Lord: Sequence Master

In the mysterious study room, Rosen cleared the furniture along one wall.

Activating the spiritual energy within his heart's Hunter extraordinary essence, he circulated it through his entire body, merging it with his life force. This combined energy transformed into Nen, which burst from his pores and wrapped around his body, controlled as easily as a limb.

Focusing his Nen into his fist, Rosen swung it toward a metal pot hanging on the wall.

With a loud bang, the pot was smashed flat against the wall.

Interestingly, the wall itself remained unscathed, as did the plastic hook holding the pot. Through his experiments in the mysterious study, Rosen had discovered that anything connected to the room became indestructible. The walls, floor, lights, and even the bathroom faucet were unbreakable, while the furniture, such as the desk, was not.

Using the pot as a makeshift punching bag, Rosen continued pounding it. After dozens of punches, the pot was hammered into a flat, irregular shape, and embedded into the hook. Thanks to the protective layer of Nen, Rosen's hands remained unharmed.

After half an hour of continuous training, Rosen's spiritual energy had dropped from five points to just two.

Although his punches consumed only Nen, the spiritual energy was being used to enhance his control over it, so its depletion was gradual. Roughly ten minutes of training consumed one point of spiritual energy.

Rosen predicted that in prolonged battles, his Nen might run out before his spiritual energy did.

Feeling his body's diminished Nen, Rosen took a shower and then drew a picture of a steak for himself.

Creating the steak cost him one point of spiritual energy, but since the drawing was made on spiritual paper, the resulting steak contained two points of spiritual energy. Eating it quickly restored two points of spiritual energy.

This meant that as long as Rosen consumed the food he drew, he could fully recover the spiritual energy he spent. The feeling of fullness and nutrition were simply extra benefits of consuming these artistically created meals.

After eating, Rosen's life force rapidly regenerated the depleted Nen under the influence of his extraordinary essence.

In about half an hour, all the lost Nen had been restored.

Rosen resumed his training, this time without infusing his Nen with spiritual energy.

While it was easy to maintain enhanced Nen indefinitely, relying on spiritual energy for control meant that his Nen manipulation wouldn't improve without increasing his spiritual energy.

If he could learn to control regular Nen fluidly, then infusing it with spiritual energy later would lead to even more refined control.

However, Rosen soon discovered that controlling Nen without spiritual energy was incredibly difficult.

Having grown used to enhanced abilities, fighting without them made him feel weak.

After struggling for half an hour with little progress, Rosen decided to cheat and accelerate his training.

He began injecting tiny strands of spiritual energy into his Nen, just enough to gain full control over it. Once the Nen tightly wrapped around his body, he allowed the spiritual energy to dissipate, causing the previously controlled Nen to unravel.

Rosen concentrated on stabilizing the scattered Nen, then repeated the process: injecting small amounts of spiritual energy, gaining control, and letting it dissipate.

This cycle of perfect control followed by instability dramatically sped up his learning. Each time, the residual muscle memory from controlling the Nen helped him improve.

After a week of practice, Rosen had mastered the four basic Nen techniques.

Through Ten, he could keep his aura circulating within his body, reinforcing his physical abilities while remaining mentally sharp.

With Zetsu, he could close his pores, sealing off his aura and hiding his life force, making it difficult for others to detect him without special means.

Through Ren, he could explosively increase his aura output, boosting both offense and defense, though this quickly drained his energy.

Finally, with Hatsu, Rosen could channel his willpower and emotions into his aura, using it to project his killing intent, malice, or even kindness. Ordinary people subjected to his malevolent aura could easily faint from fear.

Once he mastered the basics, Rosen moved on to more advanced techniques.

The next step was to enhance Ten by locking the aura around his body's surface rather than keeping it inside. This allowed him to compress and refine the aura; the thinner and more concentrated the aura, the stronger its protective power.

Like water, aura could shift between states. Normally, it existed in a liquid-like form. Condensing it into a solid ice-like state increased its destructive and defensive power while dispersing it into a mist-like state made it weaker but harder to detect.

Rosen worked on seamlessly shifting between these states using Shu and In. These were essential for manipulating the aura's form—whether solidifying for attack or defense or remaining undetected in its dispersed state.

However, neither technique compared to the importance of Gyo.

Gyo allowed Rosen to focus his aura on specific parts of his body, with the most basic application being concentrating it in his eyes.

Aura itself was invisible—after all, life force couldn't be seen by ordinary people.

Initially, Rosen thought this technique was redundant since his spiritual energy already granted him the ability to perceive most supernatural phenomena. However, after infusing his aura-enhanced eyes with spiritual energy, his visual acuity improved dramatically.

He could now see incredible details from afar, such as the texture of a leaf from a thousand meters away. He also noticed that the gray ash surrounding Redstone City, which normally hindered vision, seemed to affect him less.

With these advanced techniques mastered, Rosen began working on more complex combinations.

Normally, aura was dispersed evenly throughout the body. Now, Rosen concentrated all of it into his fists. Though this reduced his defense in other areas, the aura in his fists became highly condensed, greatly increasing his offensive and defensive power.

He also practiced spreading his aura into a hollow sphere around himself, using En. This technique allowed him to scan his surroundings and detect movement within a certain radius, significantly enhancing his perception.

However, using En was risky in this world, as it could attract unwanted attention and lead to him being hunted.

In essence, these techniques refined Rosen's control over his aura, making it respond as smoothly as a limb.

It sounded simple, but the goal of his training was to make his body instinctively remember the movements—like muscle memory. In battle, this would allow him to use his aura to its fullest potential without conscious thought.

After a month of intense training, Rosen had mastered all the techniques.

His rapid progress was due to his method of injecting small amounts of spiritual energy and then withdrawing it, leaving behind muscle memory that accelerated his learning.

Of course, he had only mastered the basics—there was still a lifetime of training ahead.

Aura had far greater potential than the limits of the human body. Rosen's punching speed, limited by the physical constraints of his body, was only two to three punches per second, not much faster than an ordinary person.

This was because the stronger his body became, the more resistance and inertia he had to overcome when pulling back a punch.

However, aura had no such limitations. If Rosen wrapped his fists in aura and disregarded the strain on his arms, he could theoretically throw dozens or even hundreds of punches in a second. His lifelong training would involve using aura to protect his arms while maintaining maximum speed.

As his punching speed increased, so would his damage output and precision.

Though only a month had passed, with his enhanced spiritual energy, Rosen had already developed considerable combat prowess.

Yet, he still wasn't confident that he could defeat the criminal hunter Bennett in a direct confrontation. He couldn't predict how much strength Bennett, with his damaged but still formidable Sequence 8 abilities, could unleash if pushed to the limit.

To maximize his chances, Rosen knew he would need to develop his own unique Nen ability.