"Let's go outside and give them some time to say goodbye," Jin said, rising to his feet and walking toward the cave entrance.
Kevin looked at the dying Two-Headed Wolf, reached out, and gently stroked its head. As if sensing his touch, the head with the luminous horn tilted slightly, nuzzling into Kevin's palm before giving it two weak, rasping licks. Then it settled back down, quietly awaiting its end.
"He really is quite intelligent," Kevin murmured. He stood and followed Jin out of the cave, leaving the wolf pack to their private vigil.
At the entrance, Jin leaned against the rocky wall. Kevin stood beside him, gazing out. In the distance, several large trees bore massive, clean holes punched straight through their trunks, yet they stood stubbornly upright, refusing to fall.
"You've probably been researching all sorts of information about strange beasts, rare beasts, and magical beasts online recently, due to your own needs, haven't you?" Jin asked.
Hearing the question, Kevin nodded. "Yes. Because of my Nen ability, I'm particularly interested in these things."
"What are your thoughts on these creatures?"
There was no reason to hide it here. Kevin answered frankly, "They're amazing. I never thought I'd learn about creatures that seem to have stepped out of myths and legends in what's ostensibly a modern society." After all, in the over twenty years of his previous life, he'd only known an ordinary, mundane world devoid of such fantastical, dream-like beings.
"Hmm, I see," Jin murmured softly. After a moment of silence, he suddenly tossed something toward Kevin.
Kevin caught it reflexively. The object was about as long as his forearm and surprisingly heavy. It was tightly wrapped in oilcloth, then bound with a layer of bandages. More intriguingly, on this layer of bandages, he could see some extremely complex yet orderly patterns. With his refined aura control, Kevin could clearly detect a faint trace of "Nen" emanating from these patterns.
"Those are Nen Script," Jin explained. "Characters created through specialized knowledge—unique written patterns—combined with the correct Nen principles and exquisite Nen manipulation techniques."
Hearing this, Kevin's initial interest immediately waned. This clearly wasn't something an ordinary person could learn.
"Oh, don't look so deflated. Although there are indeed very few who master this art, if you try hard enough, maybe you really can learn it?" Jin suddenly said with a grin, his expression looking suspiciously like he was trying to pull a fast one.
"How long did it take you to learn it?"
"I'm still learning it now."
"Heh heh," Kevin couldn't help but scoff. Then what's the point of me learning it?
But if the opportunity arose, he might try. As long as it was something fantastical, something extraordinary, Kevin wanted to see it, to attempt it. How interesting.
With that thought, he slowly began unwinding the bandages. A faint aura began to seep through the oilcloth. He couldn't help but frown slightly.
When he removed the oilcloth as well, an even richer life energy—or rather, "aura"—rushed toward him.
What lay before him was a slender bone. It was an emerald green, and through its surface, he could vaguely see a fine, crystalline structure within. Purely from an aesthetic standpoint, it was undoubtedly an extremely interesting collectible.
But the "aura" emanating from it was not to be underestimated. This meant the owner of this bone had possessed an incredibly powerful physique. Even after death, the bone still contained such potent life energy that it slowly emitted detectable "aura." In other words, the oilcloth and outer bandages were actually there to prevent the material's "aura" from dissipating completely, which would deplete its life energy and turn it into an ordinary item.
What shocked Kevin even more was the fierce wave of craving that surged through his body. It was stronger than anything he'd felt with any other material, far exceeding even his first encounter with the shed horn.
"Hoo…" Kevin took several deep, steadying breaths before finally managing to calm the fierce longing within him.
Jin had been observing him carefully from the side. "The aura on you… never mind, we'll talk about that later. What do you think of this [material]?"
"Very powerful," Kevin said, his voice slightly strained. "I can only describe it as powerful. So powerful that it's impossible for me to use it as a material anytime soon."
Just as potions were graded, Kevin had developed his own internal grading system for materials. Potions of the same grade didn't require all ingredients to be of that tier, but the primary ingredient—the one placed on the Gold Scale—absolutely had to match.
There was no doubt: the material in his hand was far beyond what a C-grade potion could accommodate. Was it A-grade? No, though he'd conceptualized the grades, in his mind A-grade was even more fantastical, more remote. This was B-grade. And not just any B-grade—this was a top-tier, pinnacle material within that category.
With his current latent aura capacity, he simply couldn't perform any operation involving it.
"Damn it," Kevin muttered, frustration lacing his voice. "Isn't this just pure temptation? To see it but not be able to use it."
"Then I'll give it to you."
"Huh?" Kevin looked up at Jin, confused.
"It no longer holds any practical value for me. It's more of a curio, and I'm not particularly interested in such things," Jin explained simply. "Consider it a small gift from me."
He clapped his hands together. "Think of it as a gift to help you gain the power of self-preservation."
"What? That excuse was clearly made up on the spot, wasn't it?"
"Alright, don't get hung up on the details," Jin waved a dismissive hand. Then his gaze sharpened, looking toward the distant horizon. "As a Ruins Hunter, for all these years, I've always acted on my own interests and whims. In that process, I've uncovered many secrets. Just like this bone in your hand—it's actually a small finger bone from a creature's infant."
"Then how big must the adult creature have been?" Kevin murmured, looking down at the re-wrapped, crystalline green bone.
"Most of those 'interesting' creatures you've been researching," Jin continued, "have crossed the seas to get here over the past millennium. They originate from the true world, the one that lies beyond the current Known World."
Jin's words made Kevin's brow furrow. He had probably already guessed Jin was hinting at worlds beyond this one. After all, in this reality, there was still no clearly defined boundary of the world. There had to be unexplored new continents out there. For top-tier Hunters like Jin, they undoubtedly had their own channels of information about such places.
Given the current level of technological development, the fact that the world's major powers hadn't organized large-scale colonial expeditions could only mean one thing: those so-called new continents presented risks that far outweighed any potential rewards. Otherwise, a habitable, untouched landmass would be an irresistible temptation. This was Kevin's logical deduction based on his understanding of this world's geopolitics.
It seemed Jin was now about to lift the veil on that mystery.