Chapter 175: Acceleration and Alliance
"The speed of the 'Vortexing' seems to be accelerating," Ronin noted, staring at a pencil in his hand. He had deliberately left it in the deep ruins for twenty-four hours.
Now, as he retrieved it, the wood and graphite were twisted into a perfect, uniform spiral.
"The blue plants on the floor are glowing brighter too," Kurapika added, pointing out another detail.
The implication was clear: the source of the spatial warping was tied to the bioluminescent, curled flora carpeted across the deep cavern. The light wasn't just illumination; it was a symptom of a massive, shared energy field.
"The aura covering those plants... it looks exactly like Ten," Ronin agreed with Kurapika's assessment.
But the realization was baffling. How could a simple plant maintain a Nen barrier?
The blue spirals were fragile. A normal human could pluck one or crush it between their fingers. Yet, as a collective, they manifested a stable, sophisticated shroud of energy.
More alarmingly, the density of this "Ten" seemed to increase in direct proportion to the number of people entering the depths. It was as if the plants were siphoning off minuscule amounts of life energy from every living creature that entered their territory.
However, Ronin's Shadow Clones hadn't reported any noticeable drain on their Chakra or aura.
If they aren't eating us, what's fueling their growth?
Could the 'vortexing' of inanimate objects be the method of energy transfer?
Ronin checked the warped items again. He sensed no Nen in the twisted pencil or the curled kunai. Energy doesn't just appear from nothing; there was a missing link in the chain of their logic.
Aside from the biological anomalies, explorers in the residential sector had uncovered more monoliths—these ones detailing sacrificial rituals and ancient histories.
Ronin only cared about the script. After paying several freelance teams for high-resolution photos of the engravings, he possessed a digital library of ancient Kurta texts.
The script was similar to the Kurta Prayer found earlier, but with jarring linguistic deviations.
Since Ronin lacked the scholarly background to decode them, he simply logged onto the Hunter Website and posted a high-bounty translation mission.
He didn't even have to leave the ruins. Within hours, the global network of specialized Hunters and linguists began submitting translations.
But through this process, Ronin realized a hard truth: Ruins exploration is a bottomless money pit.
If you just wanted to loot and scoot, you could make a quick profit. But if you wanted to uncover the truth—to actually map the history and mechanics of an ancient site—you needed either a lifetime of academic study or a mountain of cash.
Ronin had no time for the former, but thanks to Miria and Kurapika, he had plenty of the latter.
The exploration was interrupted every few days by a breakout from the central tunnel.
The "Monster Nest" acted like a biological respawn point. No matter how many raptors the Royal Army or the mercenaries killed, a fresh wave would emerge forty-eight hours later.
Ronin met a representative from the Hunter Association in the right-hand tunnel.
His name was Benket.
Benket's proposal was straightforward: a coalition of all high-level combatants to launch a decapitation strike on the central tunnel.
They needed to push into the heart of the nest, identify the source of the population spike, and neutralize it. Only then could the exploration proceed without the constant threat of being eaten in their sleep.
Ronin agreed immediately.
Since taking over the right-hand tunnel, he had become the de facto gatekeeper. Every time the monsters rioted, he had to clear the stragglers that entered his sector. It was a tedious waste of his energy.
Furthermore, he had noticed a disturbing trend: the waves were getting larger and the monsters were getting tougher with each cycle. If they didn't act soon, the "immune system" of the ruins might become a pandemic.
Mashur was also present for the meeting, representing Muherr's interests.
"We finished the sweep of the Skyscraper City," Mashur reported. "And we found the link. There's a specialized tunnel on the cavern ceiling that leads directly into the central hive."
The current theory among the V5 experts was that the ruins functioned like a subterranean termite mound. There was likely a Queen or a primary "Breeding Pod" at the core of the hive.
Neutralize the core, and the colony collapses.
Ronin accepted Benket's invitation. He understood the logic of numbers. Against a hive, a solo blitz was less efficient than a coordinated raid.
The strike was set for two days from now. According to their tracking, the next "Beast Tide" was scheduled for tomorrow. They would crush the wave and then immediately counter-invade the hive while the population was low.
Kurapika took over the logistics of the right-hand tunnel.
Ronin stopped using Shadow Clones for oversight. He realized that if an explorer really wanted to hide a small, high-value artifact, even his eyes might miss it in the gloom. Veterans had a thousand tricks to "palming" loot.
Rather than acting as a paranoid policeman, Ronin pivoted. He became a Merchant.
He offered to buy any Kurta-related artifacts or texts at a price higher than any auction house could guarantee.
This changed the dynamic instantly. The freelancers, who had viewed him with suspicion and fear, now saw him as a lucrative exit strategy. They were happy to bring their finds to him for a guaranteed, no-tax payout.
The relationship between the team and the other explorers thawed significantly.
However, once the translations of the newest stone tablets came in, the mood in Ronin's tent turned ice-cold.
Ronin and Kurapika stared at the translated text, their faces masks of mounting horror.
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