Auren spends the next few days before the mission starts preparing for the trip.
He briefly checks his new collection, which Ura, Oron, and Zepile have been working hard to acquire for him. He notes that by now he owns 118 Ben's Knives, an unprecedented number that is only slowly growing anymore, as almost all of the knives that have not been destroyed or lost are now in his possession. Any remaining Ben's Knives are held by people who are not simply swayed by money or have a special reason to hold onto them. Still, according to Zepile, they have managed to get a few leads, and while difficult, it is not impossible to grow that collection even more.
Despite his wish to 'play' with every single one of them, he spends only half a day carefully analyzing and checking them out.
In addition to that, Auren owns a total of 1891 items with lingering Aura; his collection is incredibly massive, and his personal 'museum' has significantly expanded, now reaching so far into the mountain that even the oxygen level has dropped to a questionable amount, preventing him from expanding any deeper into it. This has made him decide to expand more in width instead.
With the help of a few workers, he quickly updates his collection and shares every single item on the Hunter website, growing his reputation as a 'Treasure Hunter'.
With just a few days having passed, Auren's airship is now filled with people, making it quite lively.
Almost everyone in the group has decided to participate, excluding Buno and Bunu, who, as usual, just want to enjoy their lives. For some reason, Auren still cannot quite say what those two are actually contributing to keep their positions, aside from training a new generation of Nen users, and even that only in their spare time.
Ura, Oron, and Zepile, who, despite Auren being broke, faithfully continue their work and have no interest in exploration.
The twins and the 'kids' are also staying behind, for more than obvious reasons.
The final number of participants from his group is exactly 9: Auren, Neffi, Vanessa, Konrad, Eren, Goreinu, and Leira, as well as Jolt and Marsha.
Before lifting off, Neffi surprises the group with a special gift of new combat clothes.
As Auren inspects his new black suit, he notes that the quality has shot through the roof. Having implemented various materials from their new 'Nation', they are not only light but also extremely durable. Wearing his full set, covering his entire body and even having the newest version of the glidesuit parts included, he feels incredibly comfortable and protected, raising his confidence even more.
Finally, the expedition starts. As Auren's airship lifts off, he feels Rakshala's En, sticking with him for a long time, before it finally 'escapes' the radius.
The three military airships, led by Auren's own airship, which slows down on purpose so they can fly together, are packed full with extra, external gas tanks and supplies, allowing them to fly for an extremely long period.
It takes almost a full week until the airships arrive at the southeastern part of the southern Azian Continent, which is not directly under the Federation of Ochima's control, but is more or less still loyal to it. They land near the capital city in the rural countryside of a small tribal nation, depending almost solely on farming. Still, being the capital, they are able to stock up on more gas, so their additional supplies can remain untouched in case of an emergency.
Finally, they reach the point where there is absolutely nothing to look forward to, aside from the endless ocean and their goal, the island Ging discovered.
Auren can't help but feel a sense of dread, knowing that there is such a colossal body of water in front of him. Crashing into the Ocean would almost surely mean certain death, even for him.
Despite his own personal connection to water, he much prefers serene rivers or the coast, not the wide ocean.
After a few days of flying, relying completely on the Hatsu of one of the soldiers, who can accurately keep track of their movements, Auren senses a difference in the waters below him.
Despite no land being in sight, the weather changes a few times per day, varying from calm to catastrophic. Waves the size Auren hasn't seen before are rampaging just below the airship, and a heavy wind makes progressing extremely painful as the airship violently shakes in the air.
Flying the airship turns out to be quite the challenge, even for Jolt, who is extremely experienced.
Still, after an arduous journey, the expedition finally notices their goal, the mysterious island in the far distance. On the first side, it's almost entirely covered in forest, without any large mountains visible.
It's just... Jungle? Or forest? I'm not quite sure... how disappointing.
Exactly as planned, the airships make a small turn and approach the island from the north, discovering a sandy island with just a small bit of green in the north of it.
Still, the island is quite large, potentially allowing for hundreds, if not thousands, of airships to land.
Seeing the ruins of an old camp, built in a square shape, the airships land close by on flat terrain, far off from the coast so as not to take the risk of falling prey to the potentially rapidly changing tide.
"It doesn't look like any place special," Neffi comments, as the airship lands.
"I agree, but you've seen the chaotic ocean yourself, haven't you?" Auren asks, before adding, "Also, the sheer distance we've traveled... this island exists in a totally different climate and location. We're so far away from the nearest continent... you can just feel the difference by breathing and smelling."
"At least we got a secure camp... and this small island seems safe enough," Konrad adds, looking a little worried.
"Uhm, brother Konrad... why did you even come along?" Eren asks, looking a little confused. "Not to offend you, but you really don't like combat, and your Hatsu is useless for combat, isn't it?"
"I wanted to challenge myself," Konrad says. "Also... this might be a huge opportunity. Who knows what kind of things we'll find here?"
"Don't worry, little brother, I'll protect you... for a fee," Vanessa says with a grin, petting him.
"Only one way to find out what's here..." Auren states, grinning, finally getting excited.
Despite everyone's eagerness to explore, a spontaneous rush into the unexplored island would obviously be suicidal and clearly foolish.
The expedition starts by unloading all the supplies, checking out the usable remains of the old camp, and then setting up a proper camp.
It turns out that one of the people under Mola has a special Hatsu that can enlarge a certain number of specific objects. The Nen user in question is a teenage girl, dressed in pink clothes. Seemingly out of nowhere, exactly 11 plastic-looking buildings, resembling toy houses and even entire mansions one would think girls like to play with, materialize, their size large enough to fit at least a few hundred people inside all of them.
"Ugh..." Goreinu comments, looking disgusted. "I mean... a house is a house... but that's just an enlarged toy. Also... it's so girly...."
"That's really impressive," Vanessa comments. "A useful Nen ability... if she can increase the number of buildings and maybe the size, she could potentially create a whole neighborhood out of nowhere. In any case, I believe we can squeeze inside... though it won't be comfortable."
"... Nen has to be personal," Auren explains. "You can't exactly choose 'useful' abilities. If that's what she truly likes, she needs to work with just that... and by the looks of it, she did and succeeded. Anyway, that Hatsu is our salvation. With those houses, we can avoid tents or amateurish sheds. Especially for those people staying behind."
"Why not stay on the airships?" Neffi asks.
"We could," Auren adds, "but they don't have enough space, especially if we're staying for months. They'd also make it difficult to work together. There is also the risk that we lose one... or two. Anyway, let's get to work as well."
With the help of various other Nen users, all part of the support staff, the base camp is quickly set up.
One of the Nen users, a muscular man in his forties, swiftly cuts down a bunch of trees growing on the green patch of the island with a conjured axe and then turns them into storage sheds, all within minutes, using a conjured hammer. An elderly man, using a wooden cane to walk, works at the same time as the worker constructing sheds and takes out a few seeds, buries them in the green patch, now with empty space where the trees grew, and immediately, a few small apple trees sprout from the ground.
Those are... apple trees. Is that an Enhancer? That's a useful ability... he's quite old, but his Aura is still powerful. There are so many capable Nen users among us. What a surprise.
Another Hollow Blade member, a scarred woman in her twenties, manipulates sand to create what appears to be bunkers and a small network of underground tunnels on the inside and outside of the camp. Every bunker is connected through underground tunnels, built large enough to easily walk inside.
Within less than a day, the abandoned prison island has totally transformed into a chaotic, surreal-looking village, with plastic buildings, wooden houses, apple trees, and sand bunkers all looking completely out of place.
Auren briefly talks with the people and, exactly as he imagined, their abilities all come with strict conditions attached. The woman creating the bunkers needs to remain close by, and she has to enter each bunker every 24 hours, or they all disappear. The tunnels also have to connect every bunker, meaning she can't create two unconnected bunkers further apart.
The man who created the wooden sheds and felled the trees is unable to use his tools as weapons, and each use of them consumes a lot of Aura, meaning he can only fell so many trees and create so many trees and sheds each day.
The girl creating the mansions can only use toy houses and mansions, and while the buildings are enlarged, she is forced to use Zetsu and must remain close by, meaning she needs to be protected and is completely defenseless as long as her Hatsu is activated.
Finally, the elderly man has given up all of his Nen potential and can only speed up the growth of apple trees, not of any other plant or tree. Thanks to his extremely conditional ability, his insane love for apples, and his sacrifice, his ability turns out to be incredibly potent. Still, Auren further questions him, interested to learn more. "Not quite the ability I expected... usually, people would consider an ability that's useful for fighting, especially if they're an Enhancer."
"Hoho, fighting, you say? I'm not interested in fighting... only apples. I always wanted to be a farmer... but I hate waiting years for trees to sprout, so I came up with this Hatsu. Isn't it incredible? Though the trees are really small and can't grow to their full height. They'll also die within a few months or so."
"I guess so," Auren replies. "It's super useful... especially for expeditions like this. How many can you grow within a day?"
"I can grow five adult trees every day! Within three days, they'll be ready for harvest, and if I continue to use my ability, they'll regrow apples every day. Though it uses up Aura, so realistically speaking, I can properly tend only around thirty trees, and I need a while to grow them all."
"That is... I don't know, is that a lot?" Auren asks, the proportions not quite clear.
"A fully grown apple tree has a total harvest of 100 to 300 kilos per harvest. Mine only provide 20 kilos each, as they're comparatively tiny. Still, with thirty of them, that's 600 kilos per day, once I've reached full capacity."
"600 kilos of apples per day?!" Auren asks, utterly bamboozled. "With around 500 calories per kilo, that's enough to sustain 150 people... what an unexpectedly useful ability."
Finally, with all preparations having taken place, the exploration can finally begin.
Auren and his team, along with Commander Kieran, board one of the airships and land on the shore of the incredibly large neighboring island, choosing to explore from the closest point to their base camp.
For security's sake, the airship lifts off and returns to the island, choosing not to explore the air over the island out of fear of potential birds or other flying creatures attacking it and ripping the air balloon to shreds.
Having set foot on the island, the group, consisting of 100 soldiers under Commander Kieran and Auren with his small group, gathers on the sandy beach.
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