Chapter 67 Human Puppets

Law has three ways to improve his strength: training, food, and antiques.

Among the three, training yielded the slowest and least effective results. Consuming rare ingredients was thirty times more efficient than training, while absorbing Nen from relics was a hundred times more effective than training.

From this, it can be seen that absorbing Nen from antiques is the fastest way for Law to improve his strength.

However, the ancient artifact that can absorb Nen is the rarest of the three options.

Law hadn't expected to find such an item in Ellie's room when he had only planned to humor her.

This was an unexpected windfall.

Law's gaze remained fixed on the intricately crafted doll, and he didn't even notice the glass screen next to the living room did not have the round glass sticker like the one in his room.

Ellie skipped over to the sofa, picked up the doll, and sat down.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Law moved to the side, and then glanced at the antique chair and vanity table on the coffee table.

'Judging from their appearance alone, it is a vintage item. While the doll looked relatively newer, it was still aged enough to fit the set.'

'Although it is a set, only the doll has Nen attached on it.'

"Why are you standing there like an idiot? Sit down."

Seeing Law still standing there, Ellie held the doll in one hand and patted the sofa next to her with the other.

Adjusting his earlier aloof demeanor, Law immediately sat next to Ellie.

For the sake of the Nen on the doll, Law can bear accompanying this bratty child for a while, which can also be regarded as collecting his payment in advance.

"Can I take a closer look at the doll?" After sitting down, Law didn't beat around the bush and asked to touch the doll directly.

Ellie was surprised when she heard this and asked curiously, "Do you like dolls too?"

Law didn't really know how to answer this question for a moment. He was worried that if he answered that he didn't like the doll, Ellie would not let him touch the doll, so he made up his mind and said with a smile, "I like them very much."

"Oh."

Ellie responded suddenly, but instead of handing the doll to Law, she said, "But this isn't a doll, it's a puppet."

"…" Law.

"Forget it. Since you seem to like it so much, I'll let you take a look." Ellie handed the doll to him and cautioned, "This is Ogu's exquisite puppet. There are only seven sets in the world, so don't handle it too roughly."

Law was quite surprised by the detailed explanation. As he took the doll, he said, "You're pretty knowledgeable about this."

Ellie smiled proudly and said, "I know more than that. For example, of the 128 antiques in Barney's collection, I can name the origins of 36 of them."

Law couldn't hide his astonishment when he heard this.

'A little girl who calls her father by his name is really unusual. Moreover, Barney actually collected 128 antiques...'

What is the concept?

For example, the collection of the East District's Elder consists of only six items, and two of them have Nen. Then, among Barney's 128 antiques, how many have Nen?

If the collector's level is too low, there will certainly not be too many collections with Nen on it, but with such a vast collection, even in the worst-case scenario, there could easily be over ten items with Nen on them.

The thought alone tempted Law.

His current average Awakening Rates were only at 5%. He doesn't know how much time and effort it will take to increase it to 100%. Absorbing the Nen of artifacts is the fastest shortcut.

As long as the Awakening Rates is improved, not only the amount of Aura in his body can be increased, but also his strength and accuracy will be improved.

With long-term training, the improvement will be slower, and the feelings will be slowly assimilated during the process. It is not like absorbing the Nen on ancient artifacts, which gives him a feeling of riding a rocket.

'If I could go to where Barney keeps his collection... five, ten, or even twenty pieces is possible. If one antique can increase the Awakening Rates by 1%, twenty pieces would be 20%.'

"How old are you this year?" Law shifted focus back to the present. It wasn't the right time to pursue this idea, so he struck up a conversation while examining the Ogu's puppet in his hands.

Ellie thought for a moment and said, "In another month, I'll be ten years old."

"Not even ten yet, and you already know so much. That's impressive." Law praised.

If Ellie hadn't just demonstrated her expertise, such a compliment would have sounded insincere.

It was already impressive that a little girl under ten years old knew how to appraise antiques, and this indirectly reminded him of Chrollo.

Ellie smiled happily when Law praised her like that. Most of her knowledge stemmed from absorbing Barney's influence over the years.

She was essentially confined to the house most of the time, and she's only allowed outside when accompanying Barney.

There were no peers or games in her childhood, only the collections that Barney brought into the house accompanied her.

Over time, Ellie developed a genuine fondness for antiques and began studying books on the subject seriously.

Most of her time since she was old enough to understand things has been invested in it.

Law could see that Ellie was genuinely happy, 'My casual compliment seemed to carry immense weight for her, likely representing a rare form of recognition.'

Turning his focus back to the exquisitely crafted Ogu's puppet, Law silently activated the ability of the white smoke text, sucking the Nen attached to it into his body and assimilating them.

A moment later, his Manipulation Category surged by 4% reaching 7.3%.This leap surpassed his Specialization Category, which was at 6.2%, and brought his Awakening Rates' average tantalizingly close to the 6% threshold.

The most immediate impact of this increase was the expansion of his Aura Reserve.

Previously, if Law maintained the maximum output of his Aura during the battle, he could have lasted for fifteen minutes, but now, after absorbing the Nen on Ogu's puppet, that time extended to 17 minutes.

Although it is only a difference of two minutes, the increase was achieved instantly. If he wanted to improve it through training, it will take at least one or two months to achieve such result.

As the duration increases, the difficulty of improvement becomes higher, but if Law simply improves by absorbing the Nen of antiques, he might be able to bypass this difficulty entirely.

In prolonged battles against evenly matched opponents, where neither could find an opening to finish the other, this extended endurance could prove decisive. He could simply outlast his opponent.

"The Ogu's human puppet series is indeed exceptional. For something to remain so well-preserved after 500 years is remarkable. But I can't say I like this particular piece." After absorbing the Nen, Law returned the Ogu's puppet to Ellie.

This meticulously crafted puppet was made from a living person. Just as Ellie said, only seven sets existed in the world. This series represented the pinnacle of Ogu craftsmanship.

What made this series unique was that it used infants as raw materials. Law believes that the other six puppets should also have similar Nen attached to them.

Law wasn't sure if Ellie knew this detail, but he wasn't about to bring it up. After all, he could see that Ellie liked this human puppet very much.

Most of the Nen Law absorbed from this human puppet originated from Ogu himself, and only a small part of them was resentment. But it was quite weak, so it would not affect living people. Now that it was all absorbed by Law, the potential danger was eliminated.

It has to be known that Post-Mortem Nen formed from resentment is something that has the potential to grow. As long as it is not discovered by a Nen Exorcist, it might evolve into a unique entity.

Like this human puppet, it is made of a living being and is quite delicate. If the resentment gets a chance to grow, it may become a sentient, animated lifeform.

Law didn't know the current condition of the six sets of human puppets, but he had eliminated the threat posed by this set.

"You know about this too?" Ellie asked in surprise as she took the puppet back and heard Law mention its age.

Law chuckled and deflected modestly, "A little. I don't know much, though."

Since he had his sights set on Barney's collection, he had to find a way to get closer to them and strive for the opportunity to gain close access to the collection.

"So, is it because of how it was made that you don't like Poppy?" Ellie pouted. Poppy was the name she gave to the human puppet.

Law was startled by her comment and asked, "You know what this puppet is made from?"

"Of course I know." Ellie replied with a cold snort.

"Then you..." Law hesitated, 'She actually knew it, so why would she still adore it so much?'

"I can't undo its creation, but its origin doesn't stop me from loving and accepting it." Ellie said softly as she gently caressed Poppy's face with a tender touch.

Seeing this scene, Law fell silent.

For some reason… Law actually regretted absorbing the Nen from the human puppet.

Indistinctly, he seemed to have killed Ellie's chance of becoming a skilled Manipulator.