Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial had fun teasing the Royal Princess, while everyone thought he was being serious about treating her like the royalty she was.

Only Princess Evalyne could tell that Nial was joking with her and that was the worst! She had to treat Nial with the same respect, force herself to act properly, and make it look like they were both of his status.

This was annoying and not how Princess Evalyne had hoped to happen with Nial. He was one of the most relaxed men she had encountered until now, which was why she disliked the situation even more.

Princess Evalyne was finally able to drag Nial away from everyone else when half an hour had passed.

They were flanked by various guards to make sure that they received some privacy but that didn't bother Evalyne much.

She activated a Soundbarrier runic armament to talk to Nial alone as they walked through Yggdrasil.

"You really are annoying, do you know that?!" She declared the moment the Soundbarrier was activated around them.

Nial smiled and nodded his head, "I know."

He didn't seem all that affected by her comment, and it didn't look like he wanted to continue speaking with her as well.

Princess Evalyne had to take a few deep breaths to make sure that she wouldn't accidentally do something stupid. She was quiet for the next half a minute and only spoke when she had finally calmed down.

"Did you obtain the Dryad Queen's tear? Our broker told us that the Golden City was in a mess because of a mass murderer but that is everything we got to know so far. Crevian was worried and he even began to blame himself for sending you to the Golden City, thinking that something might have happened to you," Princess Evalyne said a bit awkwardly, trying to hide that she had been worried as well.

They could find other ways to rescue the Forest of Life and restore its former glory and vigor it had before the Dryx attacked, but the possibility of obtaining the Dryad Queen's tear had just been too enticing.

Nonetheless, it was more important for them that Nial survived because he was one of the most important humans the Elves had gotten to know from Jundra.

Nial was bound to become powerful as long as he wouldn't die because of a stupid mistake, or by overestimating his strength.

Thus, by making sure he would stay on friendly terms with him, they would get their hands on a valuable ally on Jundra.

"There were quite some problems during the whole U21 Runicier tournament, and I don't really like how it progressed if I were to be honest," Nial spoke in all honesty before he added the most annoying factor,

"Did you know that the Draco race would join the Runicier tournament and that a once in ten thousand years talent appeared all of a sudden? This girl was able to create a semi-sentient Tier-2 Runic shield within eight hours…"

Nial was still baffled when he recalled Ophelia's magnificent creation. It was already shocking enough that five out of six finalists had been able to create their Tier-2 runic armaments. Even the damaged runic armament of the fifth ranked Original had been extremely powerful.

Thus, he could only shake his head whenever he thought about it. The Royal Princess misunderstood his head shake as a sign that Nial had been unable to get his hands on the Dryad Queen's tear.

However, that seemed only the natural outcome, if a true prodigy of the Draco race had participated.

"If the Draco race joined, a prodigy of theirs, at that, there was nothing you could do. I don't think that you were lazing around, and you must have done your best," Princess Evalyne reassured, trying to hide the small bits of disappointment she felt.

She had known that it was unlikely for Nial to win the tournament but there had still been some hope. After all, Nial was a weird, yet, talented anomaly!

"But what exactly happened?" Princess Evalyne asked, unable to hide her curiosity. If Nial said that a lot had happened, there must have really been a lot going on.

After her question, Nial spent a few minutes summarizing the happenings of his days in the Golden City. At first, everything had been fine but with Siegfried's appearance, the fact that Nial's only 'friend' turned out to be a mass murderer and the unveiling of Ophelia, things tensed up.

In the end, Nial said that he ended up achieving the second rank, and he retrieved the prize from his spatial ring.

"You can take the tear and let some Elf do his magic with the Forest of Life. I wouldn't know how to use the tear on the Forest of Life, either way," Nial said, smirking lightly as he looked over to Princess Evalyne, who stared at him with a doubtful expression.

"There has never been the tear of the Dryad Queen, to begin with. The Golden Armaments Union had only the enhanced tear of a Dryad Princess from the beginning," He explained as he handed the vial to Princess Evalyne, whose long, pointy ears had begun to wiggle in excitement at the sight of the vial.

"Tear of a Dryad Princess? An enhanced version? Sounds like everything was a scam…" Princess Evalyne was a bit displeased about the Golden Armaments Union's blatant lie but she was more surprised that Nial had actually been able to complete his mission.

This was impressive, and it caused the Royal Princess to look at Nial for a few seconds.

"How about you stay in Yggdrasil until the Harvest of Life phenomenon ends? If you're worried about your friends and family, I can send someone to look over them," She suddenly proposed, hitting Nial off-guard.

He wished to stay longer in Yggdrasil, especially since his Ankh was nourished by the Sacred tree's vigor. With the Ankh and the Fairies' Blessing, he could already absorb tremendous amounts of mana and vigor, whenever he was somewhere with flourishing nature.

To add to that, if he created a link with Yggdrasil, his training would accelerate even more. Thus, he would have loved to stay a bit longer in the Elven territory.

Now that he had received the opportunity, and Evalyne even said that she would make sure his family was fine, he felt elated.

"Are you sure?" Nial asked uncertainly, feeling that he was quite fortunate.

"Of course. We owe you a big favor, and allowing you to stay in Yggdrasil doesn't really cost us anything. If you wanted to, Yggdrasil would probably create personal space for you…even if I don't know why the Sacred tree adores you so much," The Royal Princess failed to hide her jealousy, which caused Nial to smile lightly.

He was not really sure what kind of connection or bond Yggdrasil had with him either, but it was certainly advantageous.

"As long as I can be certain that my family is fine, I will stay until the Harvest of Life phenomenon is about to end. That should be in five months, right?" Nial asked in excitement.

He would have to lie if he were to say that it was not an interesting and exciting thought to stay in Yggdrasil for five more months. It would be possible for him to learn a lot more and to become much stronger after he would absorb a lot of mana to create more Ancient Origin rings.

"The Harvest of Life phenomenon won't last five more months. It will end sooner than expected because the portal to Jundra requires far more mana than we estimated earlier. But that should be fine because you will have three months until you will have to leave!" Princess Evalyne said in excitement as her gaze was locked on the vial with the enhanced Dryad Princess' tear inside.

They talked for a few minutes before Nial was brought back to the same old wooden hut he had been assigned to rest in before he left for the Golden City.

Nial was fine with that and he chose to focus on the advancement of his rank.

'As long as everyone is fine, I can go home in a few months, meet up with my family, have a few days off, and then bind the ability crystal to my mana core. That should be perfect!' Nial thought, imagining that his sister would be out of the Legacy portal by then.

The Royal Princess left him with the comment that Master Crevian might search for him later, or that others would visit him to make sure that everything about him was fine.

However, that was something Nial barely heard because his focus was somewhere completely different.

'Now that I have the opportunity, I need to become much stronger! Jundra's planetary mana core will awaken soon!' He thought in determination.

With that aim in mind, he continued to improve himself, and the following three months passed in the blink of an eye. Nial did not only focus on the creation of his Ancient Origin rings but he paid lots of attention to the enhancement of his knowledge as well.

As Runicier, he had to keep learning and practicing, otherwise, he would quickly get rusty. Thus, Nial ended up spending an hour or two every day to improve as Runicier, while the remaining time was spent on absorbing mana and creating the frame of his next Ancient Origin ring.

Nial's control of mana was terrific, and he could easily absorb the ginormous amount of mana around him. In Yggdrasil, it was easy for Nial to absorb enough mana to create the droplets which he required to work on his Ancient Origin ring.

While it would usually take a year, or potentially even longer to create another Origin ring that had the same size as Nial's Origin rings, he needed one and a half months for each new Ancient Origin ring as long as he was inside Yggdrasil, and connected to the ginormous Sacred tree!

After three months of hard work, Nial finished the creation of his fifth Ancient Origin ring. His control of mana increased drastically, his perception of mana had skyrocketed as well and his abilities were strengthened.

Everything around Nial had enhanced and improved, especially his memories, his physical strength, and the Ankh.

After three months it was time for Nial to leave because the Harvest of Life event was about to end, and he was confident that he had utilized his time well. He may not be at the Prometheus rank yet, but Nial's strength was already equivalent to some powerful beings at the Peak of the Mirae rank.

Nial was confident that it would be possible for him to be of great use. He was ready to throw fists at his opponents and smash them into tiny bits.

The Ankh's influence was constantly trying to overwhelm the influence of the Odyssey seed but whenever Nial's mana core became stronger, more shreds of Damian's memories flashed through his mind.

This was not something Nial could block off and he accepted it readily.

After all, he could make use of both the Ankh and the Odyssey seed.

They were his possessions right now and their influence was much less significant than the impact he had on them!