Muir was a professional mercenary.
However, behind him stood Pariston, the Vice Chairman of the Hunter Association and one of the Zodiacs.
Ronin's existence had already entered Pariston's sights when they contacted Yadley previously.
When it was discovered that clothing similar to the traditional attire of the Kurta Clan existed within the ruins, Pariston contacted Muir.
He outsourced this mission to the Rock Mercenary Group.
This kind of large-scale extermination mission was exactly the type of operation the mercenary group excelled at. Additionally, the reason Muir decided to contact Ronin was also due to the strength Ronin had previously displayed.
Otherwise, even Pariston wouldn't easily allow him to invite an outsider to join the mercenary group's operation.
However, if Ronin could display qualities that Pariston valued during the exploration of the ruins, Pariston might also contact Ronin and invite him to join the team they were currently assembling.
It was just unknown whether Ronin would be curious about that place.
After Muir told Ronin everything he needed to say, he picked up his coffee cup and quietly waited for Ronin's decision.
After a long while, Ronin put down the documents.
He was also somewhat curious about the magical beasts. According to the setting in Hunter x Hunter, magical beasts were a general term for beasts or monsters that possessed intelligence and could communicate.
Although these magical beasts crawling out from underground looked like they weren't to be trifled with, Ronin didn't see any existence among them that could use Nen.
Then these magical beasts posed no threat.
Since clothing similar to the Kurta Clan's was found in the ruins, as long as Kurapika obtained this information, he would definitely want to go explore.
So Ronin closed the file: "You really gave a mission that's hard to refuse!"
Muir smiled: "Mainly because the abilities you displayed are very strong, and you should be able to play an important role in the mission."
"Aren't you worried that my ability will cause destruction in the ruins?" Ronin teased.
"If you aren't afraid of destroying the items in the ruins, then I actually have no objections. Anyway, the mission we accepted is mainly to clear out all the magical beasts. As for whether the ruins will be destroyed, the Etri Kingdom actually doesn't care much either." Muir had a smile on his lips: "For such a small country, discovering ruins within the country isn't necessarily a good thing."
"When do we leave?" Ronin asked.
He still had quite a few things to handle in the short term, and he didn't have time to go to the Etri Kingdom immediately.
"I will set off as soon as possible. If you have things to deal with, you can also come over a bit later." Muir made a concession: "I will keep in touch with you about the specific situation. When you are needed, just don't refuse and try to come as soon as possible."
"What about the mission reward?" Ronin continued to ask.
He was quite satisfied with the flexibility Muir offered for the mission.
"The pay isn't much, only 500 million Jenny, but the key point is that you can enter the ruins. If you can really discover any treasures in the ruins, you are also qualified to claim them for yourself. You just need to give the Etri Kingdom some money at that time, probably around twenty percent of the item's value." Muir said generously: "Simply put, the Etri Kingdom can't afford a high reward, so they can only use the ruin items to offset it, but they also want to generate revenue."
"Putting it that way, the difference between going early and going late is huge." Ronin raised an eyebrow.
Muir nodded: "Yes, this can also be considered an equivalent exchange. The more effort you put in, naturally the more reward you can get. How about it? Do you want to go with me?"
"Forget it. If it's not too urgent, I might only be able to make time to go to the ruins in mid-October or November." Ronin also gave an approximate time.
Regardless of what was in the ruins, collecting the Scarlet Eyes was the most important thing at the moment.
And if it wasn't urgent, he wouldn't mind rushing over after the duel with Hisoka ended.
As for Chrollo, he temporarily put him to the back of his mind. He couldn't just do nothing while waiting for him to come looking, right?
"Okay." Muir was easygoing: "The scale of the ruins is quite large, and it's not something that can be cleared out in ten days or half a month. This might be a prolonged battle."
After finishing the discussion, Muir left in a hurry.
September 10th.
The grand occasion of Yorknew began to fade, and the entire city lost the carnival atmosphere of being immersed in auctions from before.
Using his identity as a mobster, Kurapika finally found out the identity of a Scarlet Eyes holder.
In the following ten days, the three of them began to travel between various cities, and the Scarlet Eyes in their hands also increased by three pairs during these ten days.
Everything went smoothly.
The identity of one of the Ten Dons was indeed useful; the speed of collecting Scarlet Eyes was much faster than Ronin expected.
But just as this thought appeared, things changed.
When the three of them went to find the fourth Scarlet Eyes holder they investigated, he had already died at home.
The collection was looted, but the other party's identity information was left in a conspicuous place.
It was the Phantom Troupe.
And then, starting from the fourth pair of eyes, information on the holders of the Scarlet Eyes became hard to find. Whether Kurapika used his mobster identity or the borrowed Hunter identity, he could no longer find information on the Scarlet Eyes.
It was as if someone had deliberately erased the intelligence on the Scarlet Eyes.
"It doesn't feel like the Troupe's handiwork." Ronin frowned.
"Yeah, probably not." Kurapika, however, didn't seem surprised by this: "When the value of the Scarlet Eyes is further elevated, the people taking action might not be just the Phantom Troupe."
"What do you mean?" Ronin didn't quite understand.
"It's still about the previous matter. Your uniqueness, and the news about the Scarlet Eyes that I deliberately spread, have all increased the value of the Scarlet Eyes. This approach has pros and cons." Kurapika explained: "The benefit is that for those who obtain the Scarlet Eyes, the probability of destroying them is reduced to the lowest. But the drawback is also that elevating the value of one of the Seven Great Colors will attract the covetousness of more people, and among them, there will definitely be ability users!"
"What news did you spread?" Ronin asked.
"Do you know about Divine Artifacts?" Kurapika asked.
Ronin's expression became surprised, and what surfaced in his mind were the three great Divine Artifacts of Kakin.
That could be considered the first time the concept of Divine Artifacts was introduced in the manga.
They were respectively:
The Seed Urn, the ritual pot that granted abilities to the succession war participants.
The Kakin Royal Family's Guardian Spirit Beast, the Bodhisattva statue that watched over the succession war.
The sword inherited by the next king, Good Luck Maru.
How did Kurapika know about things like Divine Artifacts?
"It seems you know." Kurapika read Ronin's expression: "Legend has it that Divine Artifacts exist in the world, capable of granting people powerful strength and fulfilling people's wishes.
The Kurta Clan, known as the 'Devil's Apostles', preserved a Divine Artifact named 'Destiny' for a powerful hell demon.
The reason the Phantom Troupe massacred the Kurta Clan was to use the Kurta Clan's Scarlet Eyes to sacrifice to 'Destiny', thereby obtaining a chance to make a wish.
It's just that they couldn't find the Divine Artifact in the village; the Divine Artifact seemed to have been lost from the Kurta Clan long ago."