He locked the door.
Rimo sat cross-legged on the bed, spine straight, hands resting on his knees as he maintained Ten to keep his aura stable around his body.
He calmed his breathing and remained motionless for a long time.
"…So how exactly is this supposed to be done?"
After sitting there for nearly half an hour, Rimo still had no clear idea how to properly establish a Condition and Oath.
From what he understood, Nen that follows self-imposed rules becomes stronger in proportion to the severity of those rules. The greater the risk and restriction, the greater the amplification. If the vow is broken, the backlash can be catastrophic.
That much was clear from the examples in the original story.
But the precise process of forming one?
That part was vague.
Rimo had already sworn multiple times in his heart, but there had been no reaction at all.
"Once more," he muttered.
"I, Rimo, swear upon my life. From this moment forward, whenever I activate the ability 'Unlimited Spell,' it will consume my life force. The wider the range, the more life force it consumes. The stronger the output, the greater the vitality cost!"
He repeated variations of that vow four times in succession.
Each version clearly tied his ability to the consumption of lifespan.
In the entire world, only someone like Rimo would dare stack life-cost conditions so casually. If an ordinary Nen user attempted this, they would likely exhaust their lifespan after only a handful of activations.
He waited.
Nothing changed.
No shift in aura.
No sense of binding.
No tightening of resolve like what Kurapika described when staking his life against the Phantom Troupe.
Rimo hesitated, then raised his right hand and activated his Nen.
Om—
A spatial ripple invisible to the naked eye spread from his palm.
He focused.
Measured.
Observed.
After a while, he scratched his head in frustration.
"Nothing changed…"
Even if he poured all of his immediate aura into it, he could only extend the distorted space roughly one meter outward.
[Unlimited Spell].
This was the technique Rimo developed over an entire month, inspired by a previous world's concept of infinite spatial convergence, but rebuilt through his own understanding of Nen as a Specialist.
Its principle was simple in theory.
He superimposed layers of space in front of him, infinitely compressing distance.
Any incoming object would approach him but never truly arrive, because the remaining space would be divided again and again, like an endless geometric series.
To an outside observer, it would appear as if attacks slowed to a halt just before touching him.
On top of that, Rimo added an additional function.
Within the distorted zone, he could slightly adjust the directional orientation of space itself.
Meaning that instead of merely halting an attack, he could redirect it.
Bounce it back.
Or cause it to veer sideways.
After his modifications, the technique resembled vector manipulation in effect.
But fundamentally, it was spatial distortion.
Hence the name: Unlimited Spell.
The concept was absurdly powerful.
And correspondingly expensive.
The deeper the spatial layering, the more aura it consumed.
Right now, if he spent 10,000 aura, he could compress roughly fifty centimeters of space.
If he wanted to extend that to a full meter, the cost did not double.
It exploded.
He would need close to 100,000 aura to maintain stability.
Beyond that, the consumption increased exponentially.
This was precisely why most Nen users focused on a single primary Hatsu.
It was not that they lacked imagination.
Reality simply imposed limits.
Take Kastro as an example.
As an Enhancer, he developed the Tiger Bite Fist, perfectly aligned with his category.
But he also attempted to develop a Doppelganger ability that leaned heavily into Manipulation and Conjuration.
The result?
His memory load became unstable.
When facing Hisoka, his divided focus led to fatal mistakes.
Nen allows multiple abilities.
But mastery demands depth.
Even Gon's childish plan to create three separate techniques during Greed Island training would have required enormous refinement to remain effective.
Quantity without depth is meaningless.
What good are a thousand abilities if each strikes like a mosquito bite?
Rimo, however, operated under different rules.
As long as he could develop a foundational technique, he could use Conditions and Oaths to amplify it.
For him, the limit was not aura capacity.
It was how many stable abilities he could conceptualize and structure.
Fortunately, his soul already carried a spatial imprint.
Otherwise, even with unlimited vitality, developing a technique like Unlimited Spell from scratch might have taken ten years.
"Ahhh… so it still doesn't work…"
He ran a hand irritably through his hair.
Conditions and Oaths were critical to his future growth.
They were a wall he had to cross.
Right now, he felt like a gamer whose crosshair kept missing the target by a single pixel.
The urge to smash something bubbled up inside him.
"Calm down…"
He exhaled slowly and suppressed the destructive impulse.
Then he began reviewing every Condition and Oath example he could recall from the series.
The first two that came to mind were Kurapika and Gon Freecss.
Kurapika's Chain Jail, attached to his middle finger, forced the target into Zetsu once captured.
But it only worked on members of the Phantom Troupe.
If used on anyone else, he would die.
That restriction created absolute authority over his intended targets.
Then there was Emperor Time, which allowed him to use all six Nen categories at 100 percent efficiency while his Scarlet Eyes were active.
The cost?
Each second consumed an hour of his lifespan.
Clear rule.
Clear consequence.
Clear amplification.
Gon's case was more confusing.
During his battle against Neferpitou, he made an extreme vow.
He sacrificed "everything" — his future potential, his Nen, perhaps even his life — in exchange for power equal to what he might have achieved at his absolute peak.
The result was catastrophic.
His body aged into a terrifying adult form.
Afterward, he lay near death, shriveled and drained.
Later, he was saved by Alluka's wish-granting ability.
But once healed, he could no longer use Nen.
This resembled backlash from a broken vow.
Yet what exactly had been broken?
If the cost was his future and Nen, then losing Nen made sense.
But if the price was already paid in advance, why was there further collapse?
Was it because he exceeded his own life force capacity?
Did the vow consume more than he possessed?
If so, did that count as violating the terms?
But shouldn't that have resulted in immediate death?
Rimo frowned deeply.
Conditions and Oaths were not mere verbal declarations.
They required absolute conviction.
Absolute risk.
Absolute clarity.
Simply stating "I will lose life when I use this" was apparently insufficient.
Nen responds to resolve, not loopholes.
If there is no true possibility of loss, then there is no amplification.
"…Is that it?"
A faint realization flickered in his mind.
If he had endless vitality, then staking "life force" carried no real weight.
And if the risk was not genuine, then the vow had no teeth.
No risk.
No multiplier.
No reaction.
No response.