The Strongest Assassin of the Zoldyck Family!

Chapter 921 - 917

2-in-1 Chapter

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Even with his current strength, he needed to remain cautious here.

In exchange, however, the creatures on this floor offered far richer returns. When cooked and eaten, the way his Gourmet Cells absorbed their essence had clearly changed. It was no longer just a matter of enhancing muscles, bones, and basic physical ability.

Another type of energy rode along with the nutrients.

Ron took the first piece of cooked red-and-white bird meat from Erina and ate slowly.

He closed his eyes and focused.

The meat broke down in his stomach, turning into energy that flowed through his bloodstream and into his aura network. Ron tracked the movement carefully. Alongside the familiar strengthening of his body, he sensed something faint and different, as if a new pattern had been added to his inner structure.

It was extremely subtle and incredibly small, but it was undeniably present.

After a while, Ron opened his eyes.

This power felt similar to the aura of an Ascension Relic.

He realized that his Gourmet Cells might allow him to form an Ascension Relic inside himself. Not in the same way as the natural relics used by the Kakin princes during the Succession War, but by accumulating traits that matched relic rules and combining them within his body.

These creatures carried something like relic fragments in their flesh.

(Note: So.. I think we forgot to explicitly mention that the Kakin princess Nen Guardian Beats were part of the whole relic Nasubi made. Hence why here they are referred to as "natural relics")

Ron looked down over the edge of the stone ledge into the darkness below.

The deeper he went, the stronger those relic-like traits would likely become.

This discovery pleased him.

His purpose in entering the reverse world had always been to obtain an Ascension Relic. Until now, he had only absorbed some traits from the Abyss itself, drawn from the environment and its influence on his aura, but he had not obtained a true relic.

Now, he had found another path.

Even if he failed to locate an existing relic somewhere inside this inner world, he could still fall back on this method, forming one directly through consumption.

In that case, he would need to hunt as many creatures on this floor as possible!

With his current strength, ordinary ingredients no longer affected his physique much. It was like a level-100 player killing level-1 monsters—there was no meaningful experience to gain. Hunting now mainly satisfied hunger and restored stamina. Even then, his appetite had grown to a point where most meals barely registered.

Two figures appeared at Ron's side again.

One was Natsu. The other was Law.

Natsu specialized in overwhelming offense and close-range combat. If the prey resisted too fiercely, however, the body could be damaged, bones shattered and muscles torn, which reduced its value as an ingredient. On a floor like this, where each creature might contain a unique relic fragment, ruined materials meant lost opportunity.

With Law assisting, the situation changed.

Law's control and precision could restrain targets without destroying them, allowing Natsu to finish them in ways that preserved key parts.

Together, they functioned like a specialized hunting team: one drove the prey into exposed positions, the other seized it intact.

"Hunt," Ron ordered.

Natsu and Law departed at once, leaping from rock to rock and vanishing into the complex maze of platforms, pillars, and mist-veiled paths.

.............

.......

.

In the distance, shapes moved through the fog—strange beasts adapted to this warped environment. Some glided on membranes that caught the rising currents from hidden vents. Others crawled along walls that slanted at impossible angles, feeding on the moss and lesser creatures that collected around the waterfall's edges.

Soon after, the two returned with a large haul of ingredients. There were several types of beasts: a thick-shelled crawler with segmented plates, a winged predator with translucent feathers that bent the light around it, and a long-bodied amphibious creature that reeked faintly of the mineral-heavy pools it inhabited.

Each species filled its own niche, competing for limited safe footholds while avoiding becoming prey themselves.

Erina busied herself preparing the meat. She sorted them by type, organs, and texture, testing which parts were suitable for roasting, stewing, or slow simmering.

Ron sampled each dish in turn, quietly noting the changes in his body. He assessed not just flavor, but how his aura shifted, which channels felt clearer, and which traits seemed to resonate with the faint pattern in his core.

When he ate the same type of creature a second time, the effect faded.

The relic-like traits did not stack indefinitely it seamed.

However, when he ate a different species, a new fragment could still be added. Overlapping traits only partially took effect, but distinct ones layered together.

His inner sense began to map out a structure that felt incomplete but growing more cohesive with each new type of meat.

Ron narrowed his eyes slightly.

It resembled a jigsaw puzzle.

Each creature contained a unique fragment of a pattern. His task was to gather those fragments. Once consumed, they arranged themselves automatically inside him. When the full pattern finally formed, an Ascension Relic would emerge from within his own body.

Night fell.

The already dim light grew even weaker. The glow from the fungi along the rock faces dimmed to a low murmur of light, and the waterfall's spray turned the darkness into a drifting veil.

Far away, something called out with a long, low sound that did not resemble any animal from the surface.

Ron dismissed Law and Erina.

Only Natsu remained, standing beside him as a guard.

In truth, Ron himself was already stronger than Natsu. Any danger on this floor that could threaten him would be rare. Even so, years of training and experience had taught him that maintaining redundant safeguards was never pointless.

Natsu's presence allowed Ron to rest part of his attention, while his core awareness stayed locked on the environment.

He sat near the edge of the platform, eyes half-closed, aura spread in a controlled field to feel for movement in the surrounding space. He noted the flow of creatures along the walls, the way some avoided the area after sensing the earlier hunt, and how the lesser scavengers cautiously approached the remains that Erina had already dealt with.

A strange voice pierced the night.

It did not come from any visible direction. The sound vibrated through the stone and air at the same time, as though the layer itself were speaking.

The voice was hoarse and distorted, carrying pain and desperation.

It repeated the same plea again and again, ragged and insistent.

Kill me!

Kill me!

Kill me!

............

.....

.

Ron opened his eyes.

That voice was still echoing, thin but piercing, as if it was traveling along the stone instead of the air.

He looked around, scanning the surroundings. Even in this dim third-layer light, his vision remained clear. The bioluminescent moss scattered across the rock walls gave off a faint glow, enough for him to make out every ridge and crack within several hundred meters. Nothing moved on the platforms nearby, and no aura signatures appeared within ordinary range.

"Strange," Ron muttered, his brow tightening.

"En."

Aura spread out from him like an invisible mist, flowing over rock, through gaps, and into the cavities beneath his feet. On earlier layers, En had been mostly a supplementary tool; here, with space warped and sound distorted, it became the only reliable way to gain an accurate picture of the environment.

Within moments, he sensed it.

The source of the voice was not nearby, but deep underground—more than a hundred meters below. The rock of this floor was denser than on the previous layers, streaked with unfamiliar minerals that interfered with ordinary perception.

Even a Nen user on Ron's level, without an appropriate technique, would have struggled to notice anything buried that deep. His En, refined through countless battles and supplemented by other Nen abilities, penetrated those layers without much difficulty.

This was the benefit of a wide and well-balanced arsenal.

Chii's analytical support.

Erina's culinary precision and nutritional insight.

His own En for detection.

Natsu's fire.

Uchiha Sasuke's lightning.

Law's surgical space.

Stacked together, they allowed him to respond efficiently to almost any situation.

But even after locating the target, Ron's frown deepened.

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