Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial was highly interested in knowing more about the ancient ruins-type of dungeon.

He had gained quite a few pieces of information from the memories of the Darkness God.

Through them, Nial would be able to tell a lot about runic armaments, the different types of dungeons, and the dangers that are connected to them.

The memories even allowed him to gain a higher combat prowess and a better understanding of the dark energy.

While circulating through his body, the dark energy's influence upon him was minuscule and barely noticeable.

In the end, it was not even noteworthy, which was why Nial didn't bother about it for now.

Instead, he listened to Bella and Mathias, who shared with him what exactly had happened in the last five days.

Nial did the same and shared the details of the crucial point about his trial, once his two friends were done.

It could be helpful for them if he told them what exactly he had to do.

Both Bella and Mathias had an Innate ability as well. As such, it was not unlikely for them to undergo similar trials in order to enhance their Innate ability's strength!

Thinking about their Innate abilities, Nial couldn't help but be reminded about the warning the Darkness God had given him.

While Mathias might even be able to gain the interest of some Gods with his Innate ability in the future far ahead, Bella's Innate ability seemed to have some sort of memories sealed as well.

And from the looks of it, the memories of her Innate ability would lead her to become Nial's enemy or something like that.

He didn't really believe that this would happen. In the end, the memories of other existences fighting against each other wouldn't lead to her hating him.

Maybe the Darkness God had not just killed numerous Gods, but possibly even entire civilizations had been annihilated by him.

But all of that was not important anymore because Nial was not the Darkness God. That was a fact, and once Bella would unlock the memories of her Innate ability, she would understand this as well.

Nial was sure of this, which was why he didn't even think of keeping a distance from Bella, let alone Mathias.

While sharing details of his fight against the Darkness Doppelganger, Nial didn't hold back on a lot of information.

It was not really something that had to be kept a secret, to begin with.

Both his friends heard him patiently and when Nial was done roughly explaining what had happened, he sensed the gazes of the two Originals on him.

"What is wrong?" He asked, not sure what was going on.

"You do know, that you didn't have to tell us what you faced in your trials to enhance your Origin ability? After all, we might be able to figure out a few things about your Origin ability now that you told us what happened."

Bella was the first one to start speaking. She was quite calm while telling Nial why he shouldn't have divulged every little detail about his trial.

There were still a few more reasons for him to not tell them anything, but the most important was that they could roughly gauge what kind of Innate ability had.

However, Nial didn't really seem bothered about that. He knew that his Innate ability was completely different than what his friends could guess.

"Doesn't your first trial mean that you gained control over the dark energy of yours? Defeating someone with the exact same traits, and just a higher control over mana and this dark energy, or whatever you call it, means that you were forced to exceed your limits, right?

It should have been quite useful, considering that your body releases the dark energy faintly!"

Because Mathias never really had friends before, he didn't know how to present his thoughts in the right words.

He spoke without a filter, and revealed everything that was on his mind.

But that was something Nial liked. Even Bella felt that it was a welcome change to have someone around them, who would speak his mind.

Mathias was a rather silent young man, but there was nothing wrong in being reserved either.

That was why Bella decided to become friends with Mathias as well, despite her first impression of him being not so good.

Mathias' opinion was similar to that of Bella. At first, he had not been sure what to think about her. But right now it felt quite nice to have her around.

"Does it really matter if I told you guys or not? I just felt like it, and it is a thing of the past either way. Traveling back in time to change it is not something I'm capable of. I don't really worry about it, either way."

Shrugging his shoulder, Nial wanted to change the topic.

He was more interested in finding and trying out the most efficient ways how to use the merit points, which he had yet to make use of.

Bella and Mathias didn't use too many merit points for now. Instead, they focused on improving their combat strength as well.

After the dungeon breakouts, they noticed that there were too many things for them to fix, and improve themselves in.

Mathias' fighting style was rather crude and one-sided. He was simply not able to fight in a versatile manner, while Bella was too focused on herself.

She was not exactly a great strategist, who focused on teamwork.

Rather, honing her skills was a lot more important to her.

This had its reasons but nonetheless, it was not very great for the given circumstances.

Bella understood this as well, which was why she and Mathias had gone to conquer the permanent Rookie dungeons.

After the first dungeon breakout that had been artificially caused, there were no problems with the dungeon portals anymore.

They were as calm as never before.

That was also one of the reasons for the government to abandon considering retreating.

With the biggest issues having been solved, the Teradan military camp was the safest location they could be in right now.

The sole exception was the possibility of the ancient ruins-type of dungeon being exceptionally dangerous.

However, the restrictions on the dungeon portal were a clear sign that the current higher authorities of the military were competent enough to take care of everything.

Nial was also quite content with staying in the Teradan military base.

The number of dungeons in the lower cave was extremely high, which was something Nial liked a lot.

He didn't want to waste his precious merit points to purchase Origin crystals.

Nial's plan was to conquer the Peak Rookie dungeons to procure everything necessary to enlarge his mana core as quickly as possible.

It would take a while, but there was no need for him to pressure himself.

Right now, time was on his side, and the calmer and meticulous he was, the faster he would be.

Making use of the information he received from the Darkness God, Nial was sure that everything would be fine.

Somehow, he was quite eager to undergo the secondary Trial of the Gods!

The improvement he underwent in a short period was simply too great.

With that in mind, Nial and his friends began to discuss their future plans in accordance with the possible decisions the military and government could take with regard to the Ancient ruins-type of dungeon in the depths of the cave.

In the end, there were only three logical choices.

First, the participants of the Teradan military camp would be ordered to enter the ancient ruins dungeon right away.

Second, the participants would be trained properly for a specific period before they would be ordered to enter the ancient ruins dungeon.

Or third, that they would leave the choice to the participants on what they wanted to do. This meant that one was free to choose whether to enter the ancient ruins dungeon right now or to train properly for a specific time before entering the dungeon.

They began to come up with plans on how to act if either of the three choices were to turn into reality.

However, the most likely decision of the government and military would be the third one.

It allowed everyone to decide for themselves what the best course of action would be.

At the same time, the government and military could figure out what exactly each Original, who participated in the Teradan military camp was thinking.

Would they rush and enter the dungeon with the thought of procuring runic armaments that were currently invaluable, or would they gather information, fix their flaws, and then enter the dungeon with a calm mind?

In the end, the three believed that entering the dungeon directly might not be a mistake.

After all, there were more than enough Originals without actual weaknesses.

They had been sent to the Teradan military camp with the sole purpose of attracting the government's interest, socializing with other geniuses, and maybe to even using their new connections to build their very own organization of promising prodigies!

The rest of the day passed as the trio continued to come up with crazy ideas.

Only when they got tired did their small group of three go to bed.

After they reunited, there was no need for them to be worried about anything.

With that in mind, everyone was able to sleep soundly.

The next day would be the deciding factor on which plan they would put into action.

Only a few hours had passed before Nial woke up.

A thunderous growl escaped his stomach, which led him to jump up from the bed.

After a quick shower, he changed into a new set of clothes to set out to eat something.

As such, while being outside alone it would be possible for him to adjust to the [Mana sense] Innate ability, and the dark energy.

He wanted to test quite a bit now that he was finally freed from the trials.

However, even before he could leave the room, Bella woke up.

Her hair was sticking out as if someone had ruffled through it the entire night.

That was at least what Nial perceived thanks to his mana perception that visualized even the smallest detail of the people around him.

His perception had received a tremendous enhancement, which meant that he could perceive every single detail of nearly everything and everyone in the entire huge dorm they were in.

This was quite interesting, even more so because most Originals did not seem to sense the fluctuations of his Innate ability's passive effect.

Only the Originals with high sensitivity and innate affinity to mana were able to perceive his range of perception.

Nial didn't know that this was a thing until recently. Mathias had asked him whether the extremely faint, and almost untraceable mana fluctuations he released were his way to sense his surroundings.

After all, it shouldn't be possible for a blind person such as Nial to move in a terrifying manner that even people, who could see, would have a hard time getting adapted to.

Fighting while being restricted was certainly difficult, but Nial seemed to have an innately high combat talent since day one!

Maybe some would say that he was simply a fighter, but that was not actually what Nial thought about himself.

If one had to describe him in a way, Nial would most likely say that he was comparable to a cockroach in terms of their tenacity, and the fact that they were hard to kill.

"Wait for us!" Bella quickly said the moment she saw Nial, who nodded his head.

Thus, she threw a pillow towards the other side of the room in order to wake up Mathias before hurriedly getting ready.

Coated with mana and her [Outburst] ability, the pillow bashed straight into Mathias' face, ending his sweet dreams at once.

"Who attacked us?!!? I'm ready!!" Mathias exclaimed, his fists punching the empty air before drowsiness overcame him once again.

Seeing this, Nial smiled faintly, just to shake his head.

'I wonder what made me be friends with them? It's not bad though…and it's not like I'm less of a weirdo than them, to begin with!'