Grasping the opportunity, Moses decisively and ruthlessly took away Lion's life.
Just like that, an Enhancer who could rampage through the battlefield met his end here.
Thud——
Lion's muscular body fell heavily to the ground with a dull thud.
Shalnark, who was poised defensively in mid-air, looked with surprise at Moses, who had stabbed Lion in the back.
'The ability to freely manipulate shadows and even switch places with them, just now... that was 'In', right? During the chaos, he sent a shadow with suppressed aura behind that Enhancer and then seized the moment for a fatal strike. What a troublesome ability.'
Landing steadily on the ground, Shalnark's eyes are filled with fear and solemnity as he looked at Moses. He retreated without hesitation, putting some distance between himself and Moses.
From his point of view, there was no reason to be hostile to Moses.
However…
In this 'dark' and unknown place, the existence of the pure gold crown gave everyone present a 'legitimate' reason to take action.
Shalnark certainly wouldn't naively believe he could coexist peacefully with anyone here.
Moreover, he had witnessed Moses' ability, which was incredibly insidious and hard to defend against.
'I must be careful of his abilities!'
'Better slip away now. Anyway, the thing is already... huh?'
As Shalnark retreated, he suddenly lost control over the 'puppet'.
This meant the puppet might have been attacked or destroyed, or perhaps the antenna fell off during an attack.
'Was it knocked away by those things...'
Shalnark's eyes slightly changed, guessing that the puppet was likely knocked down by the numerous armors and head-holding human statues.
'Of all times.'
Shalnark sighed in his heart.
The puppet being destroyed was a minor issue. But, if another antenna was lost or the pure gold crown was damaged in battle, his efforts would be in vain.
While Shalnark was thinking to himself, he quickly glanced at Moses
After killing Lion, the other party just stood there without making any other moves.
That lowered gaze seemed to be contemplating something.
'Whatever, I need to check on the 'antenna' first.'
Looking at Moses's inappropriate reaction, Shalnark, concerned about the antenna and the pure gold crown, turned directly towards the puppet's approximate location.
Originally, he planned to deal with Lion while controlling the puppet to bring the pure gold crown to a hidden place.
However, Lion was no ordinary Nen User and brought him significant pressure during the fight.
In desperation, Shalnark could only switch the 'manual control mode' to 'automatic control mode' so that he could concentrate on dealing with Lion's attacks.
Although the automatic mode is convenient, its overall capability and precision were inferior to the manual mode.
Moreover, the ruins were filled with those armors and head-holding human statues, and there were a lot of them...
In such circumstances, a puppet switched to 'automatic control mode' could hardly meet Shalnark's demands.
If conditions allowed, Shalnark definitely wouldn't choose the more unpredictable automatic control mode.
But he had no choice.
It was Lion's strength that forced him to make this last-ditch decision.
'He's not coming after me? Does he have no interest in the 'crown'?'
Shalnark, while heading towards the antenna location, frequently looked back to observe Moses' reaction.
After Lion fell, he had actually been mentally prepared to fight Moses and even that Emitter girl.
But the weird thing is…
Moses made no further moves. He just stood there by the corpse, motionless and lost in thought.
'I really don't know what he is thinking...'
Shalnark frowned.
As long as the other party didn't come after him, he could more easily retrieve the antenna.
Next to Lion's corpse.
Moses glanced at Lion's face, which was frozen with a resentful and unwilling expression, and muttered to himself in confusion, 'Still no reward...'
After taking down Lion, there was no movement from the Perception.
In other words—
After consecutively taking down Nen Users: Mantis, Viper and Lion, Moses only received the reward of 'Conjuration-Type Nen Category correction rate +3%' from Mantis.
Logically speaking, the strength level of these three people is not bad.
Moreover, Moses believed his method of 'ending the battle' was impressive enough. So according to previous patterns, it wouldn't have been surprising to receive another ordinary reward.
'Is it really about solo battles, or is it because... I'm too strong now?'
Moses pondered the reason.
Fighting alone and defeating the strong as the weak are indeed the easiest ways to earn rewards.
But in previous battles, Moses also received rewards through 'cooperative battle'.
Maybe-
It was because a year of rigorous training had significantly improved his strength, reducing the 'difficulty of victory', hence no reward was given.
But if that's the case...
The stronger he becomes, the harder it will be to obtain rewards from the Perception through 'combat'.
After all, although there are many Nen Users with high IQ in the Hunter x Hunter World, there are not many people of the level of Hisoka, Illumi, or even the Phantom Troupe.
From the perspective of the original work, they are indeed few and far between.
Of course, he cannot make a final conclusion based solely on the 'original work'. The world is so vast, so there must be many strong individuals who never appeared in the 'original work'.
Anyway, later on, to earn battle rewards, he might have to defeat the world's five greatest Nen Users or old monsters like Netero, Maha Zoldyck, and Linne.
Thinking of this possibility, Moses didn't feel anything in particular.
As his strength increases, even if it becomes harder to earn rewards from Perception through 'combat', he still has the 'forming relationships' method.
'If even enemies of this level don't qualify for Perception rewards, then there will be fewer and fewer 'eligible targets' in the future.'
Moses slowly withdrew his gaze from Lion's corpse, thinking to himself, 'However, although these three people are very strong, they are ultimately characters who never appeared in the original work. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are just nobodies. And Perception obviously prefers me to target 'original work's characters'.'
'Then, the question is...'
'Who are the current world's top five Nen Users? The original work never clearly specified this, and there's no information online either.'
'There are two who can be roughly guessed, which are Netero's son, Beyond and Ging. Putting these two aside, if I defeat the other three strongest Nen Users in this world, will Perception acknowledge it?'
'Sigh, I can't believe I'm pondering such trivial matters.'
'Oh right... that guy Tonpa doesn't seem to be dead yet. If I keep torturing him, I might get another reward.'
Thinking of this, Moses looked towards the direction of the temple.
He didn't care about Shalnark's movements, not because he didn't want to, but because another shadow placed outside would help him deal with him.
Moreover…
Although he was not very interested in the pure gold crown, he wouldn't just let Shalnark take it so easily.
"Master, here."
Menchi walked over, took a Snow Fruit from her backpack and handed it to Moses.
Having gone through two battles, Menchi had consumed a lot of her Potential Aura and looked a bit tired.
In contrast, Moses still maintained a decent state.
Because in the previous battles, the tactics he adopted were all aimed at ending the battles in the most effortless way.
The reason for doing this was that he was not only considering how to eliminate the threat from Lion and the other two, but also considering how to preserve his condition for finding a way out of these ruins after the battles.
Perhaps this kind of 'foresight' will become a shackle in battle, but Moses chose to do it anyway.
Taking the Snow Fruit from Menchi, Moses swallowed it in a few bites.
"How are you feeling?"
After swallowing the Snow Fruit, Moses looked at Menchi's slightly tired face.
After shooting so many Nen Bullets in a row, she had used up a lot of her Aura.
"I'm okay."
Menchi smiled.
She still had about 30% of her Potential Aura left. If another battle occurred, she clearly wouldn't be able to provide the same level of support attacks as before.
After all, she couldn't possibly exhaust her Potential Aura without a second thought, and she needed to keep at least 20% for self-defense.
Moses nodded at Menchi and then looked again towards the open stone gate of the temple.