"The Floor Master of Heavens Arena is quite unique," Zeno remarked, his tone contemplative.
"He's a little older than me. When I first visited Heavens Arena, that man had already achieved the status of Floor Master. Over the years, his strength has only grown."
He paused briefly before adding, "In terms of overall capability, he's at the threshold of an S-rank Nen user."
Kaizen couldn't help but ask, "How does he compare to you, Grandpa Zeno?"
Zeno fell silent for a moment, as if carefully weighing his response.
"In a direct fight, I might not be able to defeat him," he admitted. "But... it's not impossible for me to kill him."
Kaizen's expression turned serious. He understood how difficult it was to quantify power. Even within the same level, Nen users could exhibit vast differences in strength.
This had become increasingly clear to him over the past year.
The Seven Deadly Sins of the Mafia Community and members of the Shadow Beasts were both categorized as C-rank Nen users, yet their individual strengths varied significantly. Similarly, remnants of the Kokang Republic were also C-rank Nen users.
Among the three groups, the remnants of the Kokang Republic and the Seven Deadly Sins were evenly matched. However, ordinary members of the Shadow Beasts were noticeably stronger.
Even so, Kaizen himself had surpassed the Shadow Beasts' average strength long ago.
At higher levels, the disparities became even more pronounced. Among A-rank Nen users, there were Wild Beasts who couldn't hold a candle to members of the Kute Gang of Thieves.
The members of KUTO, in turn, fell far short of Silva and Zeno in combat prowess.
Yet even Zeno acknowledged that the Floor Master of Heavens Arena surpassed him in head-to-head combat strength—though this individual had only touched the threshold of S-rank.
The gap between someone like Maha Zoldyck and Chairman Netero was astronomical. Similarly, the difference between A-rank Wild Beasts and the Floor Master of Heavens Arena was vast—far larger than the gap between an ordinary human and a wild beast.
Kaizen pictured the Floor Master in his mind—a frail, elderly figure whose movements seemed almost weightless. Despite his fragile appearance, Kaizen knew this man's strength was on an entirely different level.
Then Kaizen's thoughts turned to someone else.
"What about Ging Freecss?" he wondered aloud. "He's only in his twenties, yet he's already ranked among the top five Nen users in the world.
"Even if that ranking is just surface-level, it proves he's reached full S-rank status. That's terrifying."
Kaizen marveled at Ging's genius. Most took decades—if not their entire lives—to achieve such heights. Ging had done it in just 20 years.
He thought of the original story Netero had shared, where, at 40 or 50, the Chairman had still been training in isolation in the snow-capped mountains. At that time, even Netero had yet to reach S-rank.
This comparison made Ging's talent all the more astonishing.
"And what about Gon and Killua?" Kaizen mused.
The Freecss family clearly had unmatched potential. Ging had already cemented his place in history, while Gon's future looked equally promising.
As for Killua, chosen heir of the Zoldyck family and master of the Shingen-ryu, his potential was limitless.
Zeno's voice cut through Kaizen's thoughts. "The Floor Master knows of our family. As long as you don't stir up too much trouble at Heavens Arena, you shouldn't face any major repercussions."
He then shifted the conversation. "How's the development of that weapon of yours coming along?"
Kaizen unsheathed a decayed-looking blade from his side and placed it on the table.
Zeno picked it up, inspecting the blade carefully. As he infused it with aura, insect-like eggs materialized along the blade's surface, glowing ominously.
"As expected from a weapon born from disaster-based materials," Zeno commented. "This blade can absorb the opponent's energy, can't it?"
Kaizen nodded. "If this balde lands a hit, it continuously drains the target's aura. It also reacts uniquely to the thought of death, absorbing and evolving from it."
Zeno raised an eyebrow. "Thought of death?"
Kaizen elaborated. "On my way back, I passed through a small town and encountered a peculiar thought of death. A middle-aged man had several skulls hovering above his head.
"These skulls exuded a powerful sense of death, but the man wasn't a Nen user. He couldn't use aura, and his abilities weren't tied to a specific Nen technique."
Kaizen pulled out a photograph, placing it on the table.
Zeno's eyes narrowed as he studied it, his brows furrowing. He quickly passed the photo to Maha.
Maha Zoldyck glanced at it and nodded solemnly. "It's them."
"Who are they, Grandpa?" Kaizen asked.
Zeno's tone darkened. "The Kingdom of Taris. A small but mysterious nation located on an island southwest of the human continent.
"Don't let their size fool you. Their Nen abilities are bizarre, to say the least.
"They specialize in manipulating the thought of death. They plant seeds that grow into manifestations of deathly aura. Once fully matured, they harvest these manifestations.
"They're absolute lunatics.
"Years ago, the V5 and the Hunter Association launched a joint operation to annihilate them. We thought they'd been eradicated...
"But it seems they've returned."
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