Odyssey of the Blind God

"You want to join the Onyx Association?" Nial asked once again to make sure that he understood correctly.

Melheim Zorn was one of the most prominent Originals in the nine shelters. Having him in his Association would increase its reputation by leaps and bounds.

However, Nial was not someone who would accept a person just because he or she was prominent, or powerful. His gut feeling had to be just right to make him feel comfortable accepting him.

Nial was not yet sure what to think about Melheim Zorn, which was something the young man realized.

"You don't want me to join? I expected you to be overjoyed and to fall on your knees in supplication," Melheim joked but Nial just shrugged his shoulders.

"I want the Onyx Association and the Orion Guild to be perfect. If my gut feeling tells me to reject you, I would have done so by now already," Nial spoke in all honesty as he added, "...but I'm actually not sure what to think about accepting you. It would be much easier to increase the number of Originals willing to join the Onyx Association or the Orion Artisan Guild with you as a member, but many would just apply to be around you. And that would defeat the purpose of the image I want to build up."

Nial's words made sense and Melheim nodded his head as well. However, he didn't expect that Nial would think about all of this when reconsidering whether someone was a good choice to join his people.

"You're quite interesting," Melheim chose to speak honestly as well. Thus, he ended up giving Nial a few tips.

"Right now, your title as Dark Lord is working against your plan. Your strength and achievements in combat and with the Elven lifts you to a pedestal. Because of that, your achievements as Runicier get buried somewhere, especially since a small minority is only interested in getting a prosthesis.

There are more factors that speak against you, including the fact that you are merely at the Seclon rank...or what the Elves call Mirae rank. Your funds are limited and you don't have a big corporation backing you.

The Witch of the South is probably on your side, and some Elves will probably help you every now and then as well. But that's not enough for most Originals, whether they're newly awakened or already powerful!" Melheim explained, and Nial couldn't agree more.

Various organizations and Guilds were currently recruiting more blacksmiths, Alchemists, and Originals. They were all heavily recruiting Runiciers after Nial's runic prosthesis had created a buzz all around.

Nial thought about what to do for a while before he extended his hand.

"I look forward to our cooperation then!" Nial could only say smiling dryly, just for Melheim Zorn to shake his head.

"We are not a co-operation. You are my boss now, so I'll work for you!" He corrected him with a mischievous grin.

Melheim could tell that Nial was different from other Originals. His achievements spoke volumes about his future talent, and it was a great thing that Nial had come up with the idea to build up his own Association and Artisan Guild. Creating prostheses for disabled Originals was already very nice of him, especially since he didn't ask for much in exchange.

Most young Originals were oblivious to the value their prosthesis held but Melheim was fully aware of that.

In the end, Runiciers wouldn't even create customized prostheses made out of expensive materials and several days of work for 100,000,000$.

The price of the dollar was constantly deflating and Origin crystals were more often used as a means of currency. This became even more apparent since the dollar was of no value to the Elves.

It was necessary for humans to use something as a currency, which all races would accept, irrespective of whether it was the Elves, or new races, whom they would encounter in the future.

Thus Melheim was even more impressed by what Nial was doing with his Association and Artisan Guild. Nial was a good person and so were his goals. And this was enough for Melheim to be willing to work under Nial instead of trying to become a partner in crime, or to make Nial work under him instead!

"Just try to help me see again whenever you think you are capable enough to achieve that..." He said to which Nial nodded his head without hesitation.

Melheim pulled Nial in a hug and they smiled at each other for a second before they released each other from their tight grip once again. Nial was elated to have a strong Original by his side.

"Now that you are one of my people, do you need a new weapon, or something else? I can create special ear pieces that amplify the surrounding sound, or other things for you to hear clearly if you need them," Nial suggested as if it was nothing special. His offer made Melheim chuckle as he pulled a large longsword out of his spatial ring.

"I'm currently using this weapon. A Mythical Champion-grade longsword. If you can create something better, that would be great!" Melheim answered before he handed over the longsword.

"If you tell me about your abilities, and special traits, preferences, and your favorite combat technique, I can create a Lowest-ranked Tier-2 Runic Longsword that only you can use precisely," Nial came up with another idea as he added, "If you don't want to share this information, I will just create a generalized Runic Longsword, but I guess you can tell what will be better!"

There was no need to beat around the bush with Melheim. The young man was rather relaxed and quite nice. He would certainly be helpful to expand the Onyx Association.

This only left him with one way to expand the Orion Artisan Guild, which Mathias and Miranda had entered just for the sake of it.

"A customized weapon is much better, I know," Melheim agreed before he started to share his personal information. He went into detail and explained everything that could be of some importance for Nial to forge a suitable weapon or device for him.

In the end, this required nearly 20 minutes before Nial went over to start forging.

"Have you ever assisted in forging or concocting?" Nial asked all of a sudden and Melheim shook his head.

"Well, then it will be your first time. Come over and help me a bit," He said with a faint smile on his lips. Melheim was a bit baffled for a moment. He was the eighth strongest human of the nine shelters, and third in the ranks of the most known Originals.

Only the President and others above his rank were more well-known than he was. And Nial wanted him to turn into his assistant? If anyone of them were to hear this, they would probably eye Nial in disbelief.

"Is there a problem?" Nial noticed that Melheim had gone stiff as a board. He didn't receive an answer and thus asked, only to hear the Prometheus Original laughing out loud.

"You are really good. I like your attitude!" Melheim said before he approached Nial and muttered, "There is no problem, none at all!"

That being said, Nial and Melheim started to work on the Original's customized weapons.

The rest of the day passed in the blink of an eye, and the customized Runic Longsword was completed at lunch on the following day.

"You really are amazing...if you had a proper blacksmith and alchemist working under, or with you, you would be even better..." Melheim said, swinging the black sword in front of him.

He brandished it in different ways and angles, inserted his mana into it, and smiled brightly. The weapon was basically perfect, and so were the runic constellations that had been engraved on it.

"I know. One of the reasons why I created an Artisan Guild is to form small teams of three, where Runiciers work together with blacksmiths and alchemists to create good runic armaments of high quality in a short period.

Unfortunately, it will take a while before the Orion Artisan Guild will grow. It is quite difficult to teach Runiciers, and there are not many blacksmiths and Alchemists that reach my standards," Nial revealed while shrugging his shoulders.

He was getting greedy but that was perfectly fine with him. Others should know that he was greedy and picky.

However, instead of feeling that Nial was too full of himself with all the demands he had, Melheim nodded his head.

"If you want an Elite troupe that is worth nourishing, you need to be picky. Your forging and potion-making skills can soon improve and give the best in the profession a run for their money. It is good that you know that you are not a master forger, or able to create perfectly purified potions but that is also not a prerequisite for what you're doing.

Of course, it would allow your runic armaments to become even better but the number of blacksmiths and alchemists, who are capable of doing what you want are only a handful...and extremely old as well.

You are looking for talents, whose potential has yet to be used up, not old and lazy people, who will hardly improve no matter how many resources you give them," Melheim said, understanding Nial's situation.

"But why are you not hiring some Elves to concoct potions for you? Do you not have good relations with them? I thought that rumor was true..." Melheim asked, slightly confused and Nial could only sigh deeply.

"Elves have other needs to cater to than helping humans. I was in their territory for a short time, and I can tell you that their resources exceed everything you can imagine...by thousands of times... I might be able to purchase purified potions from them but that's different from having someone by my side, who can create the runic solutions whenever I need them," Nial explained slowly.

In general, it was easier to ask the Elves to create a bulk of runic solutions for him but whenever Nial were to reach a state of enlightenment and he would need a special runic solution, he would have to go to the Elves, commission the special runic solution and wait for a long time before it would be created.

In that time, his enlightenment might have worn off, which would be the worst that could possibly happen.

"I see, the situation is definitely not that easy then. It would be much easier to have some Elves by your side to concoct potions...and maybe some dwarves to forge...if they truly exist like in the fairytales," Melheim mumbled, secretly hoping that some dwarves and elves would just appear out of nowhere and that they would become Nial's subordinates like a dream came true.

That would not happen but it was still nice to spend some moments daydreaming about that.

Nial nodded his head, letting Melheim's imagination run wild. However, he quickly changed his composure as he pointed at Melheim.

"Are you ready to play a mascot?" He suddenly asked, which caused Melheim to stop swinging his new weapon.

"Mascot? Who...Me?" Melheim asked, dumbfounded and Nial responded with a nod.

"Exactly. You'll become the Mascot of the Onyx Association, which will allow my group to grow fast, and to gain some nice reputation. Yay!" Nial said in a monotonous way that made Melheim feel uncomfortable.

"Are you ready?" Nial asked again without actually sounding like he was asking a question.

"Can I still leave?" Melheim suddenly felt chills running down his spine, but Nial just shook his head.

"Nope."

**

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