Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial's senses took quite a while until they returned to their peak state.

He had a weird numbing sensation whenever something around him moved and his Mana sense seemed to be distorted as well.

It had never been like this before.

They had merely defeated some Treant with the use of their powerful runic armaments, yet doing so took a toll on Nial's body and senses.

Only Mathias was unaffected after they had killed the Treant, which was why it had been possible for him to see everything that had happened.

But even if everything was visible to his eyes, it didn't mean that he understood the things that he had seen.

There had been a lot that he was not able to perceive, including the Symbol of Life that had been detached from the Treant's mana core the moment Nial had pierced through it.

However, that was not important because even if he would have seen it, Mathias wouldn't have been able to understand what the Symbol of Life was, where it came from, why it chose to enter Nial's body, and almost everything else pertaining to the Symbol of Life, either way.

How could anyone understand that the Symbol of Life was the creation of a Divine existence's Divinity, formed from a minuscule fragment of the Divinity, to be precise?

It held the Divine energy of the Divinity and harbored the unique powers of the Divine existence.

Was it possible for something so precious to appear in one of the most ordinary Expert dungeons, just like that? Definitely not under normal circumstances.

Despite that, the Treant, who had gained sentience due to the power of the Symbol of Life that had been engraved on its mana core, had appeared in the Urifaer Silverwood dungeon.

The Treant would have been killed by some Originals sooner or later, either way. But the fact that Nial and Mathias encountered it, could either be described as a miraculous coincidence or a fateful encounter.

For Mathias, meeting the Treant was not exactly something noteworthy because nothing had changed for him.

However, things were a bit different for Nial.

Not only did his encounter with the Treant lead to a meeting between a Divine being and the remnants of the Late Darkness God's sentience that was tightly secured within the Odyssey seed, but Nial had got his hands on the Symbol of Life, for no extra efforts!

Usually, the Symbol of Life was created for a special occasion and reason.

One of the reasons to create a Symbol of Life was to turn someone into a devout follower, who would be unable to reject the offers of their master. Simultaneously, they would receive a drastic increase in strength, a portion of the Divine power and the devout follower's entire body would metamorph.

Following that, their talent would be elevated, turning the devout followers into prodigious powerhouses.

Another reason to create a Symbol of Life was to use the same benefits, only for the Divine being's sentience and a tiny fragment of its soul to be imprinted into the Symbol of Life. As long as the Divine being wanted to, it would be possible for the being to gain control over the body it had infiltrated.

Slowly but steadily the soul of the being that had been infiltrated would be devoured, and replaced by the Divine being that would then be able to use the said body freely, whether it was for the purpose of reincarnating after the death of its Celestial body, incarnating within the other being, or to do something else.

That being said, even if a Divine being were to die, it didn't mean that it would be incapable of returning. One of the best examples was the existence of the Fragments of the Darkness God.

The Odyssey seed was one of these Fragments and if the deceased Darkness God truly wanted to be reincarnated, it wouldn't be difficult for it to do so.

After all, mortal beings were no match for the Gods, even if it were only their remnants or an insignificantly small portion of their soul was detached to take over a mortal's body.

But Nial was oblivious to all of this, with the sole exception of the facts revolving around the Odyssey seed. He could only feel baffled about the fact that the Odyssey seed had changed, that the symbol of an Ankh had appeared on the seed's outer surface.

Nothing else had changed according to what he perceived, which was certainly weird because he could swear that the Odyssey seed should have undergone some changes.

'I cannot sense anything amiss, so it should be fine, I guess?' Nial thought, slightly befuddled.

It was only obvious for Nial to be confused.

He would have never expected the fight with a Treant to end like this.

However, because nothing felt wrong to him, he didn't actually mind the change in his Odyssey seed.

After manifesting dark energy, Nial made sure that he was not misinterpreting the information his body provided him.

'Yep, everything is the same, weird.'

Turning to Mathias, Nial smiled oddly before he asked,

"Should we go back?"

Mathias felt that Nial was being too callous, but there was actually not much he could say to his friend.

"We…can go back, yeah. But what happened?" Mathias asked, despite his belief that Nial should be as clueless as he was.

"If I only knew…It would make things much easier if I knew what actually happened but all of my senses were restricted from the moment I pierced my spear through the Treant's mana core."

Feeling disappointed, Nial shrugged his shoulders before he set off to the dungeon portal to leave the Expert dungeon.

Mathias followed suit before he began to tell Nial every single detail about what he had been able to see, right from the moment the Treant was defeated up to now.

This took him quite a while and though they had already reached the portal Mathias was still talking.

They stepped through the portal and walked past the Guard, who took note of them leaving while Nial and Mathias continued to be in a discussion.

'They're still alive after spending so many hours in the Expert dungeon…Are these two really strong enough to fight Prym ranked beasts? That would be amazing!'

The guard couldn't hide his expression at all. He kept observing the young Originals, who had yet to reach the Prym rank until they disappeared from his sight.

Meanwhile, Mathias was oblivious to the Guard's stare and finished his detailed 'report' while Nial waved off his hand when he enquired if something about him had changed or if everything was the same as before.

"Well, something changed, yet at the same time, nothing changed. I don't feel a difference but I also know that something has been engraved on my mana core."

Nial never spoke about the Odyssey seed to anyone. But, there was no need to hide it from Mathias and the other people he trusted.

It was simply too dangerous to share some information with others, which included the existence of the Odyssey seed. It was a Fragment of a God, after all, and if someone were to find out about it, chaos might erupt.

This would even more so happen if another Divine existence, God, or Devil that had descended on Milarn and, were to get to know this information!

By being secretive, the important people in his life he cared about would face fewer issues. That was, at least, what Nial told himself over and over again whenever he felt like divulging the secret of his Odyssey seed to someone.

"Something has been engraved on your Mana core? Is it an ability…no that shouldn't be it…what is it?"

It was only obvious for Mathias to be interested to know more about the change that had happened to Nial's mana core.

Until now, he had never heard about something engraving itself on the mana core, even less than the loot of a killed monster caused something like this.

His interest was apparent which made Nial smile in return.

"An Ankh. An Ankh was engraved on my mana core."

Mathias was not sure what this meant but he hurriedly pushed Nial in their shuttle that arrived not long after before they drove back to Miranda's mansion.

When they arrived, Mathias felt that it was most important to share the events of the day with Miranda while they were fresh in his memory.

Unfortunately, their master was not there.

Thus, Mathias dragged Nial to the library and decided to research the Ankh, and cases where some symbol had been engraved on a mana core without prior permission.

"There should be a few precedents to you. You shouldn't be the first one to have received an engraving of some weird hieroglyph on your mana core. We can never be sure if it might be dangerous!"

His heart felt warm because he could tell that Mathias was worried about him.

His friend truly cared about Nial, which was why the young blind man decided to do as Mathias suggested.

'I cannot sense it now, but the Ankh should be something very beneficial. It feels odd but I guess I will soon find out what it can do for me.'

Nial was sure that the future would tell him more about the Ankh. Being too worried about something that had already happened was not helpful.

That was why Nial didn't want to bother about researching the information that might be false, fabricated or simply nonexistent as not many would share their good fortune with others if the benefits of an engraved Ankh or other symbol brought forth dangers.

Nonetheless, Nial continued with his research along with Mathias by staying in the library for a few hours.

But as Nial had expected, the final result was not actually useful because there was not much to read to begin with.

Combing through the internet was not helpful either, which was why Mathias was dissatisfied and even more worried than before while Nial was quite calm.

'I didn't expect much, but there was truly too little information. Not a single serious report was written about it. Looks like the Ankh is more important but possibly also dangerous than expected.

While the two sat dejected, Miranda had finally returned. She found the two young men in the library, only to notice that something about Nial had changed.

"Nial, when did you start taking care of your skin so much?"

**

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