The Emitter, The Specialist & The Manipulator [03]

-- (Emitter) --

After about 25 minutes of [Doctor Time]'s activation the cat dressed as a doctor got off Tak's foot and then let out a warm meow towards his patient as if he was discharging him, walked towards Monique Allamellou and let out the same howl.

- I can always count on you [Doctor Time], thank you for your support. - Monique murmured as she stroked the cat that disappeared after that interaction.

Tak stood up and held himself there for a few seconds confirming that he was healed.

- Don't try anything stupid, kid," Daven said with his eyes fixed on the newly healed thief.

Daven thought for a moment about activating his [Ren] and letting out his aura to intimidate the young man even though the intimidation card was played by Monique earlier in a much more subtle way, all in all, it didn't seem the best way to start the negotiation, after all, the thief was already considering the opportunity to participate.

- I'll be as concise as possible with my answers: My goal is to obtain a particular text from an ancient civilization, your role in the mission and the time it takes to accomplish it... It already depends on your skills nen. - Daven spoke. - As far as I know, you are a Manipulator, and coincidentally we can use one for information gathering and infiltration, that's why I want to know what you are capable of.

- Yeah... I understand, the problem is that, if I show you my abilities, and for some reason you tell me that I won't participate in your mission, I will have given you information about my abilities for free, and I don't like that. - burst in Tak.

- I like this guy - interrupted Monique who was playing with the wine glass. - But it turns out that I already showed you my ability baby, don't you think it's unfair, I reveal my ability to you, but you don't reveal it to me?

- Yeah... but you guys scammed me with the list purchase.

- Hey, honey, you set the initial price - said Monique keeping her composure.

- Well, we already know you're a Manipulator, how about if I show you what I can do, and you reveal your skills to me as well? - Daven said as he motioned Tak to take a seat. - After all, there is a possibility that we are allies, so we will most likely see our abilities in the future.

- Go ahead, I'd like to see what a professional Manipulator can do," Tak added in a mocking tone combined with provocation. - The title of hunter I don't know if you fulfill it well, but the Manipulator part you do.

Monique couldn't help but let out a laugh, Tak took it as a compliment to her great cunning and comic agility. Daven just kept silent as he took a cup full of water and a leaf from a plant on the terrace of the room, put the leaf on top of the cup and applied [Ren] on the latter. Tak couldn't contain his fear as he saw Daven Nightshot's immense [Ren], the aura overflowing from his hands was powerful but steady and fluid at the same time. And then, the water turned silver. The expression of fear was quickly succeeded by confusion and then surprise as he understood what that meant.

- Emitter. - Monique quickly replied, finally Tak understood the reason for the earlier laughter.

- I'll give you credit because at least you guessed a category close to my real affinity - Daven added. - Now it's your turn to show your cards, what are your skills Nen, show us your [Hatsu]. 

- I refuse. - Tak quickly answered.

Daven automatically fired his [Ren] charged with fury at the thief, who was paralyzed with fear, the aura he emanated indicated that he was not willing to tolerate any more games.

- Easy, easy, Daven, let's hear what he has to say now, hey, Tak, honey, just let me give you a warning. - Monique pulled out her professional hunter's license before continuing her speech and flaunted it to the frightened thief. - We professional hunters are legally allowed to kill. 

Daven took a deep breath and lowered his [Ren] while bringing his hand to his glass, for his part, Tak who had been released from the pressure took a sip of wine without even realizing what he was doing. If I'm going to show you my [Hatsu] I want you to show me yours. - Tak replied after draining the wine from his glass down his throat.

"Fine, I'll play your game on this one" thought Daven Nightshot.

- My skill is [Point & Shoot], when I point my finger at a place, I can shoot my aura to where I point, the more I charge it, the stronger it is. - Daven said making a quick demonstration with his index finger towards the open window firing a burst of aura.

"You'll see the tip of the iceberg, but you'll never know what lies beneath the surface."- Happy?

- It works for me. - Tak said.

- My turn, my [Hatsu] is [Hive Mind], it allows me to manipulate several ants at the same time within a small range. - As he uttered those words, Tak filled his hands with Nen, and several ants came to the room where the 3 individuals were.

- If I close my eyes I get sensory information intuitively from the situation around the ants I control.- How many ants can you control? - Monique asked quickly as she left her station and approached the insects.

- At the moment my limit is 70 at a time.

- Interesting - replied Daven who watched as the ants gathered to form an offense towards him. It was logical after the interactions the young thief and the professional hunter had had. - What happens if the ants die or you lose control of them?

- Nothing, my quota is released, so to speak.

"Surely there is information you are withholding, but this may be useful in a way."

- Why ants? - Monique asked

- You cured me so I can give you the information, he can't.

- Do you hate me that much? - Daven asked with a mixture of annoyance and sarcasm - I'm offering you a chance to strike gold.

- You shot me in the foot! - Tak exclaimed.

- You wouldn't have come! - Daven replied.

- Okay, okay, that's enough! It's my turn. My [Doctor Time] ability, allows me to summon a cat-like nen creature that restores the target to its previous state before a damage. - Monique ripped the wooden table during her explanation - As long as I know the details of how my target got to its current state, i.e., Daven, can you tell me what happened to this table?

- You took your thumb from your right hand and with your fingernail you made a scratch about 5 cm long and 40mm deep on the table. - replied the hunter.

- Well, with that information I can summon the [Doctor Time]!- the white furred cat with a large black spot that covered from its tail to its nose passing through its back now dressed in builder's clothes appeared in front of the Specialist, emitted a warm and tender meow and then landed on the table to start stretching and rolling over the cut.- The more detailed the information, the faster and better quality the restoration of the target will be, that's why this guy gave so much information, during the restoration process, the target and I will enter [Zetsu] state. By the way, the rookie's restoration took longer than expected, I'll bill you later for the extra charge.

"Don't you think you told him too much, Moni?"

- Well, that ends the club meeting of The Emitter, the Specialist and the Manipulator. - concluded Daven Nightshot as the [Doctor Time] went through his ritual to announce that he had completed his mission.

- What a cute, hard-working kitty! - whispered the Specialist.

- That said, your [Hatsu] is interesting, kid, but I am not sure if it's useful for the mission. - continued Daven who gazed at Tak's unchanging face. - My objective is to obtain a particular text from an ancient civilization, Moni's is to find the ruins of that said civilization and restore it, your role in the would be geared towards obtaining information and espionage within the influential groups of the Kingdom of Tanbóh, be it government, cartels, police, companies, etc., which your ability allows you to do... The problem lies in the time it will take you to do it. 70 ants seems like a lot, but we don't know the range of your ability, nor the dispersion of the ants, I mean, if you could have 70 ants at a time dispersed throughout the Kingdom you could get a lot of information at once and if you lose control of one, you have access to another immediately, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

- Insects can be ideal for infiltration, but at the same time they are a pest. If there are many you have the risk that people will take action against them, but if there are few they may not be effective, the fact that there are 70 is not because you decided so, it is because your skills dictated it - Monique added.

Tak had no choice but to listen and accept the comments of those two guys, they were not at all far from the reality of things.

- In the current state of the plan," continued Daven. - It would take about two years to get what we are looking for. With your Manipulator skills we would be achieving our goal in at least 4 years.

- Taking out the fact that while you have some mastery of the nen, enough to develop your own [Hatsu] or skill of your own, lacking the basic fundamentals of aura use and even worse, you don't have a professional hunter's license, meaning you have many restrictions on you that we don't have - Monique continued.

"Now, for the final blow."

- You have potential, and you're wasting it by relying too much on your current skills Did you never think that someone could surpass you and that's why you didn't develop your skills better? - Daven had a serious expression on the verge of disappointment. - What we could pay for someone to gather information is way above the 2 billion the items on the list were worth, but we cannot risk including you in this plan and wasting resources so as soon as we finalize the purchase of the list our business relationship.... 

- Wait! - Tak suddenly interrupted.

"Bingo."

- Do the hunters have that much money? - Tak asked.

Monique and Daven looked at each other with a face of confusion.

- Did you not know that of the 100 richest people almost all of them are hunters? - Monique Allamellou replied with disapproval on her face. - We spend our lives looking for things that were probably never going to see the light of day, things that are socially priceless, but economically valued, that's the magic. Just out of curiosity, how much did you think the text this fool here is looking for was worth?

- I thought around one 200 million, after they said the list was worth minimum 200 million Jenny, the price of the text escalated to 1.5 billion, but now? Monique couldn't contain her laughter after that Tak's statement.

- I want to be one. - Tak spoke to his insides.

- What is the deadline to join the group? - Tak asked.

"Bingo, bingo, bingo, bingo, bingo, bingo!"

- It's too risky to have you in the expedition group for the reasons I gave you earlier," said Daven.

- Then I have a proposition for you, when we do the list transaction, I will show you something amazing. And if my skills impress you, I'll be in, at any cost as long as it's reasonable.

Daven sighed as Monique continued to laugh at the young thief's disbelief.

- Just give us your contact number, and we'll tell you how the transaction will go down, but that said, if there are any indications that the list is a fake, you'll pay dearly. - Daven said.

- What about...? - Tak asked.

- You'll have a chance to prove yourself that very day. Now get out of here.