Ronin had arrived at just the right time. Looking toward the ruins, he could see the soldiers of the Kingdom of Aite withdrawing from inside.
Nearby, however, all kinds of prepared people could be seen.
And without exception, every one of them had a faint layer of energy wrapped around them.
In other words, they were all Nen users.
At a rough glance alone, there were already more than twenty Nen users present.
Aside from that time in Meteor City, Ronin had never seen so many Nen users gathered in one place.
"Ronin, you came at the perfect time. The soldiers excavated a new passage underground. There's a building at the end of it, but there are also monsters guarding it. What we're going to do next is enter, clear out the monsters, and investigate the building."
Without another word, Muherr dragged Ronin into a tent.
All kinds of equipment had already been prepared inside.
"Pick whatever you want. If you think you can use it, just take it," Muherr said with a sweep of his hand, looking quite generous.
Ronin hadn't expected the timing to be this perfect, so he casually picked out a few useful items and stuffed them into his backpack.
Then he followed Muherr's assembled team toward the entrance of the ruins.
When he entered the ruins, Ronin still felt a little dazed.
It wasn't until Mascher bumped his shoulder into him that he snapped back to his senses.
"What's wrong? First time entering ruins?" Beside Mascher was a young girl. She peeked out from beside his broad body and quietly observed Ronin, seeming somewhat shy and timid.
When she noticed Ronin looking over, she immediately left him with nothing but the sight of her bun hairstyle.
"Yeah. I didn't expect to go underground as soon as I arrived, so I guess I haven't had much time to mentally prepare," Ronin said. "And I didn't expect entering ruins to be this noisy."
Ahead of Ronin, he could see quite a few people who clearly didn't belong to the mercenary team.
Some had formed groups, while others were acting alone. The moment the soldiers fully withdrew from the ruins, they had impatiently entered.
"At first, the Kingdom of Aite only hired our Boulder Mercenary Group," Muherr said from up ahead. "But with both Kakin and V5 getting involved, the situation here was completely exposed. Some Hunters from the Association, as well as some civilian organizations, negotiated with the Kingdom of Aite and gained the right to explore the ruins too.
"There's nothing we can do about it. Besides, if we relied on the mercenary group alone to swallow these ruins, even three to five years might not be enough."
It wasn't just Nen users entering the ruins.
Among the teams up ahead, Ronin could also see plenty of ordinary people carrying weapons. These people were probably the so-called civilian organizations Muherr had mentioned.
"Though every time this kind of thing happens, the situation usually improves within one or two months of truly entering the ruins," Mascher added. "Because for ordinary people, an environment like this is basically a deathtrap."
"And that one slim chance of survival usually comes from accidentally awakening Nen and gaining some means of protecting themselves," Muherr said with some helplessness. "But wealth moves people's hearts. Even knowing that exploring the ruins could get them killed, they still can't resist their own greed."
"Maybe it's because poverty is scarier than death," Ronin said.
His words made both Muherr and Mascher pause slightly.
Only the girl hiding behind Mascher poked her head out and nodded in firm agreement.
Seeing their reactions, Ronin knew these two probably had never truly been poor, so he only smiled faintly and let the topic pass.
"How large are the Mahavi ruins?" Ronin asked.
His main investigation target was information related to the Kurta Clan.
He had no intention of spending a large amount of time here.
And judging from what Muherr had said earlier, fully exploring the entire ruins would take years.
Ronin still wanted to take the Hunter Exam, so he would definitely have to leave at the end of December.
"Very large. What's been excavated so far is only a small portion," Muherr said, naturally understanding what Ronin meant. "If you have things to do, you can leave whenever you need. The exploration cycle is going to be long anyway. If we discover anything important, I can notify you and have you come back."
Ronin nodded and thanked him.
"But for now, we need to head to the newly discovered area first. So as for the place connected to the Kurta Clan, I'll have to take you there in a few days," Muherr said frankly.
"That's fine. Even if I leave, it won't be until the end of December," Ronin explained.
"Are you going to take the Hunter Exam?" the girl behind Mascher asked for the first time.
Ronin glanced at her and nodded slightly. "Yes."
"She's Vanessa." Mascher grabbed Vanessa and pulled her out from behind him. "Her dream is to become a professional Hunter."
"With her ability, that shouldn't be hard," Ronin said.
He could see the Ten around her body, which proved she was a Nen user.
And for a Nen user, passing the Hunter Exam was not especially difficult.
The instant Mascher let go of her, Vanessa's figure flickered and vanished behind Muherr.
Looking at her, Ronin felt she was practically like a ghost haunting someone's back.
"Her mental fortitude isn't great. If she can overcome that, passing the exam shouldn't be hard," Muherr explained. But when he reached behind himself to grab her, his hand caught nothing.
Instead, he received a heavy punch to the kidney.
Ronin noticed, however, that just as Muherr was about to catch her, Vanessa's body sank slightly into the ground, allowing her to avoid his hand.
An Emitter?
Or…
Ronin's gaze swept across Muherr's shadow. If he hadn't seen wrong, the place where Vanessa had been standing just now was directly above Muherr's shadow.
The noise ahead had quieted down quite a bit. Ronin looked up and saw three branching paths in front of them.
From the terrain, all three passages sloped downward.
In other words, the entire Mahavi ruin was underground.
Could the people who lived here back then have been like the dwarves described in some films and shows—beings who lived beneath the earth?
"The passage on the far right was the first one discovered, and it leads to the place where the Kurta-style clothing was found," Muherr said as he walked toward the left. "The middle passage is the one where monsters poured out during the last large-scale attack.
"The leftmost passage was also explored before, but only shallowly. Nothing was found at the time. Later, after the soldiers continued digging, they discovered the new ruin building we're going to explore next."
The exploration teams split up here.
Most people chose the left path, but there were also teams heading to the right.
The only passage almost no one entered was the middle one.