if I don''t know anything else about him?"


    Crow, a teen with a paleplexion and ck hair answered, "Only one way to find out. I''ll get the gasoline, you get the match."


    It seemed it was entirely possible to be an evil asshole, as long as you didn''t go full murder hobo.


    The Jedi yers used this time to share their own stories about the Gctic Republic and about the Jedi Gxy main character, Anakin Skywalker. Everyone paid close attention to this, as they all intended to make a ce for themselves in that gxy one day.


    A week into the lessons, Rayleigh noticed something he had not noticed before. He was being watched. Someone was using some form of irvoyance to watch his lessons from a distance. The reason he noticed this eventually was because this person also had a presence in the Force, meaning it was a yer. A woman from what he saw.


    When the woman realized that Rayleigh knew about her, she eventually came over to the Hotel and sat in on the group lessons and personal lessons like it wasn''t a big deal that she had been caught peeping. She never spoke a word or introduced herself in the same room as others, only asking questions to Rayleigh when they were alone. Other than the fact that she was the same age as them and had a presence in the Force, the others couldn''t even confirm that she was a yer besides taking Rayleigh''s word for it.


    The reason it took Rayleigh so long to notice her was that he had sealed seven of his eight wills at the start of the lessons. The presence of his multiple Wills was one of his greatest strengths, so he would be keeping it a secret, and he needed to get used to the feeling of using a single will that was actually one-eighth of his total mind as if it were the entire mind.


    This was needed because he reached a wall when it came to dividing his mind further after reaching eight wills. Going from four to eight was very hard, but going from eight to sixteen seemed almost impossible, so he intended to go back to using a single fragmented Will until he was capable of splitting that will. Then he could start dividing until he reached sixteen wills.


    Although fragmented and technically only 1/8th his total mind power, Rayleigh was fully capable of living his day-to-day life, multitasking, teaching, training, and meditating like normal. The only thing he could not do, was all of these things at the same time like he used to be able to.


    As Rayleigh desired, several of the yers did give him valuable information in exchange for his lessons to repay their debts.


    Captain Jack sparred with Rayleigh every day while teaching him basic swordsmanship. He was honestly appalled at what the Jedi used but grew to understand it once he saw how overpowered their lightsabers were. Still, he dered without any hesitation, "Waving around a glowing melt stick in a fancy manner does not make you a Swordsman. So you''d better at least learn the basics or get to changing your yer ID." The most amusing thing about Jack was that he never took off his pirate hat, even while sparring.


    Dragon Chef took it upon himself to teach Rayleigh the basics of the Pirate Power System, but told him, "If you don''t n to get a Devil Fruit, there isn''t a need to unlock your Pirate ss right away. Just keep this in mind for when you decide to learn it."


    The Pirate Power system was called Haki, and Dragon Chef exined it as, "Mind over matter taken to the absurd."


    There were three types of Haki; Observation, Armament, and Conqueror''s. Dragon Chef exined each one as concisely as he could.


    "Observation Hakies from understanding death and the threat of death. Those who have never gotten close to death will find it difficult to use. It opens up the user''s senses to take in everything and understand it to get a feel for the world around you and the threats hidden within. This understanding cannot be taught, you can only learn it through experience. Usually, this means blindfolding yourself and getting your ass beat over and over until your body and senses adapt and learn to avoid the pain and danger on their own."


    "Armament Hakies from understanding life and how to live. Again, those who have lived sheltered lives without ever stepping foot outside their little bubble will find it difficult to use because they have never truly lived. Armament Haki causes your sense of self to ovep with your flesh and bone. The stronger your sense of self, the greater the effect. Most say you have to fight someone stronger than yourself to train it, but that''s technically not true. You just have to fight a battle you can''t win. The key is to be as stubborn as possible. Armament Haki has several applications, but the main use is hardening the flesh to strike harder or defend better. The effects share simrities with Ren and I can''t wait to see how well they can stack. It also grants you the ability to resist and attack conceptual existences."


    "Most people have trouble understanding both life and death at the same time, so most are predisposed to one or the other. yers don''t have this issue, butcking an understanding in either will still hold you back."


    "And Conqueror''s Hakies from understanding loss and how to win. Those who have never experienced great loss will, once more, find it difficult to use. Conqueror''s Haki is basically overwriting the world with the statement, ''I will win.'' If used against a weaker enemy, they will be overwhelmed with the sense, ''I will lose,'' and pass out automatically. If you incorporate it into battle, you can basically order your opponent to lose to you through attacks that use it, since such attacks will be far more damaging and even affect the willpower of the opponent. Though, if your opponent also has Conqueror''s Haki, then it will be a battle of willpower with every exchange."


    One of the main reasons Dragon Chef told Rayleigh that there was no need to rush unlocking his Pirate ss was because the hardest part of Haki was just the awakening, which had a high amount of physical and mental requirements. Most Pirate yers under themand of the Captains that knew about Haki were still training. Not with push-ups or pull-ups, but life and death situations that involved fighting monsters or surviving deadly trials. Haki training was willpower training. Unlocking it allowed one to grow more familiar with it as it was used, but you didn''t need to unlock the Pirate ss to train willpower.


    Thest yer who decided to pay off his debt with an exchange was Justice. Since Dragon Chef was already giving him lessons in Haki, Justice decided to teach Rayleigh some skills from the Navy known as the Six Powers.


    Even if he would never use some of them, mastering all six meant fully mastering the body, which was a great benefit on its own and would greatly strengthen his Overdrive.


    The first skill trained the body to the highest degree of flexibility. It was called Kami-e; Paper Drawing. It could be used to dodge iing attacks like a sheet of paper blowing in the wind.


    The next skill trained the body to the highest toughness, Tekkai; Iron Body. It trained the muscles in a way that allowed them, when clenched to be as hard as steel.


    Then came the finger and hand training skill, Shigan; Finger Gun. The training for this skill ensured that even the smallest finger bone was stronger than steel and an extended finger could be used to pierce into unarmored opponents.


    Thest three skills were all leg and movement skills. The first was Soru; Shave. Training for it would train the nerves. It allowed a person to go from a dead stop into a highspeed movement in an instant by kicking against the ground multiple times. The trick was how to position the foot to apply the proper traction and appropriate level of friction to stack the effect.


    The next leg skill was actually very impressive. Geppo; Moon Walk. Geppo training heavily trained the tendons and ligaments in the leg and waist because it required the leg to go up and then down at a speed like that of a jackhammer. Geppo was a skill used to step on air. From how Justice described and demonstrated it, it worked in two parts. First, the leg is lifted up at a speed fast enough to produce a vacuum beneath the foot. Air around the vacuum rushes to fill the space and collides to create a small pressure explosion from where the vacuum originated. It was like how you could smack down the top of a bottle of beer and cause the bottom to burst. Smacking the top caused small vacuum bubbles to appear in the bottom, but when the vacuum bubbles copsed in on themselves, they created a shockwave strong enough to shatter the ss.


    The second part of Geppo was rocketing the leg down into the pressure explosion made by the vacuum at the exact moment of its creation. The effect, if the timing was perfect, would grant the user a step they could use to jump further into the air by using the force of the pressure wave born from the copsing vacuum bubble. Every usage of Moon Walk was apanied by a popping sound that originated from the explosion caused by the copsing vacuum bubble.


    Thest leg technique was Rankyaku; Storm Leg. Training it required training every muscle in the waist and legs to the highest degree of strength and control. It was an extended sweep kick that created a flying pressure wave of air that cut or damaged whatever it struck. The key to forming it was kicking with a perfectly straight leg at an insane velocity using the correct angle. Doing so would create two parallel spinning currents of air on either side of the sweeping leg. If the wind was perfectly visible when someone used Storm Leg, one would see two thin tornadoes spinning in the opposite direction forming along the path of the kick. The thin vortexes of air would extend out in the direction of the kick and the force of the two thin whirlwinds would send a strong pressure wave of air at anything it met upon contact.


    Although the details of these skills were demonstrated and exined and Rayleigh asked every question he could think of, he had no chance to learn these skills during this short time. He would take their concepts and incorporate it into his training, but he would not try to master these techniques unless they could be stacked together with his existing skills.


    Besides Captain Jack teaching Rayleigh the basics of swordsmanship, Ray also tried to spar with every yer as often as he could. One of the yers he sparred the most with was Lightning Lord. Rayleigh used him to practice Tutaminis to get a hang of resisting or redirecting energy based attacks. Tutaminis allowed its user to handle just about any form of energy, from lightning and light to fire and sma. With such a variety of opponents, he''d be a fool not to use them. Of course, this could not be considered paying off their debt since they learned well from Rayleigh in every fight as well.


    The sparring continued until thest week of June. From there, Rayleigh had pretty much finished ripping off ideas from his students. Creating a power was easy. Thinking of a clever restriction to enhance that power without crippling it was hard. Rayleigh used his students toe up with dozens and dozens of different clever restrictions and shifted through andbined the best ones.


    The harshest condition, something that was actually abination of several other conditions, required Rayleigh to have something that didn''t exist yet. So he had to make that first.


    The reason Rayleigh stopped participating in the sparring during thest week was that he was busy modifying his lightsaber. He had a solid grasp of his final idea, so now was the right time to inscribe his Lightsaber with Divine Script and change its form and function.


    The first thing he did was change the form. Captain Jack had berated him multiple times for calling himself Swordsman when he didn''t use a sword, so he had to remedy that. Rayleigh used his Lightsaber Customization Kit to change the shape of the de from a cylindrical rod into a thin, double-edged longsword. The shape was suggested by Captain Jack as the closest representative of a sword that could use most of the Jedi''s skills. It was basically a wider rapier and since it was no longer made of sma encased in a maic field, it could bend and flex like a proper sword could.


    Next, he added the Divine Script. Divine Script basically added your Hatsu to something, so you could not add something you could not actually do. Thankfully, everything Rayleigh intended to add was something he was fully capable of.


    Divine Script was something Rayleigh covered in a lesson, but he could not teach it since that would take far too long. Book worm approached himter and bribed him. She said if he cannot teach her, he should write down how to use it in a book and give it to her in the MCU. In exchange, she will make sure he gets training from the best swordsman in the MCU using her family''s money and connections, no matter how long it takes. Rayleigh said he''d consider it.


    Rayleigh applied Divine Script to the inner casing of the Lightsaber, the exterior of the Lightsaber, and the Kyber Crystal itself. The firstyer of Divine Script was carved into the inner wall of the lightsaber around the kyber crystal. This was Transmuter attribute Hatsu that transformed aura into a de, exactly like Gon''s Scissors attack.


    When used, Rayleigh''s Lightsaber would draw his aura into the handle, pass it through the kyber crystal, then start circting it. The circting sword transformed aura worked like a chainsaw and looked a lot like a thinner version of Kuwabara''s Spirit Sword, though blue in color. That wasn''t a coincidence since Kuwabara''s Spirit Sword was the inspiration for this change.


    Technically, it was weaker than his lightsaber prior to modification because itpletelycked the insane heat of a normal Lightsaber, but there were three main reasons he changed it. The first was that he could manually adjust the strength and sharpness of the sword aura and speed of the aura rotation, so he could make it nonlethal at will. This would be importantter. Next, in this form, it qualified as a sword. Proper swordsmanship would properly enhance his skill now. And finally, this form had the potential to be much, much stronger than a lightsaber. As his Nen grew in strength, he''d be able to transform his aura into an even sharper and sharper sword. Unlike physical weapons, this was a conceptual weapon and there was no limit on its theoretical sharpness. There were things that even a Lightsaber could not cut, but this weapon had the potential to cut anything.


    The outside of the Lightsaber hilt was carved with abination of Enhancer and Emitter attribute Divine Script. This part was the secret requirement of his new Hatsu.


    His new Hatsu was something he was directly stealing from a manga called Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. It was one of his favorite mangas, and the MC was definitely one of his all-time favorites. The MC was basically the minion of someone who secretly plotted to destroy the world, so he swore his loyalty to her. In order to protect her, he had to create a power that would allow him to defeat all the heroes. Rayleigh loved everything about that. A super skill created in order to defeat the heroes. It was also extremely appropriate. In this game, each of the one hundred yers considered themselves the main character. Each and everyone was the hero of their own story. So what could be better than a skill designed specifically to defeat main characters and heroes?


    As he taught his students, the key to a good Hatsu was to have a strong image of it and a connection to it. Since it was something based off of something else, the image already existed, so creating the Hatsu was much easier. And since he was a huge fan of the origin of the idea itself, he had a strong connection to it.


    Babylon. That was the name of his Hatsu. In the manga, Babylon was a weak form of telekinesis that controlled the air around the user. It was used to slow down opponents and speed up the user. That was the original idea, but Rayleigh intended to improve it.


    Rayleigh''s Babylon used the Emitter attribute Divine Script on his Lightsaber handle to create a special En field around his body that was a mix of aura and the Force. This only worked due to the presence of the kyber crystal which acted as a bridge between the Force and Aura. The effect of Babylon was actually very simple. Any Force skill Rayleigh used within the field was enhanced by the effect of the Enhancer attribute Divine Script, which was also on the exterior surface of the Lightsaber handle.


    Creating the En Field did not use up much aura. The power behind the enhancement effect came from the restrictions ced on the Hatsu.


    -Babylon can only be used while holding the specialized Lightsaber.


    -The size and shape of Babylon cannot be changed after activation.


    -The center of Babylon extends out from the Lightsaber.


    -Babylon can only be used while meditating.


    -Using a Force Skill within Babylon requires an entire force of Will.


    -The user cannot purposefully kill or cripple targets within Babylon unless the user has sustained three injuries since the initiation of Babylon.


    -If a target is purposefully killed or crippled by the user within Babylon before the prior condition is met, the Lightsaber''s kyber crystal will destroy itself.


    -Babylon cannot be initiated within five minutes of a prior deactivation of Babylon.


    When written down, it was a mess. The first restriction came from the fact that this Hatsu could never be used with anything but that one item, the modified Lightsaber. Restricting a Hatsu to only be usable while holding a specific item didn''t sound like much, but it was actually an incredibly harsh restriction. Rayleigh would never be able to use Babylon without holding it, even if it was a life and death situation.


    The second and third restrictions would prevent him from manipting the area of the Field, but taking away that flexibility would strengthen the image and allow him to make itrger for less aura.


    The fourth and fifth restrictions were beyond harsh and made the Hatsu impossible for anyone but Rayleigh to even think of using. Needing a constant connection to the Force through meditation was necessary to properly strengthen the effect of the Force skill, and requiring it for Babylon to work would make it more stable by ingraining the idea that it could not work without an active connection to the Force achieved through meditation. Having a full Will be needed to use any Force skill meant he could not multitask with each Will, but requiring a Will not to multitask would allow for each Will to focus on that one Force skill being used within Babylon, which would ensure it was strengthened to the maximum. This also meant that the Will using the Force Skill could not be the will controlling his body, so using Babylon required at least three Wills; one to move the body, one to maintain a strong connection to the Force through meditation, and one more for every Force Skill used within Babylon. Fortunately for Rayleigh, the act of sealing his Wills worked and he had recently broken through to forming a ninth Will, and it would not be too hard to form seven more. Using his multiple Wills, Rayleigh could use multiple Force Skills at the same time, with each receiving a massive power boost from Babylon.


    He could boost his own abilities with Enhance Attribute, Force Valor, or Force Speed. He could boost his defense with Tutaminis or boost his battlefield awareness with irvoyance.


    He could focus on a target and concentrate a full Will''s usage of Battle Precognition or Shatterpoint to predict the target''s next move and see the target''s weakness.


    He could use Force Stasis, Force Slow, Force Whirlwind, or Force Fear on targets to hamper their ability to fight back, and when he fought a single target, he could stack multiple effects on the same guy!


    Thest three restrictions were to further strengthen the Hatsu''s power to the limit. Just like how Kurapika ced a Judgement Chain on his heart to enforce his conditions, Rayleigh wrote a bit of Divine Script onto the lightsaber''s kyber crystal that would cause it to destroy itself under the condition that Rayleigh crippled or killed someone before Rayleigh was injured three times during Babylon''s usage. Thest restriction was ced so that Rayleigh could not just turn off Babylon, kill someone, and turn it back on right away. Rayleigh actually ced a w in the Divine Script on the Lightsaber to prevent it from working again after being turned off without a five minute cooldown, so he could not cheat. As for the reason for the restriction, it was simply something that the Force would approve of, so implementing a Force approved restriction would of course further boost the power of the Force within Babylon.


    Although thest three restrictions seemed incredibly harsh, they were not harsh in the slightest. If Rayleigh could kill or cripple his target easily, then his Babylon strengthened Force skills could suppress or knock the target out without having to kill or cripple him anyway. If the target was so strong that Rayleigh could not survive three hits, then it would not be a target Rayleigh could kill or cripple anyways. And even if Rayleigh did break the restriction and the kyber crystal broke, he just had to turn off his Lightsaber''s projection and turn it back on the next day, good as new.


    Of course, that still meant going a day without his Lightsaber which meant a day without Babylon, so it was not a restriction he could easily break.


    There were other possible restrictions, but only these would not actually harm hisbat ability or lifestyle. Things like using lifeforce, causing self harm, putting himself in danger, or taking unusual risks were left outpletely because they went against the spirit of his code. Such things were no different from using the Dark Side, tearing off his flesh to enhance his strength during the fight only to weaken him afterward, forcing him to tear off more flesh for the next fight. Such a fighting style was not his way.


    The best part about this Hatsu was its potential. The range of Babylon would increase as his aura grew. The number of effects he could use at the same time would increase as he continued to split his mind. This Hatsu would be just as useful to him decades into the future as it would be today. It would stack well with any new technique or fighting style he came up with and as far as he could tell, it would stack perfectly with Haki in the future. One of the main reasons he was even willing to create a Hatsu now was simply because he now knew the details of the third Power System and could make ns for the future that included it.


    Rayleigh finished on thest day of his lessons and bid everyone farewell. As he suspected, half of them looked down on him for helping them so much for free. Those same people also amassed a terrifying Room Service bill without the slightest bit of shame. Rayleigh didn''t mind. It was a drop in the bucket for the billions in his bank ount and the higher the debt they owed him, the better.


    Rayleigh was not able to practice his new Hatsu much before he received an urgent call from Gon. Kite was captured by a powerful Chimera Ant and found recently, but he was in terrible condition. Gon asked if Rayleigh could heal him.


    At the request, Rayleigh had a premonition, something of a Force Vision. He sighed at the oue and replied over the phone, "I''m on my way. Don''t do anything stupid before I arrive."


    *Author''s Note*


    Figuring out how to ''define'' the mechanism behind CPO''s Geppo was harder than defining Haki, but I seeded. To all those writing One Piece Fanfics, there, now you know how it ''works.'' Praise me.


    The description of canon Haki is very vague but I am quite satisfied with my definition since as far as I can tell, it matches all usages of Haki.


    Rayleigh is finally going to check out the Chimera Ants! Reviews and Stones fuel my will to write.

 Chapter 47: The Protagonists Darkness

    Chapter 47: The Protagonist''s Darkness


    Chapter 47 The Protagonist''s Darkness


    The country Kite and the rest were located in was next to the same NGL they had gone to in order to check for the presence of Chimera Ants. Considering the fact that he had just been told that Kite was in terrible condition, Ray didn''t have to ask if they found them.


    That same country was also practically adjacent to his current location, located a short ne ride away. Despite being a terrible ce to live, the country itself was very open to tourists with money, so it was quick and easy to head to the airport and arrive within a few hours of the call.


    As for the Hotel he left, Rayleigh was surprised that the reconstruction would only take four months after all the hijinks the yers got into. More than half his savings of several Billion was gone to pay for the damages, but he didn''t care about money, so it didn''t matter. At least the yers didn''t kill anyone during their stay and the Hospital fees of the survivors weren''t too bad since all the victims had insurance.


    It was a great example of what would happen if arge group of yers got together in the same location and stayed there for two months. At least Rayleigh wasn''t charged for anything they did in the city itself since they never got caught by the authorities and most of the fires had eventually been put out.


    The airport hended in was fancy in all the wrong ces which emphasized where the rulers wanted the attention of others to be ced. A cab ride led him to where his friends were and four other Hunters were among them.


    Before Rayleigh could even introduce himself to the others, Gon shouted, "Ray! You have to help Kite!"


    Rayleigh''s empathy could sense a storm of emotions from Gon, with the hope being the strongest as it tried to outshine the despair, guilt, and anger within his friend''s heart.


    Rayleigh doubted he''d get a story out of Gon at this point so he replied, "Show the way, I''ll see what I can do."


    One of the younger Hunters from the four with Gon and Killua asked gruffly, "Hey, are you really all that good at healing?"


    Rayleigh shrugged but didn''t answer. It wasn''t like saying yes or no would stop Gon from taking him to Kite, but the young Hunter with the pompadour gritted his teeth at the brush off. Only a hand on his shoulder from another Hunter, one who seemed to be missing an arm, calmed him down.


    The older two Hunters watched this exchange with interest before leading the group into a building with some underground structures.


    After passing through several halls, they spotted Kite, or at least, a Frankenstein version of the sewn-together pieces of Kite.


    It seemed to breathe and move, but Rayleigh could tell that it was not alive. A quick use of Gy revealed a set of strings connected to the corpse that rose to the fingers of an invisible puppeteer-like construct.


    The corpse puppet seem to have all its aura nodes closed, so it was incapable of using aura and could only move using the instincts and muscle memory of the nerves of the body.


    Rayleigh shook his head. When Gon told him that Kite was in terrible condition, Ray didn''t think he meant he was dead. Ray wasn''t a god. Dark Transfer could bring the dead to life under the right circumstances, but the time of death had to be really recent and the injuries couldn''t be too terrible.


    The first thing Rayleigh did was jump up to the construct puppeteering Kite''s corpse and tap on a shatterpoint while forcing a massive surge of the Force into it. As expected, the construct shattered and Kite''s corpse fell limp to the ground.


    Gon shouted, "Kite!" and ran over, but Rayleigh ignored him and ced his hand on the corpse''s head. It was still breathing, but that would end in a few moments as the puppeteer''s aura left the body and the maniption ended.


    Seeing that Rayleigh was still holding Kite, Gon asked, "Can you save him?"


    Killua quietly stated, "Shush, he''s doing something."


    Rayleigh was certainly doing something. He was using Psychometry. When used on a living person, he could sense that person''s condition and status. A corpse though was considered an object, so Rayleigh could use it to see Kite''s past. He watched what happened backward. He saw the puppet being used to spar against Chimera Ants, teaching them how to fight. He saw the corpse getting sewn back together using the Nen ability of some cat-girl chimera ant that had a repulsive, sickeningly dark aura. He saw Kite fight against the same Chimera Ant and use all of his tricks and skills before he was shredded to pieces. He saw the chimera ant''s first attack from a massive distance away that took Kite''s arm as he shouted at Gon and Killua to run.


    Rayleigh backtracked Kite''s steps for several minutes. Kite was a very skilled Hunter and learning from his past would be useful for Rayleigh as well.


    Eventually, the Kite corpse stopped moving and Rayleigh set it to the side.


    Gon saw Kite wasn''t moving as he wasid down and asked, pitifully, "Ray, why aren''t you healing Kite?"


    Rather than address such a ridiculous question like why he was incapable of bringing back the dead, Rayleigh looked over to Killua and said, "I asked you to look after Gon and make sure he didn''t get any more head injuries. I apud the fact that you stopped him from fighting that ant, but did you have to aim for the head?"


    One of the older Hunters, the one with shoulder-length hair, sunsses, and a very broad frame asked, "How did you know about that?"


    Rayleigh replied, "I can see into the past of objects I touch or the health status of living beings I touch."


    It didn''t take a genius to figure out that Rayleigh referred to the corpse as an object, not a living being.


    Even Gon could figure it out, and as he did, thest light of hope was snuffed out, and everything within him was engulfed in darkness.


    Gon, Rayleigh, and Killua left the underground structure so that Killua could tell Ray everything that happened while the other Hunters dealt with Kite''s corpse.


    During and even after Killua finished the story, Gon stayed quiet as he wallowed in his guilt and regret.


    Rayleigh got Gon''s attention and asked, "Gon, what do you n to do?"


    Gon remained silent for a moment before answering, "I''m going to avenge Kite."


    Rayleigh sighed. This somewhat exined the vision he had. Since Gon was the MC, Rayleigh could not urately see his future, but that didn''t mean he wouldn''t get the asional Force Vision. What he saw when he heard about Kite was an image of Gon being engulfed in darkness and vanishingpletely.


    Of course, Rayleigh had no chance to talk Gon out of his quest for revenge. Rayleigh doubted Grandmaster Yoda could talk Gon out of his quest for revenge.


    Still, Rayleigh was reasonably certain that Gon was a Shonen Protagonist, the same kind as Yusuke and Ichigo, so he just had to speak to Gon using thenguage of Shonen Protagonists. It was time for a beatdown.


    Rayleigh ced one hand on Gon''s arm and the other on the top of a small devil-cat like thing on Gon''s shoulder. ording to Killua''s story, this was an Imposed Nen from Knuckle, the Hunter with the pompadour. It had the effect of forcing Gon into a state of Zetsu for a month and was indestructible without someone who could remove Nen.


    From what Rayleigh could tell when he used Psychometry, it worked by injecting the victim with the user''s Emitter attribute aura until more aura had been injected than the victim had. Then the Maniptor attribute aura mixed with the Emitter attribute aura manipted the body into using Zetsu, which closed all the aura nodes and prevented the user''s foreign aura from leaving the body for a long time.


    After understanding the mechanism, Rayleigh took one of Gon''s hands and made a tiny de of aura before using it to cut Gon''s finger to draw blood. Rayleigh then used his control of the Force to control the small amount of Force within Gon''s body and use it to force out the foreign aura that was still held within through the finger wound using a variation of Force Healing.


    It took a few minutes, but once it was all out, Rayleigh tapped on the little devil-cat thing and used Shatterpoint to destroy it. The condition of the devil-cat to exist was, ''the user''s aura was within the target and it had been less than 30 days since activation.'' The former usually wouldn''t be a problem since the target was forced into Zetsu which prevented all its aura from leaving the body, but Rayleigh ended that condition through the use of the Force.


    With the destruction of the little devil-cat, Gon''s aura was released, and for the first time in a while, he was pleasantly surprised. He had been under the impression that he would be unable to use his aura for another few weeks.


    Killua was also shocked as he watched this entire process from the side. If removing that thing was easy, the Hunters from before would have done it.


    Rayleigh then said, "Killua, take us somewhere isted, I need to have a loud conversation with Gon."


    Gon seemed confused by this but Killua got the message and led the group out of the building and out of the city.


    Once they were alone, Rayleigh said, "Gon, if you want to kill that ant, you''re going to have to beat me."


    Gon quickly shouted in protest, "But I have to avenge Kite!"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "I''ve told you I can see into the future sometimes right? I saw you being engulfed in darkness if you fight him." There was no need to lie to his friend.


    Killua asked from the side with deep concern, "You mean he''ll die?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Or worse. There are worse things than death you know. You could be something else. Something unrecognizable. Something worse than the feeling you guys felt from that Ant."


    Both Hunters instinctively shivered at that memory. It wasn''t that the aura from that cat-girl was overwhelmingly powerful, it was just sickeningly creepy and caused every cell in the body to fear for its very existence.


    Rayleigh had a much clearer sense of that feeling from his use of Psychometry, but he wasn''t as affected as the others. That dark feeling was very simr to the Dark Side, but there were plenty of locations in Tython near the Temples that were drenched in the Dark Side, and Rayleigh had gotten used to them a long time ago. Like the Dark Side, the feeling from that cat-girl was like that of a predator that enjoyed tormenting its prey until its limit before devouring it alive. Piece by piece by piece. It was something primal that made any creature that felt it understand that there are worse things than death.


    Gon only hesitated for a second before he shouted, "I don''t care! I''m going to avenge Kite, no matter what it takes!"


    Rayleigh pulled out his Lightsaber and injected his aura, causing a sparking blue aura de to appear. Rayleigh stated, "I figured as much. But you''ll definitely die if you''re not strong enough, so I will stop you unless you can beat me."


    Killua directly asked, "Did you change that thing?"


    "Yep. I call it my Nensaber. It won''t slice off limbs anymore if I don''t want it to." Now that Rayleigh could adjust the lethality of his weapon, he could use it a lot more than he used to.


    After confirming that the new weapon wouldn''t be removing Gon''s limbs, Ray took a fighting stance and met his friend''s hard stare with eyes that told Gon that Ray was not joking. He would stop Gon from attempting his revenge if Gon could not beat him.


    Gon took in a breath of eptance before making his aura re in a far stronger show of Ren than it had been before they separated, but Rayleigh had used Ren constantly over thest two months while training and demonstrating during his lessons, so his own improvement didn''t lose out to Gon and Killua''s.


    Gon pulled his arm back and slowly called out, "Firstes rock." His aura gathered into the fist behind him in the reeling back posture he always took before using any of his Rock Paper Scissors attacks.


    Rayleigh didn''t stop him. Gon wouldn''t give up unless Rayleigh faced his strongest attack, though the sliver of confidence in Gon''s eyes showed he seemed to have a n. Probably a trickbined with a feint and some MC luck to win. Rayleigh knew exactly how to deal with that.


    Rayleigh said aloud, "Open, Babylon." Saying it wasn''t a condition, but doing so strengthened the imagery and allowed the Force mixed En Field to expand to arger area than it usually would without calling out the technique''s name.


    Of course, with Rayleigh''s aura, even while calling out the Hatsu name like an anime character, he could only expand the En Field to about two meters around him. Without using Babylon and his specialized Nensaber, he''d only be able to expand En to less than a third of a meter around him and would not be able to hold it for very long. It wasn''t that he was weak, he was simply too new to Nen and had not gotten strong enough to umte more aura. All the restrictions on Babylon along with the Nensaber allowed him to expand En much further and for less aura than normal.


    For now, Babylon could not be used to fight long distances, but it wasrge enough to affect his opponents that engaged in closebat.


    Gon jumped forward and shouted, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Scissors!" and arge de of aura formed on his arm and shed at Rayleigh''s aura de. Rayleigh was tempted to roll his eyes.


    The Nensaber was not a Hatsu on its own. It was more urate to call it aponent of Babylon. Babylon-lite basically,cking the Force-enhancing En Field. When Rayleigh did not use Babylon and injected a normal amount of aura, the Nensaber was sharper than a normal sword as the sword aura it was made of rotated like a chainsaw. When he actually used Babylon, the Nensaber was far more powerful.


    Rayleigh swung the sword cleanly through Gon''s aura de and shed him across the chest. The only thing that prevented Gon from being split in two was the fact that Rayleigh slowed the de''s rotation after shredding through Gon''s attack.


    The force of the somewhat dull strike also shot Gon backward as he cried out in pain before the air was fully expelled from his lungs from the impact when he crashed into the wall of an abandoned house.


    Of course, a bloody sh from one end of your torso to the other is just a papercut for a stubborn MC. But that was fine with Rayleigh. Babylon was literally made to deal with protagonists and all their BS logic. Gon got up from the rubble of the copsed wall and shot forward, trying to get into a fistfight with Rayleigh.


    Once Gon was within his En Field, Rayleigh used one of his wills to concentrate on using Battle Precognition, allowing him to perceive every move Gon would make. Rayleigh also slowed the rotation of his Nensaber further until it was basically a beat stick and whacked Gon over and over while dodging every attack.


    This continued for a few minutes as Gon''s face and body ended up covered in purple welts and lines of blood. He knew that if Rayleigh went all out he would have lost, but his own stubbornness was not epting the loss because he had not tried everything he could to win yet.


    Gon jumped back out of Babylon''s range but Rayleigh didn''t step forward to meet him. Once more Gon reeled back, but this time, instead of Scissors, he shouted, "Paper!" beforeunching an orb of aura toward Rayleigh''s head.


    The attack was swatted away with his Nensaber and Gon shouted, "Round Two! Rock!" and charged Ray with a fist fully saturated with aura. It seemed that Gon set it so that if he had already called out Rock, Paper, Scissors, he didn''t need to do so again for another attack when used consecutively.


    The attack was almost point-nk and since Rayleigh had to set his stance to deflect the Paper attack from before, he was not in the correct position to dodge. At least, that''s how it would have worked normally.


    Rayleigh applied two Wills worth of Force Valor to his body to allow him to move at lightning speed and with one Will used for Battle Precognition once Gon was in range, he had the information and reaction speed necessary to move out of the way of the attack. In that instant, the rotations of Rayleigh''s Nensaber also peaked to the max and a single slice up as Rayleigh got out of the way of Gon''s attack saw his friend''s arm severed from halfway down the wrist.


    Gon''s arm flew up into the air as he looked with shock at his bloody stump. The massive gushing of blood caused Gon''s aura to falter and Rayleigh used that moment to smack the back of Gon''s head to knock him out. He really had not expected his friend to remove his limbs,


    Before he could fall to the ground, Rayleigh held him up with the Force and also used the Force to apply pressure to his friend''s arm to stop the bleeding. He pulled the severed arm back down using telekinesis and set it back into Gon''s wrist before he started to use Dark Transfer to heal the wound.


    Babylon was still active, and even Force healing techniques were amplified within. The reason that Babylon did not end when Rayleigh sliced off Gon''s arm was that he ensured it was a clean cut that he could easily repair. His Nensaber did not cauterize the wound so there was no problem with reattachment. The condition for the Kyber Crystal to break during Babylon was killing or crippling a target. Rayleigh didn''t consider cleanly severed limbs crippling since such things could be healed by him. To cripple meant to wound severely enough to make recovery nearly impossible. But nearly impossible was rtive. In this world where there were miracle cures and Nen abilities, a cleanly severed limb was little more than a flesh wound.


    Yes, Rayleigh''s Hatsu seemed incredibly restrictive, but it used his own definition of crippling. There were plenty of ways to disable someone with a sword that did not kill them and only caused wounds they could potentially make a full recovery from.


    Of course, the target had to have ess to some means of recovery. A poor orphan breaking his leg could be a crippling wound because he did not have the means to heal it correctly. So Rayleigh would have to at least confirm the target had ess to some means of recovery before he could bend logic and reason as he pleased.


    Killua ran over to Gon the moment the arm went flying but was relieved when he saw Rayleigh healing their friend. Even the cuts and scrapes and bruises Rayleigh left all over Gon were healing one at a time. One of the nicer effects of Babylon was that not only was Dark Transfer enhanced, but it was also very easy to use to heal wounds Rayleigh himself made while within.


    After confirming Gon was gonna be alright, Killua asked, "Are you sure you''re a pacifist?" He had just seen Gon get the stuffing beaten out of him before the final blow, so it was a normal question to ask.


    Rayleigh shrugged, "What, he''s perfectly fine now."


    Killua rolled his eyes as Ray finished healing Gon''s wounds to the point they werepletely gone. The pair carried him back to the room and waited for him to wake up, something that didn''t take too long since his injuries were gone and his aura was only about a third depleted.


    Gon awoke with a start and first looked to confirm the presence of his hand. He gripped around the location Rayleigh had sliced it off to confirm there was nothing wrong.


    Rayleigh stated, "You lost."


    Gon''s expression hardened for a moment before he said, "Then we''ll fight again."


    Rayleigh and Killua sighed. Both knew this would happen. Rather than argue, Rayleigh said, "Fine, so you know you''ll probably die or worse. You don''t care in the slightest. And you''re gonna avenge Kite no matter what, does that sound about right?"


    Gon nodded with a dark determination filling his hollow eyes.


    Rayleigh continued, "Fine. I won''t stop you. You just have to do one thing. It''s really easy and won''t require any effort. You could even do it right now, it will only take a few minutes."


    Gon''s eyes widened in surprise before he answered, "Okay, what do I need to do?"


    Rayleigh got out a piece of paper and wrote a few lines of text down. He then wrote a phone number on the top of the paper. Rayleigh held up the sheet and said, "It''s really simple. Just call the number on the top of this paper and tell the person on the other side everything here."


    Gon nodded and took the paper. The shock on his face turned into horror when he saw the phone number. It was his aunt Mito''s. That horror only grew worse as he read the lines he was supposed to say over the call.


    -What is going to happen to me is not your fault.


    -The choice I made does not reflect how you raised me.


    -What will happen to me could not have been prevented if you raised me better.


    -Being harsher, stricter, or meaner would not have stopped me.


    -Do not think I did this because you did not love me enough.


    -Please do not me yourself for my decisions. I''m sorry for being such an idiot.


    -Please forgive me for making you hurt so much.


    Although it was only a few lines, Gon could only read them slowly, as each one tore through his heart. Rayleigh was basically telling him to apologize for hurting Mito with his own foolish actions before hemitted them. Gon''s cheeks were wet with tears by the end of the list and he was holding back his unsteady breath.


    Rayleigh twisted the knife. "If you want to take part in this, you have to convince your aunt why it''s your duty as a thirteen-year-old Hunter to avenge a veteran Pro Hunter who was your father''s student."


    Gon couldn''t look at the paper anymore and threw it away while trying to argue, "But it''s my fault! It''s my fault Kite''s dead! If I wasn''t there. If I wasn''t so weak! If I didn''t hold him back... It''s my fault! I have to avenge him!"


    Rayleigh didn''t shout. He simply replied in a calm voice, "I saw everything Gon. You being there or not being there would have changed nothing. Kite epted the job himself. With or without you he would have been there. He would have encountered that ant. He would have been killed. Your presence didn''t cause anything."


    Seeing that his words weren''t getting to him, Rayleigh grabbed Gon''s shirt and shouted into his face, "Kite was not weak enough to be affected by your presence! Stop looking down on him! ming yourself for his death is insulting his strength!"


    Gon''s eyes widened at Rayleigh''s outburst. Even Killua was surprised. Neither had ever seen Rayleigh raise his voice before. More so, his words made sense. Something had actually gotten through Gon''s skull. ming himself for Kite''s death was really another way of looking down on Kite.


    Seeing that he was finally getting through, Rayleigh continued, "Kite''s life was not yours to protect or save. His death is not yours to avenge. Every moment you me yourself is another insult to Kite''s strength."


    Gon weakly argued back, "But, he''s dead."


    "No. He isn''t," Rayleigh countered


    Killua asked, "Wait, what do you mean? You said he was dead earlier."


    Rayleigh corrected, "That body is a corpse, but that doesn''t mean Kite is dead. Did you actually think Kite sacrificed himself for you guys? Do you think he gave up his life so you two could get away? You are either thinking too highly of yourselves or looking down too much on Kite. Even against something like that, Kite had a way out. He always had a way out."


    Gon asked, "Kite''s alive? Really?"


    Rayleigh let slip a little smile of relief at the hope that filled Gon''s eyes once more. "Of course he is. As I said. His life is not yours to protect because he can protect it just fine himself. His death is not yours to avenge because he''s not dead."


    Killua asked, "How the hell is he alive then? Was that body not his?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Not anymore. You guys remember what I said Ging''s biggest secret was?"


    Gon and Killua thought for a while and Killua was the first to remember and answer, "That he is a reincarnator?"


    Rayleigh nodded. "That''s right. And Ging was the one who taught Kite Crazy Slots. Within was a function that made use of the same principle that Ging used to reincarnate. Actually, what he taught Kite was even better than what he used. He''ll have all of his memories without anything missing. He''ll have to deal with the inconvenience of growing up again, but that''s a small price to pay for a means that allows him to escape certain death. What''s even better is that new Kite has already been born. Wanna see him?"


    Killua asked with understandable skepticism, "How could you tell all of that?"


    Rayleigh answered with confidence, "I learned it all through psychometry on his corpse. The reincarnation technique was sessfully implemented before he died. Better yet, I got the feeling that those Hunters who brought the body back also found new Kite, but probably didn''t recognize him. We can go over to them right now and ask if they found a newborn baby recently."


    Gon wiped the tears from his eyes and shouted, "Let''s do it!" He had to see Kite, see that he was okay, and see that he sessfully survived death.


    None of the four Hunters were really doing much. The Hunter President had gone off to perform reconnaissance and they wouldn''t hear back from him for a few weeks. It didn''t take long to find the guy again.


    The sunsses-wearing broad-shouldered Hunter asked, "You wanna know about the baby we found? Why?"


    Rayleigh exined, "I saw everything that happened when Kite died. His Nen changed when he died into some strange Post-Mortem Nen form and took his soul with it. I think Kite reincarnated and I sensed you guys encountered it."


    "Wait, seriously? That was Kite? Huh. Alright. I''ll take you to her."


    Gon asked with surprise, "Her?"


    Therge Hunter, a professional named Morel, answered with a teasing smile, "Yeah, it''s a girl."


    *Author''s Note*


    To all the guys who keepining that I am nerfing my MC, please remember he is a kid. I am trying for realism not just for powers, but also for mental states. The ''nerfs'' are my MC''s attempt to preserve his sanity at least until puberty. Most of the other yers will not even bother, and the difference will show when they are adults and their interactions. I''m surprised no one caught onto that already. Was naming one of the yers ''Lord of Madness'', not a big enough hint? I mean in chapter 2 the Tavern even told the MC that they fully expected a lot of yers to turn into superviins!


    I think many readers are so used to reading MCs who are sane for no other reason than the fact that their author didn''t want to write them insane. A grand majority of fanfictions, especially reincarnation ones, don''t give any justifiable reason for the MC to be sane. They ignore the fact that a child''s brain chemistry makes thinking like an adult at all times impossible and they just make their MC a well-bnced individual who can kill when he is 12 years old without any problems and be apletely stable adult. My MC on the other hand is going to properly earn his sanity.


    If you want to see the level of insanity some of the other yers will reach upon adulthood, google search "INSANE (A Hazbin Hotel Song)" and you''ll get an idea. Realistically speaking, if someone lived a life, died, and got superpowers without any kind of built-in safety, that is pretty much the level of crazy that is perfectly reasonable for them to reach. Being sane after living a life, dying, and gaining superpowers is far more unnatural if you think about it. To many, sanity is like an ufortable suit and mask you have to wear for your entire life. After experiencing death, would such a person even bother to wear it again?

 Chapter 48: Come at Me Together

    Chapter 48: Come at Me Together


    Chapter 48 Come at Me Together


    On the way to the location, Rayleigh got a few answers from the broad-shouldered sunsses-wearing Hunter. Morel was the master of the two younger Hunters he met earlier. Knuckle was the one with the pompadour while Shoot was the one with the single arm.


    The other, thin-looking Hunter, Morel''s partner, was named Nov. For some reason, the man always dressed like he was about to take part in a board of directors meeting. All he needed was a $10,000 briefcase and a few si rings and no one would question his presence if he walked around the main office of a Fortune 500pany.


    To keep up a conversation along the way, Rayleigh also asked, "Hey Killua, did you get rid of that Nen in your skull?"


    Killua looked surprised about that for a moment before asking, "You knew about that?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "I''ve healed you before, so I knew there was a needle inside your brain and I could sense the aura it had after we awoke our Nen. I was going to mention it, but I got a feeling that you''d be stronger if you dealt with it yourself."


    Killua nodded, "Ah, that makes sense. And yeah. Because of how it affected me, I figured out how to make my Nen affect my brain just by fighting it. It was my brother''s needle."


    Ray didn''t hide the surprise that simple statement gave him. Rayleigh could use the Force to program his actions because the Force could be used through pure information. Killua could turn his aura into electricity and theoretically use it to affect his nerves and brain, but the process would have beenpletely different for him. Figuring it out would have been a long series of painful trial-and-error attempts. If Illumi had not put that needle in Killua''s head and if Killua had not been so adamant about fighting it, he may not have figured out the trick to using his transformed aura to affect his brain and nerves.


    Morel was driving them to the location of Kite''s reincarnation and heard the conversation since they weren''t trying to hide it. He added, "So that''s why you seem a lot stronger than thest time I saw you. Come to think about it, what about your friend?" He gestured back to Gon and asked him, "Weren''t you supposed to be locked in a state of Zetsu for a month? It''s only been a few days."


    Gon answered, "Ah, Ray broke it."


    Morel then gestured to Rayleigh, "You''re a Nen remover?"


    Rayleigh considered it before answering, "I have a means to remove foreign imposed aura on a person. So I guess, kinda."


    Morel gave an impressed whistle. He had a better understanding of Knuckle''s ability than most, and he knew it should not have been an easy thing to remove without multiple abilities or a single specialized ability.


    The house they arrived in had a number of guards and within was a winged chimera ant taking care of a red-haired baby girl with freckles. If you ignored the rat-like tail that sprouted through her diaper, she looked perfectly human.


    The baby was in the middle of a meal when she saw Morel lead the trio of tiny Hunters inside. The babysitting Chimera Ant tensed for a moment at the presence of the strangers but rxed some when he noticed Morel was the one bringing them. He asked, "Was there a problem?"


    Morel looked again at the baby girl who was looking right back at him and the guests. She was a lot bigger than thest time he saw her and figured she''d reach adulthood in a year or two. That might have concerned him before, but seeing the intelligence in those eyes, he smiled and asked, "Hey Kite, you in there?"


    The baby nodded and said, "Yeah. You found out? Ah, it was you wasn''t it?" She looked at Rayleigh to confirm.


    Rayleigh answered, "Yeah, I''m good with figuring things like that out. Gon was feeling guilty and thinking you died because of him."


    The baby looked very angry at this and looked at Gon before shouting, "What?! You idiot! I died because I was weaker than my opponent! What the hell does that have to do with you!"


    Gon wanted to rush up and apologize, but the baby''s shouting made him confused and worried.


    Killua asked, "Hey Ray, can you understand what she''s saying?"


    Rayleigh replied, "Of course, I can."


    Morel gave him an inquisitive look through those sunsses and asked, "How?"


    Rayleigh answered nonchntly, "I speak baby."


    That answer of course only drew more stares. Baby Kite was only making baby noises but since it was an active adult mind that was making those noises, Rayleigh could perfectly understand what she was saying thanks to the Force.


    Seeing this, Gon approached and said, "Kite. I''m sorry. It''s my fault-"


    Kite bonked Gon''s head with a rattle no one saw her grab and she berated him using angry baby noises. Rayleigh tranted, "Kite says if you feel bad about being weak then you should just train to get stronger." More baby noises. Ray shook his head, "I was able to watch the whole fight using one of my skills, so I already nned to tell everyone about that." And some more baby noises directed at Gon. "She says it is not a crime to lose. Even Ging has lost. There was no fault in what happened, so if you keep ming yourself, I will kick your ass." Baby Kite repeatedly bonked Gon over the head with every word of Rayleigh''s trantion.


    After seeing Gon nod in surrender, baby Kite nodded triumphantly and then went back to her meal. Adult mind or not, a short attention span just came with the territory of being a baby.


    Morel looked amused while Killua and that chimera ant looked bewildered. That certainly wasn''t a scene one sees every day.


    After epting a scolding from baby Kite, Gon''s eyes and heart seemed far lighter. Rayleigh wasn''t getting any Force visions so he had no idea if his actions prevented Gon from vanishing into the darkness, but he could safely say he''d done what he could. The rest was up to Gon.


    Morel drove them back to the city they were staying at. The President of the Hunter Association suspected that the leader of the Chimera Ants had taken over the head of the country that was on the same strip ofnd as the NGL, but on the opposite side. He had also given directions for everyone to sit tight while he did reconnaissance and that he would call them once he decided on a n. That however would take a few weeks, so everyone was just sitting there, waiting.


    Since Gon kinda detoured their first meeting, Morel wanted to properly introduce Rayleigh to his students and Nov. They were waiting for President Netero''s call to head over, but Gon and Killua were kinda just there for the ride. Previously, the two had been tested to see if they could enter the NGL to find Kite, but the pair failed that test. This technically shouldn''t matter though since the Ant King was no longer in the NGL, but the country furthest from it, the Republic of East Gorteau, in the Capital city of Peijing in the King''s pce.


    Morel initially had a problem with Gon justing for revenge since that kind of thing clouded the senses, but the light in his eyes after seeing baby Kite had been restored, so there wasn''t a problem. He could also sense Killua''s growth in strength, so there was no need to prevent him froming either. As for Rayleigh, the neer, he''d already earned Morel''s approval. His plethora of abilities left no question about his value as an asset on this mission, so if he wanted to take part, there was no reason to refuse.


    At least Morel thought that there was no reason.


    After introductions, Morel''s pompadour-styled student was the first to shout, "No way! I''m not dealing with another brat! Two was already bad enough! What do I look like, a Babysitter?!"


    Morel argued, "Hey, this kid is skilled. He has all the information on the fight between that Royal Guard Ant and Kite."


    The loud-mouthed Hunter shouted back, "Then make him tell us everything and tell him to get lost! I don''t have any time for any more squirts!"


    Killua looked at him with a nk stare and stated ndly, "I didn''t know you were so busy. And Ray''s strong too, you know?"


    The one-armed Hunter standing behind Knuckle replied, "You were both trained by a professional for thest month. He was not."


    Before Gon could add anything to the argument, Rayleigh stopped him and addressed the two Hunters, "Would you be convinced with a fight?"


    Knuckle gritted his teeth and stated, "You want your ass kicked? Fine."


    Rayleigh looked over at Morel and said, "Can you take us somewhere we can stretch a bit?"


    Morelughed while Nov adjusted his sses and gave an evaluating look to Rayleigh. No matter how he saw it, Rayleigh was weaker than Knuckle was. It wouldn''t be much of a match.


    After heading over to an empty lot outside the city, Knuckle said, "Hey. I''ll give you a choice little brat. You wanna fight me, or Shoot?"


    Rayleigh gave a taunting smirk and answered back, "I don''t feel like choosing. Come at me together. I''ll take both of you on at the same time."


    Knuckle''s eyes almost looked bloodshot. He asked almost as if he could not believe it, "What did you just say?"


    Rayleigh pulled out his Nensaber handle and asked, "Did you two need a moment to strategize? I can wait for you."


    Knuckle looked back and shouted to his friend, "Shoot! Let''s kick this brat''s ass!"


    Shoot nodded. He actually did not like hurting others, but Rayleigh had crossed a line, and Shoot intended to make him pay.


    Knuckle seemed to vanish before reappearing at Ray''s side. Ray predicted it and did a half-step to avoid it, but Knuckle''s movement was faster than Rayleigh''s half-step. This was the speed of a Professional Hunter that had been learning Nen for years. The fist didn''t impart its full impact but the graze did yield damage and some of Knuckle''s aura was injected into Ray. At that moment, a tubby angel doll-looking thing materialized with the number 100 on it. Rayleigh smiled.


    "Open, Babylon."


    Rayleigh extended his Nensaber de just as three floating handsunched themselves at Rayleigh from the side as Knuckle stood at his other side, blocking his escape. With the use of Babylon, he needed one Will to meditate to keep it active, and one Will to control his body. That still left him with seven Wills he could use, now that he had nine total. One would be using Battle Precognition and another Force Valor to enhance his reaction while one more would use Enhance Attribute: Speed to make him move faster and more unpredictably. That still left four more.


    With three Wills, Rayleigh used Telekinesis to grab all three of the floating hands and keep them above his own head before he used Force Speed to elerate toward Shoot. Shoot was a Maniption type Nen user and his control over those floating hands should have been strong enough to resist Rayleigh''s telekinesis, but as long as the hands stayed within range of Babylon and Rayleigh devoted a Will to each one, he could imprison them, countering much of Shoot''s strength. With the boost in the Force thanks to Rayleigh stepping on the path of the Teacher and the further amplification of Babylon, those hands were not going anywhere.


    Knuckle didn''t intend to let Rayleigh attack Shoot so easily and charged forward. His base speed was certainly faster than Rayleigh''s due to the difference in size and stride length, but Rayleigh''s stacking of Force Valor, Enhance Attribute: Speed, and Force Speed caused Rayleigh to out speed Knuckle and reach Shoot first.


    Rayleigh poured his aura into his Nensaber to sharpen it to the max while increasing its rotation speed to the limit. Shoot was still trying to regain control of his flying hands and although he was a very skilled multitasker, he had nothing on Rayleigh. The moment Shoot was within attacking range, Rayleigh ended Force Valor and reced it with his first Hatsu, Overdrive.


    Before Shoot could even move to defend, Rayleigh had stepped behind him and shed down on his back, avoiding his spine. The muscles in his back were cleanly cut and Shoot''s right lung had almost been punctured.


    Shoot froze from the shock and Rayleigh turned down the deadly on his Nensaber to change it into a beat stick before smashing it on the back of Shoot''s head to knock him out.


    Knuckle shouted, "Shoot! You bastard!" He saw Rayleigh strike Shoot''s head with a sword, so he likely thought Shoot had been killed.


    Morel saw that Shoot''s head didn''t draw blood and though he fell, he was still alive.


    Rayleigh used the moment of Knuckle''s anger to charge him. Knuckle engulfed himself in a strong Ken and used a strong K with one arm to block Rayleigh''s Nensaber and strike with the other arm.


    With Shoot out cold, the Wills restraining the three hands were freed up so Rayleigh could use them all to fight Knuckle.


    If Rayleigh fought normally against Hunters that were that much stronger than he was, he would lose. He could predict his opponent, out speed his opponent, and attack through the defenses of the opponent by applying more aura to his Nensaber. But the reason he would probably lose was simple. He could not oust his opponent. A Nen battle between two fighters usually amounted to a resource battle. Rayleigh''s Babylon would allow him to use his aura far more efficiently than should be possible, but if the opponent simply had a lot more aura than he did, Rayleigh''s tank would run on empty before his opponents did if Rayleigh couldn''t end the fight.


    "It''s time. The interest is piling up." The tubby angel thingy next to Rayleigh had the number change from 100 to 110. Aura was being emitted by Knuckle, directed into the Angel thing, and then directed into Rayleigh. Even if Knuckle didn''t touch Rayleigh, this would happen. And if the amount of Knuckle''s aura in Ray''s body exceeded Rayleigh''s aura, he would be forced into a state of Zetsu by Knuckle''s aura.


    ording to what Gon said, the only way to return the aura was to strike Knuckle. But Knuckle was a closebat specialist, so it was more likely that he''d hit you more times than you hit him.


    At least, that''s how it was for Gon.


    Rayleigh once more strengthened his Nensaber to the max power and rotation speed while shing at Knuckle. The Hunter did not underestimate the power of the de and stacked all his aura into his arm using K to form a powerful defense.


    If it was Rayleigh''s original Lightsaber, that defense would have caused the sma de to merely bounce off. The Nensaber on the other hand sliced throughyers of the densely packed aura and sliced against the back of Knuckle''s wrists. The arms weren''t severed but the wound wasn''t shallow.


    The 110 on the angel thing changed into 10. Rayleigh''s smile brightened. Yes, if he couldn''t oust Knuckle in a fight, he''d use Knuckle''s own ability against him. He''d use Knuckle''s aura to power his Nensaber and damage him, one slice at a time.


    With Rayleigh''s Battle Precognition and Force Valor, Knuckle was unable tond a clean Hit on Rayleigh after that first one which had been allowed. The longer the fight went on, the more Knuckle was getting annoyed.


    Morel, Nov, Gon, and Killua watched from the side. Each had a different question, but most had the same thought. ''I really don''t want to fight him.''


    It wasn''t the strategy that made Rayleigh annoying to fight. It was how he used Force Valor. Traditional usage of Force Valor cannot stack with muscle usage, so Rayleigh''s application of Force Valor got around this by applying movement speed from the side while he moved forward to achieve a diagonal velocity faster than his forward velocity. Rayleigh had adjusted his fighting style with Biscuit to incorporate this into his fight which made it difficult to predict his attacks.


    If you saw him running at your left, he''d approach straight on. If you saw him attack from the front, the actual attack came from the side. If you dodged his attack, it still hit you because you misjudged the direction. Rayleigh changed how much the Force affected his strikes and from which direction it affected randomly throughout the fight. The speed he swung his shining blue Nensaber debined with the misreading of the direction created false afterimages of what you expected him to do while he actually did something else.


    And then add to that Rayleigh''s ability to use Telekinesis to hold or push at random times. Due to the difference in skill, a stronger opponent could resist the effect, but that was only if Rayleigh didn''t stack multiple Wills on top of each other.


    At least from a distance, you could somewhat see what was happening. Up close and personal would be an entirely different matter if he got too close to allow you full ess to your peripheral vision.


    There were multiple instances where Rayleigh could have heavily wounded him, but he had no intention of ending the fight so easily. Where else could he possibly find a target practice dummy that recharged you as you damaged it?


    Knuckle quickly realized his dilemma but was unable to call off the match. The reason Rayleigh called for Shoot and Knuckle to fight him was that he wanted to antagonize Knuckle to the point that Knuckle would be unable to give up until hepletely ran out of steam.


    "Stop moving around you brat and let me punch your face in!" Knuckle''s speed increased as he altered his K but Rayleigh''s Battle Precognition saw every moveing and he could apply stacks of Enhance Attribute: Speed or Force Valor to dodge them. Unlike Nen, his Force abilities were basically limitless as long as his Willpower did not falter. And why would he get bored of fighting someone nice enough to act as his punching bag/recharging station?


    Morel had already long wrapped up Shoot''s wounds and thetter had woken up, but since he was taken out, he could not rejoin the battle.


    Knuckle was almost out of breath by this point. Rayleigh had kept at close range and forced him to attack or defend half a dozen times every few seconds without letting up in the slightest. Rayleigh''s cardiovascr system was fine with such long durations of intense training. He knew enough tricks with the Force to ensure he could fight for long periods without difficulty. Shoot''s mastery over Aura gave him simr talents, but hours into the fight, he was the one running out of aura, and the number on the little Angel never climbed higher than 500.


    Eventually, Knuckle''s irritation gave way and he stopped defending. "Just finish it."


    Rayleigh asked, "Can''t you remove this on your own?" Knuckle was asking Rayleigh to hit him hard enough to pay all the debt from the little angel.


    Knuckle shook his head, "No. I can''t turn it off once it''s activated."


    "It''s time. The interest is piling up." The number changed from 220 to 242.


    Rayleigh circted the Force within his body, forcing the foreign aura out of his body. Removing a foreign aura from his own body was far easier than removing it from someone else''s. This caused the number on the chubby angel to start dropping until it reached zero and it broke apart.


    Knuckle''s jaw dropped. He had never seen anyone do something like that before, but it was obvious that Rayleigh could have done so at any time."


    Knuckle''s hands move to his hair in agitation as if to rip it out, but stopped once it felt his styled pompadour. He obviously would never want to harm his hair, so had immediately stopped this subconscious action.


    Rayleigh also felt a lot better. Throughout the fight, Rayleigh discovered that using someone else''s aura had a lot of downsides. He''d have to purify his body and Kyber crystal to prevent unwanted side effects. It wouldn''t be an issue, but if he continued using the aura of others, it would be er.


    After regaining someposure, Knuckle shouted, "How the hell did you do all that and what the hell are you?! You feel like an Enhancer with the way you raised your speed, but you transmuted your aura into a powerful sword aura, and you manipted Shoot''s hands and froze me up loads of times! There is no way you have enough aura for all that! Even the aura you used for that sword was way too efficient! That doesn''t make any sense!"


    Since Knuckle''s Nen ability counted off aura using numerical values, he had a good sense of aura quantity, aura quality, and the aura cost of skills. ording to what Knuckle calcted, the equation, two plus two equals fish, made more sense than Rayleigh did.


    Rayleigh ignored Knuckle''sints and grabbed the loudmouth''s arm before using Dark Transfer to inject the Force into the wounds Rayleigh caused to fix them all, leaving Knuckle perfectly healthy. Knuckle was once more rendered speechless as the various cuts all over his body were healed up without a single scratch or scar.


    Seeing this, no one stopped Rayleigh from walking over to Shoot and cing a hand on his back to heal the wound he gave him earlier. Morel had already applied an excellent first-aid, but it cost nothing for Rayleigh to heal it back so he figured he might as well.


    Only after the wound was healed did Rayleigh retract his Nensaber and turned to Knuckle. "So, still think I should leave?"


    Knuckle grumbled. It would take a while for him to get over being treated like a punching bag.


    Rayleigh took the time to exin all the details about Chimera Ants that he knew of. It wasn''t just the cat-girl Royal Guard Chimera Ant. She had used Kite to fight the soldiers, and many of the Squad Leaders had fought puppet Kite, meaning Rayleigh had information on them as well.


    The information was passed up the chain and Morel and Nov spent the next few weeks searching for any Chimera Ants that were running around that had not joined the King while Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua trained as hard as they could. Rayleigh even helped Killua develop a Hatsu that was simr to Overdrive while Gon worked on speeding up the umtion of his aura to use Rock.


    The group took a train across the country to the Republic of East Gorteau where they waited for a call from Netero at a city on the country''s border.


    Netero had told Morel that if he didn''t call him by today, to assume that he was dead, so it was somewhat tense as they watched the news on the TV.


    Unsurprisingly, the news did not help them rx. ording to the reporters, the Big Leader of the Republic of East Gorteau made an announcement to call all citizens toe to the capital city in ten days for a festival. The fact that it was highly suspected that this big boss was being controlled made the announcement very unsettling.


    The Chimera Ant that was babysitting Baby Kite had guessed what would happen and informed Morel of that guess. He said that the Royal Guard figured out how to awaken Nen in others through the use of a strong nen attack. The problem was that for weak humans, only about 1% would awaken Nen using this means. That 1% would then, somehow, be converted into a Chimera Ant. As for the remaining 99%. They would be killed.


    Nov and Morel nned to stop the citizens from sessfully arriving at the capital to stop the pointless murders. It would be difficult as the Big Boss made all transport from anywhere in East Gorteau to the capitalpletely free. This meant even poor farmers could board a train or bus to the capital to await their 99% chance of death.


    Eventually, Netero did contact them to confirm he was alive and to give them a n. It was an assassination.


    On the night before the so-called festival, at midnight nine nights from now, they were all to gather around the capital and find some way to draw the royal guards out. With all three guards out, Netero would take part in a strike team to kill the King.


    Said instructions were sent via text message.


    Rayleigh snatched the phone from Morel and texted back, [Is that necessary? If you walk into the Pce using the front door and challenge the King, you think he''ll refuse or let the guards get in his way?]


    The president quickly replied back, [That''s n G. We need to try ns A through E before that, little brat.]


    Even though Rayleigh was using Morel''s phone, somehow Netero knew it was him replying back.


    Morel grabbed the phone back and looked over what was texted before rolling his eyes.


    Rayleigh said, "We''ll take on cat-girl."


    Morel asked, "You sure? She''s the strongest from what we hear."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, but I''mpletely familiar with her fighting style. If I use everything I can, I should be able to hold her in ce for a moment so that Gon can deliver his fist. That should wound her enough for us to finish her off if we three work together."


    Killua nodded, "I figured out a way to move even faster than Ray can, so I''ll be fine."


    Gon nodded with confidence, "Then if Killua can distract her until I charge my Rock, and Rayleigh can hold her, I''m confident I can kill her or at least wound her."


    Rayleigh added, "Actually, that same move I use to heal? I can use that to kill too if I can touch the person for a moment."


    Nov asked, "Really? How does that work?"


    Rayleigh answered, "When I heal, I basically filled in cracks that represent wounds. But I can also cause those cracks to expand and basically destroy anything. I used the same trick to break that little devil thing on Gon."


    Morel nodded, "So that''s how you did it. Fine. You three are in charge of that cat girl. Nov and I will handle the Butterfly guy. And Knuckle and Shoot will take care of the morphing guy."


    Details about all three of the Royal Guards had been given to the group and several strategies had been made for each.


    With that, the three groups separated so they could make their way into the deepest regions of East Gorteau without drawing any attention.


    Unsurprisingly, the trio of Gon, Killua, and Rayleigh met a problem on their first night. They found a vige. It was a vige that was as far from the capital city as could be possible. And it waspletely empty. No, not empty. The side of the vige was filled with wild dogs eating the corpses of the vigers.


    It didn''t take much for the trio to figure out what was happening. The Republic of East Gorteau was not going to wait for the citizens to assemble in the capital and perform the 99% death selection process there ten days from now. No, the selection process had already begun. Starting from the viges furthest from the capital, the military had been tasked with performing Nen awakening on every viger in every town. Those who awakened their aura were taken to the capital. The rest were killed.


    The n to stop the festival ten days from now had be pointless. Every day they waited, about 10% of the poption of this country would die. They needed to do something.


    *Author''s Note*


    Although I will be going in the direction of Canon, several events took ce during this arc offscreen that were only mentioned in passing. I''ll be including those and throwing in some interesting stuff so readers won''t just be able to predict the contents of the next chapters.

 Chapter 49: Toppling a Country 101

    Chapter 49: Toppling a Country 101


    Chapter 49 Toppling a Country 101


    Gon and Killua impatiently waited next to their cross-legged friend as Rayleigh plunged deep into meditation to figure out the best way to save as many as they could of the five million lives of the Republic of East Gorteau. They clearly remembered that thest time he tried this, he figured out an easy way for them to get to Greed Ind. The price of failure of this mission was substantially higher.


    Killua initially suggested killing all the controlled soldiers as stealthily as possible. It was confirmed that the cat-girl Chimera Ant could control someone and make them use their aura, so at least one person from every group of soldiers was being controlled by the cat-girl and being used to punch others with aura to test if they could awaken their Nen. If Killua killed a whole bunch of those controlled puppets, the speed of the selection would drastically lower.


    Even though every moment they waited was another life in, Rayleigh still managed to convince Killua to wait for him to n out an answer using meditation.


    About thirty minutes from when he started, Rayleigh opened his eyes. "I got it."


    Killua and Gon both let out a sigh of obvious relief. If he didn''te up with a n, they could only wing it and hope for the best.


    Rayleigh got up and said, "We need to split up. Gon, you''ll continue on foot toward the meeting ce in the Capital city of Peijing. Along the way, you''ll meet a Chameleon who will be of great help. Killua, I figured out that if you attack their bases without a n, you are doing exactly what they want."


    Killua argued, "What? How?"


    Rayleigh exined, "No matter how brainwashed this country is, after a few days, they will eventually figure out there is a problem as more viges go missing. That means the country can, at most, test only half or up to two-thirds of its poption before they wise up. But if you try to stop them and make a scene, they can enact martialw and justify the force they will require to get the other half of the country and ensure the people stay indoors and don''t defend themselves or run."


    Gon shouted, "What! They''re even nning for that? Then what can we do?"


    Ray smirked, "We use their own move against them. Killua, go ahead and go through with your n. I''ll take care of things on my side and meet up with you once I''m done. It''s up to you how many people you want to kill or how you want to act. Just don''t get caught, don''t get predicted, and make a big scene. It will help if you can destroy or at least disable as many helicopters as you can. Other than that, you''ll be acting as a big distraction while I make a few preparations."


    Killua nodded, "No problem. I''ll make it loud and shy."


    Gon asked, "So we''re all splitting up?"


    Ray nodded, "I''ll meet back up with Killua once I''m done and we''ll meet back up with you, Shoot, and Knuckle before meeting up with Nov and Morel at the meeting ce."


    At that moment, Rayleigh''s cell phone rang. He pulled it out and ended the call without answering. He did send a text though.


    [Toote. Better luck next time.]


    Gon asked, "Who was that?" He was curious who would call Rayleigh only to get hung up on.


    Ray shook his head, "A girl trying to repay me for a favor. But I don''t need what she was going to give me, so there was no point in answering."


    Rayleigh wasn''t the only one in this world capable of seeing the future, and one such person owed him a favor. She tried to repay it by giving him the info he needed, but he got it before she did.


    It wasn''t her fault. Rayleigh oncepared the Force to a fully packed high school. Secrets and knowledge of the future hung around like whispers and rumors between the various members of all the cliques. Rayleigh, who was on speaking terms with every one of the proverbial cliques, could listen to them all. Even if that girl was creating a Hatsu that granted her the ability to see into the future, it was only a prototype at the moment and she could not see the events of the Republic of East Gorteau as clearly as Rayleigh could since she wasn''t even in the same country and it would not affect her.


    Rayleigh figured the first thing she saw using her prototype was the true cost of owing Rayleigh a favor, so she tried to repay it back as soon as possible. Too bad for her she missed the chance.


    The trio agreed to split up and Rayleigh went to work. Thankfully, this was not a war. If there were two opposing sides, Rayleigh''s connection to the Force would limit him from taking part in either side because any conflict that led to war would have involved mistakes made on both sides anyways, and joining either side only built upon those mistakes. At least that was how the Force perceived it. But this was not a war. The Chimera Ants did not have a philosophy, or a belief, and were not fighting for the future. As far as the Force was concerned, they were an infection.


    As for how to deal with the ants? He had many options. The Chimera Ant''s n was quite smart. It took into ount multiple variables and made it so that, in essence, their opposition worked for them. It was very clever, but not that clever. The reason it would have worked was that there seemed to be interference from the Hunter''s side. Rayleigh wasn''t the smartest person on the among those paying attention to this ce. Plenty of others had seen the ant''s n and took no action to go against it because they predicted an oue that would benefit them in the end. How many people died on the path to achieving that oue was just an unimportant number.


    Rayleigh looked forward to meeting them so he could kick their ass, but their presence would not affect his own ns. The problem that many in the Hunter Association had when it came to this matter was that they all thought like humans and assumed the ants thought like humans as well. The President, Morel, and Nov assumed the worst-case scenario was the King discovering the assassination n and vanishing to go into hiding where he would umte power until he was toorge of a threat to stop. They were assuming he thought like a human.


    Rayleigh did not have that problem. He had received lessons on countless alien species and the general rules for quantifying specific behavioral patterns to figure out how they think and will respond. He knew that there was no chance the King would flee. He also knew that there was no chance the King would decline a fight if someone worthy showed up. When two Kings meet for battle, the one who flees forfeits their right as King. This was true for many animals as well.


    But, even if Rayleigh knew this, he''d get in a bit of trouble if he just flipped the board of a game he wasn''t even a yer in. He wasn''t strong enough yet to piss off every yer who thought of him as either a wild card or a piece. So he had to act with a bit of prudence.


    Thankfully, this sort of thing was par for the course for the average Jedi. His lessons and training gave him more than enough knowledge to single-handedly topple this country even without any assistance. With a bit of help, he could do it in a day.


    The first thing Rayleigh did was find the road and use Overdrive to run as fast as he could. He would not be able to travel the length of the country on a single use of Ren, but he could still go very, very far before he needed to recharge. His speed was also much faster than a car, though he didn''t meet many on the roads.


    Rayleigh had about twenty-four hours before Killua''s actions wasrge enough to get the Ants to dere Martial Law, and Rayleigh intended to use that time wisely.


    From what Rayleigh was told, the Ants learned about human society through the use of books, and after reading just about everyone they could get their hands on, they formtedplex ns and strategies to enact their goals. Rayleigh was willing to bet that there was one subject that was sorelycking in their research. Infrastructure.


    No one questions how a country works, how the pieces fit together, and all the trial-and-error it takes to achieve the bnce that most countries rely on to function. Why not? Because if they did, most would freak the fuck out because of how incredibly fragile the entire system is. They just don''t want to know. Because of this, books on infrastructure would not be found among the ones acquired by the ants in various viges and towns.


    Rayleigh knows of course. A well-trained Jedi is required to know about infrastructure because without knowing what a government needs to function, they can''t use that knowledge to negotiate with those governments.


    If this country worked off capitalism, he wouldn''t be able to do anything to the infrastructure. Capitalism doesn''t care about the people, the happiness, or the lives, only the profit. Anything that could impact profit is maintained as well as it could be without harming the profit. Things like infrastructure were passively maintained in the background of capitalist countries, but the Republic of East Gorteau was a dictatorship. A decent infrastructure was actually a threat to such a regime because it allowed its people too much personal power and freedom. Instead, they kept it to the absolute minimum necessary to work at least half the time.


    Why was any of that important? Because for the country to test and kill off 99% of its poption, it would be relying on that fragile infrastructure.


    The Republic of East Gorteau had dozens of military bases scattered around, and most of the main roads were basically just the paved dirt between the bases with side streets leading to the viges and the actual paved road only existing closer to the capital city. While Killua distracted the various bases, Rayleigh would be crippling this main road and stopping all transit using it.


    It wasn''t hard for such poorly maintained roads to lose their function. Rayleigh would pick a spot where the trees around the road were particrly dense and then cut arge number of trees before and after that spot with his Nensaber. Then he would use the Force to telekically lift the fallen trees and stack them into a massive pile on the road while interlocking them with the trees around the spot to make them much harder to move. Rayleigh''s connection to the Force was strong enough to finish making a roadblock like this in only two minutes.


    Of course, he predicted that the military bases would use armored vehicles to plow through the barricades and uproot the trees they were locked into. To ount for this, he added a little trap. Rayleigh removed the dirt on the road, basically using the Force to dig a deep pit. He then covered the pit with densely piled trees. Any tank that came through and made it past the trees would fall into the pit. Rayleigh tried to make at least one Pit trap for every military base. He also destroyed anything that looked weak. Bridges were brought down,ndslides were generated, and any easy way he spotted to make a nuisance of himself was not missed.


    Rayleigh also snuck into many of the military bases and broke their short-range radios without making them look broken from the outside. These were the securemunications that were used to give and direct orders to the various bases. Of course, the soldiers could still use cell phones, but almost no one in such a poor country had one. The cellphone towers were to encourage rich tourists toe since no one wants to visit a ce where their cell phone doesn''t work. And since poor countries like this over-relied on radios, the military bases didn''t have any hardlinendline phones because it wasn''t worth it to invest in such infrastructure when Radios worked just fine.


    Once the radio was disabled in a way they could not possibly fix, the only form ofmunication the base could receive was the TVs that worked off short-range antennae.


    After twenty hours, Rayleigh had made several dozens of roadblocks all over the country and disabled the short-range radios for most of the military bases. He even saw Killua once or twice, but both had their jobs and they didn''t stop to chat.


    Killua destroyed multiple vehicles, killed dozens of controlled soldiers, and went to many different viges and told them to head West and avoid the bases if they wanted to live. Compared to him, no one cared about the roadblocks. Those who found one or two never suspected how many were actually out there and considered it a small matter. Those who tried reporting it over the radio were unable to do so and thought the Radio was merely broken. Such things were normal. The ones who didn''t give up could only get it escted using theirmander''s cell phones, but every basemander was in constant contact with the others discussing Killua. No one cared about the roads when their fighter jets were being taken out by a lone thirteen-year-old.


    The following night, Rayleigh sat in a ry station outside the capital city of Peijing. The massive satellite on this building was the source of local news and radio from the city to the rest of the country. Rayleigh walked in without a fuss. Some guards and managers questioned him, but he diverted their attention with the good ol'' Jedi Mind Trick. They had better things to do than worry about a small child that was definitely not suspicious at all.


    [... and now re-wire thest three rys.. yes. good. Well done, Master. I believe your operation was a sess.]


    Rayleigh looked over his work and nodded. Creating a recording of his voice was easy. Getting that recording to y over a live broadcast without changing the picture was less easy. Ensuring that all this equipment was disabled beyond repair after the recording ended was not easy at all. In order to make sure he didn''t make any mistakes, Rayleigh got out HK-47 and asked for his input on how to proceed with his n.


    Rayleigh confirmed his work once more before putting the tools he used away and moving everything back to how it looked before he got here. He then picked up HK-47''s head and said, "Thank you for your help."


    [Deration: I exist to serve Master. Although I do wish you had used more of my suggestions in the recording, I am pleased that this should lead to a bloody conflict with a great deal of killing and dismemberment. To be able to take part in such unadulterated violence even while I am in such a disreputable state pleases me to no end.]


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes before heading off. The few security guards and military officers walking around were avoided with a simple, "You saw me with my father, you have no reason to worry about me."


    After getting clear of the broadcast station, Rayleigh headed toward a nearby vige and waited. He didn''t have to wait long. Each and every vige had at least one tower that contained speakers. They had only a single use.


    As they turned on, the speakers red a loud siren multiple times. Unsurprisingly, this got everyone''s attention. This speaker tower was a ry speaker, a part of the Emergency Broadcast System, and designed to deliver messages to every ear in the Republic of East Gorteau at the same time.


    After a few loud buzzes, a woman''s voice was heard. "Good evening. The dearly beloved leader of ournd Diego has an urgent announcement to make. To ensure that our great leader''s message will be heard clearly throughout the nation, we request that all ry speakers in all regions be turned to maximum volume. All televisions and radios should be on, and the volume raised to its maximum settings."


    After a short pause, another voice appeared, this time from a monotone male. Those watching a TV would see a picture of the nation''s head honcho wearing sunsses. "Good evening.. My beloved citizens. I''m Diego."


    Surprisingly, at least to everyone listening but Rayleigh, the audio then cut out. Those watching a TV still saw the sunsses-wearing tyrant moving his jaw up and down, but didn''t hear a sound from him. A momentter, another voice came through on the speakers. But it was not Diego''s.


    This voice seemed toe from a young man and to those who paid attention, his ent matched that of the locals of the region. This voice gave a very rming message. "The leader of the Republic of East Gorteau has passed away. To those watching a television, you see what our government is willing to do to cover this fact up. You see the disrespected corpse of our former leader puppeteered like a sick joke. His dead, unblinking eyes, hidden behind sunsses. The only moving part you see is that of his jaw moving up and down. There is no emotion on his face and if the audio had not been reced, you would notice that the words being yed over his announcement don''t even match the movement of his lips."


    Rayleigh smiled at the shocked expressions the local vigers had as his recording aired to millions of people. Of course, he had no idea if Diego''s dialogue was properly lip-synching or not, but since they couldn''t tell, he could make usations they had no way of proving false.


    And since the first lie would do its job to bring doubt, the remaining lies would work better in cementing that doubt.


    Rayleigh''s message continued, "Diego''s death has been covered up in order to facilitate a Coup d''tat. The usurped military has been given orders to go to every vige and force them to dere their loyalty to the new regime. All the citizens loyal to Diego have been killed. What is worse, is that this murderous regime is ming the deaths on others and intends to use this to enact Martial Law. Using Martial Law, they will justify the open movement of their disloyal armed forces to all viges to search for rebels that will not bend to the betrayers. They will demand that all citizens stay indoors and wait for their traitorous military to force their loyalty at gunpoint. I''m sure some of you may not believe me. You don''t even know who I am. Well then, I shall tell you."


    Rayleigh''s audience throughout the country waited with bated breath for the reveal.


    "I am General Roy Mustang, the most loyal servant of Diego''s eldest son and your new rightful leader, King Bradley."


    Rayleigh had to clench his teeth to prevent himself fromughing and drawing any attention to himself from the crowd.


    "King Bradley has lived in the Republic of West Gorteau until now for his own safety, to protect him from the disloyal snakes that stayed hidden near our beloved leader, waiting for the time to strike, waiting until now. And now that Diego has passed away, it is our duty to swear our loyalty to our new and rightful ruler, King Bradley. I have sacrificed my life to ensure this message is delivered to my fellow countrymen so that our beloved leader''s favorite son takes his rightful ce on the throne. To all those who would rather die than see the usurpers control our country, take as much food as you can carry and head west to the Republic of West Gorteau. There you will meet King Bradley who will protect you from the usurpers. Do not use vehicles, you must avoid the roads. The viinous military that has already betrayed Diego has blocked all the roads to prevent escape, so you must flee on foot. For those who have any doubts, those doubts will vanish once you find the empty viges of your neighbors in the west filled with the corpses of those who refused to surrender. Long live King Bradley!"


    To those who had TVs, the emotionless face of Diego kept moving its mouth up and down. The sunsses he wore while indoors was viewed with suspicion. Plenty of families took the time to examine that face and confirmed that, other than the jaw that moved up and down, it didn''t seem to move in any other way. No arm movement, no eyebrow or nose movement, not even the moving of his chest to indicate he was breathing. Hell, as long as you paid attention, you could at least see that he was not blinking by looking at his eyebrows.


    Rayleigh found some of the more responsible-looking adults in the vige that still seemed to be hesitating and used another Jedi Mind Trick on them. "King Bradley will reward those who find him first and swear their loyalty." These brainwashed guys didn''t stay out of self-preservation. They stayed because they were brainwashed and conditioned. Rather than break it, he just had to use it against them.


    Unsurprisingly, that line did it. Those few people started packing and those who hesitated saw them and started packing as well, starting a chain reaction.


    This was one of the viges closest to the capital city and furthest from the Republic of West Gorteau. As they moved through other viges, those viges would join them in their migration west. Rayleigh intended to travel to all the viges close to the city and do the same to create a massive wave.


    As for the city itself, they had no idea what was happening. The edited audio only affected the broadcast through the ry station satellite, meaning it only affected radios and tv antennas. The actual capital city got the original version which told them to enact Martial Law. It would take a few minutes for them to figure out what was going on, and Rayleigh intended to use those few minutes wisely. On his way to the other viges, Rayleigh sent a few text messages.


    [To Morel, Shoot, Gon, Killua: I''ve hacked the cell phone towers. Mine is now the only cell phone that works in the country. If you have a message to send to someone, send it to me and I''ll ry it.]


    Yes, other than messing with the emergency broadcast, HK-47 also helped him hack the cell phone tower terminal to ensure that only his cell phone''s sim card could work. Any other would get a busy signal. The signal for this was the end of the Emergency Broadcast. Rayleigh also set a kill switch in the broadcast station itself that would basically break everything at the end of the Emergency Broadcast. So once the broadcast was over, every Antenna TV and public radio station in the whole of the Republic of East Gorteau stopped working.


    It didn''t take long for Rayleigh to get some text messages.


    [Morel: What the hell are you doing? Didn''t you hear about the martialw?!]


    [Killua: Was that message yours? Nice. I destroyed every helicopter I could find by the way. Why did you need that?]


    [To Killua: The thing I did with the cell phones can''t be fixed easily without ess to a helicopter.]


    [To Morel: I hacked the broadcast for the audio that aired outside the city. The guys in the city don''t know it yet, but everyone in the country now knows that Diego is dead and to run away to the Republic of West Gorteau.]


    [To Morel: I also made it look like someone inside the country is responsible for this, so even if the King investigated it, it would look like the country itself was retaliating, not an outside force. If it''s just from the country fighting back, he won''t run away, so don''t worry about that.]


    That should cover just about everything. The only thing left was the residents of the city, but they were all scheduled toe to the pce on the 10th day, which was after their nned assassination was set to go off so the King should be dead before then.


    [Killua: I''ll keep convincing people to head west.]


    [To Killua: Remember to tell me when they start watching you so I cane over.]


    [Killua: Ok.]


    The announcement wasn''t just for the vigers. It was for the military as well. Each and every soldier still thought they were loyal to Diego. And each and every military base had a ry speaker and heard every word of Rayleigh''s speech.


    Those who decided to defect would assist the vigers in going to West Gorteau. But what was going to happen to the ones who didn''t care about the Coup d''tat was even funnier. Rayleigh implied that the roadblocks were made by the loyalists to the new regime. Since their radios were broken and the cell phones stopped working, they would have difficulties confirming if the roadblocks were ced by their own government or not. This would dy their response to getting them removed.


    Of course, none of that was the best part. While deciding whether or not to save the country, Rayleigh also had to decide how far he was willing to go to save it.


    What if you saw someone about to get hit by a car and pulled them out of the way, saving their life? Then you discovered they were ill and would die if they did not receive the medical treatment they could not afford. Then you discovered that there was an assassination bounty ced on them. How far would you go to save their life?


    Rayleigh decided to go as far as he could. Even if he saved the lives of the citizens of the Republic of East Gorteau, they were still brainwashed sheep that had no idea how to free themselves from their own tyrants, and another one would rece seize power as soon as this mess was over.


    Rayleigh''s n did not simply save them. Obviously, there was no King Bradley. But Diego was dead. Rayleigh honestly didn''t have a clue if Diego had kids or not, it didn''t matter since no one else knew either.


    Once the citizens left their viges and headed west, that was the first step in denying a regime without Diego. Once they learned there was no King Bradley, they would either have to go back to the regime they denied, or do something else. The Republic of West Gorteau was not on friendly terms with East Gorteau, that''s why they split. When West Gorteau basically got the entire poption minus the capital city of East Gorteau, they''d have the leverage to take it overpletely.


    The guys in West Gorteau would be able to figure this out without anyone telling them. They would definitely ept the refugees from East Gorteau knowing that said refugees would eventually return home and the whole of East Gorteau would fall into their hands. And while West Gorteau was not exactly the best ce in the world to live, it was many levels up from East Gorteau.


    About ten minutes after the announcement, Rayleigh got a call from Morel. Rayleigh figured Morel and Nov had just finished discussing what was happening.


    Rayleigh answered, "Sup Morel. How''s life in the big city?"


    [I''m not even going to ask how you disabled the cell phones, but what the hell did you do with the announcements? You said you changed the audio outside the city?]


    "Yeah. After Killua said he wanted to stop the killings, I predicted they''d use the emergency broadcast, so I hacked that and made some arrangements. I basically told everyone that Diego''s son wants them to head West so he can protect them from the usurpers who killed him."


    [Diego doesn''t have a son.] was the immediate reply.


    "That just makes things easier. I also disabled all TVs and radios outside of Peijing so they won''t be getting any more instructions or another Emergency Broadcast."


    Although it was called the capital city of Peijing, Peijing was actually the only city in the Republic of East Gorteau. They just added ''capital city'' to its title to make tourists think East Gorteau had more than one city. The nextrgest popted area was a decently sized town surrounded by two military bases around the middle of East Gorteau.


    Morel sighed over the phone and stated back, [You''re taking a lot of risks here.]


    "Not really. Just changing the rules a bit. The ants won''t know how to fix this."


    [You think they can''t ask the members of the government who remained in the pce?]


    Rayleigh loudly scoffed, "You think elected officials know how to fix a broken country?"


    Morel unconsciously gave a huff of agreement. [You know they have military advisors too.]


    "I broke the radios in every military base and Killua destroyed their helicopters. Without cell phones, those bases can''t receive any new orders."


    [They can fix the radios.]


    "They don''t have the parts, I checked." If the military base was in a foreign country, they''d have the parts, but when parts were a short day''s travel to the city to get, none of the bases bothered to store extras.


    One reason to impede contact was that Rayleigh did acknowledge that Military advisors were usuallypetent. Most of them started at the bottom and worked their way up, so they had a general idea of the infrastructure required for everything to work. Those who start at the top have no idea what''s below them. In any case, Rayleigh didn''t foresee any problems from the bases. Those who did not go to West Gorteau on their own would be trapped without orders and find it very difficult to receive them.


    The onlyplication was the puppets used by the Cat-girl Chimera Ant, but Rayleigh learned through Kite''s corpse that she cannot give them new orders without being up close, so she''d have to leave the pce if she wanted to do anything useful. Since the ants knew that their enemies wanted to draw away the Royal Guard, they obviously could not leave.


    [Wait, you said you told them all to go to West Gorteau? Do you have any idea what kind of political shit-show that will cause?]


    Rayleigh answered in a nd voice that was half monotone, half sarcasm, "No. I have no idea that it will cause a revolution and that the armies of East and West Gorteau will fight it out. I am totally unaware that without the poption of farmers, the citizens of Peijing will run out of food by the time of the selection and that after the King has been assassinated, the weakened Military will have to spread themselves thin to acquire food and empty their money reserves as the armies of West Gorteau march on their soil and eventually make their way to Peijing. I ampletely clueless about the fact that by the time the armies of West Gorteau arrive, Peijing will be almostpletely out of food, money, and ammo, and have no choice but to surrender and merge back under the rule of West Gorteau. Got it?"


    Morel didn''t answer. He couldn''t. He was having trouble processing the fact that Rayleigh''s n was not simply to save the citizens, but to start a war that would see the end of the Republic of East Gorteau.


    It was at that moment that Nov took the phone and said, [I understand. You simply did an impulsive act, and as a child in a difficult situation, can not be held responsible for your actions.]


    Rayleigh replied, "Exactly. I''m just a brat trying to save lives and fight monsters. What the hell do I know about politics? I can''t possibly understand the ramifications of my actions."


    [Agreed. Call if anythinges up. Shoot and Knuckle said they would be targeting a fast-moving Chimera Ant on its way to Peijing. Make sure they keep in contact with you so you will know if they are killed. And do make sure you do not die yourself.] With that, he hung up.


    Thanks to the liberal use of the Jedi Mind Trick, Rayleigh had all the closest viges and towns to Peijing start evacuating West on foot in less than an hour. Thinking that there were military roadblocks, they decided to avoid the roads and travel through the forest. Many stayed, but there was nothing Rayleigh could do about that. He was not a god. The number of people he failed to save in the long run would always be higher than those he sessfully saved. Even the ones he did save today would face their own troubles in the future that Rayleigh would be unable to help with. What mattered was that he did what he could and gave a chance to those who originally had none.


    It was then that Rayleigh got a text message.


    [Killua: They''ve got me surrounded and there''s a sniper.]


    Rayleigh quickly texted back, [I''m on my way, hold tight.]


    *Author''s Note*


    And that is how a Force User who doesn''t prescribe to the Light Side or Dark Side destroys a country. He didn''t kill or even harm a single individual. At least not directly.


    And in the next chapters, we''re back to the action. Stones and reviews will fuel the next chapter toe out in 48 hours.

 Chapter 50: Slaughtering the Chimera Ants

    Chapter 50: ughtering the Chimera Ants


    Chapter 50 ughtering the Chimera Ants


    Using Overdrive to head to Killua''s location took about ten minutes. Killua held back from going after the sniper since it was obvious he''d be led into a trap. If he didn''t have any backup, that was the only option he had, but with Rayleigh on his way, that wasn''t necessary.


    Suddenly, Rayleigh felt eyes on him. He used Gy to scan the area as he ran through the forest, but no one was close by. It was only when he used irvoyance to see from an out-of-body perspective did he notice a humanoid creature hovering in the sky over the forest. What was interesting was that even when he stayed beneath the heavy undergrowth, he still felt the eyes of that fellow watching him.


    Two of Rayleigh''s Wills focused on his irvoyance and spotted something. There was an unnatural concentration of the Force around some of the dragonflies in the area, and each pointed in his direction as he passed them by.


    Rayleigh didn''t bother with them, he could already sense his friend''s position behind a moss-covered rock.


    "Hey Killua," was all he could say before he felt a twitch in the Force. Rayleigh used a bit of concentration and the moment a projectile approached him, he caught it with the Force and an instantter, snatched it between his fingers. To those unable to register the speed, it looked like he swiped the projectile out of thin air.


    Rayleigh examined it for a moment. It seemed to be arge flee.


    Killua sighed upon seeing how easily Ray was able to handle the sniper. He was covered in bloody wounds that had yet to stop bleeding. "Those have an annoying bite."


    Rayleigh pinched it to death before wiping his fingers and examining Killua. Rayleigh then took Killua''s arm and used Remove Poison. The flea bite contained an anticoagnt that prevented the assassin''s blood from clotting, so Rayleigh had to remove that first before he could heal his friend''s wounds. Once Killua''s blood was cleaned, Rayleigh used Dark Transfer to heal and close the various wounds.


    Seeing him use some of his special skills, Killua warned, "The guy watching us seems to have a form of telepathy he uses tomunicate with the others. So he''ll be telling everyone what he sees."


    Rayleigh nodded, "So he can see me heal some small flesh wounds, big deal. Let''s go after that sniper."


    Killua nodded and the pair ran off in the sniper''s direction. In less than a minute they spotted a cave the sniper seemed to be running into, but Rayleigh shouted, "Wait!"


    Killua paused before running after the sniper. He didn''t want to let such an annoyingbatant get any further away, but Rayleigh would not have stopped him if he didn''t have a good reason.


    Killua looked over at Rayleigh who pointed up at the Chimera Ant hovering high above them, watching and reporting their every move.


    Killua had seen him before but didn''t have any long-range attacks. Even the Lightning attack he''d been working on only shot downward, not up. Killua asked, "Yeah, can you reach him?"


    Rayleigh smiled and said, "I''ll let you do the honors." He then raised his hand toward the floating Chimera ant.


    Said ant suddenly had a terrible feeling and immediately took off, but it was toote. He felt a massive tug toward the ground as if he was being dragged down by a rope. He used his wings to the best of his ability, but a momentter, they seemed to be slowed as if he were trying to use them underwater. Nowcking the force of his wings, he was rapidly pulled down to the pair while screaming through his telepathicmunication for help. His panicked messages of, ''They got me!'' were most unhelpful to the message''s recipients.


    Killua didn''t need to be told twice. The moment the flying insect Chimera ant was in range, Killua''s w-like fingers shredded his head.


    Rayleigh smiled. Just because he couldn''t use the Force to kill, didn''t mean he couldn''t use it to assist another.


    Killua said, "Nice, are we going after the sniper?" He was fine even if they weren''t. This guy seemed to be a much higher-value target than the sniper that shot fleas, so they already had some gains.


    Rayleigh looked into the cave the sniper jumped into and used irvoyance to peek inside.


    Rayleigh answered, "We can go in, but get out your yoyos first." He then tossed the headless Chimera ant into the cave tunnel. The pair heard it roll down for some distance before there was the echo of a ssh. It seemed there was water inside the cave.


    Both jumped inside the cave. Rayleigh used Force stealth along with Zetsu. The effects stacked and Killua would have lost his presence if he didn''t see that he was at his side. The inside of the cave was practically a slip and slide as the moment they entered they were sliding down a shoot that sent them into the air above an undergroundke.


    The water directly below them was teeming with what appeared to be chimera ant fish creatures. They were shredding the corpse he threw in there to pieces and audiblyining that there wasn''t enough.


    Rayleigh jumped onto one of the stgmites sticking up from the water''s surface and quietly dived into the water. Only Killua saw this and the pile of aquatic creatures didn''t even notice Rayleigh''s entry into their domain. Killua on the other hand used one of his yo-yos to wrap its string around a stgmite and hold himself to it, above the surface of the water. Even though Rayleigh healed him, Killua was still covered in the scent of blood.


    It was then that Killua noticed that the sniper he was chasing was sticking to a stgmite as well. For some reason, that sniper was now an octopus.


    While Killua started chatting with and fighting the sniper-octopus, Rayleigh quietly swam through the water, using his irvoyance to scout ahead and look for anything interesting. His search did not take long, as he sessfully located what appeared to be a fully stocked bar in an underwater house that contained air. Rayleigh had absolutely no idea how that was made.


    Inside the house were two chimera ants, one seemingly male, and one female. Both sat on a couch while the male held a radio of some kind, waiting for something from it.


    Rayleigh could not hear anything through his use of irvoyance, so when the ant picked it up and smiled before putting it down, Rayleigh had no idea what was said. What he could do, however, was go inside. The house was shaped like a dome with an entrance at the bottom and a space containing air of an equalized pressure above that. There was no door, so Rayleigh just swam inside and peeked out of the water. Force Muffle was used to ensure his breaking of the water''s surface drew no attention.


    It was at that moment the male aquatic chimera ant picked up three darts and started tossing them at a dart board within the bar.


    The creatureughed aloud, "Ku ku ku. 108 points. Do you have any clue as to what is happening to you? By the way, I am speaking to you directly through your head right now. Well, if you''re still alive, you''ll know soon enough."


    He struck the dark board a few more times, remove the darts, and threw the three again. "Hmm. I''m feeling it. Now, have you got a better idea as to what kind of attack this is?"


    Before the next set of three darts was thrown, Killua''s voice came from the dartboard. "Your ability is Darts?"


    The chimera antughed, "Ding dong. That is correct. However. You can''t do anything about our ability even if you know about it. That''s because my darts do not have a physical form until the moment they pierce your body! This makes them unblockable!"


    Another round of darts was thrown, "Ku ku ku, by the way. Your left shoulder is 54 points. The targets of this dart board are linked to different parts of your body."


    Rayleigh had intended to kill the pair, but he had a feeling there was a better alternative. Why did he have such a feeling?


    When it was harder to keep something alive than to kill it, Rayleigh fully expected the Force to assist him if it didn''t want him to kill things. This was a situation like that. In an instance where the best way to solve the problem was to kill, the Force had better give him an alternative and not me him if one wasn''t given.


    In this case, though, such an alternative did exist.


    As the male continued his game, he started bragging aloud and the female started replying. She said, "That''s excellent big bro! You''re on fire!"


    He smoothly replied, "Of course I am. Our lives depend on it."


    That was enough for Rayleigh to figure out what the Force was trying to tell him. He didn''t need to kill them. This ability seemed to have a downside that could kill them.


    After a few more tosses, the male said aloud, "Now, the final throw."


    The woman said, "I believe in you."


    He replied confidently, "Leave it to me," and tossed the dart perfectly at the top of the dart board''s 20-point outermost ring.


    Rayleigh used the Force to nudge the dart up so it hit the top of the board where it wouldn''t stick. It bounced off the top and the pair froze. The pair''s eyes widened in horror and disbelief.


    That moment of stillness was broken by screams from the pair. Multiplerge holes appeared in both of them and blood gushed out of the newly formed wounds.


    Both started losing strength but as a brother-sister duo often do, they used thest of their energy to start shouting and fighting with one another.


    Rayleigh swam back out and once he was clear of the underwater house, he Force pulled the pair from the air pocket through the house''s entrance into the water of theke. Neither had the strength to resist. Their blood filled the area around them and neither was strong enough to swim back to the house.


    Rayleigh swam quietly away as the vicious bloodthirsty dwellers of theke swarmed the bleeding pair and shredded them to pieces.


    Rayleigh reached the shore and after a short bit of walking, spotted Killua and the octopus.


    The octopus seemed to put up its guard but Rayleigh ignored it and looked over Killua. "You seem fine. How do you feel?"


    Killua didn''t have any wounds. Even the leftover from what Rayleigh didn''t feel was safe to heal seemed gone. Even Killua''s fatigue seemed gone.


    He answered, "Great. What happened? Did you do something?"


    The octopus answered, "The elder of the Oroso siblings must have missed hisst shot. His ability is terrifying, but has an equally terrifying risk! If he misses thest shot, every bit of damage from the target, even damage not caused by him, will transfer to himself and his sister!"


    Rayleigh added, "Yeah, I might have given hisst throw a little push."


    Killua nodded. He had a n to survive a headshot, but having all his injuries and fatigue removed was good too.


    Killua asked, "What now?


    Rayleigh pointed toward the cave''s exit and answered, "Now we greet the wee party. They know the flying guy was killed and you are not dead. So they should send more Ants to kill you."


    The pair started heading out when Killua stopped and turned back to the octopus and said, "Hey, wannae with us?"


    Rayleigh asked, "New friend?"


    Killua nodded, "Yeah, he''s cool."


    The octopus guy said, "What, there''s no way!" He then mumbled, ''even if you do call me cool.''


    Rayleigh then said, "You know, the Chimera Ant Princess is on our side. So it''s not like you are betraying your own kind, just switching from the king''s side to the princess."


    Killua asked, "Princess?"


    Rayleigh nodded seriously, "That''s right, Kite, the Chimera Ant Princess."


    The octopus didn''t notice Killua turning away to hide his face as he tried his best not tough.


    After a moment of contemtion, the octopus nodded, "Alright! I''m in."


    Rayleigh nodded but said, "Stay back though since we''ll probably be ambushed when we leave the cave."


    The octopus replied, "Um, isn''t that a bad thing?"


    Killua shook his head, "Naw. As long as it isn''t a royal guard or the King, Rayleigh and I can take care of them."


    This was pretty much true. Killua had noticed that Rayleigh didn''t kill, which was pretty much his main weakness. But as long as Killua was there to deal the killing blow, they would have no problems taking out armies. Ray''s abilities were very good against groups.


    The octopus stayed back a hundred meters or so as they traversed the cave and soon came to the exit. The sunlight was quite blinding as they once more saw the sky.


    "Aim. Fire!"


    Killua and Rayleigh both jumped to the roof of the cave''s mouth and used it as a step tounch themselves over the line of gun wielding chimera ants that had patiently waited for their arrival. They used the moment they were blinded by the sun and had to adjust their eyes, but neither Hunter solely relied on their sense of sight and both adjusted quickly.


    "Open, Babylon." Rayleigh ignited his Nensaber as the guns pointed back at him and they fired another volley. Rayleigh stood between most of the ants which caused them to shoot each other. The ones who were closer should have just dropped their weapons and attacked using their ws, pincers, or knife-like appendages, but they had not expected Rayleigh to get so close so fast and they just pulled the trigger on instinct.


    Rayleigh predicted the shots thanks to the Force and used Ken to strengthen his aura around a few areas.


    After another round of shots, Rayleigh was grazed three times by a bullet, and each time drew blood. As Rayleigh confirmed a line of blood on each wound, he felt a metaphorical chain snap. It was time to party.


    Unconsciously, Ray''s perpetually calm face morphed into a terrifying grin. He had held himself back for far, far too long. It was time to have some fun. Rayleigh''s Nensaber sharpened and sped up its rotations.


    One of his Wills maintained Babylon.


    One of his Wills maintained irvoyance to keep watch on the battlefield.


    One of his Wills used Battle Precognition to determine the next actions of his enemies.


    One of his Wills watched those predictions and used them to write out a Force Program.


    One of his Wills used Overdrive to move his body tomands written in the Force Program he was simultaneously writing based on future predictions.


    The remaining avable Wills either amplified his own abilities or hampered specific targets. It was not an exaggeration to call it a blood bath.


    Due to the rapid revolution of the sword aura his Nensaber wasposed of, his shes caused his enemies'' blood to spin around. A ring of blood spread out from every cut. As Rayleigh moved through the lines of human-sized soldier ants, multiple rings of blood shot into the air and battlefield every second as Rayleigh danced his way through the gathered army.


    Many of the Chimera Ants had thick carapaces that bullets and des would bounce off. Even Rayleigh''s old Lightsaber would only char them a bit before bouncing off if he struck them. They absorbed heat and physical impact better than most body armor, but such defenses were pointless against Rayleigh''s thin de. Each strand of aura was a sword capable of cutting. His Nensaberpressed arge amount of that sword aura into a thin sword and then spun it faster than a chainsaw. Sure, there was resistance when he sliced, but that was rtive. Even the hardest shell belonging to some Turtle Chimera Ant was sliced through as Rayleigh pressed his Nensaber against it for a few seconds. Even if every thread of sword aura only gave a light scratch against the shell, the rotating de would slice hundreds of times a second and all scratch the same spot, digging deeper until it sliced throughpletely.


    Technically, the same could be done by a Lightsaber, but a Lightsaber would take longer to burn through simply because its profile was widerpared to the de-thin Nensaber.


    At the end of the battlefield was a humanoid lion. He seemed to be the strongest of the gathered ants and also seemed to be the leader.


    He did not approach the group himself, but kept a distance and watched over everything.


    Killua''s massacre was just as brutal, though not as shy. He had to avoid many close calls from some of the special abilities some of the Chimera Ants possessed.


    The lion ordered four identical-looking Chimera Ants over to the battle. Two went at Rayleigh and two went at Killua. Rayleigh''s Force Danger Sense screamed and he Force-lifted them all into the air and threw them at the lion dude.


    The four were thrown at him from all directions leaving him no easy way to run, so he pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket and ripped it before the four ants impacted him and exploded.


    The force of the st shook the air and Rayleigh had to both brace himself and defend himself from the ants that held themselves in ce by stabbing their legs into the ground. They tried to use the chance to strike, but Rayleigh relieved them of their limbs a momentter. Rayleigh charged the lion dude. As the smoke cleared, he seemed to be covered in a semi-transparent shield that protected him from the st.


    At that moment, a fast-moving creature approached Rayleigh and moved to slice his face off with a set of ws. Rayleigh used Force Valor to dodge but the attacker was faster, forcing Rayleigh to use Force Stasis to hold the attacker''s hand in ce for an instant before he freed himself. That instant was enough for Rayleigh to dodge and get a look at the new arrival. It was a Cheetah-looking Chimera Ant.


    Rayleigh wondered if the NGL had a zoo or something because he did not think all these species like lions and cheetahs should have been found on such a smallndmass.


    Killua ran over and said, "Finish off the extras, I''ll stall these two!"


    It was obvious these two were the dangerous ones, but fighting them while fighting the remaining soldiers was a poor choice and gave their enemies too many options. It was better to go into a disadvantageous position now and seek an advantageous one afterward.


    Rayleigh agreed and jumped back, though he still maintained irvoyance to watch Killua and used Force Stasis on asion to ensure that Killua wasn''t killed.


    Rayleigh didn''t have any more time to y so he decided to go big. Although using the Force did not cost him energy, big moves certainly caused mental fatigue, and this move would be very tiring.


    After taking a stance, Rayleigh started pulling every Chimera Ant toward him, several at a time. He''d pull them, sh them, and move onto the next. In this way, a terrifying scene emerged of dozens of Chimera Ants being helplessly drawn to their deaths. Many tried to run but the range of Rayleigh''s Telekinesis was quite far. Even though Babylon only enhanced Force Techniques used within the En Field, that didn''t mean he couldn''t use Force techniques outside. They just would not get an enhancement.


    It took about thirty seconds for Rayleigh to finish off the stragglers before rejoining Killua.


    The Cheetah guy was using hit-and-run tactics though was unable to deal a fatal blow due to the interference of Rayleigh''s timely use of Force Stasis on his limbs when he attacked.


    The Lion dude had a weird-looking sword he was trying to cut up Killua with. That sword did feel very strong, but the Lion was not a swordsman and Killua was fast enough and skilled enough to predict him.


    Rayleigh intercepted the lion''s next strike. Rayleigh''s Nensaber elicited a shower of sparks on contact with the Lion''s sword. The Lion''s physical strength was certainly higher than Rayleigh''s or Killua''s, but Rayleigh used Enhance Attribute: Strength on himself and Force Stasis on the Lion to even the match. Killua seemed to cover himself in static every once in a while as he looked like he was trying a new technique while Rayleigh exchanged sword blows with the Lion for several minutes without giving an inch.


    Just as the lion seemed to be getting used to Rayleigh''s restraints, Rayleigh suddenly used Force Stasis with four Wills at the same time. Since the lion dude was within range of Babylon, the effect of Force techniques was properly amplified and the massive Chimera Ant waspletely frozen as Rayleigh shed under the guard of his sword through his left leg.


    Rayleigh then turned and used his Nensaber to parry a strike that was aiming for his neck. Said parry also chopped off several of the Cheetah Chimera ant''s fingers as he ran past Rayleigh over to where the one-legged lion was.


    Rayleigh and Killua nned to finish them both, but the fight was interrupted by the sound of pping from the side. All four fighters looked over and saw a group of ten or so humans, Hunters it seemed. None of them recognized the group.


    The one pping them stopped once he had their attention and said, "That was some pretty good work boys, but you can go home now and leave the rest to us." The man wore a white coat and a smile that reminded Rayleigh of Ichimaru Gin from Bleach.


    Rayleigh had narrowed the field of his irvoyance when the extras were killed so Rayleigh had not even noticed their arrival and had no idea how long they had been there.


    Killua countered back to the smiling Hunter, "It''s okay, we''re almost done here."


    The man''s smile didn''t drop, but he shook his head and swiped his hand in the negative. "I''m sorry but I can''t do that. You see, I have epted a job from the Hunter Association to hunt these Division Commanders. I do not believe the same is true for either of you. In other words, please leave this to the paid professionals. Volunteers may have good intentions, but you brats will just get in the way."


    Rayleigh smirked, but not from happiness. Now he could tell who these guys were. Someone on the Hunter''s side was interfering with any n that stopped the ants. These guys weren''t here to kill these two. They were here to let them get away.


    Killua wasn''t aware of this but he could make an educated guess. If they were here to help, why stop them now when they were about to make the kill? Why not show up earlier? He observed the group and pointed at the youngest-looking one, someone who actually looked about their age and had slick-backed brown hair and wore a tidy suit, like a mini-CEO.


    While gesturing at the kid in their group, he said, "What about that brat? Won''t he get in the way?"


    The whole group collectively frowned at that. The man in the white coat sneered, "You have no right to speak that way about Lord Joshua Jones. He is the first and only disciple of the vice president of the Hunter Association and soon-to-be president, Pariston Hill."


    It was then that the entitled-looking brat stepped forward and asked aloud, "Did either of you refer to yourself as Roy Mustang?"


    Rayleigh stopped forward, "Maybe, but you can call me Swordsman."


    Jones teleported in front of Rayleigh. It wasn''t a high-speed movement. It was certainly a teleport. After locking gazes for a moment, the brown-haired brat identified himself, "Enigma."


    Rayleigh nodded, "I haven''t heard much about you." Between the lines, he was referring to the fact that the name Enigma never made an appearance in the Hunter or General Chat Room.


    Enigma replied, "I don''t say much."


    "Going for the quiet, mysterious type, eh?"


    "That''s the idea."


    Rayleigh asked, "So are you here to fight or talk?"


    The Hunters gathered tensed and got into battle-ready conditions. They would not allow any harm toe to their young master.


    Enigma looked over at the Chimera Ants. The Cheetah had put the Lion on his back and was ready to book it at the first opening, but seemed nervous as more and more enemies were showing up.


    In the next moment, both Chimera Ants vanished.


    Rayleigh expanded his irvoyance to the max but didn''t spot either opponent.


    Enigma then said, "Another day, perhaps," before turning and walking away.


    Since it seemed he could teleport himself and others, the fact that he was walking away with his back to Rayleigh was an obvious taunt to try to get Rayleigh to attack him. Rayleigh didn''t take it. He wasn''t fast enough to cut him before he teleported. Yet. Until then, there was nothing to gain from fighting him.


    Rayleigh walked back over to Killua who red at the group of Hunters before heading back to the cave to pick up the octopus.


    Killua asked, "What do you think the condition for his Teleportation is?"


    "Well, since he didn''t move us, there should be some conditions. Maybe, you can''t teleport someone who doesn''t want to move? Those ants did want to get out of there after all."


    Killua nodded but kept in mind other possibilities as well. Neither really cared why those Hunters were getting in the way of the Chimera Ant subjugation but guessed it was some kind of political shenanigans. After picking up the octopus, they''d meet up with Gon and then the other Hunters and discuss it with them. As for Enigma, Rayleigh wasn''t concerned. Even teleportation wasn''t instant. One day Rayleigh would be fast enough to slice him before he teleported. It was another goal added to the list of things he had to achieve to reach the top.


    *Author''s Note*


    See? The three-strikes rule isn''t so bad. As long as he has enough aura to maintain Babylon, he can keep it on and as long as he was damaged three times during that use, he is free to keep fighting even after killing whoever caused him damage.


    Reviews and stones will get another chapter in 48 hours.

 Chapter 51: Gathering in Peijing

    Chapter 51: Gathering in Peijing


    *Authors note*


    The background details are not things I made up, this was mentioned very briefly in the manga and anime.


    Chapter 51 Gathering in Peijing


    Considering it was the only phone in the country that still worked, Rayleigh wasn''t surprised when his phone started ringing.


    After picking it up, Rayleigh answered, "Hey Gon, how''s life?"


    [Ray! How''d the n go? Is Killua alright?]


    "The n went as well as it could have all things considered and Killua is next to me. It''s time to regroup, so I''ll send you Knuckle''s location. You can go there first and we''ll meet up afterward." Gon was closer to Knuckle at the moment than Ray and Killua were.


    Although Rayleigh made sure every cell phone call made in the country besides those with his number would go to a busy signal, GPS functions built into the better phones like Gon''s worked perfectly fine.


    The same was true for texting capabilities, but in a backwater country like this, even if their city looked fancy, the cell phones sold in the country didn''t have texting so other than the phones of foreigners, few if any could make use of their ability to text.


    Gon exined, [I met that Chameleon you told me about and he wants to help kill the King.]


    "Cool. I don''t know much about him other than the fact that he''ll be really helpful for our n. I''ll call Knuckle and tell him we''re on our way."


    [Gotcha, see you then.]


    Before calling Knuckle, Rayleigh called Morel to give a status report and get an update from his side.


    "Hey, how are things on your side?"


    [You dare ask that so casually after making such a big mess?!]


    "Asking at least shows I care."


    A low huff was heard from the other side before Morel continued, [Every military vehicle was sent to fix and unblock the roads. The news channels are going crazy because they can''t contact anyone outside the city. All the closest towns have already emptied themselves. When I heard thatst part, I thought they had started the selection early in the nearby areas until Knov confirmed there were no bodies.]


    "Yeah, I''m pretty convincing when I need to be. I traveled to the viges and towns near the city and persuaded them to evacuate west."


    [But thanks to that, I''ve bepletely tied up. That cat-girl Chimera Ant, Neferpitou. She called fifty guards to the pce and turned them all into puppets to chase down the citizens that were heading west. The only reason there hasn''t been a massacre is that I''ve been using my Nen ability tobat them and keep them in the city and reduce their numbers. If I leave, all that work you did will be for nothing.]


    "So you might not be able to hold down one of the Royal Guards then?"


    [I''m stretching myself thin as it is and if I have to keep this up for a week, I may not have the reserves to hold one of the guards. Knov is the same, he''s been using his Nen ability to help the fighters created with my Nen ability get ahead of Neferpitou''s puppets. It''s possible that you five may need to hold down all three Royal Guards on your own.]


    "Can''t we up the time schedule and attack before you get tired?"


    [Not possible. The reason for waiting isn''t because we need to ambush them or anything. Last I heard from the Chairman, he needed this time to warm himself up for the fight against the King. He wouldn''t ask for time if he didn''t need it, not in a situation like this.]


    "Alright. I''m about to meet up with everyone now and we''ll head over to the city to figure something out."


    [Good, I''ll text you our address.]


    The call ended and Rayleigh dialed up Knuckle next.


    [Yoo! I''ve been waiting for your call you little punk! You did it you crazy bastard! Where the hell are you right now, there are tons of things I need to ask you?!]


    "Killua and I are heading for your location together and Gon is on his way from another direction. Stay where you are and we''ll all meet up and head for the city to make a new n with Morel."


    [Alright. I''m surprised you were able to stop the selection like that, but I''m d that I haven''t found any more viges with piles of corpses, though I''ve seen plenty of guys heading west in groups. You did good you little brat!]


    "See you soon."


    Rayleigh hung up the call while heading for the mountain. Thankfully, all the Chimera Ant foot soldiers weren''t tracking the refugees. One of the reasons Rayleigh needed Killua to make a mess was so that the Ants would devote the resources needed to kill him. That little army they faced was likely a majority of the weaker ants capable of moving around. Unfortunately, there would still be Chimera Ants that traveled on their own and would likely kill the refugees they encountered, but Rayleigh had already epted that he could not save everyone. He did what he could and the rest was up to chance. At leastpared to before, they had a better chance since previously, their chance of survival was only one in one hundred and the survivors would have had their humanity taken from them anyways.


    As predicted, Gon arrived ahead of them with a new chameleon-looking Chimera Ant that introduced himself as Meleoron. Knuckle was also followed by arge number of injured dogs he rescued from the ughtered viges he found.


    Gon didn''t say anything, he only gave Rayleigh a puppy dog pout that wasn''t cute at all, but Rayleigh still sighed and got to work. Dark Transfer could be used very well in a lively forest like this so it only took a few minutes for the pack of precious puppies to be restored to full health.


    Seeing Rayleigh heal so many injured animals, even the chameleon dude was like, "You''re a good guy."


    A few hourster, Ray, Killua, Gon, Knuckle, Shoot, Meleoron, and the Octopus were all gathered in the office room of the hotel Morel and Knov were staying at.


    First, they recounted their experiences.


    Knuckle started, "I tagged that Cheetah with my Hakoware and sensed he was getting closer, but before we could ambush him, he headed in another direction because he seemed to get some warning from a flying Chimera Ant."


    Killua asked, "You can sense the location of the guys you use that ability on?"


    Knuckle nodded, "Yeah. The interest only rises while it''s close to me, but I can sense its direction and distance pretty well as long as it isn''t that far. The thing is, I can''t sense it anymore. I think they got a nen remover."


    Killua said, "Ray and I fought that Cheetah guy before meeting you."


    Morel asked, "Did you kill him?"


    Killua was about to speak up, but Ray answered first, "No, but the situation wasplicated. We''ll exinst."


    Morel nodded and Knuckle continued his story, though there wasn''t much else to tell besides his observations from the fallout of Rayleigh''s n.


    Morel then began his side, "Everything here is paid for by one of Diego''s Generals. He agreed to turn against the pce after confirming Diego was dead and epting a safe haven after this is over. After the tv broadcast where Martial Law was dered and Rayleigh turned everything upside down, he''s been helping to dy things by giving orders that seem good but will slow everything down. Knov and I have been trying to get assistance from the Hunter Association so we can have more Pros when the timees to face the Royal Guards and the King. So far, only one request went through correctly."


    Morel turned to Killua and said, "Your grandfather agreed to a contract on the King and he''ll be striking with Chairman Netero."


    Killua looked pretty surprised at that, not expecting his old man''s old man to show up.


    Morel then shook his head and his face hardened into a sneer, "Other than that piece of good news, everything else is shit. None of the Hunters I asked for or rmended were given the job, instead, they only gave the job to those fucking Temp Hunters."


    Gon asked, "Hey, what are Temp Hunters?"


    Morel seemed too angry to speak, so Knov pushed up his sses and answered from the side, "Temp Hunter is a somewhat derogatory term for Hunters that only take missions directly from the Hunter Association, and do not go out and act on their own to gain experience. Such missions are forwarded to the Association by governments or corporations and guarantee a certain amount ofpensation regardless of the job''s sess or failure. There are often many applicants for such jobs and there is amittee responsible for sorting through these applicants and evaluating each Hunter''s capabilities and aptitude to determine who is most suitable for the job."


    That confused Gon even more. He asked, "That doesn''t sound so bad, what''s the problem?"


    Morel was practically growling at this point and grinding his teeth.


    Knov decided to answer this as well, "The problem is that themittee responsible for deciding who to send is a bunch of obtuse ipetents with their own agenda."


    Morel couldn''t take it anymore and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Those bastards they sent haven''t caught a single one of the Squadron Leaders we''ve directed them to! We''ve been spending this whole time gathering information from the general and using it to help, but those fucking shits can''t do a single damn thing right!"


    Knov patted Morel''s shoulder and continued the exnation of what happened in the city. "I''ve been using my Nen ability, Hide and Seek, to make doors across the city that can be used to move from one to the other. My goal is to get close enough to the Pce to make a door that can be used by the ambush team to quickly get close to the King after the Royal Guard has been lured away. Ever since Rayleigh''s evacuation started, I''ve been making doors further from the city so that the fighters created with Morel''s Nen ability can take out the puppets made by Neferpitou that are leaving the city."


    After Knov finished summarizing his experiences, Gon picked up and described his little adventures. It turned out that Meleoron wanted to see if Gon could fight the King, so he sent some Chimera Ants that deserved to die over to him and watched how Gon beat their asses. Next, Meleoron approached him and wanted to use Gon''s strength and his own abilities to assassinate the King. As for what those abilities were, Meleoron demonstrated.


    In front of everyone, the hoodie-wearing Chameleon vanished. Rayleigh extended his Force saturated En. It wasn''t veryrge since he didn''t have his Lightsaber out and wasn''t using Babylon, but it was working.


    It was then that Rayleigh felt a teeny tiny force presence on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw nothing there. A momentter, Meleoron appeared before them all, his hand on Rayleigh''s shoulder. That had Rayleigh''s attention. Meleoron had touched his shoulder but Rayleigh couldn''t even perceive it.


    Meleron on the other hand freaked out a bit since Rayleigh turned his head and faced him before he released his ability. He asked, "How did you sense me?"


    Rayleigh answered honestly, "It''s a unique ability of my tribe to sense certain things that has nothing to do with aura. I had it even before I unlocked my Nen."


    Knov stated, "I was unable to sense you with my own En. How long can you maintain that state?"


    Meleoron answered, "A minute if I''m standing still, half a minute in a dangerous situation. Gon said this guy had something he could use to kill the King."


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "Yeah, it''s a stronger version of that Healing technique you saw me use on those dogs."


    Morel asked, "Can you use that to kill the King?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Definitely. The ability ignores the difference in power. The only catch is that I must touch the target and maintain contact for a while."


    Gon shouted, "That''s why Meleoron is the perfect partner for you!"


    Everyone looked back at Meleoron who stated, "Wait, wait, that might be true, but there''s a catch. I can''t do that unless the person trusts me and I trust them."


    Rayleigh said, "I trust you."


    Meleoron shouted, "You can''t just say that to people you just met! You''ll get tricked in the future!"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "That''s future me''s problem and I trust future me to deal with it. For now, though, I trust you."


    The hoodie-wearing chameleon sighed and said, "Fine, let''s try. I trust you at least since you told Gon about me. But it''s not my fault if this doesn''t work, it only works if you really trust me!"


    Meleoron kept his hand on Ray''s shoulder and took in a deep breath before holding it. He seemed surprised for a moment and then motioned for Rayleigh to get up but stay in contact with him.


    Everyone in the room started looking for Rayleigh since he had vanished with Meleoron this time. Meleoron started poking the Octopus and gesturing for Rayleigh to do so as well. Rayleigh ced his head on the octopus and confirmed his health status.


    Even though the octopus really did just look like a normal octopus, he was still a chimera ant and there were some tell-tale signs ording to Rayleigh''s Shatterpoint. A Chimera Ant was not a natural-born creature, but one pieced together from many parts. The stronger the ant, the more parts it was made up of, it''s just that the pieces were smaller. Ironically this meant that in the view of Shatterpoint, the stronger ants were more fragile. They were highlyplex machines intricately built with the pieces of hundreds of other, different high-end machines. If Shatterpoint used with Dark Transfer was done gently, the space between the pieces could be cleaned and smoothed out with the Force, essentially healing the structure. When done violently, the Force would cause the distance between the pieces to increase, causing the structure to disconnect and break apart. To Rayleigh, the Chimera Ants were basically Legos waiting to be disassembled.


    Not that his Shatterpoint was unstoppable. Far from it. It was only useful on things that were assembled, and the more stable the assembly, the fewer cracks he could use to break it and he could only use the ability while directly touching a crack. He couldn''t use it to break water or dirt. There were also Nen abilities that had indestructible conditions, and if he couldn''t figure out how to get around those conditions, he would not be able to break those either. Its biggest weakness though was how long he had to touch the object he wanted to break. Even though he said he''d be able to kill the Royal Guard and the King with this ability, he''d have to maintain contact with them for a while. First, he would have to softly flow as much Force as possible into the cracks and then gather a massive amount of Force and finally force that into the already saturated cracks to cause them to burst like a flooded dam.


    But with Meleoron''s ability, it wasn''t impossible to seed.


    Meleoron released his held breath and the pair appeared, startling the Octopus and causing everyone to give a few nods of appreciation.


    Finally, it was time for Rayleigh and Killua to share their stories. By the end, Morel was once more gritting his teeth as heined, "Fucking rat bastard. He''s doing this on purpose. That lousy piece of shit doesn''t know how bad this could go if we don''t stop this!"


    Killua asked, "Who is he talking about?"


    Knov answered, "Pariston Hill, the Vice President of the Hunter Association and a member of the Zodiacs, twelve of the strongest Hunters chosen by the Chairman. Pariston holds the position of the Rat." Knov turned to Gon and said, "Ging holds the position of the Boar." He then continued, "Pariston and the Chairman areplete opposites. That''s actually why the Chairman picked him to be Vice President. For that reason, Pariston is infamous for making a nuisance of himself but is very charismatic andmands a strong following. A majority of the Committee members responsible for selecting Hunters for jobs like this are loyal to him, and most of the Temp Hunters work for him either directly or indirectly."


    Morel stated harshly, "That Rat is at the heart of everything wrong with the Hunter Association and right now he''s trying to stab Netero in the back! Since the Chairman is the head of this operation, its sess or failure will reflect heavily on his position. That piece of shit is trying to sabotage everything to make the Chairman look worse so Netero will have to retire from the position of Chairman, leaving Pariston in charge!"


    Seeing his teacher so enraged, it wasn''t surprising that Knuckle shouted, "What?! That bastard! I''ll kill him!"


    Knov stated calmly, "We have no evidence of any wrongdoing. Even that Jones fellow, Pariston''s disciple, he could just im to have made a mistake that allowed the Chimera Ants to flee. At least you both did very well up until then."


    Meleoron nodded, "That''s right, you killed Flutter. His surveince abilities are even better than Neferpitou''s in some situations. Her En can cover arge area, but Flutter''s ability to telepathicallymunicate via long distance made him essential for scouting and nning. It also sounds like you took out most of Leol''s men. They liked to collect human weapons and were some real bloodthirsty bastards. Even if Cheetu and Leol got away, they are not as big of a threat when nning things out."


    Killua asked, "What are we going to do about the Temp Hunters?"


    Knov shook his head, "Nothing. They can''t openly impede us and will stay out of Peijing. That simply means we will have to take care of this ourselves."


    Rayleigh added, "We can help kill those puppets with Morel."


    Knov shook his head, "Perhapster. I doubt any of you have had a rest in a few days, so after dinner, you guys need to rest up and you can help us tomorrow."


    The trio of thirteen-year-olds nodded their heads and found a room with a bunch of beds. Though tired, that didn''t stop them from chatting for a while longer.


    Gon asked, "Do you think we''ll win?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Yeah. There are people in this world capable of seeing into the future. If shit was really going to hit the fan, they would not be trying to take advantage of this."


    Killua asked, "Do you know what is going to happen?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Not really. Once the fighting starts, the future splits off into thousands of directions, but the Ant King dies in each one. The problem is keeping the loss on our side minimal. Most of the means of killing him require a sacrifice. Usually, it is Netero or your grandpa. I haven''t seen a single time I''ve killed him. If Meleoron could hold his breath indefinitely, I might be able to, but there is no future with me causing his death, though there are a few where I get killed."


    Killua asked, "And you''re gonna avoid those, right?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "I''ll avoid any 100% kills, but there are situations where not doing something dangerous leads to a worse oue, and if I see one of those where I at least have a chance of surviving, I won''t avoid it. I''ll just avoid the guaranteed deaths." Even if the Tavern brought him back to life, dying wasn''t something he wanted to experience.


    Three yers had died already doing things Darwin would not approve of and yers learned the cost of death in the Tavern.


    When a yer died, they could return back to any world their sses came from or the MCU at the same age with the same name and appearance. To other yers, it was like they simply respawned. But the penalties for death were quite severe. First, although all unlocked sses remained unlocked, yers would have to restart the progression in training their sses from scratch.


    That meant if Rayleigh were to die and respawn, he would have to start meditating to reconnect to the Force from scratch. He''d have to reopen his aura nodes and start umting Nen from scratch. Thankfully, his well-trained physique would remain, but he''d lose a majority of his strength.


    Next, all Easy Masteries purchased after the beginning of the Game would be lost. Rayleigh had not purchased any because he didn''t need them, but many yers had done so to speed up their training. The Easy Masteries they acquired during Character Creation would be fine, but items converted into Inventory Items after the game began and the Easy Masteries purchased using Mission Points would be lost.


    And the final and cruelest thing that urred was what happened to your previous character after you died and respawned. Your new character would share your appearance and name, but none of your old NPC friends would recognize you.


    When a yer died and respawned, with the exception of the other yers, all memories and records of that yer would be reced with something else. And this did not just happen in the world they died, but all worlds that had records or memories of that yer.


    If Rayleigh died, made a new character, and found Gon and Killua again, they would not remember Rayleigh Rush. Their memories of him would be reced by someone else and they would remember that person dying. The person that reced them would bepletely different. So if Ray died and came back and asked Gon about his friend that just passed away, Gon might describe a bald-headed guy who skillfully yed the guitar and had an extreme temper.


    Of course, much of that could be avoided. A yer''s Mission Points were not affected by their death. A yer could even use Mission Points to partially negate the effects of their death. They could spend points to retain the mastery of some of their skills, and their progress in their ss, or purchase an identity that inherited the possessions of their former identity. As long as you had enough points, anything could be discussed short of reviving the character directly.


    Even without paying, simply due to prior experience, a respawned yer would be able to get stronger much faster than they did originally, and if they got lucky, they might even catch up to the current yers as long as they had enough Mission Points.


    Yes, everything went back to Mission Points. As long as you wanted to be strong, live a good life, and stand out, you needed Mission Points. They could be used to fight strong opponents, purchase Easy Masteries or Inventory Items, get a good identity, or retain your abilities if you die.


    Rayleigh''s stock of Mission Points had been mostly emptied to convert the Pdin''s Ne into an Inventory item. If he died, he''d lose the item and would not have enough for a nice identity anywhere so he''d have to start from scratch. He could do it if needed. That was the reason he didn''t have Wing unlock his aura nodes manually. He did it on his own so he could do it again if needed. But just because he had a safety, didn''t mean he nned on falling. His foundation was built strong so he could continue to climb up confidently.


    After pondering over death for a moment, Rayleigh asked Killua, "What are you gonna do when this is over?"


    Killua asked, "Why are you asking?"


    Gon added, "I thought we were all sticking together."


    Rayleigh shook his head, "I''m heading off on my own once everything is settled." He looked over at Gon and said, "I''m sure there will be an election for a new Chairman once this is over, regardless of what happens to Netero. Ging will have to be there in person, so you can just meet him there."


    Gon frowned, "That feels cheap."


    Rayleigh gave Gon a deadpan stare and said, "Your father is the cheap one. You should have seeded in finding him when we used Apany. He''s the one that cheated and made it send us to Kite. I don''t think he left any other ways of finding him. If you locate him in the future, it won''t be because you skillfully tracked him down, it will be because he wasn''t paying attention and one day you ran into him. It won''t feel satisfying no matter how you do it."


    Gon pouted, not liking the logic but unable to argue with it.


    Killua said, "I think I''ll head back. There are some things I''ve been thinking about and things I need to do back home."


    Gon asked, "Are you gonna be an assassin?"


    Killua shrugged, "I''ve been doing a lot of killing these past few days, but I''ve saved a lot of lives doing so. I was surprised when I heard that grandpa was hired. Morel sounded like he really respected him. If even the Hunter Association hires guys from my family, it might not be so bad."


    Ray asked, "What kind of things do you need to do?"


    Killua sighed, "It''s my little sister. Not the one you met with my mother when you came to visit, my other one. I''ve never been able to do anything to help her with her situation, and the needle Illumi put in my head kept her out of my thoughts. But with it gone, my head is clear and I know I need to protect and look after her. If I be the head of my family, I can protect her."


    Gon asked, "Oh? Can I meet her?"


    Killua answered, "Not yet."


    Rayleigh then asked, "Gon, what are you gonna do after seeing your dad?"


    "Well, I''ll go back home and see Mito and tell her about my adventures. I''m not sure what to do after that."


    Killua added, "Maybe ask your father for some ideas."


    Gon looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. The trio spent the remainder of the night chatting about various unimportant things until they fell asleep. They had a busy schedule ahead of them after all. Rayleigh wanted to ask Knov and Morel about their abilities and maybe steal a few ideas to incorporate into his own abilities. He couldn''t wait for morning.


    *Author''s Note*


    Yay. reviews and stones have magically brought another chapter to life. Perhaps more will fuel another chaptering out in 48 hours.


    90% of the content of this arc is descriptions of nen abilities, internal monologue, and descriptions of events. I know most like to read the character dialogue and interactions, but even the source material barely has anything so it''s tricky toe up with stuff for it.

 Chapter 52: The Battle before the Storm

    Chapter 52: The Battle before the Storm


    *Author''s Note*


    Someone asked why I never use POVs outside the MC''s. The only time I do that is foredic effect, usually to see how much the MC is messing with Nick Fury. Using other POVs is just a way to give info to the reader that the MC can''t get and extend a scene. It helps the world-building, but I like the idea of less is more, so the readers can imagine the background characters doing their own thing without it being spelled out for them.


    I also heavily dislike shbacks and will never use them. If you need a shback to exin something, then you obviously didn''t exin it right the first time, and using shbacks to reveal something as a surprise is justzy.


    Chapter 52 The Battle before the Storm


    With just a few questions and maybe a tiny push or two from the Force, Rayleigh was able to learn of the mechanics behind Knov''s and Morel''s Nen abilities.


    Knov was a transmuter, but instead of transmuting his aura into an object or energy, he transmuted it into space to create a subspace he could ess under the right conditions. His subspace included multiple rooms and each had multiple doors. He could ce the entrance door to a room in the real world anywhere he wanted, but exiting the room from that door only led to the ce he made the entrance to that door from. If he wanted other people to be able to use his ability for instant movement, he had to make sure they were in a room that had all the doors they needed ess to. Knov himself had a Master Key he could use to exit through any door in the real world from any door in any room, so he was not as limited when it came to traveling using his Hatsu.


    It was an overpowered ability for sure but had a number of restrictions. First, he had to use Divine Script to slowly mark the location he wanted to ce a door in the real world. It was no instantaneous thing and required a concentrated effort to ce. Next, from the point he made his first door, he could only travel by foot to where he intended to ce the next. If he took a car, bus, or ne, he would be unable to make another door until he reset his travel by returning to an existing door. This meant he could not use his ability to make a door on Greed Ind and then make another door off the ind to smuggle things. Swimming didn''t work either, he had to travel by foot from an existing door to make another after making the first door.


    Morel was a Maniptor with Emitter leanings. He could manipte smoke to turn it into a solid object or a puppet-like construct. There were just two conditions for his ability. First, he could only manipte smoke that he exhaled after saturating it with Emitter attribute aura in his lungs, so he needed to use a smoking pipe to create the smoke to inhale in the first ce. Next, when he wanted his smoke to act independently of him, he had to form the smoke construct around a ball of Emitter attribute aura that formed the core of the construct. Each construct could only act upon a limited set of instructions given at the time of its creation. It was simple in effect but extremely versatile in use.


    Neither was particrly useful for Rayleigh''s build but learning of the possibility of each and the mechanics behind both was certainly insightful.


    Morel agreed that everyone could fight the soldier-puppets with them the following night. Due to the limitations behind Knov''s Hide and Seek, each could only patrol a certain area that was expanded thanks to it being linked to multiple doors from a room. Killua and Gon were partnered up while Shoot and Knuckle were paired together in the northwest and southwest of the capital city of Peijing respectively. Morel and Rayleigh stayed inside the city itself to draw the attention of the Chimera Ants. This was the most dangerous job, but suited for the pair since Rayleigh was very hard to kill and Morel was very flexible.


    The only problem was that this took up hours and hours, and even though Babylon was efficient, it was not that efficient. Thankfully, he didn''t even need to use his aura for most of it. Having a Will or two use irvoyance to search the area and then just using Shatterpoint directly on the Nen constructs that were puppeteering the soldiers was enough to take them down without using up much energy.


    As predicted, what came to face them was not a group of disposables.


    Before Rayleigh could react, the Cheetah Chimera Ant approached and struck Morel. A momentter, a massive baseball-field-sized dome appeared above the city. Were it not for the fact that Martial Law enforced everyone to stay inside their homes, it would have drawn a lot more attention.


    It was then that the Lion dude showed up with a peg-leg. Behind him were two other Chimera Ants, one that looked like a humanoid wolf and the other was a human-sized lobster. Or was it a shrimp?


    Rayleigh could hear the growl in the lion man''s voice as he told Rayleigh, "You bastard. I''m gonna rip you to pieces!"


    "Open, Babylon." Rayleigh''s Nensaber extended and his Hatsu activated. It was then that the wolfman bend down and the flesh on his back morphed into a strange X-shaped formation, with each end holding what appeared to be a rocket. He said, "Target acquired. Don''t move. If you move, these Missiles will track you for all eternity."


    Immediately after that threat was levied, the lobster/shrimp dude opened up his pincers and started charging what was obviously a powerful aura st.


    The lion sneered viciously, disying his sharpened teeth at thebo of the ants he brought. Move and you die. Don''t move and you die. Death was the only option.


    Rayleigh used Battle Precognition to predict when the Nen st would fire and a moment before it did, he moved. Unsurprisingly, the four missiles on the back of the wolfunched themselves at Rayleigh. Straight into the path of the lobster''s emission attack.


    A massive explosion shook the streets and momentarily blinded the attacking ants.


    When the dust cleared, Rayleigh was gone.


    The lion panicked for a moment, "Where''d he go?!"


    From behind them, Rayleigh snarked, "You''re kinda stupid, aren''t you?"


    They all turned around him time for them to see Rayleigh''s Nensaber removing the head of the Chimera Ant Wolf. Why aim for him? Rayleigh didn''t like the feeling of those missiles. If they had not been obliterated by the lobster''s attack, he sensed it would have been quite bad for him.


    The cowardly lion jumped back while the lobster fired a quick nen attack that Rayleigh bounced back using his Nensaber toward the Lobster''s head. The armored crustacean didn''t die from the hit, but being hit by his own attack did disorient him enough to lose the chance to dodge Rayleigh''s next attack, a stab through the eye into the head.


    Rayleigh wasn''t the kind of person you could release a deadly attack on with ease. He got scratched up multiple times from the debris of that explosion which was enough for him to use lethal force on these guys.


    In the time it took for Rayleigh to kill them both, the lion had not run away, he''d simply used that distance to pull something from his pocket that printed out a small sheet he pulled and teared up. This time, instead of a sword forming, five different colored totem pole-looking things appeared. Each seemed to be a stack of nine or so carved faces.


    The lion bragged, "I learnedst time that I can''t get close to you and that you had a limit to that telekinesis of yours. Well, see how you like this!" The five totem poles rose into the air andunched themselves at Rayleigh.


    As Rayleigh moved to dodge or cut them, each of the totem poles broke into multiple pieces, each with a face. Rayleigh was now being assaulted by forty-five logs that floated around and struck out seemingly at random.


    Rayleigh moved his body like an acrobatic monkey and swung his Nensaber repeatedly, slicing multiple logs into pieces. What was interesting was that when a log was sliced, two other logs would smash themselves around the pieces which caused those pieces to reassemble.


    Rayleigh couldn''t prevent a smile from forming on his face. It wouldn''t be any fun if it were too easy.


    It didn''t take long for Rayleigh to get covered in wounds. He never took a direct hit, but he was unable to fully avoid many of thebinations the logs used together and each struck with the force of a Nen-empowered battering ram. His shoulder had almost been dislocated, three ribs were at least fractured or broken, and there were multiple fractures on his left arm and right leg.


    Theparison between this moment and when Gon fought the Top user was not lost on Rayleigh. There could also be aparison drawn between this moment and when Ichigo faced Byakuya Kuchiki''s Senbonzakura. In either case, Rayleigh intended to use it to train.


    The reason this was good training was that the Danger Perception ability he over-relied on was far less effective. He could tell when the Lion guy was looking for an opening because he had the intent to kill, but the logs worked off a program and had no intentions. Even Battle Precognition heavily relied on reading the opponent''s thoughts and intentions and had a very dull effect when used on objects thatcked consciousness. There was still some effect since they naturally gave him notice before he was harmed, but it was not nearly as useful without a readable source of harm. He also couldn''t use Shatterpoint to shatter the logs into pieces since he would not be given the time to do so.


    Over the course of a few minutes, however, Rayleigh was able to figure out a pattern.


    Depending on which of the five original totem poles the logs came from, each face had a different attacking style. Faces from the red totem pole spun like a frisbee before aiming for his legs, trying to either destroy his bnce or cripple him. Those from the yellow totem pole would move in sync and try to smash against each other with Rayleigh sandwiched between them. Faces from the blue totem pole attacked in straight lines like meteors while faces from the green pole attacked in arcing motions. The trickiest ones were the faces from the ck totem pole. They did not attack so much as they tried to make contact with Rayleigh. They each carried an inky ck aura and it was obvious that nothing beneficial would ur if they touched him and most of his wounds came from hits he had to take to avoid those.


    Knov had seen Rayleigh''s ambush and was tempted to interfere, but Rayleigh knew he was watching and had not given any form of signal to ask for assistance.


    It was then that Knov noticed something bizarre. All of the puppeted soldiers went limp and Neferpitou''s En, something that always covered the pce, had vanished. Without that En, he could finally approach the pce to ce a door. He shouted to Rayleigh, "I''m heading out, did you need any help?"


    The lion looked over at the Hunter that had been observing from afar with surprise. He didn''t know that he was the one being watched.


    Rayleigh answered while still surrounded, "I''m good, if you need to go to the bathroom or get a bite to eat or something, go ahead."


    Knov rolled his eyes at the tant confidence, but he could also see the light in Rayleigh''s eyes that closebat fighters only got when they were in the moment, and Knov would not ruin it for his little friend. Knov left the area for his closest door and used it to travel to the door closest to the pce so he could stealthily make his way there on foot.


    The lion felt reasonably insulted. The child he had cornered was treating this like a game. Seeing red, the lion form chimera antunched himself into the storm of logs and attacked Rayleigh. The logs naturally moved out of his way to give him an opening and since the other paths were blocked, Rayleigh was unable to dodge. Instead, he used Force Valor to shift the position of his body like a cat to turn and face the lion and strike with his Lightsaber. The direction the lion approached from would now lead to him getting decapitated, so one of the logs naturally moved to block the Nensaber and another moved to push the lion out of harm''s way and back out of the encirclement.


    The threat of death made the lion''s self-awareness return and he didn''t attack again. He didn''t like to admit it, but this cub''s ws were sharper and longer than his own. Even if he was stronger, that meant little if he was not faster. He looked up at the dome over the city. It wouldst eight hours so it wasn''t an ability he could borrow since the length of time he could borrow an ability was only a single hour.


    Rayleigh''s use of irvoyance ensured he was never attacked from a blindspot, but it also kept track of the wooden pieces that continued to assault him. He could essentially take three out of action every time he sliced one apart since two others would retreat to repair the one he cut, but that onlysted for a few seconds as the logs were repairing themselves as fast as he could chop them to pieces. After half an hour, he noticed something interesting. Ten of the forty-five multi-colored logs never attacked him. They traveled with other pieces that attacked him or got close, but they were never within reach of his Nensaber. It didn''t take long to figure out why.


    Rayleigh used five of his Wills to enforce Telekinesis on five of the wooden pieces. Four were used to get in the way of others and the fifth, one of the few that always avoided him, was pulled in and sliced into pieces.


    As predicted, that piece was not restored like the others. Why? It was an end piece. That''s right, in order to fix a broken piece, the two surrounding pieces had to sandwich it between themselves. The end pieces didn''t have a second piece to surround them. In order to take out all the pieces, he had to destroy them in order.


    Rayleigh began using telekinesis to shuffle through the logs while dodging the attacking ones and drawing in the targets to destroy. One by one, the forty-five logs were reduced to pieces until none remained. The lion then ripped another piece of paper to shreds and mocked, "I hope you''re not tired yet." Five totem poles appeared again. He had more than one copy of this ability saved just for today.


    Completely drenched in sweat and rain and panting heavily, Rayleigh replied, "I''m just getting warmed up."


    Obviously, that was a lie. His brain and body had been pushed to the limit and he could pass out at any time. His strength was used up, his entire body felt like a massive bruise, and he was barely holding himself up with Force Valor.


    Before the totem poles could attack, Rayleigh vanished from view.


    As Rayleigh''s Nensaber sputtered out, he turned around and saw Meleoron holding his breath. Rayleigh picked him up and carried him over to the lion who was still panicking from Rayleigh''s vanishing act. The Totem Poles needed a target and if one was not identified, they could not be used.


    Rayleigh used thest of his aura to initiate Gy and ced his hand on thergest shatterpoint he saw on the lion''s chest. Thanks to the effect of Meleoron''s ability, the lion didn''t even feel it. A few secondster, blood poured out of the lion''s mouth, eyes, and nose. He didn''t even have time to register what happened as his organs broke apart and he died, almost instantly.


    Rayleigh decided that was a good time to pass out.


    When he woke up, he was on a bed in the hotel they stayed in. His Nensaber handle was on the bedside table and his wounds have been expertly wrapped up. Rayleigh took the Lightsaber and enabled Babylon before he started healing himself. He could use abination of Enhancer attribute aura to speed up his recovery and Force Healing techniques to make a full recovery now that he was conscious again.


    It took a few minutes because Rayleigh intended to be thorough, but he eventually recovered from all his injuries without receiving anything permanent.


    Rayleigh''s cell phone was also on a charger on the stand and he reached over to check the time. It was August 4th, three days before the selection. That meant he was unconscious for three days. Not too surprising. Unlike Gon, Rayleigh''s recovery was more mental than physical.


    Although there was no theoretical limit on how much one could use the Force, physical brains would feel the burden of umted stress from continued use of the Force. Usually, this would not happen for a while, but a side effect of Rayleigh''s use of multiple Wills meant he umted mental fatigue and stress multiple times faster than normal. A seasoned and well-trained Jedi Knight could probably maintain a single use of the Force for several hours before reaching a fatigue limit. Rayleigh''s limit while using nine Wills, was less than an hour.


    That was fine with Rayleigh as it gave him more things to work on. The point of fighting a difficult battle was to learn where you could improve yourself. This was the first time he''d felt the side-effects of his crazy Will splitting idea, and he''d have to work on it in the future, but working on it was not arge problem.


    The Temple of Force Skills Rayleigh spent months living in contained dozens of mental exercises and esoteric skills that the ancient Je''daii used to strengthen their physical brains using the Force. Rayleigh didn''t intend to use them until he reached a limit because he wanted a stronger mental foundation, but now that he had hit a wall, it was a good time to start using them.


    After going over his battle and making a n to improve himself further, Rayleigh left the room and found Knov on the couch, wearing a hat. He seemed quite dispirited and Rayleigh did not understand why he wore a hat while inside. Though Morel wore sunsses no matter the time of day, indoors and out, so he supposed it didn''t matter too much.


    Knov spotted Rayleigh''s entrance and said, "Ah, good, you''re awake. Were you able to recover yourself?"


    Rayleigh patted his formerly fractured bones and answered, "Yep, good as new." That also made him realize if he practiced healing more, he might be able to recover quickly in battle as well. Something to consider forter.


    Knov nodded and said, "Everyone will be returning in an hour. Neferpitou is no longer sending puppet-soldiers out of the city and the refugees have gone far enough west for them to no longer matter. They seem to have given up on chasing them, so with the exception of the first 500,000 killed on the first day, the selection seems to have ended with the exception of those inside Peijing that are scheduled to head to the Pce in a few days."


    Rayleigh asked, "What happened while I was out?"


    Knov looked pensive for a moment before answering, "We lost contact with someone we sent inside, a student of mine named Palm. Other than her, everyone else is fine."


    It was obvious that there was more to it than that, but Knov didn''t share so Rayleigh could only wait for the rest of the group to return.


    Gon arrived first, "Ray, you''re up! Are you okay?"


    Ray nodded, "Not a scratch."


    Killua walked in behind Gon and replied, "Maybe not now. But I certainly saw a few earlier."


    Rayleigh shrugged, "I was just hammering out a few of my weaknesses."


    Killua nodded, "That would exin the broken bones."


    Shoot, Knuckle, Morel, Meleoron, and the Octopus headed in afterward.


    Thanks to some of the changes, the overall mission had been altered a bit, but was mostly the same.


    Knuckle exined, "Alright sleepyhead, here''s the n we''vee up with. Us eight will use Master Knov''s doors to ess the Pce a few seconds before Midnight. At precisely midnight, President Netero and Killua''s grandfather, Master Zeno will attack from outside of Pitou''s En''s range. We only have those few seconds to separate the King from his Royal Guard. While we are doing that, Ikalgo will search for Palm." Ikalgo was the octopus Chimera Ant''s name.


    Knuckle showed a map of the pce and the throne room the King would be staying in, as well as the stairs that led up to that throne room that the closest door was ced next to.


    They assumed that after Neterounched an attack, the guards would surround the king to protect him, and to ensure the King''s assassination, they had to stall the guards and prevent that from happening.


    Rayleigh looked over the map and confirmed everything before saying, "Yeah, this n is kinda worthless."


    Morel frowned before asking, "How so?"


    Rayleigh replied, "Neferpitou stays on the roof using her En. The moment the Prez is within range, she''ll attack him first, so she''ll leave the King on her own. This ambush will be in the middle of the crowds gathering in the pce for the selection. Shaiapouf can fly, so he''ll be flying over the crowd and keeping watch. He won''t even be in the pce. That leaves Menthuthuyoupi as the only guard. If we take all of this into consideration, I''d like to make a single change to the n."


    Morel asked, "Oh? And what change would that be?"


    "Before the n, I go with Meleoron through one of the outside doors to confirm that Pitou and Pouf are outside. If I''ve confirmed it, then I''d like to enter the door next to the stairs a minute early so I can assassinate Youpi."


    Knuckle stated sarcastically, "If you''re that confident, then why don''t you just kill the King yourself?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "I confirmed with that Lion guy that although I can kill with a touch, it takes a while. The stronger the target, the longer it takes. A Royal Guard is one thing, but the worst case scenario is that Meleoron won''t be able to hold his breath long enough for me to kill the King."


    Morel asked, "How will you confirm their location? Even if Meleoron uses Perfect n to hide you while you scout, what if they aren''t in your visual range?"


    Rayleigh answered, "I can use irvoyance without using aura. Once I''m inside the Pce, I can check around without moving from my position. I can''t see through walls, but if those two are outside, I will find them. If the Pce doors are open, I''ll be able to spot everyone inside as well."


    After considering it, Morel agreed to the change. Some versions of the n had Meleoron go with Knuckle so he could use his Nen ability on either the Royal Guard or the King himself, but Rayleigh doubted Knuckle wouldst long enough for the interest to exceed their aura reserves. Rayleigh himself could oust and even destroy Knuckle''s Hakoware, so it was not considered as effective as they once thought it to be.


    To ensure they knew what they were walking into the strengths and styles of each of the Royal Guard was discussed at length, with much of the info being provided by Rayleigh as the Royal Guard members fought against puppet-Kite.


    Neferpitou, the cat-girl, was a nimble and fast power attacker. She could strike with enough force to cleave through the hardest steel multiple times in a second and fought using pounces. She was fully capable of pouncing two full kilometers in a single jump and the travel only took a few seconds.


    Shaiapouf, the butterfly-guy, was a surgical fighter that used diversions and poisons. Though said poisons may not have an effect on nen users, they were effective on normal humans. His attacks mostly consisted of knife hand strikes that either pierced into his opponents or cuts them into pieces.


    Menthuthuyoupi, the morpher, was a beast. He had basic intelligence outside ofbat, but duringbat, he went into a primal, instinctive state. He was capable of shifting the flesh on his body to almost any form and could form innumerable weapons from his flesh and attack as he pleased. He was the strongest shield by being the most unstoppable spear.


    Morel''s target was Pouf. He intended to use his smoke to create a cage that would trap the flying Guard and keep him from the King.


    Knuckle and Shoot should have been the ones to target Youpi, but Rayleigh didn''t see them having any chance at sess. It was better if they worked together with their trio to fight and restrain Pitou. Rayleigh''s telekinesisbined with Shoot''s floating hands could somewhat restrain the lunging cat-girl while Killua and Knuckle whittled her down and Gon charged up a good punch.


    The reason Rayleigh wanted to assassinate Youpi was that, as a shield, that guy was incredibly effective. ording to the Shatterpoint he just saw, that guy could fight them all at the same time. Pitou was incredibly powerful, but neither she nor Pouf was as capable of fighting off groups by themselves.


    The day before the battle, the group was instructed to walk around with the citizens of the city and mingle. Why? Because the soldier puppets were back and they wanted to nt false information. Although the final selection of the residents of Peijing would ur tomorrow, the five hundred thousand citizens were instructed to start heading to the pce tonight.


    By having the Hunters mingle with the poption and then enter Zetsu once they grouped together, it looked like they intended to breach the pce''s defenses by sneaking in with the citizens to the senses of all paying attention.


    What actually happened was after entering the groups and using Zetsu, they left the groups and entered the Hide and Sneak space of Knov''s Hatsu and waited for the time of the ambush.


    Although the mission was dangerous, most of those waiting to strike had numerous questions floating around in their head. What would happen if they failed? What if the king wasn''t there? There were also many unanswered questions about what was going on inside the pce for thest few days.


    The main question that had been asked was what had happened to Palm? Was she dead, captured, hiding, or worse?


    A second, but just as interesting question was, why did Pitou''s En stop working on that day? They knew that her healing ability prevented her from using any other ability, so she likely was using that, but then they had to question, why did she need to heal someone? Then came the question, who did she need to heal? The only person who she likely would use it on was the King, but how did the King get injured? Someone suggested that the King might have injured himself, but that brought up even more questions.


    Safe to say, something they could not conceive was happening inside the Pce. Now it was time to see what that was and bring everything to an end.


    *Author''s Note*


    Next time on the Reincarnator''s Tavern, the final battle of the Chimera Ant Arc!


    Stones= writing fuel

 Chapter 53: The Death of the King

    Chapter 53: The Death of the King


    Chapter 53 The Death of the King


    One problem Rayleigh discerned of Knov''s subspace was that it was too quiet. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he lived much of his life on a wild, but Rayleigh didn''t particrly like quiet. When it is quiet, you hear too much.


    As the group waited at the boundary of one of Knov''s doors, every twitch of nervousness and wrinkle of fabric seemed to echo. The Temple of Silence didn''t have this problem because all sounds were erased. But when a space was too quiet, the sounds that originated from your person seemed to endlessly amplify.


    Rayleigh could practically hear the heartbeats of the various Hunters and two Chimera Ants around him. He didn''t need to be empathic to understand that they were psyching themselves up. There was a real possibility that they were going to die this day, but when the time came, they would enter the heart of the enemy territory without hesitation. At least they would when it was their turn. For now, it was Rayleigh''s turn.


    Five minutes before midnight, Rayleigh picked up Meleoron as the chameleon form chimera ant took in a deep breath and made the pair invisible. Meleoron was taller than Ray was, so instead of lying on Rayleigh''s back, Meleoron was simply carried by the brown haired Force user as he peaked his head out of the spatial doorway into the courtyard of the pce the Ant King took over.


    Pitou''s En still covered the entire area and would have noticed his presence without Meleoron''s special form of invisibility, but thanks to that, Rayleigh could act without getting caught or sounding the rm.


    Rather than look around, Rayleigh closed his eyes and used irvoyance. His range could practically extend to the nearby city, much less the whole pce. He still could not see through the walls, and unfortunately, the Pce door was closed, but he could still observe everything clearly.


    Standing just outside the pce entrance were the several hundred thousand citizens of the nearby capital city. They had been ordered toe and await the selection process. The butterfly Chimera Ant dispersed his scales over them which seemed to seal their minds and put them into acent state. As they were, they could witness a Nen soldier killing hundreds of men in front of them and not think a single thing when it was their turn to be called up. Should the group of Hunters fail, that was their fate the following day.


    Within the inner court of the pce were numerous grotesque trees carrying the cocoons of those who passed the selection, roughly five thousand former citizens of East Gorteau. ording to the Ants on their side, the Butterfly Guy and the Cat Girl created a way to inject chimera ant cells into a person that caused those cells to mostly overwrite the human DNA.


    Rayleigh''s irvoyance easily confirmed the presence of the cat-girl sitting atop the pce while the butterfly guy floated over the crowd of citizens, awaiting their ughter.


    Rayleigh withdrew back into the door and Meleoron let out his breath as Rayleigh put him down.


    Morel asked, "Well?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Pitou and Pouf are both outside the pce so the inside should only have Youpi and the King with maybe a few servants. It is odd however that the Pce door is closed."


    Morel considered it before shaking his head. Although they could prepare as much as possible, knowing that they didn''t know something would not get anyone to back down now. He asked, "Are you sure you want to try this?"


    Rayleigh gave a confident nod without voicing any hesitation. No matter how much he meditated, he could only see Youpi as the biggest problem. If Rayleigh could end him before the fight started, he had to give it a shot.


    Morel patted Rayleigh''s shoulder and said, "Alright, good luck kid."


    Meleoron seemed to be doing breathing exercises so Rayleigh pointed out, "You know, if you imagine yourself about to jump into a pool you intended to stay inside for a long time, you''d be able to hold your breath longer."


    Meleoron asked, "Really?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, the amount of oxygen your lungs take in with each breath is variable. You can max it out by mentally convincing yourself you are about to jump into the water and won''t have ess to air. Breathe like that for two minutes and you will over-oxygenate your blood. Be careful though, you might get light headed with an oxygen high while doing that. Also, close your eyes after we start. Processing images uses your brain more which increases how much oxygen you need. Leave everything to me and just close your eyes."


    Meleoron looked thoughtful for a moment before he changed his breathing rhythm to give it a try.


    Two minutes before midnight, Rayleigh picked up Meleoron again as the hood-wearing chameleon took in onest breath and closed his eyes, putting all his trust into Rayleigh.


    He used a different door in the same room that led to an exit next to the stairs in the pce that led up to the throne room.


    Rayleigh jumped out and spotted something he certainly did not expect. His target, the hairless beast, Menthuthuyoupi, was sitting on the stairs next to him rather than standing at the King''s side in the throne room.


    Although he was right next to Rayleigh and within the range of Pitou''s En, neither of the royal guards noticed the trespasser thanks again to the miraculous power of Meleoron.


    Not one to question such a gift, Rayleigh made his way up the stairs and used Gy. Youpi had countless hair thin lines, but only a single shatterpoint. Unlike most, those lines seemed to wiggle and flow rather than stay motionless. The single shatterpoint however remained in a single location, it was on the left side of the back of Youpi''s neck.


    Although Youpi was quite tall, he dully sat on the middle of the staircase and faced the closed pce entrance door so the shorter Rayleigh only had to walk up the steps behind him that were higher. Since he could use Force Muffle to remove his sound, Youpi neither heard or felt anything as Rayleigh approached and put his hand on the back of Youpi''s neck.


    Rayleigh almost panicked when his Psychometry felt the details of this creature. Thankfully, this beast was not in abat state. The hair-thin fractures Rayleigh observed would turn into cable wide fractures once this beast started fighting. That should mean it was more fragile, but for this existence, that was not the case. What was worse, was that when this monster expanded, the amount of Force needed to break it would be far greater than anything Rayleigh could hope to overflow. It would be like trying to shatter a mountain with a single ss of water.


    Rayleigh focused with almost every Will, even forgoing irvoyance just to speed up the gathering of the Cosmic Force in the area and pouring it all into this creature''s body.


    Over a minute had passed but Meleoron''s eyes stayed closed and his face remained rxed.


    Rayleigh''s focus almost faltered when he felt the retraction of Pitou''s En. At this moment, no one was watching.


    Another Shatterpoint, a splitting of events and their consequences appeared before Rayleigh. This was a chance he could not miss!


    Rayleigh called upon everything he had and even the Force within his own body and in a single moment, flooded Menthuthuyoupi with everything he had.


    Youpi only had a single moment to realize something was wrong, but other than the minute widening of his eyes, he was unable to process anything else, even instinctively, as his brain and organs liquified and all the life within his body flooded out.


    Rayleigh used the Force to catch the blood that ejected from Youpi''s orifices and put Meleoron down, causing the Chameleon to open his eyes and release his breath in surprise.


    Rayleigh picked up Youpi and jumped to the portal and entered it a second before the others were about to jump out. Rayleigh threw Youpi''s corpse at the ground and the captured blood within and said, "He''s dead, let''s go!"


    Without needing another word, the group of Hunters ran out of the portal. Meleoron had turned invisible again but released his breath once more when he saw the iing friendlies running in.


    Rayleigh caught a whiff of something and used the Force to pull Meleoron toward him while pushing Knuckle to the side.


    An instantter, hundreds of spears of light shot down through the roof and plowed deep into the ground. If one had paid close attention, one might have seen that each spear took the shape of a majestic five-wed golden dragon descending from the heavens. Killua''s grandpa''s attack had arrived.


    Thanks to Rayleigh''s intervention, no one was harmed by the attack, but Rayleigh fell to his knees. He would recover, but using up the Force within his body made him feel weak. Thankfully, the Force was everywhere, so he would recover quickly.


    Morel noticed Rayleigh''s copse but didn''t stop the charge to the Throne Room. He had to prevent Shaiapouf from assisting the King. What he did not expect was that upon reaching the top step of the staircase, he would see an empty throne in a destroyed throne room. A brief expression of panic shed through his face before hardening into determination. The king wasn''t here, so he''d find him before Pouf did.


    Thest thing he expected however was that a moment after he confirmed the destroyed throne room was empty, the roof above him would be broken into and his target would barge in to confirm the same thing. Morel had no idea why the butterfly guy came here if the King wasn''t here, but he was not a single star veteran Hunter without reason and the instant he confirmed Pouf''s presence, he was already taking in a deep, deep, deep inhale of his massive smoking pipe. Before Shaiapouf even turned around to confirm the presence of the intruders, Morel was already exhaling a wall of smoke. Said wall immediately pushed out all the other Hunters that were running up the stairs and surrounded himself and Shaiapouf. Mission to separate Pouf from the King? Complete!


    Rayleigh only needed a few breaths to recover and a few more to get back into fighting condition. By then, the throne room was filled with smoke, which meant Morel was there and isting Shaiapouf, which implied that the King was not there.


    A vicious, sinister, and downright eerie aura filled the pce as Neferpitou''s En engulfed them all once more. Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua were not affected but Shoot and Knuckle experienced a few shivers down their spine. Neferpitou however did not appear in the room, but seemed to head elsewhere in the pce.


    The group of Hunters opened the pce door to see the damage the dragon dive attack caused and see if they could spot where the King and Neferpitou were located. Only the octopus guy stayed behind in the pce to look around for Palm.


    It only took a quick use of irvoyance and a look over the pce''s south wing for the Hunters to spot an unlikely group. Netero and an old man in Chinese attire with silver hair were walking behind a green skinned humanoid. Netero noticed their gazes and pointed to the room they just left. The silver haired old man no one doubted was Killua''s grandpa transmuted his aura into a massive dragon that Netero hopped onto while the Ant King grabbed hold of. It then lifted off into the sky and flew south, without the old man who seemed to walk off aimlessly.


    The Hunters headed for the room Netero pointed out and found something rather unexpected. Neferpitou was there, but she was not alone. Behind her was a messy looking human woman that seemed confused and scared, but in decent health. Pitou''s posture made it obvious that she was protecting the human.


    That honestly had Rayleigh stumped. When Rayleigh cheated to see the future using meditation, he was basically using Metaknowledge to get three or four frames of an episode of the anime and using decent guesses to fill in the details. He used one percent of one percent of information and derived something pretty close to urate. This only worked because the Tavern allowed it as an Easter Egg when dealing with MCs. Rayleigh would never be able to see the future using just meditation as easily or easily at all for just about any matter where there were no main characters involved.


    So he had no idea who the woman was or why Pitou had obviously been given orders to protect her.


    If the King died and hisst orders were to protect this woman, would Neferpitou protect her forever and not bother anyone anymore?


    Another Shatterpoint appearing directly killed that train of thought.


    The previous Shatterpoint Rayleigh saw was that if he hid Youpi''s body, neither the King nor Pitou would be able to confirm his death and would act differently in ways that benefited them in the long run.


    Now the scene he saw through the panel of broken ss this action rested on showed a different story. He saw Pitou abandoning the woman and running in the King''s direction. Then he saw some unspeakable horror. He saw the King, barely alive, being puppeted by Pitou''s ability which made him eat and eat and eat. He saw blood pool from the King''s body but he kept eating and eating and eating. He was dying while being healed from what he consumed, over and over. He devoured the five thousand Chimera Ant Hybrid cocoons and the hundreds of thousands of humans. Eventually, what was killing him would lose out, and what would be left was a monster that had taken in everything he ate to be an abomination.


    So yeah, this bitch has to die.


    From the moment they got there to the registering of the details of the perceived Shatterpoint, only a second or two had psed. Rayleigh said aloud, "Formation Beta."


    Gon quickly caught on and reeled back while calling out aloud, "Firstes Rock. Rock, Scissors, Paper..."


    Pitou''s En was still covering them, so she did not miss anything and she was not stupid. She easily noticed when Meleoron and Killua vanished from her senses before the group even entered the room so she knew to watch out for them. She was right. Even though they werepletely undetectable, her cat-like reflexes acted up as good as any spider-sense.


    Upon hearing Rayleigh''s call of Formation Beta, the invisible Killua held Meleoron as he scaled the high walls of the room and got to the ceiling above Pitou. He charged himself with electricity beforeunching it down, directly at Pitou.


    Due to the miraculous effect of Meleoron''s ability, even the lightning strike itself was invisible as it was released, but Pitou''s instincts still red, her leg muscles still tensed, and without thought, she was about to move away from her current spot. Unfortunately, her escape was thwarted when Rayleigh used Force Stasis on her with seven different Wills.


    As such a powerful Chimera Ant, she should have been fully capable of breaking through seven Wills worth of bindings, and she was. But the instant it held her back was more than enough for Killua''s Lightning Strike to do its work.


    Neferpitou was struck soundly by Killua''s attack and all the hair on her body stood up and started smoking a little. For such a durable creature, a lightning strike didn''t actually do all that much damage. What it did do however was numb her nerves and render her unable to counter the next attack.


    The moment she had been struck, Rayleigh released each use of Force Stasis and used the Force to simply pull her forward. Beingpletely stunned, even if only for an instant, that instant was long enough for Rayleigh to pull her directly toward Gon''s fist.


    "ROCK!"


    Gon''s fist hammered itself squarely into Neferpitou''s stomach and an instantter, she had been shot through the wall and out of the pce. The group of Hunters ran after her and Rayleigh told the human girl, "Sleep for now."


    "M''kay," she chipley answered and curled up to take a nap.


    Pitou had been blown past the outer wall into the empty area surrounding the pce and it only took a half minute for the group to catch up to the crater she crawled out of. For obvious reasons, she looked furious.


    "Open, Babylon."


    Rayleigh had been using lethal Force without being incited up to this point, so he couldn''t use Babylon yet. Now, killing her before she injured him three times would be a luxury he''d be more than willing to take.


    Somehow, the cat-girl Chimera Ant seemed to guess that Rayleigh was responsible for her momentary binding, so her blood-red eyes narrowed on him. He figured she guessed since he said the Formation''s name aloud.


    The muscles in her legs tensed and the fingers of her hand bulged as she locked on target and pounced.


    The Mandalorian Melee Shield was enabled an instant before she jumped and Rayleigh''s Nensaber was extended. Her aura had concentrated around her ws that met Rayleigh''s chainsaw of Nen and showers of aura sparked on both his weapon and her ws. However, the force of her strike thatbined with the momentum from her pounce was unstoppable for any force Rayleigh could muster so the best he could do was parry the blow and use the impact to push himself back before those ws ripped through his chest.


    His parry was only partially sessful. The barrier of the Mandalorian Melee Shield shattered and four bloody gashes tore through Rayleigh''s shirt and into his chest. Thankfully, the sh did not pass the ribcage thanks to the damage absorbed by the melee shield.


    One of Shoot''s floating hands formed a fist that struck her face, but her head didn''t budge in the slightest and showed that the attack dealt no damage. It did however get her attention.


    Seeing that his floating hands would not be able to damage her, Shoot had his three floating hands try to grab her. The moment she moved to dodge, Rayleigh once more stacked half a dozen uses of Force Stasis over her to hold her in ce. That was the moment that Knuckle, who was now carrying Meleoron and invisible, punched her with everything he had.


    This attack did budge her a little, but she still seemed unaffected. Knuckle released Meleoron which allowed the Hakoware he just made to be visible as well.


    Seeing a floating chubby angel baby thingy next to you would certainly get anyone''s attention, so Pitou could not help but look.


    In that moment, Killua used Godspeed to move his body using Lightning and a Program he created himself to move faster than the eye could track and approached Pitou.


    Pitou was prepared this time, but before she could strike, the stacked Force Stasis had applied again and Killua had the moment needed to ce both hands on her and deliver a powerful shock.


    Rayleigh then used Overdrive to get close. He revved the rotations to the max and made his Nensaber sharper than he had ever done before as he aimed his de at the woman''s neck.


    Before the stunned woman could be decapitated, she was pulled back and out of the range of Rayleigh''s swinging Nensaber.


    Everyone looked up for a moment as they saw a distorted, ballerina-shaped figure form above Neferpitou with strings reaching from the figure''s fingers to the cat-girls'' various limbs and joints.


    Rayleigh sighed. Of course, the boss battle would go into Phase Two before the end.


    Pitou''s vicious ws aimed for Killua faster than he could dodge so Rayleigh applied Force Stasis, but there was almost no effect. Her ability to puppet herself was stronger than the outside effects Rayleigh could apply. Killua received three deep w marks on his arm which didn''t look like it would be of much use for the rest of the fight.


    Rayleigh shouted, "Gamma!" giving everyone a heads up for the new n. n Gamma meant the fast fighters like Rayleigh and Killua had to keep her attention and prevent her from killing everyone else until she either used up enough aura to activate Hakoware or they thought of a better n.


    Rayleigh turned the Shield back on. His Mandalorian Melee Shield had five charges total, so he could take a decent brunt of four more of her attacks.


    Neferpitou scanned the area and pounced in an empty direction with her ws extended. Blood appeared out of nowhere as Meleoron and Gon had been unable to fully dodge. Pitou had guessed the Chameleon made Gon invisible so she could be lured into taking another punch, but she was on to their games and predicted their strategy easily enough.


    This meant they had to wing it. Rayleigh used Overdrive to strike and defend at speeds only a little slower than Killua''s but Killua could not defend, only hit and run, while Rayleigh could partially deflect and absorb her attacks using his Nensaber and Shield.


    Every strike he delivered was either dodged or deflected and he had to use four stacks of Force Valor, one Enhance Attribute: Speed, and one Battle Precognition to barely keep up and defend himself.


    The problem was that, like his own unusual use of Force Valor, the cat girl''s nen ability puppeted her in a way that ignored her biology. Ligaments and joints that should not have provided her the leverage to bend or flex in certain ways were bypassed using the strings of the nen figure puppeteering her.


    The irony of the situation was not lost on Rayleigh at all.


    Killua''s stun gun attack no longer had an effect as even stunned, she was puppeted without any dy, so Killua had to focus on using his Lightning to deal damage instead of stunning. When he could, he would use his stun gun attack on her stomach, where Gon''s fist struck. Even if it didn''t stun her, it would deal damage thanks to the damage already applied.


    Gon kept his fist reeled back and Shoot actually used his flying hands to carry Gon around to position him to strike her, but Pitou was paying attention to the Chameleon so she knew when to expect an invisible attacker, making that trick harder to pull off. Without being stunned or surprised, Gon''s fist was too slow to strike her.


    Knuckle tried to attack several times, but the few blows he didnd barely did any damage and the moment Pitou actually struck him before anyone could help, the damage almost killed Knuckle and the little chubby angel popped from the fact that the damage she inflicted paid Knuckle back for more than the aura it gave.


    Rayleigh''s Nensaber could slice her apart if he attacked an area she did not concentrate her aura into, but he was facing his own problems. The longer the fight continued, the better Pitou was getting at predicting his irregr attacks.


    At this rate, it seemed they were going to lose.


    Not. Rayleigh never expected to beat her. Morel told him a useful piece of information before the start of the n and Rayleigh was just setting the stage. Now he just had to do something crazy.


    Rayleigh shouted, "Zeta!" before charging Pitou with a thrusting motion.


    For obvious reasons, a thrust was a terrible idea. At best, it was a suicide attack that aimed for simultaneous damage. At worst, she''d dodge and kill him. Pitou could discern this and a look into Rayleigh''s eyes confirmed his resolve.


    Pitou pounced forward. A momentter, both fighters were standing in front of each other.


    Multiple shouts of, "RAYLEIGH!" sounded as Pitou''s ws pierced through Rayleigh''s chest, below his shoulder while Rayleigh''s de had also pierced Pitou''s chest.


    Rayleigh''s Nensaber sputtered out and consciousness left his eyes as his breathing and his heart stopped.


    Meleoron shouted, "Oh, Fuck this!" And ran for his life back to the pce.


    Gon and Killua raged and struck out but Pitou''s nen construct pulled her out of the way as her En confirmed Ray''s breathing and heart had both stopped and the annoying chameleon was more than halfway to the pce.


    On the ground, Rayleigh internally sighed. He didn''t like n Zeta, but it was his best shot. Rayleigh had slowed his heart enough to not be noticed and used Breath Control to remove the need to breathe while using Force Healing and Dark Transfer to heal his wounds. n Zeta was to y dead for five minutes. Why five minutes? Well, that was about how long it would take him to heal and he needed that long to use Babylon again.


    Everyone did their part in acting like enraged friends and the catgirl lost a bit of seriousness as the highest threat had been eliminated and Knuckle was still down. She even taunted them on asion like a cat ying with her food.


    After a five minute duration where Gon, Killua, and Shoot got a collection of scars they would carry around for the rest of their life even with Force Healing, Rayleigh felt a hand on his shoulder.


    Meleoron hade back. His running away was just to get her to lower her guard. Rayleigh got up much to Meleoron''s relief and enabled Babylon once more. This would be thest attack.


    Technically, since Rayleigh still pretty much had a hole through him, he was in absolutely no condition to do anything. That was fine. The final attack didn''t belong to him.


    Slowly walking over with Meleoron, Rayleigh said, "The moment she freezes, run away."


    Meleoron was surprised no one heard them since his ability didn''t affect sound, but Rayleigh''s use of Force Muffle hid his words from anyone but Meleoron so he could still talk.


    They got close to Neferpitou and Rayleigh used seven of his eight avable Wills to use Force Stasis on her once more.


    The moment she froze, Meleoron ran off, undoing the invisibility on Rayleigh. Even with a hole in his chest, Rayleigh was able to barely shout, "Now!"


    Pitou''s Nen construct pulled with all its might to remove her from Rayleigh''s grip, but she was barely budging. Why the difference between now and before? Now, Neferpitou was within the range of Babylon. It had only been about a month since he invented it, and though he''d improved on it a lot, the range of the Force saturated En Field was still quite small. But within this En Field, all Force Abilities were massively enhanced.


    When Rayleigh shouted ''Now,'' most of the assembled Hunters were actually quite confused. They thought Rayleigh would deliver a fatal blow or something.


    If he was at full strength, he probably could, but most of his aura was currently being used to keep his wound from getting worse, so he could not make his Nensaber strong enough to slice her at the moment. He was unable to deliver a final blow.


    Usually, this would be Gon''s time to shine, but Pitou had kept arge distance from Gon, using Killua''s own hit-and-run tactics on him to slice up his flesh and wait until he bled to death. For the pain he caused her, she wouldn''t kill him quickly. She wanted to y with her prey.


    But no, the final strike did not belong to Gon either.


    Pitou''s instincts red as time seemed to slow down. Particles of dust passed slowly in front of her through her awareness as she lifted her head to identify the threat. She was just in time to notice cracks appearing on the ballerina construct above her. A sh of light spread out from her Nen ability as it shattered and a heavy purple glow reced it and got closer and closer. The moment before her death seemed to extend for eternity as she noticed the purple glow reach her head. Layer byyer, her face and flesh dissolved as the purple aura of pure destruction descended upon her.


    Rayleigh used hisst Will to jump back, but not fast enough to outrun the explosion and shockwave that urred as Silva Zoldyck descended onto the battlefield with his fist covered in concentrated destruction that destroyed Pitou''s nen ability right before obliterating her head.


    Rayleigh was thrown back from the st but the final use of his Shield saved him from the destructive stwave of Silva''s most concentrated attack.


    Not bothering to check on everyone else, Rayleigh crossed his legs and started healing himself. Since Babylon was up again, he could use his enhanced healing. Unfortunately, the space they were in was something of a wastnd and Pitou''s disgusting En still lingered, so he''d have to pollute himself to healpletely. There were downsides to this. He''d have to stop using the Force for a while to clean himself, but that could wait untilter.


    Killua''s grandpa showed up out of nowhere and approached Silva. The pair nced at Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua and nodded. Seeing the nod actually made Killua blush a little. He was fully aware of how difficult it was to receive any form of approval from his father. Without another word, the elder Zoldycks left on the back of another dragon construct. Their contract was over.


    Rayleigh had closed up the hole in his chest. Pitou only pierced him through, so all the pieces were still there. He just had to realign and knit them together before gathering the Cosmic Force around him and converting into the Living Force within him to heal his wounds.


    Gon asked, "Ray! Are you alright?!"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah. Could have been worse."


    Killua asked, "Did you know my dad wasing?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Morel told me your grandpa was contracted to ensure Netero could fight the King alone, and your father was contracted to kill one ant. It was his choice which one. They were both watching us from the start, I just needed to give him an opening he could use."


    Shoot picked up Knuckle. The pompadour Hunter was not unconscious, just in a lot of pain. Knuckle asked, "Hey, can you heal us?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "No. I had to badly mess with my abilities just to heal myself. It''s not safe for me to heal you guys. Besides, chicks dig scars."


    It was true. It was one thing for him to pollute his aura. It was another for him to heal while he had a polluted aura. That was a very, very bad idea.


    The group returned to the Pce and saw that Morel was still in the smoke room. Rayleigh said, "Get over here Knuckle," and waved everyone else back as he approached the smoke wall and shouted, "We''reing in!" before walking into a weak point in the wall of smoke followed by Knuckle.


    Said weak point was still quite solid, he could not enter the closed off area without either breaking the entire wall of smoke or getting Morel''s permission.


    Smoke surrounded them, extending the wall past the pair as the wall in front of them parted. Morel stood their without harm and in front of him was a ck cocoon.


    Morel asked, "How''d things go outside?"


    Rayleigh gave a tired sigh. "Pitou escaped, just like Youpi did. They both ran off to go help the King." Normally, Rayleigh was not great at lying, but being really really tired heavily dampened any signs of lying and Shaiapouf would not have known Rayleigh well enough to tell.


    Of course, since Morel saw Rayleigh toss and hide Menthuthuyoupi''s corpse into Knov''s Hide and Seek room, he was aware of Rayleigh''s hidden meaning.


    Bringing the subject back to current events, Morel pointed at the ck cocoon and asked, "Can you tell what he is doing?"


    Rayleigh opened his perception to the limit and after a moment, answered, "Yeah. He''s being sneaky."


    When one saw a giant cocoon, one would naturally assume that something dangerous was inside and approach with caution. Rayleigh could not sense anything using Gy, but he could sense life spreading around. His guess? Shaiapouf was turning into dust or something to get through the smoke barrier and using the cocoon as a bluff.


    The problem? Rayleigh''s Nensaber could not cut dust. Sure, he could cut the little particles, but it wasn''t exactly efficient. Besides, most of his aura was still being used to heal himself. Just because he reassembled himself, didn''t mean the injury was gone. He''d need a week to fully heal and a lot longer to remove the force pollution.


    Still, it wasn''t like he didn''t have any options. He''d never used most of them before, but he had not memorized every skill in the Temple of Force Skills for nothing.


    Rayleigh motioned for Morel and Knuckle to stay close to the smoke wall as the young Force User spread his arms. Since he was already polluted with the nen equivalent of the dark side, he might as well put it to some use.


    Dozens of bolts of purple electricity sprung from Rayleigh''s outstretched hands and practically saturated the room. The tiny bits of dust were incinerated bit by bit and the lightning zapped the cocoon over and over, causing it to smoke.


    A momentter, the scattered dust gathered back and rejoined the cocoon as it broke and Shaiapouf reformed. Rayleigh concentrated his Lightning but the re-emerged Chimera Ant blocked it with his fragile-looking butterfly wing which, as it turned out, was not very fragile.


    Knuckle used this moment to punch the wing, and a familiar looking angel baby appeared.


    Shaiapouf tried to strike back but he was slower than Rayleigh''s Force pulling and pushing assistance so he and Knuckle were able to avoid his attacks while Knuckle tried to hit him as much as he could and Rayleigh continued to use Force Lightning. Doing so for a while would damage his hands so he''d really have to cut back on using the Force after this until he fully healed up.


    The numbers on Potclean, the angel baby thing, continued to rise and rise with every Nen reinforced punch. Once it reached 10,000, the interest umtion every ten seconds was faster than Knuckle''s attacks, so the pair stopped attacking.


    Shaiapouf stared at the group in hatred. His strongest ability allowed him to break apart into tiny pieces and reform, making him nearly immortal. The only way to kill him was to destroy his core, but that was about the size of a Bee. He could even turn the pieces of himself into clones and run away, but in an enclosed space, he didn''t have that option, and his pieces were too vulnerable to Rayleigh''s lightning to try and use that to avoid his attacks.


    Seeing he was running out of options, Shaiapouf changed tactics. He stated, "His Majesty will kill you and all of your friends when he returns. I will give you one chance. Submit willingly, and I will allow you to evolve into a superior lifeform and serve his Majesty."


    Rayleigh found it quite amusing to see how sincere this guy could actually sound. Now, this was a liar.


    Rayleigh asked, "And what exactly is the Ant King''s Goal?"


    "Why, to ept his birthright. To be the ruler of this world."


    Rayleigh couldn''t help it. It started as a snicker. Then a chuckled. Then a full blow die hardughing fit.


    Pouf sneered and shouted with venom, "You Dare Mock the King?!"


    Rayleigh calmed down and took a few steadying breaths before answering, "Do you know where the Ant Queen came from?"


    Deciding he didn''t like where this tangent might lead, Pouf replied, "It doesn''t matter. The King has outgrown his mother."


    Rayleigh chuckled once more. "Not quite. How about I let you in on the truth? This human world? It''s in a fishbowl. The King''s mother was tossed into the fishbowl by some of the guys who tend the fishbowl for shits and giggles. You know what that means? It means your King''s goal, his lofty purpose, is to be the King of the Fish Bowl!"


    And with that, another round ofughter started while Pouf looked both shocked and insulted. He shouted, "You lie! Our King is the pinnacle of all species!"


    "Your King is a Bug! Even at his current power,pared to the existence on the other side of the ss, he is nothing more than an ordinary Insect! Do you want to know the truth?! If your King was truly born to rule everything, he would have noticed how weak everything around him was and sought a stronger world to grow. Instead, he chose to sit on that throne behind you. Why did he decide to ept such a pitiful position and rule over the equivalent of dirt and dust? It''s because deep down, your so-called King is not a real king. He is just a small. pitiful. weak. Insect."


    Shaiapouf''s face morphed into something like a wasp at the peak of his fury and he leaped forward. His hands had morphed into scythes and they were aiming to remove Rayleigh''s head.


    Rayleigh dodged and Morel created a dozen Smoke Dolls that took on Rayleigh''s and Knuckle''s appearance. The angry chimera ant shuffled through the various dolls of Rayleigh as Knuckle snuck in multiple attacks. Shaiapouf transformed multiple times to be deadlier and deadlier, but each transformation used up a massive amount of aura, and soon..


    The one small and chubby angel was now massive. It started shining and a momentter with a sh of light, it turned into a small devil-like construct.


    Shaiapouf''s form dissolved into dust. He watched his fingers and arms dissolve like sand.


    A momentter, the only thing where Shaiapouf once stood was a floating bee.


    Morel quickly snatched it and pinched it to death. "Squashed like a bug. How fitting."


    The little devil thing popped, showing that the target it enforced Zetsu on had died.


    Morel released his Smoke cage and everyone scattered to look around the pce.


    While Killua and Gon found, fought, and killed the Cheetah guy, Rayleigh found the Minister''s office and smiled. He picked up a few things and put them in a bag before he used irvoyance to find everyone and gather them back together. Even Knov was collected.


    Rayleigh took them all beyond the walls of the pce once more and Morel eventually asked, "What''s this about? We''re not done searching the Pce."


    Rayleigh said, "We can finish thatter. Everything is about to end." Rayleigh then got out a bottle of scotch from the bag and a bunch of sses and gave one to everyone, including himself, Gon, and Killua. Then he opened the bottle and started pouring.


    Morel said, "I really don''t know what you''re thinking kid. You are too young to drink."


    Rayleigh continued filling each of their sses as he answered, "I have never taken a drop of alcohol in my life and with the exception of special asions, I don''t n to start now."


    Knuckle asked, "What''s the asion? A sessful mission?"


    Rayleigh finished pouring thest ss and set the bottle down. "No, those wille and go. This is something else." Rayleigh pointed south and said, "The first time I met Netero, I fought him with everything I had. Although we didn''t talk much, I was able to get a good sense of his character back then."


    It was at that moment, a sh of light lit up the horizon. One would almost think it was the light of the morning sun, but it was not even 1 AM yet and the light came from the south.


    Rayleigh continued, "What Netero wanted, more than anything, was to go all out in a fight. To die fighting. And to have a meaningful death. Most are unable to choose their death, but Netero was lucky enough to be able to do exactly that. And he was able to get everything he desired. These sses are for a very special asion. This is for the moment that Chairman Netero was able to get everything he wanted."


    The unsaid words were heard clearly by everyone. Tears were fought back in the eyes of everyone who knew the old man. Morel nodded and ced his ss forward, "To Netero!"


    Everyone clinked their sses together, """To Netero!"""


    *Author''s Note*


    This honestly might be my favorite chapter. But I finished it at like 4 AM and kept going to prevent a cliffhanger. Since I got so many stones and reviews, I had toe through so I went all out for the entire thing. I will edit the errorster, after sleeping.


    Multiple Will Issue. I probably need to reword a few things, so here is how that works. Using the Force to do multiple things at the same time with different Wills does not increase the mental strain, but does increase mental exertion. So imagine two guys running side-by-side. One guy is just running, and the other has multiple Wills and is running while texting while carrying a bunch of books in his hands while doing homework, and carrying a backpack. The effect of multiple Wills allows the second guy to run at the same speed as the first, so his running speed is not impacted by the fact that he is doing so many other things at the same time. But if they both keep running, the second guy will tire out faster than the first guy because he is doing many things and each takes up energy. Usually, dividing your mind weakens each of the things you delegate your brainpower to whenpared to devoting your whole mind to one thing. Multiple Wills counters that, but he still only has one brain. Sorry if I exined it poorly earlier and it sounded like a Nerf.

 Chapter 54: Leaving the Hunter World

    Chapter 54: Leaving the Hunter World


    Chapter 54 Leaving the Hunter World


    Although Rayleigh was better off sleeping for the next few weeks to recover, he had no intention of doing so before everything was wrapped up. Besides, cleaning up the leftovers in the Pce didn''t take too long and uncovered a bunch of interesting things.


    First, Ray discovered that the reason for the sess of their ns was due to the woman that Pitou had initially been told to guard. Rayleigh used Psychometry on the game board in her room and figured out her story.


    Komugi is the World Champion of Gungi, a game that was a mix of Go and Chess where you could ce your pieces wherever you wanted at the start of the game and even stack them for different effects.


    The Ant King had been getting his royal ass whooped over and over by this woman who not only has poor respiratory functions but waspletely blind.


    Rayleigh had no idea how that worked. Since Gungi allowed you to ce your pieces wherever in the beginning, didn''t that mean that before each game, her opponent would have to call out the position of every single piece? If the game was timed, would the time that was needed by her for her opponent to call out each piece at the beginning be taken from the opponent''s clock, or her own?


    In any case, it was during one of the games they yed that the King made an error in judging the value of life and ripped off his own arm as an apology.


    Rayleigh could only roll his eyes when he observed that. The Ant King was a Drama Queen.


    In any case, it was only because of that moment that Pitou was forced to retract her En and heal the King, giving Knov the chance to make the doors they used to get there, kill Youpi, and hold back Pouf.


    It was also thanks to interacting with her that the Ant King had made a few decisions against indiscriminate killing which caused him to make the foolish choice to fight Netero alone, without his Royal Guard.


    Rayleigh sensed that if a single one of the Royal Guard had survived, they would have been able to save the King. But he left without them and they were all killed. Though in his defense, he didn''t know Rayleigh killed one of them even before he left.


    After analyzing the situation, Rayleigh came to a troublesome conclusion. Though Komugi had inadvertently done a great service for the world, she would not be rewarded with what she deserved. In fact, from her perspective, she would lose a lot, since Rayleigh doubted anyone but thete King would be able to give her a good game, the only thing she really wanted.


    Rayleigh decided that when this was over, he''d help her. Once he told the Hunter Association of what she did, they''d probably offer some assistance as well.


    Besides Komugi, three other things of rtive interest were discovered in the Pce. The first was a pair of Chimera Ants that had surrendered upon being discovered. Morel took custody of them.


    One of them could pass for a human woman if she wore clothes to cover up some of her less human features and the second had an Ant head, likely one of the earlier Chimera Ants.


    Morel asked, "Do you two need to eat humans to live?"


    Both quickly shook their heads before Morel added, "Then I''ll contact Colt and send you two overter."


    Colt was the name of the Chimera Ant babysitting the reincarnated Kite.


    What would be discoveredter was that the Ant-headed one had the memories of Colt''s little sister and their reunion was quite heartfelt, especially when she took Colt back to their mother who was ecstatic that they were both, technically, alive.


    That was the first thing of interest. The second was the puppet body of Diego. Rayleigh was curious about the sins that the guy had racked up during his life and used Psychometry on the corpse to discover what he could.


    When Rayleigh used Psychometry on something, he did not get every single detail. When used on an item, he basically got the fingerprints of the living and the memories the item had of those who interacted with it. When he used it on a corpse, he got the details that had an impact, the details that had meaning, the ones that stood out the most from their life. He would not see every scene of the guy''s life and be intimately aware of how he tied his shoes, but he would see the exterior structure and interior framework that made him up. As an analogy, if the corpse was a building, Rayleigh would get the blueprints and a list of construction materials as well as a timeline of how it was built and damaged over the course of its existence.


    After only a few moments of processing the former leader of East Gorteau, Rayleigh startedughing. A lot. It took about five minutes for him to stop. Of all the things to see, that was not something he would have ever predicted.


    After collecting himself, Rayleigh found Morel organizing a group that was brought over to the pce using Knov''s Hide and Seek to take care of the fallout and shared the interesting bits he discovered.


    Rayleigh got his attention first and called out, "Morel. You made a deal with someone high in the military for assistance, right?"


    Morel frowned but nodded, "Yeah, that bastard deserves to rot for the rest of his life, but he agreed to tell us everything and help us in exchange for a ticket out of the country for himself and his family."


    Rayleigh asked, "So the deal required him to tell you everything? Did he me all the worst stuff on Diego?"


    Morel confirmed, "Right on both counts. Why''d you ask?"


    Rayleigh''s smirk returned as he thought about it and he had to take a few calming breaths to stop himself fromughing again before he exined, "Remember how I hacked the country and told everyone outside the city that Diego was dead and the bigwigs behind him covered it up to maintain control over the country?"


    Morel gave Ray a deadpan stare before answering, "Kinda hard to forget that."


    Rayleigh couldn''t help but snicker a few times before he said, "Well, it turns out that I wasn''tpletely wrong. The real Diego took all the money he could and ran away years ago because he was afraid of that happening. The guy calling himself Diego since then is an actor paid for by those bigshots, including the General. They wanted to build a strong enough force to take over West Gorteau and then use the actor, ''Diego,'' as the fall guy while they squeezed the country dry to strengthen their military."


    Morel looked dumbfounded. What the hell kind of 3rd rate si drama was this shit?


    After processing Rayleigh''s im, a sinister and cruel smirk appeared on his face as Morel stated aloud, "So, the general lied. That is some very interesting information. Can you document everything and give it to meter?"


    Rayleigh nodded. The upper-echelon guys who wrote the deal probably would not have cared about anything the General actually did, but the deal that was signed specifically stated that the General would tell them everything. Since the General lied, the deal for his protection and relocation could be voided. And since the danger was over, they wouldn''t need the General anymore and he doubted anyone would lose sleep over screwing him over.


    The third and final thing of interest was a Chimera Ant Metamorphosis pod Gon found in the basement of the pce. Unlike the ones on the tree, this one was made more recently and with a lot more care. Gon and Killua came across it and confirmed that the being within was none other than Palm, the woman sent to investigate this ce.


    Rayleigh was called over and used Psychometry on the pod and discovered that unnatural attempts to restructure the woman''s brain chemistry had been made and their purpose could be easily guessed. Thankfully, what Pouf and Pitou could mess up with Nen, Rayleigh could somewhat fix with the Force. Using Shatterpoint, Dark Transfer, Psychometry, and Force Healing, Rayleigh was able to fix the imbnce that had been applied to the woman''s brain and return it to as normal as was possible. Rayleigh honestly didn''t know what the ants did to her, but he doubted it was done with the best intentions in mind.


    Moments after that, he woke her up. Unlike the pods in the pce courtyard, Palm was already a powerful Nen user, so her metamorphosis didn''t take that long. She could have been awoken at any time and was probably waiting on an order to do so.


    The woman seemed confused, but mostly alright. Apparently, she''d been caught and she killed herself, but Pitou easily brought her back, and together with Pouf, they tried to make her into a loyal soldier. She didn''t know if it would have worked since her mind was not quite right even before they fiddled around in there, but any semnce of conditioning they tried to apply was removed thanks to what Rayleigh did.


    After being fused with Chimera Ant DNA, her abilities increased by a fair margin, but her arms took on a somewhat scaled appearance and she had what looked like a ss pane on her forehead which acted something like a third eye.


    Although changed in form, everyone readily epted her and celebrated that she had survived.


    The next few days passed in a blur.


    The Hunter Association had everyone evacuate the pce and made a bunch of interesting ims to the media about what happened.


    They couldn''t tell the truth and had to make up a believable lie, so they just took Rayleigh''s story and added to it. The fact that Diego really was a fake and the country really had in fact been led by a council of evil dudes meant they could arrest them all and ce the me for everything on them. None of them would ever have the chance to get a public trial and say anything different.


    For Komugi, Rayleigh actually spent two days with her and a Gungi board. They didn''t y any games, but she recreated from memory every single game that she yed with the King and Rayleigh documented each and every one. To make sure that she got the reward she deserved, Rayleigh took most of his savings and used it to open a small Gungi School with her as the Headmistress. Since their n killed the only person who could ever y her, he told her she should teach others so that one day, she might raise someone who would be able to beat her.


    He couldn''t do anything about her physical condition as her health problems were things she was born with and were not caused by any kind of damage that Rayleigh could mend. But as long as she had fresh air and the asional medication, she would be able to live a long and healthy life.


    Komugi was able to y at all levels of difficulty, so even if someone were an amateur, she wouldn''t crush him in a few turns. This actually made her an excellent teacher.


    The games she yed with the King that Rayleigh had written down would be analyzed by experts and made into textbooks for the school.


    And of course, the sry she''d be earning for the rest of her life would be enough to support herself and her family, all of whom depended on her.


    Thinking about how her family depended on her, although she was sad that the King was gone, she was d she was not dead or else her family would have been screwed.


    The only thing she hated was the name of the school. Rayleigh insisted on calling it the Hall of the Gungi Goddess. She got embarrassed and flustered every time someone mentioned it, but Rayleigh insisted it stayed and since he was paying the bill, it did. Just to make sure she never got bored, 500 Million Jennies were ced into a bank ount and would be awarded along with the title of Gungi God to anyone who could defeat her in an official match witnessed by several world judges, and she could be challenged at any time. That way, she would not have to wait for annual tournaments and the best yers woulde to her.


    The school was built in West Gorteau as her family had moved there due to Rayleigh''s prank. The truth that there was no King Bradley, firstborn son of Diego, had not been discovered quite yet because all those who could now argue against it had been arrested for crimes against humanity.


    Due to the aftermath, Rayleigh ended up not being the most liked person in the Hunter''s Association. A bunch of bigwigs in the association had predicted that they would be able to take over East Gorteau themselves and make it their yground, but with most of the poption moving to West Gorteau and the public outcry, they couldn''t argue that West Gorteau''s im seemed more legitimate and since the bigshots were arrested, West Gorteau was able to take over East Gorteau without a single shot fired.


    HK-47 would probably weep if he knew, so Rayleigh decided not to tell him unless he got really bored.


    Even though Rayleigh was not liked, those he inadvertently offended could not do anything since former President Netero made an announcement before his death that the next President of the Hunter Association would be determined by election. They were all too busy to take the seat themselves or for their party to mess with him, but that meant he''d have to leave after the election to avoid unnecessary drama.


    As for ns, Rayleigh knew pretty clearly what he had to do. He spent a long time meditating on his fight with Pitou and could only sigh in resignation at all the problems he had. Without a doubt, that was the hardest fight of his life, and the only reason he didn''t die was that Silva Zoldyck didn''t pass up the chance Rayleigh almost killed himself to get.


    What was worse was the fact that he knew it wasn''t simply a matter of power. Pitou''s ability was not all that different from the Force, and all it really did was even the fight so that he could not easily hamper her inbat. In the beginning, Rayleigh actually came out ahead on a number of exchanges, but she adapted to his fighting style faster than he did and it would not have been long for her to find an opening and kill him, even with all his advantages.


    No, the problem was not his Hatsu, not his sword, not his use of the Force, and not his physical abilities. No, the problem was his skill. He had no real foundation for swordsmanship. She adapted to him because his style was homemade and at its core, simple. It was effective for short battles, but against seasoned or genius opponents, he had a long list of ring weaknesses that could be exploited because he didn''t have a swordsmanship foundation strong enough to carry the rest of his abilities.


    He needed a teacher.


    But first, he needed to vote. Apparently, the uing Hunter Association Presidential election had a bunch of annoying rules, like 95% of Hunters had to vote for the result to be valid and you could vote for any Hunter. And if one candidate didn''t get more than 50% of the votes, they''d do another election with the top 16, then the top 8, and so on until there was only one.


    There were about 670 hunters so if 34 or more Hunters didn''t vote for anyone, they''d have to keep redoing the Election over and over. There were over a dozen yers with a Hunter License, so they had to vote or their absence would be noticed. Not all yers who learned Nen had Hunter Licenses, but those who did would have to show up.


    Rayleigh even found out that Greed Ind let every Hunter leave without a Leave Card for free since they had a lot of Hunters there as well. Rayleigh wondered if the election would have gone on forever if they didn''t let the GI yers leave so easily.


    As for the yers, they spent the election trolling each other.


    [Green Lantern: Vote for Kenny!]


    [Poison King: But I killed Kenny.]


    [Swordsman: You Bastard!]


    [Dragon Chef: You Bastard!]


    [Demon King: You Bastard!]


    [Puppeteer: You Bastard!]


    [Justice: You Bastard!]


    Even Pirate yers with a License returned for the Election since they were told the License may be revoked if they didn''t show up. It may not have been true, but no one would tell them that.


    [Swordsman: Anyone wanna meet up and y DnD or something?]


    [Armory: Not on this. I heard about what you guys did to Yorknew. Is that neighborhood still on fire?]


    [Dragon Chef: I think they put it out recently.]


    [Armory: Then, yeah. If you guys want to meet up, might be better to do it somewhere else. Like on a I don''t have to pay damages for.]


    [Justice: Who do you think is gonna win the election?]


    [Swordsman: No idea. Anyone here able to see into the future?]


    [Demon Hunter: A friend of mine can while using some items materialized with Nen, but she told me the future keeps shuffling around.]


    [Swordsman: Yeah, I tried to peek and got a headache. I did see a scene of a dog, rat, and boar fighting, but I couldn''t see who won.]


    [Demon Hunter: Yeah, I can''t imagine it being anyone but those three either.]


    [Justice: Who are you guys talking about?]


    [Dragon Chef: Details would be appreciated.]


    [Swordsman: The previous president of the Hunter Association made something of a council of Hunters and assigned each of its twelve members a title from the Zodiac. The Boar is the Main Character''s father and would make a terrible pres. The Rat is the Evil Viin hiding in the dark and would be even worse. And the Dog is probably the most responsible of the Zodiacs, but is too straightforward and nave to beat the boar or rat.]


    [Justice: Shouldn''t the Dog win then?]


    [Swordsman: Not unless the Rat and Boar give up. If either of them wants to win, they will. They are on apletely different level than any of the others.]


    [Demon Hunter: That''s what I heard as well. The only reason the Dog even has a chance is that those two are finicky and unpredictable. They have no problems with sabotaging themselves and don''t think in the same way as others.]


    [Justice: I''ll still vote for the Dog.]


    [Dragon Chef: I''ll vote for the Boar. Might be interesting. What''s his name?]


    [Green Lantern: Pariston Hill. The dog''s name is also Pariston Hill. So just write his name down when voting.]


    [Swordsman: Just look it up on the Hunter Website.]


    Since the voting might take a few days, the Hunter Association gave free rooms to all the Hunters who showed up so they could stay until the elections were over.


    Rayleigh passed his vote for Cheadle, the Dog Zodiac into the voting box with his name on it and watched from the side. He was not the only one either.


    "Hey Hisoka, what happened to your hand?"


    The murderous magician smiled and waved at Rayleigh, "Ah, this? Just a recement I got after having a little too much fun."


    Rayleigh could tell there was more to it but didn''t ask. He felt that Hisoka''s entire right arm was made of his own aura as if the original was cut off, and his aura seemed a lot stronger than it was before. A whole lot stronger. Rayleigh thought he might have gotten closer to the guy in strength, but Hisoka was a genius through and through, and he got stronger over time as well.


    Hisoka looked Rayleigh over and gave a perverse smile, "You seem to have grown quite a bit since Ist saw you."


    Rayleigh nodded, "I fought some monsters recently and discovered a lot of my weaknesses. Ah, that reminds me. Do you know the name, Joshua Jones?"


    Hisoka shook his head, "Can''t say I have. Is he strong?"


    Rayleigh nodded seriously, "He definitely is. It seems he is the personal disciple of the Vice President of the Hunter Association, Pariston Hill. Though this Joshua is much stronger than I am, he is the same age, and definitely a genius beyond measure. I thought you might have heard of him."


    A light of interest shined in the mad magician''s eyes. "Oh ho? Is that right? I''ll definitely look out for him then. Hehehehe."


    Rayleigh slowly backed away as Hisoka''sughter got creepier and creepier.


    [Swordsman: Careful when voting guys, Hisoka is scoping out the Hunters that areing to vote.]


    [Spring Heeled Jack: Hisoka?! Oh hell no! I''ll get a proxy to deliver my vote.]


    [Armory: Oh f*ck, not that guy.]


    [Green Lantern: Nope. Uh, nope. Nope, and definitely.. Nope.]


    [Justice: Who is Hisoka?]


    [Dragon Chef: Is he that bad?]


    [Demon Hunter: Yes. A bunch of us yers took the Hunter Exam when we were ten. Some of us have PTSD from that guy.]


    [Swordsman: Is that why none of the Hunter yers participated in the Exam when we were eleven?]


    [Poison King: Partially. Most of us passed that exam, but those who didn''t get a license yet were certainly discouraged from getting one after that.]


    [Justice: What did he do?]


    [Lightning Lord: Did he fail the exam?]


    [Demon Hunter: Yes, but not due to ack of skill. He killed one of the judges and brutally beat another down.]


    [Swordsman: Hisoka is the kind of guy the Happy Tree Friends would run away from.]


    [Green Lantern: Hisoka is the kind of guy monsters check under their bed for.]


    [Lightning Lord: Chuck Norris?]


    [Armory: Hisoka is kind of like that alien clown thing from Steven King''s It, but somehow worse.]


    [Justice: He isn''t an actual clown, is he?]


    [Swordsman: ... well, he doesn''t call himself a clown, but from the way he dresses to the make-up he uses, he would not stand out if he stood next to Pennywise.]


    [Lightning Lord: Oh f*ck that.]


    [Swordsman: It should be fine. I was able to throw off his trail by making him interested in someone else.]


    [Demon Hunter: Oh? Who?]


    [Swordsman: I told him Enigma was stronger than I was. He seemed very interested.]


    [Demon Hunter: ... hahahahahaha! Really?! You threw that b*tch under the bus?! Nice!]


    [Dragon Chef: Who''s Enigma?]


    [Enigma: YOU F*CKING BASTARD!]


    [Demon Hunter: Enigma is one of the many Lurkers who rarely if ever participate in the Chat because they are trying too hard to be mysterious.]


    [Swordsman: Who are the other lurkers?]


    [Puppeteer: Besides myself, and I do participate sometimes, there are Duelist, Pokemon Master, Summoner, Key Master, and a few others who will probably change their chat namester. I''m sure you can guess which Nen category those four all belong to.]


    [Dragon Chef: No way, Pokemon Master? Hey, did you catch them all yet?]


    [Pokemon Master: Hey, my conjurations get stronger with every victory, so even if they are weak now, they''ll kick your *ss one day. Especially since battles they win during Tavern Missions count.]


    [Justice: So if a Pokemon Trainer and a Duelist fought, who would win?]


    [Duelist: My beautiful monsters would beautifully obtain victory for me, without question.]


    [Dragon Chef: What if your opponent ignores your conjured monsters and attacks you?]


    [Duelist: I shall never lose against such uncivil scoundrels. Besides, you cannot attack my life points directly while I have monsters on the field.]


    [Lightning Lord: That is a pretty cool invincibility condition.]


    [Swordsman: What about you Summoner? Gonna say something?]


    [Duelist: He rarely pays attention to the chatroom and is usually sculpting. Key Master usually lurks in the General Chat, I rarely even see him logged into the Hunter Chat.]


    [Dragon Chef: Oh? He''s a sculptor?]


    [Duelist: Yes. Pokemon Master makes his conjurations stronger by creating them weak and letting them battle. Summoner creates them strong from the start, but the condition is that he must sculpt a perfect, life-sized, replica of his desired summon first. I myself am an artist with a simr restriction. For every Duel Monster Card I conjure, I must paint a perfect, life-sized portrait of the monster and another portrait for each special technique the monster uses. For stronger cards, I must paint three or four portraits which can take weeks or months. But once I have a full deck, I will be unstoppable.]


    [Demon Hunter: He said he will make spell and trap cards too, and since he has Drawing at random from his deck as a condition, that actually makes his stuff pretty strong, though I''ve never lost to him.]


    [Duelist: Just wait, I won''t lose to you next time!]


    [Justice: Wait, Swordsman said you couldn''t have more than three Hatsus. Wouldn''t each card count as a Hatsu?]


    [Duelist: Ha! It''s all a matter of imagery. The ability to conjure cards from my paintings counts as a single Hatsu. The ability to enact the effects and conjure the beautiful monsters from my cards counts as a second Hatsu. And my third Hatsu is the Duel itself!]


    [Demon Hunter: Yeah, it''s really annoying. Because you can''t attack on the first turn ording to the rules of a duel, even if you are faster than he is, you can''t attack him until he has had the chance to summon a monster from the cards he drew.]


    Rayleigh smiled at the antics and kept the details in mind. Fighting against someone who was essentially ying Yu-Gi-Oh against him would actually be pretty tricky if he used Trap and Spell cards. On the plus side, that yer would probably restrict himself to real cards instead of making ones up since that restriction would definitely increase the power of his conjurations. On the downside, Rayleigh didn''t remember anything from the show after the second series. He wondered if Duelist had any Millennium Items.


    He also figured that Pokemon Master and Summoner had more restrictions than they shared to increase the power of their conjurations. One that Rayleigh guessed was that since Conjuration was far from Maniption, they had to enact specific rules to control their conjured monsters since they couldn''t use their Nen to easily do it without weakening the helper.


    On that thought, that likely exined what Pokemon Master was doing. He couldn''t conjure powerful pokemon because they would not listen to him. But if he conjured weaker ones and raised them up using battles, then they would obey his orders. Rayleigh wondered if he could conjure powerful pokemonter and use his current ones to beat it to submission, meaning he would be able to directly conjure powerful pokemon once the strength of his current ones reached that level.


    Of course, all of these guesses didn''t matter. Rayleigh just had to increase his speed, increase his skill, and increase his ability to cut. As long as he focused on those three things, he should be able to cut anything in the future.


    Time passed, and as predicted, the elections got hectic. Ging Freecss was seen punching Pariston Hill in the face which caused some of Pariston''s supporters to jump him in a brawl which Ging soundly won. This entire thing was caught on camera and shown on TV. This caused a lot of votes that weren''t going to Pariston to go to Ging.


    Rayleigh attributed this to the fact that Pariston had an extremely punchable face.


    Pariston tried to have all the Hunters loyal to him not vote which would dy the election indefinitely, but Cheadle countered by basically gathering all the Hunters into the same building and saying, "We''ll keep voting until there is one left, and we''ll finish this now!"


    Since Ging couldn''t run away while locked in that building, Gon was able to use that moment to go up to Ging and return his license. Ging thanked him and said they''d talkter. This small action painted the very wrong picture that Ging was a family man, and due to thispletely inurate perception, Ging won the election and became the President of the Hunter Association.


    As his first act, Ging then promptly selected Cheadle as his vice president and then resigned from the post, nearly causing a riot.


    Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua gathered together for thest time. None of them liked goodbyes, so they made it quick. Killua had a lot of things to do back home that he''d been avoiding. Gon said he''d go back home to see Mito for a while and then meet up with Ging again for an adventure Ging was nning. And Rayleigh had a swordmaster to find.


    Of course, Rayleigh did try to find one in the Hunter World. Plenty of guys used swords, but most of them had too many ws and were beneath the basic Jedi forms.


    Rayleigh''s search for a teacher came to an abrupt end when he heard on the news that the Kakin Empire was going on a trip to the Dark Continent. Yep. Time to nope the fuck off this.


    Rayleigh spent the following day dealing with everything he could think of which basically meant putting up a sign that said, "Don''t look for me." The problem was that in a world filled with Hunters, this was practically a challenge, but Rayleigh would admit if someone could find him after he left the, he''d be pretty impressed.


    Once the chance was avable, Rayleigh found a ce without witnesses or cameras outside and physically entered the Tavern.


    Once more back in his adult form, Rayleigh walked up to the lumberjack minding the bar, and asked, "Hey Red, how much would it cost for sword lessons from Mihawk?"


    Red stared at him for a second before he burst outughing. His boisterousughter thundered within the Tavern, drawing the attention of every yer who wondered the exact same thing, ''what kind of stupid thing did that guy just say?''


    Rayleigh sighed, he thought as much.


    *Author''s Note*


    Komugi will get her happily ever after, so there''s that. I also included several ideas I would pay to see in another Hunter X Hunter fanfic. I''m sure lots of you would be interested in a Duel Monsters Duelist in Hunter X Hunter. Maybe someone will get inspired from reading this and write that story themselves. The Cow Zodiac and the Haiku Hunters have abilities that are just as ridiculous, so a Duelist is definitely a possible build with Nen.


    I wonder how many people will figure out who Rayleigh''s teacher will be. I did leave a ratherrge hint that has been in this story since the 2nd chapter. Hopefully, those who did not guess it will p their foreheads on the reveal and say, "I can''t believe I didn''t see himing. It was Right there!"


    Oh yeah, for those who thought I made it up, that thing with Diego is true. There is a single frame in the Manga after the Chimera ant fight that shows Diego doing his own thing while watching TV.

 Chapter 55: The Swordsman

    Chapter 55: The Swordsman


    *Author''s Note*


    A lot of people guessed that the MC''s name was the clue. Well, technically you''re not wrong. Only one person sessfully guessed it and he was a fellow gnome. Gnome Power!


    Chapter 55 The Swordsman


    Red poured a ss of beer and slid it over to Rayleigh before shaking his head and chuckling under his breath. "No amount of points would allow us to set up a situation where Mihawk would be willing to teach you anything. Even if we made you his long lost son or something, he''d still kill you the moment you asked for lessons."


    Rayleigh downed a third of the ss before asking, "Why? I thought you could do anything with enough points."


    Red snorted, "Within reason. Mihawk isn''t a babysitter. Do you know the difference between a first degree ck Belt and an 8th, 9th, and 10th degree one?"


    Rayleigh shook his head in the negative.


    Red exined, "A first degree ckbelt just means you have mastered the basics, that you have a foundation worth building on, that you have a full deck of usable cards. The highest degrees are the masters who know every variation, form, pattern, and style to wlessly use that foundation without the slightest bit of error. Someone at the 8th degree has reached the mastery level to found their own school. Mihawk could be considered a 10th degree master of the sword while you don''t even have a ckbelt since you are pretty far from converting your skill with a Lightsaber into swordsmanship. In order to teach you properly, he''d have to take the time to teach you the basics first. Asking him for a lesson would be an insult and waste of time, neither of which you''d be able to survive."


    Rayleigh asked, "Where do I have to be skill-wise for him to even consider teaching me then?"


    Red looked thoughtful for a moment before answering, "With your current strength, if you can kill Pitou with just your sword skills in a one on one, that would be enough to request an affordable lesson. And by affordable, I mean less than fifty thousand Mission Points. You must remember, Mihawk ain''t like Roshi who is willing to teach the next generation because he is old and bored. Before Zoro, Mihawk had never taken a single student, and Zoro almost died countless times under his tutge. Zoro was pretty much a 1st or 2nd degree master at the start of the series and could have been considered a 5th degree when he asked Mihawk for lessons and was trained to the 8th degree over the next two years and became a ninth degree after beating King. And don''t even get me started on the philosophical heart of the sword stuff that real swordsmen have and at least right now, you don''t. Regardless of your skill level, without a heart that belongs to the sword, asking for lessons from Mihawk would guarantee an instant, merciless death. He isn''t weaker than Netero in his prime."


    Rayleigh paled a bit at the exnation and price. He asked, "Is there anyone else in the Pirate World who would be willing to teach good swordsmanship?"


    "There are plenty who can take you to the mastery level, but that''s still just a first or second degree ckbelt. There are no schools that teach a greater mastery outside of the Marines. You could always join them, show off your sword skills, and disciple yourself under a swordmaster from them. That''s what the Pirate yers are doing."


    Rayleigh asked, "Are there no secret swordsman hermits living in a cave on secret inds waiting for their destined disciple to show up for them to pass on their knowledge to?"


    Red snorted in amusement, "Even if there were, we wouldn''t tell you. What''s the point of granting you ess to metaknowledge in the Tavern if you aren''t going to use it during the one time it matters? You don''t think you''re the first person to ask something like that, do you? Using what you know, you have to make a n, and then we drop you in the world with a background that will point you in the right direction."


    Rayleigh asked with frustration, "Then how will I even know about Mihawk in the Pirate world?"


    "Common knowledge isn''t the same as metaknowledge. It is no secret that Mihawk is known as the strongest swordsman in that world. It won''t cost a lot to add that knowledge to your background since you could have heard it while growing up or maybe you saw him yourself. He does get around."


    Rayleigh sighed. "How much would it cost to go to the sword school Zoro attends?"


    Red smiled, "A lot. I told you before, but anything to do with Main Characters is expensive, and the future first mate of the future pirate king is not an easy ticket to buy ess to. Plus, there are other Pirate yers already at that school who probably won''t appreciate thepetition."


    "Any rmendations you can give then?"


    "Well, you could return to Tython and go back to wearing that amazing robe of yours."


    Rayleigh''s eyebrow involuntarily twitched as he directly stated, "No."


    Red tapped twice on the countertop and said, "Shame. Then go to the MCU. You don''t have anywhere near enough Mission Points to get a good teacher for the Pirate World anyways, but a basic MCU identity is free. The few points you do have are enough for some add-ons that will set you in the right direction."


    Rayleigh nodded and asked, "Whates free with the MCU identity?"


    "Parents if you want them. Otherwise, we can give you the identity of an orphaned emancipated minor that inherited enough to live off until you''re older."


    "Orphan, please. It might be the Jedi in me, but I don''t feelfortable gaining attachments if I can avoid it."


    Red nodded, "Understandable. So did you want the basic package or did you want to spend a little for some add-ons?"


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes at Red''s smile. A little he says. Rayleigh was certain that the package Red made would zero out the Mission Points Rayleigh had made in the three months and everything else he had left since he spent nearly everything to convert the Pdin''s Ne into an inventory item. Still, he at least trusted that if Red said something was useful, it probably was. Everything went pretty wellst time.


    The moment Rayleigh nodded, a see-through screen appeared in front of him that showed all the details for a new identity that Red seemed to have already written up.


    [MCU Identity


    Rayleigh Rush


    Lives in New York City, New York, USA.


    Father: Reginald Rush


    -Made good money in a lucky stock market gamble and used it wisely.


    Mother: Leandra Rush


    -SHIELD Agent that retired and got a new identity after her cover was blown and became a stay at home mom to avoid exposure.


    Hydra discovered Leandra''s real identity and arranged for her and her husband''s assassination in what looked like a mugging gone wrong.


    Neither Rayleigh nor his father has any idea of his mother''s past. Due to being a stay at home mom, Leandra home schooled Rayleigh and taught him self-defense and martial arts. After their deaths, Rayleigh got himself tested and received a GED to avoid the requirement for High School and was able to get himself emancipated as a minor.


    Before he turns 18, most of his ounts are held under a trusted attorney and friend of Reginald''s that promised to help Rayleigh when he needed it and would not steal or betray him.


    Cost: 2013 Mission Points


    Purchase


    Yes|No]


    After looking over it for a bit, Rayleigh asked, "My mom was a SHIELD Agent killed by Hydra? Really?"


    Red nodded, "That bit will help a lot for background stuff. Even if you stand out a bit, Hydra won''t try to recruit you since you''d likely turn on them if you discovered the truth, and SHIELD will attribute the base human talents you show to your mother''s training. It will be useful if you decide to join themter as well."


    "Okay, what about the attorney? Can''t I just own my own stuff like I did in the Hunter World?"


    Redughed, "Ha, not if you don''t want a lot of hassle. There is no good way for a thirteen-year-old to be dered fully responsible for himself in 1993. Honestly, most of the cost of this identityes from the fact that the guy who will be holding onto your assets is trustworthy and won''t try to take it from you. Such would normally be the case for this kind of situation, especially in aic book based world."


    "Any family I have to worry about?"


    Red nodded, "Your dad''s father and siblings are alive and thetter will try to trick you into giving them money because they suck, but that justes with the territory for this kind of identity. The money your dad invested to get rich was borrowed from his own father, and only arge, well-off family would allow that, so it would cost more to have no family in this situation since that would be more unnatural."


    Rayleigh asked, "If grandpa is rich, why are my aunties and uncles trying to steal from me?"


    "Because they tried to get lucky in the stock market too and it didn''t work out. Your father paid back what he borrowed from his old man, but his siblings were lucky if they broke even and are quite the disappointment."


    "That''s a lot of background. Did you already have this arranged?"


    "Most of it. The MCU identity is free or cheaper to customize because we already set aside the resources needed for these identities prior to the game starting so we don''t need to move or reallocate anything. Since you are spending a few Mission Points as well, I was able to add a few useful things that didn''te with the free package."


    Rayleigh nodded and finished his ss of beer. "Well then, wish me luck." Rayleigh pushed the Yes icon toplete the purchase and walked back out of the Tavern. He could have hung out for two hours but was too curious about this new life of his to do so.


    The world whited out as Rayleigh passed through the door and his senses blurred from out of focus to crystal clear as he gained a sense of self. Yeah, it was still weird.


    Although he didn''t want parents because he didn''t want any attachments, that didn''t mean the Rayleigh Rush that his new identity had been up to this point didn''t love his mother and father and those emotions werepletely real to him. What sucked more was the pain and regret that stemmed from the question, if he didn''t ask to be an orphan, would his parents be alive? Did that mean he basically killed his parents?


    After thinking about the issue for a few minutes, he decided that he did not kill his parents. This identity was saved and Red gave it to him. If Rayleigh didn''t ask for dead parents, this identity and those parents would have been given to someone else. The man and woman from his memories would have died no matter what, even if no one requested a life without parents since the Tavern allocated the resources for the identities beforehand.


    Still, it was painful. Rayleigh had little choice but to take out his Nensaber handle, cross his legs, and begin meditating. This life''s Rayleigh had meditated a few times after being trained by his mother, so it wasn''t apletely unfamiliar practice.


    Unlike in his Hunter identity, this identity''s parents had been killed only a week ago and this Rayleigh''s mentality was still in a lot of pain from the loss. Due to having a young teen''s brain chemistry, it was impossible for a few minutes of meditation to restrain the pain and grief, but at least he could organize around it so that it would not affect him as much.


    Now was not the time to grieve. Now was the time to n. Red had given Rayleigh a lot of subtle hints during their conversation and Rayleigh had paid close attention to them.


    Without his metaknowledge, the fact that Rayleigh''s mother was a SHIELD Agent and even the existence of SHIELD was sealed, but most of the conversation with Red, outside of specific names, was still in his memory. He did not remember who he asked to be a student of in the Pirate World but knew that he needed the skill to kill Pitou and a heart that belonged to the sword to do it. Both conditions were fine with him.


    The first hint was Red''s suggestion to return to Tython and wear that damnably itchy set of robes once more. It likely wouldn''t fit him, but it was still a tant and obvious hint. Why did he suggest it? And why did Red shoot down every attempt to make a Pirate Identity, but was very helpful in making an MCU identity?


    Using clues from previous conversations, Rayleigh had a few guesses.


    Red once said that when moving from the Jedi Gxy to the Hunter World, the physical training Rayleigh did would be amplified. He also said that there would be another small amplification when he went to the Pirate World, but it would not be as big because the Pirate system was more focused on Willpower.


    That conversation used to be sealed in his memories since it was metaknowledge, but it was unsealed once Rayleigh learned the details of Haki from Dragon Chef.


    Rayleigh initially thought that Red was downying the magnification his training would grant when he went to the Pirate World, but now he had a different interpretation of Red''s hint. What if Willpower training was also magnified when he went to the Pirate World?


    What if training Willpower was easier as a Pirate due to the Pirate Power System? Rayleigh suspected that to be the case. That meant it was a good idea to train his Willpower as much as possible before going to the Pirate World.


    He internally shuddered at the thought, but the fact that he did so meant his Willpower still had a lot of room for growth.


    Something Rayleigh would only realizeter was that the teen years were the best time for Willpower training. The brain chemistry of teenagers made them naturally rebellious, so it was like adding weights to hamper and reduce discipline and willpower. Any Willpower training during this age had a far greater effect than anything an adult could do, and there was a massive difference in skill between those who trained during their teens and those who did not.


    As for how to train Willpower? Well, itching powder was a thing after all. Unlike his old robes, itching powder was made from tiny spikes covered in a film that caused severe itchiness when it came into contact with the skin, and would probably be even worse than the robes he used to wear. If he could get to the point where he would not be mentally affected by itching powder, he would say his training wasplete.


    After collecting himself, Rayleigh opened up his yer Menu and checked out the Chat Rooms.


    [Select a Chat Room


    General: 16 Users


    MCU: 3 Users


    Warrior: 16 Users


    Wizard: 10 Users


    Ninja: 10 Users


    Hunter: 11 Users


    Pirate: 16 Users


    Jedi: 9 Users


    The numbers didn''t quite add up to 100, but that was because some were in the Tavern and some didn''t keep the Chat Room open.


    Seeing that the MCU chat room was empty, Rayleigh opened up the General Chat Room since the one he was looking for was probably hanging out in there.


    [Swordsman has signed in.]


    [Swordsman: Hey Book worm, you there?]


    [Lord of Madness: You just missed her, she went to the library.]


    [Book worm: I don''t need to go to the library, I have my own. What''s up Swordsman?]


    [Wonder Woman: Must be nice to be rich. I wonder how much your parents would pay for ransom..]


    [Swordsman: I just got here. Is that number still good?]


    [Book worm: Ah. I see. Yes, it''s good.]


    Rayleigh then left his bedroom and walked over to his home''s living room where a home phone was plugged in and picked it up. He missed smartphones and wondered if any of the yers intended to invent one themselves, though he highly doubted it.


    When Book worm hade to the session where Rayleigh taught many yers how to use Nen, Book worm left an open invitation for additional lessons on Divine Script. If he either wrote a book on how to use it to teach her, she would locate the best teacher to give him sword lessons her family''s money and connections could find. She also gave him her home phone number, the number he was dialing right now.


    After a pair of rings, the other end picked up and a familiar voice sounded from the other end, [Swordsman?]


    "Yeah, it''s me. I''m in New York at the moment. Are you here too?" She told him she lived here but that was a few months ago.


    [Yes, I''m still here. Did you ept my proposal?]


    "Yeah, I can write everything I know about Divine Script down and give it to you and give you lessons in using it in exchange for a good teacher. Did you have anyone in mind?"


    [I do. I even hired a PI to get a few more details from him and he''s probably the best teacher you''ll find.]


    "Oh? Cool. Who is he?"


    [You''ll find outter. Tell me your address and I''ll head over tomorrow.]


    "Alright." Rayleigh had moved into a small apartment after the death of his parents and sold his house since it was too big and had too many memories, so he had to find some mail on the counter and read it off for his current address.


    [Okay. I''ll be there at noon tomorrow.]


    "See you then."


    After hanging up, Rayleigh walked over to the window and looked out over the view of Central Park. Though he got an apartment, it was a nice apartment.


    Rayleigh got some baggy clothes and headed outside after locking up. He lived on the 3rd floor, and only after heading down to street level and entering the park did he open his inventory and take out the Adjustable Weight set. The five piece set included a weighted vest, two weighted anklets, and two weighted wristbands. When he took them out, a slider appeared that showed from a scale of one to a hundred how much he could make them weigh. Each number represented another 5 kilograms. At max weight, if he wore them all, he would be carrying 2,500 kilograms.


    Rayleigh could not carry that much without it slowing him down a lot, but he could set each piece to about a hundred and fifty kilograms and wear that. Rayleigh himself was far from weighing that much, so it was a good amount for his thirteen-year-old self to carry.


    At least he thought so. Rayleigh heard that there was a Ninja their age who wore ankle weights that totaled over 2000 kilograms a piece. If Rayleigh went all out, he might be able to move wearing that, but he''d also probably destroy himself. He figured the Ninja power system must have granted better self recovery options than his own did if that guy hadn''t crippled himself yet.


    Rayleigh put the vest on under his shirt and then put on the ankle weights and wrist weights before he enabled his Second Level Zetsu, which not only removed his Nen abilities, but alsopletely cut himself off from the Force. Then he started jogging at a light pace. His goal was to tire himself out as much as possible, something that would be easier after sealing his Nen and Force abilities. The benefits of doing so were that healing and self recovery were magnified while in a state of Zetsu, so any wear and tear he experienced would recover quickly.


    Rayleigh jogged for hours and continued long after the sun had set. His clothes were stained with sweat and his breathing was heavy. This was the first time he''d tried exercise this intensive while in 2nd Level Zetsu, so he had no idea how much he''d been relying on the subconscious aspects of Nen and the Force this whole time. Even when not doing so consciously, he''d always been using the Force to regte his breathing and heart-rate. Completely sealing off the Force also ended anything he unconsciously did with the Force, and this was the result. That of course meant there was more to work on, something Rayleigh didn''t mind.


    Rayleigh didn''t want to test his apartment building''s stairs or elevator, so he disabled the weights from his Inventory menu so that their projection vanished and he would not have to carry them back upstairs. Since this was New York, there were plenty of ces he could grab a bite to eat even after sundown, so he found one and had some dinner before returning back to his apartment where he got out a bunch of papers and started writing.


    The next morning, Rayleigh''s door sounded the arrival of his guest, so he set his pen down and answered the door.


    As usual, Book worm was a shorter than average looking teen with a slim figure and brown hair cut short. She wore sses but they were fake as she just liked the style.


    "Hey Book."


    She greeted back with a nod and replied, "Hey, so how''s the new identity?"


    "Are you gonna tell me anything about your identity, besides the fact that you''re rich?"


    "Nope."


    "Fair enough. So, my parents were killed in a muggingst week. Getting over that is going to suck. I am an emancipated minor though."


    "At thirteen? Who is your guardian?"


    "Awyer friend of my father''s."


    "What''s his name and who does he work for?"


    "My father or thewyer?"


    "Thewyer."


    "Ah, Nathan nders. He works for Lukeman and Sacks."


    Book smiled, "Ah. He should be fine then."


    Rayleigh asked, "What, do you know everywyer in New York?"


    "Only the good ones," was her quick reply.


    "Well, I paid extra for a trustworthy one, so I should be fine. So, tell me about this teacher you found."


    Book opened the bag at her side and pulled out a folded, tattered paper, and unfolded it before cing it on the living room table and letting Rayleigh have a look.


    It was a poster. On the poster was a picture of a French-looking guy wearing a purple uniform and holding a sword. The backdrop of the picture was clearly that of a circus. ording to the caption on the bottom of the poster, this was one of the Main Attractions of the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders. The man''s title on the poster was, Swordsman, the Most Daring Swashbuckler of All!


    Rayleigh gave Book a disbelieving nce which made her roll her eyes.


    She argued, "Hey, don''t give me that look. This is aic book world, right? Don''t use normal logic. Besides, I told you I hired a PI to check this guy out, right? His name is Jacques Duquesne. He is a master of swords, knives, and pretty much anything with a sharp edge. He was born the prince of what was basically a French colony in a foreign country and he even joined a rebellion against his father''s rule. But after the rebels won, they killed his father, so he left and wandered the world before joining the Circus. Doesn''t that soundic book-y to you?"


    "Okay, I''ll admit, he does sound like aic book character. Is he moonlighting as a masked hero or something?"


    "Nope. ording to what my PI found, Duquesne is often hired by the local mob of wherever he goes for muscle work. He is a bad person other bad people pay to do things they aren''t skilled enough to do themselves without getting caught, and since he doesn''t use guns, he can get in and out without making a racket. By the time the police are even looking for a suspect outside of the mob, the circus has already left for another area."


    "And you think he''d be a good teacher?"


    "As long as he is paid, yes. Besides, he apparently has arge collection of different swords from all over the world that were once owned by famous masters."


    "Okay, you sold me." Rayleigh was fully aware of what he could do with ess to a collection like that.


    "Good. The Carson Carnival will show up in New York in another two months, so you have until then to either teach me how to use Divine Script or finish writing a book on how to use it."


    "No problem. I can start teaching you now if you have the time."


    "Hmm. I cane over for an hour twice a week. That reminds me, were you still gonna write the Kingkiller Chronicles?"


    "Yeah, if I don''t finish writing it before the carnivales, I''ll finishter and mail it to you."


    "Okay. Did you read any other good books from the Hunter World? I read a few and n to giarize them, but you might have read some I did not."


    "I did read some of the ssics. I''ll write up a list of titles I remember and you can tell me which ones you didn''t read."


    Besides training Nen, Book worm also read one or two different books every single day in the Hunter World and nned to giarize them all. The only reason Rayleigh may have read ones she did not was that he spent a few years in the equivalent of Japan which had stories and books she would not have been able to easily find while in Yorknew.


    Even though the savings Rayleigh''s parents left him were enough to livefortably off, he still wanted some ie, and Book worm said she would print any book given to her that didn''t exist in this world and get the royalties to the writer. It would be a nice source of ie that didn''t require him to work.


    For now, he started on giving lessons. He had a lot of work to do, but at least he had the time to do it.


    *Author''s Note*


    So yeah, Rayleigh will be stealing the title of Marvel''s Swordsman for himself, and in a Hignder fashion, will be taking down the original. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE. So his Chat Room name was the clue. I''m surprised no one googled Marvel Swordsman. He''s the first guy to pop up, and his Stats page confirms he is the best swordsman in the world. Not the strongest, but the most skilled. And Rayleigh will be stealing that skill.


    Oh, I am changing the MCU timeline a bit. In the MCU, Hawkeye was 41 during Avengers. I''m changing that a bit. Instead of being born 1971, I''m setting it so that he was born 1978. He will be two years older than the yers and will be in the carnival until he is 18. He will then win variouspetitions in archery and be scouted by SHIELDter. Rayleigh won''t stay in the MCU long (Chapter wise), just long enough to pick up some skills and establish a presence before he heads to the Pirate World.


    For those wondering, yes, Rayleigh will be joining SHIELD at some point. Why? Because it lets me add more Nick Fury scenes which are always funny, and lets Rayleigh be sent to deal with other yers once they grow into a massive problem.


    Stones Reviews = chapter fuel.

 Chapter 56: Joining the Circus

    Chapter 56: Joining the Circus


    *Author''s Note*


    For those who don''t know, Jacques Duquesne is pretty much pronounced Jack Du Cane.


    Chapter 56 Joining the Circus


    Rayleigh opened his eyes and checked out his rm clock to confirm the time. He set the rm for 7 AM, but it had never gone off since he was always up and turned it off before the time came up. He didn''t think he''d ever actually heard it. It could have been broken this whole time and he would have never known.


    Despite not having a job or going to school, the thirteen-year-old resident of the MCU kept himself on a schedule. If this was his first time being thirteen, he likely would have tried to sleep in as much as possible,ze about, have fun, and enjoy his life. Well, now he was a bit greedier. Enjoying a simple life was no longer his goal. He wanted to aim for the top, and every moment was another step leading to it, so stopping or heading in the wrong direction just didn''t appeal to him.


    Rayleigh wasn''t on his bed, but on a meditation pillow on the floor of his bedroom. With the exception of weekends, he tended to rece most of his sleep with meditation. After getting up, he turned off the rm on his clock and started stretching. As always, he habitually looked over his room while doing so. Besides the windows overlooking central park, the only other thing to note in his room was the Captain America poster. Yes, he grew up on stories of Captain America which his mother told him at least once a week. He had no idea how many of those stories were true. Did Captain America really knock out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times?


    Thinking about his mother from this life still caused the void his parents left in his heart to ache, but he''d gradually epted their deaths and moved on, mainly because he had a n.


    One of thergest sources of grief from loss was the uncertainty of how to live a life without the one that had always been there. The constant questions of how to continue alone ensured the wound didn''t close. This renewed the pain which renewed the grief which renewed the questions of how to live in a self-perpetuating loop, but Rayleigh''s circumstances were unique by any standard, allowing him to escape from the grief loop many were trapped in and move forward.


    He had a n, and that n was set to go into motion today. Yes, today was the day the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders came to New York City.


    Even without a job or school, Rayleigh had kept himself busy in thesest few months. Thanks to his multiple Wills, he could meditate while writing, so much of his time was spent writing various stories he remembered orpleting the manual for Divine Script. The rest of his time was spent exercising with weights or Nen or the Force.


    Although Rayleigh didn''t have a sparring partner, he could still practice Ken and Ry using his Nensaber and Babylon, three times a day, once after each meal. Before breakfast, he would hone his Force abilities. In the evening, he would head to Central Park and put on as much weight as he could before jogging for several hours while in the Second level of Zetsu. Lunch was eaten in the Tavern which he physically entered once he was out of sight and ate a highly nutritious meal.


    And even without a sparring partner, Rayleigh did have someone to practice on. Besides his weekly Missions, Rayleigh would go to the Tavern''s Arena and fight Pitou once a month. The charge for using the Arena depended not on the opponent''s strength, but on how much you already knew about the opponent, since it was a way to gauge someone''s strength without fighting them. This meant if you already knew their peak strength and that person was already dead, they were a lot cheaper to fight.


    In the past few months, Book worm had visited twice a week to learn everything she could from Rayleigh. She obtained a solidprehension of Divine Script in a month and learned everything he had to teach her of Nen, the Force, and Haki after that. She was far from his level of mastery, but she knew how to travel on her own path and that was good enough for her.


    Rayleigh did have the illusion that perhaps Book worm liked him, but that illusion broke when, partway through a lesson, she determined he had nothing more to teach her. At that point, she thanked him and left. It was then that he realized the true meaning of her Chat Room name. She spent her life living in books and nothing else remotely interested her. The lessons were taking time away from her books, so she did everything she could to finish them as quickly as possible to return to her books.


    The only clue Rayleigh had to her identity was her house phone number and the fact that she came and left by a shiny ck car that stayed parked where it was from the moment she came to the moment she departed. Rayleigh almost thought she drove it, but she always entered and exited through the back passenger door, so that wasn''t likely. He didn''t even have her actual name, and though she always called him Swordsman in their lessons, he knew she already had his own name. Otherwise, how could she pay for him to get lessons?


    After Rayleigh finished his stretches, he unplugged his rm clock, took down his poster, and put everything into a box. The box was then brought into the living room where all of Rayleigh''s other possessions also sat within boxes. Book worm had arranged that when Ray left, all his stuff would be taken into storage, so he''d just be leaving his key on the side table next to the door.


    His apartment had a no cancetion use so he had to pay the rent for the rest of the lease and sign the moving out forms to prevent it from going on his records. He doubted it would matter, but he wanted to do everything by the book, or else his status as an emancipated minor might be called into question.


    The only person who would care about the fact that Rayleigh was leaving was his grandpa, but several long discussions led to the old man allowing Rayleigh to do as he pleased. The main reason for letting him leave was his rtives.


    Two of his Uncles, one Aunt, and three older cousins all contacted him, tried to offer support, and offer to let him move in with them. They offered to be his family, and all he had to do was sign some forms that gave them all his money. For obvious reasons, he declined. He had to change his home phone number to get them to stop calling and that only worked for a week since they somehow found his new one.


    Some of them tried to contact the attorney responsible for him to make shady deals behind his back, but the attorney threatened legal action if they ever tried again, as he did not appreciate their attempts to screw over the son of his dearly departed friend.


    One of his uncles once came over and spent ten minutes knocking on the door and calling for Rayleigh toe out. After being ignored, he apparently figured Rayleigh wasn''t home, so he called a Locksmith toe over and imed that the apartment belonged to him and to open the door so he could get in. He probably wanted to rummage through Rayleigh''s belongings for money or find something he could use against him. Locksmiths don''t get paid to ask questions, so he came over and went at it, and opened the door just in time for the police to arrive. Yeah, Rayleigh called the police on his uncle.


    His uncle went to jail for a few days and when he got out, he said it was Rayleigh''s fault and demandedpensation.


    To Rayleigh, these actions were little more than the buzzing of annoying mosquitos, but describing it all to his grandfather was enough to get the old man to agree Rayleigh could move out and not tell anyone where he moved to. Grandpa even said he wanted to go with him and vanish too since said rtives were just as annoying and shameless to him, but he was too old to run away, so he''d leave it to Rayleigh to have enough fun for the both of them.


    After looking around his apartment onest time, Rayleigh got his wallet and left, leaving the door unlocked and the key inside so those who cameter would be able to ess it. The carnival was a few bus stops and a long walk away, but that didn''t matter since he had plenty of time. Before hitting the bus, he ate some breakfast and spent some time on his favorite bench enjoying the air.


    Rayleigh had sessfully cleansed himself of the effects his poor use of Dark Transfer and Dark Side Lightning had over thest few weeks and even made a lot of progress in Nen. Besides practicing with thebat rted Ry, Ren, and Babylon, Rayleigh also spent plenty of time on Hatsu training for Enhancement, Transformation, and Emission. The stronger his Hatsu, the greater their attributes would apply toward his Nensaber and special abilities while also boosting his foundation. He knew how strong a few weeks of dedicated training could make him, so he didn''t intend to stop training for a long time.


    Probably one of the most useful breakthroughs he had was with Divine Script. While teaching it, he was also furthering his own studies, and he had figured out a way to apply it to his training weights using the Lightsaber Customization kit. Divine Script written with Enhancer attribute Hatsu was able to enhance the effects of the weights without increasing the actual weight. So Rayleigh could wear five different 20 kilogram weights and each had the effect of weighing close to ten times that when he moved. That meant he could constantly wear 1000 kilograms of weight but only weigh 100 kilograms more than usual.


    This was useful since he needed to wait 24 hours to bring out his weights every time he turned off the projection, and that was getting in the way of his training. Now he could wear them at all times and increase them as needed. This enabled him to train more effectively, and now he could wear five pieces of 30 kilogram weights that each seemed to weigh 300 kilograms, totaling 1500 kilograms at all times. If he remained in his Second level Zetsu state, his speed, movement, and perceived strength looked like they fell within the range of a normal human.


    The reason he could increase the value of his maximum weight to such a degree in these few months was due to the recovery effects of Second level Zetsubined with the nutritious Tavern food. Whenbined with a good meal, the act of keeping every bit of life force within himself allowed his body to grow and recover at a far more efficient rate than normal.


    Although Rayleigh could run there, he wasn''t in a rush and he liked to use Bus time to hit the General Chat Room and learn the goings of the various yers and learn what they had been up to in thest few months.


    From the Wizard yers, he learned that a horrible murderer had broken into the school and was out to kill the Wizard Main Character. In typical yer Fashion, they formed Mystery Inc Teams and tried to look for and capture the killer themselves.


    One of the groups of Wizard yers even found a shaggy dog and bragged that his team would find the killer first since his team was the only one with their own Scooby Doo.


    The Warrior yers apparently banded together and fought against an organization called the Red Ribbon Army and destroyed them all. It seemed they all wore those costumes they possessed so their identities were not known to the public, though the Warrior MC knew who they were due to his sense of smell.


    The various Ninja yers were training and going on Ninja Missions, looking for cool techniques to learn or treasures to find and convert into Inventory Items.


    The Jedi yers were still Padawans, though the Jedi Master of some of the yers died and they were either practicing on their own or waiting for a new Master.


    The Hunter yers weren''t doing so great. Some of them got killed on the boat heading to the Dark Continent and some got killed on the Dark Continent, forcing the rest to leave for another world.


    One of the in yers was Enigma. He was tragically killed by Hisoka and had to restart his character build. It seemed that the mechanic behind his teleportation didn''t work so well on a moving ship, and Hisoka was just out to kill everyone who looked interesting. No one had any updates on Hisoka or what happened to the Dark Continent Expedition, since no one had returned yet, and the yers who remained on the maind said the ship hasn''te back yet either.


    As for the Pirate yers, they were having apetition to see who could get the most impressive Front Page News Story. Although that worldcked the inte, the Seagull delivered Newspaper was oddly reliable, so it was the best way to spread their bragging rights. Ray couldn''t be certain how much if any of the things they shared on the General Chat was true, but much of it made him smile while reading it.


    Half a dozen bus transfers, a long walk, and a few hourster, Rayleigh stood before the giant empty lot where the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders had been set up. The first thing that stood out was the ridiculous size of that roller coaster. It lookedrger than something out of Six gs, but since this was a Carnival, he doubted it had the same structural integrity. The massive ferris wheel was nothing to scoff at either.


    Next to the grand coaster was the enormous red circus tent, the big top as it were. There were also dozens of booths and smaller tents set up with various games and shows within.


    In front of the Circus were rectangr booths covered in posters. The attractions needed money to enter, but the actual grounds of the circus could be wandered through freely, so the entrance needed to entice guests on where to go.


    ording to the posters, there were circus animals, tightrope walkers, clowns, acrobats, magicians, and the like. Two of the posters stood out more than others as the performers had titles. One poster was that of a somewhat heavy set man covered in small, arrow filled quivers, holding a bow. ording to his poster, this man was called Trickshot. But it was the second poster that was of interest to Rayleigh. Exactly like the one Book worm showed him, this poster was that of the man titled Swordsman.


    Although it was winter, the sun was out and as long as you wore a sweater or jacket there was no problem with walking around outdoors. Most of the shows were inside anyways so it wasn''t a big deal for the locals.


    Rayleigh looked a bit out of ce as he didn''t wear winter clothes, but no one spared him a second nce so it didn''t affect him.


    Small speakers and wires were spread around the grounds which yed upbeat music to keep the atmosphere alive and festive. The smell of meat, fried foods, sugar, and popcorn filled the air. The open booths had heckling carnies that tried to convince the passersby to try their games and win their prizes. They called out to anyone for any reason they could think of. Impress a girl, show off your manhood, your kids will love these toys, the first try is free, etc.


    At first, Rayleigh wondered why even do this in December, but seeing the various tents, it became obvious. Besides the various games, each tent contained an attraction, and to enter, you had to pay. By doing this in December, they could justify putting just about everything inside a tent, and the cold weather would ensure people came in eventually.


    Rayleigh had a decent amount of pocket money on him so there was no problem entering each tent at least once. There was a Museum of the Bizarre where the main attraction was a mummified hand. There was arge tent that acted like a zoo and had horses, an elephant, a lion, and some small animals for children to pet. They were chilling at the moment but would be put into action in the big tent during the main event. There was a fortune teller tent, stage puppet tent, magician tent, Freak Show tent, etc, and each cost money to enter.


    The next one Rayleigh entered was the tent belonging to Trickshot. After paying for entrance, he saw the arrow covered archer pull arrow after arrow off his various quivers and fire them at all kinds of targets. The targets dangled from ropes and swung around, all were different colors. To make the entertainment interactive, Trickshot would call out, "Which ones should I hit next?" and the audience would call out a couple of colors. Trickshot would then rapidly fire arrows and hit the dead center of those moving targets in the order called out, to the amazement and apuse of the audience.


    What impressed Rayleigh the most about the guy was how long he was able to keep firing. The MCU should be baseline humans from what he could tell, and he knew that drawing a bowstring was a lot harder than lifting a weight or doing a stretch. For Trickshot to fire so many arrows all day, his technique must have been waste free and perfected.


    After Rayleigh had seen what he wanted, he headed over to thest small attraction tent, the one belonging to Swordsman. He didn''t know how someone could attract an audience by swinging a sword using baseline human abilities, but after he paid for entrance and walked into the tent, he found out.


    Standing at one end of the tent on the other side of the audience was the purple costume wearing Frenchman, sword in hand. On the other end was a blonde haired teen who looked to be only a few years older than Rayleigh was. That teen had a bow in hand, arrow drawn, aimed at the Frenchman''s head. And then he released the string. With the arrow flying toward the spot right between his eyes, the sword wielding Frenchman smiled and with a sh of movement, sliced through the arrow to the cheers of the audience.


    The next performance had the teen archer get some arrows with balls on the end and fire them at the Swordsman. Just to get the audience hyped, the teen archer waited for a dozen seconds or so, forcing the audience to focus for a while longer, fearing to blink and miss the moment of the arrow''s release. The moment he let the ball embedded arrow fly, another swing of the sword saw the ball cut in half.


    The audience quite liked it.


    Rayleigh stayed in the back watching the Swordsman and his bow wielding assistant show off in front of the crowd for a quarter of an hour more before the Frenchman said that the show was over. The tent would be closed for a break and after cleaning up, they''d reopen the tent and do it again.


    While the others in the tent left, Rayleigh stayed.


    It was only when the young Rayleigh was the only one still in the tent that he was noticed by Jacques Duquesne. "Hey little fellow, the show is over. Please leave the tent."


    Rayleigh smiled and replied back, "I''m Rayleigh Rush. I''m looking for a teacher."


    That had the Swordsman''s interest. "Ah. So it is you? Interesting." He turned to the side and said, "Clint, fetch me my spare de." The blonde haired teen showed quizzical interest before he ran over to a bag in the back of the tent and pulled out another rapier, identical to the one in Duquesne''s hand.


    Duquesne took the weapon and tossed it across the tent to Rayleigh who caught it with ease. The Swordsman nodded and said, "I already have a student in young Barton here, and if you wish to be taught, you''d better prove you are worth teaching." He then raised his sword and approached Rayleigh.


    From the side, a somewhat worried looking Barton asked, "Um, shouldn''t you give him some padding?"


    Duquesne smiled, "I won''t hurt him. And if he can hurt me, well, then I won''t have much to teach him, will I?"


    Rayleigh smiled at the challenge and rose the borrowed sword. Since he was in 2nd Level Zetsu, his Force and Nen powers were sealed, so he could not even use Psychometry. And since he wore the equivalent of 1500 kilograms on his body, he was only marginally faster than a standard human adult. This was exactly what he wanted. He was not here to train his power systems, but his baseline skill. The effect of the Divine Script enhanced weights only affected Rayleigh, so his movements would not carry a ton of extra momentum as physics should indicate. Though due to the actual weights on his wrists, his shing and lunging did carry 30 extra kilograms of force. This didn''t make much of a difference as Duquesne''s own strength was nothing to scoff at either.


    Rayleigh approached with a straight line skip that turned into a thrust. He predicted Duquesne''s parry and jumped to the side to avoid the Swordsman''s follow-up counter, but Duquesne predicted this himself and did a half step to the side that allowed his next move to strike at Rayleigh''s exposed arm.


    Rayleigh took a step back and bent his arm to defend as Duquesne stepped forward with his own lunge. Rayleigh struck the side of Duquesne''s sword and used the bounce to try and sh at the costumed carny, but Duquesne''s thrust was a feint, so the parry only gave Duquesne''s sword the momentum needed to circle around Rayleigh''s guard and sh the side of his forearm, drawing blood.


    Both Duquesne and Rayleigh ended their stances as it was unspoken that such a contest would end at first blood drawn. Duquesne smiled. He wiped the trickle of blood from his sword before he walked over to a bag at the side to get some medical gauze and disinfectant.


    Clint took the borrowed sword from Rayleigh as Duquesne came over to take care of the wound. As he applied the disinfectant and wrapped up the cut, Duquesne said, "Your foundation is good and you''ve had some lessons, but you''ll need years of training if you want to be a real swordsman."


    From the side, Clint said, "He didn''t look too bad."


    Duquesne replied, "Ah, but that''s just it. Looks. Our young friend here looks like he learned swordsmanship from a movie. The outline is somewhat urate, but posture, handling, and attitude, that which defines a swordsman, are allpletely missing."


    Rayleigh asked, "So you''ll teach me?"


    Duquesne replied, "Of course, I will. The sword is the one thing in this world that has never and will never betray me. I feel your devotion to the sword, something I did not gain until I was already a man. As long as you hold the sword in your heart, and as long as those checks clear, I will teach you." He muttered that middle bit a little which caused Clint to roll his eyes and Rayleigh to sigh.


    Duquesne ignored their responses and said, "Those payments are only for me to train you. If you want to stick around, get a roof over your head, and food, you''ll either need to contribute to the workload of the carny life as a roustabout or pay for them yourself."


    Rayleigh nodded and replied, "I''ll assist with the setting up of everything and putting everything away for a roof over my head. I can take care of food myself."


    Duquesne nodded at the agreeable terms. He''d never heard of a part-time carny, but he was not one to judge others. He turned to the side and said, "Clint, show your junior around until 3 O''clock and then return here. I''ll be having a word with the Ringmaster."


    Clint replied, "You got it boss," before taking Rayleigh''s now bandaged hand and pulling him out of the tent.


    Once they were out of earshot, Clint said, "Don''t mind Jacques, he''s critical with everything when ites to the sword."


    Rayleigh asked, "Is he teaching you how to use a sword?"


    "Oh yeah, but I''m better with a bow. Buck Chisholm, known around here as Trickshot is teaching me that."


    "Cool. But howe you''re getting training from both of them?"


    "Ah, well. Jacques took me in after I ran away from my foster father. That bastard actually came here to find me and bring me back, but Jacques took him down with ease and offered to teach me the sword. Later, he got an idea for how to make his show better if I used a bow, and Buck had lost a lot to Jacques in a poker game, so Jacques agreed to forgive the debt if Buck taught me how to use the bow. Heter admitted to regretting that, since he lost me to the bow."


    Ray asked, "Why''d you run away?"


    Clint sighed, "That bastard just wanted the checks to keeping, that''s why he took in a foster kid in the first ce. The only reason he tried to get me back was to keep me as a source of easy money andbor. What about you? Jacques sounded like he knew you wereing, so I don''t think you ran away from home."


    Ray sighed, "I guess you could say I''m an orphan too. Parents died in a mugging a few months ago. I got an inheritance, but other rtives kept trying to strip it from me and I got tired of them making every day harder. I''m emancipated so I didn''t technically run away, and Jacques is getting paid to teach me."


    "Paid huh? In that case, I doubt he would have turned you away no matter what, but I could tell he was really happy that you came. Wait, don''t you still have to go to school?"


    "Ipleted my homeschooling a while back and even got a G.E.D. so I don''t need to."


    Clint looked devastated at that. "Darnnit. I was hoping you were skiving off sses. Jacques and the ringmaster are really insistent that I don''t give up on my schooling. Anyone who doesn''t have the right schooling is required to study around here."


    Rayleigh added, "Well, we might end up sharing a room. If we do, I''ll help you with your studies."


    Clint looked happy at that, "Really? That''d be great! But wait, I don''t have a bed big enough to share and my room isn''t big enough for a second bed."


    Rayleigh said, "I only need a roof, not a bed. I can take care of the rest myself." All he needed was a pillow to sit on. He had no problems with meditating while it was loud outside.


    Clint looked happy to hear that and showed him around the grounds and introduced him to everyone. Not everyone runs away to join the circus, so other than Clint, there were only two others around their age, and both were children of the carnies.


    The pair returned at 3 PM and met back up with Duquesne. The Swordsman handed a ticket to Rayleigh and said, "The ringmaster would like proof that you have a G.E.D., but as long as you can get that, there won''t be any problems. Here is a ticket to the main eventter tonight. Just stick around after the show to meet up with the ringmaster and we will set everything up."


    Clint spoke out, "Rayleigh said he''d help me catch up on my studies so he can stay in my room."


    Duquesne asked, "Is that so? Alright. Not a problem."


    Rayleigh took the ticket and headed out as the pair started up another show and invited another group of New Yorkers to pay and see the spectacle.


    Rayleigh already had all the proof he needed on him, so there wouldn''t be any problems with the ringmaster or legal issues. For now, he decided to remove his weights and check out the rollercoaster and ferris wheel. He''d go to the Tavern for a meal ande backter for the big event in the big top.


    A few hours passed and Rayleigh entered the Big Top tent for the main event. Elevated seats were set up in a massive ring around the covered space illuminated by an array of lights.


    The ringmaster stood out in the middle with a half dozen lights on him, making his red outfit almost glow. He shouted into the mic in his hands the standard lines of "Wee to the greatest show on Earth!" and introduced the various acts and performers.


    First came the animals. ording to what Clint said when he introduced Ray to everyone, the animals act had to be brought out first because they tended to poop everywhere when they were brought outter in the evening. Women in feathered outfits stood tall on the backs of horses that also wore feathered costumes and did various tricks as the horses galloped around the stage and the women standing on their backs perfectly performed various amazing acts one wouldn''t think possible while standing on the back of a moving horse. After that, the elephant was brought out and made to bnce on the big ball, and the lion tamer made the lion jump through a hoop of fire.


    The audience was impressed and amazed, but Rayleigh couldn''t properly enjoy the show. He med the fact that his first life was mostly in the era after the 20th century. The audience saw the elephant bncing on a ball. Rayleigh saw the chain attached to the elephant''s foot. It couldn''t be helped though. He ended his 2nd level Zetsu after the little fight with Duquesne and was able to tell that the animal caretakers really did care for them, so it could have been worse.


    The next act involved the acrobats and gymnasts. A pair of tightrope walkers carrying bncing poles walked toward each other above the audience. Everyone wanted to see what they would do when they met. As soon as one stepped in front of the other, he threw his pole into the air and jumped. The one he seemed to jump over bent down and the firstnded, upside down, doing a handstand, on the shoulders of the first that then stood up on the tightrope to the cheers of the audience. The thrown bncing pole was then caught by the upside down man''s foot, and they remained in that position, one on top of the other, for about half a minute before the one on the shoulders of the other tossed the pole on his feet into the air and fell forward,nding nimbly on the tightrope in front of him as his partner walked forward and the other man caught his tossed up pole and continued on his own way.


    After they both made it to their ends, the tightrope was removed and the acrobats started swinging and twisting through the air as if they could fly in a marvelous spectacle.


    The next act involved the magician working with a contortionist and some clowns, each showing off their act to a different part of the audience. If you only saw the clown''s act but didn''t see the magician''s, then you shoulde back the following day for the next show and sit on that side of the tent next time.


    Trickshot was next. His act was simr to his tent act, but more borate and shy. He lit an arrow on fire, shot it through a hoop, bounced it off a wall where it went through another hoop, and still hit a target dead center. Oh, and the hoops caught on fire after the fire arrow passed through them. Yes, it was very shy. He did all kinds of tricks you would not normally associate with archery and were things most people easily acknowledged that they could never do themselves.


    Swordsman''s act wasst. Clint was there to give another performance of cutting a shot arrow and more. Clint fired at some ropes that released targets that came at Duquesne and he would cut them down. He added to the shiness by throwing multiple knives at various targets, and in the end, even tossed his sword at a target which struck it dead center.


    Rayleigh wondered if Swordsman used Clint to tell everyone that a sword was better than a bow, since the first thing he did was perfectly defend himself from a bow with a sword. Rayleigh doubted this was on ident, but since the audience would have just been shown how good a bow could be by the previous act, this in turn brought up the quality of Jacques'' act by building upon the previous hype. Rayleigh doubted Trickshot approved of this, but the ringmaster likely did, since a better act meant more return customers.


    After the end of the Swordsman''s act, the previous performers came out once more and did various little entertaining acts while circling in front of the audience for ast show. They then faced the audience and gave a bow to the cheers and apuse of those who enjoyed their show.


    Besides the animal act which Rayleigh couldn''t help due to the generation thing, Rayleigh did enjoy the other acts and was entertained. He was also excited to meet the others and wondered how much he could learn from them all. Something to look forward to.


    *Author''s Note*


    MCU Jacques Duquesne is a nice sword loving dork. This one will be closer to theic books, though may changeter. Even in theic books, Swordsman went from hero to viin to hero a lot.


    A lot of readers are under the impression that Jedi Lightsaber forms can be considered Swordsmanship. Realistically, they are not. Their purpose ispletely different. The next chapter will show the differences.

 Chapter 57: Learning the Sword

    Chapter 57: Learning the Sword


    Chapter 57 Learning the Sword


    In the shadow of a trailer beneath the light of a crescent moon, Rayleigh held a sword and slowly performed a sword kata that fit the double edged broadsword in his grip.


    It had been three months since he joined the circus and said circus was currently on a break. Twice a year, in February and August, the carnies would scatter and maintenance would be performed on everything. Every piece of the Ferris wheel and roller coaster would be checked. Every wall of every booth would be painted. Every hole in every cloth would be sewn up or reced. Costumes would be updated, animals would be let loose in specialized preserves to have some fun, and new performances for the next five months would be nned.


    During this time, one would think that Jacques Duquesne would have more free time to teach his students, but that was not exactly the case. ording to Jacques, he had other things he needed to do, so he left the pair to their own devices until he returned. Since Rayleigh had money, he could even take care of food for them both, meaning that Jacques would not need to worry about the pair.


    This was fine with Ray, since he could easily use the Force to unlock Jacques'' sword collection and use Psychometry on it all.


    The sword Rayleigh currently held was one Duquesne might actually kill him for touching. Every sword in the man''s collection was something he acquired throughout his life, but this one was an exception. ording to the stories Jacques told the pair, this was the Cavalier''s Sword. Jacques Duquesne was a descendant of the Cavalier, a masked fighter, and a hero from centuries ago. The sword was well taken care of and perfectly preserved, so the shine on it was wless and made it look almost new. But as Rayleigh''s Psychometry could tell, it was far from new. Not only was it used by the Cavalier, but it was also used by numerous members of his family all the way up until Jacques Duquesne himself. This was the sword he used to master swordsmanship.


    In Rayleigh''s hand, he could feel the skill the previous users had and the training that they underwent, and he intended to spend the time needed to methodically imprint that skill into his mind. The problem with Psychometry was that the impression faded after releasing the item, it could only be retained if used, and Rayleigh intended to use it all. The best part was that he could do so with each of his Wills. He had eleven Wills and hoped to break the next barrier to seventeen in the next few years.


    A true swordsman has decades of experience and muscle memory for the use of a sword. So how did Rayleigh intend to cheat? Simple, he would have most of his Wills constantly practice the forms he was imprinting in his mind, all day, every day. If he could have ten Wills practicing every day for three years, wouldn''t that grant him thirty years of experience?


    This shortcut was a concept he stole from a Yu Yu Hakusho viin that mastered a martial art that takes decades to master in only a few years by multiplying his training speed using multiple personalities. The difference was that the presence of any of Rayleigh''s extra Wills only existed when he needed them and they were all him, so he could get the benefits of multiple personalities without the baggage.


    After practicing and stealing what could be called real swordsmanship, Rayleigh figured out the difference between the Jedi Lightsaber forms and actual swordsmanship.


    Lightsaber Forms were a way of using the Force. They were almost worthless to those who could not use the Force. Swordsmanship was the way of using the sword. Though the two seemed alike, the two paths only ran parallel for a short time before diverging intopletely different directions.


    Rayleigh also learned the aspects of swordsmanship that the Jedi had no need for. The advantages given by these aspects were ignored by the Jedi as they could be duplicated with the Force, so they had been left out from the foundation entirely.


    From what Rayleigh learned from the memories of the Cavalier''s Sword, the secret strength and speed from true swordsmanship didn''t actuallye from the muscles, but the tendons and ligaments.


    Everything starts from the first step. A sword does not cut by remaining motionless, to cut, you must move, so everything starts on the first step where the foot moves forward and stamps on the ground.


    A step consists of two stages. The first stage is where the pressure on the foot continues to increase. During this first stage, specific joints need to be strained. The source of the strain are the partially stretched muscles that have been stretched from the force of the foot stomp. The strain is meant to stretch the tendons and ligaments around the joint. This strain only has meaning however if the joints are positioned properly. The angle must be exact, the position must be exact, the posture, weight, pressure, and muscle tenseness must be exact. By the time the pressure on the foot has reached the maximum, the body should be turned into a stretched rubber band.


    The second stage of the first step is the act of moving forward and lightening of the pressure on the foot. During this step, the angled joints are swiveled and the stretched ligaments and tendons around those joints have room to retract. The muscles contract while the tendons and ligaments at the end of those muscles retract as well. The secret of a swordsman''s speed is thebination of the contracting muscles on top of the retracting tendons and ligaments.


    This process is repeated in the second step. As weight applies to the foot, the pressure from that weight is used to tense the tendons around various joints which form a line from the big toe around the body to the sword in hand. The elerated movement from the first step is used to once more stretch anything that can be stretched like a rubber band to be released as the weight from the foot is lessened, and the cycle continues again for every following step.


    A real swordsman has a thousand tiny precise adjustments and mechanisms in every movement. It was also from this understanding that Rayleigh got a sense of what One with the Sword and what Heart of the Sword meant.


    One with the Sword implied that you had a perfect understanding of the precise angles, adjustments, weights, pressures, and strengths for a sword to be used to its fullest potential. Obviously, just about every sword is different, so the exact adjustments for each sword were not identical. One with the Sword meant your movement had no room for error, that it was 100% efficient, and that your body was nothing more than an extension of your sword. Unlike cultivation novels, it was usually only possible for a person to achieve this state with a sword they had used for years. Asking them to do the same with a different sword would usually be impossible.


    The reason Rayleigh said usually, was that Jacques Duquesne seemed to achieve One with the Sword with every sword he possessed. That was quite a terrifying level of talent if you took into ount that the man only started learning the sword when he was eighteen.


    Heart of the Sword was different. You didn''t need to achieve One with the Sword to obtain the Heart of the Sword, and between the two, the Heart of the Sword was superior, by a lot. Jacques Duquesne had not achieved this and seemed to keep training in the hopes of doing so one day.


    Whereas One with the Sword gave its user perfect movement, Heart of the Sword gave its user perfect timing. Heart of the Sword basically meant you didn''t need your brain to move when using the sword. Your body moved automatically without dy. It was simr to Rayleigh''s Force: Program, or the Jedi''s Force Valor. It allowed its user to move quickly without thinking, and theck of dy could actually out speed someone who was One with the Sword as long as the skills of the person with the Heart of the Sword wasn''t toocking.


    In other words, One with the Sword was the skill level of big bad bosses. Heart of the Sword was the skill level of the sword wielding protagonist that always seemed to defeat the bosses that had more skill and training.


    The Cavalier himself had achieved the Heart of the Sword state, and Rayleigh could immerse himself in the Cavalier''s Heart of the Sword and Duquesne''s One with the Sword as long as he practiced with this treasure.


    Whenbined, Heart of the Sword and One with the Sword basically turned the area around you into a sword. This could be called a Sword Domain. It was the territory where you were basically invincible, and the area of the domain depended on the strength of your first step.


    Did Rayleigh feel cringe when using Cultivation terms? Not really. Especially when he understood what they actually meant and what he needed to do to achieve them. Rayleigh also remembered that he had to achieve the Heart of the Sword if he wanted to learn from a good swordsman in the pirate world, and now he knew how to achieve it.


    Even if Rayleigh could not find that state himself, he could build it. He knew what it felt like, and he knew how to use Program to move without thinking. As long as he had enough time, he could probably create a Swordheart Automated Program.


    Getting everything perfect however was not even easy to say, much less do, even with cheats as massive as his own.


    Under the moonlight, Rayleigh moved very slowly, not caring in the slightest about his speed, but his posture. The only time he moved quickly was when he stomped his foot, since using the pressure from stomping your foot to tense the tendons in your body wasn''t something you could urately aplish in slow motion.


    Thanks to the use of Force Muffle and Force Stealth, no one noticed him even if they were walking around, so Rayleigh could practice undisturbed until daybreak.


    After stomping his foot, he needed to tense the tendon that went from the front of his foot to the back, the tendon that went from his heel around the back of his thigh to his knee, from his knee to his hip, from his hip to his torso, from his torso to his chest, from his chest to his shoulder, from his shoulder to his arm, from his arm to his wrist, and from his wrist to his sword. A direct line of tensed tendons and ligaments and muscles held as tense as possible through the use of twisting his body, rotating his leg, swiveling his foot, adjusting his shoulder, and bending his arm while keeping only part of his wrist tight while the rest of his fingers held a flexible grip.


    This chain was basically a long series of muscles and rubber bands that, after his position moved at the end of his stomp, retracted and contracted in a way that sent him forward while also moving him into position to stretch and extend another set of muscles into another set of stretched rubber bands that would power the next step.


    Because muscles, tendons, and ligaments did not simply travel up and down the body in straight lines, the postures, angles, orientations, and movements of the required steps to take the greatest advantage of them were not exactly intuitive, so he needed to memorize everything with his body when he had the chance.


    In addition to practicing the precise movements and imprinting the sword''s experiences into his body, he also used the time to practice Sh on the sword while using Ry and Ken for each movement, focusing his aura into his tendons and muscles to enhance their strength.


    The past few months had been very, very productive for Rayleigh. Besides learning what a swordsman actually was, he also managed to use that to break past one of the most irritating problems he encountered using the Force.


    If Rayleigh used the Force to move his body slower than his muscles could move it, the effect was pointless as he would just move at the speed his body was capable of with muscles alone. If he used the Force to move his body faster than his muscles were capable of, then it was not assisted or improved by his muscles. His body simply moved by whichever means was faster, and the two sources of movement did not stack up.


    Now that Rayleigh understood the mechanics behind swordsmanship, he figured out a way around this. The Jedi and Je''daii had both tried to use the Force to directly contract muscles, but it was far tooplex and the benefit was still less than full puppetry. This also did not ovee the problem of ovepping forces. The muscle would still move at the speed the Force contracted it and was not improved by having stronger muscles. But as Rayleigh learned, the speed and power of a swordsman actually came from the tendons being used on top of the muscles. So what if Rayleigh applied the Force to his tendons?


    A muscle is connected to two bones by two tendons. When a muscle contracts, those bones move rtive to each other. Rayleigh''s work around for the problem of ovepping forces was not to add the Force to help retract the muscles, but to add the Force to help retract the tendons. It sounded simr, but the forces on a muscle and tendon were actually equal and opposite when the muscle was in use, so if Rayleigh applied force using the Force to that opposite pressure on the tendons when the muscles were in use, then the Force would be directly added to the force of the muscle''s contraction.


    Basically, Rayleigh was recreating Force Valor. The original Force Valor puppeted the whole body using strings outside the body to move it. Rayleigh''s new creation would basically rece all the tendons with Force strings that would pull the muscle to the bone during movement, a physical machination that would directly add to the speed and power that his body''s muscles were capable of. He called the new skill, Force Augment.


    Would it take a while to master? Yeah, but he was using proper swordsmanship as a foundation and building from that. The Force was all about imagery, so having a strong image to build upon was very beneficial.


    Technically, using the Force to retract the tendons had the same problem as using the Force to retract muscles since it would make the actual sticity of the tendons pointless and rece it. This however was something Rayleigh saw as beneficial. Unlike muscles, tendons were quite fragile over time. Even with the Force, years and decades of continuous wear and tear would never heal properly. Recing the weakest link of his body with something of infinite potential was a good thing in his books.


    As the sun began to rise, Rayleigh wiped the sweat from his body and returned to Duquesne''s trailer to put his ancestral sword back.


    Rayleigh returned to the hotel room he shared with Clint and woke him up for morning exercises. His sword practice trained his swordsmanship, Nen, and Force, but didn''t train his physical body as much as he wanted it to. Any training that didn''t involve remaining in the 2nd level of Zetsu while wearing weights didn''t count as proper training in his mind.


    The reason he woke up Clint was that Clint had seen him doing the exercises required to master the Marine''s Six Techniques and he wanted to join. Although the MCU didn''t have a main character in the same way the other worlds did, Rayleigh doubted Clint would be a small figure in the future thanks to the fact that he received training from two humans with peak skills that both had titles. So Rayleigh didn''t mind teaching Clint how to improve himself further.


    The training required to master the Marine''s Six Techniques would grant mastery over the body. Even if he didn''t teach Clint the actual techniques, just the training would vastly improve Clint''s repertoire of skills in the future by giving him a near perfect baseline. The only thing Rayleigh asked was that Clint didn''t use his methods to train others. He didn''t think it would be a good idea for advanced lifeform training to spread out in the MCU.


    Another benefit of Force Augment was that he felt with a bit more training and practice, he could use it to achieve some of the Marine''s Six techniques even before going to the Pirate World and unlocking the Pirate ss. His muscles were already strong enough, he just needed his tendons to retract faster to use skills like Moon Walk, Shave, and Storm Leg. Tendons were the hardest things to train, but Rayleigh''s Force Augment directly reced the need for overpowered tendons, granting him the minimum required speed to use them.


    And since Rayleigh was creating a foundation for swordsmanship at the moment, he certainly didn''t mind adding the Six Techniques into his swordsmanship.


    Still, he wouldn''t need to use Force Augment all the time, so he didn''t mind going through the strict training to strengthen his tendons along with the training to strengthen his muscles, bones, and nerves along side his new friend.


    Though, said friend was less than appreciative when he understood how painful Rayleigh''s training actually was.


    The conversation between the pair when Clint asked to train with him still haunted the young archer. Rayleigh pointed out, "If you train with me, there are only two paths. You keep up, or you die. Are you certain you want to train? You won''t get to back out once we start."


    Clint agreed, thinking Rayleigh was joking. He was not.


    After re-entering the hotel room, Rayleigh announced, "It''s time for morning exercises."


    Still partially asleep, Clint responded with, "I don''t wanna."


    Rayleigh didn''t argue. Instead, he got out some rope and itching powder. He then ripped off Clint''s nket and threw a bunch on him. This had woken Clint up, but he wasn''t fast enough to avoid Rayleigh wrapping him back up in his nket and tying him up with rope.


    Rayleigh then threw the burrito back onto his bed and said, "That''s fine, you can stay there as long as you want." The screams and begging werepletely ignored as Rayleigh made himself some breakfast and turned on the Hotel''s TV. He couldn''t hear anything over the sound of Clint''s screams, but it had subtitles, and Rayleigh had used Force Muffle on the room so they wouldn''t get any unwanted attention.


    Eventually, Clint wiggled out and ran into the bathroom for a shower. The itching powder was water soluble, so it washed away clean, but a phantom itch would remain for the rest of the day.


    After drying himself off, he exited the bathroom and red at Rayleigh. "I hate you."


    Rayleigh lifted his arms to show that, at the moment, they were covered in the same itching powder. He then replied back, "Whimp."


    Clint couldn''t say anything to that. Thanks to his training with a bow, his arm strength was far above someone of his own age as a soon to be sixteen year old. But Rayleigh, as a soon to be fourteen year old, was always stronger and he''d never won a single fight with his fellow student of the Swordsman.


    Rayleigh passed some breakfast to Clint and as the pair ate, Clint asked, "What''s today''s torture?"


    Rayleigh answered honestly, "Bone training."


    Clint felt a pang of phantom pain at the two innocuous words and wanted to cry. Part of him was determined to be a physicist, build a time machine, and go back in time to beat the crap out of his younger self for agreeing to learn under Rayleigh.


    The reason Rayleigh insisted on going through till the end was to make sure Clint understood how valuable the training was, so he would not spread it carelessly. And if Rayleigh just so happened to turn this training into a psychological scar, then that just meant Clint was even less likely to use it to train anyone else.


    The one benefit of the training was that it prevented Clint from asking why Ray was so strong. Rayleigh simply told him that this was how his mother trained him.


    That actually brought up an interesting point at the time. Clint remarked, "If you are this strong, and your mother taught you, how was your mother killed in a mugging?"


    That was actually the first time Rayleigh noticed the inconsistency with his background. At first, he just thought they had been killed by bad luck. But his mother in this life really had trained him quite extensively, and she was no slouch either. So how the hell did she get killed by a mugger along with his father?


    Rayleigh figured there would probably be some drama and plot twists and secrets if he looked into this, so he decided to put such an investigation on hold for the time being since he was in the middle of a training montage.


    Bone training, as implied, stressed the bones from different angles to cause microfractures that would heal stronger than normal. There were two ways to train the bones. The first was to apply pressure using something like soft wood to strike the bones. Like using the edge of a ruler to chop at the fingers. The second way was to use needles to pierce the bones in some precise locations.


    Rayleigh and Clint used thetter since it was more effective. Both were painful since striking the bone hard enough to cause microfractures was like being struck with lightning, while actually piercing the bone, even if only a tiny amount, was like being injected with boiling acid.


    Clint had to bite on something when the needles were set into his fingers. Rayleigh used acupuncture needles and a salve that healed the wounds once the needles were removed, so Clint would not end up a bloody mess, but he still didn''t like it. The results, however, spoke for themselves. With stronger finger bones, his archery would rise to a higher limit.


    Although Clintined, Rayleigh''s empathy felt the burning determination within his friend. If Clint really didn''t want to do this, he would end it, but since that wasn''t the case, the training continued. Clint''s only reprieve was that no other form of painful training could be done on a day bone training was done, so he was free for the rest of the day.


    Since Ray had the pocket money, Clint asked, "So what are the ns for today?"


    Ray answered in kind, "There''s this movie in theaters I want to see. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. You in?"


    "Pet Detective? Alright, why not?"


    His hesitation was understandable since Jim Carrey wasn''t well known before Ace Ventura.


    When not doing training that would make special forces wet themselves, the pair actually did plenty of kids stuff, like going to arcades, seeing movies at the theaters, or watching TV.


    1994 was a great year for movies. Ace Ventura, The Mask, Forrest Gump, Maverick, Flintstones, Speed, Shawshank Redemption, Street Fighter, and The Little Rascals, all came out this year.


    Even while rxing and having fun, Rayleigh would use Ren and In at the same time as often as he could to exercise his aura. His Wills would be constantly practicing his developing swordsmanship. He could even have different Wills try different variations and fight each other in his mind to analyze the benefits and downsides of various applications of swordsmanship.


    Doing so basically meant inventing his own swordsmanship to fit his Nensaber and Force abilities, but that was exactly his intention. Although he had not unlocked Haki yet, that wasn''t a problem since Haki basically added further enhancement to his body, mind, and will, so there was nothing specific he had to make a ce for in his swordsmanship for Haki prior to learning it. Haki would enhance what was already there.


    Inventing his own swordsmanship was something he''d been working on for years. He stole his Lightsaber teacher''s Lightsaber to take her understanding of the Lightsaber forms and create his own form with it while adding the martial forms of the ancient Je''daii that he learned from the Temple of Martial Arts. That was just a prototype, a proof of concept. This would be the real thing.


    In order to perfect it though, Rayleigh would need to grasp multiple different sword styles. Thankfully, he had the perfect way to do so. Jacques Duquesne had collected real, used in battle, swords from all over the world. He had multiple Japanese des that were used throughout the lifetimes of skilled masters. He had swords from China, India, and the Philippines. He had dozens of swords from Europe and the U.K. and his collection of knives was nothing to scoff at either.


    Rayleigh fully intended to absorb and integrate everything and use his Wills to master it all to create the best form of swordsmanship for himself.


    After watching the movie, the pair had dinner and returned to the Hotel. Jacques returnedter that night from his week long errand with a bright smile beneath his mustache that informed the pair of how much money he''d likely made doing whatever it was he did. He seemed so pleased with himself, he gave the pair some personal lessons. Although it was obvious that Rayleigh was more skilled with the sword, Jacques didn''t hold back on Clint''s lessons since he was his first student and taught him properly whenever he could.


    After the break was over, the carnival was back up and running and they started touring the country. They stayed mostly in the east, only going so far past the Mississippi before turning around and returning toward the Antic.


    Routine for a carny during those days was very consistent. They arrived at an avable lot on Wednesday or Thursday and assembled the Roller Coaster, Ferris Wheel, and Big Top tent. Usually, a crane would be rented from around the area to assist with the former. Everything would be set up and the Carnival would start epting guests on Friday. The Big Top performed two main events a day, at 2 PM and 9 PM, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Other than those times, the carnies were usually in their own booths trying to get the guests to spend money to enter and see their performance up close and personal. They slept in trailers during these days, and on Monday, they packed everything up so that they could be back on the road by Tuesday and would arrive at their next destination by Wednesday or Thursday where the cycle would start all over again. While on the road, they usually spent nights in specific Hotels on the route.


    Although Rayleigh could only be considered a part-time carny, he still helped when he could. It didn''t take long for the others to notice that he was far stronger than ad of his size should be, but carnies grew up around the strange and unusual, so they didn''t mind as he helped them out when he could.


    In exchange for his assistance, many of the performers would teach him a few things. The jugglers and magicians would teach him some tricks while the acrobats would teach him some unique stretching exercises and the animal tamers would let him ride the horses or y with the animals. Most of them were pretty shocked when they found out that the Lion liked him. He could walk directly into its cage and start ying with the massive cat without any problems.


    The ringmaster even asked if Rayleigh wanted to do his own show, but Rayleigh declined as he had no reason to do so at the moment.


    Months passed by as Rayleigh continued to train everything he could think of in every way he could think of.


    Something to be thankful for was that the splitting of Wills became easier with his increased willpower thanks to the Itching Powder training. Splitting a Will first required the same Will to believe two things that were opposite at the same time. He just had to believe, "I don''t feel any itchiness," and "I feel itchy," at the same time.


    Not that any of it was easy. While coated in itching powder, Rayleigh''s brain felt like the static from a TV on the Antenna Input. Since each of his Wills was not separate from him, each Will had the same problem and had to solidify a needle-like focus to prate the static and achieve coherent thought. There were times when he felt like he was getting drunk or dizzy from the constant, hated stimulus of the itching powder, but he refused to quit.


    Thankfully, the brain developing Force Techniques Rayleigh memorized from the Temple of Force Skills could be used whenever he reached such a stage to safely expand his mental limits. Such expansion could only ur when the limit was reached, so he still had to achieve that terrible state of reaching the limit before he could use the esoteric methods of rewiring his brain with the Force to break past them.


    Still, every day of tortuous training bore fruit. Every mind scrambling day of enduring the itching powder was another day closer to raising his brain''s cognitive levels.


    Like this, two years passed by.


    *Author''s Note*


    The next chapter will have actual character interactions and a story. Just had to get the swordsmanship montage out of the way. If you didn''t understand anything, it''s fine. I just like including technical exnations for how things could theoretically work. Other than Force Augment, Heart of the Sword, and One with the Sword, the other details won''t be mentioned much in future chapters.

 Chapter 58: Inheriting the Title

    Chapter 58: Inheriting the Title


    Chapter 58 Inheriting the Title


    Shortly after turning sixteen, there were two things Rayleigh had wanted to do. Earlier today, the first waspleted, and he now had a Driver''s License and his own trailer. When on the road, he no longer needed to pretend to sleep while sharing Clint''s room as he now had his own, much to the jealousy of his friend who, although had also gotten his license, had nothing to use it with.


    The second act was standing before Rayleigh now. In the Tavern''s Arena, it only cost him 120 Mission Points to fight Neferpitou, and he''d been doing so on a monthly basis. It wasn''t that long ago that he had beaten her, but that victory had not been through skill, but overwhelming force. That was not the victory he had been looking for. He intended to defeat her using the same amount of power he had three years ago when he was thirteen, just using his skill.


    Though, he could not perfectly replicate that fight. He was still quite a bit taller and stronger than he had been three years ago. His short cut messy brown hair didn''t go past his ears and his features had grown sharper and less wild.


    As always, the moment she materialized, she looked around curiously before locking eyes with Rayleigh. After determining the threat, she didn''t hesitate to saturate her hand with aura, form a w and pounce forward to rip off his head.


    Rayleigh stepped forward with a stomp to meet the catgirl''s charge as if to exchange blows. His body seemed to partially condense its explosive force using the aftershock of that stomp and in the instant before they were to exchange injuries, Rayleigh made his move.


    Something Rayleigh learned after memorizing and practicing the endless number of techniques from the previous owners of Duquesne''s collection was that a series of connected movements like what Rayleigh imprinted was considered a special move. It was actually quite rare for swordsmen to use an endless series of interconnected special moves because it wasn''t likely that the end of one move would fit into the stance required to begin another.


    Only the best swordsman had special moves that could be used in series to overwhelm opponents, but a single mistake when using such an offense would result in death and even if you seeded, the strain on the body from using such harsh moves over and over would shorten the martial lifespan of the practitioner, simr to how sports athletes and professional boxers often umted too much wear and tear and had to retire. Rayleigh did not have this problem since his tendons had been trained to well beyond human limits and he could use Force Augment to bypass the overuse of his tendons to ovee the problem of using back to back special moves.


    The funny part was that these special moves often had grandiose names. If Rayleigh had to give the move he was about to perform a name that matched, it would be, Rising Dragon Breaks the Heavenly Gates.


    The instant before Pitou''s aura saturated w passed next to the tip of Rayleigh''s Nensaber, Rayleigh''s bent elbow jerked down while his wrist snapped up. His torso twisted to the side as his hip swiveled, his knee shifted, and his heel twisted. This series of movements happening together in almost an instant caused the exaggerated effect of twisting Rayleigh''s Nensaber sideways to smack the side of Pitou''s w as it approached, diverting it out of the way.


    Rayleigh''s posture after executing his move was precisely what he needed to be in to perform the follow up move he''d probably name, Heaven Piercing Tiger w.


    The tip of Rayleigh''s Aura Chainsaw-like de twirled around in a small circle as Rayleigh''s elbow continued twisting from down to the side as his parry returned to the form of a stab. Pitou''s Nen ability instantly materialized around her to pull her away from the death blow, but the change had been too quick and Rayleigh had taken her ability into ount.


    On instinct, Pitou''s arm was pulled into the Nensaber by her own ability, slicing it off in a sacrifice that literally saved her own neck as she was pulled away from the deadly blow.


    Although physically stronger and using Babylon, he kept the strength of Babylon to the same degree he used three years ago and he was using the same level of force and speed as well. The difference was that he now had a plethora of options on how to attack and move and counter from any position.


    Pitou looked uncaringly at her severed arm as itnded on the ground for a moment before her eyes locked back onto Rayleigh''s and took on the form of a predator''s gaze. She was a battle junkie too after all.


    Rayleigh calmed his breath. This was the moment of truth. Would Pitou''s adaptability ovee his skill? Each Pitou he fought would not recall his previous attempts, but she did remember their fight before Killua''s dad killed her, so fighting like he had back then never worked. Every time he worked out a new fighting style, she would get used to it during their fight and ovee it, and this was the best test to locate the holes in his fighting style and fill them in.


    In Rayleigh''s opinion, due to her ability, Pitou was the perfect test subject. Like a Jedi, her ability to puppet herself allowed her to attack at her maximum potential without taking heed of physical limitations and ignoring physics. Rayleigh''s battle style went in the exact opposite direction. So what would win, a style that perfectly used the body or the style that abandoned the body?


    Rayleigh quickly stepped forward, his foot leaving cracks in the floor as he performed a rising strike that caught Pitou''s iing w. The momentum of the w and force behind her puppetry was not impeded, but the rising strike intercepted and lifted the w above Rayleigh''s head, effectively parrying it and putting him into the perfect position for a follow up downward strike.


    Even using her ability to dodge, that downward strike descended like lightning before she could retreat far enough and shed through her torso and through her ribs. If her puppetry ability had not pulled her back, she would have been bisected.


    Pitou''s look was a mixture of anger and confusion. Rayleigh''s transition from a rising strike to a downward strike seemed to breakmon sense, but was possible due to the precise setup that the first move had which perfectly led into the second. The power from the rising strike came from the stomp on the ground, but he adjusted his body to turn that power into the act of stretching a rubber band which was then released to convert the upward force directly into an even faster downward force. It was like throwing a rubber ball hard at the ground and seeing ite back up even faster than you threw it.


    Although Pitou had a massive wound on her chest, her organs had not been touched and her ability let her ignore the damage she sustained while fighting so the fight would continue until she had bled out or was chopped to pieces.


    Pitou''s predictable pounces changed to an unpredictable mixture of hit and run tactics, side to side jumps, spinning w strikes, and trying to gouge his eyeballs out at irregr intervals.


    She was basically performing trial and error to look for a form of attack she could use that Rayleigh could not counter.


    Scattering dust and performing In to hide her presence didn''t work since Rayleigh''s Babylon worked as an En and Rayleigh could use Gy if she tried anything funny.


    When she tried to target his legs and knees to cripple him, his sweeping strikes ensured she would either lose her remaining arm or head even if she seeded, more likely thetter than the former. Her attempts to rip out his heart were dodged with sophisticated footwork and parrying attacks that each turned into a counter and gifted her another wound.


    But, she was learning. Besides Kite and the fight before her death, Pitou had not fought anyone that could make her go all out, so her battle experience was severelycking. Every moment the fight continued was another bit of experience gained. In truth, she did not understand the best way to use her own power. Over the course of the fight, slowly but surely, that problem was being rectified.


    A few minutes after the start of the fight, Pitou''s fighting style changed. Because pouncing and hit and run tactics didn''t work, she stayed close to Rayleigh and went for a series of exchanges. The power of that aura saturated w could still tear throughyers of steel like wet tissue paper, and Rayleigh could not parry those attacks without setting up a series of movements first. Pitou seemed to realize this and decided to see how many special moves Rayleigh could string together to defend himself before messing up.


    Pitou shed at Rayleigh''s neck and his body shifted for another rising strike to parry the attack. The strings from Pitou''s Nen ability pulled her hand back at thest moment, turning her strike into a feint meaning that Rayleigh''s failed parry would leave him open for her real attack. Rayleigh pressed his foot down onto the ground, hard, causing another series of cracks to appear. The force from this action traveled up his body and he used this force to shift a few joints around that twisted his rising strike into a forward sh.


    Since Rayleigh''s parry turned into an attack, Pitou had to respond in kind. Although the string of her Nen ability pulled her w back, she had been actively resisting it by forcing her hand down. The moment Rayleigh''s parry turned into an attack, the string holding Pitou''s w back released, and the pent up force of her w shot forward to strike Rayleigh''s sword, parrying the attack herself.


    Seeing that his attack would be parried, Rayleigh followed through with the sh while shifting his posture in a hundred tiny locations to set himself up for his next move.


    Pitou''s focus on Rayleigh never wavered. She was trying to predict what attack would originate from what postures, so she could counter attack ordingly. His current posture was one she recognized as the origin of a footwork move he had used before, meaning he was about to step to the side and aim to cut off her arm or neck in the next attack.


    In anticipation of his next movement, Pitou bent down and shed toward the spot she knew he was shifting himself to. At best, she would tear his leg off from the knee, at worst, she would miss, so it was a good gamble.


    At least that was what she thought would happen. Her instinct red and she pulled herself backwards by the strings of her puppet as Rayleigh''s Nensaber sliced through the area her head had just been, cutting some of her hairs along the way.


    Unfortunately for Pitou, this wasn''t the first time a version of her tried this. Rayleigh''s self created sword style no longer had the weakness of only allowing a specific series of movements. If each series of motions leading to an act far greater than the sum of its parts could be considered a special move, then the ending stance of each of Rayleigh''s special moves was also the starting stance to at least three others. This meant that when he did one move, he had a choice of at least three options to link into his next move. That wasn''t all. By stomping hard onto the ground, even if his foot was already on the ground, he could use the force from the stomp to reset his posture to another that was close to it, granting him even more options.


    Rayleigh had special moves for attacks, parrying, counters, movements, and a lot of specialized shy attacks because, why not?


    The key was the shifting and exchange of tensed up muscles and rxed muscles. If a single unused muscle was tensed during the mechanism, it would reduce the effect of the special move by half or more. This meant that the act of shifting from one set of tensed and rxed muscles with a specific configuration of joint and body orientation to another had to be wless or it would copse on top of itself, changing from a heaven piercing mountain of ancient stone to a mountain of loose sand.


    The only problem was that, due to theplexity, Rayleigh had not achieved One with the Sword for this style yet. However, that was just a matter of experience and getting used to it. It wouldn''t take him much longer to reach that stage.


    As for Heart of the Sword, that was actually pretty easy for him to achieve even without cheating. Since he knew how it felt from the Cavalier, he knew what it required. It helped that his Nensaber''s Kyber Crystal was already a part of him. He only needed a few months to get a feel of what the sword wanted to do and how to allow his body to do it without his input. This let him set up special moves in an instant and properly select which move to jump to from any previous move. At first, he could only enter that state with his Nensaber, but after figuring out the trick, he could enter that state anytime, even unarmed while making an aura de finger or using a knife.


    Although Rayleigh fought with the same strength, Hatsu, and speed as he did three years ago, his current fight against Pitou was almost considered one sided. It wasn''t entirely her fault. Though Rayleigh did make this style for everyday use, he would not deny he had her in mind while crafting it, so it was an Anti-Pitou style he spent years making. If you counted the dozens of times he fought her and the time his Wills had spent together, he could even say that he had spent over forty years crafting this style. He had put everything into this style.


    It actually hadn''t taken longer than a year for Rayleigh to imprint all the skills and memories of all of Duquesne''s collection into his mind. After that, he started branching out. Rayleigh acquired the boxing gloves of some famous retired boxers and used Psychometry on them as the science and mechanics behind professional boxers were not inferior to master swordsmen, so he had much to learn and incorporated the best bits into his style. This meant his style could be used just as easily with fists and knives as it could his Nensaber.


    The only thing his style did not have was a name. Giving it a name would be defining it, and at least for now, defining it would limit it.


    Pitou stood some distance from Rayleigh''s position while panting heavily, wounds dripping with blood. Besides the fact that she was missing an arm, one of her eyes had been cut through and she had multiple cuts along her remaining arm that had almost made it useless.


    Rayleigh stood still, but that only made Pitou all the more nervous. A sword cannot cut if it does not move, but a swordsman was one who hides motion in the motionless. Just like the motionless stance before a samurai drew their sword at an unbelievable speed, Rayleigh''s stance was a killing strike waiting to happen. A dark cloud waiting for the right time to send down its lightning.


    Deciding that there was no other option that had a chance of sess, Pitou did the only thing she could do. The catgirl bent forward, taking a sprinter''s stance, and heavily dug her feet into the ground. The strings of her Nen ability pulled her back as she tensed her muscles to push forward, against her ability. The ground cracked beneath her feet and hand as her wed toes and fingers dug into the ground to keep her position as she used every muscle to press herself forward. Then the force of her ability cut itself from her body. In an instant, far faster than the blink of an eye, she wasunched forward, aiming for a simultaneous strike. Rayleigh would not be able to dodge or parry her at this speed, and even if he managed to counter attack, she possessed an ability she could use to put herself back together even if she was bisected, so going for an exchange of lethal blows would still result in her own victory.


    It might have worked if this was the first time she''d done this very thing. Rayleigh had died to this attack many times. Using it umted more pressure in her muscles than her body could withstand and even if she survived, her body tore itself apart in this attack and would take her hours to repair using her ability if the fight hadn''t ended at that point.


    Pitou was mistaken when she thought Rayleigh was unable to dodge. It was true that he could not move his body out of the way of herunch, but he didn''t need to. He just had to move his vitals outside of the trajectory of her attack. A half step, a slight twist, and a tiny bend backward. That''s all it took to avoid an attack that surpassed the speed of a bullet and arrived faster than the sound of the strike. Her w still drew a deep line across his chest and carved through his rib cage, but such a wound was far from fatal. This half-step dodge was apanied by a single upward sh, and Pitou''s head and remaining arm were separated from her body, spinning in the air. Rayleigh also used this moment to jump and use Shatterpoint and Dark Transfer on the nen puppeteer to destroy it before it became a post-mortem Nen ability that turned Pitou into a zombie and tripled her stats. Sure, that onlysted for a few seconds after her death, but it had killed him twice in the past and he wasn''t sure he could beat zombie Pitou with just the stats he had three years ago.


    A sh of light whited out the stage, and Rayleigh had changed from his sixteen year old form back into his Inside the Tavern twenty one year old form. The fight was over. He had won.


    Rayleigh didn''t exit the Arena right away, but sat down and began to recollect on the fight. He allowed himself a brief smile. That unpredictable cat girl was not an easy opponent, despite how the fight looked from the outside. With just the defenses he had three years ago, she was capable of killing him in a single hit, while she could survive anything but decapitation and even then, he still had to watch out for the stage two zombie fight afterward. He felt like a video game speed runner who had just sessfully gotten a world record run. Making it look easy did not mean it was easy.


    He was tempted to try Hisoka, but his cost had risen in thest couple of years, indicating he was still getting stronger. Though, he wasn''t the only one.


    Plenty of craziness urred while he was creating his technique. The MCs of the Warrior World and Ninja World both somehow got massive power ups which made them stronger than the yers, allowing them to fight some random God Tier Opponents that popped up.


    In the Warrior World, a green-skinned demon king was unleashed and tried to kill all the world''s martial artists, using records from the World Martial Arts Tournaments. Thankfully, all the yers were spared as they only fought wearing costumes, so those records could not have been used by the demon forces to locate and ambush them. Plenty of yers grouped together to fight off the children of the Demon King and many won, but many had to retreat as well before Goku, the Warrior World MC defeated the Demon King with a headbutt.


    In the Ninja World, something simr happened. Some dead guys were brought back to life and with an army of ninja monsters, tried to take over the world or something. All the Ninja yers had fun fighting in the war, before they got owned by the immortal zombies from the past and had to retreat or work together to seal them. The yers who were good at seals became really popr at that time. Then the strongest dead ninja from the past came back, was brought back to life, turned into a god, and then, somehow, turned into a goddess. It was a very confusing exnation. The two MCs of the Ninja World only won because they received, yet another powerup at thest moment, causing all the yers to smash their heads against a wall,ining that all their training had been pointless.


    And just to top it off, in the Wizard World, the big bad of Britain was also brought back to life and reformed a force of terrorists that the Wizard MC and the yers fought against. Plenty of yers thought little of this big bad since he didn''t seem like muchpared to the big bads of other worlds. Unsurprisingly, they tried to fight him. Ninja Lord, someone Rayleigh suspected of being a 20 Talent Ninja yer, got one shotted by the Wizard Big Bad''s Instant Death Spell. Luckily for him, he saved a lot of Mission Points and was able to use them to keep most of his strength when he made his new character.


    One of the biggest cmities urred in the Hunter World. The voyage to the Dark Continent went as well as could be expected. A few yers and Hunters stayed to explore, train, and grow stronger. The rest ran away back to the fish bowl. The problem was that the guys maintaining the Fish Bowl had a rule. If Humans left and came back, they had to bring something they encountered with them back into the fish bowl. What they were forced to bring back was a music sheet that had been yed by some unfriendly fellows they encountered on the Dark Continent. This should not have been so bad, since the sheet should have been locked away, with all the other ''gifts'' previous voyages had been forced to bring back. The problem was that someone called Gyro stole the sheet. He created an organization that made themselves deaf and learned to y the music and basically weaponized it. Millions died and the world looked like it was going to be destroyed. ording to the yers, Gon somehow saved the day. Rayleigh was tempted to return and ask how that worked, But Gon had already returned to the Dark Continent with his dad, so that reunion would have to wait.


    Rayleigh was quite happy to have avoided that. ording to the yers, the Music didn''t even sound abnormal and any form of danger detection didn''t detect it. It could be ying in the background speakers of a mall and you would not notice until it was toote. Those who heard the music were basically cursed to die. yers had avoided it by leaving the world since the curse did not seem to affect them when out of the Hunter World, but if those who heard it returned to the Hunter World, either something bad would happen or something would materialize and kill them. They had no choice but to stay away until they were strong enough to survive the curse.


    The Jedi yers didn''t get caught up in any horrors, but the Gxy was getting more and more violent and more and more people were doing ridiculous and stupid things, as if stupidity was a contagion and spreading from system to system.


    The only yers having a st were the Pirate yers. Most had either teamed up or formed their own crews after finishing their training. Each was making a name for themselves and heading for a special area of their world that the yers called, the High Level Area. It was filled with strong guys, jerks that needed a whooping, treasures, and adventure.


    After going over the fight and deciding on a few adjustments, Rayleigh got up and left the Arena to head out of the Tavern. He always aimed to physically enter so he could eat Lunch in the Tavern and this time was no exception, so after exiting, he found himself in an empty space behind a tent at the edge of the carnival.


    Physically, Rayleigh had not changed too much in the three years since he got here other than getting taller. Although he could easily lift a car, his muscles were not the bulky masses one might see on a bodybuilder. The reason was that Rayleigh had specifically used the Marine Six techniques training to develop the kind of muscle that could harden when tensed, so his muscles were not massive balloons, but dense cables. One of the reasons he was able to build such muscles was the highly nutritious food he ate on a daily basis from the Tavern. His body was built with high quality materials.


    And although he was not bulky, he wasn''t small either. It had reached the point where he didn''t need to show his ID to get into an R-Rated movie since he could easily pass for someone over 18 even if he was just 16.


    In addition to the fact that he turned sixteen recently, today was also a big day for his brother in all but blood Clint Barton. Today was the day that Clint would be doing an Act of his own in the Big Top. Clint had finished the first set of training for the Marine''s Six Techniques and empathetically declined to learn the advanced set. Clint had also finished learning what he could under Duquesne and went entirely under Buck Chisholm''s tutge to learn everything he could about archery from the man who called himself Trickshot.


    That left Rayleigh as Swordsman''s only student, but Duquesne had been growing more and more frustrated. He felt both aggrieved from losing his student to Trickshot and envious of Rayleigh''s talent, even though Rayleigh hid most of his skill from the sword instructor. Probably the biggest change though was the fact that neither Rayleigh nor Clint was a child anymore. Duquesne liked children, especially ones that looked up to him with admiration and reverence. Teens that abandoned him and were more talented than he was? Less so.


    Duquesne didn''t have his tent open today, so he would not be performing for a small crowd in his tent and was not even at the circus. He would be returningter, so Rayleigh didn''t look for him. That made the fact that Duquesne walked right up to him a bit odd.


    When Jacques spotted Rayleigh, he smiled and approached, "Ah, my young sword. There is something I must ask." He was sweating a lot, more so than normal for a summer''s day considering the cool northern breeze. Rayleigh''s empathy had him as a train wreck, but he didn''t intend to ask why. It wasn''t his business.


    Jacques continued, "My payments for your tutge for the next three months. You see, I require them in advance. In exchange, I will give you more lessons for the next three months, and in August, I will take you to the Under 18 World Fencing Tournament in France."


    Over thest few years, Clint and Rayleigh had been making a name for themselves by participating inpetitions in their respective fields. Rayleigh entered and won everypetition that involved a sword while Clint won everypetition that used a bow. Of course, saidpetitions were for those under a specific age.


    Although the deal looked good on paper, Rayleigh could only reply, "I''m sorry, but I can''t do that. I don''t have the money, my employer does. You know from the contract you signed that the terms can''t be changed. You can call them and try to break the contract and renew the terms, but you know how those kinds of people feel about breaking contracts."


    At thest mention, Rayleigh''s empathy detected a distinct sense of fear within the Swordsman. Yes, Duquesne knew about Book worm''s family and the repercussions of asking for such a thing. From Swordsman, Rayleigh eventually learned out that Book worm''sst name and family was called Manfredi, a crime family originating from Sicily led by a crime boss called Silvermane. Though Swordsman often did jobs for criminals, it was usually small time punks with decent connections, not intercontinental generation spanning criminal empires.


    Duquesne took a step back and gave a fake smile, "Not to worry then, I''ll deal with it on my own."


    Rayleigh sighed and shook his head as his sword instructor walked away. Using the Force and touching the Swordsman''s mind, Rayleigh could guess what happened with some uracy.


    Duquesne had three hobbies. Practicing the sword. Collecting historic swords. And gambling. From what Rayleigh felt, someone must have brought out a nice sword during a gamble, forcing Duquesne to bet more than he had, and after losing, putting him in a tight spot.


    Rayleigh had no intention of helping him since that wouldn''t teach the man anything.


    Later that night, Rayleigh sat among the crowd as the Big Top Performancemenced. Every five months the performers would change up their routines, otherwise, those who saw the circusst year would have no reason toe again. Because of this, the wonder and amazement of the audience were always clear in the air.


    "For our next performance, I give you the world debut of Hawkeye! The World''s Greatest Archer!"


    A round of apuse rolled through the audience as Clint entered the tent in a purple costume that took its inspiration from Swordsman''s own. Rayleigh was surprised that the ringmaster would give Clint such a title since he was directly saying that Clint was better than Trickshot, Buck Chisholm. But such a thing would not have gone through without Buck''s approval. Rayleigh wondered if it was actually Buck''s idea. Out with the old, in with the new.


    Surprising just about everyone, although Clint''s act came right after Buck''s, the feats of Hawkeye certainly seemed more marvelous than the performance of Trickshot. Hawkeye added two distinct features to his act that made it better than Trickshot''s overall. First, was distance. Although Trickshot never missed, he wasn''t that far from his targets. Every arrow fired by Hawkeye was shot much further yet struck its target with great uracy. He even climbed the pole used by the Tightrope walkers and fired a ming arrow at a target on the opposite side pole, all the way across the big top, almost making it look like the ming arrow would catch the bit top tent on fire. The second add-on of his act was the special arrows he had. He fired an arrow at a target, but then the arrow would pop up into the air and Clint would fire another arrow at the flying arrow he just fired.


    It was different, impressive, and quite shy overall, so a wonderful show for everyone to see.


    Swordsman''s act wasst and though he seemed irritated, he did not falter in his show and dazzled the audience.


    As a part of his duties as a part time carny, Rayleigh helped clean up the litter in the big top after the main event with a few others once the big top was empty. After finishing up, Rayleigh headed over to Clint''s trailer to congratte him on an excellent performance, but the almost eighteen year old archer wasn''t there.


    Rayleigh used irvoyance to look around and find him but spotted something he certainly did not expect to see.


    Arriving quicker than one would think possible, Rayleigh saw Clint standing before Jacques. Thetter had a duffle bag that had cash poking out from the top and was walking out of the ringmaster''s trailer. An open safe could be seen within.


    Clint confronted him and said, "If you put it back, we can go back as if nothing ever happened."


    Jacques sneered and replied, "And if you keep your mouth shut, no one will have to know."


    "But, you can''t steal from the ringmaster! That money belongs to the circus!"


    "Shut up! The money''s rightfully mine! I''m the star of this show. Without me, they''d have gone broke long ago! Now are you going to step aside, or betray me again?"


    "No, I won''t. You can''t do this."


    Jacques had a habit of keeping his sword on his waist at all times in the Circus, even when not performing, so it was no surprise to see it on him even now. Clint was however quite surprised to see him draw his sword.


    Pointing it at Clint, he said, "If you will not stand with me, then you are a fool. Stand aside, or die."


    Clint couldn''t move. He couldn''t believe the man who saved him from his abusive foster father, his teacher, mentor, and idol could steal from and betray the whole circus.


    From what Rayleigh observed with irvoyance, Jacques had broken into the Ringmaster''s safe and emptied it of a month''s worth of money from ticket sales of the Big Top''s show. It was quite a bit of money that the Ringmaster deposited at a bank at the end of every month.


    There had been a time in the past when something simr happened. Losing a month''s worth of funds was devastating for the circus. It was like cutting off a leg, and if they didn''t perform with the missing leg, they''d lose even more. It took months to recover from that, and seeing something that could cause the same thing to happen once more was more than Clint could take, especially when he saw the one who would be causing it.


    Seeing his former protg still blocking him from leaving, Jacques raised his sword in anger and shed down.


    Only for the sword to be blocked by a pocket knife in a firm reverse grip in Rayleigh''s hand.


    Clint had closed his eyes at the iing attack, so he was not as surprised when he opened them and saw Ray in front of him, but Jacques hadn''t blinked, and couldn''t believe that Rayleigh had somehow appeared before him.


    Without turning his back, Rayleigh said, "Go get the Ringmaster, I''ll hold him here." Rayleigh used a bit of Force Persuasion to prevent Clint from arguing, sending the young archer off to get the others. When they returned and saw Jacques with a bag of stolen money in his hand, he wouldn''t be able to escape.


    Jacques did not exchange words with Rayleigh. They both had a de in hand. Jacques had his beloved ancestor''s Cavalier''s Sword while Rayleigh had a pocket knife that Jacques had gifted him for his birthday. It was a proper knife, not some cheap piece of machine printed metal, but a right and true hand forged de. Since both had a weapon in hand, they did not need words to speak, they spoke with their des.


    Jacques shed three times in quick session. He did not aim to kill, just to incapacitate. After things had reached this point, he could only take the money and run, but he would not be able to get away with such arge bag without removing his pursuers first.


    Each sh was deflected with a smooth and precise parry. Countering a sword with a knife was easier than it looked as long as you keep yourself close, but this was something Swordsman was well aware of and kept his distance from Rayleigh. His problem was that even at his own preferred distance, Rayleigh was almostzily defending himself without difficulties.


    Jacques tried to outmaneuver Rayleigh and slice his legs or arms, but some quick footwork and a steady hand had be an impassable wall.


    After a few more attacks, Swordsman''s eyes narrowed. He noticed something. It was the clear look in his student''s eye. "No. How? How can you have achieved this?!"


    Rayleigh shook his head. Heart of the Sword was his own name for this state, but he knew that Jacques had been searching for it all his life. Rayleigh answered the question with a question of his own. "Do you know why you have yet to reach this state? All your life, you thought you were missing something. So you scour the world for different swords, mastering them with your talent, hoping that in mastering them, you will find out what you are missing." That was the reason for Jacques'' obsession with swords. If he found the one that gave him what he was missing, it would be worth it no matter how much it cost him.


    Rayleigh continued, "The truth is not that you are missing something, but you possess two things that are standing in your way. The first is your pride. You have never lost a match in your entire life. This has deafened you to the voice of your sword. In your heart, if you are the best, you don''t need to listen to anyone or anything. The second is your past. Your actions while young brought down your entire family. You try to live up to the legend of your ancestor by exceeding him in skill, but you do this because you feel you dishonored that same ancestor by destroying his legacy."


    Jacques appreciated being psychoanalyzed by a sixteen year old as much as the next adult and shouted, "What do you know?! You say I never lose, but I lost everything!" He swung his sword for a killing blow, but again, it was almostzily deflected. He swung again and again, trying every trick he knew, but his perfect form using the sword he was most familiar with came to nothing at the end of Rayleigh''s knife.


    The sound of footsteps running in their direction could be heard, so Rayleigh decided to finish up. Rayleigh stated, "As thanks for all you have done for me, I shall strip from you that which has stood in your way all these years. Good luck, and goodbye."


    Although Rayleigh''s Nensaber could be seen by normal folk due to the effect of the living Kyber crystal, Rayleigh''s normal aura was invisible. This meant that when Rayleigh used Sh on his knife, Jacques was unable to see iting as Rayleigh shed down.


    Since he didn''t see the aura, Jacques poorly defended himself. The aura enhanced knife cut through the Cavalier''s Sword and shed through Jacques'' chest. The movement was smooth, clean, and witnessed by all the carnies running over to the area.


    Unlike people with power systems, when a normal person received such damage, it was normal for their body to go into shock, freeze up, and pass out. Rayleigh may have used a bit of the Force to ensure thetter, so Jacques fell down unconscious next to the bag of money he was holding as everyone ran over.


    Clint had already exined what happened, and seeing the empty safe and Jacques lying there with the money, they didn''t need further proof and directly called the police.


    Statements were taken and the unconscious Swordsman was hauled off to a hospital.


    After everything calmed down, Rayleigh found Clint and said, "I know it''s a littlete now, but congrattions on your act."


    Clint smiled weakly, "Thanks. It means a lot. But I''m still reeling here. I can''t believe this. I mean, I know he had worked with a lot of shady characters. I wouldn''t be surprised to hear that he''s stolen before. It''s just, I never imagined him stealing from us. We''re his family. Do you think it was Jacques who stole from the ringmaster thest time?"


    Rayleigh shrugged. "Maybe. I don''t know. But he didn''t this time, and it''s thanks to you. I heard you two talking before I got there. You stood up to him when you could''ve turned away."


    Clint shook his head. "I''ve seen what happens when the circus loses its money. Even if we were okay, I didn''t want to see that again."


    Ray nodded, "Everyone has to live with the choices they''ve made. You and Jacques made choices tonight you''ll both live with for the rest of your lives. I suspect you''ll have an easier time living with it than Jacques will."


    Clint smiled fondly for a moment before looking worried, "What do you think will happen to Jacques?"


    "No idea. Community service? He didn''t actually get away with stealing anything and I cut him pretty good. Ringmaster may not even press charges."


    That idea was shattered the next day when they heard from the circus ringmaster that Jacques was taken away by the Feds. Apparently, they''d been looking for him for a while. His fingerprints matched a number of crimes they''d been looking into for a number of years.


    Since he would not be returning any time soon, Rayleigh offered to take care of the man''s sword collection. Swords rust if poorly stored, so he needed to ce them in special containers and put them into long term storage. He''d write a letter to Jacques telling him that his stuff would be fine when he got out. Though they fought, Rayleigh didn''t have any hard feelings about it.


    Although the ringmaster epted Rayleigh''s offer, that wasn''t the reason he came to tell them about Jacques'' fate.


    "Listen, we have a problem. Every poster we have shows our Main Event including a Swordsman. Every ticket we''ve sold for the Main Event this weekend was for a show including a Swordsman. Without a Swordsman, we may have to refund a lot of customers, and you are the only one who fits the bill."


    Rayleigh gave a nk stare to the ringmaster while Clint sported a shit-eating grin from the side. Everyone knew how strong and talented Rayleigh was, and the Ringmaster had been trying to get Rayleigh to do an act of his own for a while now to no avail.


    The ringmaster was a balding red headed man with freckles, and no one would feelfortable seeing a middle aged balding ginger pouting at you.


    Rayleigh relented with a sigh, "Fine."


    The ringmaster''s pout changed to a delighted smile, "Yes! Thank you. Will you do the same performance as Jacques?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "No. I have a better idea."


    Later that night, after Clint finished his act, the ringmaster called out to the audience, "And for our final act of the day, we have yet another premiere event, a never before seen act none of you will ever forget. First,e back out Hawkeye and Trickshot."


    The two archers came out and a training dummy was brought to the center of the stage. The two archers then picked a spot and fired some arrows at the training dummy''s head. It was then that a massive curtain was brought out and strung halfway between the dummy and the archers. Everyone seated around the ring could easily see both sides of the curtain, but those up close would not be able to see around it.


    That was when Rayleigh entered the stage. He didn''t have a uniform, so he wore a light blue vest and held one of the many swords from Jacques'' collection.


    Rayleigh pushed aside the training dummy and stood in the exact spot the dummy had stood before.


    The ringmaster called out, "Many of you have seen our former Swordsman cut an arrow with his sword. I''m sure some of you may even think that such a thing is easy. He could clearly see when the arrow was released and see where it was aimed. You must think that cutting an arrow with a sword must not be difficult at all. Well, what about now? In a moment, not one, but both of our expert archers will draw and fire their bows where they know our new Swordsman''s head will be. And they will do so through this curtain! Each of you can see our archers and our new Swordsman, but our new Swordsman can not see our archers. He will not be able to see where they are shooting from or when they release their arrow. So, will he survive?! Will our newest Swordsman block, not one, but two arrows fired from behind his sight? Well, let''s find out!"


    The audience had gonepletely silent. The curtain was only a couple of feet from Rayleigh''s position. The first notice of the arrow would onlye after the arrow reached the curtain. Was it even possible to stop an arrow in that small timeframe?


    Rayleigh rxed most of his body and set himself in a stance while tightening certain muscles. Time drew out like a de. Both archers had their bows drawn, but neither had fired yet. The audience was afraid to blink. Would they both fire at the same time? Would they fire one after another? Would they miss? What if they didn''t? Was it possible to actually deflect an arrow like this? Would this new Swordsman die?


    Clint''s arrow was released first. The twang of the bow was silent to most but Rayleigh heard it well enough. It only took a few sets of muscles to quickly flick his sword to the side. The sword moved in slow motionpared to the arrow that had just pierced the curtain, but as the arrow passed by the sword, the flick had just reached it, snapping the arrow and pushing it to the side. Rayleigh already knew where Trickshot was based on where Hawkeye had fired from and moved his sword back and right into the path of the next arrow that had been fired almost directly after the first. This arrow was cleanly cut in two.


    The audience roared and apuse thundered. Over the audience, the ringmaster shouted into his mic, "And there you have it, the world premiere you will never forget. I give you, Swordsman, the World''s Fastest de!"


    *Author''s Note*


    And that is how you get a title in Marvel. Some of Jacques'' lines were taken directly from theic, so don''t mind them. Next chapter will finish up in the MCU and then we''re off to One Piece.


    Reviews and Stones= Writing Fuel.

 Chapter 59: First Steps in the Pirate World

    Chapter 59: First Steps in the Pirate World


    *Author''s Note*


    To those who asked thepletely understandable question of, Why even learn from Mihawk at this point? The answer is that there is a difference between Human Swordsmanship and Anime Swordsmanship. The reason his style doesn''t have a name yet is that it is notplete. He still has much to learn. Feel free to guess the name of his style. (It will be obvious in hindsight.)


    Chapter 59 First Steps in the Pirate World


    There were a great many benefits to having your own trailer in a carnival. In addition to having a private space to be alone, you also had a private space to not be alone.


    Rayleigh rose from his bed as the morning light spilled through the trailer''s windows in the crack between the curtains. The sixteen year old red-headed girl at his side stirred a bit but remained asleep, azy smile gracing her lips as her lithe form hid beneath the warm covers.


    She was the ringmaster''s daughter and she considered Rayleigh her stress relief partner. Such tant objectification didn''t stop him from ying her instrument like a concert violinist and eliciting a symphony of rapturous melodies from her with his bowstring. He still hadn''t told her that the music she made when he yed her was hidden with Force Muffle, so she always tried to remain silent, and each and every time she seeded in failing, much to her own gratification.


    Rayleigh did not use Force Muffle when beautiful local girls came to him after a show and asked to see his sword, nor did he hide the music their duets often generated from the surroundings. This usually caused stares of envy and admiration which were fine, but the stares of the beardeddy spoke of more which all eighteen of his Wills didn''t want to think about.


    Even knowing her inevitable fate didn''t stop the fiery heir of the carnival from a weekly visitation. The best part was that because she assumed that everyone heard the music he yed off her, when they didn''t give her knowing looks or judgmental stares, she thought that they were ying ignorant for her sake, creating a little conspiracy that she''d never figure out.


    It had been a few months since Rayleigh started the Swordsman Act and ticket sales had never been better. Rayleigh however declined any and all concessions since he did not intend to continue. He knew that his future absence would cause a drop in ticket sales, so the funds he refused to take would be used to hold the carnival over and could be saved up and used for the down payment of another Carnival Ride or attraction to bnce it out. They were thinking about getting a merry-go-round or bumper car rink.


    Everyone knew that Rayleigh would be leaving soon, but the fact that he was basically donating what should have been his ie to the future of the Carnival made it hard for anyone to dissuade him. Rayleigh considered more than once if the redhead''s weekly visitations were her own idea or someone else''s to allow him to form stronger ties to keep him here. s, they all knew that he only joined the Circus to learn from Swordsman, and as far as they knew, he was not getting out of Federal Prison anytime soon.


    Rayleigh had in fact paid for Jacques'' family heirloom to be reforged by a professional cksmith that specialized in swords. The Cavalier''s Sword was in a special container, along with the rest of Jacques'' collection in a long term storage unit that took its monthly payment directly out of the ount Book worm setup for his royalties from the books he''d written. Plenty of the books he wrote sold great, so the royalties from those alone would set him up for a long while.


    After ensuring that Jacques'' collection was well taken care of, he sent a letter to his imprisoned former teacher to inform him that everything would be well preserved and rust free when he got out. Rayleigh had no idea when or if Jacques would get out, but he had given the storage ce specific instructions to turn the contents over to Jacques should he ask for it.


    After getting up, Rayleigh got dressed and started his morning workout. It didn''t take too long for his bedside partner to wake up and greet him with a sleepy, "Good morning."


    Rayleigh replied back with a smirk, "Hungry?"


    "Umm, yes. You cooking?"


    "Not today. Too busy."


    The redhead''s pout was decidedly cuter than her father''s, but still ineffective as he really was quite busy. Today was hisst day here after all, so the pair made do with some toaster heated frozen waffles from his mini-fridge before he opened the door, confirmed the coast was clear, and sent her off silently back to her own trailer.


    Like always, Rayleigh still assisted with the cleanup of the carnival while going to each carny and saying goodbye. When the beardeddy tried to give him an all epassing hug, Rayleigh declined and vanished before her and went to visit everyone else. He even said his goodbyes, in public, to the ringmaster and his daughter after visiting their trailer.


    Thest goodbye was to Clint.


    Understandably, Clint pointed out, "You know, you never did tell me where you were going. You told everyone else you were going to New York, but you never said that to me."


    Rayleigh nodded, "I didn''t want to lie to you. For the next couple of years, I''ll be wandering around, and not just in the States. You know how easily I can pick upnguages, so I can go anywhere."


    At the mention ofnguages, Clint could only nod with a sigh. One of the reasons the Ringmaster let him do his own act was that it was a reward for the fact that Clint had sessfully gotten his G.E.D. and Rayleigh had taught him more than just that. He was even able to teach him threenguages with ease.


    Clint asked, "Will anyone be able to contact you?"


    "I''ve paid to set up a permanent P.O. Box and someone to look at it for me. Every once in a while I''ll call that guy and ask him if I got any mail, but I doubt I''ll even check more than once every couple of months." Rayleigh could pay for something like that to be set up by the Tavern, but he''d rather put the effort into doing it himself so he could spend his points on something better.


    "What about your trailer?"


    "On paper, I''m selling it to Rosaline and Bryce for $5000. But I''m actually just giving it to them."


    Clint agreed that was a good idea. Clint got Jacques'' trailer since the man never came back and Rosaline and Bryce, the acrobats, just had some kids and needed more room than their current trailer could afford. Their ie had taken a hit since she couldn''t perform while pregnant and needing more money while having a lower ie makes everything worse, so few if any wouldin about his decision.


    The pair talked about big and small topics for two hours, deciding to continue until they ran out of things to say.


    Clint stated, "I''ll probably leave myself after a few more months."


    "Oh? You gonna get a desk job?"


    Clint snorted. "No way. But there are a lot of Archerypetitions. The money won''t be enough to live off, but if I show off enough, I''ll get noticed and might be able to get some sponsors."


    "You mean like Nascar? You''ll get famous andpanies will pay you to wear a patch or something in public, advertising their brand?"


    "Yep. Think it''ll work?"


    Rayleigh felt a twitch in the Force and smiled. "Well, I think someone will notice you. Yeah, go for it." He didn''t get any images or details, but he did get a distinctly good impression so he figured something would happen eventually.


    After exhausting every subject they could think of, Rayleigh got up and walked away. Unlike with the other carnies, Rayleigh never said goodbye. He knew he''d meet back up with his friend one day.


    Once every little detail had been taken care of, Rayleigh hopped on a bus to New York City. When he did finally return, he''d being back to the same location he left, and since Book worm technically paid for his training for him to be her bodyguard, he''d at least need to be able to return to New York quickly if it was required.


    After a day and night of bus travel, Rayleigh found a spot near the edge of the city without witnesses and physically entered the Tavern. As usual, he looked around for some familiar faces and actually spotted a few sitting down at one of the wall side booths. The two noticed him and motioned for him toe over. He wasn''t in a hurry, so he walked over and took a seat next to Miracle and Lord of Madness.


    "Hey guys, how''s life?" After he sat down, a bar maiden handed him his free ss of beer.


    Miracle answered, "Well, it''s not boring. I joined the Order of the Phoenix."


    Lord of Madness snorted and asked, "Does membershipe with a discount at Kentucky Fried Chicken?"


    Rather than look insulted, Miracle answered with a smile, "No, but I was able to learn the Fidelius Charm."


    That brought the pair up short. That ridiculous spell was perhaps the most broken piece of magic in the series.


    Lord of Madness asked incredulously, "How? I heard no one could find that spell, no matter where they looked." They all heard about it in their third year when they learned how the Wizard MC''s parents were killed.


    Miracle nodded before answering, "Apparently, it''s a ck Family Spell. Sirius was the caster for the Potters, that''s why everyone thought he betrayed them, since he was both the spell''s caster and secret keeper. At the time, he couldn''t teach anyone else the spell without the Head of House ck''s permission, but after he got out of Azkaban, he was the head, so he could teach it to whoever he wanted."


    Rayleigh looked thoughtful for a few moments on that. Besides being the most broken spell, that spell also had the most plot holes of almost anything in the series, second only to Time Turners which yers could not use. There had always been questions on why it wasn''t used to hide the Philosopher''s Stone in the first book, yet Dumbledore could teach it to Mr. Weasley in the sixth book. It seemed that after Sirius died, Dumbledore could teach it to whoever he wanted.


    Lord of Madness asked, "But why did he teach it to you?"


    Rayleigh reminded him, "She did say she helped him in the 3rd year."


    Miracle nodded, "Yeah, I helped him quite a bit before learning that the shaggy dog was a mass murderer, so when he asked what he could do to repay me, I asked for the Fidelius Charm. I can''t teach it to anyone else, but I think I might be the only one who learned it. As long as none of the other yers ask for it, I might have a monopoly on that spell."


    Rayleigh asked, "Got anything good to hide?"


    "Just my garden," was her swift reply. It made the pair wonder what kind of treasures she grew in such a garden.


    Rayleigh asked, "Did Ninja Lord join up before getting killed?"


    Miracle rolled her eyes, "No, that dumbass set up a trap for Voldemort and tried to solo him. From what I heard, he learned the hard way that Magic Shields work on Jutsus."


    Lord of Madness asked, "So that''s it? That''s how he died?"


    She answered, "Well, the main problem was that Voldemort never travels alone. So one person could shield him while he cast the Killing Curse. But from what I hear, that''s not even what happened. Ninja Lord created a rock wall to shield himself from Voldemort''s spells and attacked around it, but one of his Death Eaters used a transfiguration spell on the wall to make a hole in it and that''s how he got one shotted."


    Lord of Madness asked, "Doesn''t he have a Sharingan? How''d he miss that?"


    Miracle sighed, "Unlike the Byakugan which sees everything, the Sharingan only really sees Chakra. Magic is not Chakra, so he couldn''t use it to his advantage. And since the Sharingan for yers mature as it is used instead of through mental anguish, none of the Uchiha yers have gotten a Mangeky yet."


    Lord of Madness stated, "Should''ve used Shadow Clones."


    Miracle replied with sarcasm, "Yeah, that way he could have killed himself faster than Voldemort did."


    That prompted augh from everyone. Just like lumency, yers learned the hard way that Shadow Clones were not the cheat everyone hoped for. They can only be used like the MC if you had a healing factor to repair the brain damage, which no one did since there weren''t any Jinchriki among the yers, and even the Uzumaki Bloodline did not grant a healing factor as strong as Naruto''s. The Uchiha had it worst. Their Sharingan granted photographic memory, so a dispelled Shadow Clone transmitted far more information when they used their Djutsu than other yers. It was fine to make a single one and have it do reconnaissance, but you''d still get a headache if itsted longer than a few minutes before popping which would disruptbat if you were fighting at the time. Making multiple Shadow Clones was just asking for trouble. They''d get used to it eventually, but not everyone had ess to a repository of brain enhancing esoteric skills like Rayleigh did.


    Lord of Madness stated offhandedly, "Well, I haven''t done anything that interestingtely besides killing my master."


    Rayleigh asked, "What, did he make you watch Disney movies or something?"


    "Well, he kept trying to brainwash me and I was pretty sure he wanted to kill me. I''ve been in too many dangerous situations since pairing with him, and I''ve suspected it since he was forced to take me on and I wasn''t giving an inch. He got a mortal wound during ourst mission and instead of saving him, I used Drain Knowledge to take everything he had. Apparently, using that on your master when you have a Master Apprentice Force bond makes it way more efficient. No wonder Sith kill their masters."


    Not particrly caring about the murder, Rayleigh asked, "So does that mean you''vepleted your Force Training?" Since he got everything, he probably didn''t need another master.


    "That''s right. I also have my master''s ship and ess to some guys who can take out the Jedi''s tracking beacon. The guys myte master was trying to fight became a lot friendlier after seeing my master scream as I ripped everything from his head."


    Rayleigh nodded, "I imagine so."


    Miracle rolled her eyes at Ray''s nonchnt attitude but gave up after a moment. It wasn''t her call to judge others. Instead, she asked, "So what are you gonna do now?"


    Lord of Madness gave a smile that matched his namesake. "Nothing much, just collect a few ships I can trade to the yers who will being soon."


    Miracle asked, "Why would the yers from other worlds go there?"


    He answered with confidence, "Because it will be fun. I can taste it in the air, a storm ising."


    Rayleigh nodded, "I''ll be heading over eventually. If she''s still alive, I need to give back a lightsaber I stole from my former teacher."


    Lord of Madness said, "I''ll be gathering guys who are good at customizing ships and getting ces. Once the shit hits the fan, I''ll recruit all the pirate yers to raid the gxy. With my connections, they''lle back to me to upgrade their stolen ships and trade their goods."


    Miracle asked, "So you''re gonna be a crime lord?"


    "Only at first. Money is only needed until you''re strong enough to go without. I can''t think of any yers who can travel between worlds without a spaceship yet."


    Rayleigh asked, "What if they learned Sorcery?"


    Lord of Madness scoffed at that. "I doubt the Tavern will start distributing maps to Kamar-Taj. The super rich Dr. Strange couldn''t find it with all the money in the world, he only found it through a reference to some guy who someone else noticed was miraculously cured."


    Miracle added, "Wouldn''t the Ancient One just kill all the yers? I mean, from her perspective, aren''t we considered interdimensional threats?"


    Rayleigh added, "Well, I didn''t hear anything in the MCU chat about people who found that ce, so I won''t hold my breath."


    Lord of Madness pointed out, "Oh yeah, you did say you were teaching Clint Barton a few things. How''s that going?"


    "I just left actually. I''m about to buy a ticket into the Pirate World and get Mihawk as my teacher."


    Lord of Madness nodded, "Nice."


    Miracleined, "What''s so good about Mihawk? I''m sure you can learn to do everything he can do on your own."


    Both Rayleigh and Lord of Madness looked offended at that. Lord of Madness stated, "You just don''t understand. A Swordsman learning under Mihawk is like a Sith learning under Revan. It''s the ultimate guy''s romance. It''s a dream that will live on forever."


    Rayleigh added, "Exactly! Plus, if I am going to learn Anime Swordsmanship, I should learn it from the best Anime Swordsman. Even if he teaches me nothing I can''t figure out or learn myself, it''s the principle of the thing!"


    Lord of Madness nodded, "That''s right! Go forth, my friend. Learn how to cleave spaceships in two. Once you''re finished,e back home and I''ll point you at some spaceships you can practice on."


    Rayleighughed and got up to return to the bar and get his new identity. From behind he could hear Miracle mutter, "boys.."


    Red was minding the bar. He wasn''t the only one either. Besides Red who always dressed like a lumberjack, there was a skinny guy in a business suit and a woman in a trench coat. Technically, Rayleigh could walk up to either of them, but he was already used to Red and trusted him to an extent.


    The red bearded bartender asked, "You ready to head out?"


    Ray asked in turn, "Do I have enough points and skill?"


    Red seemed to open up a menu screen Rayleigh couldn''t see and gave it a few looks before nodding. "Yeah, we can work with this. With your current tally of points, we can make it so that Mihawk doesn''t kill you if you fight him, so you can just fight him a few times to learn his skills that way. Though, I can''t guarantee you''ll be left with all your limbs, fingers, and toes."


    Seeing where this was going, Rayleigh sighed and asked, "What do I need to do for the same lessons Zoro got?"


    "Well, you don''t have enough points for that, but you do have enough to turn into that with some work. Give me a moment." Red seemed to scroll through the invisible list in front of him, poking various points at random times for two minutes.


    "Ah ha. This should work. Alright, here''s what we''ll do. With your current Points, we can set up a scenario where Mihawk will train you, but that scenario will becking a condition. He won''t give you the same lessons he gave Zoro if you don''t fulfill that condition. Since you can''t afford direct training, this is the best way to get training with what you have."


    Rayleigh asked, "What condition would I need to fulfill?"


    "Simple, you have to show up on the front page of the newspaper with a sword in your hand and the story must be about you being a swordsman. The condition for this scenario is that Mihawk will have agreed to train you in the past, but only after you have learned the basics and graduated from a no-name to a swordsman. Your skills qualify for the first condition, so now you just need to spread your name and not be a nobody."


    Rayleigh prepared himself and asked, "Well, how much will all of that cost?"


    Red tapped on the space in front of him and a screen popped up in front of Rayleigh.


    [Pirate Identity


    Rayleigh Rush


    Lives on Karate Ind in the South Blue.


    While young, his vige was raided by pirates. The adults were all killed and the children were captured to be sold as ves.


    Coincidentally, Mihawk encountered the ship and killed the pirates out of boredom.


    Rayleigh witnessed this and asked to be Mihawk''s student.


    Mihawk refused, stating he doesn''t have the time to teach nobodies that know nothing of the sword.


    He then tossed Rayleigh a sword from one of the in pirates and said to learn it well and make a name for himself and perhaps, he would teach him then.


    Spent the following years on Karate Ind learning Boxing and creating his own sword style using the principles of boxing. Intends to make a name for himself and once he has done so, seek out Mihawk and be his student.


    Has 2500 Berries on his person.


    Includes unlocking of Haki Talent


    Cost: 23,110


    Purchase


    Yes|No]


    Rayleigh wasn''t the slightest bit surprised that the Identity would cost just about every Mission Point he''d umted in thest few years. Rayleigh had been doing 250~350 Point Missions every week over thest few years. Minus his daily food expenses and fighting Pitou monthly, he had saved 24,095 points. Red originally quoted that getting Mihawk as a teacher would cost 50,000 points, but since Rayleigh had some skill and he was only purchasing an identity that had conditions he needed toplete in order to get lessons, it was less than half the price.


    Rayleigh asked, "How much will that money get me?"


    Red answered, "A ship ride to the South Blue''s equivalent of Logue Town and then some. You''ll need to figure the rest out yourself."


    "So I have to head to the Grand Line?"


    Red smiled, "What, you think Mihawk reads news from the South Blue?"


    Rayleigh epted that this was a good point and clicked the Yes icon.


    After confirming the purchase, Rayleigh turned back to smile at Miracle and Lord of Madness, with thetter responding with a bright smile of his own. With his curiosity getting the better of him, Rayleigh headed out of the Tavern toward his new life and stepped out the door.


    After experiencing the ever familiar feeling of his senses whiting out anding back once more, Rayleigh found himself on a bench, looking out at an open space with three boxing rings on the inside of a Gym. Men of various ages stood around either practicing, exercising, or watching the bouts from the gym members inside the rings.


    The first thing Rayleigh did was try and use Haki. Unsurprisingly, it did not work. Entering the Hunter World unlocked the potential for Nen, but it didn''t give it to him right away. The same was true for Haki. He unlocked the potential for it, but he still needed to turn it on. He wasn''t concerned though. If willpower was the key, he had nothing to worry about.


    Thinking over his willpower, Rayleigh did a mental check on his Wills and couldn''t help but smile. Yep. His guess was correct. The eighteen Wills he formed all received a boost. He felt like it would be far easier to split them and reach thirty-two or more Wills in the future. He''d have to do a few more tests though to see the effect this would have overall and find out how much his physical strength had increased by.


    "Hey, Billy. Check out who''s smiling like a retard?"


    Rayleigh looked over at a pair of teens approaching him. He recognized them both from his memories. The one who spoke was so fat that his neck could not be seen between his chin and his chest. His name was Tommy, and he was a Yes Man. His skinny friend/future boss was the son of a dirty merchant and something of a big shot. This teen had a bit of skill as a boxer and used it to break everyone he knew was below him to make himself feel bigger and better. He was Billy, and it seemed that Ray''s smile had offended them both.


    Rayleigh got up and asked amicably, "How can I help you two gentlemen out today?"


    Billy sneered, "Well since you asked, I know exactly how you can help me. I heard you borrowed some money from Donny the other day. It just so happens that my wallet is a little light, so fork it over!"


    That reminded Rayleigh of his backstory in this ce. It seemed that his identity had a few problems.


    The first was that he lived in a small space that belonged to this Boxing Gym. He practiced Boxing in public and swordsmanship in private, but to live and eat here, he basically worked on the premise as a punching bag. If someone wanted a sparring partner to punch, it was his job. Besides food and a roof, it didn''t exactly pay well. The 2500 Berries he had weren''t his savings, they were what he borrowed from a guy everyone knew was not the nicest fellow. Donny gave him the money and knew Rayleigh would never be able to pay it off with thepounded interest. He just assumed that Rayleigh would lose the money and be forced to work for him for free for the rest of his life.


    Only Rayleigh knew that today was hisst day here. He had trained enough and it was time to leave this ind. The money he borrowed would never be returned, and there wasn''t a thing Donny could do about it. No one expected Rayleigh to do a runner.


    The reason that the previous Rayleigh intended to leave was that Karate Ind was actually a terrible ce to learn the sword. He could only learn the sword in private and no one openly taught or used a sword in public. Even in the streets, gangs and thugs used martial arts and fists, not swords or guns. This was encouraged as it made the people of this ind hard and strong. If you couldn''t keep up, you''d die. Even these punks in front of him were skilled enough to be ranked in national tournaments in the MCU. They were only a little better than average here, but that was still a lot better than being average.


    Since the character he inherited spent most of his time practicing the sword, the former him was actually not that skilled at Boxing, so his prior self was used as a punching bag and measuring stick by the regrs.


    Of course, that was before. Compared to what stood there now, he was apletely different person.


    It was at this point that Tommy shouted, "Are you deaf or something you idiot? Why haven''t you given Billy his money yet!?"


    Rayleigh ended his recollection and looked over the pair of scrubs again, a slow smile forming once more on his face. Now he understood why the Pirate yers had so much fun here. The Tavern didn''t care what you did to assholes, and this world was filled with them. The only problem was that Rayleigh couldn''t think of what to do with these guys. There were just so many choices. He put all 18 of his newly strengthened Wills to the task and found the best answer.


    Rayleigh replied, "Well, I can''t just hand it to you, there''s something I need to use it for. But there is something you can help me get, and I''d definitely be willing to give you everything I have for it."


    Billy didn''t expect a negotiation, but as the son of a merchant, his curiosity was strong enough to ask, "Oh, and what would that be?"


    "Well, if you can deliver your mother''s fine ass to my bed so I can make her call me daddy, I''d be willing to pay you a premium for pimping her out."


    His father chose a trophy wife and though Billy had not inherited anything but her scrawny limbs, she was considered the number one Milf in the northern port of Karate Ind for a reason.


    Seeing the nk look on Billy''s face, Rayleigh wondered if Billy .EXE had crashed. Hisckey looked appropriately horrified though, so there was that. Still, Billy''s brain did eventually reboot. The moment it did, he shouted, "YOU''RE DEAD!"


    Billy reeled his fist back andunched a haymaker at Rayleigh''s face. Rayleigh walked past him with azy half step and kicked Billy''s foot out from under him, throwing him off his bnce and causing him to crash into the bench Rayleigh had just been sitting on.


    Billy''s exmation got the Gym''s undivided attention, so every eye was on Rayleigh when he calmly walked over to the only empty Boxing Ring and said, "I''ve got a thousand Berries on me. Anyone can bet up to that amount and challenge me. If they win, they get what they bet. If they lose, I get their bet. Today''s first taker is our very own, Billy."


    By the time Rayleigh finished narrating his version of events, Billy had gotten up and ran over to the ring. He wasn''t foolish enough not to hear Rayleigh''s deration, but he didn''t n to give any money even if he lost so it didn''t matter. Not that he thought he''d lose.


    Billy got into the ring and didn''t even bother with any Boxing etiquette and directly slid forward to deal the heaviest body blow he could.


    Rayleigh dodged with a little twist and delivered a slow looking uppercut which sent Billy a few feet off the ground before hended on his back, unconscious.


    Rayleigh looked over at the crowd and asked, "Who is next?"


    One of the bulkier looking boxers, a dark skinned veteran in the gym said, "I''ll y."


    Rayleigh asked, "How much are you gonna bet?"


    "One thousand of course. You got it on you?"


    "Yep. What about you? Do you really have a thousand berries on you? If you don''t let someone elsee up."


    The boxer red harshly at Rayleigh and asked threateningly, "Are you saying I''m not good for it?"


    Rayleigh looked at the unconscious Billy and said, "He hasn''t paid me yet either. So to prevent losers like him from challenging me, pay up first. If you beat me, it''s not like I can run away."


    The boxer was dumbfounded at Rayleigh''s use of logic. It was the weakness of muscle headed brutes, and it didn''t hurt that Rayleigh implied that those who couldn''t bring out the money first were losers. That caused the man to go back and speak with a few others, borrowing some money before returning to the ring and handing it to Rayleigh. It wasn''t actually a thousand berries, but 800. Still, it was better than nothing.


    Ray pocketed the cash and stood in a boxer''s stance. A momentter, the man swung out a lightning like left hook, aiming precisely for Rayleigh''s jaw. Rayleigh lifted his chin to dodge it and rushed forward, delivering another uppercut. Despite the fact that this guy was three times heavier than Rayleigh was, this uppercut neatly knocked him out too.


    Rayleigh then looked out over the crowd, "Who is next? I have 2000 Berries now, so you can bet that much if you have it."


    Ten minutester, Rayleigh had five thousand berries in hand and the boss of the gym was lying unconscious on the mat in front of him. The man was far stronger than most boxers in the MCU, but his actual skill was worthless inparison, so Rayleigh had nothing to learn by using Psychometry on his gloves. This Gym was far from the best on the ind after all.


    Seeing that Rayleigh had wiped out every one of the strongest members of the gym without breaking a sweat, no one stood in his way as he left the gym, cash in hand. Even the greedier members held back and plotted to ambush him at night or the next day. None of them even considered that Rayleigh would not be returning.


    After hustling enough money tost a while without needing tomit any crimes, Rayleigh headed for the docks to get a ride off this ind. On the way, he picked up a newspaper and looked over the front page. Unsurprisingly, it was a familiar face. The sixteen year old captain of the Wonder Pirates, Wonder Woman, had raided a merchant ship that had been protected by a small fleet of Marine Vessels.


    Seeing the picture gave Rayleigh an idea that was apanied by an unstoppable smile. Since these guys were famous enough to get on the front page, could he make the news if he yed with them a bit? After all, a number of these guys still owed Rayleigh a debt, didn''t they?


    *Author''s Note*


    Rayleigh will not be joining the Strawhats. We had enough chapters of Rayleigh following the MC and going along with the plot. Now he''ll do his own thing and get to y with the other yers.


    After a lot of discussions about Haki, it was decided that it will share properties with Aura in the sense that skills that use it cannot be seen without awakening it. So if you have not awakened Haki, you will not see a guy''s arm or sword turn ck if he uses Armament Haki. If a sword attack uses Haki to cut at a distance, you won''t see the energy wave of the attack unless you have awakened Haki. Also, those who have awakened Haki can see Aura, and those who have awakened aura can see Haki. Weapons that have undergone permanent ''ckening'' are an exception. Anyone can see that those are ck.

 Chapter 60: Realism is Unnecessary for Jedi

    Chapter 60: Realism is Unnecessary for Jedi


    Chapter 60 Realism is Unnecessary for Jedi


    Rayleigh sat on a pier at the docks of Karate Ind''s northern port, waiting for the departure of a ship that could take him off this ind. Although the money he had was enough for passage on a merchant ship, it wasn''t enough for food on the voyage, so he needed to buy some imperishables for the trip.


    Rayleigh learned much from speaking with Pirate yers at the Hotel where he taught them Nen, and the biggest thing he learned about this world was that travel was ridiculous. First, there was little to no tourism since everywhere sucked when you were weak and no one had any reason to go anywhere. Because of this, there were no standard means of travel. Next, as the name of the world suggests, Pirates were arge issue here. Two dozen men with single shot pistols and swords would be enough to rob tens of thousands of berries worth of cargo from a merchant ship if thetter didn''t have enough manpower to fight back.


    Rayleigh wondered why there were no hot air balloons or nes, but apparently, there were strange things in the sky and such modes of travel never caught on among the survivors. Rayleigh guessed if there was such a means of travel, the World Government had monopolized it, preventing anyone else from rising above them.


    That left travel by ship as the only means of getting around until Rayleigh figured out how to use Moon Walk for long distances. Oddly enough, Moon Walk didn''t work that great withteral movement. Moving upward was alright and using it to break your fall was fine, but it would never allow you to run forward through the air at an eptable level. Rayleigh had been working on an alternative thatbined Moon Walk, Shave, Force: Augment, Force: Program, and Enhancement Nen, but it was a work in progress and the timing was still off.


    If Rayleigh needed to get anywhere in his current region of the South Blue, it wouldn''t be too hard since he just needed to find a merchant ship that would head there to stock up or sell supplies and catch a ride. The problem was that his destination was not the South Blue, but the location the other yers were messing around, an area of the sea called the Grand Line. Everything about that ce would give travelers a headache.


    First, entering the Grand Line had to be done through a dangerous location called Reverse Mountain. Next, once you entered the Grand Line, you could not choose your destination ahead of time without special tools. You could only travel along a specific route, so if you were looking for someone, you had to hope they were on that path too. Next, the weather between inds was unpredictable, so fleet destroying storms weren''t umon. And finally, you could not leave an ind right away once you arrived. The tool that let you find inds along the path on the Grand Line had to charge on the ind and wouldn''t show you the way to the next one without being charged.


    It was thisst issue that posed the greatest problem. Rayleigh wanted to encounter the yers in the Grand Line, but since they had started traveling long before he did, he would never catch up to them unless something on an ind held their interest long enough for him to arrive before they left.


    And yet, all of those were problems that seemed unlikely to even reach in the first ce. The very first step of arriving at Reverse Mountain already seemed impossible. The Grand Line was the haven for Pirates, so there were no ships that routinely took others from the South Blue into the Grand Line. The only way to go to the Grand Line would be to wait on the ind closest to the Grand Line, wait for a pirate ship toe along, and get on.


    There was no way to head to the Grand Line on his own. If the distance between inds was more than a hundred kilometers, he did not think he could use Moon Walk to travel since that skill used a lot of energy. He needed a ship. But a small ship would be torn up in the weather of the Grand Line, so he needed a big ship and a navigator. If the ship was damaged, it would sink in the middle of the ocean, so he needed someone who could fix the ship too. And then he''d need the ship to store all the food for three people.


    It wasn''t like he could just buy a ship either. The easiest option would be to liberate one from a pirate, but a normal pirate ship might not even survive its first storm in the Grand Line. Then even if he got a ship, he''d have to find some guys crazy enough to sail with him.


    All of that was the minimum requirement just to start the first step of this journey. Or, at least, it should have been.


    Rayleigh knew all of this before heading out, yet didn''t pay a single Mission Point for an identity that could have any of this. Why? He didn''t need it.


    The situation where you found yourself stranded on an unfamiliarnd without resources, without a map, without any connections, and without a clue on how to find what you were looking for was a nightmare for most people, but for a Jedi, this was a Tuesday.


    Allowing the Force to guide him, Rayleigh paid for transport on a ship heading for another ind. Not one closer to Reverse Mountain, but further away. One would think this would be going backward, but traveling using the Force as a GPS didn''t care for logic. As long as a Jedi with a strong enough connection to the Force allowed it to guide him, he could travel to his destination from the opposite end of a he''d never been on, through a maze, in the shortest possible time. Even if that meant traveling through the core of a.


    As long as he traveled while guided by the Force, he would not encounter terrible storms. His ship would not sink. They would not get lost. And they would make great time getting there. All the realistic aspects of travel that the real world possessed were discarded andughed at by those who traveled using the Force to guide them. If someone who wasn''t used to having their journey handed to them on a silver tter traveled with a Force User, they would be disgusted by how easily travel came to them.


    The ship Rayleigh paid for passage on didn''t stand out in any way from any other ship. Like any merchant ship, it docked at a port, sold its cargo, then used that money to buy something else it could then take elsewhere and sell for more than what was spent to purchase it.


    Karate Ind was not a crafting or production ind, but it was a ce filled with strong men and had a lot of warehouses. Even without manufacturing anything, businessmen of the ind could simply purchase things they didn''t need from merchant ships, store them, and then sell them to other merchant ships. It was like a bank. Banks did not give others money, but the presence of a bank made it easier to make money. And in this world, banks were a luxury of the strong.


    The ship Rayleigh was boarding had just sold off hundreds of rolls of cheap fabric. Thepany that bought it would then sell itter to clothing manufacturingpanies. The reason this ship did not sell to suchpanies directly was that the distance was too far and the danger too high. A smaller, but reliable profit was better than a higher but unsustainable profit, at least to an intelligent merchant. Right now, this ship was being loaded with coal. The same cargo hold that kept the cheap cloth dry on the journey was also ideal to do the same with coal. What Rayleigh paid would let him stay on the ship for the three day voyage to another ind where this ship would sell all the coal and buy something else.


    Rayleigh shook his head. It wasn''t the Marines, Pirates, or World Government that truly ruled this world. It was Capitalism.


    After using the remaining berries in his possession to buy a sack and stuff it with food, he boarded the ship which lowered its sails, and left the dock. Rayleigh half-expected some goons to find him on the pier so he could punch them to the horizon, but he wasn''t this world''s protagonist, so that kind of thing wouldn''t happen every time he left the port.


    The merchant ship''s crew had a dozenborers, two cooks, a helmsman, a navigator, and five others like himself that paid for passage to another ind. Some of theborers had knives and looked bulky, but other than the captain''s pistol and sword, the rest of the merchant ship''s crew looked unarmed.


    Rayleigh pondered on which clich he''d encounter. Pirates? Sea Monster? Alien Invasion? He doubted the Force would have directed him to take this ship if things were so simple.


    Then again, he was pretty sure the reason he was here had nothing to do with the ship or the cargo. One of the five others who bought passage on this ship smelled of fear and nervousness. The only thing that stood out more was the well hidden killing intent of the guy staring at him.


    The nervous guy looked skinny and feeble. Probably about mid-twenties with messy brown hair that hid arge forehead, square frame sses, and a dusty grey traveler''s cloak.


    The one who seemed to think the wimp ate hisst doughnut or something was bulky, with broad shoulders, bulging arms, oddly skinny legs, and long hair tied back in a ponytail. He wore an open blue vest with bandages covering his exposed midsection, as if he''d been in a fight somewhat recently. Or at least that''s how he tried to make it look. The bandages just barely hid a bulge that looked like a pistol the guy had wrapped up at his side.


    The possible wannabe assassin wasn''t exactly subtle, and the wimp wasn''t exactly defenseless. At his side were two others, both swordsmen, who kept an eye on the guy. Well, one kept an eye on him, while the other, the swordsman with partially graying hair, actually kept Rayleigh at the corner of his eye.


    All three, the bulky brute and both bodyguards were stronger than the average martial artist on Karate Ind, and their standard was quite high, so none of them could be considered weak in the South Blue. From his senses though, both guards were stronger than the brute, so there shouldn''t be a reason for him to interfere.


    Rayleigh was curious about the identity of the wimpy fellow, but he doubted the bodyguards would appreciate him walking up and having a chat.


    Times like this, he could only open the General Chat Room and chat about random nonsense. He couldn''t enter the Pirate Chat Room since that would give away his presence here, and he wanted that to remain a surprise.


    The sun fell past the horizon and bathed the space between the sea and sky in a myriad of colors. Thest time he was on a ship, he disembarked before the sunset, so he wasn''t able to enjoy this view. The rest on the ship stared at him oddly. They''d been spoiled with such scenes for so long, they''d lost appreciation for them. A pity, really.


    Rayleigh stayed on the ship''s bow, overlooking the sea as the sun''sst lights danced over the horizon and the sky transformed into an immeasurable jewel. Again, he received looks. Appreciating a sunset was one thing, but appreciating the night sky was just weird. He didn''t care about the looks. This was the first time in any life he''d seen a sky with so many stars. On Tython, the As and Bogan outshined the stars and were somewhat tidally locked in the sense that it was rare to see a sky without one or both of them. When such skies did appear, they were usually covered with clouds. The sky of the Hunter World did not have stars that shined correctly. Rayleigh guessed it was a side effect of being in a fishbowl, or that the Hunter World''s atmosphere was too dense, affecting or diminishing the starlight that reached the surface. And of course, every night he''d spent in the MCU was surrounded by circus lights or on the road, so there was never a sky without light pollution.


    While he drank in the sights, another passenger appeared on deck. The wimp and his bodyguards were below deck as they had paid extra for a room while the others had to huddle together in the storage shed. Rayleigh decided just to remain on deck throughout the voyage, so he wouldn''t bother going down to check the bed-less area he paid to stay in. The man who came up was none other than the brutish fellow from before. He stepped onto the deck and looked around suspiciously for a bit before unwrapping the cloth at his waist.


    Once it was loose enough, Mr. Definitely Skips Leg Day pulled out a pistol looking gun from beneath the wrappings. A nce from the side though confirmed it was not actually a pistol. Said man pointed it skyward and pulled the trigger. He wasn''t aiming for the ship''s sail or mast, but the open sky. The fired projectile became blindingly bright and soared high into the air where it stayed for a while, shining bright enough to be seen for tens of kilometers.


    "Hey! It''s a Pirate! We''ve been marked! Take him down!"


    Three of the patrollingborers shouted as loudly as they could, waking the rest of the crew. The sea wasn''t a ce most could sleep deeply, so it didn''t take long for everyone to get up. Theborers got out their weapons and surrounded the brute. Rayleigh would bet on thetter in a fight, but he didn''t resist, allowing himself to be tied up with a vicious smile.


    Soon, the captain came out and directly asked the bound man, "Who are you working for? What do you want?"


    The man answered, "I''m a member of the Six w Pirates. And we don''t want this ship. Just that little fucking shit over there."


    The wimp and his bodyguards had already returned to the deck and since the pirate was looking right at him, no one had to ask who he was talking about.


    One of theborers asked, "Why? What''d he do to you?"


    The pirate answered easily, "Him? Nothing. But his fucking father paid a bounty hunter toe after our captain. The guy he hired took out three of me best mates before our captain ripped out his fucking heart. That''s not the kinda thing we take lightly, so we''ll be taking him off your hands and selling him back to his father, piece by piece." He startedughing hysterically at thatst line, like he had told the greatest joke known to mankind.


    One of the bodyguards shouted, "Toss him overboard!"


    The pirate stoppedughing and shouted, "I dare you to try! If I''m not on this ship when theye, they''ll blow it to splinters! This ship is carrying coal you idiot! It won''t take more than one fucking shot to kill you all! I''m the only reason the rest of you might make it out of here alive."


    That silenced the crew, much to the pirate''s pleasure. He was bound, outnumbered, surrounded, and didn''t have a weapon, but he was inplete control of the situation, something that showed in the awful smile he disyed.


    Rayleigh watched in silence as the crew discussed what to do. From what he heard, the experts of the Six w pirates all had w gauntlets and knew how to use them. ws could be used to defend against swords and granted better range against hand to hand fighters. The Captain of the w Pirates was a martial artist that used his family''s legacy to create a strong group of pirates that focused on that weapon. The biggest problem was that the Six w Pirate''s ship was three or four timesrger than this shipping vessel and it had over fifty well trained pirates on its crew.


    The merchants didn''t have any good ideas. The Six w Pirates were definitely on this sea and would have seen the re shot out by the other. Even if it took them time to reach that re''s position, once they did, they would be able to catch the same wind as this ship. Since that ship wasrger, with bigger sails, it would be able to move faster using the same wind and catch up to this ship no matter what they tried.


    Deciding to show a bit of his hand, Rayleigh asked, "What''s the bounty on the Six w Pirate Captain?"


    The older of the two bodyguards answered, "42 Million Berries."


    Rayleigh nodded, that was better than pocket change. He then asked, "Is there a Marine Outpost on the ind we''re heading to?"


    There was one on most inds of decent sizes, but he couldn''t be sure.


    The captain of the ship answered, "Yes, that''s actually who we''re selling the coal to."


    "Alright, I''ll jump over to the pirate ship when they get here and talk things out. Don''t throw him overboard."


    The bound pirate snorted with contempt, "Talk? Fine with me. My mates will toss your head back as a message and your body will feed the sharks."


    Rayleigh shrugged uncaringly, pissing the man off more than any insult could have.


    To the analyzing eyes of the ship''s crew, Rayleigh didn''t look old, but didn''t look weak either. Although he didn''t carry a weapon, he boarded on Karate Ind, a ce known for its martial fighters. It wouldn''t hurt them to let him ''talk,'' with the pirates anyways, and they could change their ns if nothing came of it.


    It was hours after the sun rose that they spotted a massive ship on their tail. After a lot of arguing, the merchant ship''s captain ordered that the sails be raised so that the enemy ship could catch up more quickly. Now that it was visible, they couldn''t im ignorance, and trying to outrun them would only piss them off.


    As it got closer, the ck sail came into view and its pirate mark was on full disy. Rather than a skull and crossbones, it was a skull over two crossed sets of three shes.


    After they got closer, Rayleigh did something no one expected. He walked over to the bound pirate, picked him up, and tossed him high into the air, all the way over to the enemy ship. The man who had reached the peak of arrogance over thest few hours screamed like a little girl as he flew through the air, causing Rayleigh to smile.


    Shortly after the toss, Rayleigh jumped into the air himself. He didn''t even need to use Moon Walk to reach the ship in a single leap. The moment hended, what struck him first was neither the sight of the armed pirates or the threatening looks they were giving him. No, what stood out the most was the smell. He originally thought of taking the ship himself, but he''d rather swim to the Grand Line than spend days on a ship that smelled like this. Sure, he could use the Force to seal his sense of smell, but he knew he''d remember it just by looking, and if he stayed too long, the smell might stick to him. He might be a wild monkey man, but even monkeys knew how to clean themselves.


    Before anyone could speak up, Rayleigh announced, "I havee to negotiate your surrender."


    For obvious reasons, this stunned the pirate crew. They had seen many idiots over the years, but this one was an entirely different breed.


    The still bound pirate that had been tossed aboard survived his impact and shouted, "Boss! Kill this bitch!"


    Seeing that one of their members was bound and called out for the neer''s death was enough for the crew. Two pirates, both with a w gauntlet, stepped forward and the rest made way while forming a circle around their guest.


    Without a word of warning, the first ran at Rayleigh''s left side while the other ran at Rayleigh''s right side. Both extended their arms to sh Rayleigh into pieces, regardless of which way he dodged.


    Rayleigh used Ken to defend himself and transformed the aura on his finger into a sword and swiped twice. This movement was faster than the blink of an eye and no one spotted it, they only saw the pair of w wielding pirates run past Rayleigh and sh at him from both sides, eliciting a roar of cheers as they waited for the blood to spill. And spill it did. Just not from Rayleigh. A deep and bloody wound appeared on the chest of both pirates. The wound was severe enough to send them into shock, knocking them out, but not severe enough to kill or cripple them.


    Seeing two of their best attack him yet end up with wounds themselves caused the pirates to take a step back. At least until one of the braver ones shouted into the air, "What are you waiting for? Kill him already!"


    This turned the fear into anger, creating a mob mentality and granting them the courage to stupidly charge forward.


    Rayleigh swiped his aura de finger faster than the eye could follow while casually jumping around and avoiding the various attacks. None of these guys could see aura, so no one had any idea what was going on. One by one, pirate after pirate went down with a bloody gash on their chest. Even those with a hearty constitution couldn''t stand afterward, since even if they had not passed out from the damage, they felt that they would die if they moved too much after taking such a wound.


    After a dozen men had been taken out, one of the pirates shouted, "Step back! He''s mine!"


    Rayleigh looked over and saw that this guy wore a captain''s hat and was the only pirate wearing two w gauntlets. If that wasn''t enough to tell you who he was, the gauntlets were encrusted with gemstones and looked like it was ted in gold. It was tacky as fuck.


    The captain of the Six w Pirates asked as he approached, "Who are you? I''ve never heard of a bounty hunter with your description."


    Rayleigh answered, "Oh, me? I''m just a wandering swordsman looking for some pocket change. I heard you had a decent bounty and I thought, easy money."


    The captain recognized the words as an insult meant to infuriate him, so he didn''t bite. Instead, he asked, "Where''s your sword, swordsman?"


    Rayleigh shrugged, "Don''t have one. Don''t need one." Technically, his Nensaber didn''t qualify as a sword, since it was just a handle. Rayleigh didn''t carry a de on his person at all.


    The captain snorted, "A swordsman without a sword. What has this worlde to?"


    The crew made a muchrger circle around Rayleigh and their captain. The pirates Rayleigh had taken out were dragged out of the encirclement so they wouldn''t be in the way.


    The captain raised his gold gilded gauntlets and started scraping them together to make sparks while the pirates around them looked on with sinister glee.


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes and did a half step and bend to dodge the fire of the pistol that another pirate had aimed at his back. The man was not directly behind him so the shot didn''t hit the captain, but it did hit another pirate near the captain to the dumbfounded looks of the rest of the pirates who wondered if Rayleigh had eyes in the back of his head.


    The captain distracting the target with his ws in a ''duel'' while someone shot the man in the back was a time honored ssic way of killing strong fighters, and just about every bounty hunter had fallen for it. Sure, they imed that the captain defeated the guys in honorable fights with great skills, but they all knew the truth. Not that they cared. They were pirates after all, that''s how they were supposed to fight.


    Rayleigh decided not to y their game any longer and went back to cutting down pirates with his aura ded finger. The captain and crew were stunned that Rayleigh hadn''t even bothered to fight their captain and went back to attacking them. None of them saw or appreciated the irony of the situation.


    Still, the captain was the captain, he charged forward and tried to slice through Rayleigh''s spine. Rayleigh ducked and dodged while spraying the blood of the man''s crew all over the ship. Some tried to fight but Rayleigh moved like the wind and seemed impossible to hit, so one by one, each pirate either fell to Rayleigh''s invisible de or ran below deck.


    All except the captain, who had practically lost his marbles at this point. "Stop moving around and fight me you simpering bastard!"


    Rayleigh tilted his head, ducked, turned to the side, did a light jump, and then did a front flip over the captain, making the captain''s furious flurry of blows look like a child''s game.


    It was then that the captain''s grimace changed into a victorious sneer. "You think you''re hot stuff huh? Well, your end is near."


    Rayleigh figured the man was referring to the fellow that had just emerged onto the deck. His wrists and ankles were ivory white while he had a tan, implying that he had likely been chained up until this point.


    The captain shouted, "Gordan! Kill this man and I''ll let you kill as many as you want on our next ind!"


    Gordon was abnormally tall, nearing seven feet in height even slouched over. He looked over at Rayleigh with manic eyes and made a fist. That fist then bulged out and shaped itself into something resembling the head of a sledgehammer before he brought it down on Rayleigh.


    Rayleigh dodged and shed out with an aura de, but the invisible attack only caused sparks off the man''s chest.


    The pirate captainughed and shouted, "You idiot! Gordan here has eaten the Hammer Hammer Fruit, making him a Hammer Man! His body is like forged iron and nothing can stop him but the sight of blood! He''ll crush you to pieces!"


    Rayleigh turned away from the neer and gave the captain of the Six w Pirates his ttest deadpan stare.


    Without even looking at the iing attack, Rayleigh swatted the man with his hand while using telekinesis to toss the man overboard and into the sea.


    For obvious reasons, this caused the captain to freeze up. Sweat dripped heavily from his brow. He then lightly asked, "Were you still willing to negotiate our surrender?"


    Three minutester, Rayleigh jumped back onto the merchant ship and said, "I''ve taken care of everything. We''ll sail to the Marine Outpost first and I''ll turn in the bounties. Have a nice day."


    One of the bodyguards tried to call out for Rayleigh as he jumped back to the pirate ship, but Rayleigh didn''t feel the time was right, so he ignored the request. On the Six w Pirate''s ship, there were enough pirates remaining to sail the ship. This ship was much faster than the merchant ship, so it would make it to the ind by the end of the day. The ship''s wounded would not recover without medical aid and Rayleigh wouldn''t let them return to their hideout, so they had no choice but to go to the Marine Base, turn themselves in, and receive care or end up crippled.


    Rayleigh may have lied to them and said he knew the route like the back of his hand, so if they tried to go elsewhere, he''d kill them all.


    This decision did have the unfortunate effect of requiring Rayleigh to stay on the stinky ship for a day, but it was worth it since they made it to the marine base before sunset.


    It was funny too, the Marines spotted them on the way and sent a ship to intercept, only to board and find that the entire crew had been taken out by a swordsman without a sword.


    The Lieutenant in charge, a well fed man with manicured fingers and styled hair, asked, "How did you take all these pirates out yourself?"


    Rayleigh answered confidently, "I''m very good."


    Seeing the pirates flinch in pain when they saw him implied that Rayleigh was not simply joking. Depending on the circumstances, an ambitious Lieutenant might im the bounty for himself, but Rayleigh''s feat was too extraordinary and the well fed marine was not foolish enough to blind himself to the possibility that Rayleigh was in fact that good. These past few years, youngsters like Rayleigh had been sprouting up like weeds, and if this marine wanted to remain well fed and in charge, he knew there were certain lines that he could not cross.


    The Lieutenant nodded and said, "Very well. We shall have the bounties for these pirates gathered by tomorrow. It will not be one berry less than its full value since you not only hand delivered them all, but you delivered them alive." Their base did not have that much liquid funds, but the Marine HQ was very good at the speedy delivery of bounty monies to encourage bounty hunting.


    Rayleigh thought back to Hammer boy and wondered if the Marines didn''t know about him. That might have been the case. A pirate crew with a devil fruit user was a lot more noticeable and may have been targeted by the Marines. That meant any prior witnesses of hammer boy were probably dead.


    As for the fact that Rayleigh killed him, the Force didn''t care. Why? Because Rayleigh didn''t care. Rayleigh''s connection to the Force over thesest few years had strengthened greatly. Previously, if he did something the Force didn''t like, the Force would retreat from him, weakening his connection to it. As for now, it was a bit more variable. Hammer boy was someone even pirates locked up, he was not an ordinary killer, but closer to a monster. Rayleigh didn''t feel anything about ending someone like that, so neither did the Force.


    Eventually, all of the restrictions the Force ced on him would be removed and he''d be able to use the full power of the Force on whatever he felt like.


    Rayleigh asked, "Would you know of a good Inn with an eptable bath on the ind? As you can tell, I''d rather wash myself of the stench of this ship."


    The corpulent Lieutenant nodded and looked around the captured ship with a sneer at the foul odor. It was reasons like this that he did not consider pirates to be human. How could civilized humans live in such filth? They were obviously beasts.


    "Of course. In fact, for such a grand disy as this, you may spend the night in our base." Although he wouldn''t get anything from the bounty, if he could disy enough friendliness to get Rayleigh to turn in a few more bounties at his base, he''d be able to im it was thanks to him and get some merit from that.


    Rayleigh epted the offer and spent the night. The Lieutenant even offered his own bathroom, but Rayleigh declined since that would just be too weird.


    The following day, Rayleigh''s money arrived via seabird delivery. It wasn''t arge sack of gold coins, but a wad ofrge denomination bills that the World Government used when paying high value bounties. These weren''t stored in weaker Marine Outposts since that invited greed.


    After collecting the bounty, Rayleigh headed off, but upon exiting the Marine base, he saw a familiar face. It was the wimpy guy from earlier and his two bodyguards. Said wimpy guy had stars in his eyes when he saw Rayleigh and walked up to him like he was meeting a famous super star. He said, "You were amazing sir! Please, I must ask. Would you be willing to be my bodyguard? You see, my father is sending me to the Grand Line for some important business, and you''ve proven that no pirate can stand up to you. Please? I''ll pay whatever it takes."


    Rayleigh smiled. Yeah, Force Guided GPS was way overpowered.


    *Author''s Note*


    If Qui Gon can pilot a submarine he''s never used before from one end of the he''s never been on, through the monster infested core, to the other end of the, without getting lost or running out of fuel, then you can obviously tell how overpowered Force Guidance is. It also shows howpatible the Force is for stories in worlds like One Piece, so I hope this chapter inspires some Star Wars One Piece Crossovers.

 Chapter 61: Entering the Grand Line in Style

    Chapter 61: Entering the Grand Line in Style


    *Author''s Note*


    Ray''s ability to kill monsters that even the Force wouldn''t care about only applies without his Nensaber at the moment due to the Divine Script on the handle.


    Chapter 61 Entering the Grand Line in Style


    The little wimp and his two bodyguards took Rayleigh to a restaurant to discuss the deal, offering to pay for the meal just for listening. Rayleigh wasn''t a pauper anymore, but that didn''t mean he''d turn down free food.


    After sitting down and ordering their meals, the little man who asked for protection introduced himself. "My name is Gaston Ivanshore. These are my bodyguards, Ruiz and Soulette. They have served me for many years and I trust them with my life."


    Rayleigh pointed out, "But you are still looking for another bodyguard?"


    The elder of the two sword baring bodyguards sighed and added, "It is as you say. My own skills have carried me far in the South Blue, but I fear they will not carry me far enough if the young master were to encounter the real dangers of the Grand Line."


    Gaston continued, "That''s not the only problem. Although my father has a way for me to enter the Grand Line, I can only take one person with me and we cannot travel while armed."


    Rayleigh asked, "That sounds kinda suspicious. You have a way to head to the Grand Line, but you can only use it without any weapons?"


    Gaston chuckled lightly, "That''s an understandable reaction, but it''s as safe as can be. If you agree, I can take you to my father and he can give you the details."


    Rayleigh asked, "Why me?"


    Soulette, the same elder swordsman answered, "If I were to journey with the young master, I would have to acquire a sword immediately upon arrival. There is no guarantee I would be able to get anything worth its weight in metal. You, on the other hand, do not seem to be impeded by theck of a sword at all, from what I heard."


    Gaston''s eyes seemed to shine, "That''s right! The Marines who gathered up the wounded pirates yesterday talked all about you and what you did! Fifty pirates, all with precise sword wounds, yet made without a sword! You are a devil fruit user, right?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "I''m not actually. I can swim just fine. As for my ability to cut without a sword, that''s just my style."


    Gaston''s eyes widened again in surprise. "That''s amazing! I''ve never heard of a sword style that doesn''t use a sword before. Would you be willing to listen to my father about this offer?"


    Rayleigh asked, "Can''t you tell me yourself?"


    "I''m sorry. I actually don''t know all the details. This matter is very important to our family''s future."


    Rayleigh answered, "Sure, but after our meal."


    No one disagreed with that and a small feast was brought out and enjoyed before they paid the bill and headed out to the Ivanshore manor on the ind.


    The house could be considered opulent, but not tacky, a fine line, but refreshing to see nheless. At least the man had a sensible sense of style.


    They passed six more guards as they made their way from the front gate into the manor''s guest receiving hall. Rayleigh was served some decent tea he enjoyed for the few minutes it took for Gaston''s father to show up.


    Rayleigh honestly could not help being surprised at the figure of the man who came in with Gaston. If it weren''t for the fact that the man wore an extremely fine suit, Rayleigh would have guessed this man was another highly paid bodyguard. Although the hair color was different and he wasn''t mostly bald, Rayleigh still wanted to ask, Major Armstrong, is that you?


    "Greetings! Thank you for listening to my selfish request! I understand you are willing to listen to my proposal?"


    Instead of answering, Rayleigh asked, "Is Gaston adopted?"


    "Hahaha! That is not the case, he just inherited more from his beautiful mother. She''ll be down shortly."


    Rayleigh shook the confusion away and answered the prior question, "Yes, I am interested in hearing about this bodyguard position of yours."


    "Splendid! Please follow me to my study. I''ll exin the details for you."


    Rayleigh got up and passed a few halls through the manor. The interior walls were bare of decorations and furnishings, implying they had either been removed or that this house was recently built.


    The pair entered another room that had a shelf of books and several cartographic maps. A few of the bookshelves had little miniature ships in ss bottles.


    The Major Armstrong look-a-like sat in arge chair on his side of the desk and gestured for Rayleigh to sit in a cozy looking one opposite him.


    After Rayleigh did so, the man introduced himself. "My name is Oscar Ivanshore. First, I would like to profusely thank you for not only saving my son and his bodyguards, but for bringing those loathsome pirates to justice."


    Rayleigh asked, "Why did they target your son?"


    Oscar shook his head, "Those damnable sea dogs raid two or three viges a year for supplies, and the survivors of those raids were only those with fates worse than death. My wife''s little sister was one such unfortunate soul, and I could not stand by anymore. I paid a few bounty hunters to look for the Six w Pirates, but only one found them and he didn''t make it. He likely told them that I privately hired him to kill those pirates."


    A heavy voice came from outside, "Those filthy fucking bastards deserve Death!"


    Rayleigh turned back, expecting to see another bodyguard or something, but the one who entered looked almost exactly like Oscar, except without the mustache and with longer hair. Was this his brother?


    Oscar got up and shouted, "Honey! Please meet the fine young man who saved our son."


    Rayleigh used every scrap of self control granted by his eighteen Wills not to start convulsing at the thought of the sentence that had just been spoken. This was the beautiful mother Gaston inherited his looks from? How did they both look so much alike but nothing like their son?!


    The ''woman'' stated harshly, "I heard about him already. He should have fed those roaches to the sharks!"


    "Now, now, honey. Since each was captured alive, they can get what they deserve, and what they deserve is far from a quick and merciful death."


    He hugged her and she hugged back, lifting her leg into the air like a delicate woman while stating ''softly,'' "You''re right. I love you."


    Before this could escte into anything worse, Rayleigh coughed once and asked, "So, about this bodyguard request to the Grand Line?"


    Oscar perked up at that and replied, "Ah, yes, of course." he opened up a drawer and took out a folded piece of paper, looking over it once before stating, "I received a letter from a distant cousin of mine, Demalo ck. Some years ago, he married into a wealthy family, but recently, they were all killed by pirates. ck ims that he was able to hide away all of their furnishings, artwork, and jewelry. He asked if I could provide the money needed to ship if from their ind on the Grand Line back to the South Blue in exchange for half of everything. The letter included pictures, and much of it seems genuine, but I cannot be sure. The line ck ims to be from was not one I am familiar with."


    Oscar then gestured to his house, "If it were money or weapons, I would not care for it at all, but such furnishings are incredibly hard toe by, and I owe it to my beautiful wife to give her only the best, so I wish to send our son to check on the furnishings and artwork. You see, my son is quite the artist himself. This house was designed by him, and even the pickiest of merchants and fallen nobles have had nothing but praise for our son''s eye. If he says it is genuine, then I am willing to pay Mr. ck the funds needed to transport everything out of the Grand Line."


    Rayleigh got the gist of it and asked, "How exactly do you n to get us in and out of the Grand Line?"


    "Ah, that''s simple. My family is from a long line of Marines. Although I chose to be a merchant, I did so with the Marine''s best intentions in mind, and I have greatly benefited them. In exchange, I am afforded their means of traversing the Calm Belt when needed, in and out of the Grand Line."


    That surprised Rayleigh a bit. He asked, "The Marines can cross the Calm Belt?"


    The Calm Belt was a long territory of sea on both sides of the Grand Line. It was named the Calm Belt because there was no wind, meaning you could not use sails to pass it. Oh, and it was also the territory of Sea Kings. Your average Sea King was a monstrous sea beast that could be anywhere from half a kilometer long to five kilometers long. It was said that some were even longer.


    Crossing the territory of Sea Kings was a sure fire way to end up dead, so it was assumed that the only means of entering the Grand Line was Reverse Mountain.


    Oscar answered, "It''s a new development actually. It''s only thanks to this that I can even consider this deal. You''ll sail to the South Blue''s Marine HQ. From there, you''ll travel on a specialized ship that can cross the Calm Belt and arrive at Enies Lobby. From there, you will take a Sea Train to Water 7. And from Water 7 you''ll take a ship to Banaro Ind. Its quite close to Water Seven, so it won''t take very long."


    Rayleigh considered it. He had no idea what any of those were, but at least it seemed to be a pretty direct route. He could get the fine detailster.


    Rayleigh asked, "Would it be okay if I wanted to stay in the Grand Line?"


    Oscar looked surprised for a moment before he startedughing, "Hahaha, of course, you would. Young men like yourself should be out there living it up. As long as you can escort my son back to the Sea Train on Water Seven once everything is finished, that will be fine."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Alright, then we have a deal."


    "Eh? But you haven''t even asked about your payment yet."


    "I have enough on me. What I really need is a way to enter the Grand Line."


    The dy'' of the houseughed like sandpaper being scraped together and said, "He''s just like we were all those years ago."


    Rayleigh didn''t want to see any more intimate moments, so he excused himself out of the room and found Gaston waiting outside.


    Rayleigh said, "I agreed to take you there and make sure you get back."


    "Really? That''s great!"


    "Yeah. By the way... Your parents..."


    Knowing exactly what he was talking about, Gaston let out a long sigh and eximed, "I don''t know either. A friend of mine from school once thought my mother cheated on my father. He apologized for his mistake when he saw her for the first time."


    Rayleigh patted Gaston''s shoulder with pity. The wimp had led a hard life it seemed.


    The ship leaving for the South Blue Marine HQ would take two days toe, so Rayleigh shamelessly asked for something as a recement for pay. At the moment, he still wore what were basically the martial rags from the old Boxing Gym and he needed something a bit finer.


    That led to a meeting with the family''s tailor and by the time they were set to leave, Rayleigh have three sets of travelers'' clothes and two sets of handsome formal attire that didn''t make him look like a beggar. All of this was folded and ced into a nice backpack for him to carry around.


    On the day of their departure, Ray wore one of the sets of traveler''s clothes and returned to the Marine Outpost to catch a ride to the Marine HQ. All the arrangements had been made ahead of time and the only hassle was the act of checking their belongings for concealed weapons. Rayleigh was told this would be done every time they entered a new ship, so there was no way to smuggle something dangerous aboard the Marine Vessel.


    Some of the Marines onboard looked at Rayleigh with eyes of admiration while others looked at him with skepticism. Both had heard of his recent deeds, but while some believed it, others did not.


    The ship''s captain did not care about it either way. He was told to allow them on board and to take them back to the South Blue HQ. His opinion on the matter was irrelevant and he didn''t spend longer than a moment to look over the pair before returning to his duties.


    Once the ship set sail, things were less tense and a few of the more curious Marines started up some conversations with Rayleigh and Gaston.


    Some tried to start arguments or insult him, but Rayleigh wasn''t affected by anything they said, and since escting the issue beyond words would not benefit them, they usually walked away, leaving Ray with just the Marines who were not assholes to talk with.


    From them, Rayleigh learned a bit more about the world. It really did seem cartoony.


    The best resources in the world were usually minerals, metals, and species found specifically in the Grand Line, so it was where most of the wealth outside of the World Nobles was located. A few decades ago, most of the Grand Line was somewhat stable since travel anywhere wasplex and dangerous. This made changes slow to ur which was how people liked it.


    Things changed with a Pirate the Marines called Gold Roger sessfully sailed from one end of the Grand Line to the other. Before him, there was no record of anyone making it all the way to the end. For this aplishment, this pirate was given the title of King of the Pirates. It was said that he umted the greatest treasures in the world. The problem started with his execution.


    Rayleigh asked, "Wait, he was executed? How did the greatest Pirate get caught by the Marines?"


    The Marine he asked answered proudly, "Don''t underestimate the Marines. Pirate King or not, we are the greatest power on the sea."


    Rayleigh nodded with understanding. These guys were obviously delusional, so there was no point in asking further.


    The Marines continued and told him about Roger''s execution. The man was brought to the ind he was born on to be executed in public, in the center of town. Before his head was cut off, someone asked where he left all the treasures he collected.


    There were different stories for what he said. He either said that he left everything in One Piece, or that he left everything in That ce. In either case, people basically assumed that he left all of his greatest wealth on thest ind of the Grand Line, the one that Roger''s crew was the first andst to find. Everyone referred to this assumed treasure horde as One Piece.


    This final message ignited the greed in the heart of every man in the world and started the great Age of the Pirates.


    This story also made Rayleigh want to find this final ind. Once he got there, he''d toss the One Piece into the sea and rece it with a treasure chest containing a scroll. The scroll would have written on it, "The real treasure was the friends you made along the way."


    Rayleigh couldn''t help but snicker at the idea of turning that meme into the greatest trolling prank on the. Even if he didn''t do that here, he would definitely try to pull that on someone someday.


    The arrival at the Marine HQ was followed by another bag search. The middle aged woman also asked, "Are either of you devil fruit users?"


    Rayleigh and Gaston both answered, "No."


    She then asked, "Would you mind jumping into the water to confirm it?"


    Rayleigh asked, "Will we have time to take a shower afterward?"


    "That won''t be a problem."


    Travelers clothes was made to dry easily even after getting submerged, so he had no problem with jumping into the water, swimming a bit, and confirming that he did not sink like all Devil Fruit Users did.


    The woman wrote a few things down and said, "Thank you. I''ll show you to where you can stay tonight. The ship to Enies Lobby will be leaving tomorrow morning."


    Every Ind with a sizeable Marine poption had a town attached to it and this one also had a hotel for guests. The rooms did in fact have a shower and Rayleigh could pay to have his sea water soaked clothes washed and dried by the morning.


    After the sun rose, they were led back to the Marine''s docks where they met a man who stood out more than they did. The man wore what looked like a designer shirt but his face was partially covered in metal tes and he had messy hair and a perpetual sneer. Said sneer did not wane as he looked over the pair and said, "You two had better not cause any trouble or you''ll have to swim through the Calm Belt."


    Rayleigh briefly entertained using telekinesis to remotely throw this guy off the ship in the middle of the night. Using telekinesis and irvoyance at the same time was a new skill he''d picked up thanks to the greater mastery of the Force he gained in thest few years. What was even better was that his irvoyance was no longer impeded by doors and walls. Rayleigh could, potentially, use his irvoyance to peek into the man''s room at night, open his window with Telekinesis, and toss the man out the window. He could also use Force Choke through irvoyance, but he didn''t think anyone deserved that.


    Still, the man had not done anything but say some unfriendly words. Cutting his life short just because of that was not something he was willing to do. Rayleigh almost hoped the man would antagonize him more though, since he had a gut feeling this was the kind of guy who enjoyed kicking puppies.


    The ship set to traverse the Calm Belt had a different shape than the normal ones. Using irvoyance, Rayleigh could see that the underside of the ship was tter and it had some paddles to propel the ship through the windless region of the sea. What caught Rayleigh''s attention though was that the underside of the ship seemed to be coated with something, but he didn''t know what.


    The quality of Marine on the ship heading into the Grand Line was noticeably higher than the ones he met on the way to the HQ. Even if they were still cannon fodder, the cannon fodder on this ship would probably have been able to deal with the cannon fodder from the Six w Pirates.


    Another noticeable difference between the Marines on this ship from the ones on the prior ship was the discipline. On the negative side of that, this meant that no one bothered to speak to Rayleigh or Gaston, leaving the pair only able to chat with each other. Rayleigh told random stories about things that happened in the Circus while Gaston told him a few stories from his childhood and some more details about this world. In the four Blue Seas, Devil Fruits were rare. Maybe a half dozen or so Pirates in each Sea had one. This meant there were probably less than twenty-five Pirates who had a Devil Fruit outside of the Grand Line, yet inside, there were more than two, three, or four times that. Most people in the Blue Seas were lucky if they saw a single Devil Fruit user in their life. Inside the Grand Line, as long as you didn''t live under a rock, you''d be lucky not to encounter someone with a Devil Fruit who didn''t want to kill or rob you.


    One of the Marines walked up to them and said the first words they heard from a Marine since getting on the ship. "We''re about to pass through the Calm Belt. Don''t make a sound or try anything funny until we''re through."


    The sails were raised and everything that could make sound was secured. The paddles at the side of the ship were pretty quiet all things considered as they drove the ship forward.


    Having been on a ship for thest few days, Rayleigh felt it was quite eerie when the wind just stopped. The paddles moved the ship slowly to avoid disrupting the surface of the water as much as possible. Without a fast moving vehicle or the wind, there was no breeze to pass their faces as they moved forward. Tension rose in the ship and fear could be felt from just about everyone.


    It was obvious that some ships didn''t make it past the Calm Belt, so he wondered how the ones that did make it through. Was it good luck for them or bad luck for everyone else?


    Rayleigh was the only one who was not worried. If a sea king appeared, he''d try and say hi. If it wanted to fight, he''d give it a fight. Worst case scenario if it sank the ship, he''d try beating one into submission and making it take him to an ind. Well, the worst case scenario was death, but he didn''t feel that he would die on this journey, so that was never a problem.


    After two hours of tense silence, the wind returned and a collective breath of relief was heard from everyone on board. The sails were lowered and they practically flew forward.


    Rayleigh was officially in the Grand Line now. He wasn''t sure at first, but now he did feel that there was a difference. It wasn''t a physical thing, more of a spiritual issue. Like the background music of this part of the world was different from the rest of the world.


    Enies Lobby wasn''t too far from the Calm Belt. The only thing they had to pay attention to was the strange and random weather and the Log Pose. From what he learned of Marines that had been to the Grand Line, Compasses didn''t work here. You either used a Log Pose to get from one end to the other, or an Eternal Pose which always pointed to the same ind. This ship had one for Enies Lobby so it wouldn''t get lost.


    It only took another few hours to arrive. Like the South Blue Marine HQ, Enies Lobby was a massive Marine Base with a town built into it. That''s where the simrities ended. Around the territory of Enies Lobby was a fence that went from above sea level all the way to the sea floor and surrounded the entire ind. This was not to guard the ind but for the protection of ships that got too close.


    For some inexplicable reason, Enies Lobby was above what could only be described as a hole in the ocean. Rayleigh''s irvoyance made him doubt his abilities since the town sized ind had nothing below it. It was held aloft above the hole in the ocean by a single strip ofnd.


    Rayleigh had no choice but to ask one of the smarter looking Marines, "How the hell does that work?"


    The Marine smiled, most had the same question when they reached Enies Lobby for the first time.


    "At the bottom is the source of the Tarai Current. It forms a massive whirlpool. Enies Lobby, Impel Down, and the Grand Line Marine Headquarters are built around the Tarai Current, since it allows us to sail from one to the other at the fastest speeds."


    Rayleigh''s irvoyance confirmed his words. At one end of the hole was a port that led to a massive door. That door led out to a swirling current. Their ship was heading for the port on the opposite side, the one that had the strip ofnd that seemed to hold up the whole of Enies Lobby on its own.


    The swordsman in him wanted to sever that strip ofnd, sending the whole of Enies Lobby down into the hole. That would probably seal up the source of the Tarai Current and screw over the Marines in a bunch of different ways. If he left some survivors and let them take pictures, he might be able to get on the front page with that.


    But that would also require him to kill several hundred innocent Marines and their families that lived on the town sized ind. Yeah, he''d find a different way.


    After getting off on the port, they waited at the train station. The Sea Train traveled from Enies Lobby to Water 7 over a floating set of tracks and was quite reliable. Apparently, the train made noises that Sea Kings didn''t like, so they would avoid the trains and until now, they had a perfect safety record.


    Thankfully, the Marines joining them on the Sea Train journey were considered off the clock and could speak with him leisurely. Thanks to this, Rayleigh could ask them about the various Pirates in the Grand Line who made a name for themselves, what they were doing, and where they were doing it.


    The biggest names he guessed were yers at the moment were the Lightning Pirates, Dragon Pirates, Bomb Pirates, and Wonder Pirates. They were the loudest and messiest, though they weren''t the only ones ying around. Captain Jack of the ck Pearl had sessfully defeated several Marines that attacked them. Apparently, their only crime was flying the Jolly Roger. Their crew didn''t even have an official name or bounty at the moment.


    The Lightning Pirates and Dragon Pirates seemed to be working together, but the Dragon Pirates were having a few issues. One of the Strongest Pirate Crews in the world, the Beast Pirates, wanted the Captain of the Dragon Pirates dead since thetter had the same devil fruit as the captain of the Beast Pirates and Dragon Chef refused to join him. It seemed that Dragon Chef was taking this in stride though. Every Pirate who came after them was defeated, strengthening the Dragon man himself and his crew with every victory.


    The biggest and noisiest problems were from the Wonder Pirates and Bomb Pirates. Both had strong crews and have given the Marines a Bloody nose. Wonder Woman, the captain of the all-female Wonder Pirates, had a bounty of 83 Million at the moment, but it would probably rise with her string of victories. Dyna Might, captain of the Bomb Pirates, already had a bounty of 105 Million berries, but that was not so much due to his strength as the amount of damage he caused.


    The whereabouts of both crews were known at the moment, making Rayleigh wonder if he could get an Eternal Pose at Water 7 to head ahead of them and y around a bit.


    *Author''s Note*


    Anyone know what I should call Captain Jack''s Pirate Crew?


    He doesn''t have a devil fruit by the way.

 Chapter 62: The Benefits of Cable Television

    Chapter 62: The Benefits of Cable Television


    Chapter 62 The Benefits of Cable Television


    Despite the fact that they were leaving the outrageously ced Marine Base, a majority of the passengers of the Sea Train were not Marines. They were actually the families of the Marines. Many of them were not even going to Water 7.


    Rayleigh chatted with the various young women and elderly men and learned that after Water 7, the Sea Train traveled to an ind called Pi, along with a ce called St. Por and San Faldo. The train left Enies Lobby in the morning and arrived at San Faldo at noon before turning around and returning back to Enies Lobby after night fell.


    Before the sea train, these inds were basically dying. The Great Age of Pirates started by Gold Roger made the act of stealing merchant ships and turning them into pirate ships the national past time and the trade between inds suffered horribly, despite the proximity to Enies Lobby.


    The sea train changed all that, enabling reliable and quick trade between these inds. The train didn''t hold more than a single ship''s worth of cargo making it less appealing to raid over groups of merchant ships. The reason that trade flourished in the area wasn''t because of the train''s payload, but because of its frequency. Having it travel back and forth every day for years was enough to bring the life blood back into every ind it passed through.


    ording to the passengers on the sea train, each ind had its own specialties. Water 7 was considered the holynd of ship building. It was initially a set of seven ship buildingpanies built on an ind, but recently, all thepanies were unified into a singlepany called Galley-La by a man named Iceberg.


    Pi was very well known for its delicious food while St Por was renowned for its liquor. San Foldo was actually famous for its festivals. With these ces all connected in a way that allowed for dailymutes, this was a lively region and popr area for everyone.


    From what he was told by his fellow passengers, once they arrived at Water 7''s station, they could find a ce that let you rent Bulls. Despite the name, Bulls wererge, well trained seahorses that were used as taxi-like boats. You rented a Bull, hopped on board, told it where you wanted to go, and it would take you there.


    Water 7 was obviously inspired by Venice, but had a design all its own to stand out. As the train approached the ind, it could be seen in the distance and looked like a giant fountain. The water pouring from the top of the circr ind flowed down to the sea and formed street-like rivers the Bulls could swim up and down. Ships could also be pushed and pulled throughout the ind using these water-ways, making it an incredible convenience for the shipbuilders who lived there.


    "Ah, seems the old boy is at it again."


    One of the passengers looking out the window spotted something that made the other passengers take a look before returning to their seats.


    Rayleigh and Gaston also took a peek. The tracks of the sea train did not lead directly into the station via a straight line, but led partially around the ind before turning into the station, so it was possible to see the end of the tracks from the windows.


    Standing on the tracks appeared to be a van sized frog. Not only did it have ck hair on its back, but much of it was tied in what appeared to be a Japanese top-knot.


    Gaston asked one of the passengers, "Why is that frog on the tracks?"


    Said passenger, an old man with a walking stick, slowly answered, "He''s trying to stop the train. Not sure why. But he does so every so often."


    Gaston looked understandably confused at that, "Often? Does he jump away at thest moment?"


    The old man chuckled, "Nope," but didn''t borate further.


    The train was now in thest stretch to the station and they couldn''t see the frog anymore, but a few momentster, the train shook a bit.


    Looking out the window, Rayleigh and Gaston both saw the frog sent flying into the air from getting impacted by the train.


    Gaston asked, "Is he gonna be alright?"


    The old man shrugged, "He''s been fine so far."


    That obviously brought up more questions than answers, but it seemed to be a normal urrence for the locals which made it a bit less interesting.


    After arriving at Blue Station, the pair got off and asked for directions to the ce they could rent Bulls. The Bulls came in different sizes with different carrying capacities, but the smallest bull was enough for the pair and their belongings and renting it for the day only cost 2,000 berries.


    The bull itself had the shape of a small lochness monster with a face that looked closer to a horse than a dinosaur. A two-seater wooden boat was attached to its back like a saddle and the one they rented was light blue with purple spots.


    Rayleigh patted its head causing it to give an appreciative neigh before he asked, "Can you take us to Dock 4?"


    Said bull nodded with an excited neigh in the affirmative before Gaston and Rayleigh jumped onto the boat on its back and it took off.


    The water ways of Water 7 reminded Rayleigh of the package delivery ways of Omashu from Avatar, the Last Airbender. They were ridiculously convoluted, everywhere, and fast. Some water ways weren''t even on the ground, but waterfalls that their bull directly swam up while Gaston held on for dear life and Rayleighughed at the absurdity of it. He definitely wanted to stay here for a few days if possible. This ce made water parks from Earth look likezy slip and slides.


    Something Rayleigh learned during the train ride here was that the Water 7 of today was leagues different from the Water 7 of the past. Right now, even if the Sea Train were to stop running, they would still be fine. There was plenty of strength on the ind and they had a lot of connections. Pirates weren''t feared and those who wanted to fix, buy, or build a ship without paying the right price were easily exchanged for their bounties with the local Marine Office.


    Of course, this paradise of shipwrights had its own problems. Like the Venice it was modeled after, the ind was sinking. Oh, and every once in a while, a massive tidal wave struck the ind.


    ording to Oscar, the guy who would take them to Banaro Ind was waiting for them at Dock 4. If they could find him quickly, they could arrive at Banaro Ind before sunset, return the next morning, and have Gaston on the Sea Train back to Enies Lobby that night. From there the Marines could handle returning him home. Rayleigh was just there to make sure he didn''t get unlucky. Or at least that''s what he thought for the first five minutes.


    "Throw them in the sack!"


    Rayleigh honestly didn''t think the Grand Line would have been that dangerous to travel through but was promptly proven wrong. Before even reaching their destination, while the pair was still on the Bull, they were targeted three times.


    The first time, tworge bulls carrying two groups of six people surrounded them and pointed pistols at them, attempting to rob them outright. None of them understood why their bulls suddenly spiraled onto their backs, sending them all into the water.


    The second time was the same as this third time, a trio of dastardly looking fellows jumped from the roof and tried tond on their bull with a big sack. They were really trying to pick up the pair and throw them in a sack. None of them understood how theypletely missed theirnding and ended up in the water.


    Rayleigh himself didn''t look like an easy target. He was sixteen and thanks to his training could pass for neen or twenty. Young, but not particrly weak. The problem was Gaston. He practically radiated weakness. To pirates and kidnappers who made a living doing such things, he probably looked like he was made of solid gold in their eyes.


    After cutting through the various rivers in the city, the group made it to Dock 4 and got off, saying goodbye to their bull and heading off to find the ship that was supposed to be their ride.


    The dock itself looked like a construction site, which it was. Magnificent ships worthy of dreams were built piece by piece with care and efficiency. Wood was sawed and shaved to size before being bent and nailed into ce. With the manpower and setup avable, even a ship capable of carrying fifty men could be built in a week or two.


    There were dozens of ships along the numbered piers of Dock 4. The man paid to take the pair to Banaro Ind was supposed to be on Pier 21, but when they asked the crew on the ship from that pier, the first mate replied, "The Captain''s at the Iceberg Bar. You''ll need to talk to him first."


    The pair fended off two more robberies and another kidnapping attempt before finding the bar and asking the bartender, "Is Captain Hook around?"


    The bartender pointed at a man drinking at a table with a woman who had three chins. From the smile on the man''s face, he either had different tastes than most, or the beer was very good at changing perspective.


    Despite the name, Captain James Hook did not in fact have a hook for a hand. That was just hisst name.


    Rayleigh approached and asked, "Are you, Captain Hook? I''m here for Oscar Ivanshore''s request for passage to Banaro Ind."


    The heavily inebriated man looked with disinterest at Rayleigh before rolling his eyes and muttering, "Fine, wait on the ship. I''ll be there in two hours." He then got up and took the ''woman''s hand and walked her to the stairs at the end of the bar leading up to rentable rooms. Rayleigh decided not to think about it.


    The pair returned to the ship and no one robbed or tried to kidnap them this time. Seems they eventually learned their lesson.


    Rayleigh chatted with the crew and found that they were privateers. Basically, legal pirates. Companies or the Government would pay them to do certain things which weren''t always nice. They were basically mercenaries of the sea. A number of them had experience as bounty hunters before getting recruited to this boat. Of course, that didn''t mean they were trustworthy.


    Rayleigh saw a number of guyse and go from the ship, one of them was a familiar fellow who tried to kidnap them earlier, friends of the crew apparently. From that moment, the crew became a bit more distant and wary, something Rayleigh found to be a good sign. Since they heard that Rayleigh easily dealt with others, they knew there was no easy money to be gained going against the escort job.


    The captain staggered back to the ship and Rayleigh wondered how much the man would regret his day after the hangover ended if he remembered it.


    The captain slurred some orders before heading to his bed, but the first mate already knew what to do, so the ship set sail for Banaro Ind.


    In the Grand Line,passes were useless and there were usually clouds at night and strange winds, so navigating without a Log Pose was not rmended. Besides the Log Pose, there were also Eternal Poses. They were a special kind of Log Pose that could be locked onto a specific ind and would always point to that ind. There wasn''t an Eternal Pose for every Ind, but you could buy one or have one made as long as you paid enough. Oscar Ivonshore''s payment to James Hook included the funds needed to get an Eternal Pose to Banaro Ind, to ensure the journey was as swift and clean as possible.


    After a few hours of sailing, their destination was on the horizon. Without exception, every ind in the Grand Line has some notable feature or quirk, and Banaro Ind was well known for the giant rocks that bore a simr shape to bananas. The ind was only a few kilometers wide, but the giant banana rocks jutted out hundreds of meters tall and could be seen from a long distance away.


    Banaro Ind was a rtively peaceful trade ind so it had a decent port for their ship to dock at. On arrival, it was normal to check out the other ships around and check for a Jolly Roger to see if there were any Pirates on the Ind. From what they saw at least, none of the other ships had the tale-tell skull and crossbones design.


    Rayleigh and Gaston hit the port and walked into the town to get directions on ck''s mansion while Hook''s crew checked the market for anything worth trading.


    Before they arrived, Rayleigh told Gaston, "If any of the stuff is fake, don''t tell them right away. Don''t tell them a single piece is fake if you see any of it is fake. On the other hand, if it is real, tap my shoulder."


    Gaston asked, "What? But why?" His father asked him to appraise everything. If it was fake and worthless junk, what good was it to tell them it was real if they were trying to fool them?


    Rayleigh sighed. This was the problem with cultures thatcked cable television. They were too unfamiliar with suchmon troupes.


    Rayleigh''s favorite shows were the kinds you learned a lot from like Burn Notice, Leverage, and White Cor. From there you learned how criminals operated and how to deal with them.


    After shaking his head, Rayleigh answered, "If they are trying to scam us, they will go to n B if you are not fooled by the fake stuff."


    He looked scared for a moment, "You mean they''ll rob us?"


    "Something like that. Just don''t say a single piece is fake, got it?"


    Gaston did not understand the purpose, but such instructions were easy to follow as they made their way to the house nestled up to one of the towering banana shaped rocks.


    The decrepit mansion looked weathered beyond years. It had not been painted or restored in decades, at least. There wasn''t a single pane of unbroken ss in any of the windows that weren''t empty, leaving the pair with the distinct impression this was probably a scam. Before they reached the entrance, the door opened and a tale and round bellied man withbed back hair and a suit that looked two sizes too tight came out and said, "Ah, Mr. Ivanshore. I''m d you could join us for this opportunity. Please,e in,e in."


    Seeing that Rayleigh hadn''t run away, Gaston elected to continue on and into the house. Besides the decrepit walls, floor, and roof, the interior was filled with junk that looked like someone literally took it from someone else and threw it inside so they could im it came with the house.


    ck began describing, "This here is an authentic Gastanburg couch. It''s a little dusty, but they stopped making these centuries ago. And these portraits were painted by the great artist, Le Hugh. They are priceless! And this chandelier..."


    Gaston tried to give a fake smile while quickly ncing at Rayleigh every few seconds. The fact that Gaston had not said anything or toughed Rayleigh''s shoulder proved what the young artist thought of everything.


    ck continued walking them through the house while highlighting all the valuable pieces and their history. Rayleigh honestly wondered what the con artist thought his chances of fooling them really were.


    Now, Rayleigh sensed the other presences in the house waiting for the signal to likely pounce and kidnap them. He could easily take them all out, but where was the fun in that? What good was having all five seasons of Leverage on his DVR if he didn''t take the opportunity to mess with a con artist trying to trick him?


    ck asked at the end of the tour, "So, what do you think?"


    Rayleigh answered, "It looks alright, do you mind if Gaston and I discuss this in private in another room?"


    "Of course, right this way." ck took them to an empty room right next to where the rest of his crew were waiting in silence. Though the room they were in was empty, every word they spoke could be heard from the other room.


    Once they were ''alone,'' Rayleigh asked, "So, what do you think?"


    "I, I don''t know." He was told not to say it was fake after all.


    Rayleigh nodded, "That''s right. I have no idea where these guys obtained such valuable treasures."


    Gaston had no idea what he meant but didn''t want to say something wrong and just added, "Me neither."


    Rayleigh said, "That fool has no idea what he really has. How dare he calls Bruce Wayne''s Masterpieces the work of that no talent Le Hugh. He must really think those paintings are fake. The full value of what he told your father was only 5 million berries. But those three paintings are worth over 69 Million berries on their own. Since the idiot has no idea what he has, I believe it is best not to tell him. Let''s agree to his proposal and have your father send the money to send everything across the Calm Belt. A mere five million for a collection with 69 million is robbery finer than most pirates could ever im."


    Gaston''s eyes widened as he caught onto the n. He asked, "But what if he catches on?"


    Rayleighughed loudly. "Impossible. The only way for that collection to gain its value is for them to be taken to an appraiser. The best appraiser who could write up the documents that prove the value of these paintings would cost five million Berries! Even if this group of fools was able to gather that much, they''d never think to hire an appraiser for what they believe is either a fake or forged piece of junk. No. We''ll y along and give them what they want. It''s only five million berries and for giving us such treasures, they deserve a tip, don''t they?"


    Gaston nodded, "Right. Okay."


    Rayleigh then opened the door and found Mr ck down the hall like he had not been eavesdropping the whole time.


    Gaston took in a breath and said, "Mr. ck. I believe this collection is genuine and will be informing my father to send the funds to have everything shipped over by tomorrow. Is that agreeable?"


    "Oh? Of course, of course! That''s wonderful." ck looked ecstatic.


    The pair then left the house and headed back to town where their ship had finished its business and was waiting for them to return.


    Only after the ship left the ind did Gaston ask, "So what should I tell my father?"


    "The truth. It was a scam and everything was fake. That being said, I''m sure we can find some stores in Water 7 that sell good furniture, so it''s not much of a loss." The heaven for shipbuilders was also the heaven for all woodworkers, so they certainly had a few good things.


    Gaston asked, "Then why did you tell them that my father would send them the money tomorrow?"


    "So they would not hesitate to spend 5 million berries today to get those paintings appraised. Any other time, it would be a waste and risk to do it, but if they know they will get the money back tomorrow, they will be willing to take the risk today."


    "But what if they wait until tomorrow since they think the money wille tomorrow?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "Don''t you know it is a crime to treasure a jade ring? When you have something valuable, the best thing to do is to get rid of it before others learn of it. With such a valuable painting, the best option would have been to kill us both since we knew of it, but letting us leave would give them five million more berries. Their greed forced them to let us go, but what if we simply hired someone to go back and kill them and take it? Criminals consider such things since that is exactly what they would do. If it takes us a day to get the money, then it would also take a day for us to get someone toe back and kill them. So they have to sell the painting before we get the money."


    Gaston looked at Rayleigh in awe at his deduction abilities, but this kind of stuff wasmon sense to those who watched cable television.


    Rayleigh continued, "If we pretended to be fooled by the fake valuables, they would have been suspicious. But if they knew we were nning on betraying them and they knew how to stab us in the back first, it is obvious what they would do. To be honest, they probably never thought you would think the stuff was real. They likely nned on kidnapping you and getting a ransom for you from your father. But even your father isn''t worth 69 million berries, so I was able to rece their n with a different one."


    For such a crew to pull such a stunt, Rayleigh doubted they would have more than 5 million. If they didn''t have enough, they''d likely take a high interest loan under the assumption they could pay it back right away. In other words, Rayleigh hadpletely destroyed them. And he did so without harming them in the slightest.


    After returning to Water 7, the pair rented another Bull and went around the city to the various shops. Gaston didn''t like anything he saw, so Rayleigh suggested that the young artist write his own designs for furniture and have it built. Gaston agreed and they found a good store that was willing to do it. They eventually made a deal to make enough custom furniture for the house and have it sent back to the South Blue to the Ivanshore mansion.


    Once that was taken care of, Rayleigh loaded Gaston back onto the Sea Train heading for Enies Lobby, his workplete.


    Now, he decided to have a bit of fun. Rayleigh spent three days wandering around Water 7. Besides visiting every shop, he also rode every inch of the waterways, because, why not?


    Once he was finished, he headed for the ind that was famous for its food and spent another three days there, enjoying the sights and food. He intended to go from there to the ind of liquor and the ind of festivals, but his journey was cut short by a familiar face.


    "Hey Swordsman, that you?"


    Rayleigh turned to the side and spotted a ck haired youth wearing a very distinctive hat.


    "Captain Jack?"


    "Ha! That''s right. d you still remembered."


    Rayleigh looked at the hat for a moment. It was the exact one Jack wore in the Hunter World. Rayleigh asked, "Did you turn your hat into an inventory item?"


    "Of course I did. Even if I don''t have a ship, I will always be Captain Jack as long as I have this hat."


    Rayleigh nodded at the sea wisdom. Indeed.


    *Author''s Note*


    Yeah, writing filler is boring, but I couldn''t just teleport Rayleigh to the Grand Line since he didn''t pay for that. But this chapter was also to introduce the fact that Rayleigh won''t be killing mice with an RPG. If he can solve an issue without a sword, he will do so. Now we are back to the action.

 Chapter 63: Getting Famous 101

    Chapter 63: Getting Famous 101


    Chapter 63 Getting Famous 101


    Captain Jack took Rayleigh to one of Pi''s better restaurants and ordered for the both of them. One of the local delicacies was something called water meat. It was better than chicken and the meat was incredibly soft and juicy.


    After filling their stomachs, Jack asked, "So howe I haven''t seen you in the Chat? You trying to be sneaky or something?"


    Rayleigh nodded, that''s exactly what he was trying to do. Since he intended to use the yer''s fame to get fame for himself, his presence needed to be a surprise for most of them. "Pretty much. I paid for a background where Mihawk would teach me, but it had conditions. I need to get on the front page of the newspaper as a swordsman."


    "Damn. How much did that cost?"


    "Twenty thousand Mission points. And that was just for the identity. I had to get to the Grand Line on my own."


    "I see. Well, that won''t be easy. The yers here are always trying to get on the front page so you''re going to have a lot ofpetition."


    "I was hoping I could use that to my advantage. Can you help me out? You still owe me after all."


    Captain Jack looked thoughtful for a moment. Although he did spar with Rayleigh a few times, he didn''t actually teach him anything and they both benefited from those matches, so he was still in Rayleigh''s debt for those Nen and Force lessons.


    "Alright, I''ll help you with this and we''re square, savvy?"


    Rayleigh snorted at the line but nodded nheless.


    Jack continued, "Okay, so there are a few steps needed to get on the front page. First, it doesn''t really matter what you do, unless you blow up the Marine Headquarters, kill a few Celestial Dragons, or overthrow a dozen Kingdoms, the newspaper won''t put you on the front page if no one knows your name. That means the first step is getting your name known. The second step is getting your name well known. The third step is getting famous. And thest step is getting very famous."


    Rayleigh asked, "Could you be any vaguer?"


    Jack nodded and replied, "Of course, I can. But don''t worry, I''m taking this seriously. I''ll help you make a n for all four steps. First I need to know what you''ve already done and we can work from there."


    Rayleigh considered it before giving a brief description of what he had done so far and his background.


    Jack asked, "So you turned in a bounty to the Marines and even got lifted by the Marines through Enies Lobby? Okay. I can work with that. Since you aren''t a pirate, you can use the Marines to help you get famous."


    Rayleigh asked, "Are there any yers in the Marines?"


    "Of course, there are. But they don''t get in the way of the other yers. Doing so would make an enemy for life, but you don''t seem to care about that kind of thing, right?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Not if they owe me."


    "Good. We can work with this. Of the guys you taught, who doesn''t owe you a favor?"


    "Dragon Chef told me everything he knew about Haki, so he''s off the list. And Justice taught me everything about the Marine''s Six Powers, so he''s even with me as well."


    Jack whistled appreciatively. He didn''t need the Six Powers, but he knew how valuable they were. After thinking it over for a few moments he came up with a n. "Alright, the biggest target you could face would be either Dragon Chef or Titan, but the former doesn''t owe you and thetter works with him, so targeting either may not work. Since you can''t use big targets, we can use a couple of little targets."


    "First, to get your name known. We can hold a public fight, you and me. I''m not gonna go easy on you so it''s your fault if you lose, but I will only use my swordsmanship, so if you can''t beat me, you don''t deserve to learn under Mihawk anyways. This will get your name known."


    Rayleigh could agree to that. He didn''t know if Jack had a Devil Fruit but he did know that Jack''s Hatsu type was Maniption.


    "Next, you can go to the Marine Base on Gilliad Ind. Everyone knows that Wild King has been sending Sea Kings to harass that ce every month. Since you don''t have a Devil Fruit, you can fight in the water and drive back the Sea Kings. This will get your name well known. That should also get you into the good graces of the Marines and from there, you can find some of the famous Marine Swordsmen and challenge them in swordsmanship. If they ept and you win, that will get you famous."


    Jack paused for a moment before continuing, "Thest step will have to be pretty big. I just so happen to know that Wonder Woman''s Wonder Pirates are going to rob a certain ship in two and a half months. That ship will be guarded by Marine vessels, but they will get their asses kicked. If you join the detachment and sessfully fend off the Wonder Pirates, that will be enough to get on the front page."


    Rayleigh asked, "What is that ship carrying? If it is ves or something, I''m not protecting it."


    "No, Titan and Dragon Chef are the ones that usually target ve ships. But no one likes hearing about the existence of ves, so you''ll never get on the front page doing anything associated with ves. The ship has some valuable treasures Wonder Woman doesn''t actually care about. She is attacking the ship to get on the front page herself and you can use that to your advantage."


    Rayleigh nodded as it was as good a n as any. He asked, "Can you tell me about the yers and what they are doing?"


    "Nope. That''s not a part of the deal. Unless you have good information to trade for it?"


    "Hmm. Ah, I got one. If you tell me about what the yers have been up to around here, I''ll tell you the biggest secret I''ve discovered in this game."


    "Oh? Now you''ve got me curious. Alright. But I''ll be the judge of how valuable this secret is."


    That was fine with Rayleigh. If Jack didn''t give him information equaling what he gave, that would put Jack back into Ray''s debt.


    Rayleigh exined some details of his time on Tython and the presence of Easter Eggs, things that were definitely not in the Canon and secretly ced for the benefit of the yers. Rayleigh refused to believe an Adventure filled world like this didn''t have Easter Eggs. The catch was that you wouldn''t know to look for them if you didn''t know they existed.


    Jack contemted the details and already had a few ideas on where such Easter Eggs could be located. Besides Laugh Tale, there was probably an Easter Egg or two on the Sky Inds. If it was simr to Tython, that meant you could use Sky Inds to teleport from one to the other. Or perhaps there would be something equally ridiculous. Yeah, that information was actually very valuable and would make him change a few of his ns for the future.


    "Alright, here''s everything I know about the yers at the moment.


    First, Justice, White Knight, Goddess of Ice, and Mimic are the only yers that are currently a part of the Marine Faction.


    Rayleigh replied, "I know about Justice and White Knight, but who is Goddess of Ice and Mimic?"


    "Who indeed? Mimic has the power of the Clone Clone Fruit. He can change into a perfect replica of other people. What''s crazy is that he can use their strength too. One of the strongest Marines is a guy named Garp. Mimic can turn into Garp and be way stronger than any of us yers. When he changes, he can''t use that person''s Devil Fruit or special abilities, but he can use their full physical strength. I hear he is trying to copy the physique of some of the strongest pirates in the world right now. As for Goddess of Ice, she has the Chilly Chilly Fruit power and uses a Sword. She and Wonder Woman bicker all the time in the Pirate Chat."


    "Mimic seems to be working with the ck Ops equivalent of the Marines while Justice and Goddess of Ice are being trained by the Vice Admirals that have the same Devil Fruit power they do, giving them a serious boost in the skill department. White Knight hasn''t revealed his skills to the Marines yet, so he is training in secret. We don''t know how strong he is."


    "The rest of us fall into one of three groups. The Pirates who want attention. The Pirates who want to change the World. And the Pirates who just want to have fun. I''m in thetter group of course."


    "Titan, Dragon Chef, Wild King, and Shadowcat are apart of the smallest group, Pirates who want to change the world. Shadowcat is a petite girl who can move through objects like a swimmer through water. She isn''t really a Pirate though, so much as a very skilled Thief. They are basically terrorists pretending to be criminals while shaking the foundations of the World Government until it cracks. The Marine yers have actually been helping them by giving them details through the Chat. None of the yers like the World Government after all."


    "The Pirates who want attention are those like Immortal Beauty, Glitter, Wonder Woman, Lightning Lord, and Dyna Might. They are all drama queens and fight over front page stories with each other and brag to everyone for weeks on end every time they get on the front page."


    "And the rest are those who are just having fun. Most of these guys are either working for another yer or doing stuff on their own. Invisible Man usually pairs up with Shadowcat. Crow and Stoner usually work for Titan. Sandman and Fire Queen, usually work for Dragon Chef. But that is a give and take rtionship and they can leave at any time. Everyone else does their own thing and it''s unlikely you''ll run into any of them."


    Rayleigh doubted that was all of them so he asked, "Anyone who I should specifically avoid?"


    After thinking about it for a moment, he answered, "Santa us. Stay away from that crazy bastard."


    "Dufuq? What can he do?"


    "He makes toys."


    "How is that bad?"


    "He makes them with his Devil Fruit power. From people."


    "Okay.. Why are you making that sound scary?"


    Captain Jack shuddered for a moment before taking a calming breath and exining, "ording to the yer who got turned into a toy a while back, everyone''s memory of that yer was forgotten. yers are somewhat safe from this since we have two sets of memory, but it''s still creepy as hell. And after you are turned into a toy, you have to obey the orders of Santa us. Thankfully, Santa didn''t know that person was a yer at the time, so he didn''t think to give him the order to stay off the yer Chat. That yer used the Chat to tell everyone about it and we all threatened toe over and kill him if he didn''t change that yer back. He did, but we all know he won''t make that mistake again. That means he could turn you into a toy,mand you to never enter the Tavern or use the Chat, and you would have no way to escape or ask for help."


    "Okay, that''s fucked up."


    "Yep. So stay away from children you don''t know."


    "Children?"


    "Yeah, the power of that fruit has a downside of eternal youth. Santa us got it when he was like eight or so and hasn''t aged since. So he is still eight years old."


    Rayleigh nodded and decided to keep that in mind. What a freaky power.


    The pair ordered a second helping of food and spent the meal discussing the various yers who came and left.


    Jack exined, "Plenty of Jedi and Hunter yers show up every once in a while before leaving. You can''t use Devil Fruit abilities until you turn on the Pirate ss which requiresing here. Most of them left, but there could be yers like you who came and didn''t enter the Chat."


    Rayleigh asked, "Any Pirate yers leave and nevere back?"


    "Just Vash the Stampede. His family was too wicked and he was too nice, so he left for the Jedi Gxy and didn''te back."


    Rayleigh wondered how much the yer using the Trigun Protagonist''s name would be like the anime character himself. Something to look forward to in the future.


    Rayleigh asked, "So how do you want to do this duel?"


    "My crew will contact a few newspapers to make sure they send some reporters with cameras. We''ll have it on San Faldo. That ind has a Carnival Square that''s empty when there are no carnivals and will make a good stage for a fight. We can fight tomorrow."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Works for me."


    The pair separated and Rayleigh took the Sea Train to St. Por. He''d head to San Faldo tomorrow, but for now, he wanted to sample the liquor that the ind was famous for. He couldn''t get drunk, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t enjoy a good drink. Rayleigh spent the rest of the day gathering information on Jack''s n, such as the location of Gilliad Ind he''d head over toter.


    Rayleigh remembered that Wild King''s Hatsu attribute was Maniption, so Rayleigh figured the yer could control animals using abination of the Force, Conqueror''s Haki, and Maniption Nen. ording to Captain Jack, Wild King could control all animals. So he was abination of Aquaman, Taylor Hebert from Worm, and Ratcatcher 2 from Suicide Squad. A pretty broken set of powers, he had an army that could overwhelm others anywhere he wanted. Jack said that Wild King didn''t have a crew or a ship. He didn''t need either since he could ride Sea Kings and recruit whatever he wanted.


    Rayleigh looked forward to it, but first, he had a duel to win.


    St. Por was an ind that always yed music in the background and sold masks and costumes to visitors and guests. The various merchants and workers all wore borate costumes which made those who didn''t wear one stand out enough to peer pressure visitors into buying them. Rayleigh had no sense of style after living so much of his life in the wilds, but even if he did, there was no point in getting something he''d only wear once.


    Near the center of the ind was a massive area where the streets were lined with multicolored stones and statues of various grand and historical figures were everywhere. While passing through the center, Rayleigh felt a threat and knew that the show was about to begin.


    Rayleigh drew his nensaber handle and extended the electric blue de. "Open, Babylon."


    Captain Jack''s cuss had been aiming for Rayleigh''s neck and slid off the Force infused aura de. Without a word of warning, Jack attacked again, causing Rayleigh to parry. Jack''s sword had a phantom ck sheen he recognized as a trait of items reinforced with Armament Haki. Rayleigh wasn''t sure if his Nensaber''s sharpest form could cut such a sword, but now was not the time to test it. Now was the time to show off.


    Although the pair called it a match, neither was really using proper swordsmanship. Instead, they were flipping around, doing spins, and deeply cutting into the ground.


    Actual swordsmanship does not parry a sword attack with another sword. They just dodge the attack and swing to counter it. This kind of fight that was basically bouncing your sword off your opponent''s weapon repeatedly was something you only had the luxury of doing if you had a sword that wouldn''t break.


    A crowd had gathered around the area as Rayleigh''s glowing blue sword and shy fighting style were fun to watch. Especially since sparks seemed to fly out with every strike against Jack''s sword. The pair were still ying around, but as the minutes passed, they eventually got more and more serious. That was just the warm up after all.


    Rayleigh and Jack both started to slowly speed up their strikes. Jack neither attained One with the Sword nor possessed Heart of the Sword, so Rayleigh could defeat him in a few exchanges based on pure swordsmanship if they really went all out. Of course, Jack''s specialty wasn''t swordsmanship, so that didn''t mean too much in the end.


    Rayleigh only figured out that he had been sporting a smile a couple of minutes into the match. He couldn''t help it. There was no prize or trophy, just a pair of teens with swords fucking around in front of an audience for the express purpose of looking cool. Yeah, he could see why a lot of yers put so much effort into getting on the front page. Sure, in the long run, it was pointless, but if you didn''t fill your childhood with pointless things, were you ever really living?


    Although the pair enjoyed themselves as only teens haphazardly swinging around dangerous weapons could, Rayleigh felt a nudge from the Force and his smile dimmed. He suddenly got the impression that this n wasn''t going to work. He needed something more, something outrageous.


    Jack noticed Rayleigh''s change and rose an eyebrow as if to ask what he was thinking about. Rayleigh thought of something and his smile returned. He motioned with his eyes to take the fight closer to the innocent bystanders.


    Jack knew Rayleigh was skilled enough not to hurt them on ident and did so. He jumped behind some members of the audience and used them to block Rayleigh''s sword like the despicable pirate he was.


    Rayleigh withheld his sword somewhat while shing and jumped to the side to strike Jack around the screaming audience members, but Jack did the same trick a few times.


    The audience got scared and looked like they were about to run away, but saw that Rayleigh''s glowing sword was pulled back and didn''t harm anyone, so their curiosity got the better of them and they stayed. Their perseverance was rewarded when the dress straps started falling.


    After a three or four second dy, the people Jack used to block Rayleigh''s sword had their clothing fall off. Men were rendered shirtless and the dress and outfits that the women wore fell from their forms.


    Jack smiled at the perverted idea Rayleigh had and helped by using the hotter members of the female part of the audience as shields.


    Rayleigh''s sword was capable of sending flying aura des of great and small sizes, so sending a hair thin aura de strong enough to only cut fabric wasn''t difficult for the sword wielding teen. This technique drew inspiration from Kensei Ma and Shigure Ksaka from History''s Strongest Disciple Kenichi.


    The women were screaming, "Kyaaa! Pervert!" And the men were ogling them and cheering.


    At one point, a tall librarian big sister looking woman''s outfit fell and revealed a set of ckce undergarments beneath. Both Rayleigh and Jack stopped fighting and simultaneously looked her over and gave a strong nod of approval before they returned to their fight.


    Rayleigh''s irvoyance told him that some Marines were on the way so he stopped ying around and started to suppress Jack, forcing the fine hat wearing pirate onto the defensive. Jack then dived into a canal and swam away.


    "Don''t move! You''re under arrest!" Rayleigh turned off his Nensaber and surrendered to the Marines. He didn''t have anything to hide and if he had to pay for the damages, he had enough.


    Thenky Marines obviously weren''t expecting a surrender and cuffed him before taking him to the small Marine Station on the ind. They were surprised that he wasn''t a pirate, didn''t have a bounty, and was actually in the right since ording to the witnesses, Rayleigh was attacked first.


    Rayleigh''s identity was confirmed since he already had all the paperwork when he came through Enies Lobby, so after paying for the damages, he was let off the hook. Instead of leaving, Rayleigh asked, "Hey, do you know how I can get to Gilliad Ind? I heard about what was happening there and wanted to test my sword against the Sea Kings."


    The Lieutenant in charge of the ind''s outpost already had the full story from the witnesses of how good Rayleigh was, and since Rayleigh''s record included turning in a notorious pirate crew, he had no reason to refuse the help.


    Said Lieutenant answered, "There''s apany of Marines heading there from Enies Lobby in two days. If you''re really interested, I can arrange for you to go with them."


    Rayleigh heartily agreed and prepared everything with the Lieutenant. The request still needed approval from the Marine''s boss, but considering the skill Rayleigh disyed, he had a good feeling about it.


    As predicted, Rayleigh''s fight with Captain Jack ended up on the news. It was page 13 out of 20, but it was still news. One of the reporters got a great shot of Rayleigh and Jack shing at each other with a nearly naked woman in the background. Rayleigh was extremely impressed with the photo. How skilled did someone have to be to take such a picture? Rayleigh''s glowing de covered the woman''s chest and the angle of Jack''s cuss covered the woman''s waist while her exposed legs, belly, and shoulders were in full view. She was wearing undergarments, but they were blocked by the weapons which made it look as if the woman was actually naked and her mature regions were coincidentally covered up by the swords.


    Compared to the other stories on the paper, the fight between a random guy and a rtively unknown pirate was of little importance, but the golden quality of that single photo elevated the story to the point that it would have been a crime not to include it.


    The story included some details about Captain Jack and Rayleigh. Thetter was called the Clothes Severing Swordsman. Rayleigh chuckled and wondered how Mihawk would feel when the perverted swordsman this article made him out to be showed up at his front door. Oh well. At least he knew exactly how to take down the Wonder Pirates in a way that guaranteed a front page story. Wonder Woman would likely never forgive him, but if he got the angle right, he''d ensure she was on the front page with him, in all her wonderful glory.

 Chapter 64: Hiatus and New Story Sample

    Chapter 64: Hiatus and New Story Sample


    Hiatus Time!


    Yay. Writer''s block. I have too much stuff crowding my head. That part of My head that connects to the void I draw the content of Reincarnator''s Tavern from is blocked off by traffic jams from all the other stuff demanding to be released from its prisons through the interface that is my brain. I need to get it out of the way before it lets me continue here. I am sorry. It might be a while before the next chapteres out.


    As an apology, here is one of the things I pulled out of my head. This is the crazy story I referenced I might start at the end of Mutant Obscurus Gamer.


    This Story is rated M, not for seggs, but for random acts of horrible brutality. There will be zero seggs.


    Do not read if you don''t like Dark Humor. This is a Dark Humor Crack fic with an interesting plot. I actually had this idea long before the Tavern and thetter inherited a few ideas from this story, but I couldn''t put all the pieces together and eventually moved on. But now that I am done with Mutant Obscurus, I am tempted to restart it.


    Chapter 1 The Lord of Madness


    Beautiful. I may be crazy, but I can still appreciate beauty. The wall of the spherical room I''ve gathered my seven apprentices in is lined from top to bottom with rows of crystals that sparkle and shine with greater beauty than the Gxy itself. Though perhaps it is biased as I am the one who created this spectacle.


    These are not ordinary crystals of course, but Kyber Crystals I seeded into the walls, long, long ago. This room can be considered my masterpiece, my greatest achievement to date. Perhaps I am not the only one in the Gxy who knows how to grow Kyber Crystals, but I have some certainty that I am the first to naturally grow them into a formation diagram.


    There are many Sith who know how to use a Kyber Crystal to create a weapon that can channel the power of the Force to great and destructive ends. What many Jedi forget or choose to ignore is that the Lightsaber itself is a Sith invention the Jediter modified to feel less evil. Pansies.


    However, this room is something else entirely. Because the seeded Kyber Crystals grew here from scratch and fused together over time, the entire formation is seamless without a single crack or edge. Getting the Crystals to naturally grow into such a formation was something that required decades of experiments to learn and centuries to achieve.


    "You know you''re mad, right?" My favorite apprentice of this batch, an old human woman with grey hair asked aloud.


    After chuckling a bit, I answered, "I do hope you can survive the shock of this revtion, but you are not the first to tell me this."


    The gray-haired woman and her fellow apprenticesughed or snorted in amusement at the jest at my expense. None of them were at all bothered that today, they were all going to die. Why should they? Each was over a century old and had lived long, good lives. Moreover, they knew that today wasing from the moment I took them in. It is unlikely they would have lived as long or did as much without me, as most were little more than ves or worse when I picked them up.


    Each of my apprentices is what others would call, a Jedi Master. The Light Side of the Force lived within them, strong and pure.


    I have seven apprentices at the moment. It was a good number. I liked how pointless it was. Few if anything real came in sevens. Its great and glorious meaning came from how many things were pointlessly sorted or divided into groups of seven. People gave it meaning by doing so and then used this meaning to justify the act of doing it more. It is a self-perpetuating mind trick.


    A former apprentice of mine once pointed out that I was wrong because the rainbow had seven colors. I was quite disappointed in him. Other than the color ck, every color exists in a rainbow as long as the''s sr star is white rather than red or blue. The reason a rainbow is divided into seven colors is that the value of the number seven existed before the dividing of colors, so seven''s imaginary value actually predated the universal identification of the colors of the rainbow on manys.


    In order to educate my former apprentice and grant him a greater appreciation of the wider color spectrum, I branded the name of each color into his skin. Too bad it didn''t take. My former apprentice onlysted until periwinkle before dying of trauma.


    Not that I mind people telling me I am wrong. In fact, the opposite is true. I love to argue. But if the one who tells me I am wrong does so with a poor foundation, then I may decide to get creative when ites to shoring up said foundation so that our next argument will be more productive. Should said person survive my lessons, I''m confident they will never forget them.


    Few if any would believe the Jedi Masters gathered here are my students. The unrestrained darkness around me gives away to any with the slightest sensitivity that I am a Sith. However, I am not a member of Kaan''s Brotherhood of Darkness. In fact, I do believe after thest time I encountered the currently crowned Dark Lord of the Sith, the interaction resulted in a bounty being ced on my head that is five timesrger if I am brought back to him alive rather than dead. Hehe, I imagine he was just upset that after breaking into his house, I reced all of the tools at his research station withrge ck dildos.


    Though not famous for any acts of atrocity, I happen to be quite well known in the Gxy for my acts of audacity. No Sith would dare im to have performed a meager fraction of the feats I have aplished in my centuries of life.


    I have long since forgotten my name, and even my past is iffy at best. I''m certain I have it written down somewhere, but I keep forgetting where I put it because it''s not important. As for my identity, I was gifted the title, Darth Abyss, Lord of Madness. I''m certain it''s supposed to be an insult, but I''ve grown quite fond of it. A title is something a Sith''s Master usually gives them, but I never had a Master, so I had to make due.


    One of the two reasons I was granted this title has to do with all the times I''ve encountered Sith Spirits who have tried to possess me. For some reason, each and every time they enter my body and try to take over my mind, they instantly give up and flee my body, usually while screaming in terror. I''m certain they''ve been talking about me behind my back. How rude.


    I''ll admit that I am not sane of course. Sanity is highly overrated and I have never seen anyone brag about being sane, so I have no reason to feel ashamed that the collective Sith Empire of tens of millions of the craziest people in the Gxy unanimously agreed that I''m the craziest one of them all.


    I used to be sane of course, but that didn''tst very long. I was born with the gift of Psychometry, a force power that cannot be trained. You either have it or you don''t. What I never understood until it was toote was that the strength of the effect of my gift was on another levelpared to others.


    If someone with normal Psychometry touched a musical instrument, they might have a fleeting vision of someone who once yed it. When I touched it, I would know exactly how to y all the songs that were most frequently yed using it. When I touched abination lock, I could clearly see the person who set thebination. This worked too for security terminals, password-protectedputers, and secret doors as well.


    However, the amount of information I could gain with the object or even the person I touched that had anything to do with the Force was far greater than normal objects. I didn''t discover this until it was toote. Not long after being found by the Jedi and taken to the Jedi Temple, I found the secret passage to the Jedi Vault and used my gift to discover how to open it. I guess it can be said that I died that day, because going overboard and biting off more than I could chew doesn''te close to describing what I went through. The first time I touched something within, I guess you could say I became drunk. So much knowledge in such a young mind without the proper training on how to process or configure it. I was not in the best of mindsets and rather than leave and digest what I had learned, I proceeded to use my gift on each and every piece within.


    It must be known that all Jedi and Sith Holocrons have Gatekeepers, built-in guardians who prevent the unworthy from essing the information within. A skilled Force user could rip the knowledge from the Holocron without gaining permission from the Gatekeeper. I didn''t need to even open the Holocron, one touch was all that was required and I would gain the equivalent of the understanding of the Force that the one who made the Holocron possessed.


    The Jedi Vault had numerous holocrons made by countless Jedi Masters, but it also contained Sith Holocrons as well. It even contained an assortment of Sith Artifacts and though each was held behind a security pin-locked case, that certainly did little to stop me from getting my hands on them.


    It would be safe to say whoever I was died that day. I was a boy too young to shave yet I had taken thousands of years worth of knowledge from both the Light and Dark Sides of the Force. Things were quite blurry after that and by the time the pieces in my head had repositioned themselves into what could be called a mind, I had taken my Master''s life as a Sith Sacrifice and be a Sith.


    What probably broke me was that I had gained intimate knowledge of the ideals of the Jedi and the Sith and those two werepletely ipatible. If I had taken them slowly through learning the content through the Gatekeeper, this would not be a problem, but I had done the equivalent of jamming my head with the voices and ideals of hundreds of people, many of whom never saw eye to eye and all of them were speaking to me at all times.


    After somewhat digesting most of what I had gained, I started on my path to seek the peak of knowledge and power. The reason I had be a Sith was simply because there was no path to the peak of power for a Jedi. In fact, Jedi don''t really have any power. Jedi enve themselves to the Force, and in return, the Force gives them their power, so even if a Jedi existed who could defeat every Sith in the Gxy, the power he possessed would not be his own, but what was being lent to him in exchange for his envement.


    There were three general ways to interact with the Force. The first was to enve yourself to it as the Jedi do. The second was to enve the Force to your own will as the Sith do. And the third was to have a give-and-take rtionship with the Force, which is the path that those who call themselves Gray Jedi follow.


    During my first few decades, I purely followed the path of the Sith. I used my desires and emotions to strengthen my will and enforce my will on the Force itself, ripping it away from the will of the living Force and dominating it to my own will to be used as I saw fit.


    Seeking more knowledge, I used my Psychometry to bypass any security measures and break into many secretive locations including the homes and vaults of many Sith. I used Psychometry on every journal, Holocron, and Artifact within. Exar Kun''s Lightsaber, Tk Hord''s Armor, Aleema Keto''s robe, the Amulet of Kra, and hundreds of Sith Holocrons fell prey to my gift. Good thing too, many of the vaults and tombs I''ve raided were emptied or destroyedter, so there are pieces of information that only exist within my mind. Somewhere. I''m sure it''s in there somewhere.


    It took centuries, but after understanding the legacies of so many Sith, I discovered that Sith were always destined to die. The reason? Every time they enved the Force, a Debt toward the Force umted in their name. As the Debt increased, the Force would cause the Gxy itself to turn against the Sith. The only way to survive was to be even stronger, staying ahead of the will of the Force. This is why Sith who grow stronger live quite long while those who stagnate always die.


    Gray Jedi got around this by listening to the Will of the Force and doing deeds asked of them by the Force which bnced the Debts they umted when using the Dark Side.


    This was not something I would emte. Sith do notpromise. Sith do not take a step back or negotiate.


    However, just because I have no intention of paying my Debt to the Force, does not mean I can''t get others to pay my Debt for me. I figured out a way to pay off all my Debt without losing anything. In fact, I even gain more from this measure than I lose.


    All I had to do was look for a few Force Sensitives and train them into proper Light Side enved Jedi. Their future services towards the Force initiated thanks to my training, bnced my Debt, and yet each one was taught to be loyal to the Force second and me first. So with each student, my Debt was lessened and I lost nothing, yet gained a valuable, loyal minion.


    Taking and actually training powerful ves of the Force is the second reason I was granted the title, Lord of Madness. They simply don''t understand my brilliance. That, or they are simply mad that some of my apprentices in the past have defeated many a powerful Sith and even a Sith Lord or two.


    Using my umted wealth of knowledge, I have spent thest few centuries performing experiments to raise thepatibility of a body of flesh and the Dark Side of the Force.


    I''ve long since mastered a basic trick for life extension. I''ve taken the knowledge of Cloning from the Kaminoans and a number of other groups and have mastered the basics of Essence Transfer. Clones have weaknesses of course, but I''ve gotten around this by farming Droch. Droch are life essence parasites, and from a mature Droch I can harvest Life Elixir, the distilled essence of the lives of the countless prey a mature Droch has feasted upon over their lifetime. Using psychometry to mimic Dark Transfer, I can inject refined Life Elixir into my clone and direct it to any weak points, granting the clone health and vitality not possible under ordinary circumstances. Then it is a simple matter of using Essence Transfer to move from one body to the next. Through the overpowered strength of my psychometry, I can mimic several other Force powers such as Dark Transfer, Shatterpoint, Life Drain, and many others.


    However, my research hase to a dead end. Sith can, over time, allow their bodies to adapt to the corrosive nature of the Dark Side, but the stronger the power a Sith channels, the greater the corrosion. No matter how well a Sith''s body adapts, I''ve determined there is an upper limit of the flesh. The true power of the Dark Side is something the Sith will never truly know, for if one was able to channel even a fragment of its true power, the Dark Side would turn their bodies into dust.


    This was not eptable. So what if I be more powerful than any other Sith? The Light Side could just grant a servant more power than my fleshy body could sustain and that Jedi could use it to overpower and kill me.


    I''ve taken samples of species that are biologically immortal and species that thrive on the power of the Dark Side. However, all the Sith Sorcery and Sith Alchemy and medical knowledge I''ve taken from the Republic and even the Rakata''s Infinite Empire was unable to create a body that could adapt perfectly to any concentration of the Dark Side. There was always a limit.


    Still, Sith are stubborn.


    Since I was unable to create a body that could perfectly sustain the Dark Side, then I will have to find one. This ritual chamber I''ve created will do just that.


    To my Jedi apprentices, I give onest look and order, "Begin the ritual."


    "Yes, Master," they all intone. Obedience to my will first and the Force second was always the priority while training them. Should any ever disobey or betray me, I would not feel sorrow. Instead, I would enjoy the musical sound of their screams as I slowly and methodically removed their spine. Luckily for them, I am an excellent, if mildly unconventional and moderately unorthodox, teacher of the Light Side of the Force. After all, I don''t pretend to know what it is and teach around the truth hoping the student won''t wise up and realize they are giving up their future and free will. I inform the children I find of this truth directly and only train them after they have sworn to be a ve to my will and the Will of the Force.


    Most I''ve found are little better than ves regardless and bing the ve of a powerful Master while also gaining the chance to be trained to be powerful themselves was not an offer they were in any position to refuse. Their connection to the Light Side does weaken when they follow mymands over the Will of the Force, but other than not killing me and gathering information throughout the Gxy for me, I rarely call upon my minions for assistance so that is not an issue thates up frequently.


    This batch of seven have never been given an order that went against the Will of the Force during the entire time I''ve taught them. This ensures their connection to the Light Side of the Force is at the very peak which is a requirement of this ritual.


    All seven called upon the power of the Light Side of the Force and together they manifested it into an enormous pir of light that surrounded me. This was a Jedi technique called Wall of Light. It was used to sever and seal a person or object''s connection to the Dark Side. A grand majority of Jedi Masters cannot use this ability because it requires a stronger connection to the Light Side than they are willing to serve under. This is not a problem for my students because I don''t hold back on the conditioning and brainwashing required for a Force user to deeply connect with the Light Side. Those Temple-trained Jedi always pretend that Light Side training is not brainwashing and conditioning, so the brainwashing and mental conditioning they use on their own disciples is always done in a half-assed way.


    When the Light Side forces its way into each and every cell of my being, I do not resist, the Dark Side is slowly cut away from my senses as the Force itself extends beyond my reach. Although I do not resist, I am still wrecked with pain.


    For all Sith, the Dark Side is a drug that forces the user to constantly take more and more. Of course, if you point out the irony that the Sith who im to enve the Force to their will are themselves enved by their addiction to it, you''ll likely end up a roasted, electrified corpse. In either case, having the Force cut away from me was much like a lifelong addict going through a deadly case of withdrawal while also being roasted by fire and fried with lightning. I have never before felt so much pain. It is quite educational. To think such pain was possible. There is always something to learn, isn''t there?


    It did not end here of course. The usage of such a massive amount of Light Side energy sparked the formation formed from Kyber Crystals on the wall, causing them to glow brightly in a cascading reaction that built upon itself. The Pir of light caused the Kyber Crystals to glow brightly which caused the pir of light to glow even brighter in an unending loop. Mere moments after its activation, the center of the sphere where I stood glowed with the blinding intensity of a star. What was forming here was something that had never been achieved in the history of the Gxy. An artificial Light Side Nexus.


    After the Force has beenpletely cut away from me, my body begins to glow as the light of the room, the light of the Force, and the light of the Nexus itself is channeled through my apprentices into my body. Each of them seems to age decades as the seconds pass by. This ritual will cost each of them their lives, but my servants perform their duties to the letter as they have been taught to do since the day I took them in.


    My body burns away entirely leaving my soul as a barrier of light forms around what''s left of my existence.


    In the next instant, everything is gone and the light of the room fades as each of my apprentices falls lifelessly to the ground. My soul is surrounded by light and is being sent directly into the Force where this barrier will protect my soul until the conditions are right. Those with a connection to the Dark Side cannot be one with the Force, their souls go to the Chaos when they die which is why my connection had to be severed before my soul was removed and shielded.


    As I enter the Force, I can see into the distant Gxy. I can see all of the Sith and their immeasurable Debts have been called to Auratera. I can see a n in motion. All the Sith will die save one who will start a new order. I smile at this, sending myself into the Force has spared me from their fates. I can''t wait to see what the Sith make of themselves once I return.


    o_o


    In the basement of an ancient, ominous house were an elderly woman, an old man, and a very young woman, with thetter clearly in the process of giving birth. The only other being in the room was a short gray creature that wore a sack instead of clothes.


    The basement floor was covered in ritual circles that guaranteed a one-way trip to the worst prison on the if they had been discovered, but the family didn''t care. This was more important.


    The elder woman held the hand of the young woman giving birth while the old man held a book in his hands while reciting line after line of a forbidden incantation.


    The older man was 79 years old and the elder woman was 54 years of age. The woman giving birth was much younger, at 19 years of age. She was a frail thing and seemed to grow pale through the ordeal.


    The old man was Arcturus ck III, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of ck. The old woman was his daughter-inw, Walburga ck, who was also the daughter of his cousin. And the paling young woman giving birth was Noza Lestrange, the little sister of Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and the youngest of the Lestrange siblings.


    The events leading up to that night urred nine months prior. The Heir of the ck Family, Regulus Orion ck, went missing and through magic, it was determined that he was dead. His father, Orion Arcturus ck, died of grief shortly thereafter. This meant the only remaining son of the ck family was Sirius Orion ck. However, Sirius had turned his backpletely upon the ck family traditions and had been removed from the Family Tapestry, removing him from the family itself, and leaving the ck family with no male Heir.


    To the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of ck, this could not be tolerated. He made a deal with the Head of the Ancient House of Lestrange for Noza Lestrange. Daughters of the Lestrange family were, more often than not, well known for their fragility and usually used as breeding stock. Noza''s health was not particrly good even for a Lestrange and she had not even attended Hogwarts. She knew her fate and when a chance was given to leave a legacy, she took that chance willingly.


    Though dead, it was not difficult to find some hair of Regulus, and using the ancient knowledge stored in one of the old family Grimoires, it was possible to use magic and give Regulus a son after his passing. Through the deal of the cks and Lestranges, Noza would be dered Regulus''s wife prior to his death, thus ensuring the strength of the child''s im to the seat of Heir ck.


    Had things been different, Arcturus may not have decided on this route. But as it was, he could not sit idly by and do nothing. His grandson and heir had been killed by Voldemort, the very Dark Lord that Regulus had sworn his loyalty to. With Regulus dead, the position of ck Family Heir would fall to the next son of his granddaughters, all of whom were either married to a servant of the treacherous Dark Lord or had been removed from the Family Tapestry and the line of session.


    Rodolphus himself was a loyal servant of Voldemort and was unaware of the true purpose of Lord ck''s request. Arcturus would not tell him. Far too many of the old families had been tricked by this madman who called himself a Lord.


    The ritual chamber started humming and the etched formation lines started to glow a deep, blood red. Arcturus was almost caught off guard by this. The ritual light should glow scarlet red, not blood red. Moreover, the brightness was far greater than the dim light the ritual''s effect should in fact produce. However, he could feel its thrumming power. He could feel that for some reason, it seemed to be even stronger than it should have been. This was a good thing.


    The ritual had a number of effects, but the main effect was to sacrifice the life of the mother to strengthen the life and magic of the child. This was magic older than Hogwarts herself, ancient magic that had not been used in centuries. The reason it had not been used in so long was because the mother had to sacrifice her life willingly and no one was willing to do so in modern times.


    Noza knew she was not likely to survive giving birth in the first ce and even if she did, she would notst much longer after the birth. Instead of dying a worthless death, was it not better to willingly give up her life to empower her child? A child with the purest lineage who would be the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of ck? Her sacrifice may never be written down, but her legacy would live on.


    Walburga impassionately watched the blood-red light swirl around the mother of her grandchild and after a few moments, enter the young woman''s flesh. This was a calcted risk. The ritual to seed the child of the dead did not have the best track record for producing powerful Wizards. In order to mitigate this fact, Arcturus decided to use it together with the Mother''s Sacrifice Ritual to empower the child, regardless of the fact that the two rituals had never been used together before.


    Once the red streams of light settled into the mother''s body, Walburga gave her a potion to drink and with trepidation, the former Lestrange took it and downed the potion in a single movement. She nced over to the eyes of Walburga and saw a flicker of respect. Noza was happy with that, she had not hesitated and herst act had at least gained her Mother-in-Law''s approval.


    In the next moment, Noza ck nee Lestrange couldn''t help but scream. Her body aged rapidly as her skin withered and cracked. Her voice turned raw and soon she lost the ability to even speak, releasing only a silent scream of agony as her body was wreathed in pain worse than the cruciatus curse could ever inflict. Herst thought was the sincere wish that her sacrifice was enough to strengthen her son and that he would grow up to do great things.


    Walburga''s wand waved and several incantations were spoken. The child was removed via magic from his dead mother and for the first time, Walburga and Arcturus were able to see the face of their Heir. The moment they saw him, both were shocked. His meager tuft of hair shifted in color from silver to red to ck. The child was a Metamorphmagus.


    After collecting themselves, the pair inspected the Heir and confirmed it was true. Walburga was pleased, but not as pleased as Arcturus. The origin of the Metamorphmagus was a secret written in the ck Family Grimoire and known only to the Head of the ck Family. It was a trait only ever seen within those who carried the blood of the ck family, though it had not shown itself in any True member of the House of ck in centuries.


    Simply put, the Metamorphmagus was a result of centuries worth of umtions of dark magic rituals. Although not spoken of in politepany, it was generally known among the stronger factions that overuse of Dark Magic corroded the mind and body of the user. Rituals could dy this, but never prevent it outright.


    Families that routinely practiced Dark Magic were often physically and mentally weaker than others. There were some who believed that the weakening of pure-blood magical families was due to inbreeding, but the wiser members actually thought that it was actually due to the corrosive nature of Dark Magic in the genealogy. Not that they could share such knowledge outright.


    Almost every single one of the darkest families had fallen over the centuries, with a single exception, the ck Family. How did they survive? It was because of the Metamorphmagus. Believed to be an amalgamation of the inheritance of all the Dark Magic resistance rituals of their ancestors, the first Metamorphmagus showed high resistance to the corrosive nature of Dark Magic and easily adapted with only a few simple rituals. The adaptability of the Metamorphmagus was inherited by their descendants, even if the gift of shifting form did not present itself. A Metamorphmagus or two was usually born into the ck Family every century or so and were used to clean their blood of the inherent weakness brought by the family''s overuse of Dark Magic.


    Some were born outside the ck family over the centuries, but that was only because they had ck Family Ancestry as well. Even if one was born outside the ck Family, the gift would be lost within a generation or two and never re-emerge without fresh blood from the ck Family due to certain family magics. Can''t share a good thing too much after all.


    The problem was that one had not been born into the ck Family in almost two hundred years, and many members of the youngest generation of the ck Family were not as resistant to Dark Magic as their ancestors, so overusing Dark Magic from the ck Family Grimoire would corrode their minds and bodies easily. His oldest granddaughter was a perfect example of this, while her two sisters maintained their rationale by avoiding the heavy use of Dark Magic.


    There was in fact a new Metamorphmagus born recently. His middle granddaughter had married a muggleborn and had a daughter that possessed this gift, but as she was not Pure Blood, she was not a ck, and would never be allowed ess to the ck Family Magics.


    The presence of this gift in the Heir ensured that the Noble and Most Ancient House of ck would rise once more and take its rightful ce as the head of the Dark Families throughout Britain.


    The gray-skinned creature spoke for the first time, "What will be the young master''s name?"


    Arcturus calmly stated, "Rigel. Rigel Regulus ck."


    The baby itself looked around and couldn''t help but lock eyes on the corpse of his mother. Completely unlike a normal baby, the child thought to himself in an unknownnguage, "Born of the dead? Well, I seem to be off to a great start so far. Hahaha hahaha!"


    *Author''s Note*


    One of the reasons I''m tempted to do this idea is because there are not nearly enough INSANE MC stories out there.


    Again, if I do go through with this, there will be no harem or seggs. There will be a lot of psychological maniption, torture, and face pping though. Just imagine Rigel and Malfoy in the same room and you''ll get an idea. It will also be a Greater Good Dumbledore, because having an Evil MC destroy a Greater Good Dumbledore is always fun to read.

 Chapter 65: The Swordsmanship of One Piece

    Chapter 65: The Swordsmanship of One Piece


    Although Rayleigh had never trained as a Jedi, he had trained as a Hunter under Kite. Due to this, he intended to show Wild King a very different style ofbat.


    With half a dozen sense-enhancing effects synchronized under the synergy of the Hatsu Babylon, Rayleigh could observe more details about each creature than most would ever notice, and using the lessons he learned as a Hunter, he could use those observations to his advantage.


    Of the dozen tentacles surrounding him, four were from the same cephalopod, making that one his first target. The jagged spikes lined up and down the tentacles had hooks at the end and the arrangement of muscles showed that this was a species that hunted through the use of entanglement and constriction, which exined why those tentacles moved the fastest. Some of them seemed younger with fewer scars than others, meaning that some had been newly grown, implying a strong regenerative factor and the possibility that the creature was willing to sacrifice tentacles inbat to restrain its prey. Cutting off the tentacles of such a creature would not force it back, instead, Rayleigh would need to be more creative.


    Babylon had the effect of incorporating the power of the Force into Rayleigh''s aura, which meant he could apply Force skills using his aura. With this in mind, Rayleigh applied the Dark Side skill: Inflict Pain, to his Nensaber and shed out repeatedly. The edge of his de contained circting bands of transformed sword aura that he could release at will to create flying shes. This string of attacks released lines of sword aura that were only the size of hairs and not strong enough to cut through the tentacles. Instead of a single powerful sh to cut it through, Rayleigh''s swing released dozens of hair-thin aura des that targeted the most sensitive areas on the tentacles.


    A low-pitched verberation hummed through the night that Rayleigh recognized as a scream of pain. The octopus-like sea king felt that it had received a mortal wound and had to flee as fast as possible to escape. The quick retraction of its attacks confirmed to Rayleigh that Wild King''s control over these creatures was not absolute.


    The remaining variety of tentacles were unaffected and tried to grab, bash, or smash Rayleigh, but his Hatsu Overdrive allowed him to move and use Moon Walk at speeds that made the hazards around him as dangerous as still-standing trees.


    Rayleigh''s next target was a pair of tentacles with a pink hue, violent rings on the surface, and spikes that looked designed for piercing. This one was venomous. Rayleigh dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged the various attacks while stabbing specific sections of the tentacles, puncturing the venom sacks which mixed the Sea King''s blood with its own venom. This would not kill it, but the Sea King knew that its fight was over as it had to heal or it would be the weakened prey of another.


    A few more attacks caused the remaining tentacles to retract, but they were merely the first wave. Bus-sized crabs, train-sized insects, the cousin of the Lochness Monster, building-sized frogs, and various other strange creatures had reached the turtle''s shell and began ascending from all directions to attack Rayleigh.


    Surprisingly, the only ones that Rayleigh qualified as a threat were the frogs, but only barely. The speed they could shoot out their tongue was somehow faster than a bullet, but Rayleigh''s irvoyance paid special attention to them to see the attacking with the assistance of Battle Precognition and Rayleigh just had to use some Telekinesis to change the tongue''s trajectory to another creature to take them out.


    The rest were practically motionless as Rayleigh identified weak points using Shatterpoint and used abination of Force Skills such as Inflict Pain, Fear, Electric Judgement, Drain, and Dark Transfer to incite the creature''s retreat.


    The creatures that were weak to poison fled once Force Drain was used on them since that made them think they had been poisoned. The Sea Kings with hard shells fled when Dark Transfer was used on a Shatterpoint to crack their shells. Those with long bodies ran when lines of sword aura infused with Electric Judgement shocked them. And the numerous cannon fodder fled after being cut with a line of transformed sword aura containing the effect of Force: Fear or Inflict Pain. The best part about suchbinations was that the effect would remain until the wound recovered, so they would not stop running for a while.


    As Rayleigh fought like a madman, several Wills were reserved to analyze the fight and make notes for potential upgrades to Overdrive. His first Hatsu worked off creating pre-set moves and having his body perform those actions automatically as fast as possible without requiring a mental input. He was not actually thinking at super speed or anything. He was just using his sensesbined with Battle Precognition to predict which moves to use in advance. But Overdrive evolved constantly by refining and adding new Motion Sets. Like adding new buttons and newbos to a character in Street Fighter. Right now, Rayleigh was confirming the effectiveness of his various move sets, the ones that needed work, and possible moves he could make in the future.


    Rayleigh was so engrossed in the fight that not a single one of his Wills noticed the manic grin he sported as he threw himself from one creature to another in what seemed to be an endless wave.


    Wild King noticed it though, and his own expression was getting worse. He had little choice but to bet everything on the third wave. At hismand, the turtle started diving again. Once the shell was beneath the water, the remaining sea kings would attack.


    Unfortunately for Wild King, the third wave would not help.


    The fleeing sea kings dyed the newer ones which prevented Rayleigh from getting attacked by more than ten or so at a time and with his speed, he could handle twenty of these slow moving targets without concern. The giant sea centipede was thest one on the shell and it was being very stubborn, so Rayleigh cut half-way through its body, while sending Telepathy using the Force to essentially say, "Do you really want to die?" The centipede got the message and before the Turtle''s shell was even half-way into the water, Wild King was the only opponent left.


    Rayleigh was not crazy on fighting the remaining two hundred fish-style sea kings on their home turf and had no intention to wait for Wild King to move to be a third Stage Boss. Rayleigh already patted himself on the back for being nice enough to let Wild King send the first two waves, but Rayleigh had enough fun and now he wanted to digest his gains.


    Wild King seemed to sense Rayleigh''s intention and the water around him surged into cords of spikes to defend himself, but a few uses of Rayleigh''s telekinesis smashed each into a wave of mist and Rayleigh''s Nensaber was on Wild King''s neck in the next instant.


    Rayleigh calmly stated, "I think its time to discuss that favor you owe me."


    Wild King sneered, "You''re bluffing. You haven''t killed a single sea king. You won''t kill me."


    Rayleigh rose his Nensaber into the air and channeled hours worth of Ren into the handle causing it to hum with power. This was followed by a downward swing.


    Wild King remained motionless, but his sneer turned into shock. The swing was not aimed at him, but his connection to the turtle was gone. A line appeared on the shell that split open and a wave of blood gushed out. The ind-sized turtle was dead, cut in half.


    Rayleigh smiled and said, "Did you think a debt to me was so simple? I''ll take back what I am owed one way or another. I probably won''t kill you, but if you don''t pay back my favor, then I''ll take you to the Marines and they''ll pay me on your behalf."


    Wild King was still reeling from the death of the turtle. Thebination of his Conquer and Command Hatsu had a loophole that let him use giant sea kings with weak attack like the turtle tomand weaker sea kings with strong attack. Finding such a sea king was not easy since he could not breathe underwater.


    It was only when Rayleigh''s Nensaber was raised to Wild King''s throat again that he realized what Rayleigh said and asked, "Fine, what do you want?"


    Rayleigh answered. "Don''t attack the Marines for a year."


    "And then my debt will be clear?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "Yes, the debt for my lessons on Nen and the Force will be cleared for this."


    Wild King shouted, "Fine! A year!" He then turned to walk down the sinking turtle shell and to hide his face so that Rayleigh would not see his fear. Wild King jumped into the water and called one of the other Sea Kings he conquered. It was a giant swordfish with a massive sail that he liked to be seen riding because he thought it was cool. It was a lot smaller than the turtle though and he could not use Command through it to order any decently sized sea kings.


    Rayleigh did his best to stop himself fromughing before Wild King was out of ear shot. Yes, Wild King''s debt of the Nen and Force lessons was paid, but after their fight, Rayleigh had spared WIld King''s life, which was a far greater debt. If Wild King had just epted Rayleigh''s terms at the start, this would not have happened, but since he rejected Rayleigh''s kindness, the debt would only increase.


    Rayleigh''s negotiation skills were something even the Jedi would fear.


    The remaining sea kings were beingmanded through the use of the turtle that was ten timesrger than they were. With its death, they were no longer beingmanded by Wild King and its bloody corpse ensured that the Sea Kings would have no interest in Gilliad Ind.


    Rayleigh started dashing through the water back to the ind. From start to finish, the fight had been less than ten minutes, though Rayleigh had used over a thousand movement sets using Overdrive. Even taking Tavern Missions into ount, this might have been Rayleigh''s longest fight to date. Even if he had enough Aura to use at that level of intensity for an hour, his body was going to feel sore. Thankfully he had plenty of means to ensure that he recovered stronger than before, so it was not an issue. He was still young after all.


    Rayleigh''s dash back to the ind was quite noticeable as each step made a giant ssh of water that reflected the light of the floating bonfires along the way. The Marines had been waiting for ten minutes for the sea kings to arrive, but they never did, causing a few with telescopes to check out what was happening. A few with better eyesight spotted the sea turtle under the moonlight, but it was much further out than the furthest bonfire, so the details of the fight could not be discerned. What they did see though, was the light of Rayleigh''s sword that sliced the turtle in half and they could barely make out the form of the sinking turtle and the sea kings eating it.


    After using irvoyance to confirm the location of Captain T-Bone, Rayleigh ended Babylon and dashed to the northern shoreline.


    Rayleigh called out, "I killed the Sea King that Wild King used tomand other Sea Kings. They are noting back."


    After five full seconds of silence, the nearby Marines shouted in celebration. Many ran to those not in earshot and gave the news, causing a wave of cheers to slowly move from the northern side of the ind down to the end.


    When the prisoners being used as bait heard the news, they copsed and cried fountains of joyful tears.


    Captain T-Bone approached Rayleigh and shouted in his constantly horse voice, "AMAZING! TO SEE A HEART AS YOUNG AS YOURS SO FILLED WITH JUSTICE BRINGS TEARS TO MY EYES! ON BEHALF OF MY MEN AND MYSELF, I THANK YOU FOR ENSURING THEIR SAFETY AND THE CONTINUED PROSPERITY OF THE MARINES!"


    This caused more shouts of joy. Rayleigh smiled and returned to the wall to await the rising sun. He knew what would happen next.


    When Captain Jack made this n, he was fully aware that the Marines would give as little credit to Rayleigh as possible, but they would also ensure that the story itself was spread as much as they could since such a thing would be an enormous victory of morale for the Marines. Such a story would require interviews, so with an assurance of eptance once Rayleigh asked for a spar from T-Bone, Rayleigh just had to wait until the news reporters came and do the spar at that time. The reporters would ask who Rayleigh was and find out he was behind the victory. It would still be suppressed, but they would definitely make sure that he appeared on the paper.


    People who forgot about him from the previous issue would be reminded of the ''Clothes-Severing Swordsman,'' and he would no longer be a no-name, granting him eligibility to be closer to the front page.


    As predicted, the Marines wanted the victory on the paper as soon as possible and quickly got some reporters to Gilliad to do their interviews. The situation was reported by Dauntless who didn''t even mention Rayleigh''s name, so the higher-ups had no idea about what really happened, just that it was aplete victory, there were no casualties, and that the corpse of the giant turtle sea king that Wild King used tomand other sea kings had been brought back to the ind to use as a trophy.


    Rayleigh kept himself almost invisible, out of sight, out of mind, right up until the reporters arrived and started their interview of Dauntless. They decided to use him for the article since pictures of T-Bone''s ghoulish visage would not sell papers.


    It was then that Rayleigh reappeared and asked T-Bone, "Hey, since no one was injured, do you have time for a friendly spar?"


    T-Bone had been animatedly discussing things with his subordinates before he stopped and shouted, "THAT''S RIGHT! THANKS TO YOU, THE BRAVE MARINES OF THIS ISLAND DID NOT RECEIVE A SINGLE SCRATCH! IT WOULD BE DISHONORABLE NOT TO REPAY YOUR ACHIEVEMENT WITH A REWARD! IF WHAT YOU ASK IS A DEMONSTRATION OF MY SKILLS, THEN I SHALL NOT HOLD BACK!"


    T-Bone''s subordinate Marines shouted in praise and made arge circle. The reporters noticed T-Bone''s shouting and the formation of a makeshift ring. Their instincts chimed in and the cameramen skillfully infiltrated the ring and made it to the front to see who was going to fight who.


    "Is that the Clothes-Severing Swordsman?" As a photographer, he clearly remembered the golden photo that appeared in the news a few days ago and recognized the strange glowing de that Rayleigh used.


    One of the Marines was confused by the question and gave a brief summary of the events of the prior night. Captain Dauntless told his men to shut up, but T-Bone never said anything to his about keeping what happened a secret.


    The camera-man''s eyes gleamed and he got his camera ready. The Marines practically forced them at gunpoint toe as fast as possible and report their victory in the best light. They were not pleased with it, but would not argue over something this small. Still, a sleep-deprived man was a petty man, and he had a few ideas of how to give the Marines what they asked for to the letter, even if it wasn''t what they actually wanted.


    Although T-Bone knew that Rayleigh had cut a sea king in half, he wasn''t worried. Anyone above the Captain Level could kill a Sea King and T-Bone was well above that. The main reason T-Bone was still a captain was that he usually turned down promotions that did not allow him to stay with his current crew mates. T-Bone''s moniker as the Ship Cutter was not an exaggeration.


    Rayleigh himself was excited. This would be his first encounter with Pirate World swordsmanship. Rayleigh could slice a ship in two by transforming his aura into sword aura, enhancing the sharpness of that aura, and then emitting that aura off the edge of his Nensaber while cutting in a move that somewhat mimicked Ichigo Kurosaki''s Getsuga Tenshou. But Captain T-Bone did not have Nen, so what was the machination behind his ability to cut ships?


    T-Bone drew a de that had the look of a longsword used by a European Crusader, though it was even longer than normal and matched the exaggerated proportions of T-Bone''s height and limb length. He shouted, "WHAT I HATE THE MOST IN THE WORLD IS CROOKED SWORDSMANSHIP, SO I WILL SHOW YOU THE SKILLS I HAVE POURED MY HEART AND SOUL INTO!"


    Using that as his cue, T-Bone made the first move. The arm holding his sword was behind him with his arm raised high and the sword pointed over his other shoulder. T-Bone shouted, "RIGHT-ANGLED SLASH" The tip of the sword moved horizontally while remaining behind him. Then his arm swung all the way down and then back up at Rayleigh, then took a sharp turn to the side. The two jeering turns of the sword sh were somehow perfectly smooth.


    The problem was that Rayleigh was standing about five meters in front of T-Bone and the sword had no chance of reaching him. Or at least that was how it should have been using normal physics.


    The moment T-Bone''s sword started swinging, it was as if the edge started glowing. Not with light, but something else. Thanks to his strong connection with the Force, Rayleigh could sense something simr to mental energy umte along the sword''s edge and the moment the sword was swung in his direction, that mental energy, something Rayleigh figured was Sword Intent, flew off the edge of the de toward Rayleigh.


    With Babylon already initiated and his Nensaber drawn, Rayleigh was ready to block or deflect the flying sword intent, but the horizontal sh only flew a short distance before it changed into a vertical sh. Rayleigh''s Nensaber shed through it without difficulty, but seeing that sword light change directions like that still made a few of his Wills go, "What the fuck was that?"


    A half-dozen skills were simultaneously used to observe every aspect of T-Bone''s move and each came to the same conclusion. Dufuq?


    Nothing about that attack made any sense. Was that how swordsmanship in this world worked? They didn''t have a mechanism, they just directly skipped to having whatever effect the user wanted? And what about that Sword Intent? Was that really how they sent flying shes? If cutting something was possible just by willing it to cut, would the Jedi and Sith have ever bothered picking up a Lightsaber?


    Rayleigh internally sighed and realized he would not be able to use what he knew to decipher this. Besides, he already knew that each ss had special abilities that otherscking the ss did not have. It seemed possible for humans born here to infuse their actions with their intention to empower them, but humans from the Jedi Gxy were not biologically capable of doing the same without a medium such as the Force.


    Still, Rayleigh had just defended, and now it was time to attack. Three swings of his Nensaber sent three lines of sharpened sword aura at T-Bone. Normal aura was invisible to those without opened Nen-nodes, but aura used through Rayleigh''s Nensaber was visible to everyone unless he purposefully used In to hide it.


    Rayleigh''s shes had the same color as his Nensaber, blue with a white outline thanks to the color of his Kyber Crystal, but they were clearly different from T-Bone''s attacks. The Marine Captain cut the three lines of sword aura without difficulty since Rayleigh was holding back in order to observe. Said observation confirmed that T-Bone''s sword intent had gathered along his de and warded off the lines of sword aura, preventing his own sword from being split in half. Seeing that T-Bone would be fine, Rayleigh started moving side to side while sending shes of sword aura faster and faster.


    T-Bone realized that what Rayleigh used was different from what T-Bone knew, but he could also tell how dangerous it was. If he did not cut those lines, they would cut him in half. Rayleigh could also release them without a shy, inefficient swing like T-Bone had, so the Captain understood that he was at a disadvantage. T-Bone shouted, "FLYING BIRDS," and made a strong, horizontal sh. His sword intent scattered into a dozen lines that each made a right angle that switched up and down, making each line of light look like a pping bird.


    These lines broke through Rayleigh''s of sword lines and allowed T-Bone to charge forward at a speed far faster than his stance should have enabled him to move. The charge reminded Rayleigh of a Knight''s Charge.


    Rayleigh poured more aura into his sword to raise the number of transformed sword auras circting the de, sharpening and strengthening the edge. Rayleigh used Sh¨±, K¨­, and Ry¨± to strengthen his muscles, but upon receiving the impact of T-Bone''s sword, he realized it had been overkill since the frighteningly tall man was weaker than Rayleigh''s base stats.


    Rayleigh used his adjustable weight set at max load and further enhanced the weight using Divine Script, so he had a far more powerful physique than any who did not devote themselves to an insane amount of training. The only reason he wasn''t wearing them now was because the ships would dip and possibly sink if he wore his weights while aboard.


    Rayleigh pressed off the Captain''s sword and pressed further with each swing. T-Bone realized Rayleigh''s strength toote and was forced back with each step until one final swing saw T-Bone''s sword thrown from his hand where it spun a few times in the air and nted itself into the ground, outside the ring of Marines.


    The audible click of a camera going off was heard beneath the breaths of the encircling Marines, though not noticed by any but Rayleigh himself.


    The cheer of the first Marine set off the rest. Rayleigh was not a pirate or an enemy, so it was nothing shameful for him to be strong. He was also the one who saved them the prior night, and they all had a good impression of him, especially after they witnessed such a visually appealing fight.


    Dauntless''s voice then sounded, "Hey! Why are you still here?! If you aren''t off this ind in five seconds, I will have you imprisoned for trespassing!"


    Rayleigh shrugged and replied, "Alright. I''ll leave with the reporters. They are leaving soon, right? I''ll just head over to their ship."


    Dauntless shouted back, "No! Those reporters are here for the Marines! Not you! You''d better not say a single word to them!"


    Rayleigh''s Nensaber had not been disabled. He looked at it and said, "How about a bet then? Let''s have a friendly spar as well. The first to disarm or draw blood from the other wins. If you win, I won''t say anything to any reporters about what happenedst night. If I win, you won''t stop them from giving me an interview if they want to."


    Dauntless had to stop himself from reflexively calling his men to arrest Rayleigh on the spot. They knew he save many of their lives and considering how fast Rayleigh was, they could not catch up to him if he decided to run. He also had no actual grounds to stop Rayleigh from giving an interview. Even if he ordered him off the ind, the reporters could just approach him on the ship or on another ind. Rayleigh''s proposal however was a perfect way out.


    Unlike T-Bone who had the strength of a Commodore and refused a promotion, Dauntless used to be a Rear-Admiral, the rank above Commodore. He''d gotten demoted due to killing a few Marines who got in his way and getting caught, but he felt that he was much stronger than Captain T-Bone. The only reason he had not be a Vice-Admiral was that his proficiency in Haki was not high enough.


    "Fine! I''ll show you what a real Marine is you insignificant little brat!"


    Another circle of Marines formed around them and Dauntless drew his sword. Without waiting for a sign or giving a warning, he directly swung his sword while he seemed to shake the handle. He shouted, "Thousand Cuts!" as the man''s sword intent filled the de, shot off, and then scattered into hundreds of thin, confetti-sized fragments. Without even waiting for Rayleigh''s response, he swung his sword twice more using the same skill.


    These fragments of sword intent would not be fatal even if left unchecked, but each would cause a deep cut and draw blood. If you didn''t defend properly, your body would be a bloody mess and you''d quickly die of blood loss.


    The reason Dauntless shed his sword three times was that he knew the fight would end once Rayleigh''s blood was drawn. He was invincible in such a match so he had to release as many attacks as possible before the first reached Rayleigh and ended the match. It would be fine if he stopped swinging once the first blood was drawn. It was not his fault that the brat in front of him died or was minced to pieces from the remaining attacks.


    Rayleigh hadn''t moved. There wasn''t a point in swinging his sword a thousand times to deflect all the attacks. This wasn''t Ichigo vs Byakuya''s Senbonzakura Kageyoshi. Rayleigh wasn''t that fast yet, but against an opponent on this level, he didn''t need to be.


    The hundreds of sword intent fragments struck Rayleigh head-on, causing tiny bursts of light on each collision. Too bad none of them made it through Rayleigh''s Ren. As an Enhancer, Rayleigh could easily enhance the defensive aspect of his Ren to the point he was bullet-proof against high powered rifles. These sword intent fragments had less power than a bullet and against his Ren, the quantity did not make up for theck in quality.


    If any of the Marines or reporters present were proficient in Observation Haki, their expanded awareness would grant them the ability to see the aura around Rayleigh''s body. But since that was not the case, they only saw the sparks of lights that bounced off Rayleigh''s body without causing him a single scratch.


    Dauntless had frozen in shock. When he first saw that Rayleigh had not moved to defend himself, he was filled with eagerness at the scene of Rayleigh''s mutted face and bloody body. He already had ns to dy medical attention and ensure he bled to death.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    With the same candence as a certain Guy Fawkes mask-wearing vignte, Rayleigh met Dauntless''s gaze and said, "My turn."


    Rayleigh seemed to vanish from where he stood and when he reappeared, he was in front of Dauntless with his nensaber already swung. A line of blood appeared on Dauntless''s forehead.


    A small use of the Force also ensured that a few Cameras were pointed in the right direction and Rayleigh even telekically pressed the button at the right time to take the best photo. He wasn''t going to leave it to chance this time.


    Dauntless was still stunned at the movement and only realized what happened when blood started dripping into his eyes. Thinking that the top of his head must''ve been cut off, Dauntless promptly fainted through the sound of more camera shutters and pictures being taken.


    A Marine ran over to check the fallen man and confirmed that the head wound was barely a scratch. Once it healed, it would not even be noticeable among the many scars the Captain already possessed.


    Rayleigh disabled his Nensaber and said, "I guess I win. But since the Captain did say he wanted me off the ind, I''ll head over to that ship now. If any reporters want to speak to me, they can do it then."


    The reporter who had been in the middle of Dauntless''s interview before Rayleigh''s sparring match started nodded fiercely. He didn''t care about Dauntless in the slightest.


    "WAIT!"


    Surprisingly, Captain T-Bone stopped him. This time when he spoke, he did not raise his voice, but that made the raspy way he spoke even more eerie. "I did not know you were proficient in Haki. There is no point in exchanging skills with someone beneath the level of a Vice-Admiral."


    T-Bone was a kind-hearted man, but he wasn''t stupid. Although he misunderstood Rayleigh''s Ren as Armament Haki, he knew that if Rayleigh did an interview now, it would make Captain Dauntless and the Marines look bad. T-Bone could not let that happen.


    Rayleigh turned back and asked, "Do you know of any Vice-Admirals who would be willing to spar with me?"


    T-Bone shook his head, "Vice-Admirals are too busy for such things, but I do have a suggestion. You offered a bet to Captain Dauntless, so how about this as a bet to you. I''ll arrange for a Vice-Admiral to spar with you using a sword. If you lose, you''ll join the Marines."


    Rayleigh considered it before adding, "I''ll agree only if the one who beats me lets me be his apprentice."


    If there was a Marine who could really best him in sword skills, he would ept learning under him or her until he surpassed that person. After that, he''d quit and find Mihawk. It would be a small, but beneficial detour if the Marines had anyone of noteworthy skills.


    T-Bone nodded and went back to shouting, "THEN LET ME BE THE FIRST TO WELCOME YOU IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE!"


    The reporters were furiously writing everything down so it seemed that this match would help raise his name even further. It also seemed that T-Bone assumed that Rayleigh would definitely lose. He did seem to imply that Vice-Admirals could use Haki, so perhaps that was the reason. Still, it was something to look forward to.


    While he was at it, he might as well check out the Pirate World Chat and see the fallout of his fight with Wild King.


    *Author''s Note*


    This chapter was pretty much an introduction to Rayleigh''s progress in sword skills. A lot of peopleined that it was pointless to make him a Jedi because he doesn''t even use the Force, but this is where the Forcees in. I already wrote a base that allows his Aura and Force to mix and match which led to the ability to use Force skills through his sword aura, including skills like Electric Judgement. I also included the traits and insights of a Pro Hunter to show how one would fight in that situation.


    Be honest, which is cooler? Sending lightning from your fingertips, or swinging bolts of lighting from your de?


    For those who forgot, I am powered by stones and reviews. I got 6 new reviews and 330 stones in a day and a half, so I was able to manifest this chapter.

 Chapter 66: The Players of the Pirate World

    Chapter 66: The yers of the Pirate World


    Chapter 66 The yers of the Pirate World


    Rayleigh sat on the floor of the ship''s guest room doing a variety of long and painful stretches. Due to the continuous development of his capabilities, his body training regimen went through several advances throughout the years. The current method was to wear Divine-Script Enhanced Weights while using Overdrive to overclock his body and move faster than his weighted body could withstand, causing all manner of wear and tear until right before hepletely broke down. Then he''d spend the night using 2nd Level Zetsu while meditating. Thispletely sealed all the Force and Aura in his body, enhancing his recovery abilities to their absolute peak. After a night of this, he would no longer be broken, just really, really sore.


    The problem was that although he could use this method to somewhat cheat in the gaining of muscles, he could not cheat in the toning and development of those muscles. In order to prevent himself from swelling up into a bodybuilder-looking brute, he had to spend a full week after each session stretching everything out until the soreness naturally healed. This forced the recovering muscles to heal and grow into tight cords rather than bloated balloons. He could not speed it up either or he''d end up building inefficient muscles that would get in his way in the future. Because of this, Rayleigh was always sore and needed three lengthy and painful sessions of stretching a day.


    The only reason this type of training even worked was because Rayleigh hadplete control over his body. A mastery of the Marine''s Six powers also granted aplete mastery over the body''s internal functions, something Rayleigh already somewhat had thanks to a creative use of the Force. Bybining the two, he could literally forge his body into exactly what he wanted as long as he followed the precise forging process.


    His mental training was even crazier. Most skills gained proficiency through continued usage, so Rayleigh''s Wills often spent every second of every day practicing the skills that did not require physical movement.


    Since Rayleigh could use In to hide the pressure of his Ren, he was able to practice K and Ry even while performing daily tasks, rapidly shifting the concentration of his aura to various parts of his body as systematically as possible. He would use Sh on his clothes or shoes to practice strengthening them without being noticed while using En for as long as possible to practice extending its range.


    He always had at least one Will maintain a constant state of meditation to further enhance his connection to the Force, and he had other wills practice skills like Gy, irvoyance, Shatterpoint, and Precognition to grind their proficiency and strengthen the effects of the skills.


    The rest of his Wills usually visualizedbat with each other using different variations of his swordsmanship to see what was effective and what was not while gaining experience. His swordsmanship was constantly being analyzed, refined, and upgraded.


    At the moment Rayleigh was on a Marine ship sailing on an enormous whirlpool. The giant hole beneath Enies Lobby is what fueled this massive whirlpool known as the Tarai Current. The Marines built their three most important bases on the edges of this current so that they could use the current to quickly sail from one to another. The distance between each of these bases was vast, but on the Tarai Current, the journey only took a few hours. If you tried sailing these distances on the Grand Line, the same journey would take days if not weeks.


    Soon the ship would dock at the second of the three most important structures the Marines owned, Impel Down, the Great Prison. On the journey to Marineford, the Marine HQ from Enies Lobby always passed Impel down so they usually took the chance to drop off supplies and more newly caught inmates. That meant that this journey was not even halfway over. Since he had time to kill, he decided to do what he had been avoiding sinceing to this world and opened up the Pirate World Chatroom.


    [Swordsman has signed in]


    [Dragon Chef: I wondered when you would pop in. Wild King has been b*tching about you all day.]


    [Swordsman: Oh? Does his mother want to speak with me about making her precious little baby cry?]


    [Lightning Lord: Hey Swordsman, you''re not gonna join the Marines are you?]


    [Justice: Wild King said you came to kill or extort everyone you taught.]


    [Dyna Might: Hey Swordsman! I got a bone to pick with you! Why didn''t you say anything during that Hunter Exam! You made me look like an idiot.]


    [Immortal Beauty: Are you here to learn proper swordsmanship?]


    [Dragon Chef: I got plenty of Swordsman skilled in Haki on my crew. I have thergest crew of any yer in the sea. You should definitely join. We throw the best parties, WITH THE BEST FOOD!]


    [Swordsman: I paid for an Identity that Mihawk will agree to teach swordsmanship to, but only if I get a front-page story about my swordsmanship in the Grand Line News. That''s also why I messed with Wild King. It wasn''t personal.]


    [Glitter: Bomb-boy, you don''t need anyone to make you look like an idiot. You aplish that every day all on your own.]


    [Wild King: Don''t believe that lying F*cker! He killed my favorite Sea King!]


    [Fire Queen: Boo hoo. You think any of us would have cried if you died? Instead of wasting time talking to fish, maybe you should actually try working out.]


    [Invisible Man: Wild King needs to change his name to Wild Kitten.]


    [Mimic: He can''t. Everyone gets a default name and can change it once. His name used to be Aquaman.]


    [Gravity King: Wild Bro doesn''t even lift.]


    [Immortal Beauty: I think you can change your name a third time if you pay Mission Points at the Tavern.]


    [Swordsman: What''s with all the King and Queen names?]


    [Fire Queen: It shows that we arepeting with each other to be the King or Queen of the Pirates.]


    [Dragon Chef: So what are your ns, Swordsman? Need some help?]


    [Dyna Might: Where are you Glitter?! I''m gonna shove my fist down your throat and see if your Diamond Fruit protects your insides!]


    [Swordsman: I''m heading to Marineford to spar with a Vice-Admiral who knows how to use a sword.]


    [Captain Jack: Are there any Vice-Admirals that specialize in the sword?]


    [Justice: Wait, you''reing to Marineford? I''m there now! Let''s meet upter.]


    [Mimic: Momonga and Strawberry are the only ones that specialize in using swords and don''t have a Devil-Fruit. But Although Strawberry is likely going to be promoted to Vice-Admiral soon, he is still a Rear-Admiral, so that leaves Vice-Admiral Momonga.]


    [Lightning Lord: I remember Strawberry. That guy has Marge Simpson''s hairstyle. He even has a really tall hat to cover the entire thing.]


    [Mimic: That''s not his hair. His head is actually very, very tall.]


    [Lightning Lord: Wait, seriously?!]


    [Captain Jack: Even after so many years, I still can''t get used to the body proportions of some of these guys.]


    [Wild King: I still don''t think we should trust Swordsman. He''s been here for a while but only joined the Chat recently. I bet he''s up to something.]


    [Titan: If he was up to something sneaky, wouldn''t he have already done something when opening our Aura Nodes?]


    [Justice: Yeah, remember when Shadowcat learned in the Hunter World how dangerous it was to manually open aura nodes? She even used Swordsman of crippling everyone secretly since he could have done that if he wanted to.]


    [Gravity King: I wish I could have gone and awaken mine with you guys. Wonder Woman tried opening mine and killed me.]


    [Wonder Woman: Hey, that was an ident! I said I was sorry, so stop bringing that up!]


    [Immortal Beauty: I did explore the Hunter World and independently confirmed that everything he taught us was real. He even gave better exnations and more detail than any of the Nen Masters I found on my own. If he is trying to Con everyone, he must be going for the really Long Con.]


    [Dragon Chef: I have never had a single problem with my body or abilities after Swordsman awakened my Nen. If he wants to beat you, he''ll do it when you are at your best and even help you get there. Hey Wild King. You made it sound like he snuck up from behind and stabbed you in the back, but I''d bet my entire treasure room that Swordsman gave you a fighting chance before taking you out, right?]


    [Swordsman: How strong is Wild Kingpared to everyone here?]


    [Titan: Pretty much the bottom, not counting those who don''t fight. Fire Queen, Gravity King, and Sandman have all died once but after making a new character they are still stronger than Wild King.]


    [Dragon Chef: I''m the strongest of course, with Titan being number two.]


    [Titan: For now. Our record in the Tavern''s Arena is still 40:42. Three more victories to me and you won''t be calling yourself the strongest anymore.]


    [Gravity King: It''s easy to get stronger like me when you can use mountains and inds as dumbbells.]


    [Justice: Hey Swordsman, do you think you can beat Vice-Admiral Momonga?]


    [Captain Jack: If he can''t then he should change his name to something else.]


    [Immortal Beauty: Isn''t Little Ms. Freeze a sword user too?]


    [Justice: Yes, Goddess of Ice is training her sword skills under Officer Bogard when Vice-Admiral Garp stays at Marineford. I think she''s been lurking in the General Chat to avoid Wonder Woman after theirst argument in the Chat caused her to turn the mess hall into an iceberg. I''ll ask her if she wants to spar with Swordsman.]


    [Swordsman: Is she the best sword user among the Pirate yers?]


    [Captain Jack: Probably. She and I are the only ones that really devote time to sword training. Everyone else either uses a gimmick or devil fruit.]


    [Dragon Chef: She''s out of luck then since her Ice Sword would melt the moment it touches a Lightsaber.]


    Rayleigh spent the rest of the journey chatting and fishing for information. They knew what he was doing, but he was being direct with it and the information he got was what everyone already knew in the first ce.


    For some reason, even though just about every Marine was issued a sword, they sucked at using them. At least ording to the yers. There were a dozen times more Devil Fruit users among the Marines than there were skilled swordsmen and no sword masters to speak of.


    Mimic, the one who seemed to work for some Government Spy Agency, seemed to imply that all the Sword Masters were reassigned from the Marines to other ces, though he would not speak of where. From what Rayleigh noticed, Mimic was the Go-To insider for all secret information on the World Government.


    As for the yers, the Pirates that did not fight with Devil Fruits either used Fishman Karate or some kind of Vibration Based Martial Art. The Marine yers used the Six Powers, turning their bodies into weapons. Rayleigh suspected that some of them actually fought using a Hatsu, but no one said anything and no one asked.


    He also learned who had been active and who had been messing around. Dyna Might talked a big game, but due to all the coteral damage his temper tantrums had caused, his Bounty was high enough to keep a small fleet led by a Rear-Admiral on his tail at all times. They didn''t even try boarding him, they just kept trying to sink his ship from a distance using cannonballs or giant harpoons.


    Wonder Woman had been the most active. She always knew when something valuable was being moved secretly, so she was usually there to intercept it and had been sessful enough to have the 3rd Highest Bounty on this half of the Grand Line, behind Dyna Might and Lightning Lord. Of the three, she was the most sessful, since Lightning Lord''s bounty mainly came from the power of his Devil Fruit. Since running from the second-half of the Grand Line, also known as the New World, back to the first-half, also known as Paradise, Lightning Lord had beenying low and training in secret to avenge therades he lost when he had to run.


    Rayleigh wondered how Wonder Woman kept finding good ces to rob. Captain Jack only knew about her next target because she bragged about it in the Chat, but how did she find it in the first ce? Maybe she had been interrogating merchants with a Lasso of Truth Hatsu?


    [Dragon Chef: Hey Swordsman, have you learned Haki yet?]


    [Swordsman: I want to learn it from Mihawk.]


    [Lightning Lord: Haki is Haki, it doesn''t matter where you learn it. Even if you have the lowest talent for Haki, you''ll still awaken it if someone beats you up using Haki for a couple of weeks.]


    [Fire Queen: Don''t all Vice-Admirals know Haki? Can you beat one without it?]


    [Mimic: Although a sufficient level of Haki is required for a promotion from Rear-Admiral to Vice-Admiral, you don''t need to master both kinds unless you are aiming to be an Admiral. In fact, you only need to show enough proficiency in Armament Haki to fight Logias, with only a few Vice Admirals being highly skilled in Observation Haki as well. As for Momonga, I don''t think I''ve seen evidence that he has any talent in Observation Haki.]


    [Captain Jack: Well, then I can guess the winner of that match. Although Armament Haki is important, I think that for a swordsman, Observation Haki is more important. Knowing how to cut matters more at the high level than how hard you cut. Observation Haki tells you the how.]


    [Immortal Beauty: Can Nen break through the defense of Armament Haki though?]


    [Titan: It can''t. I''ve tested this a few times. A Fist full of Nen can''t break through an Armament Haki Guard without a lot of power behind it. And an Aura-fueled defense can''tpletely stop an Armament Haki enhanced punch.]


    [Immortal Beauty: That''s the first I''ve heard of this. So Haki is stronger than Nen?]


    [Dragon Chef: I know what he''s talking about, and that''s notpletely true. On its own, Haki can beat Nen in pure strength, the same way that a Warrior can beat a Ninja in pure strength. But it depends on how you use it. If pure strength was all that mattered, Titan would not be losing to me 42:40. I''ll admit that he is physically stronger than I am, but strength is not the only factor.]


    [Justice: I think you two might have the wrong impression on Haki. On your half of the Grand Line, everyone''s Haki is pretty high level, but on this half, it isn''t as impressive. If Momonga''s Haki was as good as you two seem to think it should be, he''d be assigned to that side of the Grand Line, not this side.]


    [Titan: Ah, that''s right. I''m so used to fighting veteran crews under Big Mom that I forgot what the standard over there was. Yeah, Swordsman''s Nen should be enough to break through Armament Haki of that level.]


    [Swordsman: But if I were to spar with you, it wouldn''t?]


    [Dragon Chef: Nothing personal Swordsman. Both Titan and I are Enhancers and we haven''t held back in the slightest during our training. You started training your Nen a year before we did, but I doubt you had a rival to push you like we did and the both of us have had a lot of life and death fights. Without using Haki, my strongest pure Nen attack can''t break through Titan''s Haki defense, and the same is true for his strongest pure Nen attack and my Haki defense. At the higher levels of mastery, Haki is ridiculous.]


    [Titan: Though that changes once they are mixed together. Using attacks thatbine Haki and Nen is how I''ve been able to kick the *sses of the Veterans of the New World. If I take the form of a Giant Golden Buddha and punch out with all my aura and Haki, I can shatter the side of a mountain. Give me a few more years and I''ll be able to do even more.]


    Ray had a thoughtful expression as he re-read the messages. He remembered that Dragon Chef said that most people had a predisposition toward Observation Haki or Armament Haki and it was difficult to normally be good at both. All Pirate yers were talented in both, but they were the exceptions, not the rules.


    From what Rayleigh guessed, just getting beaten up by someone using Haki would cause the body to understand how to use it in response. This awakening method is simr to how someone could awaken their aura from receiving and surviving a strong aura attack.


    However, just because that was what everyone knew, did not mean it was correct. There was a chance that how one awoke their Haki would affect how they used it in the future. Could he be wrong? Yes. Would he risk his future over it? Nope.


    It was just like how Rayleigh decided to open his aura nodes in a manner unique to himself rather than use what everyone else did. By awakening his aura nodes using a unique route, the Force within his bodybined seamlessly with the aura. Rayleigh had confirmed through personal observations that other yers could not use Force Skills through their aura like he could. They might figure it out at some point, but perhaps not.


    To Rayleigh, the swordsmanship of the Pirate World that ignored physics looked more like the attacks that Cultivators in Light Novels used rather than normal swordsmanship. If his theory was correct, then each style of swordsmanship would equate to a different cultivation scripture, and there was a chance that not all scriptures werepatible with each other. In the case he could only learn one, he wanted it to be the best one. It was fine if he was wrong, but he was aiming for the top.


    If he really just wanted to steal their sword skills, he would just use psychometry on their swords. He still might do thatter, but only after creating what he felt would be the strongest foundation for himself.


    Besides, there was always the chance that everyone in the Chat was lying to him in order to trick or cripple him. It would be really stupid to follow their advice when he already had a true master arranged by the Tavern lined up and ready to teach him.


    As for the match against the Vice Admiral, he wasn''t too worried. Rayleigh''s strongest abilities were not granted by his aura, but the Force. Shatterpoint could break diamonds. Rayleigh''s only concern was that he was unable to see Shatterpoints on Nen Users without using Gy, so there was a chance he might not be able to see the Shatterpoints in someone''s Armament Haki without using Observation Haki. That was not too likely though, since the stacked effect of Gy and Shatterpoint should be able to see through the singr effect of Armament Haki.


    The hours passed and the ship finally docked at Marineford. Rayleigh elected to stand on the deck when they came and left the inds since the Tarai Current could only be essed from those inds through a giant gate hundreds of times bigger than the one that barred entrance to the Zoldyck Family residence. Just watching it open and close was a sight all its own.


    The three inds of Enies Lobby, Impel Down, and Marineford represented the three stages of Justice most criminals faced.


    Enies Lobby held the courts. This was where the World Government made the crimes of those they used known. Rayleigh doubted anyone sent there was ever dered Not Guilty. From there, criminals were sent to the next stage, Impel Down, where they stayed until their sentence was up, they died of natural causes, or they faced thest stage of Marine Justice, Execution. For the case of executions, criminals were usually brought from Impel Down to Marineford, especially when they wanted to make a show of it.


    However that still brought up the question of why Gold Roger was executed in his hometown instead. Rayleigh guessed he must''ve cut some sort of deal with the Marines.


    Marineford was where many Marines called home. The families of the stronger Marines and those with potential stayed there and were protected by the strongest Marines who remained stationed there until they were needed. Even if things were busy and all three Admirals were called away on duty, the Fleet Admiral was always present. Marineford was also where the promising Marines were sent to be trained. Many retired veterans still lived on the ind where they spent their days training the next generation.


    After passing through the gate, Rayleigh''s perception of danger through the Force started acting up. Only when he retracted his En and irvoyance did it return to normal. It seemed that any form of spying from him could be perceived here and it wasn''t safe to snoop so casually.


    The details of the bet he made with Captain T-Bone and his merits on Gilliad ind had been passed up the chain via snail after Dauntless was defeated. The News Reporters even made an agreement with the Marines that they would downy Rayleigh''s aplishments in the fight in exchange for allowing them to do a story on the bet and match that would ur today. A deal was struck, so the hype Rayleigh should have earned from saving Gilliad was being dyed until after the match. The Marines believed he would be a Marine by then, so praising him would still be praising the Marines at that time.


    Up until this point, Dragon Chef, Titan, Lightning Lord, Fire Queen, and Wonder Woman were the only Pirate yers to face and defeat a Vice Admiral. This was partially due to their strength, but also partially due to luck. There was a vast difference in strength between some Vice-Admirals, and many of the encounters yers had with them were against the strong ones while others got lucky.


    From the discussions of the yers, Momonga seemed to be about middle tier for a Vice Admiral. Not weak, but not unbeatable. The only real noteworthy thing about him was that he was the best sword user among the Vice-Admirals, fully capable of cutting down Sea Kings ten times bigger than a Marine Warship.


    After arriving at Marineford, a pair of Marines in crisp suits escorted him to a table where they asked some questions about his background. Thankfully Rayleigh wasn''t a drop-in, so he had no problems telling them of Karate Ind, his decision to leave and pursue swordsmanship, and how he got there. It was a short story and easy to confirm.


    Since Justice had awakened his Jedi ss, Rayleigh easily felt his presence in the Force. A quick turn to the approaching footsteps confirmed his senses. Justice had tinum blonde hair cut in the way of an enlisted officer, a slender frame, a tannedplexion, and no shirt. Yes, for some reason, he was running around Marineford without a shirt.


    Without waiting for an introduction, he shouted, "You''re the new guy, right?"


    Rayleigh answered, "If I have something to learn here, then yes."


    Justice looked over to the pair of Marines taking Rayleigh''s information and said, "I''ll take him over to the training hall, alright?"


    One replied, "If you''re willing to take responsibility, then fine. Just try to keep out of trouble. The match starts in an hour, so don''t bete."


    Justice smiled brightly and grabbed Rayleigh before running off.


    After getting some distance, Rayleigh asked, "Why are you not wearing a shirt? Did the craziness of this world infect you? Should I be worried?" He even took a step back from Justice in jest.


    Justice rolled his eyes, "Technically this is your fault."


    "How is you running around shirtless in the Marine HQ my fault?"


    The bare-chested Marine answered, "Remember that Superman Hatsu you talked about? Guess what I made?"


    "Wait, you really made the Superman Hatsu?"


    "Kinda. I used it as a base to make a better one. I can absorb and store sunlight, but the restriction is that I can only absorb it through exposed skin."


    "Can the Light Fruit do that?"


    Justice shook his head. "Technically it''s not the Light Fruit. It is the Glint Glint Fruit, as in the power of the light that is reflected off the surface. With just the power of the Fruit, I can''t turn into just any form of light, only visible, prized white light. Before making this Hatsu, I couldn''t do anything with Infrared or Ultraviolet. Now, I can convert the entirety of sunlight into aura and store it in my body."


    Rayleigh asked, "But there are restrictions, right?"


    "Of course, but I''m not sharing them with you."


    "Why tell me about it in the first ce then?"


    Justice excitedly eximed, "Three reasons! First, I wanted to exin why I''m not wearing a shirt without looking like a pervert. I can''t exin stuff like Hatsus to the other Marines, so I have a weird reputation already and didn''t want you to think I was weird. Second, you are the only one here I can actually brag about this too. Goddess of Ice doesn''t have the Hunter ss, so she doesn''t have Nen and doesn''t understand how cool this is. And finally..."


    Justice let waves of strong light rippled over his body for a moment before continuing, "With how strong I am, I don''t need to worry about others knowing."


    Rayleigh smiled. He had to stop himself from asking for a match right then and there. Maybeter.


    Thanks to the warning about Justice''s reputation, Rayleigh understood the various stares they received as they closed in on their destination. The main reason that Justice could get away with this was because he was the student of one of the three Admirals, Admiral Kizaru. He was also the Admiral who usually stayed at Marineford and was practically royalty. Due to this, Justice was sometimes called the Prince of Marineford, allowing him to get away with such entricities.


    As they reached the outdoor arena next to the training hall, the breeze of cold air signified the presence of the one often called the Princess of Marineford, the student of Admiral Aokiji, the yer who called herself the Goddess of Ice.


    The teen girl was of average height with shoulder-length brte hair tied into a ponytail. She had sharp features but still had a baby face that would take a few more years to grow out of.


    It was obvious that she noticed their arrival, but she was in the middle of some kind of self-created sword training exercise and was not going to stop for them. She held a thin, ss-like sword of ice, and the training arena was filled with icy pirs of various thicknesses. Her sword dance led her to each pir to cut through it almostzily in a way that hid the insane skill required to perform such feats.


    Only after each pir was cut did she turn to the newly arrived pair and give Rayleigh a once over.


    Rather than introduce herself, she raised her Ice-Sword and said, "Draw your lightsaber and let me see if you are really a swordsman."


    Rayleigh shrugged and said, "How about you make an Ice-Sword for me, that way it stays fair."


    The self-styled goddess huffed and dered distastefully, "You think just anyone can use an ice sword?" She felt that such a boast waspletely looking down on her.


    Rayleigh held out his hand politely and said, "Would you like to see?"


    She rolled her eyes and swiped her hand in the air, seemingly collecting the frozen vapor in the air and forming it into a sword, identical to her own an instantter. She then tossed it to Rayleigh who snatched it from the air and tested its bnce a bit before walking to the edge of the arena.


    On the side of the arena was a massive boulder, ced there for either training purposes or for a sense of aesthetics.


    Goddess of Ice looked confused for a moment. Justice had already told her that Swordsman could not use Haki to harden the Ice Sword, so what was he going to do?


    Rayleigh could not use Haki, but his Enhancer training had reached the step of using Ice to break stone, so using Sh on the sword and enhancing the durability and sharpness was a simple matter for him.


    One swing of the sword cut the stone cleanly. Rayleigh did not use any special technique to lengthen the sh, so the stone that was wider than Rayleigh was tall had not been cut through, but a clean sh mark appeared on the stone while the ice-sword in Rayleigh''s hand was undamaged.


    Rayleigh asked, "So, what do you think?''


    Realizing that she may have underestimated him, the ice user took a stance and readied herself.


    Rayleigh unconsciously smiled. The only thing he wondered was whether or not this was the warm-up or the main event.


    *Author''s Note*


    This chapter and the next are basically ways of showing how strong the Haki Power system is. It takes more effort to master than Nen, but the effect is more ridiculous.


    For those not aware, the only reason that Haki doesn''t seem to power scale as high as some other power systems is that every use of High level Haki in the story was only used against another user of high level Haki. Thanks to this, the actual power of High level Haki was never properly measured.


    I''m using its full potential for power scaling. A lot of people wondered how will the Adaptive Body yerspete with the Energy Body yers since Ki Warrior are way more powerful than Pirates. Well, I''m saying here and now that they are not. Be honest, does anyone think that Raditz could beat a young Garp? Does anyone think that Nappa can beat a young Whitebeard?


    If Garp or Whitebeard had ess to Nen, do you think that would then get one-shotted by Vegeta? Or would it be a fair fight? Hell, Whitebeard fought just fine against Golden Buddha Afro-boy, I think he''d be able to take on a great ape too.


    And for thoseining about the Chat room, please note that it serves two purposes. First, it is a quick and dirty method to justify easy world building. Second, it creates the idea that each yer is having their own adventures in the background, which they are.

 Chapter 67: The Strongest Swordsman of the Marines

    Chapter 67: The Strongest Swordsman of the Marines


    Chapter 67 The Strongest Swordsman of the Marines


    Rayleigh enabled Overdrive and readied his sword stance against the Princess of Marineford. He could not use Babylon without his Nensaber, but there was no point in sparring with her using one of his trump cards as he doubted she would be going all out either.


    But even if he wasn''t using Babylon, he could still use En, Gy¨­, irvoyance, Battle Precognition, and Force: Danger Sense. Using them together without using Babylon meant that each input was not as seamlessly integrated and the Force skills were not enhanced, but it still got the job done.


    irvoyance and En picked up the setup in her posture for the Six Powers Technique: Shave, and Battle Precognition gave insight to the direction of the movement. A half-step on Rayleigh''s part was all it took to dodge and align his sword to parry her strike.


    Goddess of Ice showed a minor disy of surprise when her Sword Intent saturated Haki-enhanced ice sword did not shatter the ice sword held by Rayleigh. It might have if Rayleigh had not known about sword intent, but after encountering it he''d done hundreds of simtions to figure out how to repel it using Sh¨±, so it did not prate his aura coated de as she had predicted it would.


    After parrying her attack to the side, he flicked his sword in a manner that would have cut the end of her pony-tail that had been waving over her shoulder. She turned and parried this strike while giving a half-re that he dared to attack her hair.


    Rayleigh inwardly rolled his eyes. He was testing her defenses and wanted to see if the Observation Haki she was using could warn her about non-harmful damage. Rayleigh''s Force: Danger Sense would not have told him about such an attack, so he was checking the simrities and differences.


    The Marineford Princess twirled the tip of her sword from a sh into a thrust, aiming for Rayleigh''s shoulder in a simr attempt to test the waters.


    She aimed for the shoulder above the foot Rayleigh had kept his weight, so he was unable to shift his posture to dodge, but could bend his knee to dip under the thrust, causing her sword to brush past his own hair. Before she could use the position for a follow-up attack, Rayleigh rose up with an upward sh against her sword with enough force to strike it out of her hand, but Goddess of Ice held it firm and used the momentum to twist the upward motion of her sword into a downward thrust at Rayleigh''s lung.


    Seeing two back to back thrusts made Rayleigh understand what she was trying to do. It was verymon for a Monkey-See, Monkey-Do mentality to form during a sword fight. If someone used the same move against you a few times, it was likely you would try to use the same move against them. She was trying to get him to lunge at her and likely had a counter for it.


    Rather than fall for the guidance, he shed to the side to knock her thrust away and followed up with a sh to the neck. With her sword further from her than Rayleigh''s sword, she would have to step back and fall into a disadvantageous position.


    She did not step back, but brought her wrist close and blocked the strike with the guard of her sword before using another piercing attack.


    Between two opponents who could predict each other''s moves, a sword fight was very much like a game of chess. You could see every potential move and know how to counter each, but your opponent could also predict your counters and position themselves to receive your counter ande out on top. You had to predict an entire line of exchanges on the board and ensure that prior to the beginning of the exchanges, your pieces were in a superior position and woulde out on top at the end.


    Rayleigh could tell that this yer was very skilled. Each movement had the foundation of a thousand practice sessions and each counter was filled with the experience of hundreds of sparring matches. Unfortunately for her, when it came to practice, Rayleigh was a cheater of the highest level.


    Rayleigh could sense Goddess of Ice''s presence in the Force, confirming that she had gone to the Jedi Gxy to unlock her Jedi ss at some point, but she obviously did not train it well or use it much. Rayleigh was the opposite and had trained his mind to the degree that he could endlessly spar with himself using multiple instances all day every day. The amount of experience he had could not bepared with those who trained normally or even abnormally. Rayleigh was at a ss all his own when it came to training and experience.


    The esoteric mental operations that he discovered on Typhon and used to expand, enhance, and grow his mental capabilities were not things the Jedi or even Sith would have ever taught. Jedi became stronger by meditating on the Force while Sith became stronger by drawing deeper from the Dark Side. Putting so much effort into increasing the number of things you can think about at the same time was a meaningless waste of time for them and no benefit it granted was more useful than what they already had. Even among the Je''daii, those who practiced such things were considered weirdos. They didn''t need a stronger mind to fight or think because they over-relied on the will of the Force to guide them in battle or assist them in making decisions.


    Because of the vast quantity of experience Rayleigh possessed, he could see through each line of attacks Goddess of Ice attempted and disrupt them or fully counter them. He was using her to see through the sword styles taught by the Marines, memorizing each line of attacks to use as a reference or incorporate into his own style. Rayleigh even had several Wills in the background of his mind fight each other using her style to test the variousbinations.


    Goddess of Ice stopped holding back a few exchanges into the spar but Rayleigh''s ice sword stayed unbroken and her strength was not able to push him back. He kept changing his attack patterns which caused her to counter using different formbinations she had learned, unaware that Rayleigh was essentially reading her like a book, taking his time to turn one page after another.


    A few minutes and several hundred exchanges into the fight, Rayleigh realized that he had reached thest page and she had nothing more to show.


    Rayleigh thrust out, just like she wanted. Rather than parry, she caught the tip of his sword at the side of her own and then jumped forward while turning. Her sword kept Rayleigh''s to the side as she moved past it into her best range to use the finisher she''d trained more than any other move.


    With Rayleigh''s sword locked at her side, she could swing her sword through his neck with this approach, though since it was a spar, she would stop at the moment of contact.


    Rayleigh then did something she had not expected. He dropped his sword and moved out of the way. He stepped forward as her attack moved past him. Her posture did not allow her to attack at the side he stepped past since it relied on locking the opponent''s position.


    After stepping past her, he grabbed the sword he dropped, pointed it forward as she turned around, and before she could react, Goddess of Ice found the familiar cold of the sword she had given Rayleigh at her throat.


    Her eyes widened in disbelief as she realized how badly she had been read. There were many situations where she could have defended this and countered, but Rayleigh''s thrust had been perfectly timed and positioned so that she found herself unable to counter or defend as she usually would have.


    Inwardly, Rayleigh said to himself, ''Checkmate.''


    Outwardly, Rayleighplimented, "You''re very good."


    Justice, someone who was not a swordsman, did not fully understand the exchange and even thought that Rayleigh had gotten lucky while watching from the side. It was because Rayleigh didn''t seem to have an advantage at any time and didn''t appear to go very fast. He also knew that Goddess of Ice''s main skill was her ice, not her sword. She would make the air in the area of her fight freeze well below zero, slowing and impeding her opponent''s movements before going for the kill. Though, Justice had no way to know that this would not have worked anyways due to Rayleigh''s proficiency in Tutaminis and Temperature Control.


    Perhaps a little bit too fast, Justice said, "I''m next. You don''t need to go easy on me. I''ve always wanted to see if my Sunsaber can face a Lightsaber."


    Rayleigh saw Goddess of Ice give the sr-powered yer a dead-eyed expression but did not say a word as she left the arena. Rayleigh wondered about the chemistry between the Prince and Princess of Marineford and figured he had offended Justice by besting the girl that he, perhaps secretly, had a crush on.


    Rayleigh pulled out his customized handle and said, "I''m afraid you''ll have to keep waiting then, since this has been modified into a Nensaber that uses aura, not maized sma."


    As his sword extended and the glow of the blue and white sword aura materialized, a flicker of fear shed by the Marine yer''s eyes that Rayleigh did not miss. It was because of the weakness of Logia Devil Fruits. Such Devil Fruits granted yers the ability to elementize their physical body and for some reason, their clothes as well. Normal attacks had no effect on their elementized body and in the Pirate World, they could only be harmed by Haki or attacks that contained an element that opposed their own. However, something that all yers had long since discovered was that Nen attacks of Aura could also harm the body of an elementized yer. Aura was lifeforce, and an elementized human still contained lifeforce that could be harmed with Nen attacks, even if the element was unaffected.


    This was one of the many reasons Rayleigh abandoned the traditional Lightsaber for this modification. Rayleigh still recalled when the yer Armory used maism to block his Lightsaber. He didn''t know how many Devil Fruits could block, counter, or annul a Lightsaber, but his Nensaber was the great equalizer.


    Justice''s confident smile faded into a more serious expression as light seemed to gather around his palms. He then separated his hands while forming a pole of light that lengthened into a sword that was at least two meters long, standing taller than its own wielder.


    Rayleigh''s own Nensaber was of traditional height, only a little over a meter in length.


    From the emotions he felt off the Marine, Rayleigh could tell that Justice wanted to win and would not hold back to just using sword skills. Since that was the case and Rayleigh had his Nensaber in hand, Rayleigh used Babylon on top of Overdrive.


    Justice''s form shined brightly in a way that would have blinded anyone looking directly at him. Rayleigh was in fact blinded by this, but his irvoyance and En were unaffected, so he could still perfectly perceive the surrounding area. Justice shed forward and vanished from his position, reappearing at Rayleigh''s side in the same mid-sh motion. Rayleigh''s Babylon enhanced Battle Precognition detected this before Justice vanished and Rayleigh was already positioned to block the Sunsaber''s sh.


    Had Rayleigh not defended quick enough, the sword would have batted him to the side, but not cut him through. Justice did not give it a lethal edge since he expected to end the fight in one attack.


    Rayleigh used the moment to boost his strength further andpletely knock Justice''s Sunsaber away, giving Rayleigh a chance to sh at the Marine''s chest. It was an unspoken rule to end the fight after the first blood drawn from the torso was taken, so Justice immediately elementized and fled a few feet away before Rayleigh''s sh could draw blood.


    Rayleigh could have ended it there, but it would have been a shame to end the match before his opponent even warmed up.


    Justice seemed to realize that his speed would not give him as great an advantage as he thought. Rayleigh moved like someone whopletely mastered Observation Haki. Since he was no match for Rayleigh''s technique and his speed didn''t help him much, then he''d go with strength.


    Justice released a full powered Ren, something that shined excessively brightly for a moment before vanishing under the effect of In. Justice said, "Make sure you use In when releasing Aura here, since those with Observation Haki can see it."


    The warning was something of an apology for looking down on him earlier, but now he would go all out. What was superman''s best trait? His strength. Justice transformed sunlight into aura that could be stored in the body and now he was releasing that aura. The amount far surpassed most veteran Hunters since this was not a mechanism a normal human could use. This was something unique to the physique granted by the Glint Glint Fruit.


    Since Justice saw that Rayleigh seemed ready, he shed down with all his strength while glowing brightly for a moment. Like before, he vanished and then reappeared in front of Rayleigh. He used every skill he learned to transfer all the force of his body into the swing, knowing full well that an Enhancer like Rayleigh should be able to survive and recover even if he didn''t dodge.


    Rayleigh used K¨­ on multiple sets of tendons, muscles, and bones, then used the strength granted by K¨­ to move while further increasing his movement speed with Force: Augment. As he moved, the aura saturated in various locations shifted to new locations using Ry¨± in a controlled program using Overdrive, strengthening them further. In what seemed to be a simple upward sh, Rayleigh used every ounce of physical strength enhanced using Overdrive while saturating his Nensaber with aura to produce more and more rapidly circting lines of sharpened sword aura.


    The fight''s only witness saw two incredible sights at that point. The first was the Olympic swimming pool-sized crater that formed around Rayleigh''s feet at the moment the Sunsaber and Nensaber impacted. The second was a line in the clouds high above the pair that seemed to be an opening that closed on its own a few momentster.


    Justice''s Sunsaber had been cut due to the strength of Rayleigh''s swing exceeding Justice''s own. If Rayleigh had used such an attack against him instead of shing upwards, Justice would have either been bisected or at least greatly injured.


    Justice noticed Goddess of Ice''s gaze and spotted the line that had been cut into the clouds right before they closed and he unconsciously drew a gulp of nervousness. Weren''t Dragon Chef and Titan bragging about how much stronger they were than Swordsman? Why did that not seem to be the case?


    Rayleigh ended Babylon and said, "You need to practice the Enhancer aspect of your Nen more. More Aura does make you stronger, but only up to a certain point. The real strength Aura can grant youes from converting your attribute-less aura into Enhancer Attribute Aura and using that to enhance your strength."


    Justice sighed that he had suddenly be Rayleigh''s student again and remarked, "Yeah, Superman doesn''t use a sword either, so I can''t enhance the swing like I want to using his image."


    Rayleigh nodded and continued, "Yeah, if your image is Superman, then you should stick to enhancing your strength, using Laser vision, and flying."


    Justice brightly smiled at thest part, stating, "Oh, I can already fly. Kinda."


    Justice jumped while emitting aura downward and then turned his body into light and vanished. He then appeared in the air for a moment before he vanished and reappeared a few dozen meters elsewhere, vanished, reappeared higher, then lower, then back over the arena, and then back down on the ground.


    He exined, "I can use Aura to push myself in a direction and then elementize and travel at near-light speed in that direction. I can then materialize, use another aura push to change direction, and then move as light again. Even my teacher can''t do that. If he tries moving long distances as light, he might go over the curvature of this and end up in space, while I can stop, change directions, and keep going."


    Goddess of Ice stated from the side, "Don''t let him lie to you. He can''t use that at all since his sense of direction gets messed up after turning into light."


    Justiceined, "Hey! I can just bring apass or Eternal Log Pose with me!"


    The Princess of Marineford rolled her eyes and countered, "That would only work if you found an ind. You can''t use apass while falling out of the sky. If you ever try that and don''t find an ind, you''ll end up traveling until you hit the Red Line or end up going in circles until you exhaust yourself, fall into the water, and drown."


    Justice seemed halfway torn betweenining and crying.


    Rayleigh remarked from the side toward Goddess of Ice, "You really care about him, huh?"


    She turned to face away from the pair and remarked, "As if," while deciding to walk away.


    Justice didn''t see the girl''s faint blush before she left and instead of following her, he ignorantly asked Rayleigh, "So how can I get my aura to enhance me more?"


    Rayleigh ignored the dense fool''s rtionship status and began his lecture. Justice''s personality type was actually that of an Emitter, but Justice paid ss Points during Character Creation to make him a Transmuter type without changing his personality. Rayleigh found while testing him that Justice''s talent in Emission was still very high and Enhancement, which was between Transmutation and Emission, was also very high. This might have been an Easter Egg or bug, but as a consequence, he had an almost negative talent for Materialization and Maniption.


    Rayleigh taught the foundation Nen exercises for strengthening the Enhancer, Transmuter, and Emitter attributes in his aura and rmended using Mission Points from the Tavern to purchase the Easy Masteries for Enhancer and Emitter Proficiencies, to let him catch up and reach his full potential.


    Easy Masteries were how many yers rose their skill proficiency without practice as it turned anyone into a genius of the subject. Rayleigh didn''t use them because he already had all the Easy Masteries he needed and there weren''t any that would greatly contribute to his swordsmanship. Even getting the Transmuter Easy Mastery was ignored since a slow path to transforming his aura into sharpened sword aura mighty a stronger foundation for him as a swordsman. Besides, Easy Masteries were really expensive, and Rayleigh would rather spend Mission Points in the Tavern''s Arena, fighting life and death matches against powerful opponents.


    Justice and Rayleigh continued discussing Nen and possible ways to be stronger. Justice exined that the greatest benefit of the Glint Glint Fruit was attacking at near Light Speed, but he couldn''t do it yet. The trick was to attack, elementize, move, and then materialize and have the attack make contact at the exact moment of materialization, allowing the attack to carry some of the speed of the Light-based movement.


    Since Justice had also unlocked the Jedi ss, Rayleigh rmend using the Jedi skill, Force Valor, or the Sith Skill, Force Rage, since both allowed the user''s timing inbat to be aided by the Force. He even said that Justice can practice Force Valor with Goddess of Ice, since it would be useful to both of them. The Prince of Marineford really liked that idea.


    The Arena was a closed off area for the practice sessions of the students of the Admirals, so no one was allowed in. Due to this, it was Goddess of Ice who had to show up and remind Justice that Rayleigh''s match was about to start and to take him there before they both got into trouble.


    Justice quickly brought Rayleigh to an open area in the center of Marineford where a decent sized crowd and a few reporters had already gathered. The reporters already knew of the hype surrounding Rayleigh and that if he lost, there would be another genius joining the Marines.


    Rayleigh''s opponent stood imposingly in the center of the open space. Another possessor of the strange proportions many in this world had, Vice Admiral Momonga was over eight feet tall, something that was exemplified by the verticle blue and white stripes of his buttoned-up uniform. He had a ck mohawk but instead of standing up, the mohawk was styled into a top-knot on the back of his head. He also had a mustache that looked like the pointed hands of a clock, facing the 4 o''clock and 8 o''clock positions. Wrinkles formed from a perpetual scowl covered his face and it was obvious to anyone that he did not want to do this.


    From what Justice told him, Momonga was under the faction of Akainu, one of the three Admiral Factions besides Kizaru''s and Aokiji''s. Since Kizaru and Aokiji had genius students, Akainu was falling behind. One of the reasons they wanted to spar with Rayleigh was to make sure that he would not lose and join Akainu''s faction under Momonga, since there wasn''t a single yer that liked Akainu.


    In other words, Momonga had been told to win this and take Rayleigh as his student.


    Once Rayleigh entered the ring, all eyes turned to give him a once over. Not surprisingly, most of them found his outward appearancecking. Not in looks, but muscle. This was a world where the strongest seemed to have the most bloated muscles. Momonga for example had a towering figure and broad, muscle filled shoulders. He looked like he could easily lift a ship''s cannon in one hand and toss it across the ship. The strongest Vice Admiral, Garp, didn''t even need cannons. He could pick up cannonballs and toss them at pirate ships with more force than an actual cannon.


    Rayleigh''s physique appeared, forck of a better term, normal.


    With one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other in his pocket, Momonga both figuratively, and literally, looked down on Rayleigh. Had he not been told to end the fight as soon as possible, he might have been tempted to hold back since his full strength might cripple the little guy.


    One of the Marines shouted, "This is a sparring match between Vice Admiral Momonga and the swordsman Rayleigh. Draw your swords."


    Rayleigh''s nensaber handle was already in hand and to the surprise of the spectators, extended its blue and white glowing de.


    Momonga drew his sword as well. It was far longer than a katana to match the Marine''s height, making it an nodachi.


    "Begin!" At the marine''s call, Momonga used Shave to quickly close the distance between himself and Rayleigh. Thetter swung his sword to parry the Marine''s high-speed strike and their dance began.


    Simr to his fight with Goddess of Ice, Rayleigh did not use his full strength. His full strength was what he used in his exchange with Justice. He could tell that Momonga did not have the ability to raise his strength to that level, so Rayleigh simply matched it so he could experience the Marine''s swordsmanship.


    The man''s sword intent and armament Haki were both a few levels above the Princess of Marineford, but Rayleigh could still make due by keeping his sword filled with a few hundred lines of sharpened sword aura. Many of the lines of sword aura circting on the edge of his de were cut from Momonga''s sword intent and armament Haki, but they were quickly reced, preventing the Marine from cutting through his sword.


    Seeing that his sword did not break Rayleigh''s and that his strength and speed did not over-power thetter''s either, Momonga started using his sword skills, much to Rayleigh''s delight.


    There were several differences between what Rayleigh used and the High-Level swordsmanship used by the Marines. The biggest was brute strength. The human body has certain limits, and the Human-level swordsmanship Rayleigh learned from using Psychometry on Jacques Duquesne''s collection fell within these limits. The swordsmanship of the Marines seemed to extend beyond human limits, using moves that would be impossible or heavily damage the body without a superhuman physique or the use of Armament Haki.


    In other words, this was Anime-Swordsmanship.


    Until this point, Rayleigh was really only using a faster version of Human-level swordsmanship. All his effort went into making human-limit swordsmanship faster.


    Now Rayleigh took in the insights into Momonga''s moves that would over-exert or damage a normal human''s body and considered the best way to use those and enhance their speed.


    However, as expected, superhuman level swordsmanship was not infinite, at least for the Marines, so it didn''t take long for Rayleigh to see everything that Momonga had.


    Rayleigh used Shatterpoint and looked over the Armament Haki covering Momonga''s body and sword. The weakpoints he saw seemed to move around, like a sheet of stic wrap with a hole in moving randomly over a surface. It was hard to predict where this weakness would move to in advance, but Rayleigh could move fast enough to just hit it before it moved, so he did just that.


    Momonga shed out expecting Rayleigh to parry the strike, but instead, Rayleigh ducked under it in a smooth motion, spun his sword backward, then thrust out the back of the handle at Momonga''s gut. A wave of Force rushed into the weakpoint causing damage all over the man''s body.


    Rayleigh stepped back as the white of Momonga''s eyes started to show. The clicks and shes of dozens of cameras surrounded the pair as Momonga lost consciousness and fell to the ground.


    A man in a brown, wide-brim fedora wearing a three-piece brown suit with a sword under his Marine coat calmly walked into the circle and checked on Momonga. After confirming he was fine, he said, "If you don''t mind, I''d like to spar with you as well."


    Rayleigh asked, "Are you a Vice-Admiral?" The bet he made was that if he lost to a Vice Admiral, he would be that man''s student.


    The fedora-wearing Marine shook his head in the negative and said, "No, I''m just a Captain under Vice-Admiral Garp, and babysitting him already takes up most of my free time."


    Rayleigh tightened the grip on his Nensaber handle at the man''s exnation. ording to Justice, there was only one person who would openly say that kind of thing about Vice Admiral Garp in public. The sword instructor of Goddess of Ice, Captain Bogard.


    Vice Admiral Garp was known to be stronger than the three Admirals, but he remained a Vice Admiral because he refused a promotion. Bogard, Garp''s number two, remained a Captain for the same reason. The man had been at Garp''s side for decades.


    Rayleigh didn''t even notice the smile he was wearing as he answered, "I''d love a friendly match with you."


    Several Marines took Momonga away as Bogard drew his sword. It was a standard katana that could not appear more normal.


    Rayleigh''s Babylon had still not been disabled, but he added to it by entering what he thought of as the Heart of the Sword and One with the Sword state. This was the peak of his swordsmanship.


    The only problem was that his Battle Precognition seemed to only see static. Was this man''s Observation Haki so high, that he could make any prediction Rayleigh attempted obsolete?


    Since he could not see through this man in the slightest, Rayleigh took his most reliable defensive stance and waited for Bogard to make the first move.


    And move he did. With what appeared to be a standard usage of Shave, Bogard cleared the distance between Rayleigh and himself just like every other Marine swordsman Rayleigh had faced. That was where the simrities ended, along with the match.


    After a single move, Bogard''s sword was on Rayleigh''s neck. Every single one of the thousands of strands of sword aura contained in Rayleigh''s Nensaber had been passed through, cut cleanly.


    Bogard then retracted his sword and said, "You''re good, but your swordcks sincerity." He then sheathed his sword and turned around to walk away.


    Completely ignoring the camera shes and cries of the reporters surrounding him, every one of Rayleigh''s Wills analyzed what had just happened. Bogard''s sword did not actually cut through Rayleigh''s sword. It passed through without resistance, and the passing of the sword through the lines of sword aura is what caused the cut. It was like cause and effect had been reversed.


    Rayleigh''s Wills dedicated themselves to a single question. HOW?!


    It actually only took a moment to figure it out. Bogard was within Rayleigh''s En field, so every fraction of movement he took was measured. Rayleigh only realized after the fact that Bogard hadpletely matched Rayleigh''s breathing rhythm. Expanding on that, Rayleigh realized that Bogard had somehow matched his sword to Rayleigh''s Nen. Rayleigh''s aura could not hurt himself or else any person using Ren would cause that person''s body to explode. By matching his sword to Rayleigh''s aura, Bogard''s sword passed through Rayleigh''s aura. It didn''t negate the strength of Rayleigh''s aura, but it was like slicing along the grain. Was this how Swordmasters of this world used a sword? It reminded Rayleigh of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, an ability that allowed its user to see and cut through the grains of the world without resistance, letting him cut through and kill anything.


    Then there was Bogard''s advice. His swordcked sincerity? Rayleigh was a teacher, so he did not take thement as an insult, but properly thought it over. All eighteen wills came to the same conclusion. Rayleigh seemed to have been unconsciously looking down on swords. Why else create a deposed of transformed sword aura? His nensaber didn''t have any actual substance, it was just the mechanism that his sharpened sword aura circted around. He didn''t actually use a sword, but a sword-shaped chainsaw thatcked the inner metal part. Even when he was using it gently, he was still just using lines of unsharpened aura circting around that would not cut or harm.


    Why did this matter? From Rayleigh''s initial perspective, as long as it cut, it was a sword, and anything else was unnecessary. This was likely the reason he had been looking down on swords. But now that Bogard pointed it out, Rayleigh realized that he missed a few things. The biggest thing was that an insubstantial sword would never have a strong enough foundation to pile on all he wanted his swordsmanship to be.


    Rayleigh sweated a bit at this realization. Had he gone to Mihawk with this, he likely would have been beheaded. He needed a sword. Thankfully, he knew just what to do. It was time to make his third Hatsu.


    As for Bogard, he skillfully avoided the reporters and returned from where he came. Bogard protected the reputation of the Marines like he had been sent to do. On arriving back, a heavily muscr man eating crackers asked, "How was he?" Said man did not witness the fight, but he didn''t have to ask how it ended.


    Bogard answered, "He reminded me of another Rayleigh I used to cross swords with."


    The grey-haired cracker-eating Marine asked with interest, "Oh, do you think he might be another Dark King?"


    Bogard shook his head, "Not a chance."


    The man he answered then lost interest and went back to eating crackers.


    What Bogard did not say aloud was his feeling that Rayleigh would not be another Dark King, but far surpass him.


    *Author''s Note*


    Bogard''s fight was how I interpreted a One Piece Swordmaster''s ability to cut through anything by understanding its breath. Since aura is living, it makes sense that a One Piece Swordmaster should be able to cut through it as well, especially if he watched Rayleigh''s fight with Momonga to get a feel of Rayleigh''s aura. I actually doubt most One Piece Swordmasters could do this since they would not know about aura, but Board has taught Justice a few things, so he is familiar with aura, even if Justice tried to hide it.


    This would also trante to being able to cut through a Warrior''s Ki if the Swordmaster was skilled enough. For those who don''t think a swordmaster''s ability to cut through anything should include spiritual stuff like Ki, I refer you to the Trafalgar Law vs Vergo fight where Vergo, someone considered to have some of the strongest armament Haki, was bisected, along with the mountain range behind him. A Swordmaster can cut anything.


    Also, when I said that Garp could fight Nappa if he had Nen, a lot of people said no way and that Garp did not have any attacks that could destroy a city like Nappa did. To those people, I refer to thest page, page 16, of One Piece Chapter 1080.

 Chapter 68: The Third Hatsu

    Chapter 68: The Third Hatsu


    Chapter 68 The Third Hatsu


    Rayleigh entered the yer''s Arena located in the back of the Reincarnator''s Tavern with both excitement and trepidation. This was something he had been looking forward to for years, but held back due to the need to save his Mission Points for a Ticket to train under Mihawk.


    It had been three weeks since Rayleigh arrived in the Pirate world and with Goddess of Ice''s and Justice''s assistance, he was granted the authorization as a volunteer to protect a certain cargo ship that every yer knew Wonder Woman would been targeting.


    Generally, yers did not get in each other''s way, but Goddess of Ice and Wonder Woman had something of a history, and when the former learned that Rayleigh intended to screw thetter over, she emphatically agreed to assist in getting him where he needed to be along with a reporter and a skilled cameraman.


    During these three weeks, Rayleigh had been attempting high-value Tavern Missions in order to umte the required points to challenge a certain someone. Rayleigh approached the Arena console and typed in the person''s name to see their challenge price.


    [Netero: 2200 Mission Points.]


    Rayleigh clenched his fist in excitement. The price of a fight had a lot of variables. It used to be 3500, but that was when thete President of the Hunter Association was alive and Rayleigh only knew a few things about him. After the man''s death, finding out more details was a lot easier, and this allowed his price to drop.


    After choosing the cheapest battlefield, he selected it and entered thebat zone.


    Chairman Netero materialized and looked around. He knew he was here for a fight and a momentter, recognized the sixteen-year-old in front of him.Netero eximed, "Oh ho! You''ve grown quite a bit."


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "Yep. But I need your help with something. I want to know how you made your Hatsu."


    One of the most interesting pieces of information Rayleigh discovered about Netero was that his Hatsu was not a pure enhancer type, but abination of emission, enhancement, and maniption. It was considered by all who had seen it to be the strongest Hatsu ever created, and Rayleigh wanted to take inspiration from it before he made his third and final Hatsu.


    Netero considered it for a moment before answering, "It''s a rather boring story, but I''ll share it if you canst a few rounds with me. Myst fight ended rather unsatisfactorily." This was Netero after his death, so from his perspective, he had just blown himself up to deal with the Ant King. The fight leading to that point was good and seeing the fear in the Ant King''s face when he realized what Netero''s trump card was had been satisfying, but he was still sore that he had to end the fight using such a cheap trick rather than his own skill.


    Not many yers other than Ki Warriors used the yer''s Arena as much as Rayleigh did and he had discovered a few of its hidden features through trial and error. Netero was not the type to make the first move against someone who might be weaker than he was and he didn''t mind giving pointers if the recipient entertained him enough. That allowed Rayleigh to create a situation where he could obtain information from a dead guy, something most yers would never think to use the Arena to try.


    Rayleigh drew his Nensaber, enabled Overdrive, and activated Babylon. Under the boosting effects of his Divine-Script inscribed Nensaber handle, his En could cover the entire battlefield and every Force Skill used within this En Field was heavily enhanced.


    It was only thanks to this enhancement that Rayleigh''s Danger Sense and Battle Precognition barely had the time to warn him to get out of the way. Using his own version of the Six Powers skill, Shave, Rayleigh dashed to the side as a massive golden arm chopped its palm into the location he had just been standing, crushing the stone beneath it and sending a shockwave of air pressure from the strike.


    "Hoh? You dodged it? Alright, I''ll begin my story. How much you hear is up to you." Netero gave a fake expression of surprise and revealed that he would be exining his Hatsu''s origin as he tried to kill Rayleigh.


    Since Rayleigh''s En covered Netero as well, the pair of Wills focusing their attention on him were able to notice that prior to the appearance of the giant golden hundred-arms Bodhisattva behind him and its subsequent attack, Netero ced his hands together in what could only have been a prayer motion. He then gathered his aura into his hand a made a chopping motion. His aura was then emitted from his body and formed the giant Bodhisattva which then moved one of its arms in a copy of Netero''s movement. Considering the degree of impact, the emitted aura had been enhanced to a ridiculous degree to grant the attack its power. This Hatsubined Enhancement, Emission, and Maniption into one.


    Another massive golden arm tried to crush Rayleigh, followed by another and another. Prior to each attack, Netero made that same prayer motion and subsequent motion that the Bodhisattva would mimic to attack with. It would have been nice if Rayleigh could use that motion to predict the attacks, but Rayleigh only noticed the motion while using En since En recorded all motion, no matter how small or fast. This motion was so incredibly fast, that Rayleigh had to use Gy¨­ and Force Enhance: Senses just to barely perceive the motion with his eyes. By the time Rayleigh''s brain registered that the motion had started, the prayer motion and subsequent motion had already finished and the Bodhisattva-form enhanced emission attack was on the way.


    Thankfully, Rayleigh''s Overdrive granted him speed that wasn''t slower than the giant hundred-armed Bodhisattva''s attack speed and his Babylon Enhanced Force Skills granted him the breathing room needed to move out of the way before the attack fullyunched.


    While ying with Rayleigh like a cat would a mouse, Netero calmly spoke, "You learned Nen of me under Wing, so you might be able to understand the key points if I tell you what happened. You see, a long time ago, I reached the limit of what can be called strength and skill."


    Netero used multiple chops Rayleigh had to dodge, ps he had to get out from between, palm strikes he had to avoid, and swiping motions he had to use various ariel maneuvers to survive.


    Netero continued nonchntly, "I thought hard about why such a limit had been reached and how I could break it, and after a while, I realized that I had been selfish. Martial Arts had granted me such an outstanding body and skills, yet I still wanted more?"


    Seemingly ignoring Rayleigh''s plight while he continued to attack him two or three times a second, Netero stated, "I decided then that I had to pay back the debt I owed to the Martial Arts. So how did I do it? Gratitude! I immersed myself in the gratitude I felt toward Martial Arts, gave a prayer of thanks to the Martial Arts, and then used my strongest punch. I decided that in order to pay back the debt I owed Martial Arts, I would throw ten thousand punches of gratitude every day. Each punch was thrown with absolute sincerity at the pinnacle of my strength and skill, and each punch was apanied by a prayer filled with the immense gratitude I had toward the Martial Arts."


    The speed of the attacks increased, depriving Rayleigh of the time needed to dodge. Thankfully, he was going the Atomic Samurai of One Punch Man route and was able to sh the iing arms four times before they reached him, chopping each to pieces up to the Bodhisattva''s shoulder. Not that it made much of a difference. Netero''s Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva vanished after each use and reformed, new and whole, for every new attack.


    "At first, even for a man of my skill, the act of filling myself with gratitude, praying, and sincerely throwing out my strongest punch would take five or six seconds. The first day was almost over by the time I reached my ten thousandth punch and I promptly copsed and fell into a deep sleep. When I woke up, I started the next day''s set of ten thousand punches."


    The attack speed increased again, granting Rayleigh only enough time to sh each attack twice before it reached him. A fingerless palm could still attack so he had to chop the handpletely off the arm to prevent the iing attack.


    "You might think it''s crazy, but I continued this routine of ten thousand punches every day,pletely immersing myself in the act, strengthening my gratitude toward Martial Arts. After many months I entered an indescribable state somewhere between sincerity and madness. I lost myselfpletely and only after two years had passed did I regain my sense of self after noticing something so shocking, it must have rebooted my brain."


    Again, the attack speed increased. Six Bodhisattvas formed and attacked every second. If every attack came from the same direction, he could handle this with ease, but chops from above, palm strikes from the front, swipes from the left or right, and that pping attack he had to either destroy both iing hands or jump out of the way to survive made it far more difficult.


    "I noticed that even though I had justpleted my ten thousand gratitude-filled punches, the sun was still up. Every punch was still made with absolute sincerity, apanied by a prayer filled with gratitude, and thrown at the highest level I could maintain, but all ten thousand punches had beenpleted in half the time it took when I started. However, I still did not believe I had paid back the debt I owed to Martial Arts. I continued my routine, using the extra time after I finished to pray further in gratitude."


    Eight attacks per second. Rayleigh had three different Wills use Battle Precognition at the same time. Netero was observing the changes in Rayleigh''s stance to predict Rayleigh''s prediction and attack from a different direction. Rayleigh tried countering this by having multiple Wills predict Netero''s next attack and use the average as a base to guess all the most likely attack futures.


    "Another two years passed, and I realized that I hadpletely broken through the limit of strength and skill. My routine of ten thousand gratitude-filled punches could bepleted in less than an hour. I could release my strongest punch faster than the sound of the punch itself."


    The attacks wereing in almost as fast as Rayleigh was capable of shing. He had another set of multiple Wills use Shatterpoint to try and guess where the best location to sh was. When Rayleigh shed through one of the Bodhisattva''s shatterpoints, the entire thing broke so it only took a single attack to defend against instead of multiple shes.


    "I continued praying until I reached a state of understanding and returned to civilization,ter bing the grandmaster of Shingen-ryu kung fu. I summarized what I learned in those years into the Nen of me and standardized the poor foundation of Nen of Force. Now, after hearing my story, can you figure out how I created my Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva?"


    Netero cut back the attacks to twice a second giving Rayleigh a chance to respond.


    Rayleigh answered, "Your Hatsu has a lot of crazy restrictions. You can only use it after making that prayer gesture. But that''s not all, the prayer must be filled with gratitude. It won''t work if the prayer iscking in gratitude, which means that while fighting, even if you are injured, exhausted, or near death, you must always be filled with gratitude. That and you need to make another gesture after the prayer that indicates how the Hatsu will attack."


    At five times the speed of the previous attack, a golden palm formed and mmed into Rayleigh''s body like a battering ram shot from a tank''s cannon.


    "You''re close. What you said was the restriction for Enhancing my Hatsu''s power and Manipting my Hatsu''s movement. But you''re still missing thest piece. Since you survived that attack just now, I''ll give you a clue on the final part. Why did I choose to emit my aura in the form of the Guanyin Bodhisattva?"


    Rayleigh could mitigate damage using various Force Skills and Ren and his body was not weak to begin with, so although that attack turned him into a giant bruise, it did not kill him or greatly affect hisbat abilities. Still, it really hurt.


    His knowledge of Buddhism came from the Light Novels he read in his past life, but he had read a lot of them, so there were guesses he could make. Rayleigh got up from the rubble of the wall he had been mmed into and answered, "Because you see yourself as the Guanyin Bodhisattva. In your mind, you are the Bodhisattva, so the aura you emit naturally takes the form of the Bodhisattva. Since you are the Bodhisattva, then your movements will naturally move your emitted Bodhisattva as well, since it is you."


    Netero smiled widely, "Excellent. You''ve figured it out. Now let me give you your prize."


    Rayleigh''s Danger Sense practically exploded at that point. This wasn''t something he could dodge, so he packed all of his aura into his Nensaber, increasing the number of Sharpened Sword Aura lines to the thousands, and started shing wildly at Netero to send what looked like a of sword lines.


    The panic seemed to cause time topress in Rayleigh''s senses, but that was only because you often remembered something traumatic happening in more detail than you felt during the moment it happened. Netero made his prayer motion and then made the fingers of both of his hands look like the number nine before setting them next to each other on his leg, forming the number 99.


    Every single one of the Bodhisattva''s arms started attacking at a speed of sixteen strikes per second. Rayleigh continued shing and many of the arms were cut through. Since the Bodhisattva did not vanish and reform, he could survive if he cut down all the arms, but the rest hid behind the first and pierced through the of sword lines using the holes formed by the arms that had already been cut. Rayleigh only managed to cut nine more before the rest reached him.


    Palm after palm struck and stacked on top of each other over Rayleigh, squashing his body with each impact until he popped.


    Two shes of light signaled the end of the match. Rayleigh was back to normal and Netero was gone. He sat down and began digesting his gains whilementing his weakness. There were many things he could say, but his weaknesses boiled down to two factors. He was not fast enough and the sword lines he sent as flying shes were not sharp enough to cutpletely through a single finger before breaking. If each line was strong enough and sharp enough, they would have diced that Bodhisattvapletely through and chopped Netero into pieces.


    Thankfully, there were many gains. He was able to cut those hands with his sword and he noticed that when his flying shes struck a shatterpoint, it cut that throughpletely. He didn''t know his flying shes worked on shatterpoints since there had never been a chance to test that out.


    Rayleigh crossed his legs and started meditating. Even without paying for an opponent, yers could use the Arena to practice as long as their daily allotment of two hours was not up, and that fight onlysted about four minutes.


    Netero mentioned Nen of me, so it likely held the key to understanding the origin of the Hatsu''s power. Nen of me was something only taught in Shingen-ryu kung fu and Wing asked Rayleigh, Gon, and Killua not to teach it to others, so Rayleigh left it out during his exnation of Nen while teaching the yers.


    Netero was sometimes credited with the creation of the Nen of Force system, but this was a misunderstanding since it existed before Netero did, he just gavebels and systemized it.


    The core aspect of Nen of me was to create a Hatsu that was linked to the heart of the Hunter that used it. However, it was more than that. Rayleigh hypothesized that as long as you went through the entire process of Nen of me, your Hatsu would actually create itself.


    This might have been what Netero was trying to say without saying it. Netero did not create the Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva, it formed naturally as a result of his prayer and understanding of himself.


    With that, Rayleigh had a blueprint for what he needed to do. First, Netero''s Hatsu was enhanced using his gratitude, something he practiced ten thousand times a day, every day, for years. A normal person would have nothing topare that to, but Rayleigh was far from normal. Rayleigh did not pray ten thousand times a day, but there was something he did do every day. And not just ten thousand times. All day every day since he was twelve and had split off his first Will, Rayleigh meditated on the Force.


    Next, Netero''s Hatsu form came from his belief that he was the Guanyin Bodhisattva. Rayleigh did not intend to make a Guanyin Bodhisattva out of Emitted aura, but a sword from conjured aura. Thankfully, Rayleigh''s focus on the sword should not lose out whenpared to Netero''s identity as the Guanyin Bodhisattva. So that was covered.


    Andst, Netero''s Maniption of his Hatsu came from the fact that he was the Guanyin Bodhisattva, so when he moved, his Guanyin Bodhisattva would also naturally move. Rayleigh knew how to move a sword, so this was notcking either.


    Since the ingredients were present and the map was avable, Rayleigh just needed to follow the path set down by his seniors and let his Hatsu form naturally.


    After an hour of meditating, Rayleigh started speaking aloud.


    "There is no strength, only the strongest and everyone else.


    There is no power, only continuous self-improvement.


    There is no bnce, only the in-motion and the motionless.


    There is no beginning or end, only a previous and a next."


    Rayleigh''s aura softly gathered into his hand as he spoke each line and continued.


    "There is no strength, only the strongest and everyone else.


    There is no power, only continuous self-improvement.


    There is no bnce, only the in-motion and the motionless.


    There is no beginning or end, only a previous and a next."


    Rayleigh''s connection to the Force was represented by his Code. His code was how he connected to the Force. It was a manifestation of his link to the Force.


    "There is no strength, only the strongest and everyone else.


    There is no power, only continuous self-improvement.


    There is no bnce, only the in-motion and the motionless.


    There is no beginning or end, only a previous and a next."


    The aurapletely materialized into a European Longsword, simr to that of the Cavalier''s Sword that Rayleigh often practiced with.


    The first thing that Rayleigh noticed was that he had been forced into his Second-Stage Zetsu. It seemed to be a requirement of this sword, but as long as he maintained Second-Stage Zetsu, the sword possessed an indestructibility condition.


    Second-Stage Zetsu was specifically used to enhance training, and Rayleigh felt that training with this sword would greatly magnify the effect. In other words, it was a sword that enhanced sword training speed.


    The sword was also empty. This Empty Sword gave off a feeling of needing to be filled. Rayleigh smiled at this. The Tarot Card known as the Fool was the most powerful card because it was empty. Being empty meant that it had infinite potential, very much like this sword.


    Although it appeared like a normal long sword, Rayleigh did find a single strand of transformed sword aura on the de''s edge, so it was still supernaturally sharp. The problem was that Rayleigh got the feeling that if this sword drew blood, the condition of its indestructibility would end, making it quite fragile.


    Obviously this training sword could not be used in realbat. Thankfully, he already had an inkling of how to fill this Empty Sword.


    In Second Stage Zetsu, Rayleigh had no ess to his aura or the Force, so he had to manually disassemble his Nensaber handle to open it up. Once he had ess to the Kyber Crystal within, Rayleigh removed it from the Nensaber''s casing and pressed it against the Empty Sword''s crossguard, just below the de''s edge.


    Nothing happened.


    Rayleigh felt it out for a bit and shuddered in sheer cringe. Was that really necessary?


    Having no other choice, Rayleigh pressed the Kyber Crystal to the Empty Sword again and said aloud, "Split the Heavens, Sword of Babylon."


    The sword epted the Kyber Crystal and Rayleigh felt himself exit his Second Stage Zetsu state and enabled his first and second Hatsus, Babylon and Overdrive. The sword''s form did not change, but its edge did start to glow blue above the Kyber Crystal, and Rayleigh was suddenly able to pour more aura into it to generate more than a single circting line of sword aura that could be sent as flying shes, just like his Nensaber could do.


    Then the sword exploded.


    After flinching from the sh of destruction, Rayleigh understood what happened. The Sword of Babylon could be used in battle, but it had the restriction of only being usable while using Babylon and Overdrive. The problem was that Babylon required the Divine Script engraved into the Nensaber''s handle which had been discarded.


    Thankfully this was an easy fix. As Rayleigh''s proficiency in Enhancing his aura increased, so did his ability to apply Enhancement attribute Divine Script. It would take a few hours of work, but Rayleigh could use his Lightsaber Customization Kit to safely inscribe all the required Divine Script directly into the Kyber Crystal. If he did so, he could turn his blue Kyber Crystal into a pendant or bracelet. The Kyber Crystal was twice the length of a fingernail and just as wide. It was quite small and could easily fit onto most pieces of jewelry, so Rayleigh could have it on himself at all times.


    Liking the idea, Rayleigh left the Tavern and got to work. Using some leather scraps he purchased from a merchant, Rayleigh made a simple leather bracelet with the Kyber Crystal tied into a hole on it, making it look decorative. Rayleigh saved the design in his Lightsaber Customization Kit, so anytime he took his Lightsaber from his Inventory, this would appear.


    The bracelet had two benefits. It had no metal at all, so he could even take it through metal detectors. The next was that it pressed the Kyber crystal against his skin. This allowed him greater ess to the Force at all times, just like a Jedi holding his Lightsaber, and would boost the effect of Force Skills and meditation.


    Rayleigh tried to test out the Empty Sword and Sword of Babylon, but quickly stopped once he discovered a problem with the sword. The Empty Sword''s indestructibility and its enhancement to training could both be increased by adding more restrictions to its usage. The problem was that once he added a restriction to the Empty Sword, it would also be added to the Sword of Babylon as well since the Empty Sword was the base.


    He tried to add the restriction that he had to use the Empty Sword while in the Heart of the Sword State. The Empty Sword shattered when he exited that state for longer than 3 seconds and the Sword of Babylon inherited the same restriction.


    This meant that, in a sense, the sword could continually evolve by adding more restrictions.


    Moreover, the Sword of Babylon was not the final state. Just like the Empty Sword could be the Sword of Babylon, the Sword of Babylon could also advance further.


    After numerous tests and meditating with it for a while, Rayleigh found out that his second Hatsu, Babylon, also had a new feature that caused a red mist to materialize anytime Rayleigh was injured while maintaining Babylon. Rayleigh felt that once the saturation of this mist reached the right level, the Sword of Babylon would absorb it, changing the blue glow to a red glow.


    Rayleigh already knew that the Empty Sword would lose its indestructibility if it drew blood and that the Sword of Babylon would directly explode if it killed someone, but when the de glowed red, the restriction against the Sword of Babylon killing anyone waspletely lifted.


    The red mist that materialized from Rayleigh''s injuries did not even have toe from injuries inflicted by his opponents. If he was willing to make a blood sacrifice, he could harm himself with the Sword of Babylon, directly coating it in blood and changing it to its Red form, granting it the ability to kill without restriction.


    The only problem with the sword was that it could never be materialized in a moment. He either needed to materialize it during battle or before the battle. In order to Materialize either the Empty Sword or the Sword of Babylon, Rayleigh needed to remain motionless, not use any Force Skills, and sincerely recite his Force Code aloud three times without being interrupted. If he did that while holding his Kyber Crystal, the aura would materialize directly into the Sword of Babylon as long as he said aloud, "Split the Heavens, Sword of Babylon." If he was not holding the Kyber Crystal, he would form the Empty Sword which could still be changed into the Sword of Babylon by inserting the Kyber Crystal and saying the cringy phrase.


    Of course, there was a second method to do it. Even without forming the Sword of Babylon, blood-colored mist would materialize from Rayleigh''s aura if he was injured while using Babylon. If he was injured enough, he could say the cringy phrase and directly use the saturation of blood-colored aura to materialize the Red Sword of Babylon around the Kyber Crystal in his hand without needing to recite his code aloud three times and form the previous swords.


    If Rayleigh wanted to be sneaky about it, he could even hide the blood-colored mist using In, so no one would notice the slowly thickening cloud


    Even though he did not consciously form this Hatsu, Rayleigh could already tell his subconscious took inspiration from Yumichika Ayasegawa of Bleach. That was the guy in Zaraki''s Division who hid the form of his Magic Type Zanpakut¨­ as a Melee type by calling it the wrong name. It opened up the idea of a single sword having multiple forms, each stronger than thest, but each locked by a different number of requirements.


    In the future, the Sword of Babylon may even gain new forms as more restrictions were added, but he had to be careful and make sure that the restrictions he wanted were only applied to the forms he wanted them on and not the previous forms.


    Some restrictions were easy. The Sword of Babylon already had a limit of only being usable while using Babylon, so adding more restrictions to Babylon would also strengthen the Sword of Babylon.


    As for the actual effect, the Sword of Babylon was an all-around upgraded version of the Nensaber. Pouring aura into the sword would cause the Kyber Crystal to transform the aura into silk-like threads of sharpened sword aura, far thinner and stronger than what his Nensaber could have generated.


    The silk-like threads of sharpened sword aura then circted from the Kyber Crystal, around the tip of the edge of the de, and back to the Kyber Crystal in the same chainsaw-like motion, though since the silk-like threads were only flowing over the very edge of the sword''s de, the effect was even sharper. The lines of sword aura made by the Nensaber were somewhere between a paper''s thickness and a hair''s thickness, so the silk-like thickness of the transformed lines in the Sword of Babylon concentrated on the edge was a massive improvement.


    Pouring more aura into the Kyber Crystal generated more circting threads and since each one reinforced the speed of the others, the more threads along the edge of the de, the faster the silk-like lines circted.


    If Rayleigh poured in a tiny amount of aura, enough to generate a dozen circting threads, then dropped the sword''s edge into a stone block, it would likely slice through it cleanly without resistance. That was how sharp it had be.


    And just like before, a swing of the sword could send the circting threads flying. Although the threads were much thinner, they were not weaker. In fact, they were denser, meaning they would have a far stronger cut when sent flying than the Nensaber had been capable of.


    Other than an upgraded version of the Nensaber, the Sword of Babylon didn''t have much else, but that was because it was still waiting for more restrictions to be added.


    For example, when he added the restriction that it could not be used unless he maintained the Heart of the Sword state, Rayleigh felt that just holding the Sword of Babylon greatly enhanced his physique, granting his body more strength, durability, and speed.


    Although he was tempted to go crazy on the restrictions, he wanted to wait until he learned Swordsmanship and Haki from Mihawk. Rayleigh could use the Empty Sword to seal his Nen and Force abilities and allow him to focus solely on his Sword Skills and Haki. The training enhancement effect would shine perfectly during this period. As long as the Empty Sword maintained its indestructibility condition, he should be able to use it while fighting Mihawk without it breaking, since the sword''s indestructibility condition was a continuous one. If it still broke, he could just add more restrictions.


    But even though he would not be going crazy on it right now, he did want to test his new sword out. Luckily for him, the ship he was currently on would be attacked by the Wonder Pirates tomorrow. He hoped they would not mind him testing a few things out.


    *Author''s Note*


    Next time Chapter 69, The Exposure of the Wonder Pirates.


    I was originally gonna do the 3rd Hatsu after the Wonder Pirates, but when I decided on that chapter''s name, I knew I had to move it to the correct chapter number.


    This chapter is a good show of Rayleigh''s full strength and current limits. His attacks are slower than Netero''s, but not by a massive degree, so he is catching up. He''ll be able to speed up by training more and his flying shes will be stronger once he infuses them with sword intent, so the only things he is really missing are things he will be getting soon.


    I initially thought that Netero used a Materialization Hatsu, but after checking the Wiki, I found that it was an emission Hatsu that had its durability enhanced. I am pleased with the Hatsu''s origin though, since I think this matches the deeper meaning of Nen of me, something I did not go over initially since Rayleigh was not making a Hatsu at that time. Even if you don''t know Nen of me, your Hatsu may still develop itself as long as you are 100% true to yourself while practicing Nen. This is actually how Hisoka developed his Hatsu. He didn''t n it, it came to him naturally and 100% matched his stalker-like personality of ying with his opponents by allowing his prey to get away and then pulling them back in when they are ripe.


    The Sword of Babylon was something I thought up a few weeks ago and was the final piece missing to fill in the Plot Holes my story would have encounteredter had I not addressed them soon enough. I initially wanted to save the 3rd Hatsu until after he learned Haki and make it a Berserk Mode thing, but there were too many problems with it and I like this one better since I can do anything with it and even add a berserk modeter if I want. After the next training Montage I''ll give a full break down of the effects and restrictions of Rayleigh''s Hatsus at the time.


    If anyoneins about the Sword''s requirement to materialize, please note that there is a trick hidden inside. He has to remain motionless and can''t be interrupted while reciting his Code to conjure the Sword of Babylon. Eventually, this will be discovered and people will try to attack and interrupt him. This is where the trap lies since if he is injured, he can use the injury to form the Red Sword of Babylon and kill whoever thought they were being clever.


    Feitan of the Phantom Troupe already proved it was possible to create an Over Powered Conjuration Hatsu that became stronger when the user was inflicted with damage and pain, so I can definitely justify doing the same thing to make Sword of Babylon OP.

 Chapter 69: Exposure of the Wonder Pirates

    Chapter 69: Exposure of the Wonder Pirates


    Chapter 69 Exposure of the Wonder Pirates


    Rayleigh sat in a small cot in the cargo ship''s crew quarters with an old newspaper in hand. His fight against Vice Admiral Momonga and his ''minor contribution'' to driving away Wild King from Gilliad ind had beenpiled into a page five story. Had Captain Bogard not made him look like a toddler, it might have be a page two or three story, but the current situation still fell within the n''s expectations.


    His gains from the Bogard fight were worth far more than a second-page story, since it was pointless for him to have anything but a first-page story and he already had ns for just that.


    Although he lost to Bogard, the man did not tell anyone he would take Rayleigh as a student and no one in the Marines had the balls to force Vice Admiral Garp''s Number Two to do anything, and since he was not technically a Vice Admiral, no one pushed for Rayleigh to join the Marines after the match.


    Even though he was not a Marine, he was still able to use the good reputation he gained from the lives saved on Gilliad and Goddess of Ice''s rmendation to board this ship that would be robbed by Wonder Woman in a couple of hours.


    With his previous entry in the news ensuring that he was no longer a no name, his next entry should be able to reach the first page. Of course, he would still ask Wonder Woman to give up the attack without a fight. If she really agreed, Rayleigh''s ability to drive off the Wonder Pirates without a fight should still be a page two story, but he''d still need to get a front page entry as a swordsman to fulfill the conditions that Mihawk''s tutge required. That being said, Rayleigh did not feel he would need a n B, since everything about Wonder Woman''s personality showed that she was willful to the extreme.


    Wonder Woman, just like Titan, Dragon Chef, and himself, was an Enhancer. She did not have a devil fruit but ording to Goddess of Ice, she had the highest Haki and Nen proficiency in this half of the Grand Line and practiced a Vibration based Martial Art that heavily amplified the damage of every one of her punches. Considering how active she was, Wonder Woman also had the most livebat experience on this half of the Grand Line. Dyna Might picked a fight with her a few months ago and got One-Shotted. His explosions could not even leave a scratch through her Armament Haki and Ren.


    There was of course something nagging at him. It really seemed like Wonder Woman was strong enough to survive in the second half of the Grand Line. So why was she staying here, robbing things? It would be one thing if she challenged the Vice Admirals forbat experience, but she always fled when one showed up, only beating up Rear Admirals and leaving them alive. It was obvious that she was avoiding the attention of the Admirals by pretending to run from the Vice Admirals, but why bother?


    If it was another kind of yer, then Rayleigh wouldn''t find it odd, but since Wonder Woman was an Enhancer, she should have the same drive to fight strong opponents since Enhancers got stronger after such fights. That meant she had to be after something that had more value than a good fight.With his curiosity peaked, Rayleigh got up from his cot and did something he was told, practically at gunpoint, not to do when he got on the ship. He went to the Cargo hold.


    Rayleigh erased his presence using Zetsu and Force Stealth. He was still visible, but not noticeable. After walking down a few flights of stairs, he passed by some men in suits that did not look like pushovers. They did not talk or pass the time speaking to each other, they simply stood and stared, so their attention could not be diverted as easily.


    Before either could say anything, Rayleigh connected to the pair using his Empathy and said, "Nothing to see, nothing is wrong, go about your business." Rayleigh then made himself feel apathetic, calm, and disinterested, something he then transmitted to the pair using Mind Trick as he walked past them.


    Both lost interest in him as he walked past their line of sight, which made them lose awareness of him thanks to his Force Stealth andck of a presence.


    After turning another corner and a long hall, Rayleigh found the inner ship entrance of the cargo bay. When the ship docked, the exterior of the ship would be opened to quickly unload the cargo, but inside the ship, this was the only entrance to this space while sailing.


    The entrance had a very formidable looking lock on a metal door with a metal frame on what he now recognized as a metal wall disguised as a wooden one. Now that was interesting. He didn''t feel the presence of any life on the other side, so there were no guards or ves within, but what required so much security?


    Rayleigh held the lock and used Psychometry. He saw the lock being set on the door, he saw the shape of the key, and he even saw the lock being assembled. Since he knew the internal mechanism, he could easily use some Telekinesis to shift the hidden pieces and unlock the bolt without needing to turn the tumbler or set the pins.


    A usage of Force Muffle ensured that the popping of the lock and the opening of the door was not heard by others. When Rayleigh peered inside, he saw hundreds of rolls of silk. Was that it?


    Not convinced, Rayleigh used telekinesis to move the rolls of silk and in doing so, revealed the giant, silk covered cube hidden behind the massive piles. Another usage of telekinesis removed the sheet and a massive cube made of some sort of bluish stone could be seen. On a single side was arge amount of unrecognizable symbols carved into the surface.


    Not being able to resist, Rayleigh touched the cube with the intention of using Psychometry, but the moment he did, a Pop-Up message appeared in his yer Interface.


    [You have Discovered an Easter Egg, the Instructional Poneglyph #3. As the first yer to touch it, a Treasure Map has been deposited into your Inventory. The Map cannot be returned to the Inventory once removed. In addition to the treasure, the first yer to find the treasure located on the Treasure Map will be awarded 10,000 Mission Points.]


    Eh? This thing was an Easter Egg like the Tho Yors of Typhon? Rayleigh tried using Psychometry on the stone, but the information he could receive was being blocked. He tried using Shatterpoint to see the block''s weak point, but even that was being blocked. It seemed that the Tavern didn''t want yers to spoil the mystery of this thing so easily.


    Rayleigh considered copying the lines of text on the stone, but he doubted he''d be able to do anything with them, so he returned the silk sheet over the block, set all the silk rolls back where they were, and exited the room, leaving it exactly like he had found it.


    Another use of Mind Trick allowed Rayleigh to pass the guards a second time without being noticed or questioned, and he only started thinking about the Easter Egg after returning to his cot.


    At least that exined why Wonder Woman wasing. With his current strength, Rayleigh could pass a 500~700 Point Tavern Mission a week as long as he didn''t get unlucky, and he doubted many yers could say the same since he had a lot of advantages like his Psychometry for investigations and his speed for travel and escape. Even for him, 10,000 points would take four months to umte, so it wasn''t a small sum. Mission Points could be used to purchase Easy Masteries, convert items into Inventory Items, and use the yer''s Arena.


    Maybe the reason Wonder Woman stayed in the shallow end of the kiddy pool was to find these Easter Eggs and use the points to fight in the Arena. A fight in the Arena was only really expensive the first time you purchased it. If Rayleigh paid to fight Netero again, it would only cost a fraction of the initial price since Rayleigh already knew most of Netero''s skills. If he ever fought Netero and got him to go all out, revealing all of his skills, then the price of fighting him would be even cheaper.


    For all Rayleigh knew, Wonder Woman could be sparring with Garp, the Admirals, and the Four Emperors of the New World every day. If that was the case, everything would make sense.


    Of course, it was also possible that she was wasting points on frivolous and useless crap, but Rayleigh didn''t think that was possible.


    Rayleigh wondered if the other yers knew about these Easter Eggs. He recalled that the yer Shadowcat was a thief who could move through walls, so she might have discovered it.


    After pondering for a bit, Rayleigh arrived at the most likely scenario. The guys in suits were agents of the World Government, so they were the ones responsible for moving these blocks. As for why they were being moved, Rayleigh guessed that it was Shadowcat''s fault. If they discovered that someone who could swim through walls was looking for these things, then no amount of security was enough. They had to be moved, perhaps regrly.


    So how did Wonder Woman know that this block would be moved on this ship on this day? Rayleigh had some suspicions. If he was right, then Wonder Woman would abort the attack without even appearing, so the show of him driving them away would never be seen.


    Thankfully, Rayleigh had a way to ensure that didn''t happen. He started reciting his Force Code. After some trial and error, Rayleigh figured that if he devoted sixteen Wills to reciting his Force Code at the same time, he only needed to recite it twice instead of three times. Once he had thirty-two Wills, he could devote them all to reciting the code and only need to recite it a single time to materialize the Empty Sword or the Sword of Babylon. Not useable during battle at the moment, but better than nothing for now.


    Once the Empty Sword materialized in Rayleigh''s hands, he automatically entered his Second Stage Zetsu,pletely cutting himself off from the Force and his Aura. Why do this? Because it also had the effect of making him practically invisible to irvoyants and Precogs.


    Several hourster, a High-Speed Luxury Yacht could be seen speeding toward the direction of the Cargo ship and the pair of Marine Vessels guarding it.


    Wonder Woman sat in afortable chair lounging in the sun and looked to the side to see the other two yers in her crew. A skinny girl with her ck hair tied into a ponytail yed on a cellphone. It didn''t have a signal but it did have a lot of games that worked without one. Next to her was a teen with long, auburn hair flowing in the wind and staring off into the distance. Wonder Woman asked her, "Do you See any problems?"


    This girl was in fact the person that had once peeped on Rayleigh''s free Nen lessons. She had never revealed her Nen type or talked to anyone but Rayleigh, but she was currently a part of the Wonder Pirates and the source of their good fortune, both figuratively and literally.


    The yer who called herself the All Seeing Prophet and possessor of the re re fruit was one of the five yers who decided to specialize themselves into a support role capable of predicting the future. When Wonder Woman asked her if she saw any problems, All Seeing Prophet''s eyes glowed as she answered, "No. I see a dozen CP8 Operatives and some merchants with weapons. I don''t see any of them resisting or being a problem after the Cipher Pol Agents are taken care of."


    Wonder Woman smiled back at the good news and ordered her helmswoman full speed ahead. All Seeing Prophet had been having trouble seeing the details of the heist for thest few days and Wonder Woman had been tempted to call it off. All Seeing Prophet''s predictions were sketchy against those stronger than she was, but it looked like there wasn''t anything to worry about. Wonder Woman would have to return to the Hunter World to refuel the ship and recharge everyone''s cellphones, but that was a quick day trip and something she was very used to by now. The best part was that the contents of the fridge counted as a part of the ship, so as long as it was food, she could also take the delicious food from the Hunter World to this world by stuffing the yacht''s fridge before returning the Ship to her Inventory.


    While everyone else in this world suffered theck of modern luxuries like cavemen camping outdoors without tents, she was mping with her million dor RV, enjoying nature and adventure without actually getting dirty.


    When Rayleigh spotted the Yacht speeding towards the ship, he really had to do a double take. How many Mission Points must that thing have cost to convert into an Inventory Item?


    Wonder Woman''s ''Pirate Ship'' was very distinctive and well known by the Marines at this point. Rayleigh never asked about it so he hadn''t known. There had been attempts to destroy it, but Glitter stayed on the ship and used Sh¨± whenever it was attacked, granting it a high resistance to bullets and cannons for the short duration that her heists took ce.


    The luxury yacht only had ten crew members and there was an open space in the backrge enough to fit the Poneglyph. Technically Wonder Woman did not need to steal it to get the Treasure Map, but she didn''t want the World Government to know that. Rayleigh was curious about what she did with them afterward since she had to have at least two or three already with all the heists she tried over thest year.


    The Yacht pulled up along side the cargo ship and multiple men in fancy suits started using Moon Walk and Storm Leg to attack the ship and crew while others pulled out lines of rifles and opened fire. The girl Rayleigh recognized as Glitter had be a human diamond and her Sh¨± was covering the ship, protecting it from the attacks. Being in Zetsu increased Rayleigh''s sensitivity to aura, so he could feel that the attacks on the aura surrounding the ship seemed to be redirecting their force to Glitter. Some kind of damage transfer Hatsu? An interesting idea for an indestructible woman.


    Wonder Woman jumped from the deck of the yacht to the cargo ship and started punching and kicking the Cipher Pol Agents, knocking them out and breaking the guns of the Merchants on deck.


    Rayleigh removed the Kyber Crystal from his leather bracelet and pushed it to the normal looking long sword in his hand.


    Sensing something was about to happen, All Seeing Prophet and Wonder Woman both looked over at Rayleigh as they watched him smile and say aloud, "Split the Heavens, Sword of Babylon."


    Rayleigh instantly shifted from his Second Stage Zetsu state to a state of using Overdrive, Babylon, and Heart of the Sword.


    Now recognizing the sixteen-year-old Rayleigh she had not seen in a few years, All Seeing Prophet got a measure of him and said aloud, "Fuck."


    Glitter asked, "Is that Swordsman? Wonder Woman can beat him, right?"


    All Seeing Prophet didn''t answer. She had been to the Jedi Gxy while making her Measurement Hatsu and could get a read-out of a yer''s Stats in Nen, Haki, the Force, and Physique. Swordsman''s Haki was at zero, his Nen was a little higher than Wonder Woman''s, and his Physique was outrageous, but it was his Force connection that caught her off guard. She had Seen and Measured several Jedi yers and Jedi Masters and Rayleigh''s Force stat was on the level of a Jedi Master, far above any yer. Since he did not have a Master Apprentice Force Bond to elerate his connection to the Force, she didn''t understand how Rayleigh''s presence in the Force was so high.


    Wonder Woman did not hear All Seeing Prophet''s expletive and said, "What are you doing here Swordsman?" The threat in her tone made it clear that there would be consequences if the answer was not to her liking.


    Rayleigh replied, "Ah, I''m guarding this ship. You, Glitter, and that other yer still owe me a favor, right? Please leave and forget about robbing this ship."


    A selective usage of Force Muffle ensured that the merchants, Marines, and Reporter on deck only heard the first andst sentence Rayleigh spoke, making them aware that he was telling the Wonder Pirates to get lost.


    Wonder Woman narrowed her eyes and went all out in her Ren, showing her resolve. Her fists and wrists turned ck as they seemed to reject the light around them. None of the Merchants or CP8 Operatives had Observation Haki, so none of them saw the aura or ckening of Wonder Woman''s skin. When Armament Haki was applied to the degree that it became visual, it was only visible to those with a broader perspective on reality, so a picture taken of her would not show ck fists.


    Rayleigh vanished and reappeared with his sword being blocked by Wonder Woman''s wrists. Sparks flew off as if Wonder Woman really did have indestructible bracelets on her wrists, something Rayleigh suspected to be a defense Hatsu.


    After blocking his first strike, Wonder Woman punched out. This punch shattered the air, the wood beneath them, and Rayleigh''s understanding of Wonder Woman''s character. She had no skill at all.


    A half step and a usage of Ren dodged the strike and blocked the vibrations in the air from causing any damage. Her punch had more destructive force than the cannon of a modern tank, but she didn''t have any form, relying on pure strength.


    Still, he had an audience to please. Rayleigh moved to strike again and increased his speed a tiny bit. His sword only had a dozen lines of Sword Aura circting around since he was just testing the waters and didn''t want to actually chop her arms off.


    He circled her repeatedly, vanishing and reappearing from view while attacking her from different angles that she blocked with her Haki and Nen-infused wrists. She wasn''t anywhere near fast enough to counter attack leaving her unable to do anything but defend herself.


    Wonder Woman tried various vibration powered area of effect shockwave attacks but Rayleigh''s own aura sufficiently protected him from the vibrating air. He would definitely feel it if shended a single blow, but she couldn''t even touch him. Her only other skill was Conqueror''s Haki, but Wild King said that Rayleigh wasn''t affected by it and even if he was, Wonder Woman knew better than to reveal her possession of this skill to non-yers. Dragon Chef learned the hard way that showing off some skills leads to getting chased by an Admiral, something she wasn''t ready for yet.


    From the deck, she shouted, "Glitter! Sink the other ships!"


    Glitter returned to her human form for a moment before changing her stance and crystallizing back into a human diamond. This time though, she had an outstretched hand pointing at one of the Marine vessels.


    Wonder Woman called out to Rayleigh, "Since you did the Water Divination Test for everyone, you should remember everyone''s aura type. Do you remember what Glitter''s was?"


    Rayleigh did in fact recall. Glitter was an Emitter. Was she about to fire an aura st out of her hands?


    Wonder Woman said, "The longer Glitter holds that pose, the more aura she can fire. In her diamond form, no one can force her to change her pose, and she doesn''t have to change back to fire. In a minute, she will have enough aura to sink that ship. You have until then to get out of my way."


    Wonder Woman wasn''t bluffing. If Rayleigh didn''t stop, Glitter would sink the first ship and then the second. If Rayleigh wanted to y hero, he could rescue the passengers and take them to this ship while Glitter sted open the cargo hold and Wonder Woman lifted the Poneglyph from this ship to her yacht. Worst case scenario was that she could not steal it and just touch it to get the map and then leave. Once she had the Map, All Seeing Prophet could use her re re Fruit''s powers to find the ind and best route to the treasure and her high speed yacht would take her there in style.


    Rayleigh kept fighting Wonder Woman in a shy way as Glitter gathered more and more aura into her palm. The light shined through her diamond body and made her sparkle brightly, giving a new definition to the term, ss Cannon. Wonder Woman shouted, "She''s really gonna do it if you don''t get out of my way!"


    Rayleigh said, "You should pay more attention to our fight, and less attention to things that don''t matter." At that moment he sped up even faster, forcing Wonder Woman to dodge and block using her Observation Haki, something that could notpletely catch up with Rayleigh''s speed. Even if she could see a quarter second into the future with it, her reactions were slower than Rayleigh''s attacks, her act of adjusting herself to the future was slower than Rayleigh readjusting his attack to ount for her predictions.


    Right before Rayleigh sensed that Glitter was about to fire, he threw something at the diamond woman from across the ship. Thanks to a clever use of telekinesis, it looked like the moment the object struck the glittering girl, the diamond statue actually tipped over and her palm faced the open sea. With her aim altered from being tipped over by Rayleigh''s telekinesis, a massive glowing shot of aura fired into the open air, missing the Marine Shippletely, right before she fell onto the yacht''s deck.


    All Seeing Prophet shouted, "It''s over! Let''s go! Now!"


    Wonder Woman was a lot more prudent than she led others to believe, so she heeded the advice of the woman she knew could peep into the future and jumped back to her yacht before ordering her helmswoman to sail away.


    Glitter turned back to normal, got up from the floor, and shouted, "I can''t believe that guy! I''m gonna get back at him one day."


    All Seeing Prophet rolled her eyes and picked up the object that Rayleigh had thrown at Glitter. It was a familiar looking roll of paper. Wonder Woman recognized it immediately and said, "He gave us the Map?!"


    All Seeing Prophet answered, "I tried to read his mind using my Devil Fruit but I got blocked. His Force Mastery is at the Jedi Master level. Inside his head, he told me that he had not looked at the map, that he had no interest in it, and that he would give it to us if I agreed to convince you to leave. You can''t lie while inside your own head, so I knew he was telling the truth. He really didn''t want the treasure and as long as we don''t say anything, he won''t either."


    Wonder Woman looked perplexed and asked, "Then why didn''t he just give us the map at the start?"


    All Seeing Prophet turned her head away and said, "He wanted some good pictures."


    "Pictures?"


    It was at that moment that Glitter, who had gone inside, came back out with a change of clothes and handed them to Wonder Woman. Seeing these, Wonder Woman looked down and realized that her clothes had be apletely tattered mess, barely covering anything.


    Once the realization hit her she shouted again, "PICTURES?!"


    She asked herself how she hadn''t noticed her state. Then she remembered what Rayleigh had said to her, ''You should pay more attention to our fight, and less attention to things that don''t matter.''


    After being told something that, at the time sounded like very good advice, she did stop thinking about anything but the fight, not noticing the state her clothes had been cut into afterwards. In hindsight, it had obviously been a Jedi Mind Trick. Swordsman actually used a Jedi Mind Trick on her. Before that point, he had not targeted her clothes so she had no reason to think that he would have stooped so low.


    Glitter, trying to stay positive, said, "At least we don''t owe him a favor anymore." She was upset at the fact that Rayleigh had moved her while she was in the form of a diamond. It didn''t take a genius to realize that she could have been tossed overboard just as easily as being tilted over, and she could only grumble at the fact that she forgot that Swordsman could do that.


    All Seeing Prophet, someone who could See what a debt to Swordsman really meant, shook her head. "No. It would have been one thing if we really did leave when he asked, but we did not and only left after he got his pictures and gave us the Map in exchange. The debt remains."


    Wonder Woman turned to All Seeing Prophet and asked, "How bad is it?"


    All Seeing Prophet awkwardly shrugged and said, "ss Half-full, at least you''ll make the front page of tomorrow''s newspaper."


    Wonder Woman''s scream of frustration echoed to the sky.


    Rayleigh, back on the Cargo ship, received glowingmendations from the Merchants and Cipher Pol Operatives. Rayleigh was surprised that thetter did not ask him to join them since he figured they would want to recruit him after the Marines failed to do so, but he didn''t know that Cipher Pol only recruited children and orphans so they could be brainwashed from a young age.


    Although he had an empty feeling from the quality of the fight, at least he confirmed that his mental defenses against mind readers worked just fine. After that incident with the Phantom Troupe, he''d never been able to test if the defensive measures he put into ce had any effect. The result was that the Peeper wasn''t able to see his thoughts, memories, or multiple instances of Wills which let him keep that a secret.


    Even if the fight wasckingpared to his expectations, Rayleigh was at least satisfied that the cameraman confirmed that he got a few golden shots. His eyes were shining brightly as this was the first time Wonder Woman had been defeated and driven back by someone who wasn''t a Vice Admiral. It was also the first time someone had harmed her clothes since her Ren usually deflected attacks and kept her clothes safe. From the perspective of the witnesses, it seemed that Rayleigh was unable to injure her at first, then got stronger and was able to cut her clothes. If he got even stronger, perhaps he could have cut her down, so it made sense that she ran away at the time.


    No one thought that she had run because of the state of her clothes since it looked like she hadn''t cared about them during the fight. As long as the story kept this in mind, it would not make Rayleigh look like aplete scoundrel who tears off the clothes of every pirate he meets.


    Rayleigh''s next task was to find Mihawk. This was the main reason he gave up the treasure map. He didn''t have time to look for treasure and had much better things to do, like learn Haki from this world''s number one swordsman.


    There was the slight issue that Rayleigh had no idea where Mihawk lived and the fact that he often traveled randomly didn''t help matters. For anyone else, this task would be a thousand times harder than entering the Grand Line. For Rayleigh, he just had to rely on the almighty power that was his Force GPS.


    After receiving the thanks of the various parties and confirming in the Pirate Chat Room that Wonder Woman hadn''t said anything, Rayleigh started meditating on the path that would lead him to Mihawk.


    The next day, as predicted, Rayleigh and his long sword appeared on the front page of the Grand Line News along side the determined looking Wonder Woman. Rayleigh did not cut anything important and the picture was at best PG-13, but the partially revealed skin left a lot to the imagination and Wonder Woman''s notoriety did the rest.


    With that paper in hand, Rayleigh picked another merchant ship to guard during the voyage and headed off once more. Three days into the journey, Rayleigh jumped off the ship and started sprinting along the water in a certain direction, much to the crew''s confusion.


    A half hour of runningter, Rayleigh encountered a misty, muddy, muggy ind that looked right out of the set of a Tim Burton movie. Somewhat close to the shore was a massive castle. Since the Force had led him to this ind, Rayleigh wondered if the upant knew where Mihawk was.


    *Author''s Note*


    Kuraigana Ind is on the Paradise side of the Grand Line, so this is possible through the almighty power that is Force GPS.


    Wonder Woman represents a yer that is just trying to have fun. She bought the "Enhancer Aura Type, Don''t Change Personality" trait during character creation, so Rayleighpletely misread her intentions as what he would do. She is an above average yer at best. In the beginning, there won''t be much of a difference between above average yers like Wonder Woman and skilled yers who practice a lot like Goddess of Ice. Later though, there will be a vast difference. Talent only takes you so far in this game.


    The only time I switch to another person''s perspective is foredic value, like showing Nick Fury getting frustrated. Even then, I will only ever do it if the other person is in the vicinity of Rayleigh or thinking about him or talking about him. This story only has One MC. Everyone else will have their adventures, but I prefer to leave those to the reader''s imagination.


    Using the Force to see the future doesn''t work for people who 100%ck the Force, this is canon. I used this to justify that when Rayleigh uses Second Stage Zetsu andpletely cuts himself off from the Force, he is invisible to those looking using the Force and other simr means. This means that when he stays in this state, he is invisible to all means of future sight. When not invisible, he is fuzzy to future sight due to his massive presence in the Force making it difficult to see through, though it gets clearer the closer to the present the attempted prediction is.


    There will be 5 Prophets, all girls, one for Each ss besides Ninjas. I can''t think of a single way that the Ninjas can see into the future. The Prophets can''t do much at the moment but will be very impressive by the start of the MCU Arc.


    For now, it''s finally time to learn the sword from Mihawk.

 Chapter 70: Awakening Haki with Dracule Mihawk

    Chapter 70: Awakening Haki with Dracule Mihawk


    Chapter 70 Awakening Haki with Dracule Mihawk


    When Rayleigh asked the Force about the castle''s upant, the answer he got gave him pause. The Force didn''t actually talk, but it did assist in arranging certain concepts already within Rayleigh''s head to arrive at a certain conclusion.


    For example, Hawkeye Mihawk''s full Name was Dracule Mihawk. For a name that sounded very much like Drac in an anime, he definitely had to live in a dark and spooky castle. Something that somehow perfectly matched the castle in front of him.


    Rayleigh started reciting his Force Code and a few momentster, the Empty Sword was in hand and he was reduced to the state of Zetsu with his Forcepletely cut off. Why? Because if he was going to cross swords with Mihawk, he would not use any skill but sword skill and the physique he had dedicated years to train and hone.


    Rayleigh slid the Empty Sword into a makeshift leather sword holder at his side. He could keep one hand on the pommel to maintain his Training Enhanced State without looking like he was carrying the sword at all times. Rayleigh also got out the newspaper with his picture on the front and a 30 Million Berry Bottle of Wine he bought from St Por using the bounty he got from turning in the Six w Pirates. This was renowned as the best wine St Por offered and he had to use a Jedi Mind Trick and an additional 10 Million Berries to get the bottle since the store''s current stock had a several year waiting list of reservations.


    If he was going to ask a stranger for something, it would be rude beyond measure not to bring a gift. It wasn''t like the scenario he purchased meant that Mihawk would teach him no matter what. Such scenarios still implied that Rayleigh had enoughmon sense to make it work.


    However, when Rayleigh approached the door, the wild cry of a massive beast sounded from the air as a horde of creatures jumped at Rayleigh from one of the hills. Second Level Zetsu was not the same as Force Stealth. It just made him look like someone without any supernatural abilities to the supernatural sight of others. It did not make him less noticeable, and the wild beasts surrounding this castle certainly noticed him.


    Without the Force to warn him, these creatures had gotten dangerously close. He honestly hadn''t expected a mass of violent animals to be near what he assumed to be Mihawk''s house. In the second stage of Zetsu he could not use the Force to push them away or aura to block or intimidate them. One hand was holding one of the most expensive wines in the sea wrapped in a newspaper and the other was on the pommel of an indestructible sword that would break if it drew blood.


    Still, he''d been in worse positions. Some of those Tavern Missions were truly insane.In a single smooth motion, Rayleigh flicked the Empty Sword from its holder, grabbed it, and swung it at the first creature descending at him. It seemed to be a mandrill of some kind, but about ten timesrger, and for some reason, it wore armor that fit quite well and had a battle axe in hand.


    Like a professional baseball yer, Rayleigh swatted the mandrill into the sky using the t of his de. This was another advantage of conjuring a physical sword instead of using his old Nensaber.


    A shift of a few steps and a jump allowed Rayleigh to dodge the next mandrill and two clean cuts sliced off the straps of the armor it wore. The kick to its unarmored gut that followed dropped the mandrill to its knees as several more jumped at him with an assortment of weapons.


    Rayleigh cut the armor and weapons the mandrills used to pieces and then kicked or swatted them with the side of his de. Their numbers seemed to increase, going from ten to thirty. Rayleigh didn''t even notice the smile that appeared on his face. Still, without wearing his usual Nen-Enhanced weight set, this level of activity was too easy. If Mihawk made him fight these guys in the future, Rayleigh would have to put on an appropriate level of weight to ensure he gained something from them.


    Most of the mandrills he swatted ran back into the fight since he really couldn''tunch them that far with just his physical strength, but his kicks and the thrusts of his sword''s pommel into the mandrill''s guts sent them down and kept them down. From the many discolored hairs on these animals, Rayleigh could tell that they could survive de wounds pretty easily, but prating wounds that made your organs hurt required a day for normal people to recover from and at least an hour for physically superior beasts to recover from. This was something he learned as a Hunter.


    A few minutester, about forty or so mandrillsy groaning on the ground. None were dead or even bleeding, just in a lot of pain. With such a scene as a backdrop, Rayleigh slid the Empty Sword back into its holster and walked the remaining distance to the castle door''s path before knocking three times.


    Coincidentally, or not due to the BS that is Force GPS, Rayleigh had caught one of the very few times a year when Mihawk was actually home. The smacking of Rayleigh''s sword against the armor of the humandrills was loud enough to catch the number one swordman''s attention and most of the fight had been witnessed through the castle''s window.


    A few momentster, the world''s number one swordsman, opened the door wearing a somewhat frilly nobleman''s shirt while holding a ss of wine.


    The first thing that anyone would notice upon meeting the man was his piercing yellow eyes. His eyebrows and mustache were almost swords unto themselves and even without a sword in hand, Rayleigh could feel the pressure of the man''s strength just from meeting his gaze.


    Rayleigh politely spoke up, "Eleven years ago I asked if you would teach me the sword. You refused, saying you would not teach a no name who knows nothing of the sword and to find you again when that had changed. Since then, I have learned everything I can about the sword and I am no longer a no name."


    Rayleigh then presented Mihawk with the wine bottle and the newspaper it was wrapped in. It was only for an instant, but Rayleigh recognized the extremely slight dting of Mihawk''s pupils when he saw the bottle''s top. The cork of the bottle was sealed using a very unusual wax that would not melt again after solidifying. It was also a unique color that could not be imitated. This acted as a security seal to ensure that others could not use the empty bottle to fake this product, and any wine expert would recognize this wine from the color of the wax on the bottle alone.


    Mihawk looked at Rayleigh, then at the bottle, then at Rayleigh, then at the bottle again. Mihawk then took a step outside and looked over the groaning humandrills once more. While outside, he tossed the wine ss away and swiftly grabbed the bottle and newspaper from Rayleigh while re-entering his castle, leaving the door open for Rayleigh to follow.


    Without saying a word, Mihawk pointed toward a waiting area for Rayleigh to sit while he went to his kitchen to get a fresh ss.


    Mihawk returned a few momentster and set the paper on the waiting area''s table before he set the wine bottle and a single ss down and reached into his shirt, pulling out a cross. He pulled out the long end of the cross which turned out to be the sheathe of a small dagger. He used it as a wine opener to pop the bottle''s cork. Doing so caused all the wax around the cork to shatter like shards of crystal. Mihawk then poured himself a ss and picked up the paper to silently read.


    Rayleigh was tentatively positive so far. Mihawk had not said anything yet, but he hadn''t refused either. Rayleigh figured Mihawk was deciding if he was going to kill him or not, but the wine wasn''t a fake and the story was of him using a sword on the Grand Line Newspaper''s first page.


    After taking a moment to let the wine breathe, he took a drink and let out a content sigh. He then took his time reading the paper before setting it down and stated, "I remember you now. You have grown much, but your eyes are the same. Tell me, why is it that you wish to learn from me?"


    Rayleigh answered honestly, "Because I wish to be stronger than you."


    Mihawk asked with feigned amusement, "Oh? You desire my title for yourself?"


    Rayleigh shook his head. "That is not my goal. Even if, one day I surpass you, I will not stop training. I''m not simply looking for the title of the world''s number one swordsman. My goal is to be the strongest, using the sword."


    A pressure emerged from Mihawk that quickly got stronger, stronger, and stronger still. Rayleigh had essentially insulted him. Rayleigh implied that even if Mihawk was the strongest swordsman, Mihawk was not the strongest. He implied that the titles of the Strongest and the Strongest Swordsman were different, and Mihawk only possessed thetter while Rayleigh aimed for the former.


    With a towering amount of pressure that dwarfed what Wild King had tried on him, Rayleigh felt as if a Godzi-sized titan with burning eyes had all its attention on him, demanding that he submit or be crushed with a force that he could not possibly think to win against.


    Mihawk spoke again, every word sending another wave of pressure, "Do you think yourself worthy of such a goal?" Mihawk had never stopped training either. He was always looking for opponents, but had been stymied by ack of supply within his reach.


    Rayleigh''s eighteen Wills stoodpletely firm. He met the number one swordsman''s gaze and firmly stated, "I know I am."


    The pressure lessened and vanished. Mihawk took another sip of wine and asked, "Why have you not learned Haki?" For a man of such willpower, it should not have been difficult for someone like this to use Haki. He had seen many of Rayleigh''s generation use Haki and figured that Rayleigh was another one of those geniuses.


    "Because I wanted to learn it from you. Although I learned the theory, I have not practiced it because what I learned was not from you."


    Mihawk smirked for a moment before stating, "Interesting. What have you heard about Haki?"


    Reciting what he heard from Dragon Chef, Rayleigh repeated, "Mind over Matter taken to the extreme. There are three kinds of Haki. Observation Hakies from understanding death and enhances your perception. Armament Hakies from understanding life and enhances your body by ovepping your sense of self with your body to grant your body greater defense or offense. And Conqueror''s Hakies from understanding loss and allows you to infuse your desire to win into your battle."


    Mihawk twirled the wine in his ss for a moment before setting it down and stating. "Very well. Your attainment in the sword is adequate, so I will give you a few lessons when I have the time. Whoever told you about Haki did not deceive you, but they only possess a very shallow insight into its depths, so this will be your first lesson. Haki does not have three types. All Haki is the same Haki, but few use it fully. Haki is the power of the world and all that it contains."


    Mihawk pondered over his next words before continuing, "What most people call Observation Haki is simply a mind that has opened itself up to the senses of the world and can interpret those senses in some small way to grant insight beyond the physical senses. What most people call Armament Haki is simply a body that has opened itself up to the flow of the world and can channel that flow through their body in some small way to grant greater physical capabilities. Conqueror''s Haki is abination of the two and allows its users to sense, control, andmand the world around them, but doing so requires bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders, something that only a King can do. That is why it is referred to as Conqueror''s Haki. Haki has three levels. Awareness, Low Level, and High Level. Some say there is a Master stage above that, but I believe anyone who thinks that they have mastered the world is a fool."


    After checking to make sure that Rayleigh was following, Mihawk continued, "Next I will discuss swordsmanship. In order to qualify as a true swordsman, you must haveplete control over every muscle of your body, also called the stage of Minute Subtlety. This is the stage you have reached and where most swordsmen stay for the rest of their lives. Above the Swordsman stage is the Great Swordsman stage. A Great Swordsman can imbue the flow of the world within their sword to strengthen their cuts and send flying shes. More than ny percent of those who rise beyond the Swordsman stage never reach past the Great Swordsman stage. And finally, above the Great Swordsman is the Swordmaster. A Swordmaster can interpret the breath of all things in the world and intrinsically understand how to imbue the flow of the world into their body and sword to allow them to cut through anything. Of course, this is only where the true road of swordsmanship starts and I do not believe it has an end."


    After Mihawk finished his ss, he seemed to consider refilling it, but he resisted the temptation and put the cork back. Even without the wax, it was still a mostly airtight seal and would be fine to drink slowly over the course of the next several weeks.


    Mihawk finished his exnation, "Many think Swordsmanship and Haki are two different things, but mastering swordsmanship requires mastering Haki. They are one in the same."


    Rayleigh pointed out, "I noticed that there are hardly any Swordmasters in the Marines besides Captain Bogard."


    Mihawk nodded absently, "Yes, it is deliberate. If they understood the truth about Swordsmanship and Haki, many Vice Admirals may have reached the level of a Swordmaster. The World Government has taken measures over the centuries to ensure this misunderstanding is propagated. Only those trained to be Royal Guards from birth are taught the truth. Every Royal Guard in training either bes a swordmaster or dies."


    He continued, "Those who learn Haki from the disseminated propaganda will have difficulties oveing their preconceived notions, even if they discern the truthter on. Outside the World Government, only those who have awakened it themselves, free of the false scriptures, have any chance of reaching the apex of the world."


    Rayleigh asked, "What about you? Did you awaken it on your own or learn the other way and figure out the truthter."


    Mihawk did not answer, but the silence spoke volumes of its own. No matter how many new things you learn about something, the first impression will never quite fade. Perhaps there was a reason that Mihawk had not been able to get stronger on his own for a while.


    Mihawk picked up the wine bottle and took it to a wine cab to ce inside before motioning for Rayleigh to follow him into another room. There, Mihawk took out his famous de, Yoru.


    Mihawk stated, "Your first exercise is to awaken your Haki by opening up your mind to the senses of the world. This is Yoru. I will advise you not to pick it up. Do so and you will die."


    Rayleigh asked, "You kill anyone who touches your sword?"


    Mihawk shook his head. "No. I have spent many years using Conqueror''s Haki to pour the power of the world into this de. It was not originally ck. Any de can be a ck de once it bes saturated with the power of the world. The ck colores from the de''s innate nature to reject the world due to this saturation, a trait that can only be obtained when it has retained enough of the world''s power even when not in use. If you try and hold it, the power of the world within it will likely try to kill you. This is amon urrence when ck des are used by those other than the original wielder who ckened them."


    Rayleigh asked, "Okay, so what do you want me to do with it?"


    Mihawk answered, "Simply being in the same room as this sword will cause its pressure to affect you. If you meditate on this pressure, you should be able to use it as a key to unlock your awareness of the senses of the world. Make sure to forget about the misconceptions told to you by others. If you have any expectations on what you will awaken, it may limit you. The world is without limit and so is its power. Do not make the same mistake that has pre-emptively ended the journey of so many before you. Your next lesson will be after you have awakened your Haki."


    With that, Mihawk left the room. Since he did not show Rayleigh where he could sleep, Ray guessed that Mihawk intended for him to stay here until he unlocked his Haki.


    Before sitting down and meditating, Rayleigh opened up his backpack to take something else out, a certain rust-colored metal head. "Did you get all that HK?"


    [Analysis. Very little of the sword using meatbag''s statements made any logical sense.]


    "So you got nothing then?"


    [Extraption. I did not say that Master. For the content of the meatbag''s words topute, then this Haki may be a watered-down version of the Force. It is weaker in some senses, but in others, it is much, much stronger. The Force contains echoes of those who use it and those who have died. Haki does not. The echoes within the Force limit what you can easily do with it, Haki does not possess the same limit. Much of the power of the Force is wasted when used, while Haki seems quite efficient in its usage.]


    "So do you have any advice for awakening it?"


    [Rmendation. If awakening it with a limited mindset limits its usage, then you should abandon the limited concept of ''World.'' If it is simr to the Force, then the power of Haki is not limited to this small, excessively wet, sphere of rock. Rather than being limited to just the power of a single world, perhaps you are able to use the power of the gxy, the universe, the multiverse, or even the omniverse.]


    Rayleigh replied, "Ambitious. But don''t you think that''s a bit much?"


    [Statement. Only if you arecking the willpower to pull it off.]


    A slow smile spread to Rayleigh''s lips at the tant provocation. In either case, HK-47 had a point. He had no way of knowing if there was an over-arching limit to the concept of the World, so it was better to assume that there was not. Would it make a difference? Maybe. Would he risk it and settle for the weaker, lesser definition and potentially limit his future? Nope.


    Mihawk''s first lesson was already valuable enough to justify the effort toe here. Had he really tried to awaken Haki using what he learned from Dragon Chef, it may have had consequences further down the road. It wasn''t his fault though. He was thirteen at the time and didn''t know any better.


    Rayleigh did wonder if just the wine alone was enough for a lesson and everything had been a waste and he was conned by the Tavern, but such negative thoughts would not grant him any benefits, so it was better to concentrate on the current assignment.


    ording to the yers, you could easily awaken your Haki just by getting attacked with Haki over and over again. The pressure of this sword could be equated to a Haki attack. Rayleigh was tempted to use Psychometry on it, ck de or not, but the fact that Mihawk may have ventured too long down the wrong path gave him pause. In the end, he decided to set the foundation of his own swordsmanship first, and then pile on the styles of others.


    Yoru itself was a beautiful two meter long cuss with gems encrusted into the hilt, and Mihawk''s exnation of its ck origin made it slightly terrifying. There were many different Sci-Fi ways to split matter. Monomolecr edge, creating a force barrier that can slide between atoms, using space to disce molecr arrangements, and having an edge that existed in another dimension before entering this dimension between the atoms to split them to cause the cut to appear after the slice were all possible choices. Mihawk''s sword was an entirely different monster.


    ording to Mihawk, a ck de rejected the world. That essentially meant that when this de was swung, the world would give way around it. This wasn''t a scientific exnation, in fact, it made no sense at all. If matter was a massive, fully packed crowd of normal people, then Yoru was a giant scar covered soldier openly carrying hundreds of weapons that got everyone''s attention. When he walked through the crowd, the crowd would move to the side on their own to avoid getting in his way.


    Rayleigh rubbed the pommel of the Empty Sword and got a good feeling about being able to make a ck de of his own.


    Out of curiosity, Rayleigh swung his Empty Sword at Yoru''s edge. It bounced off. If one truly looked with a microscope, one would have seen that the bounce urred before the swords made contact.


    The reason was that the Conjured Sword had a continuous rule of not breaking as long as Rayleigh stayed in his Second Stage Zetsu, stayed in physical contact with the sword, and the sword did not draw blood. Even if Yoru''s presence made anything move around it, Rayleigh''s Empty Sword ignored that presence due to the rule, so the rejection affected the entirety of the sword, causing it to bounce away instead of getting sliced.


    The problem was that the indestructibility condition of the Empty Sword could not be passed to the Sword of Babylon. A Hatsu could not simply do anything you wanted it to, there had to be a bnce between the effect and the cost. The Empty Sword''s inability to be destroyed came at the cost of making it unable to destroy others (who had blood) and making it easier for Rayleigh to be destroyed (but also easier for him to train). This wasmon to all Hatsus that had an indestructible condition, it could not be used to hurt others. Disadvantage others, yes. Protect themselves, of course. But harm? Nope.


    Thankfully, even if he could not make his Sword of Babylon indestructible, there should be no problem with warding off the power of the world using the power of the world. Moreover, his Sword of Babylon was an Enhancement Hatsu disguised as a Materialization Hatsu. He already figured out how to use the sword to enhance his Force abilities, so he should be able to do the same with his Haki abilities.


    With all this in mind, Rayleigh crossed his legs, ced the empty sword on his knees with a hand over the guard, and began to meditate.


    In the second stage of Zetsu, Rayleigh could not feel even the tiniest bit of the Force, but his actual physical senses were enhanced. Very much like Gon was able to dodge numerous Aura-saturated tops while in a state of zetsu, having no form of energye from you would make it easier to feel other forms of energy around you.


    In this state, Ray could distinctively feel the ufortable pressure of the sword. He could feel his five senses try to make sense of the pressure that did not match any feeling he could assign a name to.


    While trying to feel out this pressure, he visualized the world around him. Then he visualized the stars and space around the world. Then the gxy around those and the multitude of gxies around them. He imagined nes of ovepping Universes and then he imagined groups of these ovepping Universes inside marbles that were separated from each other. He tried to imagine that all of it was contained within his senses, all of it was within his reach.


    Rayleigh used this image to dive into the Ten of Point state from Nen of me, allowing him to focus his entire being into this image, this concept.


    Rayleigh''s stomach interrupted him from his zenned-out state, but he didn''t know how much time had passed. What he did notice though, was his expanded senses.


    The first word that came to mind was synesthesia. Synesthesia is a condition where one sense is affected by another, like seeing certain colors in the air when hearing certain sounds or tasting something specific when seeing a certain color. Except, instead of one sense affecting another, it was like all the senses were being affected by a previously unknown sixth sense.


    It was possible to ignore it. It didn''t reduce the quality of his existing senses, but seemed to allow them to give him more information than he had previously obtained using them.


    In this new state of awareness, Yoru seemed to be burning. Just being near it made him feel like he was being burnt, but not actually hot. Looking at it made him feel like it was covered in raging mes, but it did not glow. Well, he could just as urately say that it felt like he was freezing and it looked really cold. He didn''t have an adjective in mind to use to describe what it felt like. It was simply, more. Compared to everything else, it just seemed like it was more. Everything else looked in, boring, practically in ck and whitepared to Yoru.


    Was this what a saturation of the power of the world looked like? No wonder everything got out of its way. Rather than a scary-looking weapon-covered soldier, it was more like a movie star that people recognized and moved out of the way of due to a feeling of inferiority.


    Rayleigh felt/heard/saw something that made him turn to the door a moment before it opened. Mihawk was staring at him, his piercing gaze giving another measurement of him. Over his white shirt, Mihawk now wore a long ck coat and hat with a hawk''s feather. He walked past Rayleigh and picked up his sword before stating, "Your next lesson awaits."


    Predictably, Mihawk escorted him outside and said, "The Humandrills will make fine opponents for you to practice understanding your new senses." He passed over a long strip of ck cloth and from what Rayleigh heard the yers exin, he knew that his next training session would be done blind folded, using only his newly acquired synesthesia to avoid the attacks of those giant weapon wielding monkeys.


    Mihawk continued, "If you cannot avoid all of their attacks, then you may run. Find your own food in the forest. I do not cook for others. Once you can predict their attacks without looking at them, you can return for the next lesson."


    "Can I ask what those humandrill things are?"


    "Hmm. Humandrills are the species that imitate humans most easily. If they live in an area filled with peaceful humans, they themselves be peaceful. This ind was once home to a nation that tore itself apart in a series of pointless wars. The humandrills of this ind have observed the battles of these wars and learned how to use weapons and wage war themselves. Using the skill of a human and the strength of a beast, they arepetent sparring partners that be more skilled as they witness stronger fights."


    Rayleigh nodded before heading off. He wasn''t looking for the humandrills, but for food. He''d likely find the former while looking for thetter anyways.


    Instead of putting on a blindfold, Rayleigh took off his shoes, socks, and shirt before closing his eyes. Memories of Typhon came flooding back. Rayleigh had learned the secrets of the Force from the Temples of Tython, but he had trained those secrets using the wilds of Typhon. He felt like he was returning to his roots.


    Eyes closed, Rayleigh stepped forward, one step at a time into the forest. He never used shoes on Typhon, only using the Force Skill: Temperature Control to avoid burns or frostbite. The climate here was muggy and damp, but neither cold nor hot, so he wouldn''t need the same precautions here. He just had to keep his feet dry when he was resting and the rest would take care of itself.


    Although Rayleigh wasn''t an Earthbender like Toph, the synesthesia of the ground on his feet and the wind against his torso added all kinds of effects to his senses that he tried to organize andbel.


    His skin felt something that sounded like the thrumming of a drum on his chest that got louder and louder. Rayleigh jumped to the side as a heavy thump was both heard and felt from whatever had just tried to jump him. The humandrill noticed Rayleigh''s eyes were closed and roared madly. An inaudible sound like nails on a chalkboard was apanied by a whip-like sensation across Rayleigh''s chest causing him to sidestep the swing of the humandrill''s axe. Since Rayleigh was no longer without a free hand, he stepped forward with a heavy stomp and thrust a palm at the giant monkey''s armored torso. Even if it weighed ten times what Rayleigh did, the strike was enough to eject the sword-wielding ape to a nearby tree where it crashed partially through, causing the tree to fall on top of it.


    Rayleigh nodded with satisfaction. This was like a newnguage. As someone who trained for years inmunicating with the Force, learning newnguages, especially ones like this, was already hard-wired into his brain. He just needed to figure out what each new sense implied, and then further break it down into more information. This was pureputation and since he had been severed from his constant connection to the Force, his brain was practically starving for input and his Wills jumped at the chance to meticulously analyze every sensation, every feeling, and every subtle instinct.


    With his experience using the Force as a basis, his instinct on the general meaning of each new sense was fairly on point. Another learning thisnguage would have little choice but to rely on trial and error, figuring out what each new sense meant and then remembering it for the next time it was felt.


    His body heard warnings, his ears felt danger, his bnce tasted the surroundings, and his nose saw the world in colors he could not hope to describe. It was very psychedelic.


    Some of his wills pitied the Jedi yers who wanted to learn Haki. Rayleigh''s ability to cut himself offpletely from the Force may not have been unique, but it was not a skill any Sith or Jedi would ever teach or learn. With the constant background noise of the Force deafening the senses, gaining the awareness of a new sense would be far more difficult. It would be like having a dozen stereos on st and then a single stereo at the minimum volume and then ask someone to write down the lyrics of the song from that nearly silent one.


    Pirate yers may encounter the same issue learning the Force if they do not form a Master Apprentice Bond with someone in the Jedi Gxy or with another yer.


    After a few dozen more humandrills were left groaning in his wake, Rayleigh found a stream and stepped inside to get a feel of the water on his feet and determine how to use this new sense to fish for dinner.


    It was not to be though as a humandrill ten timesrger than the previous ones standing four stories in height even when slouched over walked out of the forest. Had Rayleigh''s eyes been open, he would have seen that this king of beasts carried an imitation of Mihawk''s Yoru, though it was somehow twenty meters in length and thankfully not dyed ck.


    Without opening his eyes, Rayleigh lifted his head up to face the monkey king''s direction. He couldn''t help but smile.


    *Author''s Note*


    A lot of people didn''t like the Haki exnation I gave in chapter 46. That was fine. I never intended to use that for Haki. That was just a kid''s heavily summarized exnation of Haki, what he felt and was taught. But this here is the real deal. Of course, this is still a general summary. Rayleigh will give more details as he trains it further.


    The reason I say that Haki is Weaker than the Force is that the Force has been seen capable of controlling a Gxy while Haki has only been seen controlling a single world.


    Again, for those who don''t remember, I like to fully write out the details of power systems to make it easier for authors to write fanfictions in those worlds in the future using this as a base.


    Many gave ideas for a Ninja Prophet. Summarizing it, we ended up with an Uchiha born with the priestesses'' demon blood with a Mangekyo that can send memories of the present into the past as a Genjutsu. Basically the Left Eye would enable the Mangekyo and then some timeter, send all the sights and memories witnessed by the left eye to the right eye, but the right eye would receive it at the moment in the past where the left eye started using the Mangekyo. Essentially, a Save and Load function.


    My only problem with this is that if you devote so much effort into seeing the future, you will be weaker than those who devote the same amount of effort into just getting stronger. The worst case scenario is that they will see their own death and be locked into an infinite loop of being unable to save themselves. THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH PROPHETS. They are Screwed if they see their own deaths.


    The prophet yers will devote themselves to support. This is almost impossible to do in the Ninja world because it is the most dangerous world of them all. If you support someone against an enemy without the strength to protect yourself, you''re gonna get assassinated. The only future you will see is your own death.


    My main issue with this build is that I''m not having the Sharingans mature to Mangekyo until they are like 20~21. So a Prophet who relies on this would be useless until then.


    There''s another problem with it. When a yer finishes rolling for character creation, they meet one of the Tavern Staff to discuss their build. This is like a yer discussing their character with the Dungeon Master before the first session so that the DM can include a path to ensure what the yer wants to do is possible. Every Mangekyo ability would have been discussed during this time, during Character Creation, to ensure that each yer got whatever would help them the most. The problem? The entire conversation with the Tavern staff is Metaknowledge so the yer would not know of it during gamey. Hell, there is no way for most Uchihas to even know that the Mangekyo is a thing. Top Secret Knowledge is not shared in a Ninja vige. They won''t grow up expecting to awaken the power they chose. So, why would a Ninja Prophet who created their character to specialize in seeing the future wait until they are twenty without changing to a different specialty? At best they would see their own deaths over and over and be forced to run away to a different world.


    Plus, the worst problem is thatpared to the other Prophets, this prophet would bepletely and totally whooped. Again, they would be stuck in a loop of seeing their own death over and over. They couldn''t even use their ability for support since they have to see the scene to send it back in time and if they die before that, they can''t reload from the saved state.


    Most of the benefits of being a Prophet in the Ninja World will be gained by the Wizard Prophet. Using Divination, Ninja Seals, Sage Chakra, and the SIGHT, she will weaponize prophecies into Genjutsus that be self-fulfilling once the target hears them. The other prophets will also be quite impressive.


    Compared to that, the Ninja Prophet is just a headless chicken, running around until it figures out it''s already dead. I don''t want to do that to anyone, so no ninja prophet. If someone likes this Save and Load Uchiha, feel free to write a fanfic for him/her where he/she doesn''t have so muchpetition.


    Thanks for all the support, I''ll try to have the next chapter out sometime Friday.

 Chapter 71: Swords and Haki

    Chapter 71: Swords and Haki


    *Author''s Note*


    I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my definition of Haki takes into ount 100% of the phenomenon disyed in One Piece (Including Devil Fruits!). This is a thorough exnation that agrees with every single usage, and the usages not exined in this chapter will be exined inter chapters.


    The bad news? If you don''t like the idea of Haki ending up like a cultivation LN, I can only apologize. It''s not my fault that this is the only exnation that fits all usages!


    Chapter 71 Swords and Haki


    Rayleigh sat next to a small bonfire on a riverside clearing with a stick skewering tworge fish being slowly roasted along the outer edge of the fire. His eyes were still closed and his Wills continued to process his expanded senses. Although it felt like a newnguage, the world did not speak to him. It was more like the world simply added adjectives to everything and he was trying to figure out what those adjectives meant.


    It was also only after these two weeks that Rayleigh realized that the new information he was perceiving through his newly expanded senses was a lot more than just a singlenguage. The new adjectives he was discovering that were attached to everything were different depending on what they were attached to, though some simr things had simr adjectives and many things had different groups of adjectives attached.


    Continuing to analyze them without learning about the physical aspect of Haki kept giving him a headache, so he often kept his Wills upied thinking of other things.


    At first, Rayleigh did not quite understand what Mihawk meant when he said that Observation, Armament, and Conqueror''s Haki were not separate, but after spending two weeks thinking about it, he realized what he meant.


    The Force was the Force, but its skills were divided into three categories: Control, Sense, and Alter. Control was about controlling the inner workings of the body, Sense was about sensing the world around you, and Alter was about altering the world around you.Rayleigh realized that this was almost exactly how Haki worked. Observation Haki was too simr to Sense, Armament Haki sounded very much like Control, and Conqueror''s Haki, something that required being able to use Observation and Armament at the same time, was almost identical to Alter, something that required being able to use Control and Sense at the same time.


    Although Force techniques were cataloged using these three terms, all Force techniques were still Force techniques. In the same way, all Haki techniques were Haki techniques, even if they could be cataloged into different groups.


    This led to an interesting revtion. Someone using the Force could ess a myriad of powers, but the number of things that Rayleigh was aware that Haki could do seemed more limited. Then again, few knew what the Force could really do because the Jedi were boring and limited themselves to only using it ''safely.'' While analyzing this paradox, he arrived at a question. Did Haki have a Dark Side?


    If the well-known powers of Haki were the ones that the world allowed its users to wield, then what powers did the world frown on its users taking from it? And what consequences were there to using those powers? The answer to this question actually came quite naturally and in the form of another question. Why were they called Devil Fruits?


    If Haki was the power of the world and contained all things the world contained, then you should be able to use the power of the world to do all things that existed in the world. Wasn''t that exactly what Devil Fruits granted? Didn''t Devil Fruits contain a part of the world and grant the person who ate it some measure of ess to that part?


    This brought up two more questions. Could the power granted by a Devil Fruit User be gained through Haki without the Devil Fruit? If it could, would doing it that way bypass the curse since you would not be ''stealing'' from the world, but using it naturally?


    Unfortunately, figuring that one out would have to wait until he learned how to apply Haki to his body.


    Once the pair of fish finished cooking on the stick, Rayleigh picked up the finely roasted breakfast just in time for him to jump out of the way of a building-sized sword cutting through where he had been sitting. A swimming pool-sized crater formed from the impact but the Humandrill Monkey King was already mid-swing to cleave the air-born Rayleigh in half.


    With his eyes still closed, Rayleigh used Moon Walk to dodge the titanous monkey''s rapid swings while he blew on the fish in hand to cool them down before he slowly started nibbling on them.


    The Humandrill King roared in protest and swung even more wildly, not caring about the trees and earth around him that had been destroyed by his rampage. When it stopped, he looked around and saw neither Rayleigh nor his mutted corpse. His giant ears had no problem locating Rayleigh''s location from the sound of chewing, but he heard it from above and then noticed the pressure on his scalp from where Rayleigh had been sitting, eating his breakfast.


    Without thinking, the monkey king smashed his empty hand at Rayleigh, only to knock himself out when Rayleigh jumped away.


    Rayleighnded safely on the ground as the Humandrill King copsed. The area was surrounded by the majority of the humandrill n but each was disappointed. Humandrills had Photographic Reflexes. They get stronger from watching skilled fighters, but Rayleigh rarely attacked and even when he did, it was really basic stuff like palm thrusts or straight kicks. Humandrills could even imitate weapon intent and use low-level Haki, but only if they saw it used somewhat recently. The Humandrill King''s sword was gifted to it by Mihawk so that he could have a decent sparring partner who became more skilled as he improved himself, but that was over two decades ago and Mihawk had long since outgrown the Humandrill King.


    The Humandrill King recovered as Rayleigh finished his breakfast, but instead of raging again, he started making disgruntled monkey noises.


    Rayleigh replied, "I know, I''m sorry. I''m only training to dodge right now. But really though, I am very grateful for your help. Thanks to your constant attacks and ambushes, I''ve gotten to the level of predicting your attacks ahead of time, so I think I''ve finally finished this stage of training and can move on to the next one."


    From a human''s perspective, it might have sounded like Rayleigh was taunting the monkey, but he was beingpletely sincere. Even without ess to the Force, these guys were smart enough to understand Rayleigh''s intentions and understood that Rayleigh was there to practice. They also understood that once Rayleigh was done practicing dodging, he would start practicing fighting, so they had been willing to y with this new arrival who never killed them or stole their stuff.


    The Humandrill King excitedly got up and made all kinds of energetic noises while Rayleigh nodded with a smile, just as excited as the giant monkey king to start his next lesson.


    The humandrills returned to the forest and Rayleigh walked into the pond that formed from the crater of the monkey king''s attack next to the river. This pond was an excellent ce to wash up after a few weeks in the wilds.


    Once clean and dry, Rayleigh returned to Mihawk''s castle and found where he left his clothes and shoes. They had been left untouched and were fine to put back on before Rayleigh knocked on the door three more times.


    The castle door opened once more and Mihawk motioned for Rayleigh to follow him inside. But rather than enter any room, Mihawk walked to the other end of the castle out the back door to a training area that had been set up. Mihawk drew Yoru and stated, "The quickest way to feel the flow of the world within your body is to experience the flow of the world through the attacks of others. You are not to dodge, only block. That sword of yours seems capable of doing so."


    Without a word, Mihawk split the air between them with a sh that Rayleigh would have been unable to react against if not for his expanded senses warning him about the attack in time.


    Rayleigh blocked the strike with his sword, but Mihawk''s de moved like it weighed tens of tons. The impact of his cuss against Rayleigh''s sword knocked Rayleigh back against the castle walls. Even then, it was obvious how easy Mihawk was going in his strike. He didn''t use his own Haki, that was all from the sword itself, yet that was still a few levels above the Haki pressure he felt from Wonder Woman. If Rayleigh used his Nen and Force to augment and amplify his body, he would be able to take such a strike with ease, but without ess to those, a multi-ton strike would have the appropriate effect of a multi-ton strike.


    As Rayleigh got up, Mihawk exined, "Everything is a part of the world, including the body. The flow of the world moves by the will of the world. But we, as people of this world, are also a part of that will. Our will is a part of the will of the world, therefore our will is also capable of moving the flow of the world as we desire."


    A heavy horizontal sh came before Rayleigh could see it but he could still block it in time. This one swatted him to the side into an already copsed wall that might have been a building here long ago.


    Mihawk did not have to tell Rayleigh to get up, and each time he did, Mihawk whacked him back, down, or to the side. With each blow, Rayleigh felt his entire body shake. He felt the pressure of Mihawk''s sword pour through his body.


    As an enhancer getting beaten up, his body felt innately rebellious at the treatment. He felt every cell protest at the pressure being poured in. He felt a pressure within his body well up in defiance and as Mihawk''s giant cuss came down, Rayleigh instinctively directed that pressure to flow into his strike as he blocked with an upward motion.


    The ng of metal echoed triumphantly through the forest as Rayleigh''s guard barely remained unbroken. Mihawk, not looking surprised at all, said, "Continue," and started actually using a small amount of his own Haki for the next attacks.


    In this way, Rayleigh got beaten up until lunchtime. Mihawk then went to make food for himself and Rayleigh entered the Tavern to eat his own lunch before returning to get beaten up by Mihawk until the sun went down.


    Due to his experience with the Force, Rayleigh''s progress with Haki was very much like a Professional Gamer who finished apletionist run of a game and started ying the game''s sequel for the first time. It was also what would happen if a yer with sufficient Haki mastery died and made a new character. Even if he was starting from scratch, hisprehensive foundation was enough to jump-start the training.


    Still, this was only possible because Rayleigh hadpletely cut off his connection to the Force and the Empty Sword''s ability to enhance the effects of training also shined through. Rayleigh had tested his new senses when out of his Second Stage Zetsu and he confirmed that the presence of the Force really muffled out the sensory input from Haki. It was the difference between pouring tea into an empty ss versus pouring tea into a ss containing coffee and needing to keep pouring until 99% of the coffee had overflowed out of the ss. It was possible, but it was a lot more wasteful and not nearly as simple, and even then, the tea would still have a slight taste of coffee that would probably ruin the taste of the tea.


    Once Rayleigh''s Haki mastery was high enough, there would be no problem using it with the Force, but for now, he would remain in his Second Stage Zetsu state to enhance his training speed.


    The process of using the flow of the world through his body somewhat reminded him of Enbu, the Monkey Martial technique from the Toriko series.


    ording to Enbu, every cell had its own individual personality, likes, and dislikes, and would rarely act together as a collective due to the differences. Enbu used Willpower to control the actions of the cells to allow them to move as a unified whole. One of the more ridiculous uses of this was that a master of Enbu could have all his cells bypass the flow of gravity by turning the body from a bowl that could contain gravity to a strainer that allowed gravity to pass through mostly unimpeded.


    In the example used, gravity was represented as a flow and the body''s cells either resisted that flow or allowed it to pass unimpeded, with a majority doing the former unless Enbu was used.


    Rayleigh visualized the flow of the world through his body in the same way, as a flow that was either resisted or unimpeded through his body''s cells. Controlling the flow meant arranging a path through his body that did not impede the flow to where he needed it to be. Arranging this path was not always easy and some motions of the physical body made it easier. It was not the same path or method he used with the Force, but it was simr enough in concept.


    After Mihawk had his dinner, he did not continue attacking Rayleigh again. Instead, he pointed out an area filled with rocks and tree branches that had been piled there previously. Mihawk ced a few branches in front of the rocks and swung his sword, sending a flying sh. The flying sh perfectly severed the tree branches, but when they fell, the stone behind them was left unmarked, despite the fact that the sword sh should have easily cut through the entirety of the rock.


    Mihawk stated, "The main difference between a Great Swordsman and a Swordmaster is that a Swordmaster only ever cuts what he wishes to cut and never cuts what he does not wish to cut. This is your next lesson. I will be gone for the next few months and when I return, I will no longer be holding back with my strikes. If youck the confidence to receive them, do not be here."


    Mihawk did not give any further words or instructions before returning to his castle and Rayleigh started practicing his sword swings. Once he got the hang of it, sending a flying sh wasn''t too hard. It was kinda like standing in the rain with a sword, moving your body so that the water that fell on you would drip to your arm, hand, and then sword, and when there was enough water dripping along the sword, shing it out in a motion smooth enough to send the line of water on the sword forward without breaking it.


    Although doing it was possible once one could freely control the flow of the world through their body, the key was being able to do it quickly with a powerful effect. This required some trial and error. Rayleigh went through every stance of every sword art he knew, one at a time, to feel how the flow of the world could be affected by each.


    This is usually where a teacher would point out the ws, strengths, downsides, and benefits of each form and movement, but Mihawk did not feel that Rayleigh required his advice. Why? Because Rayleigh had achieved Heart of the Sword. In that state, his body would naturally figure out the most efficient way to use the flow of the world.


    Still, Mihawk did not intend to leave until the sun was up, so he decided to spend the night with a ss of wine in hand, staring out the window at his strange disciple and the unfamiliar forms he disyed.


    Rayleigh was a bit too excited to sleep so he had in fact spent the entire night practicing, going through every motion to feel out which worked the best with the flow of the world, much to Mihawk''s benefit. To Mihawk, Rayleigh was the one with the strange style. Rayleigh''s swordsmanship was created entirely from the limits of the human body, not the flow of the world, so it was something Mihawk had never seen before and gave him a few hints of inspiration.


    After the sun rose and he saw Mihawk off, Rayleigh started analyzing the data from his experiments and the results did not add up. Every unique style and sword Rayleigh practiced could somewhat use the flow of the world, but the flow of each did not feel the same in the strength it granted ording to his newly expanded senses. Having not reached a satisfying conclusion, Rayleigh kept practicing, kept swinging his sword, and kept experimenting.


    Using those expanded senses, brute force calctions, and two full weeks of practice, Rayleigh arrived at a somewhatprehensive hypothesis on the nature of the flow of the world and the different ways to use it.


    The first and most important discovery was that the flow of the world was not a pure, singr thing. In fact, it was the opposite. The adjectives he sensed from the flow of the world changed depending on the form he used, with some adjectives disying themselves more prominently in certain forms and styles than others.


    This led to the conclusion that the flow of the world contained an individual flow for every unique aspect of the world. It also meant that each adjective that Rayleigh sensed was likely attributed to a different flow. This realization led to multiple breakthroughs and an understanding on three different ways to use the flow of the world.


    The first was the most general method. Use the whole thing. This was the equivalent of pulling the fire rm in a mall, closing all the exits but one, and arranging your target to be at the one entrance you left avable so that he could be trampled to death. It required a strong willpower or they would not move as you wanted and required a strong body or they would break out through the other exits or just trample you to death. Rayleigh only picked it up so easily since his body and willpower were Over-Qualified. Once this method was practiced to a high level, he could grant his attack and defense the conceptual weight of the entire world. This was also what others called Armament Haki. It was also very inefficient. Using the crowd of people analogy, each person would take an ''Every Man for Himself'' mentality and get in each other''s way.


    The second method was actually the easiest method that almost every skilled fighter in the world used naturally. Identify and use only a single flow. This was like knowing a specific person in the crowd, knowing his name, specialties, and desires, and saying, "Hey Doug, we''ve known each other for years. I know you are a professional boxer and I''ve been to all your matches. I''ll pay you five grand if you go to my enemy and punch his lights out."


    This was essentially tailoring the movement, mindset, and name of the technique to the individual flow that you wanted to use to grant the properties of that flow to your attack. Using it this way did not require a formidable willpower or powerful body, though they did help.


    As an example, T-Bone''s Right-Angled sh technique had such a frivolous sword-swinging motion because T-Bone tailored that motion to allow the flow of the world''s concept of a right-angle to flow into his sword and be sent out in a flying sh that abruptly changed orientation in mid-air.


    Rayleigh guessed that a majority of the fancy, physics-defying special techniques used by the residents of this world likely used a specific, named flow of the world to operate.


    This also nicely answered Rayleigh''s question of whether or not he could use the powers of Devil Fruit users without a Devil Fruit. As long as Rayleigh identified a specific adjective in his expanded senses, he could use the flow associated with that adjective to add the properties of that world''s flow to his sword. Or just about anything else.


    Rayleigh suspected this was how Fishman Karate worked. Martial moves using the specific flow of Water. Of course, Water contained many flows, so each Fishman Karate technique likely used one of the flows within the flow of water.


    And since users of Fishman Karate were not cursed by the world, then this method of using its power was fine. The world only cursed you if you stole the flow using a Devil Fruit instead of taking it the proper way.


    All of this led to the third and final method to use the flow of the world. It was essentially abination of the first two and was also the method that Mihawk used. Identify an individual flow and have that flow guide the rest of the flow of the world. In the crowded mall-turned-stampede analogy, this was like getting an inside man in the crowd to get everyone''s attention as a leader and direct them in a more uniform manner toward the desired exit.


    This granted the conceptual weight of the world to the attack while also amplifying that conceptual weight with the attribute of the individual flow used tomand the rest of the world''s flow.


    One would think that Mihawk used the strongest flow for such a thing, but that would only be half correct. Rayleigh spent the entire day with a dozen Wills analyzing Mihawk''s strikes, forms, and the pressure of each attack and came to an interesting conclusion. Mihawk used two flows tomand the conceptual weight of the world instead of one


    The first flow was of course the flow of the concept of Strong. The second flow however was actually from the concept of Gentle. The strong flow could make Mihawk''s attacks fierce, harsh, and forceful while the gentle flow could make his attacks graceful, precise, and fluid. It was this duality that gave the flexibility and versatility that granted Mihawk the title of Number One Swordsman.


    After finishing his analysis, Rayleigh also figured out the two different ways of seeding in the Homework that Mihawk gave him. Sending a flying sh that only cut the sticks without cutting the rock behind it required a perfect level of control and sense. He had to perfectly sense the durability of the sticks and send out a flying sh that would use up its forcepletely after cutting the sticks. This level of mastery should be at the peak of Great Swordsman, reaching the level of Swordmaster.


    The second method was something else entirely, something that went right to the level of Swordmaster. If Rayleigh focused his senses entirely on something, he would get a feel for the flow of that something. If he sessfully channeled the flow of that something into his sword and swung it out at the target, it would have an interesting effect.


    If red light was shined on a blue piece of paper, the light would be absorbed. Only when red light was shined on a red sheet of paper would it reflect.


    In the same way, a sh containing the pure, 100% filtered flow of one specific thing could be used to target and damage just that one specific thing. It would be like the attack would exist in a different dimension, only capable of interacting with that one specific thing.


    This was how Mihawk did it and it was also how Bogard sliced through Rayleigh''s Nensaber and Ren defenses like they weren''t there.


    Such an attack was of course only useful in very, very specific circumstances, but the capability to perform it demonstrated a level of mastery that only Swordmasters could achieve.


    Rayleigh being Rayleigh would of course practice both methods.


    What Rayleigh thought of as a precise feeling of a specific target was what Mihawk called the Breath of the World. The feeling was not a constant but a shifting set of variables that flowed along a specific pattern, so Rayleigh understood why Mihawk called it Breath.


    At this point, most swordsman would innately figure out a specific concept that resonated with them and practice until they figured out a form that could channel the flow of that concept through their attack. They would then practice that flow and other, simr, rted flows until they had a flexible style. Finally, they would try to use their flow tomand the flow of the world and be a Swordmaster.


    Rayleigh was not like most swordsmen.


    The idea of choosing a specific concept and mastering just that never urred to Rayleigh. No. From the moment he figured out that the flow of the world wasposed of individual flows that could each be mastered, Rayleigh knew exactly what his sword style would entail. Only children make choices. Adults want it all.


    Rather than using some flows he mastered tomand the flow of the world, he would rather master every flow of the world at the same time.


    A wild mob would stand no chance against a controlled, directed mob. This was the difference between normal Haki and what Mihawk used. Rayleigh on the other hand wouldmand each and every member, turning a mob of unknown people into a regiment of soldiers that would each wlessly adhere to hismands. It didn''t need to be said what would happen if a directed mob faced a regiment of soldiers.


    After figuring out his desired path, Rayleigh took out the Enhancement Nen Inscribed training weights and put them on before walking into the forest.


    The excited Humandrills noticed this and energetically raised their weapons and charged at their long-awaited opponent.


    At the moment, Rayleigh intended to familiarize himself with the easiest-to-ess flows, the concepts that were obvious. It didn''t take much to pick a specific sense, an adjective from his awareness, deduce what flow it originated from, and allow his body and sword to move in a manner that allowed that flow to be channeled. His vast experience with the Force made such matters trivial, especially with a mind like his that was forged and strengthened to do far more than what was originally his biological limit.


    The first attempt would not be perfect, but he''d keep practicing while shifting from one flow to another. A strike like lightning, a sweep like that of a winding river, a sh like that of a falling tree, a parry like that of a blooming flower.


    The Humandrills were ecstatic. Their Photographic Reflexes captured his tests and used them against him, letting him analyze the move''s ws and benefits, allowing him to refine them and use them on the next wave where the cycle would be repeated.


    The attacks themselves were not remarkable. Rayleigh was not using the entire flow of the world, just a single flow to grant his attack some attributes and feel them out. His wind sword generated a tiny breeze, his fire sword produced a lone cinder, his lightning sword produced a single spark, and his water sword produced a tiny drop of moisture.


    Two more days passed in this manner and the degree of attribute the use of each flow produced did increase, but not by much. That being said, it wasn''t Rayleigh''s intention to master them all together. Instead, Rayleigh wanted to make a foundation of fused flows that he could merge into other flows. Then he could use that foundation tomand the flow of the world as he slowly merged the wild flow of the world into his controlledbination of flows. He would go full Borg and ASSIMILATE!


    Rayleigh''s only problem was that even at this level of proficiency, it wasn''t easy to merge flows. Mihawk''s swordsmanship only contained Strong and Gentle for a reason. When Rayleigh tried to use a form and technique that seemed to allow the flow of wind and the flow of lightning at the same time, his sword exploded.


    Thankfully, he never made a restriction that would cause him harm if the sword broke, so he could make it again through another round of recitation of his Force Code.


    Deliberately mixing different identified flows into the same techniques was not a simple matter of addition. Thankfully, Rayleigh could use his insight from other hobbies to assist. Using his experience with cooking, Rayleigh could feel out the proportions of which flows could be added to others. It wasn''t always a 1:1 ratio. Using his experience with calligraphy, he could figure out how to form a technique that could use thebination flow without his sword exploding.


    While ying with thews of reality for several more weeks, one of Rayleigh''s Wills noticed something in the Pirate Chat Room.


    [Immortal Beauty: I found the Pirate World MC.]


    [Invisible Man: Took you long enough. I found him ages ago and am standing right next to him. Don''t you see me?]


    [Justice: Don''t tell me, let me guess. Is he a... Pirate?]


    [Captain Jack: How do you know it''s him? Besides the fact that he''s seventeen now.]


    [Wonder Woman: Are you gonna join his crew?]


    [Immortal Beauty: He has main character plot armor. He just broke into a Marine Base, stole some stuff, freed a prisoner, beat up the Marine Captain, and when he left, the Marines stationed here saluted him.]


    [Dragon Chef: ... Yeah, that would do it.]


    [Titan: I''m convinced. So who is he?]


    [Justice: I''m guessing he''s not in the Grand Line yet.]


    [Immortal Beauty: From the name he gave, I''m also pretty sure he is rted to some very impressive people. I''ve also decided not to join his crew. He''ll probably catch up sooner orter, but he is really weak right now and I don''t want to wait and watch while he fights weakling after weakling.]


    [Swordsman: Ummm... He''s not in the East Blue, is he?]


    [Immortal Beauty: Why''d you ask?]


    [Swordsman: Cause Mihawk went in that direction a few weeks ago.]


    [Dragon Chef: Did Mihawk train you?]


    [Swordsman: Yeah, I learned the horrible truth about Haki from him.]


    [Titan: What, is it powered by devils?]


    [Swordsman: Worse than devils. It seems to be azy rip-off of a Law Cultivation System that gets nerfed if the person using it is boring.]


    [Captain Jack: Eh?]


    [Titan: ?]


    [Wonder Woman: ?]


    [Dragon Chef: ?! What?!]


    [Justice: Yeah, we''re gonna need more details.]


    [Swordsman: Summary, Haki is the Law of the World. Observation Haki is understanding the Law of the World. Armament Haki is applying the Law of the World to your defense and offense. And Conqueror Haki is basicallymanding the Law of the World.]


    [Swordsman: Oh, and Devil Fruits are minor Laws that make up the world, stolen from the world. The curse is just the world punishing a thief.]


    [Goddess of Ice: ...]


    [Captain Jack: I''m gonna sit down.]


    [Dragon Chef: Are you being for real here? Like for real for real?]


    [Swordsman: Yep. Also, you can use Haki to mimic the effects of Devil Fruits. You can apply fire to your punches, ice to your sword strikes, lightning to your kicks, etc by feeling out the rtedw and applying it into a technique.]


    [Mimic: I think I know what he is talking about. ording to some of the secret reports I''ve read, if a Devil Fruit user reaches a certain level of mastery, they awaken their Devil Fruit. I did not understand the context of this, but if Swordsman is urate, that means if you can master thew associated with your Devil Fruit using Haki, you will attain far greater power.]


    [Titan: Oh? It seems I will have to increase my training load.]


    [Gravity King: How can I train more? I''m already using inds as barbells.]


    [Fire Queen: Maybe by not making them weightless before lifting them Gravity boy?]


    Rayleigh smiled and went back to his training. If the other yers cannot keep up with him, he might lose motivation in the future. He shared what he needed to share so it wasn''t his fault if they didn''t listen or ignored his advice. As for the world''s MC, Rayleigh wondered how the will of the world thought of him. Since Haki had simrities to the Force, then this world''s MC was likely beloved by the Will of this world.


    It didn''t matter too much though. Rayleigh felt that he would see him eventually.


    *Author''s Note*


    Again, it is not my fault that this is the only exnation that makes sense for how everything in One Piece works. How the hell can Sanji light his feet on fire and thoroughly cook enemies with a kick? Why can Zoro conjure the image of tigers and demons with his attack? Why can Brook apply Ice to his sword when his Devil Fruit only gives soul rted powers? How does Fishman Karate work? Why can Luffy casually apply fire to his fist? How does Nami''s Climitact actually work? How does Devil Fruit Awakening work? How can a sword made of steel cut through arger block made of steel?


    So yeah, this exnation, like it or not, works for all observed phenomena so far and probably has enough wiggle room for future phenomena.


    Rayleigh''s observation Haki and his world senses are in fact superchargedpared to normal Haki users. The main reason is that his brain, which developed his entire life to use the Force and was enhanced through esoteric Force practices is just wired differently. In that state, Rayleigh whilepletely cut off from the Force gave his brain an alternative which it took topletely.


    Next chapter will be less thinking, more doing. Gonna Montage straight to the War of Marineford where the Marines, who know Rayleigh is Mihawk''s student thanks to the Marine yers, will ask Mihawk to invite Rayleigh for the fun. Hoping to have it out Sunday.

 Chapter 72: The World is My Sword.

    Chapter 72: The World is My Sword.


    Chapter 72 The World is My Sword.


    HK-47 once told Rayleigh that if you only trained while being slowed down, you only be skilled in moving slowly. Although Rayleigh spent many hours practicing Haki with his Empty Sword, he would spend just as much time with his Sword of Babylon, integrating what he learned into his existing style and power systems.


    The Force, being Haki''s nosey next-door neighbor, gave many insights into Haki and the various flows it contained within. While analyzing the Light Side, Rayleigh gained insight into the World''s aspects of Training, Growth, and many others. The Dark Side granted insight into many more aspects, but the most useful was the aspect of Weakness.


    After he decided to just use cultivation terms, the headache he got from trying to piece them together lessened, so he would use the word Law instead of Flow most of the time.


    From the perspective of the greater universe rather than just a world, the so-called Flow of the World, from a physics standpoint, was powered by the expansion of the Universe. Every empty point of space contained vast amounts of energy and constantly expanded, imparting that energy to matter to grant motion and allow for the passage of time.


    The Laws that made up the World were just the naturally formed structures and concepts that the World used to keep turning and gaining control over these small pieces could grant greater control over the whole. The main reason it seemed supernaturalpared to the Earth of his previous life was that this world and the Universe in general had an over-arcing Will. If the World had a Will, then Willpower could affect the world.


    Though, Willpower was not infinite. Simr to that of the Force, using Haki exhausted the mind and spirit if not the body. If you wanted to increase your Willpower, you had to train.


    Rayleigh was not surprised to discover a Law of Growth and Training in this world. It meant that a person who hadpletely and utterly dedicated themselves to training would receive more gains than should be possible. The Law of Weakness was an interesting boon as he could use it together with Growth and Training to weaken his body and strengthen the effects of the growth through the training.


    Rayleigh''s Will training had also sped up by an unreasonable amount. Now that his mind could ess the Laws of the World, it seemed to take nutrients from thesews to develop itself further, and in the three months since Rayleigh started practicing, he had gone from eighteen Wills to twenty-one Wills with no sign of slowing down. The Will training he endured using itching powder beforeing to this world was finally paying off.


    Mihawk returned to the ind five months after leaving, two months after the Pirate MC was first spotted.


    At the time, Rayleigh was using the Sword of Babylon to practice and Mihawk attacked without warning.


    Rayleigh''s proficiency in Haki barely allowed him to guide the whole flow of the World into his sword. He had yet to reach the proficiency of any individual or fusion of flows that allowed him to use it to lead the rest of the World, but with his Overdrive avable to strengthen his muscles, he could take the weight of Mihawk''s de and block itpletely.


    Mihawk actually showed a small smirk at this. It had been too long since he could use his entire strength in a fight without it ending in one move. The fact that Rayleigh was using abilities beyond what he was familiar with didn''t matter. He had long heard from Shanks about these strange geniuses and knew that Rayleigh had not gone all out. This was the only reason Mihawk used his full strength. He knew that Rayleigh could take it.


    Mihawk asked, "Have you beaten the Humandrill King?"


    Rayleigh nodded, "With this sword I have." Overdrive easily allowed Rayleigh to match the Humandrill King''s strength and he had been practicing using different flows against him for the past few weeks now.


    Mihawk nodded and shed forward again. Rayleigh''s eyes widened and his senses went crazy as Mihawk''s sword seemed to transform from the world into an unstoppable force capable of cleaving through mountains.


    Rayleigh poured everything he had into his Sword of Babylon. Yoru and Rayleigh''s Sword stopped a meter from each other as the pressure from Yoru met the Aura and Haki from the Sword of Babylon. Rayleigh felt that if he did not block this sword, he would be cleaved in half, and every one of his Wills entered the Ten of Point State to achieve hyper-focus. A ck sheen appeared momentarily on the Sword of Babylon before it snapped in half and shattered to nothingness. A line of blood shot from Rayleigh''s chest and he cked out from the bacsh, but one of his Wills barely managed to hold on and regained consciousness before he copsed.


    Rayleigh staggered back several steps and confirmed that he was still alive. Thatst surge of Willpower blunted much of the force of Yoru''s sh and the remaining bulk of it was absorbed by the destruction of the Sword of Babylon.


    Seeing that Rayleigh was still alive, conscious, and standing, Mihawk pointed out, "You are the second person this month to withstand Yoru. Though I did not use Conqueror''s Haki on the first one."


    Rayleighughed a bit though doing so hurt his chest and lungs. He sat down cross-legged, entered a state of normal Zetsu, and started using the Force to speed up his recovery. He then asked, "Anything special about the other guy?"


    Pleased that Rayleigh did not disappoint him, Mihawk became slightly more talkative and answered, "He said that he would best me one day in the future. His captain was also interesting."


    Mihawk pulled out a sheet of paper, one with a picture of a ck-haired teen with tanned skin. He had a bright smile and wore a straw hat. It was a Wanted poster and had a bounty of 30 Million Berries with the title ''Monkey D Luffy.''


    Although Immortal Beauty never gave the MC''s name, Rayleigh''s connection with the Force could grant him insight into the future of Main Characters. That and the fact that there was no way that a normal Pirate with a Bounty of only 30 Million would be remembered by Hawkeye Mihawk.


    Rayleigh cheekily said, "I bet his bounty will increase by ten times within a year."


    Mihawk asked, "Oh? And what would you give me if you lost?"


    "You can ask me any question you want."


    "And if I lost?"


    "Let me hold Yoru for a minute."


    "A bet it is then. How long will it take you to reform that sword?" Mihawk didn''t mind the fact that he knew nothing about this student of his, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t curious. He could also guess from the manner in which the sword was destroyed that it could be reformed.


    Rayleigh answered, "I''ll have it back tomorrow." Remaking the sword was easy, but his Kyber Crystal was destroyed. As a Starting Game inventory item, he could disable the item''s existence and re-enable it twenty-four hourster in its saved state. The catch was that it would not show any changes since hest Saved it using the Lightsaber Customization Kit. Rayleigh often uses Force: Weapon on the Kyber Crystal itself to strengthen his connection with it, so any progress he made since thest save is lost if it is destroyed.


    "Then you can return tomorrow. I shall see how skilled you really are." Mihawk was looking forward to seeing Rayleigh''s skills. Mihawk himself would not grow as a swordsman unless he found the mistakes in his style, but that required being pushed when he was not holding back. Mihawk''s not holding back meant using Conqueror''s Haki, and if Rayleigh could survive, then he might be able to push the world''s number one swordsman.


    Rayleigh nodded as Mihawk returned to his castle. Rayleigh remained motionless, recovering slowly until he could enter the Tavern for some food. Since he was injured, he would spend more points than normal on a really big meal to speed up his recovery.


    The next day with the Sword of Babylon in hand, Rayleigh entered the training area behind Mihawk''s castle and Mihawk joined him a momentter. The sound of swords shing echoed as Mihawk tested Rayleigh''s limits. Mihawk attacked with Strong and deflected with Gentle. Sometimes a Strong attack turned into a Gentle one to make a feint. Rayleigh used too much power to parry these and made an opening which Mihawk rewarded with a new scar.


    Rayleigh used Babylon to enhance the effect of Force Precognition and merge it into Observation Haki to grant visions of the future, but every time he looked, it changed as Mihawk adjusted ordingly, forcing him to look multiple times a second from multiple angles to discern all of the most probable futures and react ordingly.


    Rayleigh''s Human body limitation Swordsmanship faired decently against Mihawk''s reality-bending Anime Swordsmanship. Simr to how Rayleigh read Goddess of Ice like a book, so too was Mihawk reading Rayleigh. He didn''t mind of course. There is nothing wrong with a Teacher learning from his students.


    The main problem with the swordsmanship Rayleigh learned in the MCU was that it assumed that the opponent would also use swordsmanship that followed logic. Mihawk''s two-meter-long de that could swing with the force of a mountain and adjust like it had the weight of a feather did not follow logic.


    That being said, it did not take long for Rayleigh to adapt. Overdrive evolved in real-time to amodate the shifts and changes in power. New ideas and concepts were being born one second, tested the next, and then either refined or discarded.


    The only reason Rayleigh could keep up with Mihawk was that Rayleigh was faster. Mihawk''s de was more nimble, and precise, and he could out-predict Rayleigh''s predictions, but Rayleigh had achieved a base speed that surpassed Mihawk''s.


    But even if Rayleigh could outpace the world''s number one swordsman, that didn''t mean he could beat him. At his fastest pace, Rayleigh''s use of Haki could not keep up with his body. His strikescked the power to push Mihawk back while his blockscked the weight to do more than barely deflect Mihawk''s strikes.


    Any advantage Rayleigh gained from his speed was overtaken by Mihawk''s power and dexterity.


    The sparring matchsted thirty minutes. Thirty minutes of Rayleigh using Overdrive, Babylon, Sword of Babylon, Haki, and the Force. Each Hatsu Rayleigh used tripled the amount of aura he needed for upkeep so even if his aura could hold out for a full day on its own, using all three in an all-out fight reduced his fighting time to less than an hour.


    Mihawk ended his attack and remained silent for a moment. Rayleigh didn''t look tired, but Mihawk''s observation haki told him the truth of the matter. After gauging Rayleigh''s condition, Mihawk stated, "Return in two months," and turned around to walk back into his castle.


    Rayleigh disabled the Sword of Babylon and started meditating. He had a lot to think about.


    As predicted, Mihawk left the ind the next day and Rayleigh went back to practicing. After a lot of meditation, Rayleigh picked five flows to fuse together and master. He chose Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. There were many reasons to choose these five, but the main reason was that it was used in Chinese Medicine due to the belief that these elements existed in the body and reinforced or restricted one another.


    Rayleigh did not actually want his sword to burst into mes or send des of water. He was a swordsman, not the Avatar. He would use the flow of these elements only to strengthen his body and swordsmanship. This would form his foundation. From this, he would fuse every other aspect of the world into his swordsmanship.


    Each element had multiple facets and Rayleigh was not learning the shy ones, but the aspect of the elements that existed in the human body. Using the Force to guide him, it did not take more than a few days to create a fusion of these five elements, Rayleigh then spent the next month refining his swordsmanship into this foundation.


    By continuously incorporating new forms and styles into this flow, he could figure out if it was missing anything and he had in fact found a few holes that needed to be filled. Sensing what was missing, Rayleigh incorporated Lightning into the foundation and then tried to add Light and Darkness. Since he was going for the five elements, then he needed Yin, Yang, and the power of the tribtion.


    Light was easy. Rayleigh was familiar enough with it thanks to his interactions with Justice. Darkness was a different story.


    One would think that he could use the Dark Side of the Force as a reference to understand Darkness, but that was not the case. The Light Side of the Force did not represent Light, it represented the Force in a Healthy State while the Dark Side represented the Force in an Unhealthy State. Rayleigh''s observations of the Dark Side granted insight into things like Weakness, Sickness, Madness, Pain, Lightning, and other things, but not pure darkness.


    However, even though his foundation needed Darkness, he could work around it for now.


    The elemental aspects of the flows he used negated each other so he could not use this foundation to set his sword on fire unless he purposefully weakened it, but that worked just fine for Rayleigh. As for what he called this fusion? It seemed only fitting to call it Force.


    When Rayleigh used the flow of Force, the elemental aspects of his swordsmanship would continually reinforce each other while adapting to the world. So if his opponent became stronger, Rayleigh''s swordsmanship would be stronger as well.


    Even without the weight of the world granted by Armament Haki, Rayleigh could use Force to match the Humandrill King. Due to the BS property of Photographic Reflexes, this allowed the Humandrill King to use Force in return. Rayleigh had to use Overdrive to strengthen himself which caused the Humandrill''s swordsmanship to get strengthened as well which then strengthened Rayleigh''s swordsmanship.


    Due to missing a few things, the loop was not infinite, but it was an exciting match that had the hundreds of Humandrills in the area cheering and shouting.


    The match ended because the body of the Humandrill King could not keep up with the power of the sword technique, but it was still a good fight that left both parties satisfied.


    After that, Rayleigh got started on using Force to direct the flow of the World. That took another week of practice.


    Upon Mihawk''s return, he showed Rayleigh another Wanted Poster. It was of the same person and the bounty had increased to 100 Million Berries.


    Rayleigh asked, "What did he do?"


    "Among other things, he defeated Crocodile."


    "The Hero of baster?" Rayleigh learned a few things about the Seven Warlords of the Sea from Justice while he was staying at Marineford.


    "So it would seem," Mihawk put away the Wanted Poster and started attacking once more.


    Rayleigh''s Force met Mihawk''s Strong and the most powerful of the Seven Warlords revealed a brief smile.


    Rayleigh had yet to reach the level of pouring Haki into his Sword of Babylon as fast as he could move, but he had figured out a way around it. Instead of specifically pouring it into his sword in a way that he had to adjust with every move, Rayleigh''s circting, self-reinforcing flows would constantly strengthen everything. It was weak at first, but as the battle continued, it would grow stronger and stronger.


    This was not beneath Mihawk''s notice. He could easily overpower Rayleigh at this moment, but the longer he waited, the stronger Rayleigh got. How could he resist such an opportunity?


    The explosiveness of fire, the immovability of earth, the ductility of metal, the fluidity of water, and the tenacity of wood. Rayleigh''s sword contained a bnced measure of each that would refine itself over and over.


    Mihawk held back less and less and soon, Rayleigh''s sword had a ck sheen as the weight of the world moved under the direction of the elements. Mihawk''s sword then changed. A red sh of light seemed to shine in his eyes as a repeat of the attack that shattered Rayleigh''s sword came at him.


    Rayleigh deflected it this time but the impact shook his body and included a mental attack as well. Rayleigh overcame it and struck back, but Mihawk parried his attack and sent another blow of Conqueror''s Haki.


    With each exchange, cracks formed in the ground beneath them. The pressure of each sword was so great that neither even made contact with the other, they shed a meter apart using their pressures alone. Then Rayleigh''s sword started to crack.


    Mihawk ended the fight without breaking the sword and looked at the cracks in the ground. If they continued, the foundation of his castle could be in jeopardy.


    "This ind is no longer suitable for your practice. Come with me."


    At the shore was the coffin-shaped raft that Mihawk used as a personal mode of transportation. It had a sail, but that sail was poorly designed for travel, and unfurling it was more likely to tip the boat over than propel it forward. So how did Mihawk get around the Grand Line so quickly?


    ording to Rayleigh''s irvoyance, there was an anchor at the front of the boat and when Mihawk entered the boat, a certain tamed sea king would grab the anchor in its mouth and start swimming where Mihawk wanted it to go.


    Rayleigh could not tell how the sea king knew which way to go since Mihawk didn''t say anything and it didn''t surface to ask him, but once the pair had boarded, the anchor was taken and the ship was pulled at a speed that did not lose out to most speed boats.


    As both Mihawk and Rayleigh were quite used to being alone, neither felt the need to fill the silence between them with conversation as the raft was dragged further into the Grand Line.


    After a few hours, Rayleigh recognized the background music of the world change as they entered the Calm Belt. For the first time, Rayleigh spoke up and asked, "Are we going to the South Blue?"


    Above the Paradise half of the Grand Line was the East Blue and below it was the South Blue. In order to get to the North or West Blues, you needed to cross the Red Line. Rayleigh came from the South Blue and he could tell from the baring of the Sun that they were heading south, not north.


    Mihawk answered, "No. There are many inds in the Calm Belt and there is one I have in mind for your training."


    "Is it filled with giant monsters and powerful beasts?"


    "Few beasts found onnd are stronger than the Humandrill King, so that would not help you improve."


    Rayleigh nodded and did not ask further. Mihawk would tell himter, so there wasn''t a need to push for an answer now. Rayleigh''s irvoyance picked up the sea kings in the area but they seemed to avoid the sea king that dragged along Mihawk''s boat.


    The ind they eventually reached was quite small. Other than a few handfuls of trees, it did not have much, and around the ind were many outcroppings of rock.


    After getting off, Mihawk pulled out Yoru, faced a specific direction, and shed out with his strongest force.


    The flying sh continued splitting the sea for at least a few kilometers before it ended. Rayleigh had to use Gy¨­ and Force Enhance: Sense to clearly see that far. A bit further and it would have gone over the curvature of the world. The power from this sh was not just from the flow of the world through Mihawk''s body. This was the power of the world beingmanded by Mihawk. This was the power of Conqueror''s Haki.


    Mihawk stated, "This is one of the few locations where you can practice such a thing without being disturbed. I will visit every few months to check your progress."


    After returning to his boat, he called out as an afterthought, "And if you wish to practice yourbat skills, stand on those rocks over there." A few momentster and he was gone.


    Rayleigh could not help his curiosity. He got out his Sword of Babylon and jumped over to the rock outcroppings that Mihawk had pointed out. Each only had enough room to barely stand. There was no room to move unless you wanted to fall into the water or jump to another rock.


    A breath after taking his ce on the rock, a sharp de nearly tore through his side. The main reason he dodged was that the movement was caught by his En before his Haki even noticed it. As for what it was, its appearance only brought a single word to mind. Swordfish. Though to be fair, it was definitely the type of swordfish one could only see in a cartoon that had writers who loved bad puns. It had all the normal facets of a normal swordfish, but the ''sword'' on its front was like a Japanese katana rather than a long pike. It even had the decorative Hamon.


    Rayleigh''s sword swung to the side to block another one. It flew out of the water faster than a cannonball and swung its ''nose'' to cleave Rayleigh in two. Somehow, the edge of the fish''s sword did not get cut in two from meeting Rayleigh''s Sword of Babylon.


    A momentter, Rayleigh understood what Mihawk meant when he saidbat practice. A dozen swordfish of many sizes shot out of the water. Rayleigh had blocked them all while essentially standing on one foot. A smile unconsciously spread to his face. At least Mihawk had a good sense of humor, dropping him off in a Swordfish Sea King breeding territory.


    After that, Rayleigh would spend a full hour using Overdrive, Babylon, and his Sword of Babylon at the same time on those rocks three times a day. asionally he would stun one of the swordfish and throw it to shore for food, but the rest he only parried or dodged.


    The rest of his time that he didn''t spend eating, meditating, or chilling in the Tavern was spent using the Empty Sword and practicing Haki and shing into the sea.


    Rayleigh''s biggest breakthrough in Haki came when he figured out how to affect the flow of the World with the Jedi Power System. Why did this help? Two reasons. First, Rayleigh already had the Easy Masteries for Sense and Control with his Jedi ss. Once his Haki could be affected by the Force, the Sense Easy Mastery made training Observation Haki easier and the Control Easy Mastery made training Armament Haki easier. But neither of those came close to helping him as much as Tutaminis.


    Tutaminis allowed Rayleigh to control the energy in his body and could affect all forms of energy. The flow of the world seemed like energy at first, but it was not, it was Law, closer to a blueprint or password than an actual form of energy. Once Rayleigh figured out how to use the Force to affect the flow of the world, the amount of Willpower he needed to move and control the flow of the world reduced to a fraction of what it was. Both Force and Haki required Willpower to move, but Rayleigh was leagues better at using the Force, so this was a direct cheat that brought his Armament Haki right to the level of being able to cken his skin and sword at will. He was so excited that he invited Dragon Chef, Captain Jack, and Justice to the Tavern for a feast he paid for and threw a party. They enjoyed the free food, but paid the price of having to listen to Rayleigh brag.


    After that, Rayleigh could add the Jedi Power system directly to his Force Fusion Flow. And since Babylon enhanced all Force skills, his Haki would receive an amplification boost while he used Babylon. Soon he would be able to enhance the power of Haki directly.


    When just using Haki with his Empty Sword, Rayleigh''s sword sh didn''t fly a tenth of Mihawk''s, but when he used Babylon, Overdrive, and everything else, Rayleigh''s sword sh had almost reached Mihawk''s distance.


    His Force Flow contained Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, Lightning, Light, the actual Force, and an attribute that Rayleigh simply called Sword.


    When he practiced, he also used Growth, Weakness, and Training while using the maximum setting for the Zoldyck Family Adjustable Weight Set. At full weight, they were 2,500 Kilograms and Rayleigh''s enhancement Divine Script enhanced that weight by tenfold. Not ten times, but tenfold. Each weight acted on Rayleigh as if it weighed more than the entire Zoldyck Family Door andbined they were over a million kilograms. Thankfully it only affected Rayleigh and not the ind or it would have sunk. And that was not the max he could use, that was just the max he could use while moving using at least a quarter of his max speed while being affected by the Law of Weakness.


    Months passed by and on the one-year anniversary of Rayleigh''s first lesson, Mihawk visited and showed off a new Wanted Poster for Luffy with a bounty of 300 Million Berries.


    Mihawk handed over Yoru and Rayleigh waved it around for a minute while asking, "So what did Strawhat do this time?"


    Mihawk answered with an amused look. "He seems to have attacked Enies Lobby, nearly destroying the whole ce."


    Rayleigh, someone who had seen Enies Lobby and knew what it was used for. Hearing this he could only pause in shock. Then heughed. If there was any doubt that Luffy was the MC, this put an end to it.


    Whileughing and waving it around, Rayleigh had ten Wills in the Ten of Point Hyper Focus state using Psychometry on Mihawk''s de while another ten put the work into memorizing every detail about the sword''s history. With this, Rayleigh could feel exactly how skilled Mihawk was and now knew his upper limit. He could also tell where Mihawk could be said to have hit a dead end. Thankfully, it wasn''t a problem for Rayleigh.


    Mentally, Mihawk was too dependent on using strong opponents to train and hone himself against. Even if Rayleigh ran out of strong opponents to fight in the Tavern, it wouldn''t matter. He had multiple ways to keep improving himself, like Over-Clocking his Overdrive to damage his muscles and then recover stronger than before. The limit of such a training method was far beyond what Rayleigh could see at the moment.


    Rayleigh returned Yoru and Mihawk left again.


    After Mihawk left, Rayleigh used what he learned from Mihawk''s strengths and weaknesses to refine the abilities and restrictions on his Hatsus. What he was left with was a monster that took a full two weeks to stabilize andplete.


    1st Hatsu Overdrive.


    No Restrictions.


    Effect


    -Enhances the effect of Force: Program and Force: Augment when used together.


    -Enhances the Effect of Tutaminis and Haki when used together.


    -Enhances the strength of the body.


    -Enhances the speed of the body


    -Enhances the skill level of K¨­, Ken, and Ry¨±.


    2nd Hatsu Babylon


    Restrictions


    -User must say aloud, "Open Babylon" to initiate. (New)


    -Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal or Sword of Babylon must not be out of contact with the body for more than 30 seconds while in use.


    -Cannot kill while using or Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal will explode.


    -Must use two different Wills to meditate and strengthen the connection to the Force. (New +1)


    -Must use one Will to channel the Force through the Kyber crystal.


    -Must use one Will to use Sh¨± on the Kyber Crystal. (New)


    -Must use one Will to maintain irvoyance.


    -Must use one Will to maintain Battle Precognition.


    -Must use one Will to maintain Gy¨­.


    -Must use one Will to maintain En.


    -Must use one Will to maintain Observation Haki. (New)


    -Must use one Will to maintain Tutaminis. (New)


    -The En created must have the User as the Center and extend out in the form of a sphere.


    -The size of the En field cannot be adjusted after the initial release.


    -Every use of the Force while maintaining Babylon requires a separate Will.


    -If Babylon is disabled, it cannot be re-enabled for five minutes.


    Effect:


    -All Force Skills used within the En Field are enhanced.


    -All usages of Haki are enhanced.


    -The user''s body is enhanced.


    -The power of the Hatsu: Overdrive is Enhanced.


    -The effects of Observation skills like Gy¨­, En, Battle Precognition, irvoyance, Shatterpoint, and Observation Haki are Enhanced and are fused together.


    -If injured while using Babylon, a blood-red Conjuration aura will generate and gather around the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal like a bloody mist. The more Conjuration aura is gathered, the thicker the bloody mist and deeper the bloody color. The Nen Skill: In may be used to hide the visible appearance of the mist.


    3rd Hatsu Sword of Babylon (Has multiple forms)


    Empty Sword


    Restrictions


    -The user must remain motionless and sincerely recite aloud the Force Code three times to generate the Conjuration Aura required to materialize the Empty Sword. If the user moves or is interrupted during the recitation, the user has to start over. The user can use 16 Wills to offset the recital once or use 32 Wills to offset the recital twice.


    -The form of the Empty Sword cannot be changed after its conjuration. (New)


    -Can only be wielded while using 2nd stage Zetsu. (No ess to the Force or Nen once used)


    -The Empty Sword will break if it draws blood.


    -The Empty Sword will break if not in contact with the user''s body for more than thirty seconds.


    -The Empty Sword will break if the user does not maintain One with the Sword state. (New)


    -The Empty Sword will break if the user does not maintain the Heart of the Sword state.


    -If the Empty Sword breaks, it cannot be formed again for five minutes.


    Effect:


    -Materializes a long sword.


    -A strand of transformed sword aura can form on the edge at will.


    -The sword is indestructible unless the destruction conditions are met.


    -Enhances the effect of physical, mental, and Haki Training


    -The Empty Sword can transform into the Sword of Babylon by pressing the sword against the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal, switching from using 2nd Stage Zetsu, to using Overdrive and Babylon at the same time to make the Empty Sword absorb the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal. While the Empty Sword is absorbing the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal, the user must say aloud, "Split the Heavens, Sword of Babylon." This transforms the Empty Sword into the Sword of Babylon (Blue.)


    Sword of Babylon (Blue and Red)


    Restrictions


    -The user must remain motionless and sincerely recite aloud the Force Code three times while maintaining Babylon and Overdrive to generate the Conjuration aura required to conjure the Sword of Babylon if the Empty Sword is not avable. The user can use 16 Wills to offset the recital once or use 32 Wills to offset the recital twice. If the user moves or is interrupted during the recitation, the user has to start over.


    -After the Sword of Babylon (Blue) has been conjured, the user must say aloud, "Split the Heavens, Sword of Babylon."


    -Alternatively, if the blood-red mist conjured due to injuries sustained while using Babylon is thick enough, it can be used to directly conjure the Sword of Babylon (Red) without the above restriction.


    -The Sword of Babylon must form around the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal.


    -If the Sword of Babylon (Blue) has already been conjured, it can be converted into the Sword of Babylon (Red) if it absorbs a sufficient amount of the blood-colored mist conjured from injuries while using Babylon or by covering the entire Sword of Babylon (Blue) in the user''s blood.


    -Cannot make multiple swords. (New)


    -Can only be used during Overdrive.


    -Can only be used during Babylon.


    -The form of the Sword of Babylon cannot be changed after its conjuration. (New)


    -Must use one Will to channel Haki through it. (New)


    -The Sword will break if K¨­, Ken, or Ry¨± is used to defend the body from damage. (New)


    -The Sword will break if Haki is used to defend the body from damage. (New)


    -The Sword will break if is not in contact with the user''s body for longer than thirty seconds. (New)


    -The Sword will break if the user does not maintain One with the Sword state. (New)


    -The Sword will break if the user does not maintain the Heart of the Sword state.


    -The Sword will break if the user causes any damage to an opponent using a Force Skill independent of the Sword of Babylon. (New)


    -The Sword will break if the user causes any damage to an opponent using Haki independent of the Sword of Babylon. (New)


    -If the Sword breaks, it cannot be formed again for five minutes if the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal is intact.


    Effect:


    -Conjures a long sword. (Red or Blue)


    -Aura channeled into the sword is automatically transformed into strands of sharpened sword aura thinner than a line of silk.


    -All strands of sharpened sword aura are automatically filled with Conqueror''s Haki.


    -The more aura is channeled into the sword, the more strands of sharpened sword aura are generated.


    -These strands automatically circle around the edge of the de like a chainsaw and each additional strand reinforces the speed and sharpness of the strands of sword aura.


    -These strands of sword aura can also be released at will in the form of flying shes.


    -While holding the Sword of Babylon, the power of the user''s Control, Sense, and Alter aspects over their internal Force is heavily enhanced, allowing for greater feats of Internal Force usage.


    -While holding the Sword of Babylon, the user''s internal Nen is heavily enhanced.


    -While holding the Sword of Babylon, the user''s Haki is heavily enhanced.


    -While holding the Sword of Babylon, the user''s physical strength and speed are heavily enhanced.


    -The Sword of Babylon (Red) can null and void the No Killing rule of Babylon, allowing kills without the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal exploding.


    -The Sword of Babylon (Red) multiplies the previous enhancements based on the amount of damage taken or injuries sustained.


    Understandably, the restriction list looked crazy. Babylon alone needed ten separate Wills to use and the Sword of Babylon could no longer be used without using at least one Will to use Haki on it at all times. It was fine though since he now had 31 Wills so he had more than enough to spare.


    He hadpletely given up on any form of attack that did not use the sword and his physical defenses had also been stripped so if he was attacked, he had to block with the sword or dodge.


    And it was worth it. A Hatsu''s power required a bnce between cost and effect. By adding more Wills to Babylon, he had directly reached the level of Advanced Observation Haki, Future Sight, and had a bootleg version of Mystic Eyes of Death Perception when he used Shatterpoint.


    By sacrificing his ability to attack without the sword, he massively boosted his attack power with the sword.


    By sacrificing his ability to defend himself with Haki or Nen, he massively boosted the physical speed enhancement it granted and greatly raised his sword''s durability. The Sword of Babylon did not have an indestructible condition, but it should be as close to indestructible as possible. Rayleigh inherited this from Mihawk as thetter never blocked attacks with his hand or kicked someone in the face. As a swordsman, you should fight with a sword. In a pinch, Rayleigh could still use harmless Force Skills like Telekinesis, Stasis, and Fear. The most devious part was that without any defense, he would be easier to injure, making it easier to conjure theplete full-powered form of the Sword of Babylon.


    Oddly, one of the biggest boosts to Rayleigh''s might came from the fact that he finally achieved One with the Sword. Now that he had an actual foundation for the style he would build up in the future, he could perfectly use the Sword of Babylon as if it were an extension of his body.


    The first thing Rayleigh did afterpleting the update of his Hatsus was fight Netero. Rayleigh''s new speed surpassed Netero''s max speed. His flying shes of silk-like sharpened sword aura were infused with Conqueror''s Haki and choppedpletely through his Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva. Rayleigh moved like Bankai Ichigo Kurosaki spamming Getsuga Tensh¨­s like no tomorrow.


    When Rayleigh appeared behind Netero, the Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva actually appeared behind Rayleigh and all 100 pairs of hands mmed into him. A momentter, the Guanyin Bodhisattva roared. All of Netero''s Nen concentrated into a single emission attack.


    And Rayleigh cut it in half. Using his strongest sh, the emission attack, the Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Netero himself, were all split horizontally down the middle. Netero''s final ace, his most powerful move, had been defeated.


    At that point, Rayleigh was tempted to fight Mihawk in the Tavern, but it would be a waste of points since he could just wait until the real Mihawk showed up again.


    And show up he did. Less than a month after hisst appearance, Mihawk returned, but not for a fight.


    Mihawk exined, "The Marines have called back each of the Seven Warlords to preside over the execution of Fire Fist Ace, Commander of the 2nd division of the Whitebeard Pirates. It seems they know that you are my student and I was asked to bring you along."


    Even while training, Rayleigh kept the Pirate Chat Room open so he knew quite a bit about what was going on in the world. Rayleigh asked, "So they want your help when Whitebeardes to rescue him?"


    "That is the case."


    "Alright, I''m in."


    Before getting back onto the raft, Mihawk seemed to be thinking of something. After a moment, he asked, "What do you call your swordsmanship?"


    Rayleigh honestly answered, "It doesn''t have a name yet."


    Mihawk nodded and said, "Then I shall name it. Hmm. Very well. It shall be called World Sword Style. Your sword is not a physical object, but you use the world itself as your de."


    Rayleigh couldn''t help but smile.


    *Author''s Note*


    I saw ament that said, "ording to the Wiki, Haki is a mysterious power that allows individuals to harness their own spiritual energy for various superhuman feats."


    That was my original intention, but then I realized that this definition shed with the ridiculousness that is One Piece Swordsmanship. Magic Sword attacks should also be powered by Haki, but then why couldn''t Zoro, someone who could use flying shes as early as the Sky Ind Arc, use Haki at the time if the power of a flying shes from the same source? I hated every answer I came up with which caused a year-long hiatus. Besides, if you switch ''Mysterious Power'' for ''Law of the World'' and ''Spiritual Energy'' for ''Willpower,'' you get the same thing.


    What really caused me to give up trying to make spiritual energy-powered swordsmanship to make any sense was Zoro''s creation of a tornado of des in the Mermaid Ind Arc, ck Rope Dragon Twister. Sure, it looks cool, but do you have any idea how much energy that takes? That tornado lifted at least fifty fishmen into the air, it contained sword intent that cut through dozens of thick iron turtle shell shields, and worst of all, IT WAS SELF-SUSTAINING! In a bubble under the sea, air should be stationary, so all the energy required to form a self-sustaining F2 or F3 Tornado all came from Zoro! That requires magnitudes more energy than just about anything else in the series, even cutting meteors and lifting inds! So either Zoro is the MC and has been sandbagging everyone since his training montage or the force that imparts energy to his swordsmanship is somethingrger than just his personal reserves of Willpower.


    It works out anyway since my boy needs some gains. Some readers are under the impression that the final opponent to defeat is Thanos. Nope. It is against something else entirely. Don''t worry, it won''t be an enemy thates out of nowhere. There have already been clues and there will be more clues. Technically it isn''t impossible to figure out the level of existence that Rayleigh will fight at the end with the already avable clues, but I was really subtle in sneaking them in there so people wouldn''t pay attention to them. That way the big reveal will be more satisfying.


    Back before the Hiatus, I originally intended on calling his swordsmanship No Sword Style, since he didn''t have a real sword. But like I said, that would have caused so many issues in the future. Still, having him use the World as his de is cooler.


    This chapter ended up containing a lot more exnations than I thought it would, but I didn''t want the training montage tost more than a chapter and now we''re off to Marineford! I''ll go back to using normal terms in future fights so there won''t be any more technical stuff for a while.


    I wonder how many other yers will show up for the war? Hehe. Now I''m gonna need to re-read the whole of the War, write a scene by scene summary of it, and then figure out how badly the yers will mess with the whole thing and what will happen next.

 Chapter 73: The Calm Before the Storm

    Chapter 73: The Calm Before the Storm


    Chapter 73 The Calm Before the Storm


    "Strawhat Luffy did what?!"


    Rayleigh could only repeat back in amazement.


    The fresh newspaper the Marine handed to Rayleigh had a front-page news story that was beyond belief. The Pirate World MC punched a Celestial Dragon.


    When Rayleigh and every other yer started in this world, they were given some base-level knowledge such as thenguage, local culture, and some minor details on how the world viewed itself. This meant that every yer knew that this world considered Celestial Dragons on the same level that a Church considered gods. spheming one was grounds for execution and harming the dignity of one meant that the next crusade had your name on it.


    What was more interesting was theck of a mention of Luffy''s arrest. Celestial Dragons were the so-called Reverse Scale of the Marines and touching one was the grounds for an Admiral to be sent out. If Luffy had been captured, the front page would have included a picture of him in chains, but it seemed that he had miraculously gotten away. As expected of the favored son of the World''s Will.


    Rayleigh peeked into the Chatroom and asked a question.


    [Swordsman: Was anyone there when Luffy punched the World Noble?]


    [Captain Jack: I was in Sabaody at the time. Had front-row seats to the whole thing.][Immortal Beauty: And the Admiral they sent didn''t see you?]


    [Captain Jack: Ha! The best part about always wearing the same outfit and hat when seen is that you be practically invisible if you wear anything else.]


    [Swordsman: So what happened?]


    [Captain Jack: No idea. Kizaru and some Bear Robots started attacking every Pirate in sight.]


    [Immortal Beauty: So you didn''t actually see what caused it.]


    [Justice: I know the details. My Teacher told me. The World Noble went to a ve auction to buy a Mermaid and it seems Luffy was there and punched him. The former Pirate King''s first mate, the Dark King was there as well and stopped Kizaru from capturing Luffy.]


    [Lightning Lord: F*cking b stards. When I''m strong enough, I''m gonna st their entire city to ashes.]


    [Dragon Chef: Good luck with that. There are dozens of Mihawk-level swordsmen there who will cut you down even if you fly in from the sky.]


    [Justice: Speaking of Mihawk, hey Swordsman, are youing to Marineford?]


    [Swordsman: You mean for the Execution? Yeah, Mihawk is bringing me along.]


    [Dyna Might: You''re actually gonna be there Swordsman? I still have a bone to pick with you.]


    [Dragon Chef: Swordsman, you''re gonna help the Marines execute Ace?]


    [Swordsman: Nope. I just want to find some good opponents. Mihawk won''t get in trouble even if I turn against the Marines so I''ll do what I want.]


    [Titan: That makes sense.]


    [Swordsman: Who else ising? This battle should result in the destruction of Marineford, the end of the Whitebeard Pirates, or both. In other words, it is the biggest party we''ve seen as yers.]


    [Wild King: I''ming and I''m bringing an army of Sea Kings. If anyone else wants toe and destroy the Marines, I''ll give you a free ride. Sea Kings can easily traverse the Tarai Currents.]


    [Goddess of Ice: You''d better not or I''ll turn you into an Ice Sculpture.]


    [Wonder Woman: Why are you still with the Marines when you know how bad they are?]


    [Justice: The training is good and we are not ungrateful. I can''t believe how you can just ignore all the good the Marines do just because of the few bad things they are forced to do. If Marineford is destroyed, wild pirates will wreck the world and it will be on your heads!]


    [Captain Jack: Meh. Sometimes it takes more effort to keep a broken thing together than it does to allow it to fall to pieces and rebuild it from scratch. If this is all it takes for the Marines to fall, then it is better for it to happen sooner so it can be rebuilt into something betterter.]


    [Swordsman: Dragon Chef, Titan, are you gonnae?]


    [Titan: One of us will. The other will stay to take over Whitebeard''s territory. We''re gonna do best of three to figure out who will go and who will stay.]


    [Swordsman: Why do you want his territory?]


    [Dragon Chef: I don''t have the Jedi ss so I can''t go there to have fun. I''ll be taking over Titan''s crew when he leaves for the Jedi Gxy and using the Beast Pirates, Big Mom Pirates, and Red Haired Pirates as sparring partners instead.]


    Rayleigh read over the messages and recalled that a few of the yers stillcked a presence in the Force. During his Nen Training Lessons, he told the yers to go awaken their Jedi ss so that he could use Impartation to speed up the rate they understood his lessons, but Dragon Chef was one of the few that did not do so.


    At the beginning of the game, it was possible to sacrifice a ss to strengthen another ss, but Rayleigh did not want to assume, and asking at the time would have been impolite.


    [Swordsman: Does anyone have any guesses on who is gonna win? I tried peeking but I only saw static.]


    [Wonder Woman: If Little Miss Icicle and her glowing SIMP don''t get in our way, we should easily be able to destroy Marineford.]


    [Justice: F*ck you! And you guys are badly underestimating the Marines if you think we''ll lose. All three Admirals, the Fleet Admiral, Vice Admiral Garp, fifty other Vice-Admirals, fifty warships, and a hundred thousand armed Marines will be stationed here with Home Field Advantage!]


    [Goddess of Ice: If you don''t want to die, you should stay away. None of you are a match for the Admirals.]


    Rayleigh could not guess how the battle would end but he had the confidence to survive any oue. Even Mihawk could not keep up with his speed, so how could anyone else hope to do so if there wasn''t a Fast Fast Devil Fruit or something.


    Thinking on this, Rayleigh started meditating and tried to feel out if there was a Devil Fruit, a Flow or Law of the World that could enable someone to run and move like the sh. He didn''t find anything at first, so he delved deeper, silencing everything around him.


    Within the center of the world, Rayleigh could not find anything that looked like a Law of Speed, but he did see a glowing goldenw. From his senses, it seemed to be the most powerfulw of them all, stronger than the rest of them put together. Rayleigh could not stop his curiosity and he delved deeper. The otherws around the goldenw faded away, giving away the true form of the most powerfulw in the world. Why did it look like a jacket?


    Rayleigh awoke with a start when he realized that he had not been meditating, he had been dreaming. Without a bed, Rayleigh had not actually slept in over a year, so it wasn''t too surprising that he fell asleep. Still, what a weird dream.


    He was currently on a Marine Ship heading for Marineford. Usually, Mihawk would just take his own boat where he wanted to go, but due to the imminent war, Marineford would not be allowing private vessels anywhere close to the base so they had to be taken there by Marine Ship first. Thankfully, the voyage onlysted a few days. They just had to sail to Enies Lobby and the Tarai Current would take them to Marineford in a few hours.


    Out of morbid curiosity, Rayleigh stayed on deck and use irvoyance as they sailed past Enies Lobby to the Gates of Justice. The main castle-like building at the end of the ind was still in ruins while the rest of the ind looked to be half-way through reconstruction.


    Rayleigh asked one of the Marines on deck, "How did that happen?"


    The Marine in question shook his head, unwilling to say anything, so Rayleigh used Jedi Mind Trick to ask again, "You can tell me, you know I won''t say anything to anyone."


    The Marine looked nk for a moment before looking back at Enies Lobby and sighing. "Well, alright, but don''t tell anyone I told you." It seemed that he really wanted to get it off his chest.


    ording to the Marine, he was stationed there at the time. Two prisoners were being taken from Water Seven to Enies Lobby by sea train and it was during Aqua Laguna, an annual storm that sends a tidal wave at Water Seven. No one sails during Aqua Laguna, so there were no ships or extra men on Enies Lobby. No one expected a second sea train to follow the first one to Enies Lobby carrying a bunch of pirates and ship builders. Each track only had one train after all.


    That was the first problem. The second problem was that, not long after the intruders arrived, the pair of Giant Marines used as guards turned on the rest of the Marines. So not only were they understaffed and at their weakest due to the timing, but they got surprised attacked and their main defenders turned on them. This wrecked their formations. Still, they were eventually able to capture and tie-up all the shipwrights, the giants, and everyone else but the pirates who were on the other side of the ind.


    The Marine didn''t know what happened next, but he did know how it ended. Everyone was ordered to keep it secret since it was aplete disgrace, but it seemed that the one in charge of Enies Lobby identally signaled for a Buster Call on the Marine Base itself. This caused a fleet of ten warships, led by five Vice Admirals, to be sent to Enies Lobby where they would fire their cannons at the ind until nothing was left standing. The captured shipwrights and giants got away while the pirates somehow sailed away, right through the warships.


    Rayleigh asked, "How does everyone know that he did it identally?''


    The Marine looked partially dead inside with shame as he answered, "Because, in addition to identally using the Buster Callmunicator, he then exined himself to his prisoner while identally using the ind-widemunicator, so everyone heard it."


    Rayleigh gaped at the exnation. For some reason, the first term that appeared in his head was Nepo-baby. Rayleigh figured that whoever was in charge must have been extremely ipetent and only got their position because of a parent or two who held an even higher position. He sincerely hoped that such a person would not trouble future generations by having children, unaware of the fact that the prisoner he held at the time had already achieved this feat through the casting of the most powerful DnD Spell, Testicr Torsion.


    After sailing through the Gates of Justice and dropping off supplies at Impel Down, Rayleigh had once again arrived at Marineford.


    Mihawk had his own quarters at Marineford and left without a word. Justice quickly found Rayleigh and said, "Man, you got a tan!"


    Rayleigh nodded. He usually only wore pants while training and the Calm Belt was without storms, so he had been standing in direct sunlight for months and acquired a very light bronze tone that made him stick out less in this worldpared to his previousplexion. Rayleigh didn''t know why, but yers seemed to tan very slowly.


    ording to his Birthday in this world, he had turned eighteen a few months ago so Rayleigh no longer had any remnant of a childish appearance. His sharp features almost looked like Mihawk''s, but Rayleigh kept his face clean-shaven using his sword so hecked the sideburns or beard that gave Mihawk his distinctive look. His brown hair was cut short but left ubed and his brown eyes only lost in sharpness to Mihawk''s own.


    Justice and Goddess of Ice had also turned 18 and both had their own ships, crews, and ranks as Rear-Admirals. They would likely be promoted to Vice Admirals after the war if there was still a Marineford standing.


    Since every yer was born within six months of the World Main Characters, none would be a full year older or younger than the others. Though this inconvenienced some of the Wizard yers since many were a year behind others in school depending on whether they were born a few months after the Wizard MC or not.


    After getting taken away by Justice, Rayleigh asked, "Did you ask the Marines to tell Mihawk to bring me?"


    Justice paused for a moment before answering, "Yeah, I wanted your help since things might really go sideways with all the other yersing over. If you can help stall the other yers with Goddess of Ice and myself, then you won''t have to do anything else but wait for the Marine''s victory."


    Rayleigh stated, "I don''t mind fighting the other yers who show up, but I won''t kill anyone if I don''t want to."


    Justice replied, "I wouldn''t have it any other way. Me and Goddess of Ice haven''t killed anyone yet. For all the bitching that the other yers have against the Marines, we don''t kill our prisoners unless there is no choice. Even Marine Longswords are made purposefully too thick to make themst longer and less lethal."


    "Yeah, but that should only be the case in standard times. This battle will be different."


    Justice nodded and replied back, "Well, no one will say anything if we kill someone during the battle, but I''m good at disabling and Goddess of Ice is good at freezing while keeping them alive, so it won''t be a problem. This battle should have the best of the best of the Haki users of both sides, but they will total less than one percent of everyone, with half of that being the Haki users of the Marines."


    Justice took them to the training barracks and Goddess of Ice was waiting there with an ice sword and an expectant re.


    Rayleigh sighed and raised a finger for the universal sign of ''One Moment.'' He then used Force Muffle and started reciting his Force Code aloud. Thanks to Force Muffle, neither yer could hear him, and a few momentster, a longsword materialized in Rayleigh''s hand while he entered the state of Second Stage Zetsu.


    Justice asked, "What was that and why are you in Zetsu?"


    Rayleigh replied, "This is my training sword. I''ve been using it to practice my Sword skills and Haki."


    Goddess of Ice asked, "So you can''t use Nen?" She didn''t have a Hunter ss but knew what Justice knew of it since he told her everything.


    Rayleigh didn''t answer but walked into the training stage and raised his sword.


    Goddess of Ice vanished and reappeared behind Rayleigh with her sword raised and a confident smirk, but only after passing him did she hear the cracking sound of her Ice Sword shattering.


    Rayleigh replied, "Just because I''m not using Nen doesn''t mean I''m weaker than I was thest time we fought." Rayleigh''s mastery of One with the Swordbined with his possession of Heart of the Sword into what could essentially be called a Sword Domain. As long as you were within his range, he would strike with the most efficient, quickest, and strongest attack. If you were within his range, you had already been cut.


    Goddess of Ice made a new Ice sword that quickly became jet ck and charged again using Shave to clear the distance. Her Haki saturated sword met Rayleigh''s Haki saturated sword and the pressure from each met a half meter from one another, stopping the des from making contact. A momentter, Rayleigh sliced through her pressure and stepped forward. She could move the world with her Will, but the world she moved was not being led by her specialty.


    Rayleigh stated, "Let me show you something," and the ck sheen of his sword vanished. He moved with the same speed and strength against Goddess of Ice and her Haki infused Ice Sword seemed to best Rayleigh for a moment, but then he powered through, erupting in strength. She moved to deflect the blow and strike back, but her own attack was caught and slowed to a halt in a matter she found quite familiar.


    In this way, Rayleigh sparred with her for ten more minutes only using the Law of Ice. By the end, Goddess of Ice had figured out what Rayleigh was doing and asked, "How can you do that?"


    Justice asked, "What did he do?"


    She answered, "His sword felt colder than mine did. It felt more like ice than my sword did."


    This reply left Justice stumped with more questions than answers.


    Rayleigh exined, "I just moved my sword like freezing ice. Did you know that pure, still water can be super-chilled to below freezing without getting frozen? But when super-chilled water gets disturbed or mixed with something, it freezes rapidly with unstoppable force, almost like an explosion."


    From what he observed, Rayleigh could tell that the effect of the Chilly Chilly Fruit made water think it was super-chilled and then caused it to instantly freeze. So it wasn''t actually the power of Ice, but the power of cold. Rayleigh figured out how such an effect would look as a sword style and showed it off to Goddess of Ice to help her understand her own element a little better.


    Seeing that this was something that could help her, Goddess of Ice continued their spar, but no longer used Haki. She simply tried to digest the sword form that Rayleigh had made up on the spot.


    An hourter, an old Marine with a walking cane entered the training area. It was not someone any of the yers were familiar with but he wore a Commodore''s outfit and would not have entered their private training room without a reason. The old man seemed feeble enough to drop dead any moment and peered through his sses for a few moments before spotting Rayleigh. "Ah yes, you. Please follow me to your quarters."


    Rayleigh looked over to Justice who shrugged.


    Not seeing anything particrly suspicious about it, Rayleigh exited Zetsu which caused his sword to disperse, and walked over to the old man who started to slowly hobble out of the training hall. Justice and Goddess of Ice followed since they had nothing better to do than see where Rayleigh would be staying until the execution.


    Rayleigh caught the man''s hand a momentter when he tried to touch Rayleigh''s face. Rayleigh smiled and said, "Entering Zetsu is fine, but that variation of Force Stealth does not hide your presence in the Force, it just makes you harder to notice by those without a strong presence in the Force."


    The old man sighed and pped his other hand on his own cheek. Once he made contact, his form shifted to a youth of their own age.


    Rayleigh let the yer''s other hand go and asked, "Mimic, I presume?"


    Justice eximed, "You''re Mimic! How long have you been here?!" Mimic was something of a pseudo-legend among the yers as everyone had heard of him but no one had ever seen him. He also had the most up-to-date info on the World Government and the information he freely shared about them helped many of the yers.


    Rather than answer, Mimic looked over Rayleigh again and replied, "I''m curious how you were able topletely hide your own Force presence while fighting her. I haven''t figured out that trick yet."


    "Ah, that''s not hiding my presence, that''s cutting it offpletely. If every Force user is an antenna, you simply changed the frequency of your broadcast while I shut off the power."


    "What?! But that means you have to give up all your Force Powers!" He honestly could not believe someone would take such a risky step. Without Force powers, life saving skills like Danger Sense didn''t work.


    "That''s right, and it makes Haki so much easier to learn."


    Tired of being ignored, Justice ran over and shouted, "Hey! I asked you a question!"


    Mimic looked over at Justice and said, "I''m a CP9 Agent, I don''t need to answer your questions. But I will if you ask nicely."


    Goddess of Ice asked, "Were you the one who touched my face a few years ago?"


    Mimic tapped his face with one hand, turning into a duplicate of Goddess of Ice. What was interesting was that this duplicate was the same age.


    Rayleigh asked, "Is it always the same age?"


    Mimic changed back and shook his head, "No, but I don''t need to touch a face to update an existing one, any skin contact will do for an update. In any case, I came here for two reasons. One, I wanted to see if I could get a copy of you. Two, I also wanted to thank you."


    "Well, that''s direct. What did you want to thank me for?"


    Mimic changed back to Goddess of Ice and a momentter, an Ice Sword formed in her hand.


    Justice eximed, "You copied her Devil fruit too?!"


    Mimic changed back and shook his head. "Not exactly. You see, after hearing your theory on how Devil Fruits make up thews of the world, I started my own investigation and came to a few conclusions. As a thank you for telling me what you discovered, I wanted to tell you what I discovered in turn."


    "Oh? What did you find out?" Although Rayleigh could make his sword cold, he could not just make a Sword of Ice as easily as Mimic had using Haki alone.


    Mimic continued, "If we''re going to use Cultivation Terms, then you could say that each Devil Fruit grants power over a certainw, but that is only half of what it does. Each Devil Fruit also grants the user the Physique most capable of using that Law. Before realizing this, even if I copied a Logia User, I could not use the power of a Logia Fruit. But now I can. I can copy the Physique of a Devil Fruit User and activate it using the Law associated with that Devil Fruit."


    Goddess of Ice asked, "You mean like Heavenly Ice Physique or Pure Yin Physique, that sort of thing?"


    Mimic nodded to the politely asked question and continued, "Yes. Without that physique, even if you master the Law of Ice, you cannot recover your body from Ice like she can because youck the innate physique to do so. And I also think I understand the main difference between us and the Warrior, Ninjas, and Wizards. Again, using Cultivation terms, our sses cultivate the Dao while they are Body Cultivators."


    Rayleigh asked, "So you think that they can continually remake and reforge their bodies while we can obtain the power of the world?"


    "That would make the most sense, wouldn''t it? Body Cultivators are usually much stronger in Light Novels." He then stared at Rayleigh for a moment before adding, "Behind Sword Cultivators of course. In any case, I have paid off my own debt to you, goodbye."


    He then turned to leave, with Justice saying, "Creepy bastard. At least we know what he looks like now."


    Rayleigh gave Justice a skeptical look and asked, "Do you really think that was his actual appearance just now?"


    Justice looked stunned for a moment. Trying to change the subject, he pointed out, "Wait, so who is going to show you where you''re going to stay?"


    The three remained silent at the question. This was awkward.


    A few days passed and the mood around Marineford got tenser and tenser.


    The day of the execution arrived and the Pirate Chatroom was surprisingly quiet. It was obvious that many ns were to be set in motion this day and the yers responsible did not want those ns advertised. Rayleigh even felt a small threat to his own lifeing, but it wasn''t enough to concern him.


    Three hours before the execution, the prisoner, a young man with ck hair and freckles, was brought to the newly built execution tform. The whole of the inner part of Marineford was arranged like ayered cake with the Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Vice Admiral Garp, the prisoner, and two armed guards set on the top of the tform. Below the tform stood the three Admirals, Kizaru, Aokiji, and Akainu. Below them were the Seven Warlords, or at least five of them. Crocodile and the Fishman Jinbei were missing. Below them were lines of Vice Admirals, and the lowestyer below that, standing in front of the harbor to Marineford, were one hundred thousand Marines.


    Of the group, the one who attracted the most eyes was the Warlord Boa Hancock. She had pale, wless skin, ebony ck, perfectly straight hair, and arge snake at her side that had curled itself into a standing chair for her. In addition to being ridiculously beautiful, the woman radiated pure SIMP aura, turning any lesser man who looked upon her or got too close into her SIMP. Rayleigh had not seen such a phenomenon before and figured it must have been the woman''s Devil Fruit. Without it, she would have just been an attractive woman who could probably ce 2nd or 3rd in a major Beauty Pageant at most, but with it, she seemed to be the most beautiful woman alive.


    That said, the effect was close to zero on him. Rayleigh effectively spent his puberty doing the harshest training, so the discipline he forged kept his mind and hormones where they needed to be. He recognized the effect in the same way he recognized that ice was cold, but that didn''t mean he felt cold. Still, it was best not to look down on her. For all he knew, that was just her passive SIMP aura and she could magnify it a hundred million fold, making everyone around her unable to think of her as anything but a Goddess descended to Earth who must be worshiped, adored, and obeyed. That was very unlikely, but Rayleigh would rather over-estimate her than get caught off-guard.


    The other Warlords each had their own unique quirks. The man called Domingo had sharp sunsses, wore a coat with pink feathers, and had a malicious smile of enjoyment at the fear the Marines were showing. For some reason, he kept one leg in the air.


    The man the yers referred to as a Robot Bear had a massive frame and chest, but oddly skinny legs and arms.


    The one called Gecko Moria looked even less human than Robot Bear, he was way taller, had purple skin, two horns on his head, and vertical stitches down his chest.


    And then there was Mihawk, just standing there being his usual badass self with his arms crossed, overlooking the scene that would soon fall into carnage.


    After looking them all over again, Rayleigh realized that each of the Warlords seemed to be associated with an Animal, either in name or appearance. Crocodile, Shark, Snake, mingo, Bear, Gecko, and Hawk.


    At the moment, Rayleigh did not have his sword. Keeping his Empty Sword out left him defenseless while keeping out the Sword of Babylon required way too much aura since it could only be used when using both Babylon and Overdrive. He didn''t know when the fighting would start or how long it wouldst, so he had to save his reserves for the moment.


    It wouldn''t matter though. Even without the sword, Rayleigh could use Overdrive to boost his speed, transform his aura into sharpened sword aura, and fight using martial arts and boxing. No need to go all-out until there was something to actually fight.


    Rayleigh, Goddess of Ice, and Justice actually stood on the third level, where the Vice Admirals were standing, but instead of being in front of the execution tform, they were standing closer to the sides.


    Once everyone was standing in their positions, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, a man with round-rim sses and a thick ck afro took out amunication snail and started speaking into it.


    "Gentlemen, I have something to tell you. Portgas D Ace. This man will die here today. And there is great meaning in that death."


    Since the execution should not be starting for three hours, Rayleigh figured that they either intended to make a long show of it, or they were scheming something.


    Sengoku ced the littlemunication snail next to the prisoner and ordered, "Ace, say the name of your father!"


    Not only were there speakers around the whole of Marineford, but there were also TV-Snails and this picture was being broadcast, live, to some areas while other areas got the audio from Radio-Snails.


    Ace shouted in protest, "My father is Whitebeard!"


    Sengoku argued back, "No!"


    The man bearing the tattoo of Whitebeard on his back dered, "It''s true! The only father I have is Whitebeard! Nobody else!"


    The Fleet Admiral seemed to give up convincing him and entered story mode. He told the world, "A long time ago, we were desperately searching. Because on some ind, somewhere, that man''s child might be alive. Cipher Pol could only give us the smallest bit of information. So we checked all the newborn children who were born soon after, as well as their mothers, and still we found nothing."


    "That should have been it... But your mother gave her life for your birth, using sheer willpower to perform a trick. She deceived us, no. She deceived the entire world! In the South Blue, there''s an ind by the name of Batelira. Your mother''s name was Portgas D. Rouge. We never imagined what she was capable of. Out of love for her child. She carried him in her womb for twenty months. And when she gave birth, her strength finally gave out and she died right there."


    "One year and three months had passed since the father died. A child born with the blood of the world''s greatest viin running through his veins. That child was you. There''s no way that you don''t know! Your father... Was the Pirate King! Gol D. Roger!"


    Rayleigh thought to himself, ''Well, I''m sure this won''t end badly at all.''


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry, no war yet. I was able to release so many chapters back-to-back because I basically had a backlog of ideas I wrote during the hiatus period all the way up to the war. But now my reserves are dry and I have to go back to drawing the plot from that strange ce in the back of my head I get all my stories from.


    I got most of the nning done this week so now I just need to hash out the rest of it over next week so it shoulde next weekend. I''d like to do it earlier, but my job changed my schedule to something insane for a training period that willst a week and a half, so I don''t have time to write over the weekdays like I usually do.


    Now, before Imit to anything, if anyone has ideas they want to see in the war, feel free to make suggestions.

 Chapter 74: The Whitebeard Pirates

    Chapter 74: The Whitebeard Pirates


    Chapter 74 The Whitebeard Pirates


    The atmosphere of the whole of Marineford was struck with an oppressive silence following the Fleet Admiral''s announcement of Ace''s lineage. Shock and awe radiated from the assembled army of Marines and even from some of the gathered guests.


    A few parties from the Seven Warlords seemed intrigued by the revtion and their anticipation of theing chaos only deepened.


    Rayleigh nced over at Justice and Goddess of Ice, noticing that they were trying to hide some of the shame they were feeling. They, just like every other yer and man ofmon sense, were easily able to read between the lines. Would the Marines patiently wait for every pregnant woman to have their kid and do a DNA test to confirm it wasn''t his?


    It was obvious that the Marines had killed every pregnant woman and newborn child and since they didn''t even get the right one, it meant that they had killed numerous innocent lives for literally no reason at all.


    After he took a moment for the tension to rise, the Fleet Admiral continued, "Was it two years now? You took your mother''s name. As the Captain of the Spade Pirates you ascended through the pirate world with your superior strength and we finally noticed that Roger''s blood had survived. But Whitebeard realized it at the same time we did. In order to raise you to be the next Pirate King, he took in his former rival''s son onto his own ship!"


    Ace shouted in rebuttal, "No! I joined his crew to make Whitebeard the next Pirate King!"


    The Fleet Admiral shot down, "You''re the only one who thinks that. We couldn''t take any rash action against you because you were protected by Whitebeard! If we left you alone, slowly but surely, you would start to gain the qualities to stand at the summit of the Pirate World! That''s why there is so much meaning in cutting you down today! Even if it means total war with Whitebeard!"


    Rayleigh could not help but ask a certain question in the Chat Room.[Swordsman: So does anyone n on saving Ace?]


    [Justice: Wait, are you really gonna help the Pirates?]


    [Swordsman: I have yet to hear a crime he hasmitted other than being a pirate. Is that alone worth execution to you?]


    [Dragon Chef: He''s right. Ace can''t inherit Roger''s crimes since Roger was already executed for his crimes. And executing him for something he hasn''t done yet is even more pointless. I''d get him out of there myself, but Titan got me in our match so it''s up to him now.]


    [Titan: Don''t worry, I''ll save him. Whitebeard ns to die today so I''m gonna try and take in as much of his crew as possible.]


    [Captain Jack: Don''t worry, if he does die, I''ll destroy the entirety of Marineford and every Marine in it.]


    [Goddess of Ice: You wouldn''t dare!]


    [Captain Jack: If you don''t want to find out, then you''d better make sure Ace sessfully escapes. The party is about to start.]


    As if on cue, a panicked Marine ran up to the execution tform and shouted to Sengoku, "Fleet Admiral Sengoku! We have a report! The Gates of Justice have begun to open without anybody''s orders! We can''t contact the control room!"


    The Fleet Admiral ordered to the assembled army, "Here theye! All men to your battle stations!"


    Rayleigh looked past the open space that led into Marineford''s inner harbor and saw dozens of irregr ships, all with a variation of the Jolly Roger on their forward g.


    Every g was recognizable and many of the gathered Marines started listing off the gs and crews they knew while shouting for orders so they would know what to do. The problem was that Whitebeard''s pirate vessel did not seem to be leading the pirate fleet. He definitely had to be there, so where was he? The Marines in charge couldn''t decide what to do before they found him.


    Luckily, or unluckily depending on how one perceived it, they did not have to look for long as bubbles started surging up from the center of Marineford''s inner harbor. With a massive surge of water, three massive ships and a fourth that was evenrger rose from beneath the water''s surface.


    None of the ships looked part-submarine which meant they used a different method to sail beneath the Marine''s sight before breaching the water''s surface. Rayleigh figured they used bubbles.


    Marineford was very close to Sabaody Archipgo, a ce that had massive trees which produced a soap bubble-like resin. This resin could be used to coat ships, allowing them to go underwater, but the bubbles popped if you were too far from Sabaody and the resin-saturated water, so this was the only ce that such a tactic could be easily used.


    Thergest of the four ships was carved to look like a massive white whale and appropriately named the Moby Dick. On the sculpted head of the deck, in in view, was another of the strange humans with impossible body proportions. Standing over three times taller than a normal human adult was the heavily muscr titan known as the world''s strongest man, Edward Newgate, also known as Whitebeard.


    The man did not shout but his voice carried throughout the venue. "My beloved son had better be unharmed." His eyes locked on Ace''s position and he chuckled. "You wait right there Ace."


    After announcing himself to Ace, Whitebeard then announced himself to the Marines. With his fists.


    Whitebeard smashed the air on both sides of him. The sound of cracking was noticed before the actual cracks in the air became visible. It was like a pane of very thick ss was around the old man and had just been smashed and the spiderweb of cracks just hung in the air, rtive to the man''s position on the swaying ship.


    Rayleigh''s expanded senses noticed the invisible shockwaves from the cracks that propagated out and down. Momentster, a dull sound inaudible to humans reverberated beneath their feet. It was something that happened prior to earthquakes, the vibrations of seismic tes shifting against each other. Whitebeard''s fists had caused the earth beneath the sea floor some distance from Marineford to crack and shift, causing an earthquake.


    From the tform, Ace mumbled a few things before shouting, "Why couldn''t you guys have just forgotten about me?! It''s my own fault I ended up like this!"


    Whitebeard seemed to have no problem lying aloud, "No. As I recall, it was I who told you to go after him, my son."


    Therge old man ignored Ace pointing out his lies and continued, "I told him to go, right Marco?"


    Behind him, one of the few Division Commanders with a normal body shape, Marco the Phoenix, confirmed aloud, "Indeed, I heard it with my own ears. We''re sorry for putting you through this trouble, Ace."


    He then gave a speech about how they were here to send a message about what happens to those who touch the crew of Whitebeard.


    A momentter, the physical reverberations of the earthquake Whitebeard created were felt by all in Marineford. Windows and foundations cracked and hundreds of soldiers toppled over from the intense shaking. Those with a bit of experience knew that the shaking was only a prelude to the true consequence of Whitebeard''s previous action.


    The water that had been jutted up from the seaquake had flowed toward Marineford and now created two massive tidal waves, both taller than an 80-story skyscraper. If nothing was done, Marineford and everyone within would be underwater in another twenty seconds.


    Aokiji moved quickly, using Moonwalk to gain altitude, and froze a line of ice from his hands to both waves. The moment the lines of ice extending from his palms reached the waves, they seemed to instantly freeze. Aokiji then tried sendingnces of ice at Whitebeard but the attacks were shattered with a wave of his hand, causing Aokiji to fall toward the water of the inner harbor. The moment he touched the surface, Aokiji sh froze the water, preventing the ships from getting closer and stopping further ships from entering the inner harbor.


    The inner harbor of the Marineford had hundreds of defenses and once the ships were rendered immobile, every cannon started opening fire to destroy the ships and kill the pirates within.


    Whitebeard''s crew had no intention of remaining sitting ducks so many vigorouslyunched themselves into the fray, leaping off the ships onto the ice to rush into the harbor on foot. Others stayed on the ships and used their own cannons to attack Marineford from within.


    The Vice Admirals stood in front of themon cannon-fodder Marines at the head of the harbor to take the first wave and push them back while the Marines used their rifles to fire shot after shot, trying to thin the numbers.


    Rayleigh''s attention turned to the side when Mihawk took a step forward and gripped his de. After locking eyes with Whitebeard, Mihawk shed down, sending a flying sh in Whitebeard''s direction.


    Rayleigh did not know why, but Mihawk''s sh did not contain any Conqueror''s Haki. His own flows did notmand the flow of the world to move forward. Was he hiding it from the Marines or was he just beingzy?


    In either case, the sh was halted before it reached the ship by a man only a little smaller than Whitebeard. The shine that reflected off the man''s body was something Rayleigh recognized as the effect of the same Devil Fruit as the yer Glitter, the fruit that allowed a person to turn their body into diamond.


    Normal diamond should still have been split, even with Mihawk''szy sh, but the Diamond-bodied divisionmander likely used Haki on top of his ability, granting him an invincible level of defense.


    Kizaru the Light Logia user tried attacking with rapid firesers but those were blocked by Division Commander Marco who turned into a ming phoenix to take the attack while ignoring damage, something his Mythical Zoan fruit was capable of.


    A half dozen Vice-Admirals, all members of the Giant race, were called forward to crush the pirates when the diamond guy performed the Ultimate Tatami Mat Flip.


    As in, he reached into the crack that Mihawk''s sh made into the ice, grabbed the entire ice chunk between him and the harbor, and tossed it at the execution tform. Those who blinked and missed it realized toote that a massive ice block had been yeeted toward the center of the Marine formation.


    Rayleigh turned to ask Justice, "Can you do that?"


    All of Rayleigh''s Nen-enhanced weights at the same time weighed about 2.56 million kilograms. Though he used it for speed training, not weight lifting training. Without using Nen or the Force, he was confident that he could lift ten to twenty times that pretty well. But that ice block soaring through the air had to weigh at least 300 million kilograms, well over a hundred times what Rayleigh used. And it hadn''t been simply lifted, it had been Yeeted at least the length of two football fields in distance and ten stories in height.


    Akainu used a Magma fist to block and evaporate the ice into steam. The fist then continued forward and broke into pieces, raining fireballs of magma down on all the pirates and the four pirate ships.


    Justice confidently answered, "Of course I can, who do you take me for? I''m definitely the strongest yer."


    Justice had stored years worth of Sunlight converted Nen within his body and when used, could likely exhibit more power than any other yer than did not walk down a simr path.


    Rayleigh started walking forward and Goddess of Ice called out, "Whose side are you on right now?"


    Rayleigh answered, "I''m gonna y with the Pirates at the moment. After that, we''ll see."


    After confirming that he would not be harming the Marines, Justice and Goddess of Ice nodded to each other and jumped into the fight as well.


    Rayleigh had to consciously regte his breathing and heart rate, for both were threatening to go out of control. Never before had he needed to exercise so much self-restraint, but looking at the battle ying out before him, he couldn''t help it. This was what he had been looking forward to his entire life. This was what all that murderous training had been for. It was all he could do to not just rush off into the fold.


    Oh, he was going to, but certain things had to be done first. He had a checklist and everything.


    First, he had to divide thebat zones into regions and determine which was appropriate, how much time would it take to wipe out every pirate within, and how the pirates around that region would react.


    Honestly, the main reason he was going after the Pirates rather than the Marine was that thetter wasn''t worth it. The Vice Admirals, with one exception, weren''t a challenge, the giants among the Marines didn''t have decentbat standards, and the Admirals were too busy ying with the Whitebeard Division Commanders.


    Before Rayleigh could make a decision, a figure Rayleigh could only think of as a Giant-Giant emerged from the water at the far end of the pirate fleet. When this creature stood upright, the seawater only came up to his knees. Marine ships opened fire on the human-form godzi but the behemoth grabbed one of the Marine ships, lifted it out of the water, and proceeded to use it as a club to smash the other Marine ships.


    As he walked forward, the fleet of pirate ships started lining up behind him as he made a path through the blockade of Marine ships toward the entrance to the inner harbor. At the moment, only pirates from the four ships within the inner harbor were fighting with the Marines, but if the blockade was broken, tens of thousands of other pirates would swarm into the base and the delicate bnce would shatter in the pirate''s favor.


    "HEY SWORDSMAN!" A familiar shout, something Rayleigh figured was meant for him, echoed through the space. The same voice then shouted at the giant-giant, "Have you ever been punched at the speed of light?" The source of the voice then turned into a mass of light that shot from the ground directly at the face of the giant-giant. Justice re-materialized at thest moment as a thud and crack could be heard from on high. Those who turned up to look had their jaws drop as the giant-giant was lifted into the air and backwards. His flying figure sailed over the fleet of Marine ships and all the way back to the pirate ships where he crashed into one of them and made arge wave that disrupted the others.


    The giant-giant sunk into the water for a moment before he floated back up, his form unmoving.


    Justice had used the rebound from the punch to jump back to the shore and shouted, "Who''s next?!" Those capable of seeing Haki would also be able to see the sun-like glow of blinding aura around him.


    Rayleigh smirked. The giant-giant was definitely bigger than that ice block and that yeet was much further than the diamond dude''s, so that confirmed that Justice wasn''tpletely filled with hot air.


    At least Rayleigh had finished analyzing thebat regions. Besides paying close attention to the Division Commanders, he also needed to pay attention to the Warlords as they had no problem with friendly fire. Boa Hancock even seemed to take out as many Marines as she did Pirates.


    Rayleigh vanished from his position and reappeared over a fallen Marine, picking up his sword. He used En, irvoyance, and Danger Sense to cover his bases and find where the Marines were being the most overwhelmed and started shing swords.


    Rayleigh was not wearing a Marine Uniform, but he was wearing a ck suit with a tie that he requested from a Marine tailor. He had no intention of going into battle bare-chested or wearing samurai robes. Since he wore a clean suit and used a Marine-issued sword, no one questioned which side he was fighting for.


    At least at first.


    Rayleigh found a pirate and lightly shed the man''s side, shoulder, and forearm, causing him to drop his sword. Before it reached the ground, Rayleigh struck the man''s shatterpoint to knock him out, grabbed the pirate, and yeeted him into an open space near one of the pirate ships. Rayleigh then nabbed the pirate''s sword and started attacking another pirate.


    Seeing a ''Marine'' steal a pirate''s sword had the other pirate fuming and caused him to viciously fight back.


    Said pirate faltered when he realized that his thieving opponent was using the exact sword style of the man he had just taken that sword from.


    Once Rayleigh finished digesting the experience of the sword using Psychometry andbat, he quickly sped up, disarmed his opponent, knocked him out, yeeted him where the other one was, and took his sword next.


    In three minutes, he had defeated ten pirates and a pile of defeated pirates was already forming where he had been yeeting them all.


    Yes, Rayleigh was in a mood to yeet things. It happens to the best of us.


    Five sword-using pirates were already surrounding him with two more trying to shoot him but Rayleigh didn''t even consider this fair. These were low level guys and Rayleigh was just using them for a warm-up until the real fun started.


    The sound of shouting and screaming announced the arrival of new guests.


    Over one hundred Sea Kings started attacking the Marine ships outside. The Giant-Giant was still out cold but the path to the inner harbor was being widened by the sea kings.


    This meant that the yers who were not already hanging around Marineford had arrived.


    While keeping a few Wills on standby to watch for yers, Rayleigh continued adding to his repertoire ofbat experience while warming up. Most of the irregrly sized pirates had equally irregr swords, but Rayleigh''s physical strength was far above his size. Not as strong as that diamond guy, but none of his opponents were divisionmanders, so that wasn''t a problem and Rayleigh quickly got used to each of therge des he used and digested each of their experiences in the heat of battle.


    Some swords looked like over-sized cusses, others like giant cleavers. A few pirates used two swords and Rayleigh would disarm them both, yeet the fellow into the pile, and use both at the same time to digest that pirate''s style, adding it to the list.


    His irvoyance could cover the entirety of Marineford and he witnessed many things. Kizaru was faking an injury near the execution tform but was actually on standby in case it was needed. Akainu was standing near the western residential district of Marineford, killing any pirate who tried to leave the battle area. He also killed a few Marines that tried to run away.


    Aokiji seemed to be discussing various things with some captains, likely plotting something.


    Several of his Wills then detected a change in the flow of the world. Something wasing. The sound of screaming from above made Rayleigh raise an eyebrow.


    A ship was falling from the sky. Well, from the top of the new cier that stood over Marineford. On it were clearly pirates, prisoners, one pervert with a veryrge head, and someone Rayleigh recognized from his wanted poster. Monkey D Luffy.


    By either coincidence or plot armor, the ship fell into the segment of the inner harbor where the Diamond Guy had yeeted away the ice, meaning that the shipnded into the rtively soft patch of water rather than the hard sheet of ice.


    Most of the pirates onboard swam to the nearest shore while others were dragged or thrown from the water. Rayleigh guessed that they were devil fruit users.


    Rayleigh got a very good look at Luffy and sighed. He was pretty sure what he was seeing was not normal.


    Rayleigh did not know if it was because of the method he used to awaken his Observation Haki or if it was due to the interaction between his Force senses and his Observation Haki, but he was 100% certain that he could feel things using it that others could not. Or maybe they did notice it, but could not define or recognize it.


    The flow of the world circled Luffy almost lovingly. Did he eat the Human Human Fruit Model: Main Character? Was that how Plot Armor worked?


    Rayleigh only had to wonder what he was doing here for a moment before Luffy shouted, "Ace! I finally found you!"


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes. Of course, the soon-to-be executed, son of the pirate king, person who had not actuallymitted any egregious crimes, was close to the Main Character. This battle would determine the future of the world. Of course, the Main Character should fall from the sky and end up in the heart of it.


    Rayleigh also felt some Force presences sneak into the group from the sea, near where the Sea Kings were wreaking havoc. Some entered the fight against the Marines while others snuck deeper into Marineford.


    Goddess of Ice stationed herself outside and froze the water surrounding Marineford after getting the Marine vessels to point their cannons at the Marine ships. This stopped the Marine ships outside from getting through via ship and sealed the water''s surface to block the sea kings from enteringbat without breaking the ice.


    Like the Pirates inside, the pirates outside thought to jump off the ships and charge forward, but Justice stayed at Goddess of Ice''s side and rained rapid-fire light shots faster than the Pirates could charge forward. These two essentially halted the 43 Whitebeard ships outside, preventing the inner fleet from receiving any reinforcements.


    Some Giant Marines and one sandy pirate tried to attack Whitebeard but the former were crushed by Whitebeard and thetter was stopped by Luffy who then took a moment to chat with Whitebeard before bouncing off in the direction of the execution tform.


    Rayleigh kept a Will using irvoyance on Luffy and the world seemed to move to assist his every step. This was worth paying attention to because Rayleigh learned more about the flow of the world and because there was a lot of coteral damage from those attacking Luffy and Rayleigh intended to avoid it.


    Like Kizaru shooting aser at Luffy. Luffy was pushed out of the way by the wink of therge-headed pervert, but the st from theser was like that of a hundred grenades. Rayleigh was far enough away to be fine, but he wore his Mandalorian Melee Shield and would activate it if that kind of explosion got too close. His body didn''t need the protection, but his new clothes did.


    Ace shouted at Luffy to run away and get out of there, but Luffy shouted back, "I''m your brother!"


    At this announcement, Fleet Admiral Sengoku got back on the transponder Snail and reported that Luffy, "Is the flesh and blood son of the Revolutionary Dragon."


    The pile of defeated pirates had grown quiterge at this point and Rayleigh was looking for either a Swordmaster or a Devil Fruit user. Even among the Division Commanders, there weren''t a lot of Devil Fruit users.


    The problem of who to challenge solved itself though when he noticed the screams of Marines. The pirates in prisoner getups from the fallen ship happily joined the fight and many of them were very strong. They were also very excited to torture and kill Marines so it didn''t take long for a new pile to start forming near an open space next to where that weak, red-nosed pirate had been shouting at Whitebeard from.


    At one point Mihawk yed with Luffy, seemingly intent on testing Luffy''s Plot Armor to see if he would survive. One slice that Luffy dodged split the frozen tidal wave horizontally, causing it to slide forward and into the Marine ships outside the walls of Marineford.


    What stopped Mihawk''s game was the Division Commander named Vista, someone Rayleigh had been wanting to fight after warming up, but it seemed that Mihawk had gotten him first. That wasn''t fair.


    Seeing his chosen target taken by his teacher, Rayleigh couldn''t see another Swordmaster among the Whitebeard Pirates so he decided to fight that Diamond Guy and see if he could cut through his Shatterpoint and break him, something even Mihawk had not done with his less-than-serious sh.


    The Diamond guy was fighting a Sand Logia user who also seemed to be a pirate. From the context of their shouting, the sand guy wanted to kill Whitebeard and the Diamond dude was getting in his way. That meant the sand guy would not mind in the slightest if Rayleigh took his dance partner for himself.


    Or at least that had been the n.


    Rayleigh waved a hand to the side to send the fired explosivesing toward him back to their senders.


    The pair of figures took the impacts point nk without dodging, causing a deafening explosion Rayleigh used a bit of Force Muffle to shield himself from to prevent hearing loss.


    Once the smoke cleared, Rayleigh spotted the pair of yers. One he recognized, the other he did not. Neither had the slightest bit of damage from the explosion.


    Dyna Might shouted, "I''ve got a score to settle with you, Swordsman."


    Rayleigh ignored the bombastic idiot and addressed thedy at his side, "And why are you here? Have we met?" The pale-skinned yer had short, white hair and wore sunsses. She was a bit taller than Dyna Might who was stockier.


    Thedy answered, "No, this is our first meeting, but I''m here on business. You remember Enigma, right?"


    "The guy who got in my way during the Chimera Ant thing? Yeah. What about him?"


    "Well, he made a new character after Hisoka killed his first one and made a little deal with me. If I kill you, he swore to be my subordinate."


    Rayleigh asked, "And is that price worth it? Is the power of a guy who had to start over worth making an enemy of me?"


    "Well, it''s worth an attempt at least. His potential is quite high."


    Rayleigh shook his head. He guessed that this girl was also a 20-Talent yer and knew that Enigma was as well. A 20-Talent yer with another 20-Talent yer as a minion would have an excellent advantage against others when the yers started fighting each other in the future.


    Too bad she had to target him. He wondered how she would feel when she figured out how much she lost from this deal.


    Rayleigh raised his sword into a defensive posture and said, "Ladies first."


    She smiled and raised her hand. From it, her aura expanded faster than a bullet, something Rayleigh detected using Force Danger Sense and calcting the future through the senses he felt using Observation Haki. Rayleigh vanished from his position and reappeared, sword swinging.


    Rayleigh didn''t intend to cut off her head. Her arm would do just fine as a test to see if this Hunter had the right to hunt him.


    The moment Rayleigh''s borrowed sword made contact with her aura, the aura started propagating itself, expanding endlessly. Rayleigh pushed his Haki-infused, Nen-coated sword further, but the closer to her skin the sword got, the greater the degree of expansion of her aura, pushing the sword away.


    Rayleigh''s danger sense went into over-drive and before Rayleigh could remove the sword, her aura expanded out like a battering ram,unching Rayleigh into the hull of one of Whitebeard''s ships, neatly nting him into it.


    All of Rayleigh''s Wills analyzed what happened and arrived at the same conclusion. Gojo Satoru. This girl made a Gojo Satoru build. And she was here to kill him. Rayleigh couldn''t help but smile.


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry that took a while. I really didn''t want to just do what everyone else did but then I had to figure out what to do and then make sure I''m not just doing something that everyone else does. I eventually decided to Go Big or Go Home, so there will be stuff that has never been in this fight in other fanfics. I also had to decide how the yers would act and how the consequences of Rayleigh''s actions would be realistically implemented. Would a snotty, entitled teen put a bounty on another yer? Yes. Yes he would. Especially if he doesn''t know how strong said yer actually is.


    I finally figured out a timeline for how everything will go down and how to write it. It did take longer than I thought it would, but at least it will be good.

 Chapter 75: The Battle of Marineford

    Chapter 75: The Battle of Marineford


    Chapter 75 The Battle of Marineford


    Before removing himself from the side of the ship, Rayleigh said aloud, "Open, Babylon."


    With that, his En expanded further and seamlessly merged with his other sense-enhancing systems. Thanks to this, he sensed the next attack before it came and removed himself from the ship''s hull an instant before the Gojo yer appeared in front of him with a palm-thrusting gesture.


    The future he saw of that palm pressing him through the ship and destroying that ship changed the moment he removed himself as she stopped the motion of the attack he would have dodged and readjusted the attack as fast as he moved to dodge it. The aim of her attack updated almost the instant he moved, but there was a tiny dy. He didn''t care what her build was, if she could keep up with him, his years of training speed would have been for nothing.


    Rayleigh continued dodging future attacks while analyzing the Gojo yer''s capabilities. He needed to disrupt her movement so he asked aloud, "What''s your name? Honored One? Heaven''s Chosen? Number One Under Heaven? Limitless? Untouchable?"


    Although Rayleigh used his modified version of Shave to gain distance, the Gojo yer reduced the space between them while expanding the space behind her to catch up almost instantaneously and when he tried going very far from her, she disyed the ability to directly skip the distance and teleport.


    To anyone watching the pair, they appeared to flicker in and out of visual range over and over.


    Seeing that she didn''t answer, Rayleigh taunted, "Are you not confident in your ability to hold a conversation? Are you a Neet or Keyboard Warrior who fears face-to-face conversations?"


    Still nothing. He wondered if silence was a requirement for her Hatsu, but that was a rather silly requirement. It was more likely that she knew of many abilities that required conversation to initiate and refrained from speaking to prevent their activation. But didn''t that mean shecked confidence in countering some abilities? If shecked confidence, she was not invincible, so there were certainly many ways to beat her.The first and most obvious was to exhaust her. It was clear that her techniques all required more Aura than his own did. Rayleigh used Aura to boost his speed, but she directly used it to move and attack. She had far more aura than he did due to being a 20-Talent Hunter yer, but it should not be inexhaustible. Rayleigh did notice that the expanded aura she emitted could be reabsorbed into her body if she remained in the same location, so he dragged her along the battlefield to ensure she was unable to recycle the used aura.


    Still, he didn''t know how long it would take her to exhaust her reserves, and fighting like that wasn''t exciting. If she was a real threat, he might be forced to fight in such an unsavory way, but she was looking down on him too much and she was not capable of killing him. Not that she knew it yet.


    After getting a feel for her style, Rayleigh stopped dodging and went on the attack. The instant the distance between them was shortened, it felt like multiple battering rams were shot in his direction.


    Rayleigh used abination of the Force, Haki, and K¨­ to strike the battering rams of expanding aura and partially deflect them, allowing him to get closer at the cost of a small injury. His Sh¨± and Haki coated his borrowed sword and sliced at the silent Gojo''s shoulder with enough force to split her diagonally, but the expanding force of aura had no problem expanding more and more as his weapon drew closer to her skin. His attack slid off and an unblockable force struck his chest, cracking some ribs and sending him all the way to the wall of the inner harbor.


    Before Rayleigh could remove himself from the wall, she reappeared and thrust out with another palm strike. However, the attack was deflected using Rayleigh''s telekinesis and only cracked the wall next to him, something that helped him get loose. Another sword swing was deflected by her expanding aura which was followed up by another st of expanding aura. He tried to dodge it but it was like a wall was thrown at him.


    This hit only sent him a few hundred meters though, giving him more information on her attack capabilities. When her attack was concentrated, it did the most damage but was dodgeable. When it was not dodgeable, the attack was more spread out and did not hurt that much.


    Although their fight was loud, shy, and insane to watch, the pirates and Marines had better things to do than observe as the outbound video and radio signal stopped and a dozen more robot bears came out and attacked the ships outside the harbor. The real one was fighting therge-headed pervert but the rest could shootsers from their mouths and hands simr to that of Kizaru''sser attack.


    Rayleigh continued his attack attempts while further analyzing her aura. It wasn''t like he could just cut through it as easily as Bogard had his own. That happened mainly because Rayleigh didn''t know it was possible and his aura was very simple. This yer''s aura was far from simple. If the aura that Bogard cut through had been like the color red, then this yer''s aura was like the entire visible color spectrum while also bouncing back and forth between infrared and ultraviolet. He''d be able to do it eventually, but it would not be simple.


    Luckily this ambitious yer seemed to have bitten off more than she could chew with this build. The actual Gojo had a long list of ridiculous abilities. He could create Negative Space. He could inverse the Negative Space to create a Positive Space. He couldbine them both to make an Annihtion-like explosion attack and use them to move and teleport. He could observe and calcte everything with precision so high, that his skills were used at 99.99% efficiency and barely cost his energy reserves to use. He could actualize the concept of Infinity around his body, preventing attacks from ever reaching him. And he could attack a target''s mind by overloading it with information that someone without a calction-type ability would be unable to effectively defend against.


    This yer could not use any of these abilities but was using Nen to replicate them in a sense. She created an En Field around herself in which she could recycle aura, allowing her to reabsorb the aura she emitted to reuse. She could cause the aura and space between herself and a target to reduce if they were within her En field, allowing her near-instantaneous movement, and when she expanded the aura and space behind her while doing so, allowed for teleportation. The aura near her body had an automatic effect to expand the closer an attack was to her body. And she could directionalize the expansion of her aura from her body in a direction in the form of an attack.


    The only thing missing was the Annihtion Attack and the Mental attack. If she had them, was that the reason for her confidence? Or did she think that Dyna Might would prove useful in a fight? The user of the Bomb Fruit had tried to chase the pair and provide assistance, but his explosion punches were practically in slow motion and his explosive projectiles were diverted with telekinesis, rendering him effectively neutered.


    Rayleigh figured she had a mental attack. She was wearing sunsses after all. Maybe the mental attack was a Hatsu that required direct eye contact so she was waiting for the right moment to remove her sunsses, stare at him, attack his mind, and then finish him.


    He could hardly wait.


    Their fight continued for a few minutes and Rayleigh received an injury with each exchange. In that period, Rayleigh had to switch swords multiple times as they kept breaking, but he got a feeling for her weakness. She could not attack and defend at the same time and when she attacked, a barely visible shatterpoint momentarily appeared on the opposite side of her body. This led Rayleigh to baiting an attack, moving to her back, and striking her weak spot.


    For the first time, she dodged the attack rather than take it head-on. She even spoke up, "Don''t you know it''s impolite to hit a girl."


    Rayleigh attacked three times while calmly replying, "It''s also impolite not to introduce yourself. You already know my name but I still don''t know yours."


    She replied, "You haven''t earned my name yet," and went back on the attack. This time instead of pressing her palm against him and expanding her aura, she gathered aura into her hand and then pointed it at him before expanding it. Said expansion had the speed of an explosion and the force of a wrecking ball while also epassing the area. Several pirates caught up in the attack were practically liquidated. Rayleigh knew he couldn''t dodge so had jumped back to soften the blow and use Tutaminis to allow the shockwave to pass through his body, further weakening the physical damage.


    Seeing him easily survive the attack that rendered the surrounding pirates to gory mulch, the smile on the Gojo yer''s face faltered slightly. It seemed that she had finally realized that Rayleigh was not going to die so easily.


    Rayleigh started using Telekinesis to raise some bits of shattered stone and ice around her and then sped forward and to the side, using the levitating pieces as footholds to turn and get around her, circling her faster than she could physically spin around. He attacked, was countered, took her back, and attacked again, forcing her to dodge which made the next attack easier. Slowly but surely, he was forcing her into a corner and soon she would be the one running.


    Rayleigh still had a few Wills to spare which kept monitoring the battle. Whitebeard and Sengoku appeared to be ying an insane form of chess as both just stood at their ends of the battle whilemanding the movements of their troupes to counter the ns of the other party.


    Titan, a well-tanned yer that looked of European descent showed up and started wrecking the bear robots outside and leading the Whitebeard pirates into the inner harbor. He took the form of a giant golden Buddha which had Sengoku pissed since he was the original holder of that Devil Fruit and seeing it used on the side of pirates infuriated him.


    Justice used his strength to push Titan back, but even if Justice was physically stronger than Titan, the Golden Buddha yer was tougher than the Light Fruit user and could take every hit that Justice dished out.


    Wonder Woman and her crew had shown up and were assisting the Whitebeard Pirates with breaking out of the ice created by Goddess of Ice. There had been a time when Goddess of Ice and Wonder Woman were evenly matched, but Goddess of Ice had trained far harder than Wonder Woman did andpletely surpassed her in power and skill, allowing her to counter Wonder Woman''s entire crew and hold back Whitebeard''s remaining fleet.


    At one point a really ugly Pirate stabbed Whitebeard through the stomach, something that shocked the Division Commanders, Pirates, and Whitebeard himself. The idiot had apparently been tricked into doing so and ranted about what he had been tricked into thinking to justify the attack. After a quick reality check, he realized he''d been tricked. And what did Whitebeard do? Nothing. Whitebeard appeared to be a, "Don''t cry over spilled milk," guy and forgave his idiot crewmate for being an idiot.


    Rayleigh honestly could not hold that against him. There was no tangible benefit to harming someone who was tricked into doing something wrong if the person realized their mistake. In fact, there were more benefits to sparing him. The Pirate''s morale dropped when Whitebeard was attacked, but seeing Whitebeard forgive his ''son'' caused morale to boost once more. A war is not just about individual fights andbat after all. Whitebeard had to keep the mindset of his crew in check and if he killed the idiot right there, the morale would have plummeted further.


    Aokiji sent a wave of icy air through the area, but Rayleigh''s understanding of the Law of icebined with his Babylon-enhanced Tutaminis allowed him to ignore the wave of cold air and avoid being sh-frozen. Sengoku had cut off the transmission of the Snails in the area so that his tricks could not be broadcast and the Marine''s despicable means would not be disyed, but a pirate had gotten one of the transmission snails and kept the broadcast going. The wave of ice was sent at the area where they confirmed the snail was located, freezing the snail and ending thest outgoing transmission from Marineford. From this point, what happened here would only be known by the victors and survivors.


    Whitebeard knew that he had shown weakness and had to hide it, so he was forced to make a move. First, he smashed the air at his side, sending a reverberating force at the ice walls around Marineford, shattering them. Even the ice created by Goddess of Ice shattered, allowing the ships to move freely. Before the Marines could act, Whitebeard himself moved forward.


    Rayleigh was tempted to ditch Gojo Girl and exchange swords with the World''s Strongest Man, but the fact that Whitebeard hadn''t dodged or blocked that stab implied how weak the old man had gotten. Beating up an injured old man would leave a bad taste in his mouth, so he decided to keep his current dance partner.


    Much of their fight had damaged the icy stage, but Aokiji''s ice wave re-froze it, allowing better footing. Ironically, the ice helped Rayleigh far more than it hurt him. When Rayleigh was creating his first martial style back at the Temple of Martial Arts, he did so in an Ice Rink. Excessive movements in an Ice Rink leads to slipping, and practicing on one shows where to cut out excessive movements.


    Although she hid it well, Gojo Girl did not have such a foundation. She had to expand her aura to create the force to move rather than rely on the friction of her shoes against the ice. She could fight off the cold air using her aura but she was not proficient in fighting in below-freezing areas atop the ice. Thisck of experience was most obvious when she tried to turn. She seemed tock a means to turn her body using her aura, so she had to physically turn around when Rayleigh got behind her. Moving physically meant using her shoes against the ice and although it wasn''t wet ice, it stillcked the traction of apletely solid surface.


    Rayleigh felt very much like Bankai Ichigo circling Byakuya Kuchiki. After Rayleigh figured out the best timing, Gojo Girl was forced to start moving forward or to the side when he attacked her, giving her less room to attack him. Soon she would have to start teleporting and would have to gopletely on the defensive and either run away or get cut to pieces.


    Whitebeard made the fight even more crazy when he started wrecking the space. At one point a giant tried to attack him and Whitebeard pulled the space in front of him like a curtain. Somehow, this caused the entire ind to tilt to the side, causing the top-heavy giant to fall sideways, giving Whitebeard an opening to deliver a space-shattering punch to the giant''s gut.


    Rayleigh was thrilled to be able to watch this. Although the foundation of his sword style needed darkness to bepleted, he also wanted space and time to be added eventually but had to hold back from doing so due to ack of reference for such abilities. Whitebeard''s Devil Fruit allowed him to transmit his strength into vibrations through space that traveled until they reached a certain point and then spread out to the surroundings. It could be right in front of him, or much further away. Now that Rayleigh had a feel for this vibration, Rayleigh could incorporate it into his sword style to touch on the fabric of space. What was even better was that he had such a perfect sparring partner.


    Since Whitebeard decided to make a menace of himself, Rayleigh started holding back a bit in his fight to prevent his training dummy/sparring partner from running away. He already had a few ways to beat her. His telekinesis was pushed off by her aura, but it was not ineffective. That was how he could make her miss her attacks. Since he could use multiple instances of telekinesis by using multiple Wills at the same time, he could easily create a multi-directional attack that could strike the weak spot she created when she attacked.


    Defeating her with the Force rather than sword skills wasn''t what he wanted. Tricks could be ovee. Only by defeating her with superior skill would she know true defeat.


    The harbor walls around the inner harbor lifted up,pletely encapsting the pirates. Momentster they fell back into the water. The walls had been lifted with air-filled basts, but the sea kings swimming under the water''s surface bit and punctured the basts, removing the air and causing them to sink. It seemed that Sengoku nned to use Akainu to roast them after surrounding them, but Wild King''s presence ended that n before Akainu could release a single shot of magma.


    Sengoku shouted for Aokiji to kill the Sea Kings, forcing the Admiral to freeze solid all the water, but Marco the Phoenix engaged him to grant time for Wild King to order the capable sea kings to enter the harbor onnd while the others ran away underwater. They had done their part.


    Those walls were supposed to be the Marine''s trump cards. They were made with a metal that could withstand the vibrations from Whitebeard''s attack and had cannons built in that would have allowed the Marines to turn the siege into a game of shooting fish in a barrel.


    Whitebeard said, "Looks like you didn''t take a few things into ount." His smile widened as the Fleet Admiral''s frown deepened.


    Sengoku then shouted, "Execute Ace Now!"


    Two Marines with long swords reeled their weapons back, edges pointed at Ace''s neck.


    Even Whitebeard faltered at this move. He had not expected Sengoku to act like a child. He shouted, "DON''T YOU DARE!" while swinging his massive Naginata forward, sending a wave of force that knocked thousands of Marines down.


    Before the swords could take off Ace''s head, numerous crows divebombed the Marines holding the weapons, aiming their beaks and ws at the men''s eyes. Sengoku noticed the crow''s abnormalities right away and struck out, causing the flock to move to the side and gather together in the form of a man a few years younger than Ace.


    This man, a yer named Crow, stated, "Sorry, but we won''t allow you to kill him."


    Sengoku gnashed his teeth at the youngster''s audacity and asked, "Who is this, ''we''?"


    "The Titan pirates of course. We''re here to save Ace and protect the Whitebeard Pirates."


    Sengoku reeled his fist back, "Just you?" and smashed forward.


    The yer didn''t bother dodging, his form dispersed back into a dozen crows and started circling the execution tform.


    Sengoku looked for Aokiji since freezing such a nuisance was the most effective course of action but the Ice-Empowered Admiral was being fought by the ming Marco and the Diamond Dude. Akainu could not be trusted to attack birds without destroying what was left of Marineford so Sengoku motioned for Kizaru to take care of them. Thezy looking Admiral seemed pleased to be given such an easy job, but faltered as the ground started shaking.


    At first, the Admirals and Marines thought that Whitebeard was ying with thews of physics again, but then they realized that the effect was more localized and fluid. The stone beneath them moved around and the execution tform shifted. Vice Admiral Garp grabbed the two Marines while Sengoku grabbed Ace and jumped off the tform before the ground beneath it jutted out and shot the tform into the air. A few who looked down at the ground noticed a massive stone hand-like protrusion emerge and return to the ground.


    Crow reformed on a nearby roof and said, "Further attempts to execute Ace will be met with far harsher punishments. The lives of all the Marines here are in our hands, and if you cannot defeat us, then do not think to end Ace''s life, lest you learn the true meaning of a pyrrhic victory."


    Those yers, Crow and Stoner, were two of the many yers that Rayleigh had taught Nen and were currently a part of Titan''s crew. Stoner could merge with and manipte stone while Crow could be a flock of crows. Their names were not the most imaginative, but Rayleigh felt that he had no room to argue since he had no problem calling himself Swordsman. In any case, it seemed that they were there to protect Ace from being executed. If Sengoku and Garp gave it their all, they might be able to kill Ace anyway, but those two Devil Fruit users were very skilled at escape and survival, so it was not going to be easy.


    The world''s protagonist got thrown around like a rag-doll as he charged forward. shed, smashed, stabbed, clubbed, crushed, pierced, burned, frozen, and mmed. Were he not made of rubber, he would have been electrocuted a few times as well. Rayleigh decided that if this was how the world treated its main character, he feared how the world would treat its enemies.


    Every ten steps Luffy took forward was apanied by a strike, m, or attack that sent him back eleven steps. Eventually, he just copsed. He was beaten, bruised, and barely alive, so the big-headed pervert took him to the back, away from the front lines so he would not die a pointless death. The only reason he survived up to that point was pity and luck. Aokiji and Kizaru didn''t go for lethal attacks and Mihawk no longer felt like testing the Pirate''s Plot Armor.


    Marco tried to rescue Ace the moment the tform came down but was smacked away by Garp. Although the grey-haired vice-admiral looked about as old as Whitebeard, he seemed to be in a far better state. Say what you will about the Marines, but their healthcare was actually quite good.


    Whitebeard stopped recklessly attacking, so Rayleigh no longer got a show of a good example of the flow of space. Since that was the case, it was about time to finish his fight so he could take on a real challenge. None of the yers would mind if he chopped off Akainu''s head, right?


    Rayleigh shed wildly at Gojo girl''s defenses. Her attack patterncked imagination and several of her defensive stances had openings he could repeatedly make use of. Rayleigh''s suit was torn and he asionally had to cough blood from a punctured lung, but neither affected hisbat performance and he''d heal itter.


    Gojo Girl twisted to the side, shifted back, teleported, struck out, destroyed the ground they were standing on, moved out of the way, blocked, and ducked under the onught of Rayleigh''s constant attacks. She did in fact have a Hatsu-Force skill that allowed her to move in whatever way was most efficient and wless, but it seemed that Rayleigh''s skill had surpassed the calction limits of her ability''s understanding of wless. She was not worried though. Her final attack had never failed her, and she suspected the conditions to release it would soon be met.


    One of Rayleigh''s Wills which continued to pay attention to the surroundings noticed that the flow of the world had been shifted again. Luffy was back up and charged forward as if on drugs.


    Because Luffy had gone down earlier, the Admirals had taken opponents of their own, and said opponents did not allow them to get back in Luffy''s way. Whitebeard took on Akainu. Marco took on Kizaru. And Diamond Dude took on Aokiji. Titan had also fought his way in. The yer who had the same Devil Fruit as Ace, Fire Queen, had arrived and started fighting Goddess of Ice, leaving Titan free to make his way to the Execution tform. Ideally, he wanted to free Ace himself, but seeing Luffy charge forward, he instead elected to keep Sengoku upied.


    Sengoku had fully intended to stay at Ace''s side until the execution, but seeing Titan use his own fruit against the Marines enraged the Fleet Admiral enough to make him join the fight.


    Because of this, there was a path from Luffy to Ace that only had Vice Admirals defending it.


    Seeing this, Sengoku paused his fight with Titan for a moment and shouted, "All Marines, open fire on Ace now! Execute him at once!"


    Ace was a user of a Fire Logia fruit, but he was bound by shackles that rendered his devil fruit impotent and his body unable to use Haki. A single bullet he could survive, but Sengoku''smand caused hundreds of Marines to point their guns at Ace, an unmoving target.


    A dozen Vice Admirals charged Whitebeard, piercing his body with various weapons and giving Akainu a moment to heat the stone around Ace into Magma. Stoner tried to merge with it to turn it into a wall or move Ace, but he couldn''t safely merge with such hot stone. He wasn''t a logia user after all.


    Seeing hundreds of Marines pointing their weapons at his brother, the drug-empowered main character shouted with all his might and willpower, "STOP!"


    His emotion-filled voice carried with it amand that held the weight of the world. Over a thousand Marines and a decent number of puirates between Luffy and Ace felt that weight press down on them and immediately passed out.


    Only the yers and Mihawk were not surprised at the tant disy of Conqueror''s Haki. Everyone else of the tens of thousands of participants of this battle, Pirate and Marine alike, looked at Luffy as if they were looking at a monster.


    Whitebeard smashed the Marines that impaled him and pulled the weapons out of his wounds before shouting, "Alright you bastards!" The affection in his voice made it clear that he was referring to his own crew. Loud enough for the entire base to hear, Whitebeard eximed, "Use all your strength to support Strawhat Luffy!"


    With this deration, a wave of pirates apanied Luffy as he rushed toward Ace and the only Marine who remained to defend him, Vice Admiral Garp.


    The Warlords tried to get in his way but were blocked by other Warlords in an almostical manner. Mihawk had to be seen doing something so he attacked Luffy. When the former Warlord Crocodile got in his way, Mihawk didn''t bother trying to get past him. As long as it looked like he was trying, no one could say anything. The Robot Bear and several of his copies tried to attack Luffy, but the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock got in their way. Since they apparently had ''Friendly Fire'' turned off, they could not attack. The shadow using Gecko guy was stopped by the Shark-looking Fishman''s Fishman Karate. That left Domingo but he seemed content just attacking small fry and ying around. Unlike Mihawk, he didn''t care what he was seen doing.


    Luffy charged forward until he met Garp who, for some reason, was sent flying with one punch. A stone wall came up around them which blocked aser shot by Kizaru. A momentter, Luffy had somehow removed the inhibiting shackles that bound Ace and the son of the Pirate King had been freed.


    Seeing that he was going to miss out on the rest of the fun, Rayleigh tripled his attack speed. It used up more Aura, but the battle did not seem like it wouldst much longer at this point.


    That was when it happened. Rayleigh''s sword slid off the yer''s expanding aura, but it vibrated as it did so. The contact vibration flowed into the aura. Something many didn''t think about when it came to vibration was that the denser something was, the faster vibrations moved through it. The aura around Gojo Girl became denser the closer an attack got to her skin due to the increase in the rate of aura expansion, but the vibration simply moved faster in the presence of a denser aura. If Gojo Satoru''s Infinity could stop vibrations, then he would be unable to hear anything.


    Of course, this wasn''t a perfect attack, only the prototype of a possible attack. The slice''s vibration was still very weak by the time it passed through her aura and it only made a small cut on her skin.


    Rather than panic that her defense had been broken, she got some distance and said, "About time. And by the way." She then took off her sunsses and continued, "My name is Crystal. You deserve to know the name of the one who is about to kill you."


    Her eyes did in fact have a crystal-like sparkle. Rayleigh felt the world shift.


    Crystal''s trump card had too many activation requirements. First, she had to be injured by the target. But she had to be injured while going all out while using her strongest defense. Her trump card was an ultimate spear that could only be used once the ultimate shield had been breached. Next, she had to fight her opponent within her En for at least five minutes. Rayleigh had been moving around a lot when he figured out that she could recycle her aura within her En, but then he focused on attacking and stopped moving as much. Next, she had to meet the target''s eyes after the first two conditions were met. Using her dyed introduction to make eye contact always worked, especially against yers who thought they were the Main Character.


    As Rayleigh predicted, Crystal''s trump card was a mental attack. It was actually abination Force-Nen skill. The Force allowed someone to connect to someone else and imnt thoughts and emotions into their mind. Crystal used this principle to re-create Gojo Satoru''s Domain Expansion, an attack that fried a person''s brain by overloading it with an unimaginable amount of information.


    One of Crystal''s Hatsus basically turned her brain into a superputer and her trump card connected to an opponent and hooked them up to saidputer to essentially perform a DDoS attack to freeze them up. Seeing Rayleigh freeze, Crystal had the time to concentrate her aura into her strongest attack. It only took a moment, but against a skilled opponent, she would not have a moment which is where her trump card came in.


    She released the aura at Rayleigh and saw him vanish into the wall. She was quite confident that he was dead, since anyone under the effect of her trump card would be 100% unable to defend themselves.


    "About time."


    The voice wasn''t loud, but somehow it carried all the way to her in the hectic environment. Her instincts went into overdrive and sweat started raining down her neck and back. At first, she thought she was imagining it, but when she looked back, the yer who had been struck into the wall had already gotten up and was leisurely walking toward her.


    "Come to think of it, although you already knew my name, I should really introduce myself anyway. It''s only polite to do so."


    Rayleigh looked very injured, but it was almost all surface-level. His mind may not have been aputer, but having 31 Wills meant that mental attacks of a certain type had no effect on him. The reason he took the physical attack was because it was needed if he wanted to go all out. The information she sent him using the Force could either be entirely shunted to one Will or divided among multiple Wills to even the burden and Rayleigh had done thetter.


    As Rayleigh stepped forward, a thick, blood-red mist started to form around him and circled him. He had been using In to hide the mist as it formed from his injuries and theatrically released the In to make it look like the mist was only now appearing.


    Covered in injuries and surrounded by a flowing, bloody mist as he walked forward seemingly gave Rayleigh the form of a demon, and the 18-year-old girl facing him flinched at his appearance.


    Rayleigh raised his hand forward and the mist gathered into it. A momentter, a blood-red sword formed before him, and Rayleigh pressed the Kyber Crystal in his hand into the sword.


    He said aloud, "My name is Swordsman." He then grabbed the de and his aura seemed to retract into his body while goingpletely berserk and strengthening many times over.

 Chapter 76: Inviting a Calamity

    Chapter 76: Inviting a Cmity


    Chapter 76 Inviting a Cmity


    Seeing her Sword-wielding opponent''s obvious power boost made the Gojo-yer falter for a moment. Such a moment was long enough for her to be killed many times over, but said opponent was in the mood to y with his food, so he kindly allowed her to regain her mental faculties before raising his sword into the air.


    Crystal''s danger sense told her she was absolutely about to die, so she used her Trump Card again. The requirements were for the target to be looking her in the eyes, have injured her while she was going all out, and have remained within her En Field for longer than five minutes. Her Hatsu did not require the conditions to be met once per usage, so as long as the target who injured her remained in her En Field and continued eye contact, she could use the skill endlessly as long as she had the Aura to do so.


    Rayleigh had guessed as much as well, but confidently kept his eyes locked on Crystal''s own. When his mind received the mental assault, it had no effect.


    Even before using the Sword of Babylon, her mental attack only had a slight effect. While using it, the effect could not even be noticed. Sword of Babylonpletely abandoned physical defenses, so while using it, he could be easily injured by a normal attack. However, having all his defenses retract into his body heavily supercharged every other form of defense he possessed. His defense against things like Poison, Mental Attacks, Elemental Attacks, and Spiritual Attacks becamepletely ridiculous. This meant that the only way to beat him was to use physical attacks. No trick would work. To beat him, you had to outfight him as a Swordsman.


    Rayleigh swung his sword and Crystal teleported away. The ice around the space she had stood was diced into tens of thousands of ice cube-sized fragments. Rayleigh''s Sword of Babylon could release countless lines of transformed sharpened sword aura thinner than silk with a single, casual swing. Crystal might have been able to block it by going all out, but that would have shifted her aura to the front, allowing Rayleigh to easily slice through her aura after getting behind her.


    Not that teleporting saved her. If teleporting were enough to counter his speed, then all his training would have been for nothing.


    Sword of Babylon also supercharged the sense-enhancing field of Babylon, granting greater insight into Crystal''s movements and flows. Her calction Hatsu could predict the best location to teleport, but Rayleigh could move after her prediction and arrive at her destination as fast as she did.


    Blood flowed as Rayleigh''s red sword cut across her back. He didn''t use the vibration trick, he simply cut her faster than her aura could expand. Using Sword of Babylon meant using Heart of the Sword and One with the Sword at the same time, so his reaction speed was simply faster than her Automated Hatsu''s reaction speed. His attack outsped the processing speed of her mental boosting Hatsu.Rayleigh was only slightly surprised to see the inflicted wound rapidly heal. Gojo had a simr ability and Rayleigh sensed that Crystal was using Dark Transfer and her Aura.


    If he had to guess, Rayleigh figured that her main Hatsu turned her brain into a Computer that automatically used various Programs under certain conditions. Under the condition of a physical attack approaching her, her aura would automatically expand, with the degree of expansion being determined by the distance from the attack. Under the condition of receiving a crippling injury, her aura would absorb the Cosmic Force in the world, convert it into Living Force, and directly apply it to her wounds.


    Thetter was dangerous though. Rayleigh could easily nudge some extra Force into such a process. If Dark Transfer applied too much Force into a wound, it would thoroughly destroy it, not mend it. Even Rayleigh would not be bold enough to make an Automated Dark Transfer program.


    Rayleigh waited for her wound to finish healing before he struck out again. Crystal tried dodging but her opponent could outpace her predictions, preventing her from running and leaving her injured again and again.


    She was both anxious and pissed off. She could not use Auto-Healing and her knock-off Infinity at the same time, so she waspletely defenseless while healing. It was obvious that Rayleigh knew this because he stopped pursuing her and allowed her to heal after each injury, all the while wearing the most irritating smirk. He was toying with her.


    Crystal''s normal Aura usage within her En was essentially unlimited because she could recycle it at around the same rate she used it, but this was no longer enough, so she had to abandon efficiency and go all out. The smile Swordman wore upon seeing this only made her frown deeper.


    Crystal''s Aura expanded like a metal pir being shot from a ship''s cannon, but Rayleigh either dodged it, deflected it, or split the attack in half around him. Crystal''s blood scattered around the ice as each wound healed after another. Rayleigh was kind enough not to aim for her chest and sh her clothespletely to pieces, but everything was shredded and bloodied.


    Their match was temporarily interrupted when Whitebeard started shouting. "This is my Final Order. Listen well, Whitebeard Pirates! You will all part with me here! You will all Live! You will safely return to the New World! Now, GO!"


    Whitebeard twisted his body and smashed his fist forward. The monolithic building at the back of Marineford bearing the word Justice on its side cracked. Blood began dripping from Whitebeard''s mouth since he couldn''t swallow any more of the blood that he''d been coughing from his lungs.


    Titan, Crow, and Stoner stood next to him. Whitebeard told the brats to get out of his way and Titan replied, "We aren''t a part of your crew and don''t take orders from you. You''re wee to go back and take a nap if you''re not feeling well, Old Man."


    Whitebeard smiled, "Cheeky brats."


    The Marines tried to chase after the fleeing pirates, but Whitebeard turned back and swung his Naginata at the ground, creating a massive gorge behind him, separating the Marines from his crew.


    Ace and the rest were behind him and said their tear-filled goodbyes. Kizaru and Aokiji tried to take cheap shots at Ace and Luffy, but were literally stunned when a massive thunderbolt descended on them from the sky.


    Fleet Admiral Sengoku''s eyes widened in shock at the new yer. Lightning Lord had arrived.


    Or at least, that was what he and the other Marines thought.


    Rayleigh had noticed the Lightning yer''s Force presence from the beginning. He had been hiding nearby to protect Ace in case Kizaru tried a high-speed assassination attempt. Titan and the other yers had nned for just about everything to ensure that Ace would be protected. Sengoku was the type to change his n to ount for new variables, so if the new variables were introduced toote, he would not be able to n for them.


    Outside, Fire Queen had ousted Goddess of Ice. The Icy Marine yer did not have ess to the Hunter ss to grant the Aura needed for high-intensity, prolonged fights. Goddess of Ice had retreated and Fire Queen melted a path to escape while setting the surrounding Marine ships on fire. Wild King stood ready tomand his Sea King Army to assist in the evacuation while harassing the remaining Marine Ships.


    With Whitebeard, Titan, Crow, Stoner, and Lightning Lord standing before the Marines, the Pirate''s escape seemed guaranteed.


    Akainu started trash-talking Whitebeard, but Crystal also used that moment to shout, "Hey guys! I''ll pay you if you help me kill Swordsman!"


    Some of the yers looked over. Dyna Might, someone who was trying to thaw out because he had no resistance to the cold also shouted, "Yeah! Kill this Bastard and I''ll give you whatever you want! Wild King! You want to kill him too, right?!"


    Although Rayleigh''s aura had beenpletely taken into his body, he did not look weak in the eyes of these yers. They all had sense-enhancing abilities like Observation Haki and could feel a bit of the depths of Rayleigh''s strength. Most of them didn''t even know Crystal. Dyna Might told her where to find Swordsman and Wild King gave her a ride to Marineford, but the other yers had never seen her before. They obviously saw the fight between these two, but none of them were interested in interfering.


    Stoner actually shouted back, "Whatever I want?" Considering where his eyes were leering, it did not take a genius to guess what he was thinking.


    Rayleigh actually stopped attacking and asked Crystal, "Yeah, are you gonna give Stoner whatever he wants?" His own cheeky smile infuriated her to the point that she almost considered it.


    This actually made Rayleigh feel a bit bad for her. It wasn''t right to force a girl to the point she would have to consider such a thing. Yes, it was obviously far better just to kill her on the spot.


    Sensing Rayleigh''s intention, Crystal shouted, "WAIT!"


    Which was promptly ignored.


    Rayleigh had vanished from in front of her and reappeared a few steps behind her. Crystal was stunned when she felt herself fall to the ground. Her shock doubled when she saw her legs were still standing upright. She had been bisected.


    Rayleigh looked back and asked, "Yes, you wanted to say something?" You can''t talk without lungs so he didn''t lop off her head to check if she had anyst words.


    A few of the watching yersughed at the familiar scene. That was when everything went to shit.


    Everyone had ignored the trash-talking Akainu, but Ace had not. When he was safe and sound, when his freedom was guaranteed, he turned back to argue with Akainu. The pair even took potshots at each other, but they did so from a distance so the yers had not care that much. That was when Akainuunched himself forward like an erupting volcano.


    Lightning Lord shot him with hundreds of millions of volts of current. Lightning was dozens of times hotter than Magma, but Akainu ignored the damage and plowed through.


    Crowunched multiple crows at the iing wave ofva, causing miniature explosions. Crow was actually a user of a Logia Devil Fruit that let him turn to Ash. Ash can ignite and explode if the temperature is high enough, allowing him to use Akainu''s heat against him. Had Akainu used his standard attacks, this would have worked, but Akainu''s standard attack took into ount that he was holding back nearly all the time to prevent himself from killing the nearby Marines. Now, it was different. Every Marine at the point heunched himself and in the path between himself and Ace ignited and screamed, but Akainu didn''t care.


    The stone around Ace and Akainu was glowing with heat and Stoner could not manipte it without getting permanent burns that ate at the bone.


    Still, Ace was not defenseless. He grit his teeth andunched his strongest fire, determined to burn even magma to nothing. At this point, none of the yers were particrly worried. Ace and Akainu had exchanged blows numerous times in thest few minutes. Akainu may not have been holding back anymore, but the assist from Lightning Lord and Crow weakened his attack to the point that Ace could still defend himself, so it wasn''t a problem.


    And that was when the World fell silent. Rayleigh, someone especially attuned to the world, felt it first. He looked away from his fallen opponent and his eyes moved directly to the source, to Monkey D Luffy. The favored child of the world had stayed near Ace, unwilling to run when everyone else had already started boarding the ships. Luffy, who had been moving around for the past few minutes as if he were on drugs, suddenly fell. It was not an attack or injury. He had used 300% of his energy to free Ace, and now that Ace was free and Luffy was not fighting, his long overdraft body could no longer hold the endlesslypounded tension he had been baring and he simply copsed.


    None of the yers noticed. Ace did not notice. Whitebeard did not notice. They were all facing Akainu and he was facing them. Because of this, Akainu was the first to notice.


    Before Luffy even hit the ground, Akainu''s eyes narrowed and he expended every bit of energy he had to change directions and burn Luffy to dust.


    Lightning Lord was the only one capable of attacking fast enough after noticing the problem but Kizaru had already blocked him before he could interrupt the attack at the new target. Aokiji blocked Whitebeard and Sengoku blocked Titan. They didn''t know that Akainu would change directions, they only thought that he was attacking Ace and moved to back him up.


    The only one who moved fast enough was Ace. He seemed to sh from his position and reform right in front of his brother.


    It only took an instant. From the moment that Akainuunched himself forward with the power of an erupting volcano to the moment hended with his magma fist through Ace''s torso was only a duration matched by the time it took to blink.


    Even Rayleigh could not have done anything. His skills did not grant him the ability to protect others. He could have sliced off Akainu''s arm or head, but the magma fist still would have pierced Ace through. Rayleigh did not have any means to block such an attack on another person. He could still use telekinesis to defend while using Sword of Babylon, but Akainu''s fist was saturated with Haki and would have broken through any defense Rayleigh formed like paper.


    A ripple moved throughout Marineford. Rayleigh looked back and saw a pirate holding the Video Snail that had been taken from the Marines. Aokiji had frozen him earlier, but apparently, he thawed out quickly. The scene of Ace getting skewered had been seen throughout the world, and the world had been changed forever.


    Like all the other yer''s Rayleigh''s mood had gone sour. He no longer paid attention to the bisected yer and slowly walked forward. The yers around Whitebeard radiated rage as they pushed Akainu back and let Ace say his final words to his brother. The son of the Pirate King died with a smile in the arms of his closest family. When Luffy sensed that his brother hadpletely gone, he seemed to release a soundless cry before passing out.


    Titan shouted, "You were fucking warned! What happens next is on your head!" He raised his fist in the air and opened and closed it three times, obviously signaling someone.


    Rayleigh was probably the only one who noticed the familiar presence of Captain Jack snatching the stolen Video Snail and moving closer, unnoticed by others.


    Whitebeard could feel the yer''s rage as it matched his own. But the old man''s grief gave him enough sense to ask, "What will you do?"


    Titan replied, "Don''t worry about your crew Old Man. I''ll wait for them to leave before we start."


    The finality of the statement allowed the grief-stricken old man to let slip a small smirk of schadenfreude.


    Whitebeard replied with, "Then leave the dog to me."


    The yers agreed. Stoner merged into the ground before creating a massive wall that separated the Marines from the retreating Pirates, allowing them to escape unimpeded. Lighting Lord held Kizaru''s attention while Crow kept Aokiji busy. Ash could burn but it could not freeze, making him a strong counter to the ice-empowered Admiral. Titan stood where he was and stared down Sengoku. The Fleet Admiral had been forced back to stop Vice Admiral Garp from killing Akainu himself.


    The Shark Fishman andrge-headed pervert grabbed Luffy and made a run for it with the others. Akainu tried to stop him but Whitebeard had no intention of allowing Luffy toe to harm. Ace''s brother would carry his will.


    Whitebeard no longer held back. He smashed Akainu and the towering structure behind him cracked as if it had been struck by a meteor and copsed in on itself.


    With each attack, more and more blood was coughed from Whitebeard''s body. He wasn''t even able to speak without coughing blood and had no means of breathing. The only thing he could do was smash Akainu with everything he had in the hopes of taking the Admiral down with him.


    Still, Akainu gave as good as he got. The only reason Rayleigh hadn''t taken the Admiral''s head yet was that he had no intention of denying a dying Old Man his final request. He''d let the old man either kill Akainu or die trying before he finished him off.


    Whitebeard''s body had multiple sections burnt out, but this did not stop him from trying to sink the whole of Marineford with every attack.


    That was when something weird showed up.


    If the being called Oars Jr could be referred to as a Giant Giant, then Rayleigh had no idea what to call this guy. He was twice as tall as some versions of Godzi and Rayleigh felt that devil fruit shenanigans had to be involved to make that possible.


    The towering colossus peaked from behind the wrecked building of Marineford and feigned a guilty look for being spotted.


    More uninvited guests walked through the empty streets of Marineford from the Marine''s side and stopped at the remains of the Execution tform.


    Sengoku looked back and recognized them, "YOU! How did you get here?!"


    Whitebeard coughed out, "You..."


    Shouting from the remainder of the Marines gave away the identities of the neers. The ckbeard Pirates.


    The tubby fellow with bad teeth, a ck beard, a ck hat, and insane eyes that stood before the others shouted back after augh, "It''s been too long! It''s good to see you at death''s door Old Man!"


    Several Marines shouted in shock and fear at the presence of a few who stood at ckbeard''s side. It seemed that these were prisoners who had escaped Impel Down. One of them was even a former warden.


    If they came from Impel Down, then someone had to have opened the Gates of Justice to let them show up, something Sengoku didn''t understand.


    A skinny fellow next to ckbeard happily told him, "My apologies, it''s a simple story. Before we left for Impel Down, I hypnotized the control room Marines to allow all ships through the Gates. It seems even some other people were able to take advantage of this."


    ckbeard bragged, "If the Government saw me as an enemy while I was a Pirate, I wouldn''t have been able to open the Gates and break into Impel Down. That''s why I needed the title of Warlord. But I don''t need it anymore!" Heughed even louder.


    A few yers exchanged nces, but seeing Whitebeard walk toward ckbeard, they decided to let the old man have the first punch.


    Sengoku shouted in outrage at being deceived but this distracted ckbeard from Whitebeard''s attack. The old man smashed half the building next to ckbeard, causing it to copse right on top of him. The Admirals fighting the yers paused to watch this new fight of Pirates against Pirates, hoping to pick off the winner once it was decided.


    Rayleigh''s eyes shined at what he saw next. ckbeard turned the ground to darkness which absorbed the rubble, allowing him to get out from under it.


    No one but the yers noticed Rayleigh walking over. Thanks to a subtle use of Force Muffle, only the yers heard when Rayleigh said, "I call dibs on ckbeard."


    Titan answered back, "Why should I let you have him? Killing him will help me recruit the Whitebeard Pirates after everything is over."


    Rayleigh replied, "You all owe me a favor. Let me have ckbeard and the debt is repaid."


    This surprised the yers. They knew from private conversations with All Seeing Prophet and Wild King what a debt to Rayleigh truly meant. Reputation with these Pirates could be obtained through other means, but releasing themselves from the debt they owed Rayleigh was almost priceless.


    Titan nodded, "Deal. Are you gonna stick around for the after-party?"


    Rayleigh recognized that Titan was referring to whatever n they hatched up for the Marines as punishment for Ace''s death. "Will it be any good?"


    Titan smirked, "Best show you''ll ever see."


    "Count me in then," Rayleigh replied with a nod before he continued walking forward, past the yers and Marines to where ckbeard was getting smacked down by Whitebeard. From the perspective of a casual observer, it looked like Whitebeard would kill ckbeard at any moment, but the former was running on fumes and guts while thetter seemed capable of absorbing all the damage he was dealt.


    The dark power of ckbeard''s Devil Fruit seemed to allow him to negate the power of Whitebeard''s Devil Fruit, but doing so was mostly pointless as Whitebeard proved that his Naginata was not just for disy and shed into ckbeard''s shoulder, causing the man with the insane eyes to jump back in pain.


    Whitebeard''s Devil Fruit was not being negated at that point so he grabbed ckbeard''s face and seismically smashed it into the ground, forming a massive crater.


    Somehow, the traitorous Pirate survived. Rayleigh guessed that he had some means of absorbing damage, but from the man''s expletives when he was hit, it did not negate the pain. In fact, it seemed to amplify it.


    ckbeard shouted, "Get Him!"


    At the same time, Rayleigh said, "Pay no attention to me."


    The members of ckbeard''s crew heard both lines but since one came from a nobody and the other from their captain, it made perfect sense to ignore the nobody They had just arrived and didn''t see Rayleigh''s fight with Crystal.


    Rayleigh could use In to hide the presence of his Aura which replicated the effect of Zetsu, so to those not in the know, he did not feel like a threat.


    Another aspect of the Sword of Babylon was that it boosted all Force skills. He could only use Damaging Force Skills through his sword, but Non-Damaging Force Skills like Mind Trick could be used at any time.


    This amplification, along with the timing of speaking at the moment ckbeard also shouted his order, allowed for the heavily strengthened suggestion to pass fully into their minds. Combined with Force Stealth, something that had also been strengthened, the ckbeard Pirates just about forgot Rayleigh''s existence at that moment.


    Under the order of ckbeard, the ckbeard Pirates rushed Whitebeard with all manner of weapons and attacks. Had the old man been capable of using a fraction of his Haki skill, it would never have broken the skin, but the old man was using all his Willpower to stay conscious and had none left to armor his body.


    The fearful ckbeard pointed his pistol at Whitebeard and continued pulling the trigger until it started clicking. Only then did he remark, "Out of ammo?"


    Rayleigh felt the heartbeat of the world again. He was about to move to kill ckbeard, but the world apparently wanted something to happen first. Whitebeard, the man who stood using willpower alone, seemed to have been granted something. Captain Jack, the yer who had taken the Video Snail had coincidentallye a lot closer and was showing Whitebeard''sst moments.


    Whitebeard, the man whose lungs should have been so full of blood that he should not have been able to speak, started talking. His weak voice somehow carried easily.


    "It''s not you."


    ckbeard was also quite shocked at the fact that he was not dead, "You''re still alive?!"


    As if in a trance, Whitebeard continued, "The man Roger is waiting for is definitely not you, Teach. There are those who inherited Roger''s Will. And one day, someone will appear who will inherit Ace''s Will. As long as that ''Bloodline'' survives, their mes will never die."


    Whitebeard somehow took in a clear, deep breath. His voice became louder and louder with each word. "That Will has been passed down from long ago! And in the future, someday, a man will appear, bearing the weight of centuries on his shoulders, to challenge the World! Sengoku. Your World Government is afraid. Afraid of theing war that will engulf the world! The world will be shaken to its core."


    Somehow, no one was fighting. The Admirals were no longer fighting the yers but seemed incapable of moving, of interrupting Whitebeard''s final words.


    Echoing throughout Marineford and beyond, Whitebeard called out, "Somebody will find it. That day will certainlye. One Piece is Real!"


    Rayleigh and just about everyone else felt goosebumps from the weight of those words, spoken through Whitebeard that carried the Will of the entire world.


    Sengoku screamed in frustration. He was already told that someone had turned one of the Video Snails back on but he didn''t mind before since it meant Ace''s death was televised, showing the power of the Marines. Now, this came back to bite him in the ass.


    Momentster, Whitebeard''s heart stopped. The tension in the man''s unbreathing body kept him upright, unwilling to fall even in the face of death.


    That was when the members of the ckbeard Pirates got a ridiculouslyrge ck sheet from somewhere and threw it over ckbeard and Whitebeard.


    Rayleigh saw it. A shatterpoint. If left alone, ckbeard would somehow be far stronger and escape. Too bad for him.


    Unnoticed by the ckbeard Pirates, Rayleigh quickly moved beneath the same sheet right before it came down, right behind ckbeard.


    Beneath the sheet, ckbeard pressed his right hand to the deceased Whitebeard''s chest while taking a pineapple with his other hand.


    (The Gura Gura No Mi looks like a blue pineapple.)


    Rayleigh aimed his blood-red sword right at the shatterpoint on ckbeard''s back and thrust forward.


    ckbeard was not someone who mastered Observation Haki, and although he was an ambitious man, his Willpower was not strong enough to counter the Enhanced Mind Trick that Rayleigh had used.


    The moment that Rayleigh''s sword pierced ckbeard''s heart from behind, Rayleigh did something he had never done before.


    Rayleigh wanted ckbeard''s understanding of the Darkness Devil Fruit, and stabbing him in the heart would not help with that. Normally.


    Every Force skill was heavily enhanced while using Sword of Babylon and just about every Force skill could be used through his sword. So the moment Rayleigh stabbed through ckbeard''s heart, Rayleigh used Psychometry through his sword.


    Psychometry was Rayleigh''s strongest Force skill due to its nature as an Instant Mastery. This was the first time that Rayleigh used it through his sword under the enhancing effect of the Sword of Babylon.


    Rayleigh connected to his sword through the Kyber Crystal embedded within and felt the aspects of Darkness within ckbeard''s body. Using the circting lines of aura around the de as a conduit, Rayleigh instinctively used Psychometry to draw in the Flow of Darkness through his aura and into his Kyber Crystal.


    Honestly, Rayleigh did not know that this would work when he tried it, but thanks to a long series of coincidences, not only did it work, but he got an extra.


    Somehow, Rayleigh felt the essence of space vibrations that had been Whitebeard''s Devil Fruit. He recognized it thanks to his earlier testing and he felt he could pull the flow of it through his sword and into his Kyber Crystal as well.


    ckbeard was obviously shocked that he had been stabbed through the heart from the back. Were his body normal, that would have killed him. He intended to use his Devil Fruit to kill the bastard who tried a sneak attack and then retreat so he could recover, but his Devil Fruit was not responding. Even his body did not seem to be responding. He had been using his Devil Fruit to draw the old man''s power into the pineapple so he could eat it. His unique physiology should let him survive. But his body was frozen in the act of drawing out Whitebeard''s power and it wasn''t going into the Pineapple.


    Rayleigh noticed that ckbeard wasn''t dead somehow, but he already happened upon the method to use Psychometry to Hijack and draw in the flow of Darkness and Space, so he used a dozen Wills to use Force Stasis on ckbeard while using the Force within ckbeard''s body to freeze him up until he was done. With his body frozen and his Devil Fruit Hijacked, he could do nothing but feel everything he worked for be taken away.


    ckbeard tried to cry out, shout, or even justin. He risked everything on the biggest bet anyone had ever made and was about to win it all, only for it toe up short at thest minute.


    Too bad no one cared for hisints. Once Rayleigh felt that there was nothing left to take of the flow of Space and Darkness, he removed his sword and lopped off ckbeard''s head. He didn''t even bother to look at the man''s aggrieved face before walking out of the sheet. Rayleigh wasn''t entirely sure why he drew the flows of Darkness and Space into his Kyber Crystal. After he felt it was possible, he just felt that he should do it and didn''t question that feeling. Now that he was out in the open, he saw that the once light blue color of his Kyber Crystal had be dark purple. His Sword of Babylon still worked though, so it wasn''t a problem.


    "Did ckbearde out?"


    "Who is that?"


    The ckbeard, or former ckbeard Pirates saw Rayleigh exit the sheet and pulled it away, leaving only two corpses, one of which was headless.


    "Eh? When did he get there?!"


    "You killed ckbeard!"


    "You Bastard!"


    Rayleigh casually walked out and a few Marines recognized him. They knew him as Mihawk''s apprentice and were surprised that he had somehow assassinated ckbeard.


    The ckbeard Pirates didn''t attack him since they didn''t have a reason to do so after their captain was killed. Instead, they scattered, running away.


    The Admirals were kept busy by the yers so the remains of the Whitebeard Pirates had already boarded their ships and sailed out. Sengoku ordered the Admirals to capture ckbeard''s crew since that would still be a big win for the Marines. Taking credit for killing ckbeard and recapturing his crew of escaped Impel Down inmates would soften the blow of allowing the defeated Whitebeard Pirates to escape.


    Sengoku then ordered the Warlords to fight the yers. Mihawk refused, stating that he only agreed to fight members of the Whitebeard Pirates, which these guys were not. The rest of the Warlords didn''t bother doing anything either but were willing to at least surround the yers, despite the fact that they were not trying to escape.


    After a few minutes, much of Marineford was burning from theva and Akainu and the rest returned with several dead and dying members of the ckbeard Pirates.


    Seeing the Whitebeard Pirates sail off into the sunset, Akainu asked permission to chase and sink their fleet. Just about every living Pirate was taken. Even the pile of injured Pirates Rayleigh made had been tossed into one of the ships before they retreated. They even got Ace''s body and most of the other bodies.


    To Akainu''s suggestion, Kizaru pointed out, "With what ships? All of the Warships had their sails burned down by that other Fire girl."


    Akainu growled, "Then get some from the warehouse! I''m not letting Dragon''s son get away so easily."


    Another Marine ran up to Sengoku and shouted, "Fleet Admiral! The Red-Haired Pirates have joined up with the retreating Whitebeard Pirates and are helping them escape!"


    Akainu shouted, "WHAT?!"


    Titan pointed out, "Hey! Aren''t you forgetting something?"


    Sengoku looked over at the yers and sneered. "Surrender now and you''ll only be locked up for the rest of your lives. Even with your help, Ace was executed and Whitebeard was killed. With ckbeard''s death, this is aplete victory for the Marines and there is nothing you can do."


    Titan raised his fist into the air and opened it.


    The speakers of Marineford sounded out, "Ah of course. The good guys win. The bad guys lose. And as always, Ennd prevails. I mean, Justice prevails."


    Sengoku looked around with his Haki but was unable to find where the person with the transmission Snail was located.


    Rayleigh recognized the voice as Captain Jack''s, though he was using a very thick ent to perfectly mimic Jack Sparrow.


    The speakers continued, "This is being broadcast on frequencies Zero and Twenty-three by the way. The video and radio feed have been cut, so only those present and the guys in That ce can hear us now."


    That caused Sengoku and the Admirals to freeze up for a moment. Frequency Zero was just the in-basemunication. Every Base had its own frequency zero. But Frequency Twenty-three was only essible to Marineford and broadcast right to the room of the Five Elders. Sengoku had no idea if this Pirate was lying or not, but he could not understand why he would try to draw the attention of those beings.


    Sengoku shouted for everyone to search for the source of the transmission while ordering the Admirals to kill the Pirate yers if they moved. The Vice Admirals and below weremanded to bring in the injured Marines.


    Captain Jack continued, uninterrupted, "Do you guys like stories? Let me tell you a good one. A thousand years ago, there were hundreds of Kingdoms around the world, each ruled by a foolish King. Generation after generation, one foolish king was reced by his son, who was often an even more foolish King. One day, several exceedingly foolish Kings caused theplete copse of their Kingdoms. This wasn''t umon, and usually, the territory would be taken by the second son of a nearby foolish King who became thend''s next foolish King."


    Sengoku''s pupils dted in fear as he started recognizing the details of this story. "SHUT OFF THE SPEAKERS NOW!"


    "But this time, before the foolish Princes could take thend of the fallen Kingdoms, a group ofmoners decided to take it first. Instead of a single person ruling thend, they decided to rule it together and formed a n. They decided to debate each decision together and choose how theirnd would be run using the majority consensus of the n. They called this, Democracy."


    Sengoku shouted, "DESTROY THE SPEAKERS!"


    Kizaru used hissers to fire at every speaker in visual range, but the audio continued as there were many speakers inside the buildings, inside the hallways, and even some that had been hidden away.


    "Over the next two hundred years, thisnd prospered. The geniuses of othernds who had been forced to serve theirnd''s foolish Kings gathered in thisnd without Kings where their opinions would be heard. By listening to these geniuses, thend grew even more prosperous which then attracted more geniuses which then caused it to grow even more in an endless cycle until one day, it was the most powerfulnd in the world."


    Sengoku ordered the Marines to find the broadcast station that sent signals to the speakers and destroy it but the audio continued. They had no idea that Captain Jack had brought a private system that could hack into the primary system, so destroying their own stuff would not end the transmission.


    "The remaining foolish Kings of this time decided to work together to destroy this country. It began when they were able to steal one of thend''s great weapons, the Lord of the Skies, Uranus. The Lord of the Skies was able to destroy entire inds and was used to tear down the heart of thisnd. When it was obvious that they would lose, the leading n decided to y the long game. They knew that the alliance of foolish Kings would try to erase their legacy, so they used their remaining great weapon, Pluton, Lord of the Earth. Through unimaginable means, Pluton reshaped the world, forming the Red Line and the Grand Line. That''s right, the Grand Line and Red Line arepletely artificial."


    "Now, I''m sure you''re wondering, why go through all the effort to make the Grand Line? Well, it was to protect their Legacy. The Grand Line is a trial that only those unrestricted by thews of the world can traverse. Reach its end and the legacy of thatnd can be found. I''m sure you''re wondering, what is that Legacy? Well, thatnd left their entire history in that ce, from start to finish, in one piece. Hehe. A giant mural carved into an indestructible stone tells their story. Even though they lost the war, they knew that as long as the belief of their n, the belief in Democracy survived, they would have thestugh."


    "Ah, did you know that Gol D Roger was the one who named thest ind Laugh Tale? Why''d he do it? It''s because that''s where those who knew what freedom truly was left their tale and would have thestugh. And the story I''m telling you? It''s the very story that was carved into that mural. Though I am leaving out a few things about a Prophecy, but that''s the boring part. Roger knew he was not the one in the Prophecy, so he didn''t spread the tale. Only when a member of the D n, the descendants of those who ruled using Democracy, fulfilled certain conditions could the prophecy be fulfilled. Instead of spreading the tale, Roger left everything he had, his entire story, on that ind and then he made a deal with the World Government for him and his crew to keep quiet, in exchange, he''d turn himself in and the World Government would not hunt down his crew."


    "Of course, the World Government doesn''t like to be told what to do. Roger didn''t include his son in the deal to keep him a secret, but since he was not a part of the deal, the World Government did everything they could to kill the son of the man they were forced to make a deal with. So the reason that all those pregnant women and babies were killed? It''s because the World Government is a sore loser."


    "And since they made a deal with Roger, to keep quiet, I wonder if they will make a deal with me? I''m not a member of the D n that descended from the leaders of thatnd. I''m sure the World Government cane up with something good to give me to keep me quiet too. Of course, every Marine in Marineford now knows this tale as well. Will you make a deal with them too? I look forward to your decision."


    There were no more speakers and yet the voice still carried through Marineford until thest word was spoken. Sengoku grit his teeth furiously and closed his eyes, praying that the worst would note. He would be disappointed.


    Rayleigh felt it first. A wicked feeling that resembled the flow of a spider''s web. It flowed from the outside into the center of Marineford where a pitch-ck pentagram started to form from darkness and shadow.


    Sengoku spotted it and his head dropped down in shame. What had he done?


    *Author''s Note*


    Well, Warm-Up is over. Now for the Main Event. I like to end at a good cliffhanger to keep interest up, but it took a while to get to one here so this chapter is a bit longer than average. I don''t like doing what others have done, so I thought, what''s left to do? I know, let''s Spoil the entire series and force the Elders to kill everyone in Marineford for knowing what should be forbidden to know. It''s the nature of yers to want to spoil everything after all.


    Sorry about Ace, but it''s not their fault, it is his. Even in canon, Ace was home free. He was the one who decided to go back and y with Akainu. Then Luffy was attacked and Luffy should have been able to dodge, but he did not which forced Ace to take the hit. I think Luffy couldn''t dodge because that was where he ran out of steam. So Ace died because he fell for Akainu''s taunts and because Luffy ran out of steam at the worst possible moment. If you know what is going to happen ahead of time, it is really easy to prevent this. But if you don''t, it is impossible to stop, no matter what n you have. Even if the yers went all out earlier, that would have caused the Admirals and Fleet Admiral to go all out earlier. You can tell what All-out looks like for an Admiral based on Punk Hazard.


    Captain Jack has a simple Hatsu that uses Force GPS and Maniption Aura to manipte a Compass needle to point wherever he wants. It can only be used for one hour, once a week, and only while sailing on a ship, but given enough time, he can use it to find Laugh Tale very easily. He would not be able to read the murals, but it wouldn''t be hard to use the same Hatsu to find someone who Could read them which would have led him to Vega Punk.


    Roger said he left everything he had in that ce. Everything he had was just his story, so if he carved his own story while he was there, it would match what he said. Not sure if I''m right, but this is my best guess using the avable information. It''s cringe, but I''m assuming that D stands for Democracy and that the idea that the lost kingdom had which caused it to be erased from history is Democracy. I''m probably wrong, but with the information given so far, it''s not a bad guess.


    Now it is time to fight some Elders and the Swordmasters of Mary Geoise. The Five Elders seem to have the ability to teleport to magic circles, but there are conditions. The Magic Circles have to be ced there in advance by the Demon Spider, Elder Saturn. He can also ce ones close to him. He had to teleport using it first, and after teleporting himself there, he could teleport others to his location. I''m guessing that the teleportation works using Spider Web Magic, which exins why he has to be the first to show up and is responsible for assisting the others in showing up afterward. And I may be wrong, but I''m going to say that bing an Elder means having used the Ope Ope Fruit to be Immortal. After 800 Years, there should be more Immortals than just Imu, so I''m gonna say that each Elder is also Immortal. I also spared Akainu up to this point just so we can have a scene of the Elders ordering him to kill every Marine in Marineford.

 Chapter 77: The Elders of Mary Geoise

    Chapter 77: The Elders of Mary Geoise


    Although the Fleet Admiral was the first to recognize the significance of the ck pentagram that appeared at the center of Marineford, his own dread, and guilt dyed the actions that should have immediately followed this recognition.


    Admiral Akainu was about two-thirds dead at the moment from the beating he received from Whitebeard, but being closer to death strengthened the senses and he realized that Sengoku was not giving the order that he should be giving. Therefore, he gave it himself. As pirs of ck smoke started pouring out of the pentagram, Akainu shouted to the whole of Marineford, "Any Marine below the rank of Commodore is hereby ordered to avert their gaze! Any who disobey will be executed!"


    Seeing that most didn''t understand the order, Akainu shouted with an authority that would not allow being questioned, "TURN AROUND NOW AND DON''T LOOK YOU BASTARDS OR I''LL KILL YOU MYSELF!"


    The rank-and-file Marines that had been previously ordered to scour the battlefield and take the injured survivors to the newly set up medical tents had to drop whomever they were carrying and turn away from the center of Marineford, facing the walls.


    The Marines around Rayleigh had also turned away, but Rayleigh was not a Marine and did not follow the given order. Some of the Marines around Rayleigh noticed this, but were too nervous to say anything. Rayleigh ended up not fighting the Marines and even killed ckbeard, so from the Marine''s perspective, he was on their side. He was being treated very differently than the yers who were surrounded by hostile res and raised weapons.


    Since he couldn''t walk over to them and ask, Rayleigh just posed his query in the Pirate Chat Room, assuming that the yers were keeping an eye on it as well.


    [Swordsman: So what''s the n?]


    [Titan: Huh? Isn''t it obvious? We''re gonna piss them off enough to send the final boss.]


    [Captain Jack: Obviously that''s obvious. I think he''s asking, how are you gonna beat the final boss and the Fleet Admiral and the Admirals?][Invisible Man: Yeah, Swordsman can''t see the n. Cause it''s invisible.]


    [Mimic: Don''t worry. The actual final boss isn''t someone you can beat yet, but some End Game Mini Bosses are gonna show up. Good luck with them. And Swordsman, if you want to make the fight harder, ask them about Saint Imu of House Nerona, the loser who simped for the first Queen Nefertari.]


    [Swordsman: Is he the final boss?]


    Mimic didn''t answer, but several other yers who weren''t even in Marineford started making fun of Imu, despite likely not knowing who he was.


    The ck smoke erupted and the silhouette of a giant figure with a monstrous form could be seen for a moment, but when the ck smoke blew away, it revealed the figure of an old man in a high-ss suit that carried a walking cane.


    He scanned the area and momentarily met the eyes of the Admirals, the yers, Mihawk, Domingo, and Rayleigh. But when he saw a low-ranking Marine try to turn around and sneak a peak at him, a sh of light appeared in the old man''s eyes and the head of the Marine who looked at him exploded.


    [Swordsman: Dufuq?]


    [Captain Jack: Saint Jaygarcia Saturn. Warrior God of Science and Defense. One of the Five Elders who run the World Government. Looking at him is a crime punishable by execution for any low-rank Marine. Saint Saturn usually executes the punishment personally.]


    [Wild King: What did he do?]


    [Stoner: Made a dude''s head explode by looking at him.]


    ording to Rayleigh''s senses, Fire Queen, Wonder Woman, All Seeing Prophet, Lightning Lord, Glitter, Dyna Might, and Wild King had left Marineford. Both halves of Crystal''s body were also gone, but Rayleigh didn''t care about what happened to her.


    The only yers present were himself, Titan, Stoner, Crow, Justice, and Goddess of Ice. Captain Jack was also around somewhere and though Rayleigh could not sense his Force presence, Rayleigh suspected that Invisible Man was also skulking about unseen.


    Saint Saturn only took a moment to assess the situation with his own Observation Haki before another ck Pentagram appeared around him. Rayleigh sensed this one was a bit different from the previous one. The previous one was tied to the center of Marineford while this one was tied to Saint Saturn himself.


    Three figures arose from the shadows around Saint Saturn. One was another old man while the other two were clearly swordsmen with strange hairstyles.


    Titan looked upset when the smoke cleared and shouted to the old man, "What, only two of you came?"


    The newly arrived old man was very bald, quite tall, and had sses. He sneered a bit in Titan''s direction before stating, "The other Elders have much more important things to do than deal with you insects."


    [Swordsman: And that guy is?]


    [Captain Jack: Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro. Warrior God of Finance]


    When said old man finished speaking, he seemed to use Observation Haki before looking in the direction that Captain Jack was hiding.


    Saint Saturn looked over at his fellow Elder and stated, "This is an unprecedented incident. How do you think we should proceed?"


    After looking in Captain Jack''s direction for a moment, Saint Nusjuro answered, "The pair of Den Den Mushis used to transmit the forbidden secrets were really just for frequencies Zero and Twenty-Three and there are no other Den Den Mushis active on the ind. This incident can be contained."


    Not only had Saint Nusjuro''s Observation Haki spotted Captain Jack, but he even saw the pair of Radio Snails that the yer used to transmit that story and confirmed that he had not lied about only transmitting it to their office and through the base speakers.


    Hearing this, Saint Saturn erupted with a wave of Conqueror''s Haki. The weight of the world smacked into the consciousness of every person in Marineford, knocking a majority of the Marines below the rank of Rear-Admiral unconscious.


    Saint Nusjuro then nodded and stated, "All Den Den Mushies have been rendered unconscious and will not work for the next few hours. During this period, I suggest that a cleansing is in order."


    The Elder in charge of the Marines asked the Elder in charge of the money, "Can we afford this?" The questioncked any kind of emotion one might expect from such a notion. It was as nd as if he had asked about the weather.


    Saint Nusjuro answered, "Killing Whitebeard, ckbeard, and the son of Roger will cause many to join the Marines. We can afford to give further incentives to raise the number of recruits and make up for any losses sustained during the cleansing."


    Saint Saturn nodded before turning to Sengoku. Neither Elder had lowered their voice, so their conversation and meaning was clear to everyone. Saint Saturn addressed the leader of the Marines. "This will be the final Order you will carry out as Fleet Admiral. Execute every Marine below the rank of Vice Admiral in Marineford."


    Sengoku shouted in protest, "But they''ve done nothing wrong! They survived this war and will be the backbone of the Marines!"


    Saint Saturn shook his head, "Knowing too much is a sin in itself and only those who have reached the rank of Vice Admiral are authorized to be trusted with such knowledge. You know this. Do not question my orders Sengoku."


    Seeing an opportunity, Akainu stepped forward and said, "I will carry out your orders Elder Saturn."


    Saint Saturn nced at the dog in front of him, fully aware of his intentions. He then saw the reluctance to follow this order from Aokiji and even Kizaru before turning back to Akainu, giving a small nod.


    Akainu grinned widely. That small nod had just confirmed his future position as Fleet Admiral.


    Saint Saturn then turned to the Warlord called Domingo and said, "Release the Birdcage."


    This caused the Admirals and even the Fleet Admiral to look over and Domingo in confusion, likely not understanding what the Elder was referring to. Domingo himself lost his smile and now looked somewhat constipated. The observing Rayleigh did not know if this was because the Warlord did not like being ordered or that he did not like that the Elder knew of this Birdcage thing.


    The mboyant Warlord only resisted for a moment before nodding and raising his hand into the air. He understood that this was not an order he could refuse.


    A beam of white shot from Domingo''s hand into the sky. From the way that it reflected light, Rayleigh could tell that this beam wasposed of thousands of strings. After reaching a height greater than the tallest building in Marineford, the white beam spread out, turning into a dome of vertical lines.


    A ck light formed in Saint Saturn''s hand and a momentter, he threw it into the beam of string being shot from Domingo. The white strings ckened and expanded, turning the massive cage of vertical strings into a massive ck spiderweb that covered the whole of Marineford and reached the sea floor around the base. Unless you could break the cage or shrink yourself, no one would be able to escape the spider cage.


    Saint Saturn then shouted, "All Admirals and Vice Admirals are to execute everyone below the rank of Vice Admiral and every Pirate. Those who do notply are to be executed as well. Pacifistas, execute all Marines below the rank of Vice Admiral and the Warlords other than Domingo."


    Goddess of Ice was the first yer to protest. She and Justice were promoted to Vice Admiral due to their contributions during the war, so they were not targets, but that didn''t mean they were okay with killing Marines. Especially when they knew that it was pointless. The yers could not be silenced. Even if you killed them, they would not lose the knowledge they gained when they made a new character. They could spread this knowledge whenever they wanted to and make this act of killing Marines to silence them pointless.


    Goddess of Ice shouted to her mentor, Aokiji, "You can''t let them do this! Those assholes definitely left the information outside of Marineford! Even if every Marine and Pirate here dies, it will get out eventually!"


    Justice looked over at Kizaru and shouted, "She''s right! There is no way that they got that information here, so they got it outside Marineford and it''s still there, so there is no point in silencing everyone here!"


    Kizaru looked over to Saint Saturn and said, "Oh ho ho, did you hear that? What do you think?"


    Saint Saturn rose his walking stick and knocked it back onto the ground. He firmly answered, "This has already been considered. But if the forbidden secrets are given out in the future, we shall deal with it in the future. Containment is the number one priority. No matter how many lives, inds, or nations must be burned to the ground. This has been the way of the World Government for thest eight centuries." He then looked at Goddess of Ice and said, "As a Marine, you answer to the World Government. Refusing an order is punishable by execution. Now do your duty."


    Saint Saturn emitted a heavy pressure that should have forced anyone else to yield and bow down, but this only infuriated Goddess of Ice. Just about every yer who chose Pirate for their Primary ss had the Talent for Conqueror''s Haki, they just hid it since it drew the wrong kind of attention. Goddess of Ice also had the Jedi ss that strengthened her mind, further weakening the oppressive effect of the Elder''s Haki on the eighteen-year-old girl.


    Before Goddess of Ice could say anything, Rayleigh stepped forward. Five of the ten Pacifistas jumped Mihawk at the same time when the Elder gave the order. Two others went for Geko Moria. Boa Hancock had already left Marineford, so she was not in the scope of the execution, leaving only Mihawk and the unlucky Geko Moria to be within the order''s effect.


    But Rayleigh was not a Marine, Pirate, or Warlord. None of the given orders had affected him. He could have gone off to the side and ignored everything, but his Red Sword of Babylon was out and he really wanted a reason to use it, so he wasn''t going to let these guys forget about him.


    Rayleigh asked, "What about me? I''m not a Marine or a Pirate. I was invited here and have no criminal record and I killed ckbeard. Am I to be executed too?"


    Saint Saturn replied, "Of course." He then looked over to the two swordsmen with strange hairstyles who vanished from view before reappearing with their swords going for Rayleigh''s neck, one from the front and one from the back.


    Rayleigh shed in an arc overhead, knocking both swords back before driving toward the heart of one of them. Said swordsman used shave to get some distance but Rayleigh outsped him and went for the killing blow, though he had to veer to the side to avoid the flying shes that came at him from behind.


    Their Haki and sword skills were almost on par with Mihawk''s and they worked together quite seamlessly. But while using the Red Sword of Babylon Rayleigh was more than a match for the pair of them together. He even had a few Wills to spare and use the Chat Room.


    [Swordsman: So who are the swordsmen with the mentally deficient hairstyles?]


    [Mimic: If you mean retarded hairdos, those are God''s Knights. They are the protectors of Mary Geoise and considered the best swordsmen in the world.]


    [Captain Jack: Swordsman is kicking their butts.]


    [Swordsman: They are weaker than Mihawk, but their style is quite mature.]


    If either of the God''s Knights heard Rayleigh''spliment, they would likely fly into a rage. Simplifying the elegance and centuries of refinement of their sword style into a word as mundane as mature was punishable by death. Although not as old as some of the sword styles that originated in the Samuraind of Wano, the style used by the God''s Knights could be said to be the most tested style in the world. There were only ever nine members of the God''s Knights and old members were reced in death duels. Eight centuries of death duels evolved their style into what they believed was the strongest style in the world.


    Of course, that style did not take into ount a talent for Conqueror''s Haki. The method they used to channel their Armament Haki and use their Observation Haki was certainly exquisite, but they did not use Conqueror''s Haki, so in Rayleigh''s opinion, it lost out to Mihawk''s Style that fused Strong and Gentle.


    Rayleigh didn''t mind this and fully intended to steal their style. Before using Sword of Babylon, Rayleigh stole the styles of the Pirates by using their swords and using psychometry. Now that he was using the Sword of Babylon, he had another way to steal styles.


    Duringbat, one of his Wills actively maintained Psychometry using his sword. Since he could use Psychometry through his sword, Rayleigh could obtain some of the swordsmanship insights of the styles others used every time his sword made contact with theirs. Rayleigh didn''t particrly care about winning or losing. He just wanted to make himself stronger, so he would take everything from these God''s Knights before moving on. He already had another target in mind when he was done.


    After sicking the God''s Knights on Rayleigh, Saint Saturn went to personally deal with Titan and the other yers.


    At the same time, Saint Nusjuro also had to keep busy. Mihawk destroyed three of the Pacifistas that were sent after him, forcing the Warrior God of Finance to draw his sword and face the number one Swordsman of the World.


    Justice and Goddess of Ice both started fighting Aokiji and Kizaru, stopping them from executing any Marines. Fleet Admiral Sengoku also pressed down on Vice Admiral Garp to stop Garp from stopping the Marines. It looked like they were not trying very hard, obviously just putting on an act so that they could give an excuseter.


    That left Geko Moria to deal with the remaining Pacifistas and the shadow user had no chance against them, but he was not alone. Every Rear Admiral and a number of Vice Admirals joined him and stood against the Pacifistas and Admiral Akainu.


    Geko Moria imnted shadows into the corpses of the fallen Marines and Pirates to fight against Akainu and the Vice Admirals.


    Luckily, the Pacifistas and the original Robot Bear were dealt with easily. They were only ordered to kill Geko Moria and the Marines below Vice Admiral. When a Vice Admiral got in their way, the robots would not attack. Using this, they were able to take the weapons of destruction out of the picture by having some Vice Admirals volunteer to keep getting in their way every time they tried to attack.


    Titan immediately shifted into the form of a giant golden Buddha and struck out against Saint Saturn. In what seemed to be an instant, the old man changed. He seemed to turn into a blob of shadow before that blob expanded to a form even taller than Titan''s giant golden Buddha form. Around Saint Saturn were six spider legs while the Elder''s arms retained their human appearance after the massive growth spurt.


    What Rayleigh found odd was that the man''s walking stick also grew to match his size. How did that work? Then again, the fact that a Logia Fruit''s user could elementize their clothes didn''t make any sense either, so the pointless questions could be left forter.


    One of the Giant Spider Elder''s front spider legs lifted to block Titan''s attack, but the smirk the yer wore revealed the oue of the contest before contact was even made.


    The defense of the Elder failed to block Titan''s Nen-saturated attack and the Giant Spider Elder''s face caved in as his massive body was shot into the giant stone wall that bore the word Justice.


    This actually stunned the Marines, the God''s Knights, and the second Elder.


    Nen was one of the trump cards that yers did not use publicly unless it was a life or death situation, so few in the Marines were aware that there were figures of this generation who possessed such abilities. Enhancement Nen was simr to Armament Haki as they both heavily enhanced physical force. Titan was an Enhancer, so he could stack his enhancement Nen on top of his Haki and physical strength.


    Rayleigh took the chance to remove the head of the weaker of the two God''s Knights he was facing. It was quite rude to look away from your opponent in the middle of a fight.


    This enraged the other God''s Knight, making him sloppy, but Rayleigh didn''t need the man''s current skill, he just needed to strike the man''s sword over and over, so this worked out just fine for him.


    Elder Saturn got up from the rubble and showed off a figurecking any injury even though his face had clearly sunken in from the earlier attack. His eyes shed and Titan stepped to the side.


    Rayleigh''s En saw what happened. The Spider Elder seemed to be able to shoot an invisible web. If you got caught in it, you would be slowed down, but it could not be seen using Observation Haki. En on the other hand basically expanded your sense of touch to the entire area and even if the web was invisible, it was still solid and could not escape the En of the various yers.


    Seeing that they were not going to be useful in this fight, Crow assisted Goddess of Ice against Aokiji and Stoner went to help the Marines against Akainu. Justice was going all out using his Nen so even if he could not fully match Kizaru, it looked like he could fully match Kizaru, meaning that thezy Marine could allow himself to be stalled by this wayward disciple of his.


    Ash was actually very useful against ice and thanks to Crow''s clever usage of Nen, he was providing excellent backup to Goddess of Ice against her own mentor.


    Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro had also transformed into some kind of sword-wielding skeleton centaur thing and was going all out against Mihawk. The former seemed quite upset that thetter was capable of using Conqueror''s Haki.


    Just like Rayleigh, Mihawk did not miss the chance that his opponent was distracted to chop off the man''s head. But the severed head seemed to break apart into ck ribbons that dissolved into the air. The same ck ribbons then reformed above the man''s neck and came together to reform the man''s head.


    The Giant Spider rushed at Titan while his eyes shed over and over, shooting more invisible webs that Titan had to use En to sense and dodge. Mihawk tried cutting off the centaur man''s legs to reduce him to a torso, but it was obvious that the legs would regenerate in a moment.


    Coincidentally, Titan saw this and bent down to their fight, asking, "Do you mind if I borrow this?" while picking up Saint Nusjuro''s legless skeleton from the tailbone.


    Mihawk replied, "By all means."


    Saint Nusjuro shouted inint and sent numerous flying shes at Titan, but the golden aura around his golden Buddha form and his Nen blocked the flying shes.


    Saint Saturn''s charging form noticed his fellow Elder''s predicament and his charging speed only grew faster as he rushed forward to kill this pirate and get him to unhand Saint Nusjuro.


    What neither suspected was what Titan intended to do with the skeletal horse spine and rib cage. Instead of keeping it as a hostage or something, he swung it at the iing Saint Saturn, using the spine and ribcage that ended in Saint Nusjuro''s torso as a weapon simr to a il and chain.


    Titan smashed Saint Nusjuro into Saint Saturn and Saint Nusjuro''s rib bones broke off and got stuck into Saint Saturn, but they dissolved into ck ribbons and regenerated back onto Saint Nusjuro only for it to break off again in the next hit.


    Even though both Saint Saturn and Saint Nusjuro were essentially immortal, neither could understand what was happening because such a thing had never happened before. Saint Nusjuro could try to use Armament Haki to prevent his body from getting smashed on each impact but that would only increase the damage that Saint Saturn received from each blow.


    One of Rayleigh''s Wills using irvoyance to watch this scene of an indestructible spine, ribcage, and skull being used as a weapon against another person felt like he heard Nsync''s song, Bye Bye Bye, but that feeling quickly vanished.


    "ENOUGH OF THIS!" Saint Saturn shouted out and the ck pentagram reformed around him.


    Titan seemed happy enough to allow this, but Rayleigh saw a shatterpoint and his danger sense told him not to allow reinforcements. Up to this point, Rayleigh did not feel that the threat to his life from this ce was high enough to be of concern, but now that was different.


    Rayleigh poured his Nen and Haki into the Red Sword of Babylon and swung it with all his strength before running to the ck pentagram. His opponent did not move and a momentter, the top half of the sword in his hand fell to the ground, followed shortly by his head.


    The invisible webs of the Giant Spider Elder could not be detected with Observation Haki, but Rayleigh''s Sword of Babylon enhanced the effect of Babylon which already enhanced his senses. In this state, he almost had a knockoff Mystic Eyes of Death Perception when he used Shatterpoint to see weaknesses. Using this, he saw the invisible threads of spider silk extending from the ck pentagram and shed at his highest speed.


    Elder Saturn had not expected Rayleigh to show up and certainly did not expect him to cut the world web lines that he used to teleport others to his location.


    The ck pentagram faded out, but the first person toin was not Elder Saturn, but Titan. The giant golden yer shouted, "What did you do that for?! I''ve been trying to goad him into inviting the other Elders here this entire time!"


    Rayleigh replied, "Because you have no idea what you''re doing."


    "Hey! I can kill these guys anytime I want to."


    "I don''t believe you. How about this, if you can actually kill him right now, I''ll admit I''m wrong and even join your crew."


    "Oh? You''d better keep your word."


    Within the Pirate Chat, Titan sent a message.


    [Titan: Hey Goddess of Ice, can you freeze the spider with his mouth open?]


    [Goddess of Ice: Get his mouth open and I''ll freeze it.]


    Titan had already thrown Saint Nusjuro back to Mihawk and reeled his fist back to strike.


    Saint Saturn took a step back to get out of range for what was obviously going to be a strong punch but was surprised when Titan threw his fist forward without stepping in to close the distance.


    That was when they heard the crack.


    Cracksrger than Marineford''srgest building formed at the impact point of Titan''s fist on the empty air.


    Every building behind Saint Saturn crumbled to pieces and the Giant Spider Elder himself had cracks appear throughout his entire body as if he was about to explode. The massive damage obviously caused Saint Saturn''s mouth to open wide and in that moment, Goddess of Ice sh froze the elder, leaving his open mouth unblocked.


    Titan then casually took something out of his pocket and tossed it into Saturn''s mouth. Anyone with good vision could tell that it looked like a devil fruit.


    After it reached the giant spider''s stomach, the entire body of the Giant Spider Elder exploded.


    Titan then turned back to Rayleigh and said, "Not everyone can use the power of two devil Fruits like I can. Wee to my crew. As the new guy, it will be your job to scrub the decks for the next-"


    Titan''s bragging was interrupted by a woman''s scream.


    Saint Saturn''s giant spider legs had pierced Goddess of Ice''s stomachpletely through. The pieces of his body dissolved into ribbons and reformed once more, the Elder returning to his uninjured state. This time though, he looked different.


    Behind the Elder, around his back, and over his shoulders, was a ck banner that seemed to be made of smoke and shadow. The Elder''s body also seemed to be a littlerger.


    Although he did not look very different, the feeling he gave off seemed to be many times more sinister and powerful than before. Previously, he had been treating this encounter as the extermination of pests. Now, he wanted his enemies to suffer.


    Rayleigh looked back over to Titan and asked, "You were saying?"


    Titan replied, "Oops."


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry that took a while. I kept thinking that the chapter was missing something so I didn''t like any drafts I had of it. Then I watched Deadpool and Wolverine and it came to me. I''m sure those who watched it noticed it.


    Titan and the other 20 Talent Pirate yers have 2 Devil Fruits. Every 20 Talent yer gets a Special ability rted to their ss. Rayleigh gets Bnce of the Force, Pirates get 2 Devil Fruits. Every special abilityes with a weakness, and having 2 Devil Fruits means that their weakness to standing water is also doubled. Have fun guessing what the other sses get.


    Next part should not take nearly that long. Also, I figured out the direction to go for the Star Wars Arc which is good, since I didn''t have a good idea before this. A Good MC has a strong Mind, Body, and Heart. My MC has a strong body and mind, but what about his heart? A strong heart can''t be forged alone.


    I also think that Heart training is the main problem when ites to Jedi and Sith. Training the Heart wrong will lead one to the Dark Side, so the Jedi forbid anything that can train the Heart, but this leads to them having weak hearts. Then again, a True Jedi doesn''t need a heart. The Heart can guide a person, but a Jedi lets the Force guide them, so the Heart is useless.


    I''ve neglected training my MC''s heart by having him avoid drama, so it''s time to throw him into the heart of everything and let him make difficult choices and mistakes to train his heart. That will be the general direction of the Clone Wars Arc. MC will master the Force while mastering the new powers of his Devil Fruit Empowered Kyber Crystals while training his heart.

 Chapter 78: Cutting Down the Elders

    Chapter 78: Cutting Down the Elders


    Chapter 78 Cutting Down the Elders


    Rayleigh was angry. It wasn''t any one specific thing, but a culmination of a lot of ridiculous little things piling up into a massive irritant that had spilled over Rayleigh''s bottom line. Titan''s arrogance and reckless decisions. The insane n of the yers that relied on something that apparently didn''t even work. And probably most of all, someone that Rayleigh had taught, someone who could be considered a student of his, someone who owed him a debt, had been mortally wounded.


    At this point, Rayleigh still was not in any danger. He could use shatterpoint to crack open that spider-web cage, run out of the perception range of the enemies, and use today''s avable Tavern Travel chance to leave the world outright. It wasn''t even a bad idea. He had learned just about everything he needed from this world and wouldn''t gain much more from staying.


    But the thought of leaving was not avable at this moment. He was angry. He was angry at the yers. He was angry at the Marines. He was angry at this supposedly immortal elder. He was angry at this world.


    Rayleigh certainly wanted to save Ace, but the yers told him they had it covered. And Rayleigh believed them. For that, he was also angry at himself. With Rayleigh''s skills, he could have chopped off the arms of every Marine and most of the Vice Admirals. None of them had the skills necessary to stop him. But just like all of the other yers, he had been treating this too much as a show, a y, a game. Yes, he was very angry at himself. Others had their reasons but he allowed himself to end up in this situation, so he could not escape the me.


    Well, ytime was over. He''d never done this before and really didn''t want to because it had too many risks, but it was the only avable path that might lead to the oue he wanted.


    Rayleigh became empty. Not because he let go of his emotions, but because he fed them all into the Force. His frustration, his pride, his determination, his wrath.


    But Rayleigh was not a practitioner of the Dark Side. He did not feed the emotion into the Force to receive a corruption-filled power boost to use to enact his own will. Instead, he asked the Force, the whole of the Force, to move through him without Rayleigh''s conscious input. Rayleigh was not a practitioner of the light or the dark. He was the one in the middle, and the whole of the Force answered his call.


    Of course, Rayleigh''s consciousness existed both in his mind and within the Force. Just because his brain''s consciousness was not controlling his body, did not mean that Rayleigh was not in control. The main problem with this power boost method was that if the Force could convince his ''higher'' mind to do something, his ''physical'' mind would not get a chance to refuse. Rayleigh had never done this because he didn''t know how much he would have in the final say meaning he didn''t haveplete control over his life and death. Still, he had at least partial control."Do you mind if I take this one?" Under Rayleigh''s direction, the Force did not simply interrupt his teacher''s match, but politely asked to step in.


    The sudden change was noticed by his teacher and his teacher''s sword-wielding centaur opponent. Neither could attribute any word to what was different, but it was noticeable. Without a presence in the Force, it wasn''t like Rayleigh looked visually different to either of them, but both had a high enough battle sense to tell that something had changed and Rayleigh used the moment that the pair paused to observe him to ask his teacher to take over their fight.


    Mihawk only considered it for a moment before nodding and walking back over to the Pacifistas and Vice Admirals trying to kill everyone else. Mihawk''s actual skill with a sword was above that of his immortal opponent and he had little to gain against someone who could afford to be worse just because he couldn''t die.


    "Arrogant Brat!" The Warrior God of Finance sent a high-speed flying sh at Rayleigh''s neck. It carried what could be called the cold breath of the underworld, promising to chill the flesh and blood of any it sliced down to the bone, but the arc of sword intent shattered as the tip of Rayleigh''s blood-red sword was brought up to meet it. The cold air had less effect on Rayleigh than it did Mihawk since Rayleigh''s internal Tutaminis protected him against everything but physical damage, so hot or cold to a certain degree had no effect on him.


    Rayleigh casually sent a flying sh of his own which Saint Nusjuro swiped his sword to block by splitting it in half, but the split arc did not scatter. In fact, after passing around his sword, it reconnected and passedpletely through the skeleton-centaur''s body, bisecting him length-wise.


    Saint Nusjuro''s face would have been worth remembering if Rayleigh was in the mood to do so. Flying shes of Sword intent can be blocked and shattered by swords. This wasmon sense in this world.


    Unfortunately for Saint Nusjuro, Rayleigh''s flying sh was aura transformed into hundreds of sharpened sword aura linespressed into a single line that was emitted from his de and enhanced with Haki and controlled with Tutaminis. The saturation of sword lines and control of Tutaminis allowed Rayleigh to remotely rbine the split lines back into a single line. More than half the lines still dissipated, so the effect was far weaker, but it was still very strong.


    Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro did not understand how it worked but he did understand that he had to go all out or he would be yed with by this child like Saint Saturn had been. ck smoke covered his figure and a momentter, his form was restored. Like Saint Saturn, he had undergone changes. His form wasrger and he had a ribbon of darkness over his shoulders and around his back, behind his head. Ice spread from his hooves, but Rayleigh had been fighting on ice all day and it wouldn''t affect him.


    The Elder was unaware that Rayleigh couldpletely resist the chill of the underworld air he emitted and charged forward to meet Rayleigh''s sword. In his mind, Rayleigh would eventually slow down due to the effect of the cold air and be defeated. This was also why Mihawk was willing to give up the fight. Mihawk was superior to the Elder in swordsmanship, but the Elder could win just by ousting his opponent, making the fight entirely unsatisfying to the world''s number one swordsman.


    The other elder on the battlefield, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, had already gained an advantage in his fight against Titan. Although Titan''s defense was supercharged with Nen, his actual skill in Haki was weaker than the ancient Elder''s and the spider''s poisoned limbs had pierced several holes in Titan''s giant form. The main reason that Titan could still fight in that state was due to the stacking self-recovery effects of being an Enhancer and having a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit. Those attributesbined could allow him to recover from even the deadliest poisons.


    Aokiji had taken his student''s body andpletely froze it before leaving the battlefield. Depending on luck, she might make it. Kizaru pretended to be passed out in a crater he had been smashed into by his own student. After their fight, Justice joined Geko Moria in fighting off Akainu to prevent him from killing the Marines.


    As Rayleigh and Saint Nusjuro exchanged swords, thetter''s expression grew more frustrated while Rayleigh''s seemed empty. Almost every sh of Rayleigh''s sword sliced something from the Warrior God of Finance, forcing thetter to move around and constantly shift his position while the cold air seemed to have no effect on Rayleigh. Just being close to Saint Nusjuro should cause Rayleigh''s flesh to freeze and rot off. What was worse was that the shes he dodged didn''t just vanish because he dodged them. Every sh toppled a building or wall and all the buildings and walls behind them. The whole of Marineford was being turned into rubble from their fight.


    Of course, the main source of frustration was not from the fact that he was losing the fight, it was from calcting the costs of rebuilding Marineford on top of the costs of the uing recruitment drive. Even though he noticed that Rayleigh still seemed unaffected by the cold, Saint Nusjuro literally could notprehend losing since in his mind, Rayleigh would run out of steam eventually, freeze up, and then get cut to pieces. It was only a matter of time.


    The shes sent by Rayleigh even affected the fight of the lower-ranked Marines for their survival. If it weren''t for the fact that the Marineford was built like ayered cake and that Rayleigh''s fight was happening on a higher level than theirs, hundreds of Marines would have already been killed by Rayleigh who didn''t bother altering his aim if someone was behind Saint Nusjuro. In this way, Rayleigh was essentially a cmity for everyone around him who did not differentiate between friend and foe. All were equal under his de.


    The main problem of using this Force-Phenomenon to be a natural disaster was that if the Force did not want Rayleigh to do something, he would not be able to do it in this state. He would either be unable to consciously think of doing it or would have to end the effect and face the bacsh. Rayleigh either had to be very persuasive or the Force had to be okay with doing it. Consciously, Rayleigh did not know which it was. Did his ''higher'' consciousness convince the rest of the Force that this guy needed to die or did the Force want him to die and Rayleigh was just the instrument to do it with? In either case, the immortal''s time wasing to an end. The longer the fightsted, the more of the Force was being brought down. It would be a problem if he ran away since the Force wasn''t likely to let him chase a fleeing target to kill but Saint Nusjuro hadn''t even thought of fleeing, so the issue hadn''te up.


    One side effect of Rayleigh''s usage of the Force was the change to the environment. For one, the clear sky became very cloudy and thunder rolled overhead even though rain did not descend. Even those with a Force presence did not notice the connection between the change in weather and Rayleigh. None of the yers here had gone through extensive Jedi training and even if they felt something, they did not have the training or experience to understand what that something was.


    The one who was happiest with this change was actually Geko Moria. He shouted to Justice, "Hey! The sun is gone! Give me your shadow!"


    Justice was having a hard time against Akainu and the bear robot. Akainu had ordered it to kill Justice and it was immune to Justice''s light attacks and stronger than his physical attacks could damage. If he was the only one fighting, it would be fine, but he was also trying to keep the other Marines around him alive and he was only keeping up thanks to the help of Crow and Stoner. Justice shouted back to Moria, "I''m a little busy right now!"


    Moria replied, "Just let me take your shadow if you don''t want to die! You''ll get it back, okay? I don''t want to die either!"


    "Fine! Just do whatever!" Justice shot a scattered shotgun of light at Akainu to break hisva form into pieces. It didn''t hurt him, but it did slow him down enough for Justice to have a free moment to run over to Moria who snipped off Justice''s shadow before taking it and running off in the direction of Whitebeard''s corpse.


    Moria already tried pushing some of his stored shadows into that corpse earlier, but the corpse wouldn''t take it. That meant he needed a stronger shadow. But if he took the shadow from someone and that someone was touched by sunlight, that someone would turn to dust and die. After death, their shadow would also die. This instant death effect wasn''t useful if Moria was killed while taking the shadow, so he couldn''t just take Kuma''s or Akainu''s shadow to kill them since they knew his tricks, and none of the Vice Admirals on their side were strong enough to produce a shadow that could support Whitebeard. He couldn''t ask Mihawk either since thetter knew how dangerous it was to be without a shadow while this young Marine probably did not.


    While Moria was trying for his Hail Mary, Rayleigh''s eyes never left his opponent. Other than the Wills required to maintain his Sword of Babylon, the remaining Wills were all focused on this one target under the direction of the Force. This state wasn''t something he could go into halfway, it was all or nothing, so he wasn''t paying the slightest attention to his surroundings or the people around him like he usually would while inbat. He could leave this state whenever he wanted to, but his ''wants'' were not ''fully'' in his control at the moment. He had given his wrath to the Force and in exchange, became the wrath of the Force. In this state, he was both his strongest and most vulnerable.


    Not that his opponent could take advantage of this. It would have to be someone else. Because he was incapable of paying attention to others, it was entirely possible for someone else to kill him right now because the cmity he called down could just as easily be his own, but the sword-wielding immortal in front of him was not capable of doing so when he had Rayleigh''s full attention.


    This state was incredibly risky, but as long as he didn''t die, he could bring the world down upon everyone around him.


    In this state, Rayleigh was not simply slicing Saint Nusjuro up for fun. In this state, Rayleigh was not even capable of having fun or enjoying what he was doing. The entirety of the Force had essentially be his brain and he was using it to calcte how to perform the task the Force required his body to perform, the execution of the man in front of him. Using the whole of the Force as aputer, Rayleigh was slowly able to perceive things he had not seen earlier. With every slice, more and more was revealed.


    In Rayleigh''s newly adjusted perception, this man was covered in stitches. The stitches did not sew the man''s pieces together though. They appeared to sew the man to the world. So the man''s static state had been sewn onto the fabric of the world. This form of immortality had drawbacks. It meant that his state would never change. He could never get stronger or more skilled. But the benefits were also obvious. If he was broken or impaired, the world itself would restore him as naturally as water would flow downhill.


    So to kill this man, Rayleigh had to cut the man''s connection to the world. This was not easy. Though Rayleigh imed to have a knock-off version of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, Rayleigh''s sword could not interact with these stitches no matter how much he tried to slice his sword against them. The Force was far from all-powerful. Shatterpoints only worked on physical and living things, but this immortal was only an imitation of life, a well-preserved photograph of what once was, pretending to still be. These stitches had no Force presence and the Force in Rayleigh''s sword did not interact with them.


    So Rayleigh could only keep trying, keep swinging his sword. Every swing would be slightly different. If a hundred attempts did not work what about a thousand? Ten Thousand? A Million? A Hundred Million? As long as a method existed, the Force would find it through the process of elimination. That is, as long as Rayleigh''s body had not broken to pieces from the strain or run out of aura before that point.


    As their battle raged on, Whitebeard''s eyes opened.


    "What is going on?"


    Moria was thrilled. The corpse took the shadow. Immediately after a shadow was ced into a body, the body was affected by the instinct of the shadow and the memories of the body. The fresher the body, the higher the memory quality. Usually, this was a downside, so Moria never revived fresh corpses because it took too long for them to fall under his control. Now, though, this side-effect was a boon. Moria pointed to the side and shouted, "Akainu is over there, go kill him!"


    Whitebeard did not move. He observed Moria, observed his wounds, recalled his final moments, and looked over the battlefield.


    For a dead man, he was pretty quick toe to a conclusion. "Who''s shadow did you take Moria? If it is one of my son''s, I will kill you."


    The pressure from the old man''s words felt like a mountain on Moria''s shoulders, making it difficult to even breathe. "What?! No! It was Kizaru''s disciple, that kid fighting Akainu over there! He volunteered it and I even told him I''d give the shadow back!"


    Whitebeard looked over and felt a connection to the kid, something he could easily attribute to the shadow granting him a fake-life. He said, "Then you''d better keep your word Moria."


    Zombies could not use the Devil Fruits they had when they were alive, but Whitebeard didn''t need it. He could barely use his strength today because of his health issues. Ironically, being dead removed all of those issues. It didn''t affect his ability to use Haki either since he was given the shadow of someone capable of using all three forms of Haki. Before, using all the strength of his body would have killed him. Now, he can truly go all out. The zombie smiled as blood dripped down his face. It was time to remind the Marines why he was feared.


    Mihawk watched the Zombie Whitebeard with some interest after cutting down the final Pacifista. The only robot remaining was Kuma, but the man''s Devil Fruit made attacking him difficult, as he could push away any attack sent toward him, no matter how strong. He got a feeling that the battle would be ending soon though, so he decided to exchange a few blows with that giant spider elder since the younger user of the Golden Buddha Fruit did not seem to be fairing so well.


    When Whitebeard''s zombie rose, Rayleigh felt something interesting. There was a slight resonance of Whitebeard and a presence inside his Kyber Crystal. It was only for a moment and faded right after, but it made Rayleigh and the Force acutely aware of both new presences in his now purple Kyber Crystal. Neither were aspects of the Force, so the Force had not paid attention to them until now, but since the power of the Force was not being very useful in helping him cut this immortal, The Force''s one-track mind was more open to alternatives.


    After a moment of analysis under the full power of the Force, Rayleigh understood what was inside his Kyber Crystal. This understanding would have left him shocked in normal circumstances, but he was currently unable to feel emotions, so it was epted without issue. Previously, he knew that he had drawn thews of Space Vibrations and Darkness from ckbeard using Psychometry through Rayleigh''s sword, but he thought he was only copying the man''s understanding of thews. He didn''t think that he had somehow actually drawn the full power of both Devil Fruits into his Kyber Crystal.


    Devil Fruits required life to exist. It was possible to fuse an inanimate object with a Devil Fruit, but that was only when the Devil Fruit provided the aspect of Life, so only Zoan Fruits could be ''fed'' to objects. A Kyber Crystal is alive. Furthermore, Rayleigh''s Hatsu poured his Nen, his Life Aura into his Kyber Crystal, further strengthening the aspect of Life within this inanimate object. Thanks to this coincidence and a dozen others, the power of the Darkness Devil Fruit and the Quake Devil Fruit that had been in ckbeard and Whitebeard''s body had been drawn perfectly into his Kyber Crystal and they were even ying nice together.


    Not counting yers with cheats, living beings that ate a second devil fruit would explode due to the conflict, but a Kyber Crystal that was very used to channeling the Force was no stranger to conflict and could handle the full might of the presence and power of both Devil Fruits with ease.


    Well, now was as good a time as any to perform some tests.


    A white humming light engulfed Rayleigh''s blood-red sword and he shed forward. What happened next almost stopped the battlefield.


    In the direction of the sh, a massive crack parted the clouds. But behind the clouds was not a sky, but a static that was painful to look at. The ck spider-cage had beenpletely sliced through as well.


    Saint Nusjuro had also been bisected, but he recovered anyway. Though he still had the presence of mind to look and see the crack that formed in the sky. It looked like Rayleigh had sliced the heavens.


    The line of static closed a momentter, but it took a moment more for the battle to resume as most who saw the sight were incapable ofprehending it.


    Rayleigh was not in the correct mindset to appreciate it either. He was also not in the correct mindset to worry about the lines of blood that spurted out from his sword arm due to the damage the vibrations caused to his body during the swing. A devil fruit was not an aspect of the Force so his initial usage of it was incredibly crude and vtile. He only cared that it had not affected Saint Nusjuro''s stitches. So he tried the next one.


    The glow around Rayleigh''s sword changed from a humming white light to a me-like darkness. This one did not damage his body just by using it, but it did seem to massively increase the sensitivity his body processed. Every background sensation that was usually ignored by the unconscious mind was brought to the foreground and amplified. Every ache, wound, and cut that could usually be ignored seemed to be a mental priority. Due to the fact that he was covered in heavy wounds, the mental feedback from his injuries was practically crippling. Or it would have been if he had been piloting his body from his brain. The Force didn''t care about his pain so neither did he, thus the negative side effects of this power were ignored.


    In fact, it was actually advantageous. It wasn''t just his sense of pain that was amplified and unable to be covered up. All his physical senses were amplified, something that actually improved his awareness.


    Saint Nusjuro noticed the change and understood that Rayleigh''s previous attack was somehow amplified because of that humming light and now he felt danger from this flowing darkness. He dodged to the side to avoid the attack, but Rayleigh''s amplified awareness granted him the insight to predict the Elder''s movement, ensuring that Rayleigh sliced him anyway, severing his horse spine and separating his back two legs from his front half.


    A momentter, the immortal Elder recovered, but Saint Nusjuro''s eyes widened in shock and pain. He cried, "What?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"


    Rayleigh did not answer. He observed the part of the spine he had just cut. The separation was undone by the surrounding stitches, but the physical damage to the spine was still there. One of the nearby stitches fluttered for an instant, looking like it had been suppressed for a moment. He had his answer now. The power of the Darkness Devil Fruit could in fact interact with the stitches.


    With his spine injured, Saint Nusjuro was unable to properly dodge the follow-up attacks, He tried to deflect or counter, but Rayleigh moved around him as if the Warrior God of Finance were a motionless statue.


    After Saint Nusjuro experienced a short, but especially painful period of trial and error, Rayleigh had figured out how to concentrate the dark power into his sword''s edge. Darkness seemed to devour everything, and by concentrating the power right into the edge, it would devour the stitches as he sliced through them. If the stitch was sliced throughpletely, it did note back.


    Toote did Saint Nusjuro figure out what Rayleigh was doing. Rayleigh sliced the edge of the elder''s arm. He shouted familiar profanities at his silent, emotionless opponent and expected the wound to heal a momentter, but instead, his forearm aged rapidly. His flesh shriveled and cracked. It dissolved, seemingly evaporating around his bones which rapidly cracked, dried up, and crumbled into pieces.


    Saint Nusjuro stared nkly at the injury, unable to process what was happening. It was then that he felt it. Something he had long forgotten. Something that took a while to even recognize because of how unfamiliar it was. Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, the Warrior God of Finance, one of the Five Elders that ruled the world under their eternal God, felt fear.


    Rayleigh''s testing period was over. His sword raised and he took a step toward the ancient elder, each step promising judgment.


    Saint Nusjuro did not skillfully move to dodge, to block, to parry, or to fight. It had been so long since thest time he felt fear that he had no resistance to it. He did not think to fight back, he just wanted to live. He shouted, "No! Wait! Spare me! PLEASE!" He might have thought to run if he had ever run before, but he never had, so his first thought was to mimic the begging that he had seen so many times in the past.


    Unsurprisingly, his begging fell on deaf ears. Rayleigh vanished before him before appearing behind him. At that moment, his darkness-enmed sword had made hundreds of tiny, nimble slices all along Saint Nusjuro''s body, severing every stitch at once.


    Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro screamed as his body experienced centuries of aging in a moment. His bones did not even have time to fall down before they crumbled into dust.


    Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, the Warrior God of Science and Defense, noticed the voice of his fellow elder shouting with an unfamiliar inflection, as he too could not recall thest time he heard fear in the man''s speech.


    What he saw however reintroduced him to the concept. Something impossible had happened. The Immortal Saint Nusjuro was dead.


    Sweat started dripping down his forehead from the iprehensible sight. It started pouring down his back when Rayleigh turned to face his direction.


    Fortunately for Saint Saturn, Rayleigh did not step forward. Rayleigh had sessfully killed an Elder and had practicallyid waste to the whole of Marineford. The flying shes sent from his fight didn''t stop until they reached the Haki Enfused Spider Cage, so every building was reduced to a pile of rubble that only came up to the knee in height.


    Rayleigh was also in a very reactionary state. It was already a miracle that he had been able to initiate the fight against Saint Nusjuro, but that wasn''t a feat he''d be able to replicate so easily. It wasn''t that Rayleigh didn''t want to kill the remaining Elder. It was that the ''higher'' Rayleigh couldn''t justify this kill to the rest of the Force at the moment. Rayleigh still very much wanted to kill him, but he''d only be able to do so if the Elder himself started the fight.


    Without moving from his position, Rayleighzily nced over to where Captain Jack had been hiding in the rubble and met thetter''s eyes. No words were exchanged, but thanks to Jack''s rtively decent connection to the Force, the yer who started all of this got the message.


    Seeing that Elder Saturn was about to flee for his life, Captain Jack shouted, "Hey! Do you know about the Mythical Devil Fruit called the Human Human Fruit Model Devil King? Did you know that the user of this Fruit is immune to the effects of almost all other Devil Fruits, but has to drain the vitality of extremely evil humans to stay alive and powerful? Did you know that the cemetery of the Holy Land of Mary Geoise hasn''t changed in size in eight hundred years? Are you gonna run away back to that cattle ranch of yours where you raise the finest, most vorful beef for your master to chew on?"


    Elder Saturn''s fear vanished in an instant, washed away by disbelief and rage. He roared, "WHO TOLD YOU THIS?! WHO ARE YOU?!"


    Captain Jack pointed at Rayleigh and said, "He told me. The boss knows everything, even things you don''t know, like the shameful secrets that your master never wants to be revealed. He knows the secret of your immortality and knows how to get past it. When you leave, he''ll share it with the world, along with your master''s most shameful secrets."


    Funnily enough, Rayleigh was able to tell that some of the things Jack had shouted were bluffs and lies. Jack didn''t know the secret of their immortality and certainly didn''t know any shameful secrets of this boss figure. But Jack figured such a person would definitely have shameful secrets. If the Elder''s life was in danger, Jack had to keep him from running away using something more important than the Elder''s life. His master''s honor.


    Saturn turned to look at Rayleigh. Perhaps some part of him hoped that Rayleigh would deny such a thing, but he only saw Rayleigh''s emotionless gaze and blood red sword.


    The giant spider immortal decided that it didn''t matter if Rayleigh really knew such things. Rayleigh knew how to kill them and for that alone, he must die. Saturn could take care of everyone else at his leisure.


    Saint Saturn''s body shifted in form from a spider with a human torso to aplete spider, though it had the horns of an ox, reminding Rayleigh of some Japanese Yokai folklore. It was a little shorter than the four-story tall Titan in his Golden Buddha form but far wider.


    The giant spider shifted up and a ck beam shot from under its torso and extended all the way to the ck spider cage, connecting to it. The spider elder then ced a spider foot on the ck web and vanished from ce, reappearing at the other end, on the inner part of the spider cage, standing sideways. From there, a dozen more web lines were shot out. It vanished from ce at reappeared at the other ends, shooting more webs.


    Rayleigh didn''t move and the other yers and Marines could only sit and watch in horror as the giant spider elder turned the entire cage into a massive spider web that he apparently could teleport from any point on to any other point.


    The only pair who weren''t paying attention was Akainu and his opponent, the Zombie Whitebeard.


    Despite the fact that zombies usually lose their former personality quickly after being brought back with a shadow, Whitebeard seemed in high spirits as he beat the ever-loving shit out of Akainu over and over, making the crater the man was in deeper and deeper.


    Akainu was already three-quarters dead even before Zombie Whitebeard joined the fight and Whitebeard couldn''t resist taunting theva-fisted admiral like Akainu had taunted Ace.


    "Let''s see if Old Dogs can really learn new tricks. y Dead Akainu."


    "You know, it''s really lonely in theherworld. You shoulde back with me to the other side."


    "Are you alright Akainu? You look even worse than I do, and I''m already dead."


    If Akainu was at his peak condition, he''d be able to convert his vitality directly into heat and turn this ind into a volcanic crater, but he was now in a simr state to when Whitebeard had arrived, heavily weakened and needing to use most of his energy to keep himself together.


    Akainu shouted for the Marines to help him, but the ones who sided with him to kill the others had been taken down by Justice and the others could only stare at Akainu with contempt and hatred.


    Whitebeard encouraged this. "What''s wrong Akainu? See something you don''t like? But you must be used to that by now considering how often you''ve probably seen your own reflection in the mirror."


    Crow and Stoner could no longer tell which of these two possessed the Magma fruit since Whitebeard was now the one dealing out the third-degree burns.


    Understandably, Akainu was pissed beyond all reason. The fact that Whitebeard was already dead was forgotten. The fact that using the depths of his Fruit''s power required vitality he didn''t have was forgotten. Akainu burned himself to the point he was painful to look at and shot forward with the intent to incinerate Whitebeard off the face of the earth.


    Whitebeard smiled and reeled back his fist. Even without his devil fruit, those watching the collision felt that they saw an illusionary crack, though it was impossible to tell if it was real or not.


    When the blinding light faded, all of Whitebeard''s right side was gone along with most of his torso and spine.


    The only thing remaining of Akainu was his legs. As a Logia trained in Haki, a Haki attack would not have the same effect it would on an untrained Logia user. But there was a limit to this.


    The pair of legs fell over and the magma started cooling down. The fact that it did not reform showed that life had faded from the pieces. Akainu had been killed.


    Whitebeard copsed since a body without a spine could not support the rest of his weight, but since he was already dead, this didn''t have much of an impact, other than preventing him from walking. He looked around and saw Rayleigh''s fight, but had no interest in taking part. This world belonged to the youngsters now.


    Usually, removing the shadow from a Zombie would require Moria''s intervention or salt. Whitebeard on the other hand was not the usual zombie. Simply by willing it, the shadow split from his body. His eyes closed with a peaceful smile.


    Justice didn''t even notice his shadow return as he continued trying to put a dent in the primary robot bear. Not only was Kuma far tougher than the other Pacifistas, but his devil fruit power let him push away any attack Justice tried that he was confident would have destroyed him.


    After Saint Saturn turned the entire inner cage into his own massive spider web, he started attacking Rayleigh. Condensed shots of spider silk more powerful than a cannon fired one after another from a ''safe'' distance. Saint Saturn could teleport through his webbing to any point on his web so there was no problem shooting from a distance and teleporting when Rayleigh got close. No matter how fast Rayleigh was, he wasn''t faster than his teleportation.


    What happened next was something that would endlessly bother Rayleigh for a very long time. His sword did not raise to deflect or block the shot. With his physical defense reduced to zero, that blow was easily enough to kill him and the Force wasn''t taking any proactive action to make Rayleigh defend himself. From the Force''s perspective, Rayleigh was currently one with the Force. If he was dead, he''d still be one with the Force. So there was no real difference. The Force would not take action to protect his life. If he died, he died.


    Rayleigh was about to exit this Force-Phenomenon state to defend himself, but Captain Jack jumped out and partially deflected the shots with his own sword. Only partially because one of them still grazed him, ripping aying of skin off his shoulder.


    Though annoying, the conditions had been met. Rayleigh turned to face Elder Saturn and swiped his sword.


    This time, the hundreds of silk-thin lines of sharpened sword aura that shot out from his de did not remain concentrated into a single line, but spread out.


    Instantly, the massive spider-web holding the giant spider in the air was shredded to pieces. This kind of tactic should have been obvious, but as long as Elder Saturn remained in physical contact with his web, he could apply armament Haki to it with one of his legs, preventing it from being cut so easily. The problem was that a moment before the lines cut the webs, Rayleigh had used telekinesis to push the web beneath the specific Haki using leg down an inch. The instant that the webs were cut, the Haki using spider leg was not in contact with the web.


    Fighting Rayleigh in this state was like fighting a quantum supeputer. As long as there was a way to win, he would take the shortest path to that way, ignoring all obstacles ormon sense. The only reason Nusjuro took so long was because he didn''t know how to proceed and had to brute force it until he found a suitable way.


    Thanks to specific, targeted uses of telekinesis, the Spider Elder was not touched by a single one of his webs as he fell to the ground and before he even reached the floor, Rayleigh was there, sword in hand.


    Rayleigh circled the spider three times, over, under, and around, slicing every stitch with a sword that carried an edge that devoured all light.


    The moment that Rayleigh was certain he got thest stitch, he exited the Force-Phenomenon state, allowed his sword of Babylon to shatter while cing his Kyber Crystal into his pocket, crossed his legs, sat down, and barely set up an automatic recovery state beforepletely passing out.


    A dayter, Rayleigh woke up on a ship. Thankfully, he was neither in cuffs nor chains, so he had a good idea of what happened.


    Before the details could fade anymore, Rayleigh went over the fight and his Force-Phenomenon state. In theory, that state maxed out Rayleigh''s skill level in all areas. If Rayleigh trained his skills for a thousand years, he would at most equal his skill level in the Force-Phenomenon state. Even if it wasn''t as bad as he thought it would be, he''d rather never use it again.


    The only reason he might use it in the future was due to the breakthrough he had when it came to using it this time. Rayleigh had been able to convince the whole of the Force to go with his Will, and he did it in a way that was different from the Dark Side. If he did it in the future, it might be easier. Confidence had been the key it seemed.


    Rayleigh oncepared the Force to a school with different aspects of the Force being represented by different groups. Every group had a different opinion and there was no single group that couldmand all the other groups. At least that was what Rayleigh thought at first. Now Rayleigh had some ideas on how to do just that. There were in fact people in schools that everyone listened to. These people had two characteristics. Just two. They were true to themselves, and they were confident about it.


    Odd as it seemed, this was a breakthrough in how Rayleigh used the Force. At first, he thought that he essentially had to appease every group at the same time. This was basically like bribing everyone. But bribes only worked in the long run if they escted. In real life, bribes were only used until ckmail material was found.


    Instead of trying to please every part of the Force at the same time, Rayleigh could get the entirety of the Force to listen to him as long as he was himself and he was confident in what he wanted. After all, he was also a part of the Force. If he was himself, then he was the Force. If he was confident in doing something, then the Force would be confident in doing it too.


    However, there was a slight problem with this approach. Rayleigh did not know who he was. This wasn''t a Kung Fu Panda situation. Rayleigh simplycked variety when it came to life experiences to know enough to know how he would react to everything. If he did not know how he would react, how could he say that he knew himself? Letting someone who didn''t know how he would react in a situation try to convince others in the same situation was about as effective as letting someone who had never stepped foot onto a battlefield try to convince soldiers to die for their country.


    Thankfully, this issue wasn''t difficult to resolve.


    Moreover, Rayleigh had other benefits from his foray into pseudo-godhood. He may have never understood the full potential of his Kyber Crystal if he hadn''t gone so deep into the Force. Were it not for what he learned, he may have thought it was a problem and erased the fruits using his Lightsaber customization kit. At the moment, Rayleigh had no idea how to draw out the power of the Devil Fruits in his Kyber Crystals. He could do it before because he was in a Maxed Out Skill state, but now he was back to normal and needed to figure out everything from scratch.


    The door to his room on the ship opened and Titan walked in. "Good to see that you''re up. I knew an Enhancer like you would recover soon. It only took an hour to drag the doctor away from you. He kept screaming about dying this and edge of life that. But a flesh wound like that only needs a nap and a meal to recover from, right?"


    Rayleigh, in a well-practiced motion, skillfully raised a single eyebrow at Titan''s poor attempt to dodge responsibility for the clusterfudge that was this fight.


    Titan only held Rayleigh''s gaze for a moment before letting his head fall and sighing, "Alright, I''m sorry for dragging you into this."


    Rayleigh asked, "Is Ice alive?"


    "Yeah. Captain Jack has some Force Healing skills for Easy Masteries and slowly helped her recover as Aokiji thawed her out."


    Rayleigh released a breath of relief and asked, "So what was the point of all this? Did you just want to force the Marines intomitting suicide?"


    "What? Oh hell no. No, the n was much bigger than that. I''ll have some food prepared for you in ten minutes. Come out and I''ll have Jack exin everything."


    Rayleigh nodded as Titan left and a few minutester he found the ship''s kitchen and a half dozen bowls of food with Captain Jack, Stoner, and a few non-yer members of the crew eating.


    After taking a seat and filling a te, Rayleigh looked over at Captain Jack and asked, "So why did you want to force the Marines into killing the Marines? Was it just to mess with Justice and Ice?"


    Jack put down a leg of meat he was eating and tapped on the air for a moment. In the next instant, a video camera appeared. Jack exined, "When I first found Laugh Tale and all the weird text, I didn''t want to write it down or have toe back, so I got this video camera from the Hunter World and turned it into an Inventory Item. I recorded everything and took it to a Scientist named Vegapunk who tranted everything for me."


    Rayleigh thought about it for a moment and asked, "So you recorded everything?"


    Jack nodded. "That''s right. All video recording tech is snail-based in this world. Snails can be detected and even disabled with Haki, but this can''t. No one even recognizes what it is. After the battle, I hooked up the video to a global transmission snail and sent the video to the whole world."


    Rayleigh sighed at the deviousness of such actions. "So the entire world heard that story and saw the elders order the Marines to execute the Marines just for hearing it?"


    Jack nodded with a smile, "And they saw the fight as well. They saw Titan get his ass kicked and saw you kicking ass!"


    Rayleigh rolled his eyes. Titan was doing fine until that elder went super mode and Rayleigh only won thanks to having his own super super mode and coincidentally having a sword that can affect devil fruits at an esoteric level. Moreover, way to much of that battle was not to his liking. Rayleigh trained his Aura to exhaustion as often as possible every day, so he had plenty, but he was two and a half minutes from empty at the end of that fight and he''d only been using the Red Sword of Babylon for about an hour. The only reason he evensted so long was because the Force-Phenomenon state made him ridiculously efficient, otherwise he would have ran out of nen fighting Elder Nusjuro.


    A small part of Rayleigh wanted to ask what happened to the Marines, but in the end, it didn''t matter. Rayleigh had done enough, both for them and against them. He killed ckbeard, two elders, two sword gods, and annihted the whole of Marineford.


    Though, there was one person he wanted to know about. "What happened to Mihawk?"


    "Mihawk? He took Domingo with him and left. Something about finding more opponents."


    It was only then that Rayleigh even remembered the mboyant warlord. After making that strong cage, the man hadpletely stayed out of the entire fight. It seemed that Mihawk had some use for him though, which wasn''t a surprise. Mihawk likely no longer considered himself a Warlord and he needed a new source of opponents to test his sword on.


    Seeing that Rayleigh wasn''t asking more questions, Captain Jack took the initiative to ask, "So what about you Swordsman? What are your ns?"


    "Why are you asking?"


    "Well, me and a lot of the others are going to the Jedi Gxy. The entire ce seems to be a powder keg ready to burst, and going in after the shit hits the fan will be toote."


    "So you want me toe with?"


    "Well, we do need a Jedi. I can take us anywhere we need to go with my Hatsu. As long as I am the Captain of a Ship, I can manipte the needle of mypass to point where I want to go and chart a course there. That''s how I found Laugh Tale and Vegapunk. I was looking for the One Piece andter looking for someone would could trante what I found. Besides, you do owe me."


    Rayleighughed, "Ha! You were the ones who wanted the Elder dead, you were the ones who all but invited him, and you were the one who antagonized him to attack me. I don''t owe you anything and I have no desire to serve on a ship driven by a Captain Jack. I''ve seen all the movies and his crew rarelyes out on top." Rayleigh wasn''t just spouting made up nonsense. If he really owed Jack, he''d know. Jack was just bluffing and trying to take advantage of Rayleigh.


    Jack shook his head, "Oh well. More fun for us then."


    Rayleigh smiled, "Not so much. Just because you didn''t convince me to join your crew doesn''t mean you didn''t convince me to go. Yeah. I''m definitely going."


    Jack tried to smile at that and pretend it was good news, but he knew it was not. Rayleigh was not the kind ofpetition he wanted and he could only hope that they were never forced to cross paths.


    Rayleigh gave a real smile at Jack''s plight and returned to filling his stomach. Although what Jack said yed a part, he knew that going back really was the best idea for him. Rayleigh needed to know himself, which meant doing lots of different things. To anyone of his age, this meant going on random adventures. The Pirate World had their adventures taken by yers, so it was better to go to a bigger stage where there was enough room for everyone.


    Besides, in order to master the power of the Devil Fruits inside his Kyber Crystal, he would need more Force training, and the best ce to train the Force was the Jedi Gxy. It was time to go back home.


    *Author''s Note*


    Author-The next chapter won''t take very long


    Author-Still takes two months.


    It wasn''t the fight that got me, it was the growth. I always intended for thisst battle to push my MC over the edge, go nuclear with the Force, and leave room to grow as a person, but it turns out that writing all that is a hundred times harder than writing fights. As an apology, I didn''t do any cliffhangers and kept writing until everything was settled.


    Saint Saturn''s abilities are my guess. no idea if he can actually do that, but if he can teleport himself to a location and teleport others to a location and is a spider, then this set of abilities is not impossible.


    Imu''s Devil Fruit is also a guess, but it kinda makes sense. The only Named Move Imu uses references Chess, making him a King. The only image of him attacking is when he uses something that looks like a Devil''s tail. So Devil King. As for the Sin Eating thing, that came from the idea, "What if there was an actual reason for Mary Geoise to exist? What if there was an actual reason why they cultivated the Celestial Dragons to be the worst kind of filth?" Also, what if the Devil King Devil Fruit is unaffected by other Devil Fruits? (Except for the Nika Fruit because the Nika Fruit doesn''t care about the rules making it the only threat to the Devil King.) Then he would also be immune to the Immortality Surgery. So how is he staying alive? So I thought of the idea that Mary Geoise is a farm specifically for Imu. Have you ever seen an old Celestial Dragon? I mean wrinkled and walking stick old. They could easily have a ve carry them everywhere, so even if they were too old to walk, they''d still be up and about. But there are no old ones. So what if they have been harvested? It''s just my theory.


    The idea to have Zombie Whitebeard kill Akainu is something I have never seen before and I wanted to do it so bad. That''s the main reason I didn''t kill Akainu before this.


    I doubt my MC will be using that Cheat mode again. It basically represented his max potential in Force skills, but leaves him too open to danger since it also represents everything wrong with using the max power from the Force. If you''ve watched Rogue One, then you know that the Force has no problem letting you die, even if it has the ability to save you. This is a canon fact. To the Force, you will join with it when you die. That is something to be celebrated from the perspective of the Force. It probably won''t directly kill you, but it won''t go out of its way to save you either.


    I based the strength of the Middle on the Bendu which I''m sure some of you know, but the Bendu was pretty easily killed considering his power. Sure, the Bendu might be able to go back and forth between the Living and Cosmic Force, but that''s on him. The Force itself would not stop him from dying if he was about to die, but it will give him nearly unlimited power to wield the Force, as long as he wields it in a way that keeps things bnced and it won''t protect him from others trying to kill him while he is trying to kill them.


    Rayleigh killing the Elders essentially helped the Marines because with them dead, Sengoku, Aokiji, and Kizaru don''t have to follow their orders. (Yes, Sengoku spent the entire fight sitting on Garp, preventing him from getting up while using this as an excuse to not have to kill any of his own Marines.) But Rayleigh also destroyed the whole of Marineford. It''s kinda bnced if you squint.


    My MC will eventually, through character growth, be able to use the full power of the Force without any limits. The reason I didn''t just give him the ability to do so from the start is because finding out a justifiable way to do it is half the fun for my side.


    When Rayleigh used the Quake Fruit here, he essentially used it at full power without any buffers, so it damaged his own body. He will figure out how to use it safelyter. I like the idea of the Dark Fruit''s usage having the side effect of amplified senses. Not just pain, but all senses. It is a downside that can be worked into a plus. And both fruits have far more uses than just what was shown on this chapter.


    I can''t promise any kind of decent timeline for when I''ll release more chapters, but mypletionist OCD won''t just let me stop posting. For now, I need to re-watch the whole of the Clone Wars and figure out what unspeakable atrocities the yers are going to get up to. What they did to the One Piece World is a warm uppared to what they will do to the Star Wars Gxy.

 Chapter 79: The Return of the Jedaii

    Chapter 79: The Return of the Je''daii


    Chapter 79 The Return of the Je''daii


    Rayleigh stood before a familiar workstation that contained numerous tools and an advanced, holographic disy. This was his Lightsaber Customization Kit, and the method he used to Save changes made to his Lightsaber so that said changes would not revert when the Lightsaber was returned and restored from his Inventory.


    The Kit could Save multiple versions of his Lightsaber, so there was no fear of going too far in one direction and being unable to return. At the moment, he was looking at the Holographic disy of histest Save and the information contained within.


    The Devil Fruits within his Kyber Crystal were causing something of an Error, within the Customization Kit. It still Saved fine, but the problem was when he tried to revert the Lightsaber to one of the previous Saved States. ording to the messages that popped up, reverting the Kyber Crystal from the current state where it contained the Devil Fruits to a state where it did not possess the Devil Fruits would also permanently erase the Saves that contained the Devil Fruits.


    In a way, it made sense. ording to what he learned, when a Devil Fruit User dies, their Devil Fruit is supposed to be reborn somewhere. So if he erases the Devil Fruits from his Kyber Crystal, the Devil Fruits will be reborn back in the Pirate World, meaning he can''t revert the Kyber Crystal back to remember the state of having them because they will be gone. It was like having a Video Game Save File from a game that had DLC. Deleting the DLC would prevent the Save that contained the DLC from being useable.


    It was weird, but it meant that he couldn''t just cheat the system. Considering how much of a cheat this Customization Kit was, that was ironic. Although the Kit could only save multiple versions of Lightsabers he made using it, it could also be used to customize other Inventory Items, like the Zoldyck Family Adjustable Training Weight Set, and the changes would be retained when the Inventory Item was brought back out.


    Seeing that things like Divine Script could be used on Inventory Items and saved using the Customization Kit, HK-47 had already requested a new body, made indestructible using Divine Script. Rayleigh said he''d do it, mostly just because he knew he''d enjoy watching the chaos that unfolded when he unleashed an indestructible assassin droid, but that would have to wait until he returned to the Jedi Gxy.


    Divine Script was not unbeatable, but it was still very useful. Any effect you created with it required a downside to bnce it out, and the stronger the downside, the stronger the effect. This could be easily taken advantage of though. Rayleigh''s training weights were inscribed to be indestructible, but the downside was that the weight increased the more indestructible he made it. The Nen String made by Kite and the Nen Box made by Ging were both indestructible but made with an Achilles'' Heel ofplete destruction in the presence of even incredibly weak Nen. But Nen was notmon in the Jedi Gxy, so that method or something simr could be used to make HK-47''s dreame true, while also letting him be a nightmare to everyone else.


    After confirming the changes, Rayleigh returned the Customization Kit back to his Inventory and got out a newspaper that had been ced in his room. It had been a week since the Battle of Marineford and Rayleigh was squatting on Titan''s ship andpleting his recovery. Although his wounds were mostly restored after two days, he needed proper rest to achieve greater strength.In anime worlds, it wasmon sense that getting stronger meant going beyond your limit, and then recovering afterward. Rayleigh''s training embodied this. If he just used Ren, it would take almost two full days to exhaust his aura, making Limit Breaking Training very time-consuming. But each of his Hatsus required using three times his normal aura usage, so using all three at the same time meant he could exhaust his aura twenty-seven times faster. If he spammed ridiculous and high-energy moves like flying Nen shes, he could double the aura usage further.


    The benefit of doing so meant that he could train to reach his limit much faster, achieving limit breakthroughs over and over. The downside was that this ''inefficient'' power boost method greatly reduced the duration he could go all out in a fight. Rayleigh didn''t mind this, however. His ''All-Out'' was reserved for one-on-one fights against God-Like Beings. Against anything else, his ''All-Out'' could take out armies in minutes. The only reason it had been a close call in his most recent battle was because that Elder had a weird form of Immortality. Normally, he''d be fine with just using Overdrive. Overdrive directly boosted his speed and strength but didn''t prevent him from killing or using other force powers.


    During Rayleigh''s time on the ind that Mihawk dumped him on, he would train to exhaustion while wearing millions of kilograms of Nen-Enhanced weight, using all three Hatsus, his most intense Swordbos, and push himself until he was going to pass out, then push further. Only when he felt the threat of death was right behind him would he stop and enter 2nd Stage Zetsu. In 2nd Stage Zetsu, he could still use his Empty Sword of Babylon to train Haki, sword skill proficiency, and physical fitness while using the Law of Weakness and Law of Training to further enhance the effect of his training while still wearing his weights. After his aura and physique were exhausted, he''d keep training as long as he could until he literally dropped unconscious. Then he''d rest until he fully recovered.


    The only reason he had not crippled himself was because of the Law of Training. Limit Breaking Training was like rolling a 20-sided die. If you rolled 15~20, you''d have gains. If you rolled 8~14, you''d have gains, but also injuries. If you rolled 2~7, you''d have injuries and no gains. And if you rolled a 1, you would have permanently injured yourself. And those were generous odds. In Anime Worlds where Training Montages were a thing, it was the Law of Training that heavily skewed these numbers to prevent the Main Character from getting crippled and allowing for fast gains.


    It usually only took a day or two for Rayleigh to fully recover from each session of limit breaking, but the umted damage from his recent fight was far more severe. His Red Sword of Babylon could not even be used without taking substantial damage and fighting while damaged only made the damage worse. Then there was the fact that his ''Avatar of the Force'' mode ignored all his damage and physical limitations and went crazy. He was already satisfied that he had not permanently crippled himself during the fight and would not whine about how long his full recovery was taking.


    Reading the news had be a decent pastime. Although he didn''t ask about what happened after he passed out at the end of the war, he could still see the repercussions of the war in the news and make guesses based on that.


    From what Rayleigh had gathered, Invisible Man had been present during the war but had not done any fighting. Instead, he acted as the Cameraman, using the video camera that Captain Jack had given him. Thanks to this, he got closeups of many of the most intense fights and all the best scenes. The newspapers were filled with pictures taken from the broadcast of this video and it was taken from perspectives Rayleigh did not recall anyone being. That meant that Invisible Man could not be sensed by Haki, the Force, or En. Theoretically, this meant that Invisible Man could kill Rayleigh while he was using his 3rd Hatsu since that state removed his physical defenses, but using the Sword of Babylon meant that Rayleigh would be moving as fast or faster than most bullets, so unless he stood still, Invisible Man would not be able to attack him easily.


    From the newspapers, Rayleigh read how Sengoku essentially saved the Marines from beingpletely disbanded. After learning that the actions of the World Government were known to the whole world, Fleet Admiral Sengoku made three derations. The first was that the Marines would no longer blindly follow any order the World Government issued. They were allowed to refuse orders directly given and only the Fleet Admiral''s orders could not be refused. If this deration had not been made, then every Marine would fear the World Government ordering their death and being unable to do anything about it.


    The second of Sengoku''s derations was that he would step down as Fleet Admiral. He was basically taking the fall for the entire mess and telling everyone to me him, and not the Marines. And the final deration was to make Admiral Kizaru the new Fleet Admiral. He had seen Aokiji save his disciple after Goddess of Ice went against the Elder. That scene was not shown on the World Broadcast, but Sengoku knew that making Aokiji the Fleet Admiral would make things worse.


    The World Government knew the consequences of not backing down and epted all three derations. At least from their perspective, Kizaru was still very loyal to them. If they had not openly acknowledged these things, then they would never be able to recruit more Marines and the existing ones would definitely quit. Besides, the World Government had its own problems.


    The Holy Land of Mary Geoise had been locked down, neither allowing anyone to go in, nor out. Rayleigh suspected that Captain Jack''s information about Mary Geoise being a farm for raising food for whoever had that Devil King Fruit had gotten around.


    Rayleigh wondered if they would sessfully convince the so-called Celestial Dragons that everything was fine. If they didn''t then the Devil King might be forced to harvest his entire crop early. If that happened, he would be far stronger for a while. Something to look forward to for the future it seemed.


    The main reason that the status quo survived mostly intact was that Captain Jack had been very selective of the information that he freely gave out. It ruined the World Government''s image, but it did not actually impact their power. The world was shaken, but Jack had left out information that would have overturned the world, either because he didn''t have it or because he was waiting for a more appropriate time.


    The current newspaper in hand had a picture of Luffy. Rayleigh was not the slightest bit surprised to see that he was alive and seemed fine. He recovered even quicker than Rayleigh did, but Luffy had the Main Character Devil Fruit so such recovery speed was expected. The picture was of Luffy standing in respect and mourning at the location that Ace had died in the middle of Marineford. It seemed that a very cool-named guy who was the former First Mate of the Pirate King got Luffy back to Marineford so he could get that picture. Marineford was mostly destroyed and understaffed, so he came and left very easily with the well-named First Mate of the Pirate King''s assistance.


    Everyone else from the Battle had gone their own way. Mihawk seemed to have some words for Domingo and then returned back to his ind. Titan had taken Whitebeard''s body and returned it to the Whitebeard Pirates to be buried alongside Ace''s body. Most of Whitebeard''s crew were hesitant to join Titan and Dragon Chef''s crew, but after Dragon Chef defended Whitebeard''s home town from some invaders and also dered that he would protect Fishman Ind, many of the Whitebeard Pirates agreed to join, if just to protect the old man''s legacy.


    The ship Rayleigh was squatting on was anchored on some unnamed ind in the first half of the Grand Line. Each day he would leave the ship, enter the Tavern, and eat a hearty meal to assist in the quality of his recovery. Although he wasn''t contributing anything to the ship, he already promised that when he left he''d be inviting everyone who wanted toe to a Grand Feast in the Tavern, funded by his point bnce. Knowing that he was almost fully recovered, Titan and Dragon Chef had not eaten anything in two days in preparation for the feast.


    The longer he waited, the more he''d spend on the feast, so he intended to leave today, but the point cost didn''t bother him. To others, Tavern Points could be used to convert items into inventory items and purchase Easy Masteries to speed up their training, but Rayleigh didn''t need any more Easy Masteries and there were no items in the Pirate World he wanted to take into the Jedi Gxy. His points were mostly spent in the Tavern''s Arena, allowing him to fight and gain usefulbat experience.


    After confirming his condition, he sent a message to the Pirate Chat.


    [Swordsman: The Party is starting in an hour. Don''t me me if you miss it.]


    [Dragon Chef: Miss it? Wouldn''t dream of it. I could eat a whale. Do you think the Tavern serves whale?]


    [Titan: Only one whale? You''re a growing man, don''t limit yourself to kiddie portions.]


    [Invisible Man: I can''t tell if these two are serious. And thising from me, you know you should be worried.]


    [Captain Jack: Pretty sure they are just trying to get a rise from Swordsman. I was there when he told Titan, ''My treat.'' I didn''t know people''s eyes could actually take the shape of meat on a bone. I''m still not sure if that was a hallucination or not.]


    [Fire Queen: I can''t me them. Dragon Chef''s cooking is delicious, but the Tavern''s food is unmatched. If I wasn''t saving points, I''d eat there every day.]


    [Lightning Lord: If you don''t dare to take advantage of a Big Spender, you have no right to call yourself a Pirate.]


    [Mimic: Not sure if that''s how it works, but you do you.]


    [Swordsman: Are you gonna take part Mimic? I''m pretty sure I sensed you there.]


    [Justice: Yeah, you should totallye Mimic!]


    [Mimic: Considering the fact that we can''t use Devil Fruit Powers in the Tavern, I will pass on that and settle for just being another face.]


    Rayleigh chuckled upon seeing Mimic''s reply. At first, a yer in the Tavern would be wearing the clothes of their Primary ss every time they entered, so if Rayleigh showed up, he''d always be wearing Jedi robes. This meant that hiding your primary ss in the Tavern was impossible at first, butter it was revealed that you could change your default clothing by paying Points, so most yers wore casual clothes that gave little away and plenty of edge lords sat alone in the corner, so even if you could narrow it down, it was hard to tell which yer you didn''t know was which if they never told anyone else.


    Rayleigh didn''t mind their games since he knew most Pirate yers would not being. Plenty had already gone to the Jedi Gxy to start gathering resources and making connections.


    During his years of training on Tython, Rayleigh had never once entered the Jedi Chatroom. It had been a subconscious choice, but heter guessed that it had been to prevent himself from being influenced by the paths others chose to walk and the ws they contained. The only Jedi yers he''d met were Gambler, a Jedi who cared little about the Jedi or their doctrine; Pacifist, a yer that drank a little too much from the Jedi cool-aid; and Lord of Madness, a yer who killed his own Master for holding him back.


    Pacifist was the only one who seemed somewhat trustworthy and he already promised to give Rayleigh a ride off Tython. As the most ''Jedi-like'' of the yers that Rayleigh knew, Pacifist had already passed his Trials of Knighthood, granting him independence and ess to a ship. He knew how to get to Tython, so Rayleigh just had to open the chat room and ask when he got there to get himself a ticket to somewhere more interesting.


    It wasn''t that Tython had nothing left to offer, but Rayleigh needed to interact with more people to get to know himself, and an empty, no matter how saturated in the Force, provided no assistance for this.


    An hourter, Rayleigh stepped off the ship and onto the ind. Some part of him would miss this sea. It was probably the background music. Even if the ears could not hear it, the heart could, and along with the salty breeze that made one restless, it spurned many on to travel and seek their own adventures. Rayleigh reminded himself to try listening to others in the future to see if they had any background music. He hadn''t noticed it on Tython, but the Force might have been drowning it out and he hadn''t tried either.


    Some of the members of Titan''s crew that made camp on the ind watched him wander away, but they didn''t care too much. They knew that their captain and the other ''Geniuses'' liked to go off where no one could see them and do gods-know-what or vanish to gods-know-where. The crew was used to it at this point and knew never to follow.


    Titan himself wasn''t on the ind. His primary ship was being repaired here by some of his crew''s shipwrights and he had returned to the other half of the Grand Line to help Dragon Chef settle down the newly acquired territories and ensure that no one argued with their ims.


    Rayleigh took in a deep breath to appreciate the salty sea air one more time before opening his Interface and selecting the option to physically enter the Tavern, causing the scenery around him to white out as he found himself stepping forward through the door.


    Unbeknownst to the yers who intended to rip Rayleigh off, he had already decided on a menu. The yers would not be ordering anything. tes of meats such as chicken wings covered in multiple varieties of sauces, individual meat-covered ribs, beef hot dogs, fried chicken, and chicken tenders would be brought and refilled endlessly along with sides like macaroni, potato sd, seasoned curly fries, and mozzare sticks. The tes and drinks would be continuously refilled until everyone was full. So the Pirate yer''s idea of ordering the most expensive things on the menu would not be happening.


    Rayleigh already arranged everything with the Tavern staff the prior day, so he only had to signal when he was ready and they''d start bringing out the food and drinks.


    Within five minutes of the bar maidens piling up tables and tables worth of food, Titan, Dragon Chef, Captain Jack, Fire Queen, Justice, Lightning Lord, Stoner, Wonder Woman, Glitter, and All Seeing Prophet showed up. Only those who had participated in some way during the fight were invited, so fellows like Gravity King and Immortal Beauty were not invited.


    Many of the newly arrived yers shouted unttering usations at their host when they realized that their dreams of ordering three tons of royal lobster or several whales would not being true. Still, Pirates were used to such things and took it in good spirits. The Tavern became very loud and several other yers asked what was worth celebrating.


    Rayleigh answered, "I guess you could say that we are celebrating the fact that we survived the Battle of Marineford." In the Tavern, everyone''s Metaknowledge was essible, so yers from other sses or yers who didn''t keep track of the timeline didn''t know that such a battle had alreadye to pass.


    That drew in some attention and soon, the Pirate yers wereughing and re-telling stories about what happened, usually with several exaggerations. Justice shouted, "Oars Jr is lucky that I was there. I punched him to the other end of the Grand Line, but he would have been killed if I hadn''t stopped him!" Plenty of yers cheered for that. They hadn''t saved Ace, but Oars Jr was alive, so it wasn''t like their presence hadn''t saved a few noble souls.


    Stoner shouted, "You should have seen Whitebeard as he pounded Akainu into the ground. It was SO Lethargic seeing that asshole get what he deserved. Never in a million years would he have thought that he''d get killed by a Zombie!"


    That got even more yers attention. Whitebeard turning into a zombie and killing Akainu?! They couldn''t imagine how that happened. The story was retold several times. It started over again with each new listener and new details were added every time.


    "... Then Swordsman cut open the fucking sky. I have no idea how he did that, but it was scary."


    Several questioning eyes turned to Rayleigh in an attempt to dig out his secrets. Rayleigh shrugged and replied, "I was angry. You wouldn''t like me when I''m angry."


    The yers chuckled and shook their heads before returning to chatting and eating. Since everyone knew he had the Jedi ss, he was trying to make them think it was a Dark Side skill he used by giving in to his emotions. That wasn''t technically a lie, but what he did had little to do with the Dark Side of the Force.


    Sooner than one would think, the daily allotment of two hours hade to an end and everyone was trying to finish up as much food as they could before they got booted out. Something that Rayleigh used against them was that a proper Pirate feaststed multiple meals and many yers simply forgot that they only had two hours here. Due to the time it took to tell stories, they didn''t eat nearly as much as they had nned, and although no one walked away hungry, they were unable to bankrupt Rayleigh like they had imed they were going to.


    With only a few minutes left, Rayleigh headed over to the bar counter and asked Red, "Can I go back to the Jedi Gxy now?"


    Red looked like he was considering it for a moment before answering, "Yeah. There is supposed to be a Force storm on Tython right now, but we can calm it down for a week."


    "What if it takes longer than a week to get off the?"


    "Then you''ll need to pay extra or wait until the Force Storm clears up on its own."


    "How long would that take?"


    Red didn''t answer, but his smile contained a promise of terrible things toe if Rayleigh tried asking again. Thankfully, he was pretty sure it would not take a week for someone to get there. Tython was somewhat remote, but it was still technically in the inner core of the Gxy. It was opposite the gctic center of Coruscant, but it was still not that far away.


    After getting everything confirmed, Rayleigh left the Tavern and experienced another white-out scene change. He was wearing a new set of Jedi Robes, a freebie from the Tavern since his old clothes would not fit and the Tavern won''t make you naked if you had been wearing clothes that no longer fit.


    Akar Kesh, the Temple of Bnce, was on top of a massive stone pir that usually rose above the clouds. In the many months that Rayleigh had meditated here, the clouds had always been below the edge of the pir, but they were above and below and a frigid wind reminded him that this ce was seemingly between Force Storms at the moment, so the weather was far worse than it used to be.


    Rayleigh looked around for a moment to get his baring. He left Jedi Master Dyanameez''s lightsaber around here between some rocks so it would not get blown away and he wanted to retrieve and return it if she was still alive.


    After walking for a few moments, Rayleigh stopped. His eyes whited out and lightning rolled through the clouds both above and below him. The world seemed to spin as a vortex formed overhead and rumbling thunder and multicolored shes of light shined through the cloud cover. A moment of silence passed before a dozen bolts of lightning wed out from the clouds in every direction and struck a singr point a few meters in front of where Rayleigh had been standing. Bolt after bolt mmed and smashed into a specific location, tearing the rock to pieces and shaking the very temple itself.


    Momentster, the clouds became silent. Rayleigh had unconsciously used Force Silence to separate himself from the deafening thunder and he was unharmed by the lightning. His eyes returned to normal and he shook his head in confusion as if he was not aware of what had just transpired. He did feel something had happened, but he also decided that it didn''t matter. He took a turn and walked in the direction of the rock outcropping where he left the stolen lightsaber.


    A few meters away, the rock that had been struck dozens of times by lightning had been obliterated. Its lone crime was identally snagging and keeping a certain very itching robe from being blown away for many years. Both the rock and robe had been erased from the face of Tython, never to be seen or heard from again.


    After retrieving the Lightsaber and making sure it still worked, Rayleigh walked over to the Tho Yor. For yers, this thing was an Easter Egg that allowed them to teleport from one to another. If Rayleigh wanted to get picked up, he needed to go to a workingnding strip that could broadcast a signal that a ship could lock in on and the only one of those that he knew of was where he came to this on, near the Temple of Knowledge''s buried Tho Yor.


    The giant pyramid-shaped structure was the same as when he left it and weed him inside. Had he known for certain that the door would always open for him, he would have left the Lightsaber in here instead of out in the elements, but it had survived so things were fine. Rayleigh touched the pedestal and was slightly disappointed that there were no new locations avable. Sure, he had a n to get off the, but if there had been a cheap way like instant teleportation to an inhabited world, he would have been fine with that too.


    Rayleigh selected Kaleth, the Temple of Knowledge, and was shifted to the first Tho Yor he encountered when he arrived in this world.


    A moment after stepping outside and into the dark cavern where the Thor Yor slept, Rayleigh hopped to the side, did a back flip, jumped, and did a side step while dodging the enormous poisonous ws of the Terentatek shing at his vitals.


    The Terentatek that followed Rayleigh here decided to just go back to sleep after losing its prey and didn''t bother choosing another location. It had still been asleep until a few moments ago when a mighty Force presence took control of the power of Tython for an instant. This, understandably, woke it from its slumber.


    Although Rayleigh could not use the Sword of Babylon to kill it and it was heavily resistant to lightsabers like the one in his hand, Rayleigh wasn''t worried. The ferocious beast was blurry in the Force but crystal clear in his En and easily predictable with his Haki. And although Rayleigh couldn''t use the Sword of Babylon to kill it, that did not mean he could not kill it.


    A line of aura glowed on the underside of Rayleigh''s hand as he swiped it, releasing a flying nen sh of transmuted sword aura toward the Jedi killer. The Terentatek''s body was cut, but notpletely through.


    Even without a sword, his aura was dense enough and sharp enough to cut metal, but it had only reached about bone deep in this beast. Rayleigh dodged a few more strikes and sent another flying sh while keeping his senses to the max. After witnessing the next strike, Rayleigh determined the cause.


    Terentateks are beings of the Dark Side and the corrosive nature of the Dark Side is also with them. Once the lines of aura entered the creature''s flesh, the corrosive nature of the Dark Side literally corroded the lines of sharpened sword aura before they could slicepletely through the beast''s body.


    Rayleigh shrugged nomittally. If he couldn''t sh it to death, he had other options.


    After dodging another sh, Rayleigh took a provoking stance with an arm raised. Although not considered intelligent, the cruel beast recognized Rayleigh''s ''bring it on'' stance and Rayleigh could almost feel the creature thinking to itself, ''the audacity of this bitch!''


    Completely falling for the taunt, the hulking creature threw all its weight into its next slice with enough force to shred Rayleigh into multiple sections.


    The sharpest, hardest, most poisonous tip of the w met Rayleigh''s guarding wrist and was stopped. Under the defense of Rayleigh''s Haki and Ren, the Terentatek''s w could not even break Rayleigh''s skin and its mightiest attack could not cause any fluctuation in his stance.


    Before the Jedi Killer could understand its new location on the food chain, Rayleigh mmed his fist into the creature''s gut with all the skill and poise of a Heavyweight professional Boxing Champion.


    The innards and spine of the Terentatek erupted from the other end of the creature''s body from the force of the punch. Aplete look of bewilderment and disbelief seemed to mar the creature''s face before the light left its eyes and it copsed to the ground.


    Its reaction was not surprising. Powerful Jedi could use the Force to strengthen the impact of their blows to match or at least get close to what Rayleigh disyed, but not against Terentateks. Their nature made any usage of the Force in their direct presence muddled and difficult. Telekinesis didn''t work on them, Stasis didn''t work on them. And if you made contact with their bodies, the amplification effect you applied at the point of contact would also be dampened.


    The best a Force user could do was use telekinesis on a rock and smash the Terentatek, but without the ability to move objects and defend yourself at the same time, doing so would leave you vulnerable. Plus, a Terentatek''s hide was very thick. Rayleigh used an application of Haki that granted heavy pration of force and enhanced that with Nen. It was probably overkill, but there was no point in holding back if he wasn''t practicing.


    Rayleigh was about to walk away and find his way out of this ce and back to the outside, but he saw something appear next to the Terentatek and start to glow.


    As any proper video game yer would do, Rayleigh walked over and picked up the loot that dropped from the Terentatek''s corpse. It didn''t look like anything he was familiar with, but the pop-up that appeared when he made contact with it told him exactly what it was.


    [You have discovered an Easter Egg, Ancient Star Map (Iplete). Collect 4 to reveal the location of the Star Forge.


    Note* The Star Forge''s location will be hidden and invisible to all other means of detection outside of aplete Ancient Star Map.]


    Rayleigh had no idea what that was. He wondered if HK-47 knew.


    *Author''s Note*


    After going over every battle from the Clone Wars, I discovered a problem. Realistically, speaking, the yers can''t really do anything. The Jedi yers will try to save the Jedi, the evil yers will try to gain more power, and the independent yers will just do their own thing.


    Palpatine controls both sides of the war, so even if the yers help shift one side, Palpatine will just make adjustments to the other side. Palpatine has plot armor until the fall of Vader, so he can''t be targeted or killed.


    After bouncing around a number of ideas, I decided that this was the best way to go. Although this means that the plot ends up being simr to Ouw Star. There is a treasure that they spend some episodes finding clues to and every faction races to get the treasure before anyone else. But that isn''t necessarily a bad thing.


    If I didn''t add something extra, this entire arc will just be battle after battle, and eventually, readers will just read for the sake of reading, waiting until the arc ends for something new to happen. I wouldn''t want that done to me and I won''t do it to you! So we are low-key bringing in the plot of Knights of the Old Republic to spice up the Clone Wars a bit. Palpatine still wins at the end, but yers may or may not have a working Star Forge at that point. That''s something to look forward to, right? And this one is not the same one from KOTOR, that one was destroyed, this is a second one. It is not located in the same ce, so HK-47 won''t be able to give him the coordinates.


    Next chapter we meet the yers of the Jedi Gxy!


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 80: Do You Wanna Build a Spaceship?

    Chapter 80: Do You Wanna Build a Spaceship?


    Author''s note*


    Some reading this have never seen Star Wars and many reading this have 100% forgotten everything about Star Wars I wrote in the first dozen chapters. I will be writing the Star Wars content toe with this in mind, introducing everything as if you''ve never heard it before and trying to do so in a way that is not an info dump.


    Chapter 80 Do You Wanna Build a Spaceship?


    The dark tunnels hidden beneath the surface of Tython would be a nightmare for almost anyone to traverse, but Force-sensitives were an exception as most could get to their desired destination blindfolded. Even without Force GPS, his Haki''s ability to sense the flow of the world allowed him to practically map out the region just using the airflow. The only thing that didn''t work was his irvoyance.


    Using the Force on Tython was like treading water while shackled with weights. That was the reason that A Je''daii Journeyer could traverse Tython and gain the skill necessary to be a Je''daii Ranger and a Je''daii Master without a Master-Apprentice Force-Bond. The Force in most ces was like a calm pool orke, while the Force on Tython was like a massive storm at sea.


    Rayleigh tried to listen to the background music of the world, but it was drowned out by the Force. That is to say, the Force was the background music of this world.


    On his way out of the tunnels, Rayleigh made one stop. In front of him was a shriveled, ancient-looking corpse that happened to be wearing the robes of a Jedi Grand Master. Back when the team was on Tython, this fellow had been the source of many debates, since no Grandmaster was known to have died or gone missing in the tunnels. So who was this guy?


    Rayleigh knelt down and touched the man''s robes, twitching slightly at the feel of how itchy they were. He used psychometry on the ancient cloth and read its history backward until its origins were known.


    "Huh. That''sme." Rayleigh couldn''t help butin aloud. Apparently, the robes were a forgery. This guy was a candidate for Jedi Grandmaster but didn''t win, so he made his own robes. It seemed that he came here to trick someone, but said person didn''t fall for that trick and wounded him before running away. Rather than return in shame and disgrace, this fellow just came here to die.After rolling his eyes at the absurdity, Rayleigh stood up and continued his journey back to the surface. He wasn''t particrly busy and Tython was never a safe ce, so Rayleigh took his time to carefully tread forward without disturbing things that should not be disturbed or causing a cave-in. Another hour passed by and the light of day could be seen. Mostly. It was still very cloudy outside.


    After another hour of walking Rayleigh had returned to the campsite where he spent his childhood. Unsurprisingly, there was no trace of habitation. The Jedi would not have left any signs of their presence like litter or leftovers and the harsh weather would wipe away any signs that had remained of their presence.


    Rayleigh sprinted through the trees from the campsite to thending station. On thending station there should be a beacon that ships locked onto in order to descend to the, and considering the cloud cover, Rayleigh would need to make sure it was turned on if he wanted someone tond here.


    Thending port was, thankfully, still in one piece. It had been here for thousands of years, and though covered in a thinyer of vines from recent disuse, it still served its purpose well. As Rayleigh suspected, thending tform''s signal beacon was disabled. The thing was sr powered so it''s not like turning it off saved the battery life. Rayleigh suspected the Jedi Temple ordered the team to turn it off to prevent people froming back.


    When Rayleigh opened up the control panel to plug the beacon back in, he looked around to see if there was a note or message inside the panel. The Jedi he ran from didn''t know he was dead and if he was alive, it was obvious that he would return here and turn thending beacon back on, so this would be the best ce to leave a note to him if they suspected that he was alive. But there was nothing.


    Rayleigh was disappointed, but not too surprised. Even if this group were oddballs among the Jedi, they were still Jedi. Jedi do not form attachments. Jedi do not mourn loss. They likely just epted that he had ''returned to the Force,'' and left it alone.


    After turning the signal beacon back on, Rayleigh opened his yer Menu, and for the first time in his life, he entered the Jedi Chatroom.


    [Swordsman has signed in.]


    [Swordsman: Is Pacifist around?]


    [Lord of Madness: It''s about time that you showed up. Listen, I got this job that I could use a bit of help on.]


    [Gambler: I wouldn''t bet on getting his assistance. Swordsman seems like a stick in the mud.]


    [Blind Prophet: I already told you to give up on that heist you crazy idiot! You will die!]


    [Lord of Madness: You said I''d die with anyone else''s help, but you didn''t say I''d die with Swordsman''s help.]


    [Pacifist: I''m free now. I can pick you up in three days. And although I cannot make the decision for you, I will ask that you refrain from blindly epting any crazy requests, especially if they are guaranteed to be illegal in nature.]


    [Swordsman: Thanks, Pacifist. And sorry Madness, I''m gonna be busy for a while.]


    [Lord of Madness: Oh really? You don''t have a spaceship, a pilot''s license, any references, or a single cred chip to your name. Help me with this job and I''ll get you everything you need and then some.]


    [Grey Matter: He really doesn''t need to piss off one of thergest organizations in the Gxy just to get some pocket change. The Jedi Temple can take care of him easily. Pacifist, you can take him to Coruscant, right?]


    [Tails: Wow, Grey Matter''s being really assertive today. The new guy just got here and you already wanna take him home? What do you need him for? Did you already break that ''Lightsaber'' I sent you?]


    [Mechanic: There''s no way she broke it. I especially made it for her and it looks just like a normal lightsaber hilt when not turned on, so even if someone finds it in her possession, they won''t be suspicious. Considering how pent-up she must be, I figured it''d get a lot of usage. I''m such a thoughtful person. Be grateful.]


    [Grey Matter: Shut up! Both of you! Some of us have actual responsibilities!]


    [Tails: I''m pretty sure Mechanic has more responsibilities than you do and she still has time to have fun. You don''t even have a Padawan, yet she has like a million employees.]


    [Mechanic: Closer to a half-billion actually. Should I have sent a short ''lightsaber'' instead?]


    [Tails: No, you should have sent her a double-ded ''lightsaber'' and let her ''spar'' with Star Prophet or Avatar.]


    [Deadshot: Why is it when guys say stuff like that to girls, we''re misogynistic, but when girls say stuff like that to girls, it is normalized?]


    [Lord of Madness: Don''t ponder it too much. That way lies a madness even I fear to seek out.]


    [Swordsman: I may not have any money, but I am skilled in using the Hunter World''s power system to make items below a certain size indestructible. I think I can get by reasonably well by selling that.]


    [Lord of Madness: Wait, Hunters can do that?]


    [Pacifist: Yes, Swordsman went over Divine Script in one of his lessons.]


    [Lord of Madness: Dang. I must have forgotten that one.]


    [Grey Matter: How does that work? Is it like Sith Alchemy? I should hope not.]


    [Lord of Madness: Karen Alert! Karen Alert! This is not a drill! Get to the Bunkers before she gets the Manager!]


    [Swordsman: Divine Script is essentially a written pattern of self-sustaining life force that can be imparted onto surfaces to grant certain effects. Technically, using your own life force to enhance the durability of something is not considered a Dark Side technique. Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas used his own life force to enhance the remnant lifeforce inside a wooden staff. The enhanced lifeforce within the wooden staff kept it together, allowing it to fight lightsabers. Look it up.]


    [Mechanic: How long would it take you to make a ship indestructible?]


    [Swordsman: Depends on the size of the ship. A small one-man fighter? A few weeks. Somethingrger? A few months. Plus I''d have to inscribe it on the inner side of the hull after assembly, but before the interior was set into ce.]


    [Mechanic: How long will the effectst?]


    [Swordsman: Life sustains life, so if the ship was left abandoned in the vacuum of space for a while, it would likely lose its effect. As long as the ship has living upants and frequently visits life-bearing worlds, it couldst indefinitely or several decades at least.]


    [Mechanic: Okay. There are a few things I''d pay very well to make indestructible.]


    [Lord of Madness: Like the ''lightsaber'' you keep in your bedside drawer?]


    [Tails: Just because her boyfriend doesn''t frequent the Chat Room, doesn''t mean you can get away with saying stuff like that. The Force won''t protect you if he blows up the city you''re in from orbit. Ask Deadshot if he thinks that Mechanic''s boyfriend ever misses.]


    [Gambler: Vash the Stampede? Miss? Yeah, I wouldn''t bet on that.]


    [Deadshot: Do you really want to die? You do know that Tails probably knows exactly where you sleep, right?]


    [Lord of Madness: Okay, okay, sorry. Don''t shoot me from orbit!]


    [Swordsman: If you''re willing to pay me and can get me a ship, I''m in.]


    [Mechanic: Ha! Then you''d better have Pacifist drop you off here, on Corellia. Lucky for you, we have the best starships and train the best pilots in the Gxy and I have ess to the best customizations and modifications on the.]


    [Gambler: So... who do you think would win in a fight? Swordsman? Or ... you know.. Since they both..]


    [Blind Prophet: There''s no way he''d lose. I''ve never seen him lose a single fight in the future. Even Dooku got swatted away. One is just a man, while the other is a master.]


    [Grey Matter: Swordsman would probably lose. Swordsman may have trained with the best swordsman in that backwater pirate world, but He trained with the best swordmaster across countless star systems. There''s noparison.]


    [Lord of Madness: I for one would not mind seeing that pompous sword-for-brain get taken down a peg or twelve. Good Luck Swordsman! I''m rooting for you.]


    [Swordsman: I assume you''re talking about the yer, Swordmaster? Yeah. I''ve already heard of him. I look forward to meeting him.]


    Although Rayleigh never entered the Jedi Chat, he knew enough about the Jedi yers from the General Chat and spoke with the Jedi yers in person. Just like Rayleigh, every yer had a specialization.


    Lord of Madness specialized in draining knowledge, skills, and lifeforce from others. He was already quite rich just from capturing some wealthy gangsters and taking their bank ount info directly from their brains.


    Gambler specialized in luck maniption. He could steal, store, save, and use luck at will, basically creating his own plot armor.


    Pacifist had the same Paw Paw fruit as the robot-bear from the Pirate World and specialized in attack redirection and damage nullification.


    And as their names suggested, the Prophets specialized in seeing and predicting the future. Star Prophet is primarily a Jedi while Blind Prophet''s primary ss was actually Hunter. From what Rayleigh heard in the General Chat, Blind Prophet removed her eyeballs and created a Hatsu that materialized new eyes that could see into the future. Due to the sacrifice and dedication required to perform such an act, the Hatsu was extremely efficient and she could maintain her Hatsu at all times.


    Other yers he didn''t know much about, but the Jedi yer mentioned the most was Swordmaster. Rayleigh was not the only yer to take the path of the sword after all. Swordmaster had not lost to any yer in a Lightsaber duel, both in and out of the Tavern''s Arena. He was also the disciple of Mace Windu, said the be the strongest Lightsaber wielder, only below Grandmaster Yoda. Of course, he hadn''t fought every yer. He definitely had not challenged Dragon Chef or Titan. Still, he was acknowledged as the strongest Jedi yer, and since Rayleigh was technically a Jedi yer, then logically, Rayleigh was weaker than Swordmaster.


    Of course, a majority of yers were unaware of the existence of the 20-Talent Bundles. Only other 20-Talent yers knew about them. And Rayleigh knew that he was the only Jedi yer to get the 20-Talent Bundle for the Jedi ss.


    As for the other yers, Rayleigh could somewhat guess their specialties from their IDs. Avatar, Mechanic, and Deadshot were easy to guess. Grey Matter and Tails, less so. He already heard about Vash the Stampede since he was originally a Pirate yer who came to the Jedi Gxy. Other Pirate yers would be arriving soon, so Lord of Madness would likely get some aplices for whatever crazy scheme he thought up sooner orter.


    Rayleigh spent the next few days exploring the area, but the animals he got to know years prior were nowhere to be found. Did they migrate due to the Force Storms or get killed by something else? It was hard to say. Tython was really too unpredictable and random.


    He also tried using the Devil Fruits inside his Kyber Crystals, but they were not easy to use. From what Mimic told him, Devil Fruits granted its user the Physique that can use the Law associated with the Devil Fruit, but since Rayleigh didn''t eat the fruits, he didn''t get the Physiques. Said Physiques also assisted in using the fruit, granting instinctual ess to the Law''s effects. This meant that Rayleigh had to find out how each Law was used and manually perform each stage of its use.


    Between the twows, Darkness was actually more difficult to figure out than Space Vibrations. The Law of Space Vibrations requires converting arge amount of stored potential energy into kic energy in a single instant. Thankfully, empty space actually has a ridiculous amount of stored energy. The Law of Space Vibrations allows the user to use their own energy as a catalyst to ess the vast potential energy stored in empty space and release that energy, converting it into a kic energy shockwave. The potential power was almost limitless, but the drawback was that Newton''s Third Law was obeyed during this release, so the person who provided the energy as a catalyst would also experience the recoil of the shockwave. The Law''s associated Physique would grant resistance to this recoil, but it didn''t grant immunity.


    Ironically, this drawback could be canceled out if used with the Law of Darkness. The Law of Darkness absorbed everything and rejected nothing. It could even absorb the recoil, preventing the body from being damaged when using the Law at the peak of its power. However, Darkness was conceptually unknowable and far more difficult to infer than space vibrations, meaning that Rayleigh needed more experience and tests to fully bring out its power.


    A rare break in the clouds happened to ur on the third day, allowing Pacifist easy entry, guided by thending port''s beacon and his own skillful navigation. His ship was very small, only a bitrger than a van but shaped like an arrowhead with blue painted highlights.


    The see-through cockpit''s dome lifted and retracted forward. Rayleigh was pleased to see that it was a two-seater as he would have protested sharing a seat. A cylindrical droid with a red-painted head dropped down from the craft and started making whirring and beeping noises. Since Rayleigh was essentially taught every general subject by droids on Tython, he understood its meaning clearly. A familiar face stood up from the pilot''s seat and jumped directly to the ground a few meters from where Rayleigh stood.


    Unlike Rayleigh who spent thest year on an ind getting a tan, Pacifist was still neon white with long, sandy blonde hair tied into a ponytail, his Padawan''s braid gone and his hands in the pockets of his Jedi Knight Robes, likely a habit to hide the paw pads on his hands.


    Pacifist gave a light smile and stated, "It is good to see that you are well. Now before I unleash you on the Gxy, I do have a question. Is there anything you are unwilling to do?"


    Rayleigh nodded as it was a pertinent question. He answered, "Just the usual. I don''t wanna burn down churches, kidnap children, torture civilians, or jaywalk. You know, evil shit."


    Pacifist nodded, seemingly satisfied with the reply. He then looked around and stated, "So this is Tython huh? Are there really a bunch of Holocrons here?"


    Rayleigh shook his head, "You know, I never found a single Holocron in all my time here. But I do have Psychometry, so I used that to learn the skills of those who trained here."


    "That makes more sense. Some yers really were tempted toe here and get some holocrons, but the Force Storm didn''t help and the Landing Beacon was disabled, so it never came up. The Force does feel different here though."


    Rayleigh tossed up Master Dyanameez''s Lightsaber and said, "Want to give it a try? I also want to see if you''ve gotten rusty."


    Pacifist lifted a hand into the air and the lightsaber hilt at his side flew from his belt to his hand and ignited. "You know, technically, it is not legal for those who are not Jedi to possess a Lightsaber, right?"


    "That''s fine. This is actually borrowed and I''ll let you have it if you promise to return it afterwards. For now though." The green de extended.


    Pacifist gently stated, "Begin." He approached with two steps and lightly tested Rayleigh''s reflexes with a swipe of the tip of the de that Rayleigh swatted away. The swipe was a feint that turned into another sh, but Rayleigh lightly bent back to dodge it.


    Pacifist circled and gave an opening that Rayleigh was happy to test with the former mirroring thetter''s previous counter and dodge.


    Once both got a feel for their opponent''s reflex speed, they started exchanging move after move, adjusting their stance with every step and aiming for a vital point with every swing.


    A small series of back-and-forth exchanges started the warm-up as Pacifist began moving more assertively, adding spins and flourishes to his de work with speed and strength empowered by the Force. Rayleigh countered and deflected using a few basic spins of his own.


    Pacifist stated, "You''re using Soresu''s defense against me, huh?"


    Rayleigh smiled and replied, "I thought it fitting, considering the rocky terrain."


    Pacifist continued, "Naturally. You must expect me to attack with Makashi!"


    Rayleigh agreed, "Naturally. But, I find that Djem So cancels out Makashi. Don''t you?"


    Pacifistughed, "Ha! Unless the enemy has studied his Ataru..." He then did a front flip over Rayleigh andnded behind him, "Which I have."


    Both yers momentarily stopped and stared at each other. Rayleigh was the first to break downughing, with Pacifist following shortly. Each was on the ground, rolling and clutching their chests, tears dripping from their eyes.


    It took two minutes for the pair to regain their dignity and Pacifist stated, "You are the first person to get that reference."


    Rayleigh looked horrified. "Don''t tell me Swordmaster and those others have never watched Princess Bride."


    Pacifist, "No, they watched and got it afterward, but I tried the same on everyone else and no one else figured it out during the spar."


    Rayleigh nodded and said, "Since we''re both right-handed, you should have grabbed your Lightsaber with your left hand. I would have done the same and we could have gone further into the scene."


    "I didn''t think you''d catch on so quickly. Wasted opportunity but I''m still happy with what I got."


    With that, Rayleigh disabled his borrowed Lightsaber and tossed it to Pacifist. "That belongs to Jedi Master Dyanameez. You know her?"


    "Of course. She runs the archives with Master Jocasta Nu. I''ll make sure to give it back to her."


    "Thanks. What are you going to say?"


    "That the Force told me toe here and I saw an active beacon so Inded and picked you up."


    Rayleigh acknowledged, "That works."


    Pacifist returned to the pilot''s seat of his ship, something he called a Jedi Starfighter. His whirring droid re-entered the ship and Rayleigh jumped into the ship''s back seat and buckled in as the ship closed up and the engine started.


    It only took a few moments for the ship to lift into the air and rise through the cloud cover back into the ckness of space. There, floating in orbit above the world was a house-sized ring with engines on either side. The small starfighter docked into the ring and locked into ce as the engines on the ring lit up and Pacifist started, "Preparing to jump into hyperspace."


    A momentter, the dots of light that made up the various stars in the distance turned into lines as the ship was propelled forward.


    Pacifist said, "It will take about nine hours to get from here to Corellia. Are you sure that''s where you want to go? The Temple can take care of anything you need."


    Rayleigh shook his head. "No thanks, the Temple might be able to help me live, but it won''t help me get stronger."


    Pacifist stated, "I really don''t think there is anywhere in the Gxy that has more knowledge on the Force than the Jedi Temple."


    "It''s not the Force I need to make stronger, it''s my heart. Mind, Body, and Heart. Those are the three parts that must be trained to be stronger. But Jedi literally forbid training the Heart because training the Heart the wrong way can lead to the Dark Side. Instead of figuring out how to train the Heart the right way, the Jedi abandon the Heart entirely."


    Pacifist asked, "What''s the difference?"


    "I''ll tell you if you tell me a bit about what''s going on in the gxy and what the yers are doing. It''s a long flight after all."


    Pacifist only considered a moment before he agreed. It wasn''t like it was a secret or anything.


    ording to Pacifist, the Jedi yers had three general factions.


    The Temple Faction is loyal to the Jedi. They wanted to protect the innocent, maintain the peace, keep suffering as low as possible. They were made up of himself, Avatar, Grey Matter, and Star Prophet.


    The Senatorial Faction was not loyal to anyone but partnered heavily with the Senate and the Supreme Chancellor. They worked on a collective give-and-take rtionship where the yers would perform tasks for certain senators and get rewards in the form of money, tech, or resources. Swordmaster, Gambler, Blind Prophet, Lord of Madness, and Deadshot were members of this faction.


    And the Independent Faction is currentlyposed of Mechanic, Vash the Stampede, and Tails. They worked together yet did not help the Senate or the Jedi.


    Rayleigh suspected that the Pirate Faction would soon be added to that list. Rayleigh didn''t like the Senate or the Jedi, so the Independent Faction was his best bet for the moment.


    Pacifist continued, "ording to Star Prophet, war ising. A former Jedi named Count Dooku will lead an army against the Republic. The only way to stop it would be to kill Count Dooku, but he is really hard to track down. Especially since Blind Prophet often gets in the way when Star Prophet tries to find him."


    Rayleigh asked, "Why is she helping Dooku?"


    "Star says it''s because the war will make the Republic stronger and the Jedi weaker. The stronger the Republic, the more benefits the Senatorial Faction can get for themselves."


    "Has anyone thought of telling this to the Jedi Masters?"


    Pacifist released a long and tired sigh at that question. "It wouldn''t work. There is a history of Seers in the Jedi trying to stop a horrible future and end up causing it. Due to this, the Jedi Policy is that if you see something really bad, ignore it. If you are found trying to stop it, you will be locked up to prevent the possibility that your actions could cause the very thing you tried to stop."


    That one actually stunned Rayleigh speechless. "Really?"


    "Yeah. Honestly, a lot of us are just trying to keep the casualties as low as possible. I''m really not looking forward to this."


    Rayleigh replied, "Sounds like a good chance to train your Heart then."


    Pacifist asked, "So you don''t think Jedi train their heart?"


    Rayleigh scoffed, "Jedi literally go out of their way to avoid training their Heart. When you have no idea what to do, you''re supposed to listen to your heart and let that guide you. The stronger your heart, the better the decisions you can make. But the Jedi never listen to their Heart. They listen to the Force. Any action or duty that requires the Heart is done using the Force as a substitute."


    "Is that such a bad thing?"


    "The Force doesn''t care if you or anyone else dies. The opinion of Ghosts should not dictate the rules of the living."


    The rest of the journey continued in silence as Pacifist chose to meditate on their conversation. Jedi star crafts didn''t have bathrooms or entertainment, so it was standard for Jedi to just meditate throughout their travels.


    Rayleigh always had at least one Will meditate, but since he lost his conversation partner, he had the other Wills dobat training. He only used Jedi lightsaber forms in that little spar with Pacifist, but that was all he needed to see the depths of thetter''s sword skill, so a few of his Wills copied Pacifist''s full strength, and Rayleigh practiced against him. Rayleigh also knew the effects and powers of the Paw Paw Fruit thanks to seeing it in action, so he could give his mental representation of Pacifist those skills as well.


    The result? A beat down. The Paw fruit had two weaknesses. It could only reflect and redirect forces that came into contact with the hands, and he only had two hands. Rayleigh just had to use some omnidirectional attacks. Like send a slow flying sh, change position, send a medium-speed flying sh, change position, and send a high-speed flying sh. When calcted right, all three arrived at the same moment at different angles and his Paws could only block two. Of course, he certainly would not be standing still, so Rayleigh had to predict where he would be in advance and outspeed and out-predict him. It was a fun little exercise to take up his time until they reached their destination, Corellia.


    *Author''s note*


    Surprisingly, writing a dozen OCs is harder than it seems. In order to prevent plot holes, I needed to essentially write each one''s backstory, character ws, and motivation/goals. Mechanic''s was the hardest because she wasn''t raised by the Jedi. But I did it. Now I just have to unleash them all on the unsuspecting Gxy.


    Again, I will write the information in a way that assumes that readers have never watched Star Wars and will try to do so in a way that does not feel like an information dump.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 81: Welcome to Corellia

    Chapter 81: Wee to Corellia


    A couple of minutes before the Star Fighter''s arrival, Pacifist stated aloud for Rayleigh''s benefit, "We''reing out of Hyperspace soon." He then sent a message inside the Jedi Chat Room.


    [Pacifist: Mechanic, do you want him dropped off on a shipyard or-side?]


    [Mechanic:-side. Use Frequency 1577.89, callsign, Pizza Boy.]


    Pacifist sighed and didn''t reply.


    Rayleigh asked, "How useful is the Chat formunication acrosss?"


    The Jedi replied, "Extremely. Even if you don''t have amunicator or ship, you can always reach out using the Chat. There have already been more than a dozen instances of yers getting stranded or needing assistance and using the Chat to call for Backup. If you are avable, it is a good idea to respond. Though that means that the asker usually owes the one who responded a favor."


    Rayleigh asked, "What if the yer doesn''t repay that favor?"


    "Then the next time they get in trouble, everyone will know they aren''t worth rescuing," Pacifist answered evenly.


    Rayleigh only considered it for a moment before agreeing that such a situation was natural. If someone really got stranded on a and couldn''t get rescued, they could just use the Tavern to go to a different world, so it wasn''t like leaving them meant dooming their existence.A momentter, the lines of passing lights came to a halt and turned to dots of starlight once more as the ship seemed to almost pause in motion before their destination.


    Corellia was almost Earth-like in appearance, save for the fact that the continents were the wrong shapes, a bit smaller, and more spread out. Plenty of green on the''s dayside and lots of orange lights around the''s cities on the nightside. The world''s most distinctive feature though was not its surface, but what was above it. Countless space stations, hundreds if not more, dotted the''s orbit. A stream of spaceships traveling in lines back and forth from the to the stations could be seen from most of them. Many of the ships heading to the stations were tied with massive cables that liftedrge, irregr structures. It reminded Rayleigh of ants, with the line heading to the nest carrying food.


    Sensing Rayleigh''s open curiosity, Pacifistmented, "Those are Corellia''s Shipyards." He then turned on his ship''s radio, tuned it to the frequency mentioned by Mechanic, and said, "This is pizza boy requesting vectors fornding."


    A momentter, the radio replied, "Authorization confirmed. Permission Granted. Sending vectors fornding. Confirm reception."


    The screen on his Pilot''s disy lit up and Pacifist scrolled through it a bit before answering back, "Vectors received, heading in now," before turning the radio''s microphone off and steering the ship. In addition to the countless shipsing and going from the shipyards, countless more circled the like swarming insects, each a different shape and size, with this craft being the smallest that Rayleigh could see.


    Their ship seemed to be moving into a line of other ships that were flying into the''s atmosphere. Rayleigh asked, "So what can you tell me about Corellia?"


    After confirming a path to safely merge into the stream of ships heading into the, Pacifist answered, "For some reason, born and raised Corellians have an Italian ent."


    "Wait, really?" Rayleigh could not tell if he was joking.


    "Kinda. Obviously, it''s not really an Italian ent, but that''s the closest approximation that I can think of. After recognizing it, you can usually tell if someone is raised on Corellia or not by its presence orck thereof. The only thing you really need to know about this world is that Corellians are all born with wanderlust. It''s a known joke that there are more Corellians off Corellia than on the. You saw those seas, right? Before their industrial revolution, sailing on a ship was every Corellian''s dream job. Once the age of space exploration started, Corellians were some of the first to start up their prototype Hyperdrives and start exploring the unknown. Ships made here are reliable and pilots raised here are dependable. Don''t forget those things and you''ll be fine."


    "That''s it? That''s like saying, ''Earth is peaceful except when it is not'' and ''The United States likes oil.'' It''s true, but not exactly useful. Where''s the juicy stuff?"


    Pacifist shook his head, "Corellia prefers to solve their own problems and I doubt there is a single Jedi on this. This is actually my first time here, so I don''t know much except rumors."


    Rayleigh asked eagerly, "Rumors are good. Give me some of those."


    Rolling his eyes, Pacifist replied, "Fine, let''s see. Like Coruscant, Corellia was originally a human-only world. Most historians believe that some random civilization a long time ago seeded a bunch ofs with one or two random species depending on the environment, so Humans were on a lot ofs even before the era of spaceships. Because of its origins, Corellia is thought to be pretty speciesist, especially its gangs. The Kaldana Syndicate is the best example and one of the bigger interster gangs that operate out of Corellia and Sullust. They cause a lot of problems and are the only thing that the Jedi really get involved with on a regr basis when ites to Corellia."


    Rayleigh asked, "What, do they attack non-humans?"


    Pacifist snorted, "That would make sense if they did, but apparently they hate droids even more than aliens and cause a lot of pointless, expensive damage. Like nting explosives in droid-run businesses or ships, robbing droid-runpanies frequently, and being general terrorists to anyone that uses Droidbor over humanbor."


    "What about Mechanic?"


    "You can ask her yourself. We''ll arrive in a few minutes."


    Pacifist knew that Rayleigh was just trying to get a bunch of useful info for free and humored him on some things while being vague on others. It was par for the course with yer to yer interactions, especially if they were not going to work together in the future.


    The Jedi Starfighter had already entered the atmosphere and was closing in on the''srgest city, its capital of Cor. From above, the uneven surface and green tint of the air made the city look like a massive patch of mold but became more clear as they descended closer to the''s surface.


    Pacifist referenced his Pilot''s disy every few moments before making turns, using the directions he was sent to find the right location.


    Much of the city was a cross between industrialplexes that built structures to be carried to the shipyards in orbit andnding ports for the various ships.


    Plenty of towering skyscrapers dotted the horizon in every direction, though were far from the spaceship traffes to avoid unfortunate collisions.


    The disy on the Pilot''s dashboard turned into an image of a nearbynding pad and highlighted it while shing, indicating it and the approach direction that Pacifist had tond on.


    The ship''s radio was still dialed into the frequency Mechanic provided and on the ship''s descent to thending spot, a woman''s voice was heard from it. "Thank you for the delivery, Pacifist, did you want to stick around for a while?"


    Pacifist turned the microphone back on and answered, "Thank you for the offer Mechanic but I need to head back to Coruscant. If you can take care of Swordsman, I''ll drop him off here."


    The radio answered back, "That''s fine. Have him jump out and I''ll get you your departure vectors for Coruscant."


    The moment that the craftnded, Pacifist opened the hatch and said, "Good luck Swordsman, see youter."


    Rayleigh replied back, "You too, we''re definitely even now," and jumped out of the fighter''s back seat.


    Pacifist had not even turned off the engine, so the moment Rayleigh jumped out, the hatch slid back up and the ship lifted off once more. It reminded Rayleigh of a Taxi, but he didn''t hold it against Pacifist as he had done everything he was obligated to do.


    Thending pad, like just about all the othernding pads in the city, was highly elevated and far from the ground. There was only one path from thending pad to the nearest building and waiting there at the entrance was a ck-haired young woman in dress-to-kill business attire wearing sleek sses and holding a tablet. Her suit had an Earth aesthetic but would stand out quite a bit on Earth due to the expensive and sophisticated-looking blue and gold embroidery that gave it an other-worldly feel.


    On his approach to the woman who was obviously Mechanic, he halted and looked around with caution. Although he could sense Mechanic''s presence in the Force, it was raw and untrained. This matched what he had been told. But he also felt something else, something subtle and refined. It wasn''ting from her though.


    Seeing her measuring gaze, Rayleigh continued his walk and asked, "So who else is here?"


    Mechanic lifted her sses up a notch and made a show of looking around, "Do you see anyone else here?"


    Seeing that she wasn''t going to admit it, Rayleigh muttered to himself, "Open Babylon."


    Rayleigh''s lightsaber had been reced with a leather wrist guard that pressed his Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal into his arm, so the conditions for using his second Hatsu that massively enhanced all of his senses could be fulfilled at any time.


    Under the effect of Babylon, Rayleigh''s En extended well beyond the length of thending tform. Very little could hide under Rayleigh''s Babylon, so it was a surprise when Rayleigh didn''t find any hidden observers or guards, but upon closer inspection using his Haki to examine the air, he found that some of the wind was not moving correctly, as if it was moving around a volume of slightly hazy gas.


    Rayleigh looked over to the side to the mass of hazy gas that didn''t move naturally. It was so thin that it could hardly be seen, but Rayleigh detected the Force''s presence in that gas, meaning it was likely a yer.


    The gas moved, but seeing Rayleigh''s gaze follow the gas, Mechanic smirked and said, "You''re pretty good. Alright Vash,e on out."


    The gas gathered into a light red mist before turning into a person, a human wearing a red flight jacket and yellow sunsses that was clearly cosying the Vash the Stampede look,plete with spiky blonde hair.


    Despite being the same age, he was almost half a head taller than Rayleigh was. The moment he formed, he sagged down and said, "I can''t believe you found me. How is that fair? I even used Stealth and waspletely invisible!" He both whined andined like a girl.


    Rayleigh didn''t know if he was acting or serious. Either way, Rayleigh stated, "I''m very good at detecting things."


    The technique of Force Stealth was something of a Reverse Empathy technique. Rather than using the Force to connect to others, it hid the Force in a way that prevented it from connecting to anyone else. The technique could be used to make the user less noticeable but a skilled user could also prevent the Force within their bodies from being detected using this technique. If a Force user wanted to hide from other Force users, this technique was essential and Rayleigh used it to lower the strength of the Force others could normally feel from him. When used against him, it was a little less effective since he merged the sensory skills of all his sses together. Even if it was perfectly hidden in the Force, that did not mean it was hidden from his En or Haki.


    Rayleigh asked, "So what Devil Fruit is that one?" He was pretty sure it wasn''t a Hatsu.


    Vash smiled and replied cheerfully, "The Gas Fruit! I can turn into gas and control gas."


    Mechanic asked Rayleigh, "Did you eat a Devil Fruit?"


    Rayleigh replied, "Nope. I may have fed one or two to my Lightsaber though."


    The formally dressed young woman raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at the ridiculous line in skepticism, but Rayleigh only shrugged in response. He couldn''t help it if others didn''t believe him.


    Mechanic then turned on her heel to the door and said, "Follow me."


    Rayleigh followed with Vash tagging along while keeping a careful watch on him.


    After entering the building they descended some stairs before heading out to anothernding tform. This one looked more like a traditional parking lot rather than a spaceshipnding site and a sleek sapphire blue and ivory white with gold iys hover car sat in an Official-looking parking spot that appeared to be their destination. "Get in the passenger seat Swordsman, I have a few more questions."


    Rayleigh did as asked and Vash got in the back seat as Mechanic took the driver''s seat and started the engine. The vehicle lifted into the air and sped to one of the lines of other colorful and uniquely shaped hover vehicles navigating through the city''s high-speed traffic.


    Mechanic started listing off her queries, "Do you know what are the principles behind this Divine Script of yours? How it works and what its limitations are?"


    Rayleigh didn''t attempt any form of deception and replied, "Notpletely, though it does have limits that I didn''t share over the Chat. Divine Script requires some weaknesses, the greater the strength, the greater the required weakness. The easiest weakness to grant is aplete vulnerability to Aura. An Achilles'' heel to Aura in exchange for an invulnerability to anything else. Another weakness is that I can''t just apply it to a single, solid piece. It has to be applied to multiple connected pieces and the application of Divine Script will lock the pieces in ce in that arrangement and lock the structure that those pieces take."


    "Lock the rtive position and structure?" she asked aloud, more to air out the idea than to receive an answer. She continued, "So to make a ship truly indestructible, the hull and framework would have to be set in ce and you''d have to apply that Script to the frame and hull?"


    "Yes. That''s exactly right," Rayleigh confirmed. He also added, "And the script can''t be covered. The surface that the script is written on must be exposed to the outside or the script would lose its power since life sustains life, and life doesn''tst long when smothered."


    "I can work with that. The best ship to use then would be a Shuttle, Light Freighter, or Yacht."


    Rayleigh asked, "What''s the difference? I''m not really an expert on spaceships."


    Mechanic answered, "Shuttles are space buses that transport lots of people. Small ones are about the size of two buses. Light Freighters can be the same size or a few dozen times bigger and are made to transport cargo with a minimal crew. They are basically space semi-trucks. Yachts are luxury ships that have an outward appearance of a fancy boat and are spaceship recreational vehicles, RVs."


    From the back, Vash said, "A Light Freighter would be the best. The most annoying thing when ites to traveling is getting permission toe and go. Shuttles and Yachts have a lot of restrictions on where they can go because they only transport people, while freighters can go just about anywhere because everywhere needs cargo."


    Mechanic nodded from the driver''s seat, "I was thinking the same thing. Yachts are nice, but they scream that the ship has VIPs which draws the wrong kind of attention. Shuttles scream that the ship is carrying lots of people which also draws the wrong kind of attention."


    Rayleigh asked, "What makes freighters better?"


    Vash answered, "It''s due to the number of people on a who can grant permission tond. If you are just traveling for pleasure or transporting people, you need customs to approve your arrival. They don''t always approve, often require a bribe, and even if you do get approval, they limit where your ship cannd which sometimes ends in a kidnapping attempt on shadiers."


    Mechanic picked up from there, "But if you are a cargo ship, anypany on the can grant permission tond. If you are actually delivering cargo to them, it''s free ess, and if you don''t have cargo to deliver, it is usually cheaper to bribe under-paidpany employees for ess than it is to bribe ego-inted customs agents."


    Vash nodded, "Yeah, the hardest part of space travel is just getting permission tond on busy worlds. If you don''t have permission and try tond on some of the more secure ones, you''ll get arrested and fined, your ship will be impounded, and it will be harder to get permission toe back."


    Rayleigh nodded, "Ah, space bureaucracy."


    Mechanic shuttered, "Oh no, space bureaucracy is so much worse."


    Rayleigh asked, "Didn''t Tails say you had employees?"


    "That''s right, I''m basically the CEO of Merr-Sonn Robotic Securities. They are a division of Merr-Sonn Military/Science."


    Rayleigh nodded, "I have no idea who they are."


    Vash chuckled, "Just about every weapon, non-space vehicle, and shield in the Gxy is made by either sTech, Merr-Sonn, or SoroSuub. Everything of quality from ster pistols to spaceship cannons toary defense shields is made by one of those three."


    Mechanic stated, "My father used to be the CEO of Merr-Sonn Robotic Securities. He got killed by Count Dooku a few years ago. This division would have been shut down if I hadn''t taken it over."


    For rification, Rayleigh asked, "Count Dooku? Pacifist said he was starting a war."


    Vash sighed, "Yeah, that''s the guy. For thest few years, he has been gathering allies in secret and those who refused to ally with him got silenced so that the secret would not be spread."


    Mechanic said, "I''m pretty sure every yer has a tragic parent backstory, so I''m not really hung up on it other than the fact that I''d like to see Dooku choke to death on his own intestines. Vash, which Light Freighter were you thinking of?"


    "The VCX-100, for sure. You already have the facilities to customize one inside and out." Seeing Rayleigh''s confused look, he said, "It looks like the love-child between a fighter jet and a tank. Think of two shipping containers stacked on top of each other with triangr wings on each side. It''s not small but the outer frame is simple, so it''s not that many pieces. Plus it is one of the mostmon light freighters in the Gxy, so it won''t stand out at all."


    Rayleigh shrugged, "It''s your decision, as long as I get paid, I''m good."


    Mechanic asked with an amused tone, "You mean your own ship, right? Say you do get your own ship and a pilot''s license. What are you gonna do then?"


    Vash answered for him, "Let me guess, work for someone to buy fuel and food while exploring the Gxy and mess around?"


    Rayleigh answered, "Pretty much. Why?"


    Mechanic groaned at Rayleigh''s obliviousness, "Since you''re going to look for work anyways, why don''t you just work for me? Vash is an excellent pilot and it''s not like we''re always busy."


    Rayleigh turned around and asked the backseater, "You want to partner up?"


    Vash sighed, "Mechanic doesn''t want Tails or I to go solo anymore. Tails diedst year on a solo mission and although Mechanic is taking care of her new character to help her get back on her feet, she doesn''t want either of us to take that risk in the future."


    Mechanic also added, "And Tails isn''t great atbat. She''s the best spy in the Gxy, but there''s not much she can do in a firefight. She is also an excellent pilot and during times when Vash is guarding me, you can back her up."


    Rayleigh considered it for a few moments and replied, "I''ll think about it."


    The traffic thinned out as they reached areas with higher security and Mechanic said, "You''re going to need some clothes that aren''t Jedi robes. I really don''t want anyone thinking that I''m working with a Jedi."


    Rayleigh had already considered this and replied, "I can make other things indestructible for spending money." He never considered asking for freebies. He was more aware than most of what it meant to be indebted to others.


    From the back, Vash asked, "Hey, can you make the indestructible condition something else?"


    Rayleigh turned back to answer, "Like what?"


    "Well, like can you make a hollow bullet shell indestructible but make it so that if the tip of it impacts something, it is no longer indestructible?"


    Rayleigh considered it for a moment and said, "Yeah. You can make a small tube with the bottom sealed and a hollow cone of the same size, I could set it so that when the cone and tube are connected, they stick and be indestructible until the cone is pressed down hard from the top like what would happen if the bullet impacted a target. Why do you ask?"


    Vash gave a smirk that was half mischievous and half devious and replied, "I use custom weapons. Mechanic has the best tools in the gxy to make the best weapon, but there aren''t many good ways to make a better bullet."


    Rayleigh asked, "Do guns here even use bullets?"


    Vash shook his head andined, "Slug throwers are a thing, but most weapons use Tibanna Gas."


    Deciding to add some details, Mechanic filled in, "sters and most weapons are basicallyser pointers enhanced with Tibanna Gas. Whenser light passes through it, the gas bes energized, reducing in volume but increasing in speed. sters direct this energized gas out a maic field through the nozzle and although it is not nearly as fast as a bullet, it hits even harder. The kic energy generated on impact for a ster shot usually converts to thermal energy before it can disperse through the material, melting it at the st point. Tibanna Gas acts as both the gunpowder and the bullet for most weapons with theser acting as the spark. The gas can be stored in carbonite which is slotted in the weapon. An average ster pistol''s battery has a strong enough charge for 50ser shots and enough gas for 120 shots. Both battery and gas cartridge can be reloaded."


    That reminded Rayleigh of Vash''s Devil Fruit so he had to ask, "Can your Devil Fruit use Tibanna Gas?"


    Vash shuddered as if repulsed and disgusted by the idea. The question was then answered by Mechanic who sinctly replied, "Tibanna Gases from the farts of floating gas blobs that live on some gas giants. He can absorb and manipte it just fine, he just doesn''t like to."


    Vash countered, "Hey! Don''t say it like it''s my fault! I''d die for real if I was saturated with that stuff and someone shot me! I''d rather be saturated with Helium-3 and Deuterium!"


    After yet another session of whining, the hovercraft had pulled into a private area filled with security systems and what looked to be gun turrets. Seeing Rayleigh''s questioning nce, Mechanic stated, "You can never have enough security, especially on Corellia. Although a majority of the works for the ship-building giant, Corellian Engineering Corporation, there are multiple factions within thepany, and many otherpanies, like the Big Three that Vash told you about, have research and development branches on Corellia. This is one of them. As you can see, we don''t take uninvited guests lightly."


    Vash cheerfully added, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you, probably one out of every three people on this is a spy of some kind that has made money selling secrets they had no business possessing. So do keep quiet about anything you see, alright?"


    The vague threat hidden under his tone made Rayleigh roll his eyes. He said, "If I do get approached for secrets, can I make up something?"


    Vash smiled, "No need, Mechanic has a file of authorized lies to use when that happens. It even has a price listing of each piece so that you don''t undersell it."


    Rayleigh looked back over to the driver''s seat where Mechanic wore a confident smile. A momentter, the vehicle slowed down and started descending. Mechanic said, "Wee to the Research and Development Branch of Merr-Sonn Robotic Securities. We''ve arrived at thebat testing facilities."


    Rayleigh perked up at the implication and asked, "Ah, would this be considered the interview?"


    Mechanic answered, "Just need to make sure that you haven''t been cking in your training. As an added bonus, you can get familiar with thebat standards of the Gxy."


    The facility''s main entrance looked normal with a front desk and some guards that Mechanic bypassed, but the further into the building they entered, the more security seemed to be required. ID Cards, typed passwords, retinal scans, voice passwords, and X-Ray scans. One door generated three random questions that Mechanic had to type the answer for. Eventually, he stopped seeing any human guards at all. Only sleek, sterile halls with slots on the walls, floors, and roof that Rayleigh guessed were not a part of the building''s AC.


    The space they finally reached looked like a Paintball Arena, though far more advanced.


    Mechanic said, "I won''t just throw you off the deep end, so you can watch Vash do the course first and then try it yourself."


    Vash looked positively giddy at that. He ran over to a wall and started selecting some sci-fi looking handguns. Rayleigh also caught a glimpse of arge, solid-looking handgun in a hidden holster at Vash''s side, under his flight jacket.


    Vash entered the arena while Mechanic showed Rayleigh where they would be watching from the side. When the lights turned onpletely, a white mannequin was visibly lit in the center of the arena and Vash had made its way to the fake figure''s side.


    A ten-second count-down timer started and Vash''s smile changed to a smirk. Hiszy cat-like personality shifted into that of a prowling tiger.


    Once the timer hit zero, doors opened on all sides of the room and tan colored skinny robots walked out, each holding a ster rifle.


    Mechanic introduced them, "The B1 Battle Droid, though most call them nkers. This model is produced in the highest volume in the gxy. What theyck in... well, everything, they make up for in numbers. Each costs about 1000 Credits and the ster rifle they carry costs 600 credits a piece. The one with the yellow head directs the groups."


    Almost before her description finished, thest of the thirty nkers fell. As Mechanic described, the one with the yellow head in each group of five pointed in a direction for the rest to go to surround Vash''s position, but each simply walked into an open area free of obstruction and before they could even take aim, Vash shot them all in the head using one of the two sters he held.


    The moment thest one was shot, another set of doors opened. Bulkier silver droids walked out. They did not carry weapons, but a quick inspection of their arms revealed built in weapons.


    Mechanic exined, "The B2 Super Battle Droids, also known as Supers, have decent armor, decent weapons, and are a little smarter than nkers. They are pretty slow though. 3300 credits a piece."


    As stated, these ones were very different from the prior batch. They didn''t simply walk into an open space and let Vash shoot them. They examined their surroundings before blindly walking around and hid their bodies behind cover while shooting and even used rocket-propelled grenades built into their arms.


    The target of the attacks was not Vash but the mannequin, making it obvious that thisbat scenario was designed with protection in mind. Vash didn''t need to dodge or move the mannequin though, he handled each attack with an attack of his own. The yer titled Vash the Stampede deflected ster shots aimed at the mannequin using his own ster shots, intercepting them mid-air. Rockets fired would be shot the moment that they wereunched and explode, destroying the Super Battle Droids nearby.


    Had each Super kept attacking, the old adage that two hands cannot stop four fists would have applied, but the aim of the Supers wasn''t amazing. Vash did not have to deflect every shot, allowing him to only deflect the attacks that would have hit the mannequin with the ster in one hand and take out the droids with the ster in his other.


    Even when under fire, the Supers did not get out of the way. Maybe they weren''t programmed to and were meant to rely on their armor. Though longer than it took to dispatch the nkers, Vash still took out the supers in less than ten seconds.


    Four doors opened once thest Super went offline. The droids that walked out this time were not as skinny as the B1s and not as bulky as the Supers. They still seemed to have more inmon with the B1s though, yet moved with precision and tactics greater than the Supers.


    Once again, Mechanic introduced, "The BX Droid Commando, or just Commando for short. These guys are the elites of the B-Series and are often used as bodyguards, assassins, and thieves. Each costs about 15,000 credits though can be much higher if you want the manufacturer to heavily customize it."


    Rayleigh understood that these guys were this era''s versions of HK-47. He wondered if HK would like one of their bodies.


    The Commandos had a variety of weapons and used them well, but still fell to Vash''s ster pistols in under a minute. Although they used the terrain well and had exceptional uracy, Vash could shoot them faster than they could aim, so most of the time was taken up by them running around.


    Just like before, the moment thest one fell, another set of doors opened. This time it was only two doors. From each appeared a new droid, but this one did not walk, it rolled. From two directions, this pair of rolling droids navigated around the obstacles.


    Vash slipped one of his sters into an empty holster and pulled out hisrge handgun.


    Both rollers stopped and opened up. Before one of them finished opening, the handgun loudly fired a shot through its center, causing it to wobble and fall. The second one behind him used this chance to finish opening up and taking a stance with three legs. The moment it did, a blue orb appeared around it. Both arms that folded out of the droid had sters, but it didn''t have a chance to release a single shot as it too fell with another bang of Vash''s gun. The bullet seemed to cause the orb to pop like a balloon.


    Mechanic smiled wistfully and said, "Droidekas, also known as Destroyers. Jedi hate them because their legstch into the ground, preventing them from being pushed or pulled by the Force, and their Deflector Shield is effective on all attacks or projectiles moving faster than a meter per second. The only way to beat them is to hit them before their shieldes up or to hit them with a turbo cannonser. Luckily for Vash, the custom handgun I made him far exceeds a turbo cannon in might, so it''s nothing for him to worry about."


    Rayleigh''s eyes were fixed on the spots behind the fallen droids where a chunk of the ground was missing, making it clear that even after piercing the shield, the bullet still had a lot of energy left.


    She continued, "At full price, Destroyers cost 400,000 credits, though they do offer a good discount if you pay using exotic meat. Plenty of Jedi run from these, so it''s a good idea to get familiar with them now."


    Mechanic then turned to the arena and said aloud, "One minute and four seconds. A new record."


    Vash holstered his handgun and smiled before excitedly walking over, "Ha! It was too easy!"


    Mechanic then nced to the side and asked with a slight tone of provocation, "So, did you want to give it a try?"


    Rayleigh smiled and answered, "Of course."


    Author''s note*


    Trying to do info dumps without them being info dumps is tricky. If your eyes zed over while reading some of this, it''s fine (I know mine did writing it). You don''t need to know most of this, its just for reference.


    It''s canon that Melee Shields and Energy shields work offpletely different principles, yet it is also canon that a droideka''s shields can stop both bullets and sters. Even thrown grenades bounce off their shields unless slowly rolled through them, and that is a deliberate weakness, not a quality of shields. The reason is that the shield generator they use is not the same as a personal shield. Personal shields are rated for human use. The shield generator destroyers use is the same as a city''s shield generator and apparently are radioactive, so humans can''t use them. yers probably can, but no one builds them and even if they did, they are kinda pointless unless you are not going to move or intend on moving very slowly.


    Fun fact: I asked everyone to roll up their own character ideas and builds and a lot of people sent them to me. Vash''s character was sent by Draconc89 and we worked back and forth to make him. Jedi are 100% able to train themselves to the point that they can intercept a ster shot with their own ster shot, and it is such a shame that this is never done in any media or even fanfiction. The only possible reason I can think of for keeping Guns away from Jedi is that it is too OP. (Obi-Wan had a ster for 3 seconds and in that time, he instantly killed General Grievous) Well, I certainly don''t care about little things like breaking the bnce of the universe.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!