Chapter 328

Ron withdrew his gaze from the deck railing.

A sea breeze, faintly briny, drifted over him.

"Toot toot!"

The ship's horn blared, and the vessel began to slow. In the distance, a dock came into view. Around a dozen people stood waiting there.

One figure caught Ron's eye—a young man in a suit and tie. At a glance, he looked older, but in reality, he was only about three years older than Ron. He had short black hair, glasses, and carried a briefcase.

"Leorio," Ron noted to himself. 

"One of the future passers of the Hunter Exam: a doctor, an Emission-type Nen user, who'll eventually become a member of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs—mostly because of his medical skills, which other members don't possess. And also because, after Netero dies, with Ging and Pariston leaving, the Association is way worse off than before and lacks time to recruit anyone more qualified."

"Otherwise, with Leorio's strength at that stage, he wouldn't qualify to be one of the Twelve Zodiacs."

Before meeting Gel, Ron hadn't known much about the Zodiacs. But after learning about Netero's real prowess, and after seeing how Silva, Zeno, and others viewed the Hunters, he had some guesses. His dealings with Gel and Miyazton later confirmed them.

Any Zodiac candidate basically had to be at least A-level in Nen—some possibly even higher. While not all of them specialized in direct combat, each excelled in their own domain. Gel's poison abilities, Miyazton's Judgement ability… The list went on.

Though Leorio had decent talent, he simply hadn't studied Nen for very long by that point. There are two main approaches to opening one's aura nodes:

1. Open them early. 

2. First work extensively on your body—physical and martial arts—and only after you reach a certain level do you open your aura nodes.

Leorio was the latter type, so upon learning Nen, he experienced a big "boom" as all that physical training paid off in a rapid surge of strength. Even so, it remained clear that his talent fell short of Gon, Killua, or Kurapika, though still not truly weak. He'd once been able to push open the second door of the Testing Gates at Zoldyck Manor, once he got acclimated.

Ron pulled his gaze away and glanced at the crystal orb in his hand. As Leorio boarded, the orb seemed to absorb "traits" a bit faster—Ron was well aware of how Observer's Intention scaled with the "quality" of the people and places he observed. Leorio's quality clearly exceeded that of the other wannabe exam-takers on the ship (aside from Ron himself).

"Leorio's on board. Kurapika should be next. Then Gon."

With that, Ron returned to the ship's cabin. He had a bunk bed—his was the top. Leaning against the top bed's headboard, he summoned one of his Nen beasts.

A figure appeared next to him, massaging Ron's legs. Nobody else around could see this figure—only someone with Nen, using Gyo or Ko to focus, could see Ron's Nen beasts.

It was Ron's eighth Nen Beast. Its main function right now was to alleviate fatigue and promote muscle vitality—somewhat like Biscuit's massage Nen beast. Cookies, Biscuit was a Transmuter who developed something more reminiscent of an Emission-type ability. According to Hisoka's classification perspective, Biscuit's approach was "wrong." But from another viewpoint, Biscuit's beast was never meant for combat; it was for boosting her own body, as part of her Shingen-ryu Style training.

Ron's version, however, did have strong combat potential—yet it still could serve as a "masseuse," an idea that simultaneously reminded him of Biscuit's function. Both also shared one more similarity: the beast was female.

Ron lifted one hand, producing a circular portal on the wall. Slipping his arm through, he grabbed a book from inside and pulled it out. The circle vanished. Over the years, he'd grown increasingly skilled at using Sumas, seamlessly creating small access points.

Half reading, half reminiscing, Ron pondered the days since leaving the Sahelta Union—barely over ten days. He'd gone straight from Sahelta to the harbor to catch this ship, knowing Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio would be boarding. It was the perfect place to begin collecting the "traits" of this Hunter Exam.

Initially, Ron had intended to take the 287th or 286th Hunter Exam. But given how complicated Sahelta was, there was no point leaving halfway, because Observer's Intention couldn't just "switch out" partial progress for something else.

He had to finish absorbing Sahelta's traits or risk losing that progress. So, he stayed there until fully done.

"I wonder how much this Exam will raise the crystal orb's progress. If it's not enough, I'll have to join next year's exam too. That means I can't let Killua pass too quickly—I'll need a normal exam progression."

After all, once he had parted ways from Sahelta, he hadn't even returned to the Zoldyck Estate or Heaven's Arena, coming directly to the boat's departure point. Observing Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio is key to his orb's progress.

During his three years in Sahelta, Ron hadn't been completely out of touch with the outside world. He'd left Sahelta a few times—once returning to the Zoldyck Estate to show Maha his progress, another time rushing to Heaven's Arena because someone challenged him for his Floor Master title. By courtesy, Ron had to accept. That unlucky challenger ended up instantly killed, a quick demonstration that thoroughly discouraged future time-wasters.

In fact, that incident couldn't really be blamed on Ron. Before the challenger officially declared him the target, Ron had tried to discuss postponing it. He explained his situation: he was in the middle of something important, had no free time for a formal duel. Yet the challenger insisted—so, as a penalty for disturbing him, Ron simply obliterated them on the spot.

"Anyway," Ron thought, "time to keep focusing on the exam. Let's see how these next steps unfold…"

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