The wandering ghosts directly absorbed the souls of the Chimera Ants into the mist, which Oboro then absorbed.
"As expected, they are much stronger than ordinary monster souls…"
Oboro couldn't help but sigh.
The weight of a soul is determined by the strength of the target's life energy, which then provides enhanced effects.
In other words, if the Chimera Ants could be made more threatening and their strength increased… then the effect of soul absorption would be elevated to another level.
It's like raising pigs; first, fatten them up, then slaughter them.
The simplest method would be to directly awaken Nen in the Chimera Ants, as in the original work… However, only outstanding soldier-level Chimera Ants, and then squad leaders and division chiefs, could awaken Nen. Ordinary ants were incapable of doing so.
The team's current location is at the very edge of the ants' activity range, so they wouldn't encounter Chimera Ants of squad leader level or higher.
Let's kill them first, then worry about the rest…
In just a few days, with the combined efforts of Menchi and the others, groups of Chimera Ants were lured to the foot of the solitary peak, falling into the dense ghost fog. It was estimated that there were at least several thousand. This number was not insignificant, even for the current ant nest.
Oboro judged… that the ants in the nest must have noticed something unusual happening here.
"It should be… soon…"
The next day, Oboro looked at the forest under the night sky and murmured softly.
At the same time, he brought up the system panel.
Host: Oboro.
Age: 27 years old.
Specialty: Three-Star Ancient Text Hunter.
Combat Rank: Martial Arts God, World-Class Hunter (Rank 8).
Overall Attribute Evaluation: Tier 3 Superhuman.
Nen Abilities: Spacetime Rupture, Thresh's Passive Skill: Dark Passage, Senna's Passive Skill: Redemption.
Redemption Effect: (Attack Range +25m, 100% Critical Hit Chance, 51% Life Steal.)
Oboro glanced over, his gaze mainly focused on the effect of Redemption. Redemption drops collectible black mist after killing a target, not souls.
The effect of souls comes from Thresh's Dark Passage, which has evolved from a passive skill in the game into an actively castable Nen ability.
Senna's skills, lacking development value, remain passive effects.
Attack range and life steal have both increased. Thanks to the Black Tide Incident, the Kakin royal succession, and Jed's descendants of the Shadow, he has gained considerable benefits, in addition to the spoils from the past few days of hunting.
The critical hit rate has been fixed at 100%. Any excess will be directly converted into life steal.
Oboro's plan is to use the black mist dropped by these ordinary Chimera Ants to first increase life steal to 100%.
This way, the only remaining option for increase will be attack range.
This additional attribute increases relatively slowly.
Not as significant as the armor and magic power provided by souls…
As for the values of armor and magic power, Oboro plans to see what changes occur after the first phase of hunting is complete.
"Killua's return to Greed Island is taking longer, which means finding Kite will also be slightly delayed. Their group will enter NGL about half a month later than in the original work… My team still has nearly a month. At the current pace, we can conservatively kill tens of thousands more ants. This is assuming the ant nest's army doesn't target me. If squad leaders and division chiefs lead a large army to attack… then it's a different story."
Oboro was calculating.
One must know that a single ordinary Chimera Ant Queen can lay hundreds or even thousands of eggs per day, and the Chimera Ant Queen's reproductive capacity is even more terrifying.
He remembered reading in the original work that only special eggs requiring superior genes, i.e., elite-level eggs, are fewer in number, perhaps dozens per day… Each time the Queen feeds, she can lay several eggs.
Therefore, the Queen in the nest is constantly eating, never stopping.
Unlike all other ants, the Ant King is viviparous, not oviparous.
Once preparations begin for the birth of the Ant King, the Queen will stop producing other ants.
"Neferpitou and the other three Royal Guards… have been born but are still dormant in their eggs, not yet awakened. Chimera Ants of the division chief and squad leader level are also present. The current Queen is nurturing the Ant King… This indicates that the ant population growth has long ceased. Even so, conservatively estimating, the total number of ants in the nest is around two hundred thousand, or even more."
Oboro frowned.
Chimera Ants have been hidden in NGL for too long. Taking ordinary ants as an example, a nest typically contains about two thousand ants, but they can reproduce and split into about 20 colonies per year. This means that within a year, the ant population could reach tens of thousands… And this is without considering the Chimera Ant Queen's terrifying reproductive capacity.
Even calculating from the time Kakin Empire commissioned the biological survey, it has been nearly four years…
The minimum number of Chimera Ants is two hundred thousand!
This… is just the baseline.
"Neferpitou…"
After closing the system panel, Oboro's heart stirred.
His current Nen abilities can only enhance the intensity of Nen. His physical strength and blood have reached a bottleneck, meaning his aura cannot be further increased.
And aura is very important!
For example, at his current maximum, he can only cover a radius of about one kilometer with ghost fog, with no extra 'aura' to further expand the fog's coverage… similar to the function of 'En.'
As for Catwoman, including Meruem the Ant King… because they are transcendent, existing in another dimension of physical strength, their aura is unimaginably abundant.
Meruem uses aura to sense external objects, equivalent to En's effect, and can even cover the entire royal city of Donggoutuo…
Compared to this, the gap is too vast.
Of course, aura is not absolute… As long as Nen is strong enough, it can compensate for attacks and defense, meaning the physical gap.
But the gap in flesh and blood between Meruem the Ant King and himself is like heaven and earth. It is likely that even if he destroyed the entire Chimera Ant nest and absorbed countless souls to increase his Nen intensity and physical armor, he might still not be able to contend with him.
"Those three, however, are worth playing with…"
Neferpitou, Pouf, Youpi.
Oboro bit his finger. "But, only after absorbing all the souls…"
"Meruem's power is indeed inviolable… but nothing is absolute. Judging by the strength of the three Royal Guards, if these three ants die, the dropped souls will surely be extraordinary. After absorbing them, along with all the division chiefs and squad leaders… and tens of thousands of ant soldiers, combined with my original foundation, perhaps… there is a chance of victory."
Oboro's eyes flickered, and after speaking, he sighed. "Forget it… it's better not to mess with such dangerous monsters."
Yes, he didn't have absolute confidence.
One must know that in this battle, not only ants died.
But also many Association members, including Netero!
These… are all food on Oboro's menu.
He couldn't help but feel a little eager to experience Meruem's power… without relying on 'Poverty's Rose,' could he, as a human, defeat a higher-level life form?
In fact, he didn't need to do this; it was too risky.
Besides, Meruem would die sooner or later… he could just wait to collect his soul.
But if he didn't seize the opportunity to experience his combat power while he was alive, Oboro felt it would be a pity…
Let's take it one step at a time and decide later…
"Captain, I've brought some ants…"
Just as he was thinking, Anthony's voice sounded in his mind.
"Mhm."
Oboro withdrew his thoughts.
____________________
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