One week passed quietly.
Conrad trained and planned mostly.
He took short but intense lessons from different instructors.
He didn't master anything but he understood enough to be dangerous and stay away from the danger.
Now, Conrad felt different, his eyes opened, at least in terms of understanding the martial arts a little better.
He stopped walking.
For no clear reason, his body simply told him to stop.
Conrad stood still as the city moved around him.
Cars passed.
People talked.
Somewhere nearby, music played faintly.
Yet all of it felt distant.
Inside his mind, a quiet sequence of thoughts formed.
"Calm."
"Heart."
"Calmness."
"Against death."
He frowned and started smirking like a kid that given an ice cream.
"…So that's it," he murmured.
It wasn't a complicated realization.
There was no grand vision.
It was closer to understanding something that had always been there, waiting for him to notice.
"Survivability."
Conrad had trained, but at the end of the day, the most important thing in the world of Nen wasn't power.
It was not dying.
"You can plan forever," he thought. "But one mistake is enough."
A simple ability.
That was what he needed first.
Something that worked silently.
Something that kept his mental clarity, these were the things that mattered.
His thoughts immediately drifted to Killua.
More specifically, to the needle Illumi had placed in him.
"The Needle was a soliciting-type manipulator ability that Illumi placed on Killua."
"It worked like a suggestion, a habit, it is only reason for to exist was to stop Killua from trying to act against dangerous or unknown enemies."
"A sickening love from Illumi to Killua."
Not the control itself but the effect.
Emotional regulation under extreme stress.
He exhaled slowly.
"A simple ability that boosts my survivability… and my combat reliability."
His feet moved again without conscious thought.
He entered a small park tucked between buildings, with a few benches and trimmed trees.
Conrad sat down, resting his arms on his legs.
"I don't need strength," he said quietly. "I need stability."
Fear, panic, hesitation those killed more Nen users than lack of aura ever did.
If his mind broke under pressure, no system would save him.
"My lack of experience of real battles, not to mention nen battles is easy to see."
"Not to mention against experienced martial artists and battle maniacs like Hisoka."
"If I want to get involved and have some meaning in this world, my mentality needs to be changed."
"I need to accept death, walk with the death,"
Conrad felt like Chrollo for a moment, the comment from Melody to him the fact that he breathes death in his every step.
"I dont need something extreme."
"Just the stability and calmness against threat of being murdered, tortured, I need to keep my sanity and calmness, mental energy in a battle so that I can plan and strategize."
That was when his eyes lifted and landed on something specific.
Across the street, a small trinket shop sat quietly between larger stores.
It looked old-fashioned, selling rings, necklaces, charms, and simple accessories.
Conrad stared at it for several seconds.
"…A ring," he said softly.
It made sense.
A physical anchor.
Something he could wear at all times without suspicion.
A focus object that could serve as a condition and a medium.
"It would work as a simple object of condition."
"Similar to Big Pipe of Morel..."
He stood up and crossed the street.
An elderly clerk barely glanced up as Conrad browsed.
He ignored the expensive items and focused on simplicity.
Finally, he found it.
A small, empty black ring.
Perfect.
"This one," Conrad said.
After paying, he slipped the ring onto his pinky finger.
It fit comfortably.
He rotated it once, feeling its weight.
He laughed softly under his breath.
"Yeah," he nodded. "This will do."
The choice of the pinky wasn't random.
It was easy to protect and rarely used in combat.
Losing it would mean something had already gone very wrong another natural condition.
"I may add losing my pinky finger to give some boost..."
"Hahaha." Conrad laughed at his idea.
"I like my new life..."
"It is interesting at the very least."