Gourmet Hunter (HxH Fanfic)

The white smoke in Law's mindscape formed text that emerged on its own, and the content it displayed left Law stunned.

Hand of Ominous Signs (Damaged)

Quality: Treasure

Age: 920 Years.

Description: Revered by the people of the Lilit Tribe, who believed it could channel curses through a smear of crushed fingers upon its surface. They held that this could plunge their enemies into calamity. This artifact contains lingering Post-Mortem Nen. Absorption is advised.

Looking at the content displayed by the white smoke text, Law couldn't hide his astonishment. All kinds of things defined as garbage were piled together in front of him, so he could not even see clearly what the things his fingertips touched looked like, but the white smoke text had already presented detailed information first.

A moment later, Law came to his senses, suppressed his initial shock, and carefully read the white smoke text again, momentarily forgetting to retrieve the Hand of Ominous Signs from the pile.

'This thing has Nen attached to it? And I can absorb it?'

Law's eyes showed a thoughtful look, but since he couldn't make sense of it, he decided to stop thinking about it and began moving the surrounding trash aside. After some effort, he finally unearthed the Hand of Ominous Signs.

As its name suggested, it is a hand, but it is in the form of a wooden sculpture without a base.

The wooden hand was noticeably larger than an average human hand, and its entire body is deep red. What made it even more eerie was the fact that its surface was covered with tiny, densely packed eyeballs the size of fingernails. Additionally, three fingers were broken, leaving only the pinky and index fingers intact.

Even without the white smoke text's prompt, Law found the hand intriguing the moment he uncovered it. He turned the wooden hand over and over in his hand, scrutinizing it closely as though he were a researcher armed with a magnifying glass.

'The texture on the surface is too coarse, and there's no traces of artificial carving. It feels more like it was formed naturally, but the eyeballs are too distinct, which can only be achieved through artificial carving. The color is too uniform and deep, making the eyeballs almost indistinguishable.'

Holding the wooden hand in front of his face, Law examined it carefully. Then, he caught a faint whiff of blood and was stunned for a moment.

'Blood?'

Only then did he truly connect the content of the white smoke text with the broken wooden hand in front of him.

'Is this hand's dark color because of...'

Thinking of that possibility, Law's face stiffened and he dropped the hand without hesitation, letting it hit the ground with a heavy thud.

'If the white smoke text's description was accurate, countless people must have ground their fingers to dust and smeared them onto this Hand of Ominous Signs over the centuries. That would explain its deeply saturated red color. But that's not all, as even the smell of blood lingers on it for a long time.'

'This thing is revolting.'

Law glanced at the wooden hand on the ground with disgust. He felt queasy when he thought about how many times this thing had been smeared with crushed flesh and bone.

'Wait, I shouldn't be able to smell anything.'

Law had concentrated a portion of his Aura around his nose to block out the landfill's overwhelming stench, but just now, he had actually smelled the smell of blood coming from the wooden hand.

'Is it because of the Nen lingering on the hand?'

Law then focused his Aura on his eyes, causing them to emit a faint glow. Then, he saw a circle of red light floating on the surface of the Hand of Ominous Signs.

'So this is the Post-Mortem Nen?'

After a person dies, he or she may leave behind Nen due to various emotions such as attachment, obsession, and resentment. This Nen may be attached to objects or follow a certain person. And if the Nen is strong enough, it could affect the living.

The red glow on the Hand of Ominous Signs was a manifestation of such intense Nen. If ordinary people were exposed to it for a long time, they would be seriously injured at best, or even lose their lives at worst.

Moreover, there is another theory about the Post-Mortem Nen, which is: the Post-Mortem Nen may become even stronger!

The white smoke text indicated that Law could absorb the Nen on the Hand of Ominous Signs, which also aligned with Law's speculation that since he could absorb the energy from the mysterious jade, he should be able to become stronger by absorbing the energy from all kinds of rare treasures.

Of course, these were all just theories until tested.

Law wanted to give it a try, so he suppressed his psychological discomfort and picked up the Hand of Ominous Signs again. As soon as he entertained the thought of absorbing it, the Hand of Ominous Signs suddenly emitted intense heat, but Law did not feel any pain at all.

It was the same contradictory sensation he experienced when absorbing the jade's energy that night.

'It really works.'

Law stared at the Hand of Ominous Signs in his hand with excitement.

This is a shortcut to becoming stronger, but not the only one. Even with this shortcut, Law didn't plan to slack off in his future training. After all, treasures that can be absorbed like this are hard to come by, and training is the only reliable path forward.

The heat gradually dissipated, and the red glow on the Hand of Ominous Signs also disappeared.

Law could feel that the Aura in his body had grown a little stronger, and the data had also changed.

The awakening rate of his Specialization Category remains at 3%, with no change, while among the other categories, only the Emission Category and the Conjuration Category have their awakening rates increased from 0.1% to 2%.

'The only things that were enhanced were the Emission Category and the Conjuration Category, and they were only enhanced by about 2%.'

Law noted, stroking his chin in puzzlement. Since the white smoke text offered no further explanations, Law could only put his doubts aside for the time being.

Anyway, the more things he came into contact with in the future, the more he would understand the capabilities of the white smoke text.

'This is like living a cheat-enabled life...'

Law had trained tirelessly at Machi's house for a whole half month, but the awakening rate of each category did not improve at all, and the amount of Aura in the body also did not increase.

But now, just by interacting with the Hand of Ominous Signs, the awakening rate of his Emission and Conjuration Category had jumped to 2%, and the amount of his Aura also increased.

Law couldn't help but sighed. He originally thought that this damaged wooden hand was disgusting, but now, he found it quite cute.

However, he had no intention of keeping it. He just thought that since its age was more than 900 years, it could be considered an antique and might be worth some money.

He found a piece of wire and tied it to the index finger of the Hand of Ominous Signs, carried it like a bag as he continued to wander around the landfill.

The appearance of the Hand of Ominous Signs made him taste the sweetness. Originally, he just wanted to find something salvageable, but now, his mind was set on treasure hunting.

Time passed little by little, and two hours went by quickly. Law had scoured many areas but found nothing. That peculiar sensation that had guided him to the Hand of Ominous Signs didn't resurface.

Even though garbage from around the world was dumped here, the landfill remained just that, a landfill. It's not an ancient ruin, a crypt, or an archeological site. So it is extremely difficult to find ancient treasures here.

If it weren't for the peculiar sensation like treasure-hunting intuition, Law wouldn't have noticed the Hand of Ominous Signs. Even if he had seen the wooden hand, he wouldn't have regarded it as something valuable, not to mention it was broken.

'I've been overthinking this. I even thought about hunting for treasures in a landfill.'

Law rubbed his forehead. With the meeting time approaching, the Hand of Ominous Signs was the only thing he had to show for his efforts.

'Let's hope you're worth something.'

Law raised his hand, hung the Hand of Ominous Signs in front of his eyes, and sighed softly.

'Forget about hunting for treasures for now. When I become stronger in the future, I can explore the ruins, or the tombs of royal nobles or something like that. At worst, I can go to the antique market and maybe I will get something worthwhile.'

'As for finding treasure in a landfill… It's really just wishful thinking.'

Law shook his head and began walking toward the meeting spot.