Odyssey of the Blind God

Time passed in the blink of an eye and an hour had elapsed

Nial and everyone else had been busy rushing through the hallways and rooms of the hidden laboratory, collecting all kinds of things.

Nial didn't know how many pieces of furniture, stashes of paper, alchemist tools, ingredients, and much more he had gotten his hands on…but it was a lot!

From the gains he made just by collecting everything around him, Nial was bound to become a truly wealthy man, if he wasn't already wealthy, to begin with.

He was currently running through one of the many tunnels the Shelturion had built as a means of escape.

"This is really like a fucking ant tunnel system…" Nial cursed out loud as he continued to spread out his range of perception and Mana sense as much as possible.

Even though the range of his perception was drastically reduced underground, thanks to all the soil, stone, and other things that could be found underground, it was more than enough to find a bunch of Shelturion.

They were running for their lives, but their physical strength was below average. To be fair, their physique was extremely bad and the only good thing about them was their brains and their talent in Alchemy.

Nial didn't plan on killing them because they were of more use to him alive than dead but for that, he had to catch every single one of them.

There were too many questions he wished to ask them and he didn't want to allow them to escape, whether it was to warn the other laboratories that may or may not exist, or to let someone knowledgeable slip!

Nial wanted as much information as possible. Thus, he turned into a flash as he ran through the tunnels that led him straight to the shelturion.

Upon visualizing them, Nial noticed that they were incomparable to humans. They were only 1.5 meters tall at most, and 30 centimeters of that was their massive head. Their head was extremely long and it was curved backward. Nial was not sure where exactly their brain was located, or if it was all over their lengthy, curved-back skull…and he didn't really want to find out the answer either.

With their tiny frail body it was hard for most Shelturion to move properly. It was almost as if their head would become heavier the higher their Mana Core rank. After all, it didn't look like the increase in their physical strength allowed them to move faster, or with more easy.

'I am so lucky to be human…I wouldn't want to be one of them…' Nial thought, feeling a bit sorry for them.

Their life must be hard because their bodies looked brittle like eggshells that would break easily. At this moment, Nial could only hope that Tyrant wouldn't squash the Shelturion he found.

But then he wasn't sure why he felt pitiful for them. He didn't like the Shelturion. They were a ghastly and cunning race. Because of their actions, tens of thousands of humans, if not more, had ended up as second stage drug addicts. The Cultivation Drug was simply too tempting for many Originals, especially those who were confident that they wouldn't get addicted after taking it only once or twice.

But even a taste of it was already more than enough to make anybody crave more, unfortunately.

Nial gritted his teeth and he caught all Shelturion, tied them up and gagged them with some cloth. He didn't want to hear them speaking, voicing out excuses, or doing whatever they would usually do in situations like these.

For a few seconds, he cursed himself for having pitied the Shelturion. The tiny beings of the race, that were walking on two legs and four feet might look weak, useless, even pitiable…but they were the perfect example for the phrase 'looks can be deceiving.' They were cunning and the vilest beings he had come across.

They had two tiny and stick-like legs that split up at the kneecap, where the two legs branched out in a total of four calves and feet. It was a grotesque sight but also something Nial ignored quite easily.

The smaller bone connecting the knee and the ankle were separated from the larger calf bone, creating a second and smaller pair of feet.

This was the reason why they were able to find balance and walk around…after all, their physical strength didn't increase when their Mana Core's rank advanced.

That was something Nial figured out only when he got hold of the Shelturion. They didn't possess much Mana and it was impossible for them to circulate mana anywhere except their arms and head.

These areas were the only ones with intact mana veins.

'Is that why they're so smart? Because they're quite useless if not for their heads?'

Nial would be lying if he were to say that he was completely uninterested in the Shelturion race. Being in control of them would be extremely useful, whether it was to make use of their head or their alchemy talent.

Nonetheless, it was time to take revenge and make the leader pay for the mistake he made.

He was a blithering idiot for turning Nial into his opponent!

Nial was not sure how long he took to return to the hidden laboratory after he started with the hide-and-seek play in the ant tunnel system but he got hold of a dozen Shelturions.

All of them had a high mana core rank but they didn't even dare to retrieve a runic weapon from their spatial ring and attack Nial the moment he appeared in the darkness behind them.

Some of them even fainted, forcing Nial to instruct the other Shelturion to carry their friends back. This was quite difficult, which was how Nial ended up releasing the Blood Eclipse Moon in its corporeal state to shine the crimson moonlight onto them, increasing the Shelturion's strength.

He couldn't carry several Shelturion at the same time, after all.

Furthermore, he was pretty sure that he would accidentally kill one of them…that was how frail their bones were in comparison to Nial's physical strength.

"Oh, you guys are done? What did you find?" Nial asked when he saw two dozen Shelturion tied down on the ground floor of the main hall.

It looked like Nial was the last one to arrive because everyone was staring at the Shelturion. Tyrant and Kaeldur jumped up to the second floor and they appeared right next to Nial, startling the Shelturion behind him.

They were already scared witless, but the appearance of two figures mantled in darkness, and shining ruby eyes that stared at them with distaste as if they were not even worth becoming their prey was an overkill.

"Just go down to your friends. If you dare to run away, they will hunt and tear you apart," Nial ordered calmly while pointing at Kaeldur and Tyrant. The Shelturion flinched and nodded their heads at once while their humongous black eyes continued to quiver.

"Show me what you got!" Nial opened his hands to retrieve the two Devils' spatial rings. They had been instructed to collect the information sheets in addition to capturing Shelturion and killing the guards.

Tyrant just looked at his hand with a tilted head while Kaeldur snickered before a huge file filled with information appeared in his claws.

"I have more files but these seem the most important for now," Kaeldur spoke submissively before his head turned to Tyrant.

"Looks like someone forgot what we were told to do."

"...I… This…is bullshit…"

Tyrant couldn't believe that his excitement had overcome his rational mind. He had killed more than a hundred guards and a third of the Shelturion that were tied down on the ground floor were sitting there because of his hard work…but, he had completely forgotten about the most important part of the task…the information!

"But my Shelturion might have more information in their huge heads than the files you've collected!" The Tyrant of Destruction retorted, making Kaeldur laugh out loud mockingly.

"Looks like you are the same fool as ever. The Shelturion you've caught were merely pawns. The assistants to the real mastermind, which our master brought back, by the way. You cannot even tell the difference between pawns and the real deal…how disgraceful…"

"Enough!" Nial said all of a sudden and Kaeldur shut his mouth.

Nial didn't really care that Kaeldur was making fun of Tyrant, but he didn't want Tyrant to go berserk right now.

The Shelturion would all die the moment Tyrant would unleash all of his power.

"Looks like this competition ended in a tie. I won't give any of you guys the right to order the other one around," He ended up saying as he put down the files.

"But…why?" Kaeldur who had been in ecstasy couldn't understand what was going on.

"Isn't it obvious? Information is important but you brought back only two Shelturion from down there. You couldn't have killed more guards than Tyrant either, otherwise, you would have shown off that achievement by now.

Both of you did great, but neither you nor Tyrant were overwhelmingly better than the other, not enough for me to grant the permission to let one of you play master!"

**

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