Odyssey of the Blind God

While staying calm on the outside, Nial was furious on the inside.

The three students were entitled and still under the impression that they could try convincing him to do everything they wanted.

In the end, they even tried to use their background in order to make him reconsider their offer.

However, nothing seemed to work, and it was only when the three students became too loud that Nial finally reacted.

Yet, his reaction was different than the three students had expected.

Brandishing the Fang Glaive, Nial stopped the tip of the blade barely a few centimeters away from the arrogant young man's neck, who was the noisiest.

His words died on his tongue as he stared wide-eyed at the blood of the beasts he had killed not long ago, dripping from the blade.

Had he not stopped at the young man's neck, the blade would have easily sliced through the flesh, beheading the young man without any hesitation, using actions instead of words to convey that Nial had no intention to bring them outside.

Following that, Nial put his free hand in front of his closed mouth as he added in a low voice,

"I may not be allowed to kill anyone inside dungeons, but you three should know that nobody will find out what happened to you if I were to kill you first and let the petrification rats feast on your corpses…because there is literally nobody around to witness anything…So…please don't even make me consider this, and keep your mouths shut, alright?"

In order to quiet down the three students, he threatened them with his weapon and words, both of which were sharp.

Even if they were annoying, he wouldn't kill them, but that was not something they had to know.

Earlier, they had considered him as a pushover, who got lucky but he ensured that they got to see what he was truly capable of.

As such, he made them change their opinion of him, by acting as if he would kill them if they were to annoy him.

Following his words, he retracted his blade, turned around, and nonchalantly continued to walk into the deeper parts of the cave.

It didn't take long before he encountered another intersection, but this time, Nial was fairly quick in understanding that the vast majority of beasts were inside the tunnel towards his left.

With that understanding, Nial decided to enter the left tunnel without hesitation, because he was eager to find out why the Ratmen had ordered the petrification rats to capture Originals.

This didn't make sense to him and he sensed that there had to be something that made the Originals interesting enough for the Ratmen to sacrifice hundreds of petrification rats, just to capture a few students.

In the end, understanding this interest of the Ratmen might even allow Nial to understand the bigger picture about the two-element dungeon, its anomalistic behavior, and what other factors made the dungeon unique.

There might be even more than he and the military knew for now, and Nial wanted to figure it out if it meant that he could rescue Shana.

Prioritizing the young girl, who had recklessly entered this dungeon just to secure a small part-time job at the Originals association, was the most important, and the lives of the other students and Originals followed directly after.

While Nial didn't even know the reason for Shana to work at the Originals association, it should mean that she was not as weak as blacksmith Arnold had told him.

That was something Nial realized only recently and he hoped this to be the case as it further increased the chances for Shana to be alive

Yet, the moment he reached the area that was near the place from which the thunderous noises of hundreds of rat squeals originated, he couldn't help but feel flummoxed.

Even though he was not able to see anything, all of his senses began to warn him about something, telling him to stop moving and even his mana perception stagnated, behaving as if it had frozen in place.

Meanwhile, the three students stared at the gigantic hall they had escaped from with a perplexed expression.

"It… didn't look like that before…"

The girl mumbled, only for one of the young men to cover her mouth with his hand, preventing her from speaking another word.

And this was necessary because the young female student began to scream, but thankfully the hand muffled her voice as she saw what the other student had spotted a moment earlier.

Because of that, Nial noticed that something was wrong, which made him turn around to reach the other male student as he asked in a low voice.

"Why is she screaming?"

Not being able to see, Nial could only resort to asking questions.

Right now he was feeling a suffocating amount of mana around him, which he was unable to absorb, let alone control in any way.

As such, it brushed past his body and face without moving along his body's outlines as it would under normal circumstances.

This was uncommon and Nial had never heard about or experienced such a phenomenon.

However, that could be based on his lack of experience and knowledge, which forced him to ask the young man what was going on.

There had to be a reason for how uncomfortable he felt, and the young woman's outcry!

With that in mind, Nial waited for the young man to speak, only to receive an answer that was filled with shock, uncertainty, and fear.

"They…tied five Originals to a pillar each…and cut open their wrists?...the blood is filling a weird runic circle, which seems to be the origin of the weirdly transmuted mana you might be sensing…

I…do not know what is currently going on in the center of the runic circle of blood…but it looks like the mana is gathering there, and something is occurring.

Maybe it needs more time…or blood…or mana, I'm…not sure, but the Originals are still alive…I think."

Even if he was unable to see or sense anything right now, he could imagine that something ominous was going on in the center of the gigantic hall.

As such, Nial's first task was to regain full control over his body and mind.

Trying to stay calm, he first asked the young man, who was stuttering in fear about a description of the Originals' that were tied to the pillars.

The young man's first reaction to this was confusion because he was not sure what Nial wanted to achieve with a description of the Originals' appearance, but after thinking about it for a moment he understood it.

'If he is searching for someone…he would probably charge forward, and try to save the person he is looking for…is that it?'

Imagining that this was highly likely, the young student felt unsure of what exactly he should hope for.

Did he want Nial to find out that the person he was searching for was currently dying a slow death while being tied to a pillar that was surrounded by thousands of petrification rats, or did he want Nial to stay by their side?

In the end, it was the latter because he and his classmate were still injured and also unable to feel any pain owing to the tranquilizer that made their movements rigid.

As such, the young student told Nial about the appearance of the Originals that were tied to the pillars, hoping that the person Nial was searching for was not among them.

Fortunately, this was the case, and weirdly enough when he began to tell him about the appearance of the other Originals that were imprisoned in the cage nearby, none of the imprisoned seemed to be the one Nial was searching for either.

There were mostly young students that were caught and only a few slightly older Originals.

From the looks of it, they were all injured, but the majority of blood staining their clothes and on the floor probably did not belong to them as the amount was simply too much.

After hearing the young man, Nial nodded his head, understanding that Shana was either roaming through the cave after almost six days had passed since the two-element dungeon had emerged, or she was already dead.

Ignoring the possibility of her death, Nial began to procure more information about the ginormous hall, such as the number of beasts, the number of tunnels that were connected to the cave, and the cave's structure, including its interior.

It was annoying to depend on someone else, but he had to accept that the only thing he could do right now, was to ask questions that allowed him to figure out the things he was currently unable to perceive on his own.

Others wouldn't be able to swallow their pride but Nial was pretty sure that pride was not what kept him alive.

The alternative to this was to blindly enter the ginormous hall just to procure the basic information that was easily seen by the others simply because they had what Nial was never able to gain ever again- They could see!

Once again, Nial felt the big disadvantage of being blind, but he tried to keep his calm and not to show how displeased he was with the given situation.

'The ability I'll bind to my mana core has to solve every problem my incapability to see causes, or at least I shouldn't be at a disadvantage when compared to someone who can see if I use an ability in combination with the [Mana Perception(Poorest)] Innate ability that will improve according to my strength…'

Complaining didn't help him, and after he figured out all the necessary information, Nial nodded his head as he mumbled.

"That sounds like a blood sacrifice…but it could also be a summoning…"

There were many things that could suit the descriptions he heard, but a summoning required a tremendous amount of mana, which was not something the Originals that were deprived of their mana would likely possess.

Yet, if he were to take the blood and life's sacrifice of all present Originals into account, this might change.

It was terrifying, and Nial had only found out about all of these unique things in the library as he had heard rumors about blood sacrifices and summonings performed by beings like Lichs, Vampires, and other beings to allow even stronger beings to emerge.

Because of that, he was currently a little bit in distress, believing that the Ratmen wanted to summon a stronger being by sacrificing the Originals they had caught.

A stronger being inside the two-element dungeon would mean that it was even more difficult to conquer, which would in return mean that it might be impossible for ordinary Originals to clear it.

There was a restriction on the strength an Original was allowed to have in order to enter the two-element dungeon after all.

In the end, this might even lead to a dungeon breakout inside the shelter, which would be quite a disadvantage for the military's reputation and a hassle to tackle it while saving the lives of all those around and inside it.

Yet, somehow, Nial believed that this might as well be the best option if the summoning were to be successful, and the remaining Originals rescued.

Sending weak Originals inside the dungeon only for them to be killed by a summoned being that might as well be stronger than the dungeon's boss itself was not exactly a smart move.

However, even though he was worried about the summoning, Nial was even more confused about why such a complex and tricky ritual was being performed in a Lowest Rookie dungeon.

That made no sense, but if the young man was not lying to him, which shouldn't be the case based on their shocked reactions, a ritual was definitely happening.

'Wasn't this supposed to be a two-element dungeon…with the light affinity…where is the light?!? I can only feel darkness…and everything seems to become darker the more time passes…and that…also includes my chance to survive…'