The torn fabric pieces were scattered on the ground. At a glance, the total amount was considerable, likely a full set of clothing, including underwear.
The edges of the torn fabric were straight, probably cut by some kind of sharp implement.
However, only torn fabric littered the scene, not a drop of blood in sight.
Pekotero and Usamen remained highly alert. Even though they saw the torn fabric, they didn't immediately approach the scene but first eliminated potential threats in the surrounding environment.
A moment later, after confirming the situation around them, they cautiously approached the scattered fabric pieces.
"From the moment Mascher signaled an enemy encounter to our arrival, only about a minute has passed," Usamen crouched before the fabric pieces, his expression grave.
"To be precise, 58 seconds."
Pekotero's eyeballs kept shifting up, down, left, and right, constantly monitoring the surroundings.
"58 seconds..." Usamen picked up a piece of torn fabric and suddenly asked, "Pekotero, what do you think of Mascher's strength?"
"He's stronger than me," Pekotero answered bluntly.
Usamen felt speechless, thinking to himself, 'Aren't more than half the team members stronger than you?'
He sighed inwardly and continued, "But the opponent only used 58 seconds to deal with Mascher, maybe even less. This indicates the opponent is very strong, and also..."
"And also what?"
"Pekotero, your ears may be sharp, but your nose doesn't seem so great, huh?"
"Usamen, what do you mean by that?"
"Haven't you noticed? There are almost no traces of a fight left at the scene, and there's no scent of blood." Usamen stood up, released the torn fabric in his hand, and stared intently at the slowly falling piece.
Prompted by Usamen's reminder, Pekotero's expression changed slightly. His shifting eyeballs abruptly stopped, fixing on the torn fabric on the ground.
Even the underwear was cut into pieces, yet not a single drop of blood remained. This itself was strange.
"So, that means..." Pekotero thought of something, his expression turning solemn.
"That's right. Perhaps..." Usamen looked serious.
"The enemy Mascher encountered is a pervert?!"
Before Usamen could finish his sentence, he was nearly choked by Pekotero's words.
"You..."
Usamen opened his mouth but ultimately swallowed the curse words at his throat, saying helplessly, "We can't rule out that Mascher is still alive, but the possibility is very low. The most critical issue now is, who was the enemy Mascher encountered?"
At this point, Usamen's eyes inadvertently changed.
He had actually considered many possibilities. Among them, the most frightening one was the existence of a fourth party within the underground ruins.
"Here, apart from the Association's members, there are only the copper gear monsters. Could it be..." Pekotero suddenly paused, looking at Usamen with a somewhat horrified expression.
He had also thought of this possibility.
"Right. There might be something else here."
Usamen glanced into the darkness beyond the light, narrowed his eyes, and said gravely, "Anyway, this torn fabric on the ground couldn't have come from the gear monsters. If Mascher encountered Association's members, he was likely captured alive. That could also explain the lack of blood at the scene. However..."
At this point, Usamen looked again at the torn fabric scattered on the floor, pondering, "Among the information we have, there's no suitable suspect. And, aren't you being a bit too slow?"
Pekotero asked, puzzled, "What's wrong with me this time?"
Usamen raised his hand, pointed to his own ear, and said, "Isn't your hearing excellent? Besides the signal Mascher sent, did you hear any other sounds from Mascher?"
Upon hearing this, Pekotero immediately fell into deep thought. His hearing was indeed powerful, but he couldn't filter out other sounds. So, when the types and numbers of sound sources increased, unless he focused intently, he couldn't separately 'capture' one specific sound.
Thinking carefully, during the journey to support Mascher, he indeed hadn't heard any other sounds related to Mascher.
Even if it were just a scream, he could have 'captured' the faintest trace of it.
"If..." Usamen continued to gaze into the darkness beyond the light, speaking in an extremely grave tone, "The enemy Mascher encountered wasn't from the Association, then this suddenly appearing enemy is absolutely a terrifying being."
"At the very least, Mascher had no power to resist before him."
Pekotero also realized the seriousness of the matter. His lips moved slightly as he said, "I recall Mascher's ability was... Emission-type clones?"
"Right. He can use Nen to conjure three layers of clones outside his body." Usamen frowned. "I don't know about his attack strength, but in terms of defense, it's definitely turtle-shell level."
Pekotero instinctively looked at the torn fabric on the ground, his lips twitching slightly.
'Damn, I originally just thought it was strange, but now, after Usamen's seemingly self-satisfied speculation, I'm getting paranoid.'
"Let's head back to the safe zone first. We need to report this to the Captain and the others," Pekotero's tone seemed somewhat anxious.
"Mmm."
Usamen nodded.
Before leaving, the two collected all the torn fabric pieces Mascher had left behind.
They weren't worried about any hidden traps or dangers on the torn fabric because, upon arriving at the scene, they had immediately used Gyo to examine the surroundings, naturally checking the fabric pieces as well.
First underground level of the ruins.
More than an hour had passed since Law's group entered the ruins.
The appraisal results for the vines, crystals, and copper blocks were all out.
The vines were highly edible, non-toxic plants.
The copper gear blocks were ordinary, with nothing special about them.
The crystals, however, were a type of energy-providing crystal stone, possessing an effect similar to electricity, but not electricity in essence.
That energy was the source powering the copper mechanical lifeforms.
Kuro tried swallowing several energy crystals, but there was no reaction at all.
This indicated that these crystals, rich in energy, could not be converted into Nen.
After all, even Kuro, with his strongest adaptive conversion ability, couldn't do it, let alone humans.
Having grasped the necessary pieces of information, Law's group moved quickly through the ruins. Along the way, they encountered quite a few copper mechanical lifeforms, all destroyed by them, and the dislodged energy crystals were collected.
Unfortunately, these crystals couldn't be used as power banks.
After roaming the ruins for about an hour, they came to a stop before a wall.
On the wall, the thriving vine plants had several gaps.
Although the remaining traces were mostly covered by regrown vines, something could still be discerned from them.
These vines had been picked by someone.
Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that it was done by some other creature.