"Your family's." Roy was an honest child; he chose to answer truthfully.
Zigg glanced at the young man's thick, dark hair and chopped with the side of his hand, slicing through an oncoming piece of a wooden board.
"Kid, my son isn't as pathetic as you. He can't even master Ren properly."
Emitters excel most at Ren and Hatsu, especially a transcendent Emitter like his grandfather Zeno, who could cover the entire royal capital of East Gorteau with a single "Meteor Swarm."
"Bzzzz..."
Under the impact of the sand worm's Ren, the Nen shroud trembled like a bubble about to burst.
Zigg was right. Roy was indeed about to give out... one minute and ten seconds was his limit...
"Idiot, that's not how you use Ren."
"Whichever side is under attack, you 'erect' a defense on that side. Making a罩 to cover yourself is a nice idea, but it's the biggest waste of Nen."
Unfortunately, it was too late... The corpse of a magical beast came crashing towards him. Roy's vision went black, his consciousness was pulled away, and the game connection was severed. When he opened his eyes again, he had, as expected, arrived in his own world of cognition.
Beneath his feet was the soft sand, and beside him was the boundless Sea of Cognition. The young man rolled over and just lay on the beach, carefully pondering the words Zigg had just spoken. They sounded somewhat familiar. After "chewing" them over a few more times, he finally remembered—
It was "Nen shape transformation!"
Nen could be stretched and compressed. It could be shaped into a thin film to wrap around objects, which manifested as Ten. Naturally, through imagination, a "sphere" could also be compressed into a "plane" to increase its efficiency.
Roy, lost in thought, stood up once more and pushed open the "Gate to the Dark Continent."
"Get down!" The familiar shout came. This time, as Roy hit the ground, he didn't rush to open all the aura nodes in his body. Instead, he concentrated his mind, driving his aura from the soles of his feet, up along his knees, abdomen, chest, neck, until... it erupted from the crown of his head, forming a "Nen shield" in front of him.
Compared to the "Nen shroud," the "Nen shield" abandoned the other three sides, maintaining only the forward-facing side to block the impact. This resulted in a significant improvement in both "efficiency" and "solidity."
Ten seconds... thirty seconds... one minute, one and a half minutes... Zigg glanced over. "Kid, you've got good comprehension..."
Finally, the game, which had always reset at one minute and ten seconds, showed a glimmer of progress.
Roy also felt much more relaxed. Expecting that he could last longer, he smiled and said, "It's all because you taught me well."
The notebook his great-grandfather gave him was probably getting moldy in a drawer. It seemed he needed to pull it out and read it more often.
"Don't get happy too soon. The big one's coming." The Nen shield in front of Zigg was thick and wide, an uncanny "iron-gray" color that looked like a piece of steel, deflecting flying sand and stones with a "ding, ding, dong~" sound.
At his reminder, Roy fixed his gaze ahead...
"ROAR!" The world changed color. A single tail sweep shattered the landing craft. The colossal sand worm dove down, and the gale-force winds and Ren it brought with it, being so close to the ground, rose by several levels.
The direct effect on his Ren was—
The "Nen shield" Roy had just formed began to tremble and sway again in the blink of an eye, showing faint signs of cracking...
The young man strained to increase his aura output, glancing at Zigg. The other man was hiding behind his "iron shield," looking far more relaxed than he was.
"Why is your shield so thick? Is there some kind of trick?"
Roy was not ashamed to ask.
Zigg said flatly, "This shield is the result of twenty years of work."
It was all raw numbers and sweat...
Roy fell silent. The "Nen shield" shattered instantly. Then, he was struck by a broken mast and sent flying.
His vision went black again. With his last shred of consciousness, he couldn't help but think:
'Sweat... you can't just comprehend your way through that...'
This time, he had lasted one minute and forty seconds.
Next,
He went in and out of the Dark Continent, back and forth from the world of cognition. After repeating this cycle seven times, with his longest time being one minute and forty-five seconds, Roy left the world of consciousness and returned to reality, exhausted.
"Klak... klak..." Behind him, the moisture-proof airtight door closed.
The slightly damp air of the passage was revealed...
Roy took a deep breath, squatted down, and plucked a chrysanthemum petal, chewing it in his mouth. He felt the bitter juice, allowing his consciousness and body to become one again, no longer in a daze. Then he got up and left the basement.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the sky had already grown dark. Because it was an overcast day, the atmosphere was somewhat dreary.
Gotoh had deliberately lit a few candles on the dining table. With the soft candlelight, he hoped to make the young master's meal a little more pleasant.
He was a considerate person. At least, Roy found this meal very delicious.
The young man speared a piece of fried pork cutlet and chewed on it, flipping through Zigg's notes for information on Ren while enjoying the pleasure of the food. After a moment, he looked up at Gotoh. "Gotoh, let me see your Ren."
"Huh?" The young butler was wiping wax drippings from the table. Meeting Roy's gaze, he paused for a moment, then straightened up and said crisply, "Yes."
"Bzzzz..."
A milky-white Nen shroud instantly erupted, enveloping Gotoh from head to toe... Roy observed it carefully. The "color" and "shape" were similar to his own, but compared to Grandpa Zigg's, it was a world of difference. He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
Fortunately, assassins are best at hiding their emotions. Roy did a good job of not letting this disappointment show and calmly told Gotoh to put it away.
He was already considering acquiring "Water Breathing" for Gotoh.
After all, he was one of his own trusted people. He couldn't show favoritism, taking care of Hall while neglecting Gotoh.
Roy finished his dinner and lay down in his clothes. Gotoh cleared the table and blew out the candles. Only darkness and silence remained...
In this tranquility, the young man measured the ceiling with his eyes, his mind pondering how to further strengthen his Ren. Unconsciously, drowsiness crept in, and he fell into a deep sleep.
The familiar sensation of falling came over him. He passed through the vibrant dream tunnel and arrived at the familiar Sea of Cognition.
Roy didn't linger. He directly pushed open the gate to Demon Slayer and arrived in the Demon Slayer world. As he opened his eyes, he was once again met with Makomo's beautiful, sparkling eyes.
"Hey~ I noticed something. Eiichiro is growing so fast!" Makomo measured her own height, then glanced at Roy's head and feet. In just a few months, the boy had shot up a considerable amount. It was truly enviable.
"What's so strange about that?" Shinsuke dangled a leg from his perch on a ceiling beam. "It's the age where you can eat and drink a lot. It's perfectly normal."
Fukuda glanced at him. "Then why are you so short?"
That remark really hit a sore spot for someone...
"Whoosh~" An eerie wind once again blew through the wooden cabin...
Sabito shook his head helplessly, his attention fully on Roy. He noticed that when Roy climbed up from the kang, he was now actually taller than him. The fox-masked boy remarked with emotion, "This is what a genius is. Strong in every aspect, just like that 'Stone Hashira' Giyu mentioned... Gyomei Himejima."
"Pah, Eiichiro is not a monk," Makomo "protested" on Roy's behalf.
"I didn't say he was a monk," Sabito retorted.
"That's what you meant."
"I did not..."
The bickering continued on this snowy, windswept morning.
Roy turned his head to look at the kitchen. Urokodaki Sakonji was making porridge alone, his back a lonely and desolate figure. Clearly... the disciples he longed for were with him all along, yet he was completely unaware, silently enduring the solitude.
He spoke up, "Master, the New Year is coming. I need to go home for a while."
However...
'Before that, I want to give you a precious gift,' Roy glanced at Sabito and Makomo, adding silently in his heart.
T/n:
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