Assigning Tasks

As he hurried toward the amusement park in the East Coast Town Area, Jing Yang conducted a simple review of his first real combat experience with Nen Abilities.

He knew his disadvantages well.

Because he was not an Enhancer, he had tried to avoid close-quarters combat with the enemy.

Because his total Nen quantity was limited, even after ensuring he kept his distance and maintained at least the defense of Ken, he avoided using other Derived Techniques such as Gyo whenever possible. Good steel had to be used on the blade. He only activated them when necessary, greatly reducing his Aura consumption per second in battle.

Even so, after a brief real battle of just over three minutes, his necessary expenditure alone had exceeded one-third of his total Nen quantity, probably approaching 400 Aura.

Jing Yang had once estimated that every successfully applied Star Mark consumed over 60 Aura at once.

Among Nen Abilities, that was already a fairly low-consumption type.

But for Jing Yang, whose total Nen quantity was not high to begin with, the two Star Marks he had successfully applied in the previous battle had drained around 130 Aura from him in one go. It truly hurt.

There was also Finger Flick Divine Art.

The output of his Ken was 80 to 90 Aura. Since he was not an Enhancer, its actual offensive and defensive power was only 48 to 54 Aura. Finger Flick Divine Art, however, was a skill with hidden restrictions. It started at no less than 100 Aura, and each second of charging added another 10 Aura. Although its actual power had to be reduced by twenty percent because he was a Manipulator, he was already quite satisfied with its current strength as his primary ranged offensive skill.

He had used Finger Flick Divine Art three times in total.

The first two shots had shattered the hand of the burly man shooting at Wu Er and grazed the One-eyed Dragon who had mentioned Heaven's Arena. Fortunately, he had not charged those two shots much, so they had probably consumed less than 110 Aura altogether. But for the third shot, he had charged for a full ten seconds, draining 200 Aura from him at once and making his already meager remaining Nen quantity even worse...

Fortunately, the final ten-second Finger Flick Divine Art had delivered and successfully taken care of his opponent. Otherwise, he would have had to consider riding Wu Er away first and fighting again after his mana bar refilled.

Adding up all the miscellaneous costs, a low-intensity battle lasting around three minutes had consumed a full ninety percent of his Aura!

Nearly 900 Aura!

He still had a little over 100 Aura left, which was even better than his condition before formal training, yet he felt weak and exhausted. It was easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury back to frugality... Fortunately, while chatting nonsense with Menchi and relying on the recovery effect of the Star Mark on the back of his neck, some of his strength had returned.

Jing Yang summed up the lessons of the battle. The most profound one was—before he had enough Nen quantity, he should stop pretending to be some professionally trained big shot!

He only had 1,000 Aura in total, so why insist on maintaining Ken throughout the entire fight?

He had deliberately kept his distance from the enemy. He only needed to maintain Ten and retain a basic level of defense, which would reduce his self-consumption per second to a minimum! More than one-third of his Aura had simply "evaporated" for nothing. It hurt just thinking about it.

"But in that case, I'll need to train enough perception and become quite proficient with Flow. Only then can I detect danger in time and seamlessly switch from Ten to Ken. Otherwise, I might save energy, but save my life right out of existence too. Wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse...?"

Jing Yang laughed from atop the tiger's back. Battles involving Nen Abilities really were difficult—and exciting!

In this world, it was hard to imagine battles between powerhouses lasting ten days and ten nights like they did in pirate stories... In real combat, one had to stay clear-headed at all times and consider tactics and strategy. The longer a fight dragged on, the more needless energy was consumed. And the more powerful a move was, the more terrifying its Aura consumption became.

Every tiny bit of Aura had to be carefully budgeted.

The more he thought about it, the more his fighting spirit burned. He really wanted to resume training immediately!

"Oh, are we almost there?"

With the help of the five birds overhead, Jing Yang had already spotted the East Coast towns in the distance, as well as the large amusement park at the far left. Even from so far away, he could see the endless stream of visitors inside. It looked modern and bustling.

"I can finally live like a human being! I've been like some wild man these past few days..."

Jing Yang flipped off the tiger's back. By now, he had recovered nearly half his strength. The Star Mark really was amazing.

Of course, that also made him even hungrier.

Jing Yang beckoned toward the sky. The five birds spread their wings and flew down, lining up atop Wu Er's head. The gray one among them was especially mischievous, nearly squeezing the bird beside it off.

"You'll do." Jing Yang picked it. "You seem pretty clever. Follow me for now."

The sparrow-sized Gray Bird chirped a few times and smugly glanced at the other four. We're not that close! With a flap of its little wings, it landed on Jing Yang's shoulder.

"You, and you." Jing Yang pointed at two more birds. "Go watch that abandoned small cruise ship on the North Coast. If you see any humans, pierce your own skin with your beaks to activate the Star Mark and notify me."

The two little birds with a greenish sheen to their feathers nodded, spread their wings, and flew toward the North Coast where Jing Yang had come from.

"As for the other two..." Jing Yang considered for a moment. "Follow Wu Er. One of you patrols and scouts from the sky, while the other stays on Wu Er and listens to him. Switch shifts when you get tired. The same goes for you two—if you spot humans, peck through your skin to notify me. Understand?"

"Chirp chirp!" "Tweet tweet!"

The two slightly white-feathered birds nodded enthusiastically. One of them even gave a rather humanlike salute with its tiny wing, once again making Jing Yang realize how extraordinary the animals of the Hunter World were.

Fluttering its wings, one of the white birds flew into the sky and began circling on patrol.

"As for you, Wu Er..." Jing Yang rubbed the Fanged Moon Tiger's big head. "You know it too, right? You're a protected endangered animal, and with your size, I can't possibly keep you with me all the time."

Wu Er said nothing. It merely rubbed against Jing Yang's palm, then stepped back two paces and looked at him.

Jing Yang smiled. "Don't think about slacking off. You have a task too."

"Search the woods between this protected area and the East Coast Town Area for somewhere with water, flat ground, and rocks—a place suitable for training." He vigorously rubbed the tiger's head and chin. He had given the five birds orders directly through Star Marks, but with Wu Er, he was simply asking it for help. "I still need to keep training! I'm still far too weak..."

After going through a real battle, he felt even more strongly that 1,000 Aura was nowhere near enough. Furthermore, he needed to continuously become more proficient with all kinds of Nen Ability techniques.

No wonder even a master like Biscuit listed the fundamentals and Derived Techniques of Ten, Zetsu, Ren, Hatsu, and the like as daily basic training.

That was even more so for the Shingen-ryu of Netero, from whom she had inherited her teachings. All those flashy Nen Abilities were unreliable and impossible to demand. Only a solid, profound foundation, immovable like a mountain, was truly grounded and real.

"Roar~" Wu Er turned its head and played with him for a while before finally raising its head. Full of energy, it took the white bird on its back and leaped into the forest.

Jing Yang watched it leave for a while, until the chirping on his shoulder caught his attention.

"You're so noisy, chirping away like a sparrow."

Jing Yang reached up and poked the Little Gray Bird on his shoulder, then turned and walked toward the bustling amusement park not far ahead. "How about I call you Taliyah? Three syllables is too long. Rock Sparrow is better..."

He touched the cash in his pocket, along with the Hunter License he had picked up.

Other things could wait. First, he needed to get himself something delicious to eat!