Total Nen Quantity

Then, barring any surprises, Jing Yang would focus mainly on Manipulation and secondarily on Emission in his training of "Hatsu."

Unless he encountered some special opportunity, Specialist was probably out of the question.

The energy saved this way could instead be devoted to Enhancer training.

Although Jing Yang would achieve only 60% effectiveness when training as an Enhancer, and it would be more strenuous for him than for someone naturally belonging to that category, it was still better than wasting an entire affinity.

And so, Jing Yang trained alone. One moment, he wrapped the Aura around his body; the next, he sealed all his Aura Nodes and entered Zetsu, continuously improving his proficiency. Since none of it seemed particularly difficult, he also practiced "Gyo" along the way.

Gyo was not one of the Four Great Principles, but a derived application. Of course, in Jing Yang's eyes, there was no essential difference. It was a method of using Aura that fell somewhere between Ten and Zetsu: concentrating Aura in a specific part of the body was simply called "Gyo."

By concentrating Aura in one's eyes, one could visually perceive the existence of Aura.

Jing Yang quickly discovered that Gyo was not as difficult as he had imagined either. In less than a minute, he could use it with ease. He concentrated Aura in his eyes anytime and anywhere, activating "Heavenly Eye." Looking down, he could see the thin layer of white Aura covering his body. When he gazed deep into the distant forest, he found that his eyesight had improved somewhat as well. Looking at Wu Er, the moon-white tiger, he could clearly see every strand of fur on its body from over ten meters away.

After messing around for nearly half an hour, Jing Yang decided to begin his next training: "Ren," also known as "Ken."

He took a deep breath, opened all the Aura Nodes across his body, and released Aura in a surging torrent at maximum output. That was Ren.

Maintaining that state was Ken...

Jing Yang gritted his teeth and endured.

This whole pile of terms looked complicated enough to make one dizzy, but they were actually easy to understand. As he had said before, at their core, they were all merely different ways of using Aura.

Ordinary human bodies were fragile. Even a highly trained assassin or martial artist might not be able to defeat some random Nen User. That was because even simply using Aura could multiply the body's offensive and defensive power severalfold, or even dozens or hundreds of times over. This was the insurmountable gulf between ordinary people and superhumans.

Condensing and restraining the Aura naturally released from the body was called "Ten." Its enhancement to offense and defense was entry-level, like jogging at a steady pace. It could be sustained for a long time and, after sufficient practice, even maintained around the clock.

Condensing and restraining Aura released at maximum output was called "Ken." Its enhancement to offense and defense was the fully upgraded version of Ten, like sprinting at maximum explosive power. It was difficult to maintain for long.

According to Biscuit, the Shingen-ryu master who had guided the two protagonists in the manga, in a real battle between Nen Users, one had to maintain "Ken" for at least thirty minutes—or defeat was guaranteed.

Once an enemy raised their "Ken," if Jing Yang's Song of the Earth Star Mark could not break through their defense and press the Star Mark onto their body, while Jing Yang himself was instead caught at close range and punched through his defenses with the strength of Ken until he coughed up blood... then no matter how unbeatable his ability was, it would be useless.

The basics were the utmost priority.

It was not as though he had to madly pile up his total Nen quantity and base offensive and defensive stats, then have everyone compare numbers in actual combat to determine victory or defeat, but... he could not be too embarrassingly weak, could he?

Speaking of numbers, the Hunter World could indeed quantify the amount of Nen aura.

The Hunter Association had an expert who specialized in quantifying Aura. According to his conclusion, when preparing for battle—that was, when maintaining Ken at full strength—roughly 1 Aura was consumed every second.

Using that as a standard, one could extend the duration of Ken through daily training, thereby increasing one's total Nen quantity and gaining a basic understanding of it.

For example, after the Greed Island arc in the manga, Killua and Gon each had a total Nen quantity of around 3,000 to 3,300 Aura. Killua could maintain Ken for only fifty-five minutes, while Gon became exhausted even earlier than Killua. After that, following Biscuit's month of hellish special training, Gon's total Nen quantity increased to 21,500 Aura. In theory, he could maintain Ken alone for nearly six hours, then immediately collapse.

With that in mind, Biscuit's idea of the basic level of strength needed to roam the world—maintaining Ken for at least thirty minutes—was equivalent to a total Nen quantity of around 1,800 Aura.

Below that level, encountering any somewhat formidable expert would be dangerous. Even if their Nen Abilities were not as strong as yours, they could still wear you down to death... And that was indeed the case. After Killua and Gon received Biscuit's special training on Greed Island and gained around 3,000 Aura, they were already high-level players across the entire island. Once they went out into the world, as long as they did not randomly run into the Phantom Troupe, the magician Hisoka, or unlucky monsters like Chimera Ants, they basically had the strength to wander around without worry...

"Damn it..."

While maintaining Ken, Jing Yang counted silently in his mind. After reaching sixty, the Aura released from his body began twitching and flickering like a short-circuited lightbulb...

After reaching seventy, sweat covered Jing Yang's body, and the range of his released Aura slowly began shrinking...

After reaching eighty-something, Jing Yang's entire body ached, and his Aura could only cling to the surface of his body in stubborn resistance...

"Ninety-seven... ninety-eight... ninety-nine..."

Drenched in sweat and weak in the limbs, Jing Yang's Aura finally flickered twice like a furnace running out of fuel, struggled for a moment, then went completely out.

"One hundred!"

With a thud, Jing Yang dropped onto the ground on his butt.

"Phew... phew..." He panted heavily, utterly drained, staring blankly through the forest at the blue sky. "So that means... phew... my total Nen quantity is only 100..."

A set of figures surfaced in his mind: when Gon's total Nen quantity had reached 21,500 Aura, his maximum manifest Aura output—that was, Ken at maximum intensity—was maintained at 1,800 Aura, roughly one-twelfth of his total Nen quantity. That ratio should have been part of the human body's physiological mechanism—just like no matter how bottomless Sakuragi Hanamichi's stamina was, he could not possibly drain all of it in a single sprint. Physiologically, that was impossible.

So, his current Ken was roughly 8 to 9 Aura.

Considering that he was a Manipulator, while Ken's defensive power was actually the domain of Enhancers, he could only achieve 60% of the actual effect. In other words, his Ken output of 8 to 9 Aura probably only provided defensive power equivalent to 4.8 to 5.4 Aura.

Thinking about it that way, the farther one was from Enhancer, the lower the returns from close-quarters combat.

"...I'm so damn weak."

Jing Yang lay on the ground and mocked himself when a tiger's head suddenly entered his field of vision.

Wu Er rubbed its head against Jing Yang's face as he lay there without moving for ages.

"You thought I was dead?" Jing Yang laughed and rubbed the tiger's head. "I'm just taking a break."

After fooling around with the big tiger on the ground for nearly ten minutes, Jing Yang finally climbed back to his feet.

"Even with the recovery ability of my Star Mark, it takes ten minutes to basically recover. If I didn't have the Star Mark, I really don't dare imagine how long I'd have to rest after training for two minutes..." he muttered to himself. "It'd be great if Biscuit were here to train with me. The massage from her Nen Ability, Cookie-chan, is practically a divine skill for assisting training."

Jing Yang's Star Mark primarily healed injuries; restoring stamina was merely a secondary side effect. Biscuit's massage girl, on the other hand, was the real professional when it came to dispelling fatigue and restoring energy.

"Anyway, let's set a small goal first—raise my total Nen quantity to 1,000!"

Jing Yang took a deep breath, released Aura at full strength and maintained it, throwing himself into training once more.

Meanwhile, in the royal palace of the Kakin Kingdom on the northern Aizen Continent, First Prince Benjamin Hui Guo Rou looked at the five-pointed star that had appeared in his palm last night. It meant that Muser had already died last night.

After a long while, he picked up the phone. "Send Babimayna over."