Odyssey of the Blind God

Just like Miranda said, the government opened the ancient ruins dungeon for everyone.

The military didn't provide many pieces of information. Rather, they wanted the participants of the Teradan military camp to figure out everything by themselves.

This was what the military decided to do because they wanted to know how efficient everyone was in procuring information.

Other than that, the task the young Originals received was not further difficult.

In the following three weeks, they were supposed to become stronger, and to spend, at least, 10 hours within the Ancient ruins dungeons.

Miranda did not specify what exactly they had to do in those 10 hours that they would spend inside the Ancient ruins dungeon, which meant that they could stay in the portal's proximity just to return 10 hours later.

Considering that this was enough to complete the second task, they thought that Miranda had given them too simple a task.

That was what everyone thought during the meeting which was attended by every young Original and the higher authority of the Teradan military camp.

Nial knew that there would be many prodigious talents in the Teradan military camp. Despite that it was quite hard to believe that there were thousands of prodigious talents.

In the end, there were only a total of ten military camps, with the Teradan military camp, and the military camp of Liondra being considered the best.

Thus, Nial knew that the Teradan military would be flooded with the most number of participants. Though, it was still hard to believe that there were so many prodigious that met all requirements to enter the Teradan military camp.

But that made things more interesting because Nial believed that most young Originals had great ambition.

Many left straight to the ancient ruins dungeon the moment the meeting came to an end. This made Nial feel that everybody was rushing unnecessarily.

After all, they had only received tiny pieces of information about the dungeon, even if it had been less than expected.

"Just what are they trying to achieve?" Nial wondered. He had no idea what the government planned to achieve with the task they handed out.

It was way too easy, and certainly not something that would require strength, let alone intellect.

"I don't think it is the mission they're bothered about. They want to figure out how every single participant acts in the face of opportunities!

The Ancient ruins dungeon can be considered a huge opportunity that may even change the fate of some, after all!"

Bella looked at the bigger picture of the given circumstances. Thus, she could quickly come up with the most likely reason for the government to act in specific ways.

Meanwhile, Mathias just nodded his head. He thought similar to Bella as he had heard quite a few information about the price one could get for procuring Lost techniques, technology and specific devices.

Mankind could develop tremendously as long as they found even one new technology, a Lost technique or some other devices.

For example, the runic armaments Nial and the others sold could be researched.

As long as they could be reproduced, possibly even altered to fit specific fighting styles, the combat prowess of mankind could reach an unimaginable degree.

After all, it was impossible for Originals to wield affinities that they had not bound to their mana core.

Usually one could only control handful of abilities, and each bound affinity would use up one of these slots.

Thus, if one used an affinity, an Original would usually only bind one.

With the control over multiple affinities thanks to the rings Nial wore, he was in control of his dark energy, along with both fire and ice.

He could only conjure a single fireball and icicle at a time, but once this restriction was tweaked to suit him, the elemental rings would become invaluable.

And then, there were still other runic armaments that didn't even need to be altered.

One would only figure out the prerequisites to mass-produce them after a fair share of trial and error, and even then there was no certainty that their use would exceed the costs to research everything.

Because there were simply too few runic armaments the government found in various ancient ruins dungeons, the dungeon in the deeper parts of the cave where the camp was based, could be said to hide extremely valuable treasures that were waiting to be claimed.

That was also why the government announced that they would send over several thousand promising Soldiers from the military academies, to clear the ancient ruins dungeon that was heavily restricted.

"Right, the Soldiers will need only a week or two before they come over as well…so I guess everyone will try to enter the Ancient ruins dungeon as early as possible…" Nial just mumbled before shrugging his shoulders.

He was always overthinking situations, which was why he and the others ended up being amongst one of the last few batches of Originals that left the huge meeting hall.

However, that was not further problematic because Nial didn't plan on barging in the Ancient ruins dungeon right off the bat.

"Shall we go shopping then?" Bella asked with a knowing smile on her face.

The corners of Mathias' lips curled up lightly as well. He nodded his head knowing that the other two had the exact same thoughts as him.

Even Nial grinned before he said,

"Alright then, let's splurge some of our merit points!"

In order to be fully prepared, they wanted to make use of the little information they had received to make certain purchases.

Wanting to be prepared for every kind of situation, they considered that the Ancient ruins dungeon was full of all kinds of traps and obstacles laid out at every other step.

This was something perfectly normal for these kinds of dungeons, which was why they had to purchase various items.

The rest of the day passed quickly as they spent some time looking at the various items they could purchase which resulted in Nial having used up 2572 Merit points.

He didn't expect that everything would be so expensive, but that was perfectly fine.

After all, it was near impossible for him to die even if he were to fall into a trap.

And even after he left the Ancient ruins dungeon, he could still make use of the items he purchased for a long time.

'I can sell them again if I don't use them as well.' Shrugging his shoulders, Nial tried to reassure himself that he had done the right thing. He had never exactly been stingy with purchasing things they truly needed.

The only issue he had in the past was that he almost never had the necessary money to purchase even the most basic things they required.

That was not the case anymore, and splurging his fortune was now possible.

With that in mind, their group of three had purchased everything they needed.

"Shall we go to the dungeon, then?" Matthias asked with a faint smile on his lips. Even though he still had his fair share of problems in learning to express himself properly, Mathias revealed his eagerness to enter the ancient ruins dungeon.

Venturing into unknown places was something he had wanted to do for quite a while. However, because mankind was no exactly able to hold their grounds on Jundra, this had never been possible.

And only conquering ordinary dungeons was not exactly helpful either.

Thus, the nameless island already seemed quite interesting, followed by the news about the ancient ruins dungeon.

Mathias' excitement could be perceived rather easily, but neither Bella nor Nial felt the same as they simultaneously shouted out.

"Of course not!"

"No way! Entering it now is not right!"

Both were against entering the dungeon right away.

It was already late at night, Nial was still feeling extremely exhausted because of his primary Trial of the Gods, and both Bella and Mathias were not exactly in their prime state as well.

"If we enter the dungeon right now, we won't be able to reveal our highest combat prowess, let alone use our mind to the fullest!"

Bella added a few more reasons, but that was not exactly necessary because a single glance at Nial was already enough to tell that he was facing burnout.

Mathias knew what Nial had gone through in the last few days. As such, he suddenly felt bad for having proposed to enter the ancient ruins dungeon.

However, even before he could say anything, Nial grasped his shoulder before he smiled lightly.

"Let's go to bed early today. That way, we'll wake up early enough to explore and have enough fun in the ancient ruins dungeon, alright?"

Mathias smiled back at Nial before nodding his head, while Bella could only shake her head, thinking how she had found these two weirdos to team up with.

'They're really weird. To imagine that Nial inflicted fear in the minds of one of the strongest Originals in our rows, just to ensure Mathias' safety. Just what happened to you in the last few days?'

Bella was sure that Nial didn't tell them everything about the Trial he had undergone.

That was only obvious because she would do exactly the same. In fact, Bella was not even sure if she would say anything about the task she had to fulfill if she were to have to pass an Innate ability trial in the future.

Nial either trusted them enough to think that they wouldn't expose his secrets, or he was just naive.

When they were in the Old Medic's abode, Nial seemed like both someone, who knew what he was doing, and like a naive young Original who was clueless about everything.

It was hard to describe Nial's behavior, which was why Bella felt as if he was even more mysterious than she initially thought.

But Bella was not the only one who thought like that. In fact, she was one of the many people who had been observing Nial!

A security camera had recorded their group's fight against the Lesser Titan youngling at the back entrance of the Teradan military camp.

As such, many higher authorities saw the recording of his glorious fight.

If they presumed that it was a lucky coincidence for Nial and the others to kill the Lesser Titan youngling, an existence that had already manifested one Origin ring, the events during the dungeon breakout made them even more curious about him.

Despite merely being at the 3rd Origin rank he had killed far more than 100 beasts that had a strength comparable to the 7th and 8th Origin rank!

Nial hadn't even been injured, and it had looked like he could keep fighting amidst the flood of monsters for several hours.

But as if that was not enough yet, Nial and his group had attracted even more interest owing to two particular facts.

First, they were the first Originals to have found and retrieved runic armaments. They had even sold quite a few of them in exchange for tens of thousand merit points.

However, the most surprising was the fact that Miranda, the Old Witch of the South had chosen to take in a disciple.

And it was not only one disciple but three at once!!

But that was not even the most shocking part. Miranda had not only accepted three disciples, but they were the same group that had soon turned into the topic of discussion through the camp, namely Nial Orin, Mathias Cartle, and Bella Morningstar!

This was only something the Government got to know the moment Miranda had barged in the meeting room of the military camp's higher authorities before demanding all information about the three of them.

She seemed especially intrigued about Nial Orin, who was already labeled as the underdog of the Teradan military camp.

When the Old Witch of the South received everything she wanted, she simply left while trying to maintain a poker face.

However, everyone could clearly tell that there was some hidden intent behind her asking for three specific students and personally visiting the camp to know more about them.

"It looks like this year's camp will be even more interesting than expected. Maybe the games will be more interesting this year?"