After the blunt hooked chain was prepared and cleaned,
Conrad sat down and focused.
He did not rush.
This part mattered more than anything else.
He knew that rushing and trying to make things quicker would not work in this situation.
He needs to be sure what he does is right and he gives all of his focus on it.
An ability created in a hurry always carried flaws; he does not want to make a mistake just because he was excited.
That would be dumb on his part.
He placed the chain on the table and rested his hands beside it.
"Defense," he said.
He closed his eyes and began sorting his thoughts.
"Physical protection."
That was the first category.
Blades, bullets, blunt force, explosions.
Things that destroyed the body directly.
"Nen protection."
Abilities. Aura-based attacks.
Enhancers overwhelming him with raw power.
Emitters striking from a distance.
Then the last one.
"Curse protection."
The most dangerous category.
Invisible effects.
Conditions that killed long after the fight ended.
Conrad opened his eyes.
"I was looking for a defensive ability, but not something meant to tank everything."
He shook his head slowly.
"That's inefficient. I can not just do one thing and protect myself from all of the things."
Trying to block every possible threat with one ability would require either absurd conditions or an insane amount of aura.
Worse, it would force him to spread the concept too thin.
"I don't need a perfect shield,"
"What I need is survival."
He leaned back in his chair.
"Ambushes. Assassinations. Attacks I don't see coming."
"Something that saves me for the first seconds so that I can keep on fighting."
Those were the real dangers.
A direct fight gave him options, and he cherished having options.
That is what he thought of a nen battle.
An assassination did not gave him such chance.
"If an attack kills me instantly, or leaves me unable to fight back, then everything else becomes meaningless."
"I don't need an ability that protects me from all damage, I need one that activates when it matters."
He picked up a pen and began writing.
"A Nen protective barrier will form around me."
He paused, then crossed out a line and rewrote it.
"No," he muttered. "Too vague."
He rewrote it again.
"A Nen-based protective barrier in the form of a hand will automatically activate around my body."
"That's still too broad."
Conrad tapped the pen against the table.
"What's the trigger?" he asked himself.
He wrote again.
"If the incoming attack would result in my death or complete loss of ability to fight."
He leaned back and read it.
The ability was not reacting to intent or anything.
It will react if the attack from any kind of enemy, environmental cause would kill me if it is not stopped.
Something like a counter-active ability, a defensive counter-active ability that would stop the death and save my life for once, not a continous effect.
"If I survive without the barrier or hand whatever it is, it won't activate," he said.
"If I die without it, it will."
Conrad nodded.
"As long as, from the start, I create a defensive ability that protects me from assassination-level attacks, it's enough."
He did not need to be invincible, that would break the rules of nen too much and he did not believe, he knew enough nen or had enough aura pool to create something.
It was explained from the start that doing something absolute with nen is pretty hard and mostly not possible.
Of course, conditions and restrictions may be added for creating abilities that are not possible but those conditions would create problems for him down to line.
"A practical ability for the time being is good enough for me."
"If I need more defensive abilities, I can keep on creating in the future."
"As I train, my aura pool keep on increasing which will let me create other abilities."
He needed a second chance right now.
Any individual that is expert enough and targeting him may kill him at this point.
He did not want that.
Before continuing, Conrad stood up and ordered a large meal.
While waiting, he began light physical training.
He needed his body in a stable state before fixing the ability in writing.
After eating, he returned to the table.
Now came the most dangerous part.
Conditions.
He wrote slowly.
"Protection against attacks that would result in death."
Then he added another line.
"Or complete inability to fight or move."
He paused.
That was important.
He added one more condition.
"Situations that would result in death in 95% of cases."
Conrad stopped writing.
He read everything again.
The ability did not trigger for minor injuries.
Only when the outcome crossed a clear line.
"This will cost a lot of aura," he said quietly.
If the chain were removed or destroyed, the ability would disappear.
No exceptions.
Conrad accepted that risk.
"This isn't meant to make me reckless," he said.
He placed the pen down.
"This is good," he said.
Conrad looked at the chain one more time.
"I will need more conditions for the ability to be active, but this is a good start."
"A life-saving ability that would let him cheat death, will need lot of restrictions and conditions but he already have some ideas on that."