Kurapika didn't give a departure date right away, because there were still a few things he needed to investigate.
So Ronin waited patiently.
In any case, during this period, he was studying all kinds of knowledge related to exploration and ruins inside the site, so he didn't find it boring.
However, the amount of information the ruins could provide him seemed to be decreasing, and under those circumstances, Ronin simply went down into the cave beneath the central passage to play with the giant serpent.
This trip, however, unexpectedly led him to discover that quite a few snake eggs were still hidden in the giant tree.
He didn't know whether those eggs could truly hatch into new giant serpents, but seeing how cautious and careful the giant serpent was, Ronin didn't act rashly.
He didn't want the bit of trust he had finally built with the giant serpent to collapse.
Still, other ideas arose in his mind.
After these little ones hatched, could they also become creatures he could summon?
If so, then this cave really did have a bit of the feel of Ryūchi Cave.
Ronin was also very curious about what lay beneath the cliff. The giant tree's nutrients were spiders. The spiders' nutrients were the fire-fearing monsters born from the giant tree. And on the giant tree, there was an immensely powerful giant serpent.
Then among the spiders, was there also some even more powerful figure?
But as far as Ronin was concerned, exploring the bottom of the cliff would be more convenient and safer if he started from the underground city.
The problem was that the place was now completely sealed off by V5.
If he followed the mercenary team inside and then acted alone, any problem that occurred might drag the mercenary corps into trouble.
After thinking it over, Ronin gave up on the idea of going to the underground city.
That left him with only one method of exploration: using shadow clones to force their way in.
Once he thought of it, he acted.
A shadow clone leapt down from the edge of the cliff, and soon brought Ronin news from below.
Unfortunately, there was no useful information. Not long after the shadow clone jumped down, it was tightly bound up.
There were simply too many spiders below. Everywhere it looked, there were spiders, along with large numbers of spider eggs. But no spiders capable of using Nen appeared.
After trying several more times, Ronin also lost much of his interest in the bottom of the cliff.
In May, the first person Ronin waited for was Muherr.
After a long stretch of missions, he finally had time to meet with Ronin again.
And this time, Muherr issued a formal invitation.
"In the future, we may head to the Dark Continent. I want to invite you to join us," Muherr said with great seriousness.
After experiencing the exploration of the underground city, he had come to understand Ronin's strength, and he valued even more the versatility of Ronin's abilities.
In his view, that versatility fit the mercenary corps very well. Especially when applied to exploring the unknown, and when paired with Vanessa, it could produce even greater results.
He had also learned from Mascher and Vanessa about the battle inside the cave.
That made him value Ronin even more.
But this invitation did not include only Ronin. Kurapika and Shizuku were also among those he wanted to invite.
In other words, this time, his invitation was extended to Ronin's entire team.
Ronin, however, fell silent and did not answer immediately.
If Muherr were the leader of the team, then Ronin would not reject his invitation.
The problem was that Muherr was not the leader. The true leader of the team was Beyond. And even beneath Beyond, there was Pariston.
Those two were each more troublesome than the other, and each had more schemes than the other.
Beyond's goal was unknown, and he had even spent decades making some mysterious arrangement in Kakin.
Pariston looked even less like a good person. After all, his pleasure seemed to come from ruining other people's dreams.
In Ronin's view, a team like that was something only someone from Netero's family could control. If it were up to him, he would deal with an unstable element like Pariston at the first opportunity.
"Can you make the decision completely on your own?" Ronin asked the key question.
Muherr raised an eyebrow slightly. "Looks like you've already noticed. I can't make the decision entirely by myself, but we can give each other a chance."
"What do you mean?" Ronin had already vaguely understood.
"Aren't you heading to Kakin? When the time comes, someone will invite you again. You can decide then whether you want to stay or go. If we truly can't become teammates, then at least it would be best if we don't become enemies," Muherr said with a smile.
"Of course. Becoming enemies would be far too awful," Ronin agreed.
Inwardly, however, he was somewhat expectant.
Who would be waiting for him in Kakin?
It wasn't until June that Kurapika finally brought good news: they could head to Kakin.
Ronin had been looking forward to it all along, so once he received the news, he immediately left the ruins where he had stayed for half a year.
At the beginning, exploring the ruins had felt novel and full of surprises. But once it entered a stable phase, all that remained was boredom.
When they walked out of the ruins, not only did Ronin feel relieved, even Neon and Shizuku let out long sighs of relief.
Only Kurapika and Abaki showed no particular reaction.
Kurapika had invested most of his time into investigating the Kurta Clan. Even though he knew that, even if another surviving branch of the Kurta were truly found, they would not be his own branch, he still hoped the Kurta Clan continued to exist somewhere in the world.
He had even once said during a casual conversation with Ronin that, if he had the chance, he wanted to go see the outside world.
To see what kind of fate awaited the ancestors who had chosen the other direction.
Ronin was looking forward to it as well.
But if they wanted to leave Lake Mobius, at least for now, Ronin had not yet found a suitable method.
Voyaging was not a simple matter, and his abilities were not suited to that kind of long-distance journey.
So for the time being, there were only two methods he could think of for reaching the outside world. One was to find people who had previously gone to the Dark Continent and ask them. The other was to wait until Kakin finished building its ship, then board it and travel outside with Kakin.
There were three targets for the former method: Chairman Netero, Zigg Zoldyck, and Linne.
Those three had once formed a team and gone to the Dark Continent, returning safely. However, that voyage had not been recorded in V5's official voyage records.
As for waiting for Kakin, that would require everything to develop just like in the manga.
But in Ronin's view, that was almost impossible.
After all, Kurapika's life trajectory had already changed. Whether he could still end up together with Gon and the others was a question in itself.
And the Phantom Troupe most likely would not survive until that time. Ronin had that much confidence.
That left only one matter worth studying:
would Chimera Ants still land in NGL?
But if everything really developed in that direction, then Ronin did want to witness it—
the Ant King born from absorbing the genes of countless creatures, and the Royal Guards as well.
There should still be more than two years before the Chimera Ant incident.
He wondered what level his strength would reach by then.
The Kingdom of Aite was already not far from Kakin.
Ronin's group of five only needed to drive for less than a day before arriving at Kakin's border.
~~~
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