Eager to Try
The wandering ghosts directly threw the souls within the Chimera Ant's body into the mist, where they were absorbed by Oboro.
"It's definitely much stronger than a regular Magical Beasts soul..."
Long couldn't help but sigh.
The weight of the soul is determined by the strength of the target's life energy, which in turn enhances its effect.
In other words, if the Chimera Ant could be made more threatening and their strength increased, the effect of soul absorption would be elevated to another level.
Just like raising pigs, you first fatten up the piglets, and then slaughter them.
The simplest way is to awaken Nen in the Chimera Ant, just like in the original story... However, to awaken Nen, one must be at least an outstanding soldier, then a squad leader or Squadron Leader. Ordinary ants cannot do that.
The squad is currently located at the very edge of the ant colony's territory, so they will not encounter Chimera Ant of the rank of squad leader or higher.
Let's kill them first...
In just a few days, with the combined efforts of Menchi and others, swarms of Chimera Ant were lured to the foot of the solitary peak, where they collapsed in the thick, eerie fog. A rough estimate puts the number at least in the thousands. Even for the current ant colony, this number is not insignificant.
Lung judged that at this moment, some ants in the ant nest must have noticed the abnormality here.
"It should be... soon..."
The next day, gazing at the forest under the night sky, he murmured softly.
At the same time, the system panel was brought up.
Host: Oboro.
Age: 27.
Specialty: Three-star Ancient Literature Hunter x Hunter.
Combat Rank: Martial Arts Master, World-Class Hunter x Hunter (Ranked 8th).
Overall attribute evaluation: Third-order superhuman.
Nen: Chronobreak, Thresh's passive skill Damnation, Senna's passive skill Absolution.
Absolution effect: (Attack range +25 meters, critical hit chance 100%, Life Steal 51%). Long glanced at it, focusing mainly on the Absolution effect. Absolution drops a lootable black mist after killing the target, not a soul.
The Soul effect originates from Thresh's Damnation, which has been transformed from a passive skill in the game into an active, releaseable Nen.
Senna's skills remain passive because there's no potential for further development.
His attack range and Life Steal have both increased, thanks to the Black Tide Incident, the Kakin Kingdom, and the Shadow Descendants led by Jed, as well as the hunting haul over the past few days.
The critical strike rate is already capped at 100%. Any excess will be converted into Life Steal.
Oboro's idea was to use the black mist dropped by these ordinary Chimera Ant to first increase his Life Steal to 100%.
Therefore, the only remaining option to add is the attack range.
This additional attribute improves relatively slowly.
It's nowhere near as significant as the armor and spell power granted by the soul.
As for the armor and spell power values, I'll wait until the first phase of the hunt is complete before seeing any changes.
"Killua's return to Greed Island will take longer, which will also make finding Kite a little slower. Their group will enter NGL about half a month later than in the original story... Our team still has almost a month left. At the current speed, we can conservatively kill tens of thousands of ants. This is assuming the ant colonel's army doesn't target us. If a squad leader or Squadron Leader leads a large army to attack... then it will be a different story."
Lone was calculating.
It's worth noting that an ordinary queen ant can lay hundreds or even thousands of eggs a day, while the reproductive capacity of Chimera Ant queen is even more terrifying.
He remembered that it was mentioned in the original work that unless it was a special egg that required superior genes, that is, an elite-level egg, the number would be less, but still up to dozens a day... Each time she ate, the Queen could lay a few eggs.
So the queen in the nest was always eating, she never stopped.
Unlike all other ants, the Chimera Ant King is not oviparous, but viviparous.
Once the Chimera Ant King begins preparing to lay its own king ant, it will not lay any more ants.
"Neferpitou and the other two kings' Royal Guard... have been born, but are still asleep in their eggs and have not yet awakened. The Chimera Ant at the Squadron Leader and corps commander levels are also present, and the queen ant is currently gestating the Chimera Ant King... indicating that the ant population growth has long since stopped. Even so, conservatively estimated, the total number of ants in the entire ant colony is around 200,000, or even more."
Long frowned slightly.
Chimera Ant hide in NGL for far too long. For example, a typical ant colony contains around two thousand ants, but can reproduce and split into about 20 colonies each year. That means that in just one year, the number of ants can reach tens of thousands... and this is without even considering the terrifying reproductive capacity of the Chimera Ant queen.
Even counting from the time the Kakin Empire issued the commission for the Biological Investigation, it's been almost four years now...
The minimum is at least 200,000 Chimera Ant! This... is just the bottom line.
"Neferpitou..."
After closing the system panel, Long's heart stirred.
His current Nen can only amplify the intensity of Nen; his physical energy and blood have reached a bottleneck, which means that his energy cannot be increased any further.
And the amount of air is quite important! For example, right now, he can only cover the area within a radius of about one kilometer with the Ghost Mist, without any extra 'air' to further expand the area covered by the fog sea... similar to the function of 'circle'.
And Neferpitou, including the Chimera Ant King Meruem... because of their transcendent physical strength that surpasses another dimension, their charisma is unimaginably vast.
Meruem uses aura to sense external objects, achieving an effect similar to a circle, which can even cover the entire royal city of East Gorteau ...
When compared like this, the difference is too great.
Of course, one's capacity for energy is not absolute... As long as one's mental strength is strong enough, one can still make up for the difference in attack and defense, that is, the difference in physical strength.
However, the difference between the Chimera Ant King Meruem and himself in terms of flesh and blood is like heaven and earth. Even if he destroyed the entire Chimera Ant hive and absorbed countless souls to increase his Nen strength and physical armor, he might still not be able to contend with him.
"Those three, we could play with them..."
Neferpitou, Shaiapouf, Youpi.
Oboro bit her finger. "However, only after absorbing the soul..."
"Meruem's strength is indeed inviolable... but nothing is absolute. Judging from the strength of the three members of the Royal Guards, if these three ants die, the souls they lose will be extraordinary. After I absorb them, along with a group of Squadron Leader and corps captains... and tens of thousands of ant soldiers, plus my original foundation, I might... have no chance of winning."
Long's eyes flickered, and after speaking, she sighed, "Forget it... it's better not to touch those dangerous monsters."
Yes, he doesn't have absolute confidence.
It's important to know that in this battle, it wasn't just ants that died.
There are also many Association members, including Netero!
These are all foods from the Omnibus Menu.
He couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement, wanting to experience Meruem's power... Could he, as a human, defeat a higher-level life form without relying on the 'Poor Man's Rose'?
Actually, he didn't need to do that; it was too risky.
Besides, Meruem will die sooner or later... he can just wait to collect his soul.
But if he didn't get a feel for their fighting prowess while they were still alive, Oboro felt it would be a bit of a waste...
Let's take it one step at a time and see what happens...
"Captain, I've brought some ants..."
Just then, Anthony's voice echoed in my mind.
"Um."
Long regained his composure.