Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial was not sure how long he executed the Control of the Ancient Monarch manual's secret technique to create his primary Ancient Origin ring.

However, he was certainly satisfied with the amount of mana in the surroundings.

"I don't even need to waste my time trying to control the Origin crystals to release their mana because I don't need to use Origin crystals, to begin with," Nial mumbled in satisfaction.

The surrounding mana was more than dense and pure.

After a while, Mathias returned to the tent and found out that Nial was absorbing and annexing mana.

But there was also something else Mathias realized the moment he saw his friend.

'He seems much more vigorous than usual. And why is he constantly releasing some of his dark energy? That's weird…'

Mathias didn't understand what was going on, but he couldn't just ask Nial, right now. Nial was fully focused on continuing to create his Ancient Origin ring.

Distracting Nial could lead to severe damage to the construct of his origin ring, or potentially injure Nial's mana core and mana veins.

Hence Mathias left to get a quick shower and change his clothes. When he returned, he saw that Nial had already gotten up from the ground.

"Oh, you're already back?" Nial asked after noticing Mathias. Nial's expression was not very good, but that was only obvious. After all, his mind was currently occupied with various doubts, questions and things he didn't understand, at all.

"It's already late afternoon," Mathias commented, before taking a second glance at Nial, which led him to continue speaking,

"Are you not feeling well? You look like you are more energetic than usual but your expression seems like you are dead-tired, almost as if your head will explode. It's weird, I cannot explain it properly."

"Oh, that? The Ankh symbol started to glow, and I have no idea how to make it stop. It invigorates my body so that could be why you sense my vigor." Nial answered, not really paying much attention to Mathias.

He had other problems to take care of than the Ankh, right now. It was a big mess and Nial didn't like it at all.

"How was your dungeon conquest? Did it go as planned?" Nial asked, wanting to distract himself.

He was sure that the topic was a good way to be distracted as Mathias would excitedly share his experience.

"It was great. I conquered three Lowest Expert dungeons with the Originals I got to know today. I think I got more confident thanks to you and Bella. I might have taken my time to get a little bit comfortable with the situation but after I showed my high proficiency in the Water and Earth affinity, everyone was overly nice to me.

We quickly became comfortable with each other and were even able to work quite well as a team." Mathias answered in one go. He was sounding pleased about his achievements and excited to continue conquering dungeons in the following days. But then he noticed something, which was why he hastily added,

"Of course, our teamwork was nothing like it would have been with you by my side!"

Nial just smiled at that.

'Maybe, it would be a good distraction to wreak havoc in the Rookie dungeons? The other Origin ranked Originals shouldn't have problems clearing them, but letting off some steam wouldn't be a bad idea either.'

Nial felt that he was a complete mess. He was feeling indecisive and kept weighing his options which were owed to the fact that he had literally no idea what would be best for him right now.

He could focus on the Ancient Origin ring, study runic armaments while trying to figure out what to do against Silvian and the other Gods, who were bound to descend on Jundra, conquer dungeons to let off some steam, or he could approach the veiled woman to find out, who she really was.

However, none of those things seemed to be to Nial's liking right now.

"By the way, what did you do with the Sacred Knights leader today? I heard some of the rumors but they seemed a little bit too odd." Mathias suddenly asked.

His question made Nial sigh deeply because the last thing he wanted to talk about was Silvian, the Sacred Knights leader, and the incarnation of the God of Saints and Devils.

"Well, how should I put it without sounding crazy." Nial started, feeling conflicted.

He could hardly say, 'Oh, did you know that I have the Fragment of a God in my body and that the Sacred Knights leader is a God, who wants to subdue the entire human race, to train them, and to let mankind fight Armies of other Gods? Ah, and by the way, the Sacred Knights leader has the Dryx under his control as well.

He purposely created the Dryx's infiltration to gain mankind's trust and loyalty.'

No way would Mathias believe him if he were to say this, thus he tweaked the truth a little bit for the time being, at least.

"At first, I was pretty sure that the Heaven's Gates organization had told the military to draft us for the conquest of Juna. You remember that, right? ?" Nial asked a rhetorical question to which Mathias nodded his head.

"Well, now I know that it was the Sacred Knights leader, who got us drafted."

"Huh?" Mathias asked in confusion.

He couldn't understand why the Sacred Knights leader would be bothered about their existence, at all. The Sacred Knights leader was one of the most important individuals in the human race, right now.

In contrast, they were mere rookies who were trying at the first step toward becoming strong and had a long and arduous path in front of them.

"I figured it out not too long ago and had a short chat with him. Apparently, he was, or he still is, very interested in my dark energy because he knows someone, who had the same type of energy.

He wondered if I was his…son."

Nial felt bad for lying to his friend, but the truth was much weirder, that was for sure!

'Sorry, Mathias. I will tell you the truth when I think it's time…'

Lying forever was not actually helpful, and Nial knew that. In the future, everyone, and not just Mathias would need to know the truth.

Others might not need to know about the truth related to him, and the God of Darkness' Fragment, but everything else would be revealed to the others sooner or later.

As for telling Mathias the truth about himself, or rather that his Innate ability was the Fragment of a God, and that he could see the memories of the deceased God of Darkness, that was not actually intelligent. Mathias might not even believe him and the knowledge would endanger his friend.

There were also a few other things about him that he would reveal to Mathias in the future, but not now.

"So he was the one to get us drafted, because of your dark energy at that? Weird, I wonder what interested him that much. Your dark energy is great and all that but I don't think it's worth the hassle of getting us drafted." Mathias replied, feeling doubtful.

'I'm sorry, Mathias…' Nial could just think helplessly as his expression worsened.

"Well…maybe his holy aura, and so on felt threatened by your dark energy because the elements are the exact opposite of each other. They might cause the Sacred Knights leader to feel repulsed and disgusted about your energy, just like it had been with Bella occasionally." Mathias continued to speak.

Upon hearing Bella's name, Nial also recalled that she had complained about his dark energy a few times.

Bella had said that her Innate ability [Celestial transformation] reacted repulsively toward his dark energy. That was also why their teamwork had been quite problematic once or twice. Bella had received a sudden influx of a repulsive feelings toward Nial and his dark energy when they had been fighting next to each other.

"That might be it." Nial just agreed before clearing his throat.

"I will start conquering dungeons from tomorrow on as well. I might get rusty if I don't start to fight soon."

Nial wanted to lift the mood a little bit, but he could only sigh deeply when thinking about all the trouble.

Mathias nodded his head, happy that Nial had decided to help reclaim Juna as well before he went to bed.

He was exhausted and needed lots of energy for the following days.

Nial went to bed as well but he kept tossing and turning around for a long time. His mind was a mess, and Nial was pissed off about this.

'I should really start beating the shit out of people, who think that it would be a good idea to bombard me with worrisome information…'

It took him a long time to fall asleep but when he did, Nial didn't wake up for several hours. His body and mind were fully refreshed after a good amount of sleep, and Nial noticed that the Ankh had finally stopped shining.

'Was about time that it stopped, but I feel like something has changed.'

The Odyssey seed was not pulsating anymore, and the situation within his body seemed to have been solved if there had even been a problem, to begin with.

With the Symbol of Life engraved on his Odyssey seed, Nial was not actually worried. It hadn't affected him negatively when it was activated, which was why he was quite satisfied.

The only thing that made him wonder was the fact that he had received the Ankh, which had been made out of a fraction of a Divine being's Divinity, without it affecting him at all.

'Did the Odyssey seed absorb the Divinity's energy? Sigh, I wish it wouldn't have done so. A remodeling of my body and an overall enhancement would have been great.' He thought before dispelling the idea.

The Odyssey seed was bound to become even stronger with the Ankh's support. He had gotten a glimpse of the Ankh's efficiency the day before, and Nial was pretty sure that he would become extremely powerful as long as he could activate the Ankh at his will, permanently, or that he could initiate its hidden effect.

Each Fragment of a Divinity had a special use. It was well hidden and the effect could vary a lot. However, they were always useful, even if the effect of the Fragment of a Cursed Divinity would be unveiled.

That was something Nial could tell for sure, and it was also one of the reasons for him to feel quite lucky that he had been able to obtain a Divinity fragment so easily.

After all, he had been fortunate enough to encounter the divinity in a random lowest Expert dungeon.

He was just too lucky for that, even more so because it was him, who had encountered the treant rather than someone else. It made him feel that it was too good to be a coincidence.