The door to his apartment closed with a silent click, and Harry nodded, "You guys are here? Good. Did you complete your task?"
"Yes, we deposited our funds into your account as you ordered, my Lord," Sadaso answered on behalf of the three of them.
"Well done." Harry smiled pleased as he checked his account on his new phone; combined with the money he got while climbing the Tower and his previous bets, he had now more than 1.5 billion Jenny.
A nice amount of cash to live comfortably, but still quite low for a pro hunter.
For comparison, Greed Island, a game for Hunters and Nen Users that requires Nen to be played, has a starting bid of 8 billion in the next auction. The official acquisition difficulty is only 'G' (easy) since all you need is money.
Putting his phone away, his expression turned serious. Harry wasn't certain whether he was ready for what came next, but it was something he had to do.
His wand appeared in his hand as he readied himself mentally. Sadaso's, Gido's, and Riehlvelt's eyes widened in recognition of that familiar stick.
But they remained motionless, just standing there. They had gotten intimately familiar with that wand and the wide range of abilities it granted Harry. Abilities that could be Nen abilities but at the same time were not.
Harry had used them for a wide range of magical experiments and his magic training. After all, not using the resources available was just a waste. He especially studied the interaction between his Nen and his magic.
First he had noticed after awakening his Aura that his spells had naturally become stronger. By around 20 to 30 percent. It was just a rough estimate he eyeballed by watching the effect of his spells while he was in Hatsu or using his aura, respectively.
These three had been useful to test whether his spells could be blocked by Nen. It had been quite the fascinating experiment. And the short answer was they could; Nen is acting like a shield spell.
Whether his spell hit was based on the amount of aura his opponent was using to block it. Weaker spells like the Tickling Charm could be blocked by these three with just their Ten Shroud.
For stronger spells actually meant for combat, they had to be blocked by using Gyo on the body part that was hit. More lethal spells were completely passing through the defenses of these three.
Although Harry is certain that stronger Nen users could block them easily. After all, these three were pretty much some of the weakest Nen users.
Whether a Nen Master could block one of the Unforgivables was something
Harry couldn't say. At most he could only theorize; after all, his mother had managed to block one for him, so there was at least one magical protection out there blocking the curse. Solid objects could so too.
How does Nen Count? Magical Protection? Energy Shield? Physical Shield?
Harry had no idea, but it wouldn't surprise him if Meruem could take a Killing Curse without taking any damage.
His aura surrounded his wand as three bright green lights hit the three men in front of him, and they fell unmovingly to the ground.
Shu, surrounding an object with his aura, in this case his wand, made the spells actually even stronger. Harry estimated he could double, if he put more magic into it, even triple the strength of his spells.
And yes, he did just silently cast three spells in rapid succession.
After all, practicing his aura wasn't all he did over the last few months.
It is physically exhausting, and even with stamina potions, he couldn't train the whole day. He had no teacher who could just massage his exhaustion away with a Nen ability. So he had quite a bit of time to study magic too.
Combining a Wit-Sharpening Potion with Gyo on his Brain was broken. Mastering spells was an easy task that way.
While he wouldn't say he could finish his NEWTs with straight Outstandings, Exceed Expectations were in his ability right now. He hadn't studied the whole 7 years of the Hogwarts curriculum by heart, like he would for exams, but he went from one useful spell to the next until he mastered it, while also branching out into fields of magic that simply caught his interest.
This included silent casting.
He spent no time learning something like the Knitting Charm. Sure it was part of the curriculum, but he was preparing for life and death situations, not graduation.
Harry even managed some wandless casting, although it took considerably more time than just silent casting. And he only focused on spells that could come in handy in case he had no wand, like the Summoning Charm to get his wand back.
Other spells included the Lumos Charm, unlocking spells, simple shield charms, stunners, levitation, and a few more minor spells that he should be able to pull off.
As Harry stared at the three unmoving bodies on the floor, they were not dead, just bodybound. He encouraged himself, "Come on, Potter. You have to do it. It's the first step to saving a ton of lives at your own home. They were planning to cripple or even kill you first, so don't hesitate."
Yes, he is planning to take three lives today.
His reasoning is quite simple: every Death Eater walking away would just mean more deaths on their hand. Dumbledore's Philosophy of Forgiveness was just utter bullshit and naivety. One that Harry didn't plan to follow.
And the multiverse wasn't a friendly place. Just look at this world! If you are a normal human and a bit unlucky, you could end up a Nen-controlled corpse puppet because you walked on the false street.
No, Harry had to learn how to take lives. He had to overcome his inhibition.
It wasn't an easy thing to do. After all, he had never actually taken a life, or intended to.
He doesn't consider killing the Basilisk on the same level as killing a human.
And Quirrell was a different story; Harry couldn't remember the kill. The man was already all but dead; he wasn't even sure if his protections had killed him or if Voldemort had left the body.
Harry had to kill himself willingly. There is no other way, or he would regret it later on.
He approached Sadaso and put his hand on the man's body, "Sorry that I have to do this. But let's be honest: if you were in my shoes, you wouldn't have hesitated. So… Devour: Essence."
A dark purple spinning hole appeared at the palm of his hand as it began sucking the aura, life, and very essence out of the man in his grasp.
Yes, this is a Nen ability. A sub-ability of his very first Nen ability. One that had taken quite a few conditions to create; without them, it wouldn't have been possible. He simply hadn't been on that level yet.
As Sadaso began withering away under his palm, getting paler and paler as he slowly began to crumble to dust, Harry's aura in the meantime got slightly stronger.
This is his Nen ability, Devour: Essence.
Like the name implies, it was basically devouring the very essence of his target to make himself stronger. He pretty much absorbs the memories, abilities, talent, and aura from his target.
It didn't mean that he got everything. Unfortunately, even with all the conditions he put on this ability, he could only absorb 20% of his target's aura capacity and talent. If his own talent in an Nen-type was higher than the target's, his own talent wouldn't increase at all.
But he got the full understanding of his target with all his abilities. Still, it doesn't mean he could use the abilities on the same level.
While he absorbed all the training and understanding of the User, not just the Memories, it was as if he had learned it himself; he still lacked the same body, so he didn't have the muscle memories to use the ability on the same level.
His Body simply couldn't act on the same level like someone who had trained to create their own Ability, fit for exactly their Body.
The same applies to Talent; if he absorbed an ability from a master enhancer, he couldn't use the ability on the same level if he wasn't on the same talent. Even after absorbing a part of the Targets Talent, it doesn't necessarily mean he reached the same level.
And then there are the conditions that make this ability possible in the first place.
The original ability, his first Nen ability, is called Devour; it was an enhanced and transmuted form of the purple Mist Dimension Lost created, a level above the concentrated energy used for his portal. Simply said, a black hole.
This ability could suck everything in front of his palm into his inventory. Well, humans, animals, and other creatures die in there. His inspiration was Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki from Naruto. It's a damn useful ability against everyone not a close combat fighter.
Although it wasn't as overpowered as he imagined it. He had to put his palm in the attack's trajectory to absorb it, so wide-range attacks and attacks from different angles would be troublesome for now. For now, because he could still improve it.
But from there his brain started working: What if he could devour more? Like Rimuru Tempest, he absorbs his enemies or their attacks to gain new skills or evolve his existing ones.
There he faced his first problem: everything he absorbed would be analyzed by the skill Great Sage or Raphael, which made that whole process more effective. Harry didn't have any Sentient Skill.
He considered whether he would be able to create a Nen Beast or something that could replace it, but for now canned the idea since he didn't know how to do it in a good way.
Instead he came up with a different approach and created Devour: Essence.
As a base for the skill, he set the first condition that he needed to possess Dimension Lost so he could create the devouring black hole in his palm.
Since Sacred Gears could be stolen, there was a risk, which powered the skill up, but it was far from enough to work.
Secondly, he set as a requirement that the user had to be able to use Legilimency, which handles the whole knowledge absorption part.
Thanks to the risk of being able to lose his magic completely, like a magical contract through the Goblet of Fire, it enhanced the effect that he was absorbing not only the memories but also the proficiency and experiences.
But that was far from enough of what Harry wanted, so he had to add a few more conditions. To add that he could truly absorb abilities, talent, and power from other people, he had to add three more conditions so that it worked.
During the whole absorption process, he had to touch the target; if he, for just the slightest moment, didn't, it would be disrupted. Of course the stronger the target was, the longer it took.
Harry also couldn't use any Nen during the whole process. Just good that Magic wasn't Nen.
And lastly, he could use this ability only once on each person in his lifetime; if he should attempt to do so a second time, for example, after being interrupted, then he dies.
Was it risk? Sure, but if he was careful, it was totally worth it. Seriously, why spend a month training to be able to use Ren 10 minutes longer?
As he formed an Aura Hand from his Nen and moved it to pull Riehlvelt to him next, he grinned. Yes, it was worth it.
———
(January 6th)
Harry sat on his seat at the window and stared into the distance, observing the world moving below him. "Hmm, we are here." Harry muttered as he began to stretch his limbs.
The whole journey had taken a few hours; Zaban City is, after all, on a completely different continent than the Heavens Arena, and these airships were not as fast as planes.
In the distance he was able to make out a lone pine tree on a hill and a bustling city below him. This was definitely Zaban City, his destination for this journey.
Suddenly, the speakers crackled to life: "We apologize for the delay. Due to an accident, the airport in Zaban City is currently at full capacity and unable to accommodate our landing. We will instead proceed to Dolle Harbor, where buses will transport you to Zaban City. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience!"
Harry wrinkled his brows. That was totally Hunter Exam bullshit.
Spotting a flat roof in the city below him, Harry focused, and a portal formed in front of him. "Yeah, not with me. Thank you for bringing me here." He muttered as he stepped through the portal.
( End of Chapter )
------------------------------------
HP - DXD - HP - DXD - HP - DXD
------------------------------------
Thank you for reading my work! If you're enjoying it, please consider leaving some Power Stones to show your support—I truly appreciate it!
For access to 30+ advanced chapters, visit my Page: P*treon/OneTrueSage
Free members get access to one advanced Chapter!
Thank you for your support, and happy reading!