% Chapter update is here.
Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ In this world, information related to Nen was not public.
Ordinary people knew nothing about Nen.
Even if they personally saw a Nen user use a special ability, they would only regard such people as psychics, espers, superhumans, or something similar.
Many phenomena caused by resentful Nen in the past had been classified as supernatural events caused by ghosts or spirits.
Kieran had no shadow.
If the woman noticed that, she would almost certainly treat him as a ghost or spirit.
Footsteps sounded inside the temple.
Facing the gate, Kieran slowly backed toward the courtyard.
From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the woman crawling forward on the ground.
Night.
Mountain forest.
Monster.
And a woman who had fled to the temple in panic, begging for help.
In a scenic area with such miserable visitor traffic, this sort of script had never played out before.
Forget anything more dramatic.
He had never even heard of a murder or accidental death happening here.
Yet this was happening on the second day after he learned Ten and awakened his Nen ability.
Was it coincidence, or something else?
Kieran thought silently.
If Ten and Soul Echo had not given him some degree of confidence, he truly would not know how to handle the threat in front of him.
Before Nen, ordinary people had no ability to resist at all.
Now, however, as long as he made sure he had a retreat route, he could use this so-called monster for practice.
Monster, though…
Although he could not get more information from the woman, the size and strength of the aura suggested the other party was most likely a Nen user who understood only the basics.
With a plan in mind, Kieran retreated all the way to the courtyard.
There, he stopped and asked, “What is your name?” “Monica Hope.” The woman lay on the ground, panting as she answered weakly.
“Monica, then.
I need you to stay here and not move.
Can you do that?” From beginning to end, Kieran’s gaze had not left the aura in the darkness.
During the time he retreated from the front gate to the courtyard, the cluster of aura had clearly begun moving faster toward them.
To some degree, it was showing aggression.
Before making contact, he could not determine whether the owner of that aura had come specifically for Monica or whether it was simply an indiscriminate attacker satisfying a desire to hunt and kill.
Either way, he needed Monica to serve as bait.
He felt no particular psychological burden making that decision.
After all, Monica was the one who had brought the trouble here.
“What…?
You…
you want me to stay here and not move?” Monica stared at Kieran blankly, thinking she must have misheard him.
The shrill screams of her companions still rang in her ears.
Telling her to stay here and not move was no different from feeding her to a predator.
“Yes.” Kieran’s answer was brief.
Then he slowly looked at Monica.
From the moment he opened the gate until now, this was the first time his gaze had settled on her face.
There was only one choice.
Kieran did not explain anything, but Monica’s will to live was stronger than most.
From those eyes, so calm that they showed no ripple at all, she read a vague message.
Then her mind began working faster than it ever had before.
Bait.
In an instant, Monica understood her value in this situation.
She could stay here voluntarily as bait and help the boy in front of her deal with the monster that had slaughtered her companions.
Or she could refuse, and the boy would simply abandon her, leaving her to crawl around the courtyard like a pathetic insect while waiting for death to arrive.
There was no real choice at all.
Monica slowly came back to herself.
Without needing to ask further, she forced out in a voice almost numb with despair, “All right.
I will stay here and not move.” “You are smart.” Kieran gave Monica a deep look.
That will to live, the kind that would desperately grab even a single straw, was no meaningless decoration.
In response, he would keep Monica alive as much as the situation allowed.
[Your decision has earned The Gaze’s approval.
Your current maximum aura output +10%.] Kieran was about to turn off the unnecessary lights when that voice, impossible to identify as male or female, rang again in his consciousness.
After the last syllable of the voice faded, he could clearly feel that the amount of aura he could release from his body had increased.
‘This time, because of a decision?’ Kieran’s eyes changed slightly.
The first time, his striking appearance had satisfied The Gaze.
The second time, his decision to leave Monica in the courtyard as bait had earned The Gaze’s approval.
What exactly was The Gaze?
The thought moved through his mind, and the step he had been about to take stopped in place.
He thought of the strange calamities from beyond the known world map.
He also thought of another answer, one he rejected almost instinctively.
The current situation did not allow him to dig deeper.
For now, the one thing he could confirm was this: The existence of The Gaze benefited him.
Setting those thoughts aside for the moment, Kieran turned off the temple’s unnecessary lights as quickly as possible.
In only a short while, every area of the temple except the courtyard where Monica waited had fallen into darkness.
The only remaining light source shone over helpless Monica like a spotlight on a stage.
Kieran hid in a dark corner, quietly waiting for that cluster of aura to arrive.
Before long, footsteps sounded outside the temple gate.
First, they climbed the steps.
Then they crossed the threshold.
The other party had come openly.
In the corner, Kieran’s pupils contracted slightly.
In this ink-black night, the glow of aura was as obvious as the moon.
In other words…
If Kieran had been able to see the other party from the gate while they were in the dark, then the other party could naturally see him standing at the gate as well.
Knowing there was another Nen user here, they had still chosen to walk straight through the gate.
Was it simple confidence born from skill, or was this person an Enhancement-type who specialized in direct combat with solid offense and defense?
Kieran’s thoughts moved quickly.
Several seconds later, the footsteps drew closer and closer.
At last, a figure covered in aura entered the courtyard and walked straight toward Monica, as if unaware of Kieran’s presence.
But Kieran would never naively believe the other party had not noticed him.
Curled obediently in the center of the courtyard, Monica began trembling violently with fear.
Hidden in the darkness, Kieran quietly looked at the newcomer.
The other party was a tall, slender man covered in blood.
Every step he took left bloody marks on the ground.
The blood hanging on him had probably come from Monica’s companions.
But compared with the large amount of blood, what concerned Kieran more was this: The man’s aura was different from what he had observed earlier.
It was clearly fuller and stronger.
That was enough to show…
The man knew there was a Nen user here, and he had corrected his attitude accordingly.
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.