It felt as though Lawliet had thrust his hand into bubbling molten lava, yet there wasn't a trace of pain. The sensation was very strange and contradictory.
While his sense of touch screamed that this heat could easily melt his palm, there was no accompanying pain. This lack of agony was the only reason Lawliet hadn't cried out when the heat first emerged.
His heartbeat quickened involuntarily...
Lawliet spread out his palms carefully, and through the faint moonlight filtering through the window, he saw that there was no change on the surface of the jade. However, he could feel the peculiar life energy fluctuations coming from the jade and seeping into his body through his palm.
If Lawliet had mastered Gyo, he could have focused his Aura into his eyes to see the large amount of energy field wrapped around the surface of the jade.
However, he was just a complete novice and naturally could not see the Aura floating on the surface of the jade.
However, although he couldn't see the Aura, Lawliet could sense the energy pulses emanating from the jade seemed to share the same origin as the life energy within his body.
As more life energy poured into him from the jade, the white smoke-like text floating in his mindscape began to shift.
The percentage of awakening for the six Nen Categories fluctuated. Except for the Specialization Category, the awakening rates of the other categories changed from 0% to 0.1%, and then ceased moving. Meanwhile, the Specialization Category jumped from 0.5% to 0.6%, and continued climbing until it reached 3%, before stabilizing.
Once the numbers stopped changing, the strange burning sensation emitted by the jade gradually disappeared, and its energy pulses vanished entirely. It felt as though the once-living jade had turned into an inanimate object.
Faced with this sudden transformation, Lawliet was utterly bewildered.
However, he knew that he had reaped considerable benefits. Not only did the degree of awakening of his Specialization Category reach 3%, but the life energy in his body had also grown significantly stronger, from the size of a thumb to that of a ping-pong ball. Moreover, traces of it began to leak outward from his body.
'This jade …'
Lawliet clutched the jade and could clearly feel the life energy radiating outward from his body.
If a Nen User had witnessed this scene, they would likely have been astounded. An ordinary person who had not undergone systematic Nen training and had not used his body to withstand the attacks with Aura, had actually unlocked their Aura Nodes in such a short time.
This would classify Lawliet as… a natural-born Nen User!
In reality, at this moment, Lawliet has become the world's only unique Nen User. The data displayed by the white smoke-like text embodied an essence that would drive any Nen User into frenzied greed, and also gives Lawliet limitless potential.
This is equivalent to him possessing a treasure of immeasurable value, but Lawliet himself is not aware of it. Until this treasure was unearthed, no one would recognize Lawliet's uniqueness or potential.
'Specialization… I wonder what my Nen Ability will be.' Seeing the awakening rate of Specialization Category at 3%, Lawliet's eyes glimmered with curiosity. Meanwhile, the 0.1% of other categories was directly ignored by him.
Guided by his thoughts, the thin streams of Aura leaking from his right palm coalesced and lingered in his hand.
Without any systematic training, and relying only on the Anime he had watched in his previous life, Lawliet unconsciously executed one of the four basic Nen Techniques: Ten. Even though it was limited to the range of his palm, it was indeed Ten.
If he wanted to know what his Nen Ability is, Lawliet have to master the Nen Technique, Hatsu. While Lawliet has not mastered this technique yet, he has the concept in his mind.
In the moonlit room, a gentle white glow began to illuminate the space.
Lawliet concentrated his Aura in his right palm for about thirty seconds. The amount of Aura increased and a small sphere of white light condensed on his palm. Its radiance was soft, resembling a transparent leather ball.
'Is this my ability… just pure Aura?'
Lawliet's understanding of Nen Ability is at a semi-incomplete level, so he is unable to distinguish whether this was a manifestation of his Specialist Nen Ability or merely a visible form of Aura.
Driven by a desire to uncover his Nen Ability, Lawliet attempted to use Hatsu to materialize it, even without mastering Ren.
At that moment, perhaps due to his vague and unfocused thoughts, the previously stable white sphere suddenly began to tremble without warning.
"Huh?"
Lawliet was startled, and before he could react, he felt that the originally calm ball in his palm suddenly turned into a wild horse that had broken free from its reins.
Whoosh!
The white sphere was like a spring that was compressed to the extreme, and shot out from Lawliet's hand. Strangely, despite its abrupt release, the sphere moved at an oddly slow pace, roughly equivalent to an adult's walking speed.
To Lawliet's dismay, the sphere floated unerringly toward Machi, who was lying peacefully in her hammock.
'Oh no!' Lawliet's heartbeat quickened, but he had no way to stop it as his control over his Aura was pathetically weak.
The white sphere landed on Machi's body and suddenly turned into a thin curtain of light covering the surface of Machi's body. The light was very faint, like a transparent silk curtain.
At the next moment, the pajamas and underwear Machi was wearing inexplicably detached from her body, drifting gently to the ground as the veil of light disappeared.
"…"
Lawliet's mouth twitched slightly as he watched this scene.
'Is this my Nen Ability? To strip off a little girl's clothes at the speed of light? This must be fake… Yes, I must have used a fake Nen Ability!'
An exasperated, almost absurd guess surfaced in Lawliet's mind. Even though his self-hypnosis was very firm, the harsh reality left him sighing as he's lamenting his future.
Lawliet's superficial understandings of Nen Ability does not take into account that his own mastery of the Nen Ability is at novice-level.
Moreover, Nen is influenced by one's will and desires, which are divided into latent and conscious needs.
Latent needs are those that a person is unaware of, while manifest needs are those they are clearly aware of.
Obviously, Lawliet had developed the ability to separate clothes out of latent need without realizing it.
In other words, this ability to separate clothes from the wearer... had cruelly painted him as a 'pervert' in the most damning way possible.
Fortunately, Lawliet was blissfully ignorant of this. Otherwise, he would never admit it even if he was beaten to death.
In fact, this Nen Ability that can instantly separate clothes from the human body is indeed very weak, but what if it is not the clothes that are separated, but... any part of the body?
Additionally, the fact that a novice like Lawliet, who had yet to master Ren, managed to use his Nen Ability using only a clumsy attempt at Ten was entirely outside the bounds of common sense.
If it is announced, no Nen User would believe it.
In his current state, Lawliet wasn't pondering the implications of his Nen Ability. Instead, as he lamented his predicament, his gaze was drawn, almost involuntarily, to Machi's exposed figure.
When normal people see the naked body of the opposite sex, they will look at it as a conditioned reflex, regardless of whether their motives are pure or not.
Under the faint moonlight, Lawliet managed a brief glance. Machi's skin was pale, her chest was flat with little to speak of, and her frail frame revealed rows of bones.
'Beast!!!'
Lawliet suddenly realized that Machi was only a ten-year-old girl, so he forcefully turned away, lying on his side and pretending as though nothing had happened.
After a while, perhaps because she felt cold without her clothes, Machi stirred and slowly opened her eyes.
As her awareness shifted from sleep to full consciousness, the first thing she noticed was that all her clothes, including her underwear, were gone.
"Tch!"
Machi's expression turned icy. Her hands moved swiftly as she pulled out a thin thread that shimmered faintly in the moonlight, exuding an almost chilling sharpness.
She glanced at Lawliet, who lay with his back to her, and her thin eyebrows furrowed slightly. Although her clothes were missing, her expression was remained calm, looking curious more than alarmed.