A twitch in the ground ahead caught Arin's eye s he walked with his five White-Life Forms.
A patch of mud bulged unnaturally, as if breathing.
Without slowing his pace, he said,
Move slowly."
The other four stopped with him.
In the next moment, a massive frog exploded from the dirt with its mouth wide open,, its jaw easily wide enough to swallow a man whole.
Arin's body moved on instinct, leaping back as all five life-forms scattered in different directions
The beast's mouth snapped shut with a thunderous clap, catching nothing but air and dirt.
Hovering just above the ground, Arin looked down at the creature and narrowed his eyes.
"A Frog-In-Waiting. Should've known."
"I remember this one actually managed to catch Gon and Killua in the exam and vomited."
"The reason for vomiting them was because Killua used juice that he took from Tonpa."
"But of course, Killua should be able to take on that creature, killing it with ease."
Arin remembered the scene and smiled.
He landed softly, brushing the dust off his coat and smirking.
Arin shook his head, then thought of of his order clearly.
"Beat it until it passes out. Capture it for me."
White-One through White-Five received the order and responded in less than a second.
White-Two appeared behind the frog and delivered a heavy punch to its back leg.
The creature squealed and tried to turn, but White-Four kicked its side while White-One struck the tip of its jaw.
It flinched, tried to leap away, but White-Three was already in the air, slamming down with both fists onto its skull.
White-Five ran up and elbowed the side of its neck.
After just three seconds of coordinated strikes, the frog groaned once and flopped onto its belly with a heavy thud, legs twitching in submission.
Arin walked up and clicked his tongue.
"Three punches and a kick? Yeah. Ordinary creatures have no risk for me anymore."
"Of course, I do not mean creatures from the DarkDark Continent,, as they are everything but ordinary."
He leaned down andand inspected the frog for any lethal injuries.
"Still breathing. Good."
He turned his eyes to the open forest ahead.
A deep breath. Then a whisper.
"Summon: White-Six to White-Twenty."
Fifteen more figures blinked into existence around him.
Arin smiled.
He raised his hand, then gave the next order.
"Start to hunt. Look for living creatures. All types. Amphibians, birds, reptiles, whatever you can find in the wetlands. Put them to sleep without killing them. Then bring them back to this spot."
"I would like one or two from each kind of creature."
"So, do not mass hunt them,, as it does no good to us."
Arin did not wanto get hunted by poacher hunters or try to affect the nature of the events.
If he kills too many creatures here, then the exam that would start the chain of events may not happen in the Numere Wetlands.
The twenty White Life-Forms vanished in waves.
Left alone with the unconscious frog,
Arin sat cross-legged on a smooth, moss-covered stone.
He took out his notebook and began jotting observations.
"Frog-In-Waiting: Strong jaw, reacts to ground vibrations. Too slow for me, but a goodod test for coordination among life-forms."
"I wonder if it is life value worth more than a human or ifns are a specialal species and killing them is more risky for a Nen user, so so they are are worth more."
It wasn't that Arin had become obsessed with raw data, but the more he learned about the world, the more he realized intelligence was the biggest weapon.
Nen was limitless.
Ten minutes later, the first of his White Life-Forms returned.
White-Seven carried a sloth-like tree creature wrapped in its arms.
White-Eight walked in shortly after, dragging what appeared to be a massive beetle twice its size.
One after another, White-Life Forms returned carrying subdued animals,, some asleep, some simply too dazed to resist.
White-Ten arrived with a pair of winged lizards lashed together by vines.
White-Thirteen carried what looked like a long-necked bird.
By the half-hour mark, Arin had a full circle of unconscious creatures laid out in the grass around him like offerings.
"Hypnosis Butterfly, Claymore Mushrooms, Noggin Lugging Tortoise, Ruse Raven..."
"I've've seen these, but I like the Ruse Raven the most, as it is capable of human speech to play with the minds of the others and trick them."
He stood in the middle of it, arms crossed, observing them.
"Not bad," he muttered. "Not bad at all."
By the time the final Life-Form White-Twenty returned with a snake-like amphibian,
Arin's experimental field was full.
He let out a long breath.
"Now," he whispered to himself.
Now the real testing begins."
He turned to White-One.
"Separate the frog and the winged lizard. I'll start with them."
White-One moved immediately, dragging the two selected creatures toward a cleared patch of dirt while the others stood guard.
Arin raised his hand and summoned a small glowing pearl from his palm.
This was a new White Core.
He had prepared it the night before.
Sacrificed a rat, just to test aura interactions with lesser wildlife.
This was his chance to test whether his Life-Form creation could integrate traits or instincts of different animals.
He stepped over to the frog.