Odyssey of the Blind God

The woman who was administering the tests had purple eyes that looked at him lustfully. She was wearing plain clothes that covered her entire body but that didn't mean one couldn't tell that she was beautiful.

Black leather wings sprouted out of her back, a small black tail had grown out of her tailbone and horns grew out of her forehead.

'Calling her a Demoness would be a little bit harsh but I am not sure which race she belongs to. Her appearance doesn't fit any of the 10 main races living on Ximatra,' Nial thought, while he ignored her earlier comment. She was trying to speak in a seductive voice and her natural charm was on par with Hana's. It was strong and would influence most people quite quickly.

In fact, because the Demoness, Succubi, or whatever she was, acted in that specific way, she seemed to be trying to make Nial jump on her, and ravage her then and there.

However, Nial didn't have that intention, at all. He cleared his throat to draw her attention to him, which was not necessary to begin with.

"Can I receive the Health certificate now? I would like to leave," Nial stated calmly without a trace of shyness in his voice. This astonished the woman a bit but she was too baffled to react to see that he was completely unaffected. She subconsciously handed him the Health Certificate that had been printed just now.

"How are you…" The woman tried to make small talk but Nial had already turned around.

"I don't know if releasing your Charm on me was also a test, but it would be for everyone's good if you don't treat it lightly. If someone stronger than you appears, you might end up in a tricky situation. That wouldn't be nice, would it?" Nial scolded her lightly, without intending to make her feel embarrassed.

He meant it well and left the examination room moments later. Nial arrived in front of Felicia, the attendant at the counter near the entrance of the cathedral a moment later before he handed her the Health Certificate.

Nial had no idea what the paper stated on it because he couldn't read the written language of Ximatra but he knew that his data must be impressive.

Nial just smiled lightly when Felicia eyed him weirdly after looking at the paper.

"Are you sure that you're only at the 2nd Superior Mirae rank?" She couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"My third Origin ring will be constructed soon," Nial shared and added, "It should only take a few more days."

Felicia nodded her head but her head flicked back to the examination room before her gaze returned to Nial.

"But how were you able to leave Gigi's room with so much vigor? Didn't she…" Felicia asked before she realized that her questions sounded rather inappropriate. Some things that happened inside the walls of the cathedral were not supposed to leave it.

"There was no problem. I just left the examination room when I received the Health Certification;" Nial explained, clearly understanding what Felicia had meant with her unspoken words.

"Okay…forget it then…" She mumbled while glancing back every now and then. There was not a single sound coming from the examination room, which was quite unusual but Felicia was still able to sense Gigi. She was fine, physically, at least.

"Miss, do you know a place where I can lodge both a small apartment and a room for Runiciers? If possible a place with a high-quality smithy and enough space to inscribe various runic armament," Nial asked before he quickly added,

"I would be grateful if you could also tell me where the best shops for ingredients are located. This is my first visit to the Golden City, and I don't want to waste too much time trying to find my next destination!"

Nial was pretty sure that he wouldn't need much time to find the Golden Armaments Union to register for the U21 Runicier tournament, so he didn't bother asking where the Golden Armaments Union's headquarters was located.

"You can take a look at the Golden City's map outside the cathedral. We're quite technologically advanced, so you can simply search for everything you just mentioned. As for a suitable place to lodge, you might want to enter the Artisan District to find what you're looking for," Felicia sounded a bit concerned as she kept shooting furtive glances at the examination room every now and then.

Despite her worries, Felicia maintained her professionalism. She answered all of his questions in detail before Nial went his way after he thanked her sincerely.

Felicia rushed to the examination room the moment Nial left. She barged through the door and nearly pulled it out of its frame, just to see that Gigi was seated on a chair. Gigi was in a fetal position with her arms swung around her legs.

"What is wrong, my little girl?" Felicia asked in shock. She had never seen Gigi like that, yet, the answer she heard was definitely not something she would have expected to hear.

"He…resisted my Charm and lectured me afterward that I should be careful…" Gigi sulked while looking teary-eyed at her sister.

They were not related by blood but they had been raised together. Thus, Felicia's overly protective behavior caused her to act like a tantrum-throwing little girl.

"This bad human! We should teach him a le–....wait...what did you say?!" Felicia exploded in anger before she realized what was going on.

"You said…he just left after lecturing you? That's….new…" She said, looking at her sister in doubt. The corners of her lips curled upward and she thanked Nial before she apologized to him in her head.

'Sorry for thinking bad of you, little boy. You did a great job…someone had to lecture her if she wouldn't listen to me!' Felicia thought, and she had to turn around to hide her smile from Gigi.

Meanwhile, Nial was oblivious that Felicia had thought badly of him, to begin with. He was busy spending quite some time in front of the highly advanced touchscreen blackboard that showed the map of the Golden City.

Probably half an hour had passed before Nial found everything he wanted to, which was why he made his way to the Artisan District right off the bat. He entered a Monster shuttle, which was basically a tamed monster that would take him around the Golden City before he finally boarded off after reaching the Artisan District.

Contrary to most places, where the Artisan District was either small or rather insignificant and located on the outskirts of a city, the exact opposite was the case in the Golden City.

The Artisan District was ginormous and it actually surrounded the core area of the Golden City. The infrastructure of the Golden City was quite interesting and Nial spend some time imprinting everything that could be of use in his mind.

Nial was pretty sure that he would spend some time in the Golden City, which would be much easier if he knew the location and route to every place he wished to go.

Registering for the U21 Runicier tournament was not difficult either. His Health certification showed the age of his bones, and his soul, which was quite interesting but also a bit scary. Before today, he had never known that there were machines that could determine the age of one's soul.

Nial's soul was actually 21 years old, while his body was only 20 years old, 10 months, and 23 days. Both of these facts were weird, especially since it looked like his soul was 21 years old because it was born the moment his mother got pregnant. Meanwhile, his body's age was his actual day of birth.

This was quite confusing because his body's age should be greater than 21 years if we were talking about the day his bones were created. Nial came up with a few theories, but in the end, he simply disposed of them. Master Crevian said that there wouldn't be a problem with him participating even if one or two of his reports showed that he was above 21 years old.

9 months would be deducted from his Soul's age because he was a human and the pregnancy of humans lasted 9 months under normal circumstances.

Some races had a longer or shorter pregnancy which is why they would have different data for every single race.

In the end, everyone who was born less than 21 years ago was eligible to join the U21 Runicier tournament, which was exactly what Master Crevian reassured him.

Thus, Nial was not really worried about the few pieces of information he could read from the Health Certification as he reached the ginormous palace-like building, which was the Golden Armaments Union's headquarters.

The entire Golden City had been built with the funds of the Union, but Nial hadn't expected to visualize such a huge palace in the middle of the city.

Nial was not able to gauge its exact size because his [Mana Sense] was a bit restricted near the palace but if he had to make an estimate, it was longer, wider, and taller than a kilometer!

Nial shuddered when he felt the high mana density that covered every single inch of the building. It was constructed out of a material that seemed to be nearly indestructible. This shocked Nial a lot but it was not as if anything he had witnessed in the last week had been less shocking.

In fact, from having been confined to living in the last nine shelters humanity had left, Nial had ventured out of it and begun to live in the Forest of Life, where he could roam around freely, just to leave Jundra altogether.

He had lived in a ginormous Sacred tree that had linked its consciousness to him. That was pretty insane, and now Nial was shocked about a man-made building!?! This made him feel a bit embarrassed but he still couldn't hide his shock.

"Everything here is on a different scale than at home…I don't even want to imagine what will happen if beings like the ones, who could build such a terrific building were to invade Jundra…" Nial mumbled before actually doing that; imagining the very thing he had feared a moment ago.

Death and destruction were bound to follow if they were hostile to the human race. Nial didn't like this but it was not as if he had the necessary strength to prevent anyone from invading their home.

He sighed deeply and entered the Union's building to approach one of the 10 or more counters, where receptionists were patiently serving their customers.

"Did you hear about this month's Golden Challenge? Everyone is crazy about it!!" A young Stilak standing near Nial said to his friend, while his lizard tail swished around in excitement.

"Yeah, I've heard about it. I had never expected the Union to provide the participants with such a grand opportunity. Imagine, what would happen if someone can pass the Golden Challenge. With the reward, their chances to win the grand prize will increase drastically!"  Another Stilak answered in a similarly excited voice.

"I think it's a bit unfair and it doesn't really make sense. The Golden Challenge may be near-impossible to be completed but if someone can do it, the entire meta of the tournament will change!" An old Man suddenly remarked. He was a human, with a long grayish beard, which he caressed thoughtfully. The man looked scholarly but the two Stilak merely sneered before they turned quiet.

Nial was interested in their discussion but it seemed to be abruptly over, the moment the human joined the Stilaks' chat. He turned his attention back to the attendant.

"How may I help you, Sir?" The attendant asked and Nial answered without hesitation as he slapped the Health Certification on the counter.

"I would like to register for the U21 Runicier tournament."