"The strength of the Gold and Silver Ingots seems somewhat different from the information I obtained," Neon said as they approached the entrance of the ruined building, voicing what many people in the team were thinking.
Ging's gaze swept across Neon, Veronica, and Abaki's faces. Then he smiled and explained, "That's because Ronin used his abilities to block the two most dangerous parts."
"One was the swarm of spores. The other was the Gold and Silver Ingots' final desperate move, where they released their true bodies and closed in," Kurapika said. He had remained very clear-headed and had seen through the situation thoroughly.
"Right." Ging nodded in agreement. "The spore ability and the close-range ability were clearly the Gold and Silver Ingots' most dangerous Manipulation-type abilities. Whether you were parasitized by spores or pierced by the Gold and Silver Ingot's true branches, both should lead to only one result: your head would be replaced by a Gold and Silver Ingot."
"The former probably causes a new Gold and Silver Ingot to be born from inside the human body. As for the latter, it should be a mature Gold and Silver Ingot directly occupying your body," Ronin added.
As he said this, his steps suddenly stopped.
The moment he stopped, everyone else stopped as well.
Even Ging and Kurapika seemed to think of something at the same time, their expressions turning grave.
Shizuku directly voiced the answer everyone was worried about.
"If spore parasitism can give birth to new Gold and Silver Ingots, doesn't that mean the number of Gold and Silver Ingots isn't limited to the ten we encountered?"
Exactly.
When Ronin and the others had landed on the island, they had already seen Gold and Silver Ingots growing on all kinds of different creatures.
If everything really was as they guessed, then with so many animals on this island, as long as the spores could complete parasitism, the number of Gold and Silver Ingots could be as many as they wanted.
"There must be some drawback to this parasitic method," Ging said with certainty. "If there weren't, then once we enter the ruins, who knows how many Gold and Silver Ingots we might encounter in these narrow passages."
Ronin did not continue speculating. Instead, he directly released his En.
Whether their guess was right or wrong, they could not retreat here. In that case, it was better to directly investigate whether any Gold and Silver Ingots remained inside the ruins.
At this point, his En could already spread beyond a radius of one hundred meters.
This increase had come after his aura reserves broke through the quantified mark of one hundred thousand, resulting in a qualitative change.
And now, within the hundred meters he could detect, Ronin did not sense any life aura.
"Maybe the Gold and Silver Ingots still have some secret I don't know about," Ronin said.
Then he took the lead and walked into the building entrance.
He used his actions to prove that he would not choose to retreat.
By now, the other members of the team, including Ging, had fully acknowledged Ronin as the captain.
After all, even Ging could not guarantee that he could do better than Ronin.
Especially when dealing with the Gold and Silver Ingots. Without Ronin, Ging felt that even finding the floating island would have been difficult.
Because in that heavy rain, he had not seen any birds flying for a long time.
And without flying creatures, if he relied solely on Emitter Nen to fly, breaking through the cloud layer would already have been his limit. When facing the Gold and Silver Ingots' attacks after that, even if he did not necessarily die, he would have had almost no chance of landing on the island.
If even Ging thought that way, then there was no need to mention Kurapika and the others. Those who had followed Ronin early on naturally treated Ronin as their leader.
As for Odo and Veronica, who had originally belonged to V5 and had now joined the team, they also knew very clearly that only if Ronin chose to shelter them would they have a slim chance of survival.
After all, the two of them were still under the threat of Ronin's Caged Bird Seal.
If Ronin wanted to kill them, all he needed was a simple hand seal and a single thought.
No one knew how many years this ancient ruin on the floating island had existed.
Even though Ronin and the others' arrival over the past two days had caused the Gold and Silver Ingots stored inside to become active, they had not left many traces on the ground.
Because once they entered, they discovered that even after countless years, the interior of the ruin was still spotless.
The passage inside the building was about five meters tall and slanted downward. After walking for a while, they even encountered stairs.
Ronin maintained his En the entire time, and his mental state was also tense.
If he discovered even the slightest disturbance inside the ruins, he could respond in the best condition and at the fastest speed.
A buzzing sound reached Ronin's group when they descended to the second underground level of the ruins. Everyone instantly prepared for battle.
But when the sound came closer, they discovered that the buzzing came from a cleaning robot.
That was right.
A robot.
The silver-white metallic existence had a humanoid design. However, that only referred to its upper body. Its lower body had a crawler-track structure, and the buzzing sound as it moved came from there.
As it moved, the robot occasionally sprayed water into the passage, while its two arms quickly followed up and cleaned the corridor until it was spotless.
When it approached Ronin and the others, it showed no intention of attacking. Instead, it seemed to recognize their presence and actively made way for them.
During this process, Ronin's group did not make a move.
However, everyone had already clearly observed the cleaning robot's situation.
Inside the robot, there was a tree.
A tree very similar to the Gold and Silver Ingots that had attacked them before. However, this tree did not seem aggressive.
The Nen it released was also focused on cleaning work.
Watching the cleaning robot gradually move away, everyone's faces showed a little shock.
But there was also some relief, because the moment they saw its existence, a thought appeared in everyone's mind.
And as they moved deeper into the ruins, that thought was gradually confirmed.
Because when they continued forward and walked out of the passage, Ronin and the others appeared in a vast underground space.
There were headless beings everywhere.
From giant eagles to the beast-types that had attacked them earlier after being controlled by Gold and Silver Ingots, as well as some special beings with metallic structures.
Without exception, however, either in their head positions or inside their bodies, there was a tree slowly growing.
And that was the Gold and Silver Ingot.
"This is probably the Gold and Silver Ingots born after spore parasitism," Ging said, voicing what everyone was thinking.
The Gold and Silver Ingots born after spore parasitism needed time to grow before they could be thrown into battle or cleaning work.
However, judging from the size of these growing trees, it was not hard to determine that if they were given another day or two, they would probably grow enough to attack Ronin and the others.
In other words, it was fortunate that their operation this time had achieved a quick victory.
Otherwise, what awaited them might have been Gold and Silver Ingots continuously reinforcing the battlefield.
At that point, even Ronin might have found himself unable to handle the situation.