Chapter 4: The Swindler Ascends
Three weeks after the bear encounter, I was ready.
The injuries had fully healed. My Nen reserves had completely recovered, and more than that, they'd begun to expand naturally as my body adapted to constant cultivation. I was stronger now, my Nen capacity increased by nearly thirty percent compared to just a month ago.
But more importantly, I'd fully integrated every aspect of Sequence 9's abilities into my being. I could steal objects without conscious thought. I could steal abstract concepts with precision. I could feel reality adjusting around my theft, bending to accommodate my will. The Sequence 9 techniques were no longer something I *did*â€"they were something I *was*.
That was the requirement for breakthrough. Complete mastery. Complete integration. Until the sequence was truly part of your nature, advancement was impossible.
The night of the breakthrough, I went to a secluded location deep in the forestâ€"the place where I'd fought the bear. It felt appropriate. That battle had taught me lessons I couldn't have learned any other way.
I sat in meditation posture, my Nen already cycling through my body in the familiar patterns. But this time, I didn't maintain the circular flow. Instead, I began to compress my Nen, gathering it tighter and tighter, concentrating it like a star collapsing under its own gravity.
The Error Pathway demanded absolute conviction. To advance to Sequence 8, I had to completely convince myselfâ€"and realityâ€"that I deserved this power. I had to claim it with such certainty that the universe had no choice but to grant it.
I focused on everything I'd learned. Every successful theft. Every application of my power. Every moment I'd used the Error Pathway to reshape reality according to my will. I gathered all of that experience, all of that certainty, and I compressed it into my core.
My Nen blazed.
For a moment, the entire forest seemed to flicker. The moment stretched on, becoming almost unbearable, a pressure that felt like it would crush me flat.
Then it released.
The pain was indescribable. It felt like every bone in my body was breaking and reforming simultaneously. My Nen flared through my body with such intensity that my skin glowed faintly in the darkness. For a momentâ€"just a fraction of a secondâ€"I wasn't entirely sure I would survive the transition.
But I did.
When the pressure released, I lay gasping on the ground, my entire body trembling. My Nen reserves had been completely drained by the breakthrough, but I could feel them already beginning to refill. And the sensation was different.
My Nen felt *heavier* now, more substantial. More *real* in some fundamental way. When I drew it through my body, I could feel the power more clearly, understand it more deeply.
I had become a [Swindler]
For the next three days, I barely left the forest. I had to understand my new abilities, had to feel out the boundaries of Sequence 8 before attempting anything complex.
The first discovery came on the first day after the breakthrough. I was sitting by the stream, attempting to steal a pebble, and I noticed that the mental effort required had decreased significantly. What had once taken intense concentration now felt almost effortless. The stealing process itself was faster, more intuitive.
I tested my limits. I stole fifty pebbles in rapid succession. Then a hundred. My Nen was depleting, but far slower than before. At Sequence 9, stealing a hundred objects would have completely exhausted me. Now, I was at maybe sixty percent capacity.
But there was something more, something I discovered when I attempted to steal a leather bag from my own supplies.
At Sequence 9, I'd been able to steal objects cleanly they would appear in my possession without fuss. But at Sequence 8, I could steal with conditions. I could steal the bag, but also steal the fact that it had been stolen. The owner would look around confused, their memory of how they'd acquired the bag becoming fuzzy, unreliable. It was as if the theft had never happened in the first place.
It was the power of a [ Swindler] not just stealing objects, but stealing people's certainty about ownership.
I tested this carefully. I stole a cup from a nearby cache I'd hidden, and then I stole the concept of theft itselfâ€"the person discovering the missing cup wouldn't immediately think "theft." They'd think they'd simply misplaced it.
It was subtle but powerful.
On the second day, something more profound occurred.
I was attempting to understand the boundaries of what I could steal at Sequence 8. At Sequence 9, I'd been limited to relatively simple conceptsâ€"pain, tiredness, objects. But now, at Sequence 8, I could feel the pathway expanding.
I focused my Nen on something more abstract: a memory.
Specifically, I focused on a minor memory from earlier that dayâ€"what I'd eaten for breakfast. Using the Error Pathway's stealing technique, I stole the memory of the meal.
For a moment, I couldn't remember what I'd eaten. The memory simply wasn't there. Then, after a few seconds, I realized what had happened: I'd stolen it. The experience of having eaten breakfast was now displaced, and in its place was... nothing. A blank space in my memory.
The frightening part was how natural it felt. The memory didn't *feel* stolen. It felt like I'd simply never had that memory in the first place.
I carefully returned the memory to myself, and it reasserted itself perfectly intact. The experiment had worked, but it was deeply unsettling. I'd just stolen something from my own mind.
What if I could steal memories from other people? Not just objects or abstract concepts, but actual memories?
At Sequence 9, that would have been impossible. At Sequence 8, it suddenly seemed possibleâ€"though the thought terrified me. That was an invasive application of the pathway, something that ventured into truly dangerous territory.
I decided not to pursue that line of investigation. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
For the next two weeks, I focused on refining my abilities rather than expanding them into territory I didn't fully
Application 1.
I discovered that at Sequence 8, I could steal much larger objects. Where previously I'd been limited to items roughly fist-sized, now I could steal objects several times my mass. I experimented with stealing logs, stones, and eventually an entire wooden crate.
The energy cost scaled with the object's size and resistance, but it was manageable.
**Application 2: Conditional Theft**
Building on the "stealing the theft" technique, I developed what I called "conditional stealing." I could steal an object along with specific conditions, essentially bundling multiple thefts together.
For example: I stole a stone while simultaneously stealing the knowledge that it had been taken. The stone was now mine, and no one would notice it had been taken.
**Application 3: Distance Extension**
My range had increased dramatically. Where I'd previously been limited to roughly a hundred meters, now I could steal objects from distances exceeding three hundred meters. The limiting factor was how clearly I could mentally picture the object. As long as I had a clear mental image, I could steal it.
**Application 4: Nen Integration**
Most importantly, I discovered that I could layer my other Nen applications on top of stealing.
When I stole a rock, I could simultaneously enhance it with my Nen as it manifested, making it harder and more durable. When I stole something, I could include stolen momentum or stolen force within it, making it move or hit harder than it had any right to.
I began practicing combination techniques. Steal a stone + enhance it + add stolen momentum from the forest wind = a projectile that hit with unexpected force.
It was a crude application, but the principle was sound. Sequence 8 allowed me to start combining my various Nen skills into coherent, complex techniques.
The real advancement came when I realized something fundamental about Emission-type Nen.
Emission was about projecting Nen away from your body. Most Nen users struggled with this, as maintaining Nen outside your body without a physical medium was extremely difficult and energy-intensive.
But the Error Pathway had a solution.
I could steal distance itself. By stealing the distance between my Nen and a target, I could effectively project my stealing ability across vast spaces without having to maintain Nen projection. Instead of my Nen traveling to the target, I could steal the target and bring it to me through conceptual displacement.
I tested this by attempting to steal a tree branch from a distance of nearly five hundred meters.
It worked. The branch appeared in my hands as if I'd plucked it myself.
The energy cost was substantial, but it was far less than maintaining Nen emission for the same distance would have been.
This was the power of the Error Pathwayâ€"it used unconventional methods to achieve results that other Nen types struggled with. Instead of projecting Nen, I stole distance. Instead of creating objects, I stole existing ones. Instead of controlling people, I stole their certainty.
By the fourth week after breakthrough, I decided to conduct a mental exercise. I replayed my fight with the bear in my mind, but this time, I imagined it with my newfound Sequence 8 power.
Scenario: How the bear fight would have gone with Sequence 8 power
The bear charges. This time, instead of struggling to steal its momentum, I would steal the force behind the charge entirely. All of it. The entire kinetic energy of the bear's attack would be displaced, leaving it stumbling forward with no power behind it.
I could steal the ground beneath its feet, making it suddenly uncertain about where solid earth was. I could steal its sense of balance while simultaneously stealing its panic responseâ€"the bear would fall over, confused, unable to feel danger properly.
More importantly, I could steal objects from a greater distance and with more precision. I could have filled the clearing with stolen rocks positioned exactly where they would most hinder the bear's movement.
The fight would have been shorter. Simpler. The bear would have retreated far sooner, intimidated not just by my apparent power but by the clear disruption of reality around me.
But it wouldn't have been more meaningful.
The bear fight as it had actually happenedâ€"desperate, painful, requiring every trick and every ounce of cleverness I possessedâ€"had taught me far more than an easy victory would have. It had forced me to understand my power at a fundamental level, to innovate and create applications on the fly.
If I'd had Sequence 8 power in that fight, I would have won, yes. But I wouldn't have grown in the same way.
Perhaps that was the true nature of the Error Pathway. It rewarded those who understood power, not just those who possessed it.
That evening, I returned to the village with a slight limpâ€"I'd pushed myself hard during training and had stubbed my foot badly, something I'd forgotten to steal the pain from before coming home.
Father noticed immediately.
"You've improved" he said, studying me carefully. It wasn't a question.
"How can you tell?" I asked, surprised.
"Your Nen feels different," Father explained.
I nodded. " Yes my nen application improved"
Father smiled slightly. "That's excellent progress, Ben. Most people take far longer to reach that level. But I'm impressed by something else."
"What?" I asked.
"You don't seem excited," Father observed.
"Because there is much more to do" I said simply.
After another month of integration and practice, I'd reached a point where Sequence 8 was as natural as Sequence 9 had been before the breakthrough.
The month before breakthrough had been about understanding Sequence 9. The month after breakthrough had been about understanding Sequence 8. Now, I was beginning to think about the next advancement, but I knew I couldn't rush it.
According to my instinctive understanding of the Error Pathway, reaching Sequence 7 would require even more mastery, even deeper integration. It wasn't a matter of raw power or time spent training. It was about truly becoming the Swindler, about making the Sequence a fundamental part of my nature.
I was beginning to understand something important: the Error Pathway didn't offer shortcuts. It demanded understanding and self-knowledge at every step. Each sequence was a transformation of self, not just an accumulation of power.
I had now been in the Kurta village for roughly four months total. In two years and eight months, the Phantom Troupe would arrive.