No matter what, getting out of this area first was definitely the right move.
After all, outside this region, Ronin still hadn't discovered any of those spiral-like phenomena.
But as they left, both of them felt somewhat uneasy.
When had the true distortion begun?
Ronin kept thinking about that question as they withdrew. Vanessa had barely entered the Kurta Clan ruins.
Or, more accurately, the only time Vanessa had gone inside was on the first day they arrived here.
That meant there were two possibilities.
One was that Vanessa's dagger had already been affected back then. It was just that this ability had an incubation period, and only began slowly revealing itself when enough time had passed.
The other possibility was that from the moment they entered this sealed-off space, they had already been within the range of that spiral-like ability.
When Ronin passed through the hall, he looked up at the ceiling. There were spiral-like traces there as well.
So comparatively speaking, he leaned more toward the latter.
In other words, this entire space was actually covered by that spiraling ability. As long as someone remained within this space, they would be affected by the spiralization.
Could it be...
A thought surfaced in Ronin's mind.
Could it be that this place had not been cut off because of a natural collapse, but because the people back then had already discovered the spiralization phenomenon and were unable to stop it from spreading, so they had deliberately sealed the entrance?
He didn't go looking for evidence. Instead, when they approached the blocked passage, he quickly activated his ability and brought Vanessa rushing outside.
Although even now, he still wasn't sure whether that spiralization would affect the human body, with something this strange, it was better to make sure they got out safely first before investigating further.
The process of rushing out went very smoothly, which allowed Ronin to relax slightly.
But after coming out from inside, he discovered that quite a few things on his body had also begun showing signs of spiralization, such as the kunai in his ninja pouch, the clothes he was wearing, and even some snacks wrapped inside the Fun Fun Cloth.
Fortunately, neither his nor Vanessa's bodies had changed.
If it was only some objects changing, that was still within an acceptable range. But this meant that further exploration could only be left to his shadow clones.
During this time, Ronin had also been observing Vanessa's condition. If her mind started showing problems—if she really became like the people of Kurozu-cho and began believing that twisting her own body would feel good—then he would have to consider how to exorcise Nen from her.
That situation still had not occurred even by the third day after they came out from the depths of the ruins.
And on that day, Kurapika and the others, led by Mashul, entered the ruins and reunited with Ronin.
Ronin told Kurapika everything that had happened inside the ruins, partly hoping Kurapika might remember something, and partly hoping Kurapika might notice something.
Unfortunately, Kurapika did not know much about the Kurta Clan either.
You could say he was about on the same level as Ronin in that regard.
That meant the direction of their investigation had to return to the question of whether they should send people inside.
Relying only on Ronin's shadow clones to explore the entire deeper section of the ruins was practically impossible. It wasn't that Ronin didn't have enough shadow clones; it was that he lacked the necessary professional knowledge.
But now another problem stood before all of them: would the spiralization inside affect people, and what exactly was the source of it?
"We need experts to go in," Ronin said. That was his view.
"I don't feel anything wrong with myself, anyway," Vanessa said, describing her own condition.
Recently, she had been moving alongside Ronin. As for the mercenary corps, there was temporarily nothing she needed to do there.
After V5 brought a large number of personnel into the underground city, the mercenary corps' current task was to ensure the safety of those specialists during exploration.
That was basically the mercenary corps' old line of work.
Even without Vanessa and Ronin's support, under Myuhael's organization, the mercenary corps could handle it well.
"Contacting experts is the difficult part. The only method I can think of is placing a commission through the Hunter website. There should be professional Hunters who specialize in ancient ruin exploration, but those people may have already gone in another direction by now," Kurapika said. He also agreed with the idea of sending people into the deeper area to investigate.
"But we should explain the danger in advance," Neon added. "Actually, we can completely open the ruins. We just need to impose certain restrictions, such as forbidding irreparable damage to the ruins and banning violent exploration."
If Ronin used shadow clones to monitor them, making sure of that wouldn't be difficult.
But one more restriction would have to be added: every team would need to be supervised during their operation.
"What we need is information about the Kurta Clan, not treasures or anything inside the ruins," Kurapika said, agreeing with Neon's idea. "And even if there really is some treasure that matters to us, we can buy it at a high price."
Ronin nodded in agreement.
Once the news spread that exploration would be allowed, and after Ronin used Earth Release to open a passage, some people who had long been eager to enter immediately began gathering.
After Kurapika explained the rules for entry to everyone, some chose to withdraw, but even more people chose to enter the depths of the ruins and explore.
It had only been a dozen or so days. They did not believe Ronin and Vanessa alone could have finished exploring the ruins.
The fact that people were now being allowed inside was the best proof of that.
As for the warnings Kurapika gave, the Nen users leading some of the teams naturally took them very seriously.
Exploring ruins always came with all kinds of risks. Even knowing danger existed, once Ronin stepped aside from the entrance, team after team still entered the passage.
There were even more people than Ronin had expected.
And the reason for that result was simple: V5 had forcefully driven all explorers out of the underground city.
That place had now become a restricted area.
As a result, the only remaining directions open to the explorers in the ruins were Ronin's side and the monster nest in the center.
But a place like the monster nest had almost no exploratory value.
So if Ronin had continued stubbornly blocking the way, the explorers gathered here might eventually have united and taken action against him again.
Opening the ruins now could actually be considered killing two birds with one stone.
And as large numbers of people entered the depths of the ruins, valuable items that Ronin had not noticed before were gradually excavated.
But during that process, the belongings of everyone who entered the deeper ruins began to change.
~~~
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