Odyssey of the Blind God

"Breeders?" Meryl asked in confusion when she heard what the others were talking about.

She looked up from Nial's runic armaments and stared at the Royal Princess with furrowed eyebrows.

In the past, it might have been near impossible to get close to the Royal Princess, let alone be in the same room as her, however, many things had changed since Princess Evalyne had set foot on Jundra.

It was almost as if she was letting go of her role as Princess and that she had begun to live an ordinary life as a High Elf. Most Elves knew that this was only a change of her personality, something that made her get closer with the subjects she reigned, but many High Elves and Sacred Elves frowned upon her behavior.

But, of course, ordinary Elves such as Meryl benefited a lot from the changes that occurred within the Princess' heart.

"Yes, Breeders. These races want to attempt cross-breeding humans with the members of their own race in order to improve the number of abilities their future generations can hold. They want to find out if they can evolve into a new race with the help of the five abilities of the human race born on Jundra," Princess Evalyne explained, not without hiding the disgust in her voice and expression.

"Basically the whole Cultivation drug scene was probably set up by a single race to kidnap humans, breed more humans for future purposes, and then probably sell a bunch of humans to other races for a fortune…as breeders, of course!" Nial guessed and he was pretty sure that his guess was spot on.

After spending lots of time with other races in Alliance City, Nial had learned a lot. Humans might be at a disadvantage in terms of physical strength or mana aptitude in comparison to some excellent races, and their average talent in terms of Alchemy, Blacksmithing, and Runic engraving might be worse than most races, BUT all of them were in possession of five ability slots.

There were a handful of extraordinary humans with Innate abilities, special constitutions, and a much higher comprehension talent than others, and various other unique traits! If they were to use the five empty ability slots, which all humans of Jundra possessed, in a perfectly synchronized manner, it would be possible for those humans to attain the peak in a specific subject…and that was by comparing those humans with the strongest in that field, all over the Universe!

Nial scratched the back of his head and let out a deep sigh.

"We truly are the best option for them to turn into slaves. Our people are spread out in the ten shelters, everyone is easily influenced because we are yet to build our own foothold in the vast expanse of the Universe, and even the weakest race is stronger than us right now. Even if we wanted to be on our own, it looks like the human race will have to continue relying on others…

Our potential is good but we don't really have the necessary time or the resources to make use of it," He blurted out, without bothering that he was surrounded by members of another race.

Nial knew that Princess Evalyne had helped him and other humans a lot, but the Elven race had used them often enough to make up for that mess.

They were the ones who had protected the Forest of Life from Silvian and the Dryx, and Nial helped them restore the Forest of Life by going out of his way to procure the Reinforced Tear of a True Dryad Princess.

It might not look like much in comparison to what the Elves had done to help them, but Nial knew that the Elves were in his debt, whether they liked it or not!

"How are we going to stop the Cultivation drug from circulating in the Black Market?" Miles asked, dragging Nial out of his thoughts. He had done lots of research on the Black Market, but he couldn't really figure out a way to eradicate every last bit of the Cultivation Drug.

The Elves looked at each other after hearing Miles' question and they nodded their heads, telling everyone that they had already thought of a way.

"We will nip the Cultivation Drug and the market in its bud, which means that we will search for the distributor, and destroy the place where it's constructed. Afterward, we can reconsider eliminating the responsible race, or the members of the race that reside in close proximity. But that is something we will have to figure out when the time is ripe," A fully armed High Elf standing next to the Royal Princess elaborated in a deep voice.

At the first glance, it looked like the High Elf's plan was good. Eradicating the threat in its entirety would ensure that the Cultivation Drug would stop getting circulated in the human shelters.

However, Nial didn't really like it. He was frowning deeply and his mind was rattling.

"If you destroy the root of the problem, there will just be others trying the replicate the same scheme, just without the loopholes of the way we employ to eradicate the Cultivation Drug, won't they?" Nial countered, not speaking to anyone specifically.

Silence spread through the wooden hut when Nial's words died down within it. Everyone looked over at him with the same expression on their faces.

'What the hell do you want us to do then?' Their expressions seemed to ask but Nial didn't know the perfect answer either.

It was a short-term solution to eradicate the Cultivation Drug because an even worse Drug might find its way to the humans of Jundra in the future.

"Does someone have the Cultivation Drug at their hand?" Nial asked all of a sudden, and the corners of his lips curled upward.

"Son…what are you planning?" Miles asked in doubt.

"Why would we have the Cultivation Drug?" The High Elf Guard asked in disgust, just for a small pouch to appear in the smooth and elegant hands of the Royal Princess.

"Of course, I have the Cultivation Drug in my possession. I had to see how the addicts react upon seeing the drug….and it was bad!" Princess Evalyne said as goosebumps erupted on her skin as she recalled the memory of dozens of humans with seemingly lifeless eyes and foam covering their mouths, charging at her.

It was almost as if these humans had turned into wild monsters.

"Did you already send the Cultivation Drug to the Alchemists to research them? They feel just like pills concocted by Alchemists, after all!" Nial asked when he reached for the pouch where a bunch of pills was stored.

He took out one of the marble-sized Cultivation Drug pills from the pouch. Nial inserted mana inside the pill, and the result astonished him quite a bit.

"There is something dark inside the pill…is that the cause of the addiction?" He mumbled to himself, before popping the Cultivation Drug inside his mouth.

Nial sat down afterward, ignoring the shocked expressions on everyone's faces as they realized what he had just done.

"Are you…insane?!? Don't you know that a single pill is enough to make you addicted??? Spit it out already!!" Miles shouted as the veins in his head throbbed. He bent down, grabbed his son's shoulders, and tried to put sense into him.

However, Nial's body seemed to be an unmovable iron pillar. Miles frowned when he saw that his son had already closed his eyes and that he had begun to suction the mana from all around him inside his body.

The Cultivation Drug's content was released inside Nial's body and a tremendous amount of Mana was unleashed. His mana aptitude skyrocketed, allowing Nial to insert far more mana inside his body than before.

'An increase of 30% is pretty great considering that my mana aptitude is already at the top. Others would sense an increase of 100%, maybe even 200% or more than that,' Nial concluded after a few minutes.

He could tell that every cell in his body was temporarily improved in terms of mana acceptance, which made it even easier to absorb the surrounding mana.

But all of that was not enough to explain the highly addictive effect everyone was talking about. Nial understood this pretty clearly and he focused on the tiny dark substance that was slowly dissolving in his stomach.

'As expected…'