Odyssey of the Blind God

After Nial had paid for the five items, Melvin stored them away without allowing Nial to get a good 'look' at them.

Instead, Melvin dragged him outside the store and they turned to their left. After walking for more than ten minutes, they entered a side alley where a gigantic gate appeared in front of them.

It looked ancient, and based on the mana fluctuations, Nial was able to sense that the wooden gate had been intertwined with mana since the appearance of the first dungeon ever, or so he assumed.

The density and purity of the mana leaking from the gate were astronomical, and Melvin had to continue pulling him so that they would finally enter the pagoda that was surrounded by flourishing greenery.

Nial didn't see anything, but he could smell the fresh grass, and lush trees, and his sensitive ears picked up the noises made by various beasts.

This astonished him, but oddly enough he didn't feel threatened at all.

Everything seemed extremely calm, and it was almost as if the dangers of the outside world didn't exist in the place they had entered.

"Where...are we?!"

Nial had remained quiet since Melvin had dragged him out of the shop. However, he couldn't remain silent anymore.

The surroundings were way too extraordinary, and considering that they had passed by soldiers that were hidden under the shadows of the gate, the place they had entered seemed to be difficult to enter under normal circumstances.

Yet, Melvin entered it as if it was his home, which astonished Nial.

"Oh…did I forget to tell you? We are in Junades' Dojo. I trained under him, and he sells copies of the techniques he invented! Other than that, it should be possible to rent certain techniques from him if we ask nicely!

If I'm not wrong he is should have returned home from the expedition he started when I left Katu."

Nial just nodded his head, intrigued about Melvin's teacher, whose name was Junades. The name rang a bell, but Nial had never really been interested in news, let alone magazines or any kind of social media. As such, other than the fact that the name felt familiar, he didn't have much to go on.

But then he realised something that astonished him.

"He went on an expedition, wow! That means he must be strong to search for special dungeons and other survivors of the dungeon's descent…Wait, do we even have money?! I thought we utilized every single penny to purchase Sabrina's medicine?"

Earlier, he had been able to barely perceive the outlines of the five items Melvin had instructed him to purchase.

As such, he knew that there was one bow, an armor, and a total of three medicinal solutions among the items they had purchased.

Even though he didn't have the time to figure out what kind or rank the purchased items belonged to, considering that they costed a total of 900,000$ even after the discount of more than 50%, each item had to be extremely expensive.

Thus, Nial had expected that the [Shockwave Barrage] ability crystal to not only is extremely valuable but that its selling price was around a staggering sum of a million dollars.

After deducting the 10,000$ for the platinum membership at the store, they should have slightly more than 90,000$ left.

Yet, Melvin was acting as if they could easily purchase some techniques from a master who was strong enough to leave the shelters and return without any issues!

"Didn't we want to purchase a basic technique from the government...what are we doing here?!" Nial thus asked aloud when Melvin had dragged him inside the pagoda that smelled like old, yellowed paper.

Unfortunately, his friend continued to ignore him and didn't answer any questions.

As such, Nial fell silent and tried to assess his surroundings to understand where he was being taken.

Right now, he was not even able to think properly as his mana perception was severely restricted the moment they entered the pagoda.

The surrounding mana weighed him down, infiltrating his pores, and invigorated him.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been great, and Nial would gladly start gathering and annexing mana in order to fill his small Mana core.

However, Nial was unable to sense his surroundings at the moment. His mana perception was restricted owing to his incapability to release his mana fluctuations to the outside which was annoying.

Because of that, he had to rely on his other senses while slowly adjusting his mana perception to the extremely dense mana.

While following Melvin, who kept walking briskly, Nial had a hard time memorizing the paths they were taking, while simultaneously adjusting to the surrounding mana.

Thus, he gave up on keeping track of the paths after some time and focused on the adjustment process instead.

While walking behind Melvin like a little duckling, it took Nial only ten minutes before he could finally use his mana perception once again.

Afterward, he was finally able to sense his surroundings much better once again.

Thus, he could focus his attention on the area around him, and the fact that they were currently at the highest layer of the pagoda.

"Why didn't we look at the manuals at a lower level? Even if your teacher is back, there is no way I can afford one of the more expensive techniques!"

Nial assumed that the higher the floor he had reached in the pagoda, the rarer the books and techniques available for purchase would become.

This assumption was also supported by the fact that the mana radiating from the books and manuals increased with each floor they had walked through in order to reach the stairs that led them to the next floor.

Yet, what Melvin said nonchalantly caused him to freeze for a second.

"Nial, since when have you become so restless? We still have more than 300,000$ left! With that and my relationship with Master Junades, it shouldn't be a problem for us to rent one of the stronger manuals for an indefinite time!"

"We...have 300,000$ left?!" Nial almost screamed in astonishment, only to shout out "MELVIN! Why didn't we purchase another Medicinal solution for my sister then? We would have a lot more time to save some money then…."

Upon hearing him, Melvin seemed to become annoyed in the way Nial thought only about his sister. It was almost as if Sabrina was the only reason for Nial to be still alive.

Thus, he turned around and yelled at him.

"If you don't start to use that brain of yours, I'm gonna get angry!! The three medicinal solutions I choose are exceptional and will be more than enough to help Sabrina to maintain her current state for several months!

If we want to improve her situation, the medicinal solution should also be helpful. It might decrease its potency at a faster speed, but even then, we will have more than three months to take care of everything!!

During that time, do you want to become stronger, or do you want to remain as weak as you are right now? If its the latter we should leave and mindlessly conquer dungeons.

Just try to conquer the Melind dungeon's fourth floor without a single technique… Why did you think I negotiated so much with the merchant? For fun? Definitely not! The medicine your sister got is from Titur, the place with the best alchemists. So Sabrina will be fine, and the merchant might be displeased for a moment, but he will still make a profit, so he shouldn't complain.

Rather than being so annoying and selfless, become stronger and improve your strength so we can move on. The treasures that we can find in the first layer of the Melind dungeon don't bring enough money to earn enough to even hire an ordinary Originals doctor...and your sister has a weird disease so we need to start saving up!!!

I have already chalked out a plan, but what the hell are you doing? If you don't start thinking about your own situation, or that of your parents, I will be mad!!"

Staring at Melvin with his lifeless, white eyes, Nial, was not even sure what he should say. He was utterly dumbfounded and was not even able to move a muscle.

He thought that Melvin had already been angry when he had found out that Sabrina was ill, and that nobody had called him to help them.

Yet, right now, while standing in the center of the highest layer of the Pagoda, his best friend had given him a lecture, and the more he thought about it the more reasonable Melvin's way to approach the situation seemed.

He had just thought about the momentary gains that were the medicinal solutions for Sabrina, while Melvin had even thought about Nial's parents, and purchased a few goods for them to protect themselves much better, in addition to the three medicinal solutions Sabrina required.

Thus, Melvin had thought about every single step he would take which allowed him to purchase a strong bow for Nial's mother, who was a bad close combat fighter, and an armor for his father, who was known for injuring himself easily if he had even the slightest chance of defeating a boss or strong opponent through this.

Yet, now that Melvin wanted to purchase a martial art technique that could be used by the entire Orin family, Nial was complaining, and this had annoyed his best friend to the extent that his anger erupted.

"I'm sorry….I was just worried that we might be making a mistake by purchasing an expensive martial art technique."

Sighing deeply, Melvin wanted to launch yet another lecture but saw that Nial was already feeling guilty. Thus, he refrained from saying anything about that topic, except for two sentences.

"Just stop being so selfless and look after yourself too. What would your parents think if you were to be severely injured or even worse, die inside a dungeon just because you cared about others more than yourself?"

After taking a deep breath, Melvin changed the subject as he ordered Nial with a sly smile on his face.

"Now take a look at the techniques, and tell me if you find a suitable one!! If we are still short of money, we shall beg Master Junades to give us a discount...hehe!!"