Odyssey of the Blind God

Mathias couldn't believe what was happening right now. Nial was still holding out the two ability crystals, in front of Sam Anderson and insisting that he couldn't accept them and that they were not short of money.

He did not budge and neither did Windbreaker, Sam Anderson showed signs of backing off.

"Are they actually debating about who should get the ability crystals?!" A young Original who was standing next to Mathias asked, feeling slightly dumbfounded.

However, Mathias could only shake his head and took another step away from Nial. He didn't join him in talking with Sam Anderson after they came back from collecting the beast corpses because he had sensed that Nial would do something that would attract a lot of attention.

'Why is he always so righteous? Can't he just read the room, be thankful and repay the favor he received, if that makes him feel better?' Mathias felt a little bit burdened by the thought of him rushing to the powerhouses every single time he found an ability crystal that had been dropped by the beasts they killed.

They were bound to collect numerous beast corpses on their way to the third shelter because it looked like many powerhouses were more focused on other things than giving the  Prym-ranked corpses any attention.

Thus, Mathias felt like dragging Nial away from Sam Anderson and apologizing to the Windbreaker for wasting his precious time.

But as he observed their interaction, it seemed that Windbreaker Sam Anderson seemed to enjoy their conversation, while looking at Nial.

"So your friend will become an Elementalist, you don't need the ability crystal either and you guys have enough money? If you're feeling bad about accepting the ability crystals, I can take them, but tell me why exactly you need the bull corpses. Is it not for money?"

It made no sense for Nial to accept the corpses and Origin crystals but not the ability crystals according to Sam. That was why he questioned whether Nial had a proper reason for his behavior or if he was a little hypocrite.

"I just need the bull's horns, hide and tendons. There are not many physically-attributed Prym-ranked beast materials to purchase in the eight shelters.

So I wanted to stockpile on ingredients to create runic armaments with in the future. It doesn't matter that practicing creating runic armaments is expensive but if I cannot get my hands on the ingredients even with money, what use does money have?" Nial didn't hide his intentions at all.

He readily shared what he wanted to do with the beast corpses and why it was so important to him. Sam Anderson just nodded his head after hearing him and held out his hand in front of Nial, who gave him the two ability crystals Nial had been holding for quite some time already.

'So the entire conquest will be more like a trip to collect more ingredients for him?' Sam wondered, smiling faintly.

He shook his head and gave a fleeting glance to Mathias, the so-called 'future Elementalist'.

Afterward, he returned to his small group, without saying anything else to either Nial or Mathias.

Nial too returned to his friend before he took a look at the loot he had procured.

"If it was already that hard to give him the ability crystals he deserves, it will probably not be possible to return his Origin crystals, right?" Nial mumbled, feeling slightly frustrated.

A frown appeared on Mathias' face. He shook his head, not understanding how Nial could be bothered about something like that.

"Superior Origin crystals are entirely useless for him. They're more like a snack to a powerhouse like Sam Anderson. You would actually insult him if you were to throw more than a hundred Origin crystals at him while acting as if he needs them more than you do.

I know that you don't like taking stuff from others if they could need it, but you already got your hands on the bull corpses, so you gain from the work of others, either way."  Mathias tried to reassure his friend before he sighed lightly.

Nial felt that Mathias spoke like a wise person and a scholar at that moment, which literally made no sense. However, he couldn't help but smile and shrug his shoulders at the words of his friend.

"In that case, I should just shamelessly take everything they don't want, I guess?" He asked in a sarcastic tone.

Mathias nodded his head before he looked at Nial once again. "Exactly."

Nial was not able to understand what was on Mathias' mind. But his words were not wrong. If the others didn't want something, and he was willing to clean up behind them, he might as well act shameless and take the leftovers.

If they wanted something from the corpses, they would just get it.

With that in mind, quite some time passed. Until everyone from Liondra had been teleported to the region in-between the swamp and the plains, another horde of beasts had attacked them.

A few other Originals finished them off, but they were equally unbothered about getting their hand on the beast corpses.

The horde of beasts was only at the peak of the Origin rank, and thus even less valuable to them than the Prym-ranked bulls would be.

However, that was not something Nial could be bothered about. The monster horde they had killed consisted of Blazing Berserk Sheep, a very ferocious and bloodthirsty kind of beast.

Their wool was red in color, it could create sparks, the wool was extremely hot and had fire-resistant properties.

This fire resistance would come in handy when they would enter some Expert dungeons if only the Blazing Berserk Sheep's wool would have some defensive properties or use against the fire of Prym-ranked beasts.

Nial still wanted to get his hands on the Blazing Berserk Sheep corpses. They were of exceptional use for him, even more so because it would be a welcome challenge to engrave runic constellations on wool and threads made out of wool before they would actually be turned into clothes.

"It is really great that we purchased new spatial rings, otherwise, we would never be able to store all these corpses," Nial mumbled when he finished storing the corpses.

Mathias was also excited about finding new items to practice engraving runic constellations on.

However, he didn't like the way others looked at them. Not many believed that they were not after the money they would be able to earn from selling the corpses.

Quite a few Originals looked at them as if they were hyenas, or vultures, who were after everything others left behind.

But while Mathias was bothered by the gazes that lingered on them, and the gossip that revolved around them, Nial couldn't care less.

He felt he was on cloud 9 because they had already gotten their hands on many ingredients that were hard to come by.

"The wilderness is full of treasures, as expected." He mused as he perceived the beasts around their group.

There were quite a few smaller and large beast groups around the group of several thousands of Original, who came from Liondra.

However, none of them dared to attack them because they could clearly sense that they would be annihilated the moment they showed hostility toward the Originals.

When the last Originals had arrived, their huge group started their journey towards the third shelter.

A specific defensive formation was created to prevent the weak Origin ranked Originals from getting killed if their group were to face a sudden and unexpected attack.

The strongest Originals were strategically placed on the outside of the group and kept enough distance from each other so that they could protect everyone and at the same time allow others to move freely without disrupting one another.

Being in a group of around 5000 Originals was not something one could easily handle, and they didn't have a single leader either.

This didn't make things easier, at all.

That was also why it was quite advantageous that all true powerhouses were rather friendly with each other and worked together instead of against one another.

After forming a group of several layers, most Origin ranked Originals were placed in the center of the group, where they were the best protected.

Only Nial, Mathias, and a few others were roaming around the outer layers of the group, spending their time scanning through their surroundings.

There were numerous beasts in their surroundings, and in the next few hours, their group of Originals was attacked more than a dozen times.

Contrary to before, there were also Seclon-ranked beast groups amongst the attackers. Their corpses were worth manyfold the price of Prym-ranked beasts. Thus, even the true powerhouses, who had killed the beasts rather easily stored the corpses in their own storage devices.

Nial was not bothered by this, even though some Originals intentionally voiced out their pity for him when others 'took away' his opportunity to earn more.

In most cases, they were just talking gibberish and Nial could ignore it without feeling anything about it.

He had collected more than 6000 corpses by the end of the day, and he was happy about every single corpse he got his hands on.

His spatial ring was still not filled but Nial knew that he had to dissect the corpses and only take the things he actually needed.

Thus, the moment the batch of powerhouses leading them stopped to set up their tent for the night, everyone followed suit while Nial began with his work.

But just as he took the first Blazing Berserk Sheep corpse out of his spatial ring, he heard a few voices from his right.

"It's not like anyone is tired. Why are we stopping already?"

"Wouldn't it be better if we continue to walk through the night? That way we would arrive in Juna after five days, at most. We might even be able to avoid getting attacked by more beast groups!"

"Are you guys stupid? The wilderness is the most dangerous during the night. Once it is dark the stronger beasts awaken and we might even witness the true powerhouses fighting with their life on the line to defeat the beasts, who're after our lives!"

It was common knowledge that the wilderness was more dangerous when it got dark. Many predators woke up late at night, and they would start hunting by then.

There were also many beasts with abilities that were quite useful and lethal during night, while they were rendered entirely useless as long as the faintest ray of sunlight was still out.

Nial had read quite a bit about such beasts, and from the memories of the late Darkness God, he also knew that the Giganodes, for example, was also a beast of the night.

It was stronger in dark areas when it was shrouded by darkness than it was when facing sunlight or light-attributed attacks.

'Well, it's not like that concerns me at all. I'm also stronger when it's dark. After all, my dark energy cannot be perceived properly at night.'

Nial's dark energy was weird, to put it simply, but it was certainly stronger when shrouded in darkness.

That was also why he had started to train the Pseudo-Darkness Domain as it allowed him to shroud the space around him in darkness and artificially create a dark place even if it was daytime!

'Either way, I should start working now. I don't have all day!'